The next day, Monday, noon, at the airport.

Today the sun is nice, Mona wearing a hat with a very wide brim, arms folded across her chest, stands expressionlessly at a gate in the lobby waiting for someone.

Soon after, Caroline Evans, dressed in travel attire, emerges from the exit dragging a large suitcase and upon seeing Mona, runs towards her waving her arms:

"Good afternoon, my dear sister!"

Caroline gives Mona a big hug, and the scene of two beautiful women hugging always attracts attention, especially with the strikingly similar faces of Mona and Caroline causing admiration in the nearby men.

"Let go."

Mona breaks free from Caroline's embrace, gives her a cold look, doesn't take her luggage, and turns to walk outside the airport:

"Follow me."

Caroline seems unfazed by Mona's cold demeanor, chuckles, and follows her dragging her luggage.

In the parking lot, Mona goes to a white car she rented temporarily, opens the trunk, and motions with her mouth to Caroline.

Caroline struggles to stuff the suitcase in and sits in the passenger seat, curiously asking the driving Mona:

"Where's Luo An? Why didn't he come? Did you two have a fight?"

"Luo An has his own things to take care of."

Mona drives out of the parking lot, then reaches back for a folder on the rear seat and hands it to Caroline with an expressionless face:

"Living rules; you must memorize them."

"Living rules?"

Caroline opens the folder and sees categorized rules listed for when the three of them live together.

Such as Caroline "cannot wear overly short skirts or shorts; cannot expose too much body..." and so forth, filling up a full ten pages.

"..."

Caroline smiles faintly, opens the car window, and throws the folder onto the street outside.

Mona looks displeased at Caroline, who slightly smirks:

"No need to be so tense, my dear sister, I'm not planning to steal your Luo An."

"Hmph—"

As the light turns from red to green, Mona coldly snickers and continues driving forward, while Caroline stretches lazily, asking:

"Where are we heading?"

"To buy a house."

"It better be a big one with good soundproofing; I don't want to lose sleep over you and Luo An's noises and end up with dark circles under my eyes the next day..."

"Car—o—line!!!"

————

Meanwhile, at the top floor of a building in Washington D.C.

It is a fancy private restaurant that requires reservations in advance, with décor that evokes the feeling of entering Europe from the last century.

In a private room deep inside the restaurant, Vireness in a silver long dress is speaking French with the waiter; opposite her, Luo An in a suit is idly observing the wall lamp to their left.

Soon enough, the waiter nods, bows slightly to Luo An and Vireness, turns, and leaves; after the room door closes, Vireness smiles and softly says to Luo An:

"This restaurant's red wine braised beef is quite unique."

"I'll make sure to try it in a bit."

Luo An smiles and starts making small talk with Vireness.

Moments later, the waiter brings two small appetizers and leaves. Luo An isn't in a hurry to try them because Vireness takes out a piece of paper from her handbag and hands it to him.

"This is the personnel and department structure of the FBI Washington Headquarters."

Vireness picks up a fork, feeds herself a small piece of the appetizer, and explains with a smile:

"If you want to work at the Washington Headquarters, this is the information you need to know."

Luo An carefully examines the information on the paper which shows that the FBI Washington Headquarters can be divided into two parts:

The Office of the Director and the Functional Departments Group.

Among the Director's offices, including the office of the Director of the FBI Headquarters, the office of the Deputy Director of the FBI Headquarters, and the office of the chief executive of the FBI Headquarters, are primarily responsible for administrative work.

The functional departments consist of a myriad of divisions, each of which is independently responsible for different functional tasks.

Simply put, the former is responsible for politics, while the latter is responsible for getting things done.

"Mr. Clement is the chief executive and special advisor to the Director."

Seeing Luo An deep in thought, Vireness picked up a glass of red wine, took a sip, and spoke softly:

"This position, is not a very good one."

Luo An looked up, puzzled, and Vireness' expression slightly darkened as she asked:

"Luo An, do you think Mr. Clement has a chance to be promoted to Director of the FBI Headquarters?"

"Impossible."

Luo An shook his head without even thinking, as ever since Edgar Hoover passed away, each President and the Senate had begun to suppress the FBI in concert.

Since 1972, the term of the FBI Director had been limited to 10 years, and must be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

These were the official regulations, and unofficially, an unwritten rule had formed:

The Director of the FBI Headquarters could not be promoted from within the FBI itself and had to be an outsider parachuted in from the Department of Justice or other departments.

Thus, the chances of Mr. Clement being promoted to Director of the FBI are almost zero; at most, he could reach the position of Deputy Director.

Thinking this, Luo An had a guess, his eyes slightly narrowed, he asked:

"Does Mr. Clement want to enter the Department of Justice?"

The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Bureau, the Court Bailiff Bureau, and the Federal Prison Administration are all under the Federal Department of Justice.

Since the position of Director of the FBI Headquarters was blocked and the Deputy Director's position was not satisfying, and Mr. Clement wanted to continue ascending, his only option was to find a way to enter the Department of Justice.

"Exactly!"

Vireness nodded, admiringly looking at Luo An.

There were only two ways to get a promotion from FBI into the Department of Justice: outstanding achievements; or someone's promotion.

Being promoted by someone was common in the federal government; as long as the stakes were high enough, even the President could intercede.

Luo An's eyes shifted, realizing this must be why Mr. Clement often visited the White House.

But promotion also required sufficient reasons; being exceptionally capable was not enough to silence critics, and other achievements were also needed.

Such as solving certain cases.

In solving cases, Mr. Clement surely couldn't do it himself, so he needed a capable, outstanding, genuine, and trustworthy insider.

The twelve investigative teams at the FBI Washington Headquarters were all agents under the [Crime, Cyber, Response and Service Department] functional department, with complex personnel and varied intentions.

As Mr. Clement in charge of political operations couldn't trust them, it led to the formation of the 13th investigative team led by Luo An.

If Mr. Clement got promoted into the Department of Justice, Luo An would naturally benefit, getting promotions and higher pay among other things; it was highly likely that, for valid reasons, he too would be transferred to work in the Department of Justice.

Continuing upwards, while he was still young and leveraging his knowledge about certain matters… Luo An's eyes narrowed, he couldn't become President, but he had a considerable chance to become the head of some department!

Luo An wasn't particularly enthusiastic about power, but was very interested in money, being in a capitalist country, where "political revolving doors" and "political donations" were both legal and legitimate.

Luo An quickly figured this out, a hint of a smile crossed his eyes, as Vireness saw this, the appreciation in her eyes deepened, both picked up their wine glasses, clinked, and smiled at each other:

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

The paper Vireness gave to Luo An, aside