A month had passed since that incident.
Roya's headaches had eased considerably.
Over the course of that month, Lungmen had been astonishingly peaceful. Aside from Roya's reputation somehow managing to sink a little lower, everything else remained much the same. Then again, his reputation had usually dropped much faster than that. At this point, it felt as though there was hardly any room left for it to worsen.
His work remained simple.
Guard Department duty during the day.
At night, following Lin Yuhsia around to deal with certain unstable elements in Lungmen.
Perhaps knowing that Roya was in poor condition, Lin Yuhsia generally didn't let him get involved directly unless an interrogation was required.
"Congratulations, Deputy Chief Roya. You've successfully advanced from 'notorious' and 'infamous' all the way to 'a stench that will last ten thousand years.'"
Early in the morning, Ch'en Hui-chieh was once again greeting him with verbal barbs as if it were part of her routine.
Roya's face, however, was much too thick to be shaken by a few words like that.
"To be remembered for ten thousand years is still better than dying without a soul knowing who I was, isn't it? Here, have some. These soup dumplings are excellent."
"Li's? Even when I queue at seven in the morning, I can't get any. Hard to believe you managed to bring a portion."
Ch'en arched a brow but did not immediately refuse. Since they had become a couple in name more than a year ago, Roya had—whatever else he was—at least treated her well.
Every day, he brought her breakfast and lunch.
He knew she liked to sleep in a bit in the morning but hated being late, which meant she often skipped breakfast. Then she would work right through lunchtime and forget to eat that too.
As for dinner?
Roya usually went to freeload off a certain Miss Lin. By now, Lin Yuhsia had gotten used to preparing an extra portion for him.
"When I got there, the queue was already enormous. But everyone was very enthusiastic about letting me buy first, so I accepted graciously."
Ch'en suddenly wasn't so sure she wanted to eat the dumplings anymore.
She could easily imagine the people in line pretending they had never existed the moment they saw Roya.
"Don't look at me like I'd threaten people. I'm joking. I get up at seven too, so by then they'd already be sold out. I had the shop owner send these straight to the office. He wouldn't even take my money."
If anything, that somehow sounded even worse.
Ch'en wasn't sure whether it was because Roya refused to pay or because Boss Li simply didn't dare charge him.
After thinking it over, though, she still took the bag of dumplings.
"You don't need to bring me meals anymore."
"Hm?" Roya looked up, a dumpling hanging from his mouth, his eyes full of puzzled confusion.
"Wei Yenwu has already agreed to dissolve our engagement. Great Yan has probably given up as well. There's no need to keep pretending."
"That's good news."
Roya showed no visible emotional reaction at all. His tone was utterly flat.
"Hopefully you won't one day punch the next person who loves you to death too. Actually, no—other than me, is there anyone else who'd love you?"
At that, Ch'en's fist tightened instantly.
Hard.
Very hard.
But she only let out a cold snort, took the dumplings, and turned to leave.
The reaction was calmer than Roya had expected.
He had assumed that after learning he had killed Old Liu, Ch'en might eventually lose control and try to kill him outright. Apparently, she was not quite as impulsive as he'd thought.
Though beneath that restraint, she was probably planning something else.
After she left, Roya pulled several reports and letters out from the bottom of a stack of files.
They were anonymous complaints accusing Ch'en of violent law enforcement and suspected bribery, internal Guard Department evaluations criticizing her attitude and methods, and formal complaints from several major corporations deeply involved with Lungmen—complaints asserting that Officer Ch'en was, in certain respects, a little too naïve and difficult to work with.
Ch'en only knew that Roya was reviled in Lungmen.
But she herself had also offended quite a few people.
After all, she had joined the Guard Department in her personal capacity. Most people only knew that her family in Great Yan had some influence. Few knew of her relationship with Wei Yenwu.
At least within Lungmen, however, everyone knew that Ch'en and Roya were only engaged on the surface and were constantly at odds. Plenty of people hoped to use Roya's hand to pressure her—or even remove her entirely.
As for the Chen family behind her?
Presumably they would not stretch their hand all the way here for the sake of a daughter who was not even their chosen heir.
"She really does make trouble for me."
Roya did not dislike Ch'en's strong-willed, justice-driven personality.
In fact, he did not dislike good people at all.
The more of them there were, the better.
The trouble was that such people were always rare.
And good people had an unfortunate tendency to place themselves in danger.
Still, that was fine.
Sooner or later, Roya would personally shape Ch'en Hui-chieh into Lungmen's emblem of justice—make her into an unshakable pillar of the city's order.
"Report!"
Jiu knocked and entered, just in time to see Roya putting something away.
"Just come in next time." Roya patted his paper shredder, but it made no sound at all. "What is it?"
"Yes, sir. It's the proposal you asked me to draft for slum administration. Please take a look."
"No need."
After confirming that the shredder was useless, Roya walked over, took the complaint files about Ch'en, and handed them all to Jiu.
"If it's a plan you made, then I have nothing to worry about. Proceed according to your proposal. And throw this bag of trash into the garbage bins outside the Guard Department."
"You're not going to read it?"
