"Meet at the thirty past the upper left at the intersection of three hundred and sixty."
The message from "Star Picker" seemed nonsensical at first glance, lacking both specific time and place. But Le Yuxin had inherited Qin Yuliu's memory, and naturally knew how to decipher this coded message.
"Thirty past the upper left" actually refers to a specific time: "upper left" corresponds to the positions of the hands on the clock, where "upper" represents minutes and "left" represents hours, initially suggesting 9 o'clock.
However, the hint "upper left" is too obvious, so 9 o'clock isn't the correct answer; adjustment is needed, with "sixty" indicating the angle to adjust between the hour and minute hands.
According to the cryptic rules, because the minute hand is less than the hour hand, if you want the minute hand to turn towards the hour hand, small approaching large should be written as "fraction of"; conversely, if the hour hand should turn towards the minute hand, large approaching small should be written as "tens."
The thirty is greater than one, so the minute hand remains the same, and the hour hand is adjusted according to "thirty" — the hour hand turns 30°, indicating the time should be 10 o'clock.
And the "upper left tip," with "tip" referring to the moon, corresponds with the "circle" representing the sun, so the correct answer is 10 PM.
The "three hundred and sixty intersection" refers to the meeting place; decoding this hidden information only requires a Star Engraving county map.
Being a Statistical Department operative, Qin Yuliu naturally carried a map with him.
Opening the Star Engraving county map, Le Yuxin easily found the city center — the Glory Clock Tower standing prominently in the lecture square at the city center. As an obvious landmark existent in every county, using the Glory Clock Tower as a reference point for coded exchanges couldn't be more appropriate.
"Three hundred" refers to a straight line three hundred meters away from the Glory Clock Tower, while "sixty" means turning sixty degrees clockwise from due north.
Le Yuxin first drew a circle with the Glory Clock Tower as the center and the scale radius as three hundred meters on the map, then from the center, drew a line with a sixty-degree angle to the north line.
The intersection between the line and the circle is the meeting point designated by "Star Picker"!
At night, the streets of Star Engraving county were as bright as day. Le Yuxin walked in the middle of the avenue with confidence, not at all looking like he was going to a secret meeting, yet no patrol guards came over to question him; everyone glanced at him and turned their eyes away.
If Le Yuxin wore a hat and black clothes, sneaking around, it would arouse suspicion; but this openly dignified appearance was his best camouflage, so-called the most dangerous being the safest... well, not really.
Le Yuxin was wearing steel-soled boots, a standard piece of equipment for Statistical Department operatives; apart from them, no one else would wear such boots, and the distinctive sound of the footsteps made it obvious to the patrol guards that the one striding down the street was a Statistical Department operative.
To Le Yuxin's surprise, the curfew system had already been abolished in Glory — at least not in counties or administrative regions; military districts naturally had different regulations.
Thinking carefully, it wasn't hard to understand: the purpose of curfew is to prevent fires, theft, and vagrants, essentially because poor lighting at night meant an outright ban on activities. But Glory county roads were lined with solar-powered streetlamps, making night scenes less bright than day but not pitch dark.
Moreover, the place around the Star Engraving dance hall bustled with activity, though most commoners were not eligible to go there to indulge. Simply to cater to the nobility and wealthy justified the lifting of the curfew.
This greatly facilitated Le Yuxin, as patrol guards wouldn't suspect anything even if he, a Statistical Department operative, was wandering outside late at night — they'd either think he was working overtime to fight against counter-revolutionaries or out for some illicit rendezvous.
"Stop, you brat!"
As Le Yuxin turned from the bright avenue into a dimly lit small lane, he seemed to enter another world: the ground was filthy, the earth turned, the buildings uneven yet closely packed, trash scattered everywhere, with a faint rotting smell like decaying corpses wafting in the air.
Right ahead, a teenage boy in a sleeveless linen outfit was dashing wildly, his hair disheveled, face smeared with dirt, barefoot despite the chilly night, fleeing with a fancy wallet in his right hand.
Behind him chased a burly, bald-headed man. Seeing Le Yuxin approaching from the other side of the alley, the man's expression brightened, shouting, "Help stop him!"
Blocked, the linen-clad boy showed no fear, and when he was within five meters of Le Yuxin, he suddenly turned and leapt onto the foul-smelling trash, using his hands to climb swiftly onto the rooftop.
He had chosen an excellent escape spot — right in the middle of the alley, making it difficult for the bald man to either run forward or backtrack to catch him.
