Chapter 15: Chapter 15: This Scene is Spectacular

National Tax Bureau Lake District Sub-Bureau.

When he returned there, the black people had not yet arrived.

As soon as he entered the tax hall, David called out to a receptionist at the service window, "Debbie, get anyone available to pause what they're doing and help me prepare some forms."

At the service window, the plump woman named Debbie was momentarily stunned, then hastily asked, "Inspector David, how many forms do you need?"

"Two or three hundred, they'll be here soon, hurry up!"

After dropping that remark, David headed towards the third floor without looking back, leaving Debbie still in a daze.

Upon reaching the third floor, where the inspectors' offices were located, the area was just as noisy and busy as ever; all the inspectors were preoccupied with their own cases.

David arrived at his work area and, while sorting tax tickets, he called out to a few people not far away, "Bucky, Sherwood... can you spare a hand?"

The system at the Tax Bureau was such that a Chief Tax Officer led a small team consisting of four groups, which meant eight inspectors.

And the few he had just called out were his squad members.

According to regulations, when faced with a case that required a substantial amount of work, it was permissible to ask for assistance from other members of the squad.

Today, the number of Zero Purchase Participants alone was two to three hundred.

Such a workload, if left to David and Nisen alone, would probably take three days and three nights to deal with, and they still might not get through it all.

Hence, David naturally needed their help.

"Sure, what's up?"

"I don't have a problem with that."

"..."

The squad members were quite forthright, promptly setting aside their tasks, ready to comply with whatever was asked of them.

"Chief Tax Officer Liu assigned me that Zero Purchase case, remember? Nisen and I have already dealt with it, but there's a bit of a crowd..."

Hearing this, Bucky and the others seemed somewhat surprised.

Zero Purchase cases may seem undemanding, and that group of black folks weren't exactly the most vicious of criminals, but as inspectors, they knew that it was precisely these sort of scammers who hovered on the edge of the law that were the most troublesome.

Though these scammers would not dare to confront the National Tax Bureau head-on, once they heard they were being taxed, they were sure to wiggle out of it and kick up a fuss.

After a good while, the inspectors on-site finally snapped out of their astonishment, but their faces still registered utter disbelief.

Though they didn't yet know the identities of these individuals, the forms in their hands confirmed they were all there to pay taxes!

What they found even more unbelievable was the fact that.

A rough count from the corridor to David's office location already tallied dozens, who knows how many more were gathered beyond the unseen hallway!

Out of a desire to understand just how many people there were, several inspectors couldn't care less about protocol; they put down their work and quickly headed toward the corridor's entrance to see for themselves.

Seeing such a situation, Bucky and his colleagues were stunned for quite some time. Then, he immediately rushed to Debbie and asked hastily, "Debbie, how many more people are downstairs?"

Debbie glanced at David and said, with a lingering fear, "I'm not sure about the specifics, but there should be at least two or three hundred..."

"Two or three hundred people!"

Bucky and the others nearly lost their footing and fell to the ground.

Suddenly, they recalled David's earlier remark.

'There might be a slightly larger crowd'!

At the time, they thought at most there would be a few dozen people.

But now, it was two to three hundred people—how could this be considered 'slightly larger'? It was as if he had brought back all the Zero Purchase Participants from the entire Lake District!

"Inspector David, here's my nine hundred and ten US dollars,"

Osborne, standing at the front, handed over an envelope and said meekly, "Also... the brothers all need to support their families; could you perhaps process this a bit faster..."

"Of course."

David turned around to look at Bucky and the others, who understood that addressing the matter at hand was the priority. They quickly suppressed their various emotions and called over some of the black people to their stations to proceed with the processing.

While David and his team were busily at work.

At the elevator entrance, the doors of the elevator descending from the fourth floor opened, and six or seven men stepped out in a hurry, among them was Lewis.

Lewis and his companions first glanced at David and the others, busy as they were, and then at the unending line of people in the corridor, their bewilderment deepening.

After a moment, a Mediterranean white man spoke up, "It seems the report from my subordinates was accurate; indeed, several hundred people have come."

"Several hundred people..."

Next to Lewis on his right, a man with thick eyebrows in a suit pondered before saying, "Chief Tax Officer Liu Yi, where did you get so many people from?"