The bald man realized this and angrily punched the adjacent dirt wall, creating cracks, and roared towards the sky, "You punk! If I catch you, I'll tear you apart!"
The dim lights in the nearby houses immediately extinguished; although what happened outside had nothing to do with these poor people, survival wisdom taught them to keep their heads down — besides, there was nothing else they could do.
Eighteen Street.
This place had many names: slum, gambling den, Flower Street... Simply put, seventy percent of Star Engraving county's poor lived here, with another twenty percent at the docks and factories.
As productivity hadn't yet reached material abundance, slums were an unavoidable aspect of every city, and Eighteen Street was such a place. There were inadequate streetlights and no patrol guards, but instead, ultra-low living costs and roof shelters against the elements, where workers and laborers largely resided.
Because the authorities didn't overly interfere, Eighteen Street also harbored facilities explicitly banned by law, like gambling dens. Unlike the quiet other areas, Eighteen Street was bustling at night — gambling dens dared not operate by day to defy Imperial Court authority, only daring to rake in gamblers' money at night.
It could be seen that the Qin household in Star Engraving county was relatively prosperous — though Qin's parents died early, Qin siblings could almost afford schooling until Qin Yuliu went undercover, bringing normal household income.
As Le Yuxin was sorting through memories, the bald man suddenly turned to stare at him, glancing a few times, then grinned fiercely.
"Kid, are you with that punk? Why didn't you stop him earlier?" The bald man pulled out brass knuckles, clanged his fists together, making an iron clang as he spoke menacingly, "Do you know who I am?"
Oh boy.
Le Yuxin was stunned.
He couldn't believe someone... dared to mess with Qin Yuliu?
How many antibiotics did you take to get this drunk?
"Wait!" Le Yuxin quickly called to halt him.
"Want to beg for mercy?" The bald man licked his lips, motioning his thumb backward, "Head to the alley over there, hand over your money, and let me have some fun, then maybe I'll consider letting you off, might even toss you a few bucks, hahaha!"
"May I first ask who you are? Are you famous around here?" Le Yuxin cautiously asked.
"You don't know me, Lord Lei? Do you know Ying Boss from Xiang Le? Ying Boss is my brother-in-law!"
"What's Xiang Le?" Le Yuxin blinked.
The bald man grew impatient, charged at Le Yuxin like a boar, as though to knock down this big cabbage: "Stop feigning ignorance, anyone who comes here is either to Xiang Le for gambling or to the tenderness nest—"
Bang!
Le Yuxin delivered a powerful kick, sending the bald man flying through the air; his heavy body hovered for a second before slamming to the ground with a clang, vomiting violently red, black, and yellow.
"So essentially."
Le Yuxin stepped forward to crush his stomach, "You're just a petty gambling boss's brother-in-law?"
"Ye-yes, you're dead meat…"
"You actually lied to me!" Le Yuxin stomped hard, pressing the bald man to vomit stomach acid.
"I-I didn't lie!"
"You're so ugly, how good-looking can your sister, who's related to you, be? It's not that I don't believe you, but I trust Mendel more!"
"Men, Mendel? Who's that guy..."
Le Yuxin got angry, "How dare you insult Mendel! The best thing I learned in high school was Mendel's laws of inheritance!"
"This kick is for insulting a scientist!"
"This kick is for giving me trouble!"
"This kick is for drooling over my body!"
"This kick is because you're bald and ugly!"
"This kick is because you lied to me about being someone's brother-in-law!"
"I, I didn't lie..."
"Still lying, deserve another stomp!"
Kicking him over a dozen times, Le Yuxin felt more and more delighted. He wasn't mentally twisted; it's just that too many things happened to him lately. He was too repressed, especially today — got beaten up by Mu Feihong in the morning, threatened by Chen Fu in the afternoon, and had to face off with his sister during dinner...
Le Yuxin felt bitter!
Sure, Le Yuxin could dissociate, pretending he was just playing the main storyline of the character "Qian Yu Liu" in first-person view, but he still felt annoyed!
And then this vicious creature suddenly appeared; it would be a waste not to let loose a bit using this gift from heaven!
"Hey, what are you doing over there?!"
Suddenly, a few gang members appeared at the corner. Seeing Le Yuxin stomping the bald guy furiously, they were shocked, "Master Lei! How dare you hit our guy, let go of Master Lei!"
"Cut this bastard down and avenge Master Lei!"
"Cut off his limbs!"
By then, Le Yuxin was almost done, feeling a lot less annoyed. He kicked the bald guy, now unrecognizable even to his own mother, toward them, stomped heavily, and coldly raised his head, saying, "Do you also want to mess with me?"
"Who the hell are you..."
One of the rowdy gangsters suddenly changed his expression, quickly pulled the others back, and cautiously said, "You're not from the Eighteen Streets, are you?"
The sound of Statistical Department's steel-soled boots was a nightmare for many.
Le Yuxin didn't answer; he had found the right approach from Qian Yu Liu's memory to deal with these gangsters: "I'm counting to ten. If you and this bald pig are still in front of me in ten seconds, that whatever casino of yours can close down tomorrow. Ten, nine, eight, seven..."
Mafia, casinos, thugs.
These things might be a huge threat to ordinary people, but to the Statistical Department... No, it didn't even need the Statistical Department, just a small officer from Statistical Department is not someone this trash can provoke.
As Governor Ding's confidant department, running rampant as Statistical Department, no one publicly in the Star Engraving County dared to provoke them, and in secret... Statistical Department doesn't dirty their boots with this kind of place.
Besides, just the excuse of "capturing anti-light rebels" was enough for Le Yuxin to turn the whole Eighteen Streets upside down. What casino, what boss, they're not even qualified to lick Le Yuxin's boots.
By now, the other gangsters also sensed something was wrong. They quickly hoisted up the bald guy and swiftly slipped away before Le Yuxin finished counting, without uttering a harsh word.
They might hold some doubt, as wearing steel-soled boots didn't necessarily mean Le Yuxin was a Statistical Department officer, but they had enough gangster smarts: if they charged ahead, Le Yuxin might turn out fake, and they still might not win; if he was real, they'd be ruined. On the other hand, if they retreated, regardless of Le Yuxin's authenticity, they'd have an excuse to report back to the boss since only the bald guy got beaten.
Le Yuxin's kicks were measured too, aside from using Combat Technique on the first kick, the rest were just random kicks. Although he reshaped the bald guy's face and teeth, it wasn't fatal, hopefully, this societal beating would make the bald guy better.
Le Yuxin wiped clean the blood on his steel-soled boots, continuing down the alley. Suddenly, a voice came from the rooftop, "Hey, here's half for you."
A pouch of money was thrown down, Le Yuxin caught it in hand, noticing the ragged boy standing on the rooftop looking at him. Though covered in dirt, his eyes were bright like stars.
Le Yuxin asked, "What do you mean?"
"You helped me drive away Fatty Lei, so I reasonably should give you half." The ragged boy patted his skinny chest, "This is called fairness."
"Thieves speak of fairness? You're quite the thief with a moral code." Le Yuxin laughed.
"Thief with a moral code? I like that saying!" The boy's eyes lit up, "You were awesome just now, stomping on Fatty Lei, and those big boss's folks didn't dare to bother you, how did you do it? Where are you from? Can I tag along with you?"
Le Yuxin smiled, stomping his foot, "You know where I'm from now, don't you?"
"Ah, you're Black Dog!" The boy realized suddenly.
"Don't say I didn't warn you, you can steal from thugs and run, but if you dare say Black Dog in front of a Black Dog... that'll test your reincarnation skills."
"Tch, you just said Black Dog yourself."
"Once you have the privilege to wear these steel-soled boots, you can say it too." Le Yuxin checked his pocket watch, felt a bit pressed for time, and decided to ignore this brat, walking swiftly out of the alley.
The ragged boy watched Le Yuxin's retreating back, admiration glittering in his eyes.
...
...
'Damn, am I going to be late?'
Due to the little episode on the way, Le Yuxin realized he might be running out of time, feeling anxious — after all, it's not a date, but a secret meeting between a mole and an informant!
If you ghost your girlfriend on a date, worst case, you break up; but ghosting an informant at a secret meeting, the informant might think you've been captured and flee the city overnight, even adding your name to a list of casualties!
Naturally, Le Yuxin sped up, and when there were two streets left to his destination, a dark little house next to him suddenly opened, and two beams of dim light burst out.
Le Yuxin reacted quickly—Qian Yu Liu's body instincts were very strong—but the opponent moved even faster, even stronger!
Two hands clamped onto Le Yuxin's throat and left wrist like iron cuffs, dragging him into the dark house!
In the darkness, Le Yuxin heard a chilling voice:
"Finally caught you."