"I have full confidence in your abilities. To have a good sword in hand and refuse to use it—choosing instead to hang it on the wall for display—that is the behavior of an idiot."
At that point, Jiu had nothing more to say.
She took the file bag and left.
As she walked, the more she thought about it, the stranger it felt.
Over the past few months, Roya seemed to have been deliberately involving her in increasingly important work. It didn't feel like exploitation. That wasn't his style.
It felt more like he was testing her.
"Work's been so easy lately. I thought the people in the slums would be hard to manage."
"Exactly. Those gangs must've eaten the wrong medicine or something. They're more obedient around us than schoolchildren in front of a head teacher. I kept worrying something would happen in the slums."
"Maybe the deaths of those senior officers made the higher-ups furious. Even the slums can't just ignore Wei-sir's authority."
"But I heard Deputy Chief Roya pressured the gangs."
"Oh, give me a break. Who'd believe that? A guy like him pressuring gangs? I'd be grateful if he wasn't colluding with them. Someone like him's bound to come to a bad end."
Conversations like this were commonplace in the Guard Department.
Roya either sat in his office for a few hours and left, or simply didn't show up at all, which meant Ch'en and Jiu often had to handle the paperwork in his stead. That made people around the office remarkably loose with their tongues.
Of course, none of them would dare say such things to Roya's face.
Rumor had it that an officer who once badmouthed him within earshot vanished mysteriously on his way home that very night and was found the next day floating in a sewer.
Hearing this sort of talk day after day, even Jiu sometimes found herself wondering whether Roya had really committed so many atrocities. Otherwise, how had he become so hated that in Lungmen, children could practically be quieted at night just by mentioning his name?
Standing by the garbage bins outside the Guard Department, Jiu looked at the file in her hands.
Perhaps these documents—things Roya had wanted destroyed—might give her some answers.
After all, throwing them away didn't necessarily mean they had to be destroyed.
If she happened to "pick them up" by accident, that was another matter entirely.
With that thought, she tucked the file away—just as she ran into Ch'en Hui-chieh, who was about to lead a patrol to the slums.
"Want one? I've got an extra."
Ch'en held out the paper bag in her hand.
"That person bought them. Free food is free food."
"Is that really okay?"
"There's nothing wrong with it."
She stuffed the dumpling into Jiu's hands rather forcefully, her lips curving slightly upward.
"From now on, he and I won't be engaged anymore. This is the last time I'm eating his food for free. Later I'll just treat him to a few meals to settle it."
As one of the few people who knew Wei Yenwu was Ch'en's maternal uncle, Jiu wasn't surprised by the outcome.
Roya's reputation kept worsening. Even if Ch'en herself had not yet been dragged down with him, maintaining the engagement any longer would only blur the line between them. After more than a year, Great Yan had likely given up on her anyway. Dissolving the engagement would make it easier for Ch'en to distance herself from Roya and avoid being tainted by association.
Still, seeing the faint note of relief—perhaps even happiness—on Ch'en's face, Jiu found herself unable to offer congratulations. She could only nod with a small smile and return to her work.
Ch'en thought nothing of it and continued leading her patrol toward the slums.
Jiu, meanwhile, tucked the file away, handled her paperwork for a while, then decided to bring her own draft proposal to Roya for review.
Roya's office was at the far end of the corridor—probably because he hated being disturbed.
No one ever came here unless absolutely necessary.
Most people would rather ask Jiu to pass along documents for them than come to Roya's office in person. Being around him, to them, felt little different from living in a pile of garbage.
Jiu had just reached the door and raised a hand to knock when she heard Roya's voice from inside.
He was talking to someone on the communicator.
"Yes, yes, I know, Mr. Los. She gives me headaches too. But she's still my fiancée in name. However bad things are between us, I can't exactly just deal with her directly, can I? What would Lungmen's citizens think of me then?"
"Hah. I never expected a man like you, Mr. Roya, to care about appearances."
The man on the other end was clearly sneering at Roya's shamelessness, but Roya was not the least bit bothered.
"She is my fiancée. After more than a year, there's at least a little feeling there. So... it'll cost extra."
"Don't push your luck. We already paid you three million. If this gets out, do you really think you'll still be able to keep your position?"
"Oh, come now. When have I ever taken your money? Wasn't that simply something I happened to find in a trash heap? Besides, I doubt Land Company wants its private arms sales to Lungmen gangs exposed either."
"Good. Very good. Mr. Roya, you're the boldest man I've ever met. Our cooperation ends here."
Land Company?
Jiu remembered it well. It was a major Ursus corporation that had signed a cooperation agreement with Lungmen half a year ago. Last week, while tracking a smuggling case, Ch'en Hui-chieh had uncovered ties to Land Company, causing them considerable losses in Lungmen.
So now they were using Roya to retaliate against Ch'en?
"Honestly... Land Company, Dolly Pharmaceuticals, even Raythean is involved in this mess. Can't she show even the slightest bit of restraint when she works?"
Roya tossed the communicator aside and continued reviewing official documents.
Lungmen, by all appearances, was steadily improving on every front.
Public opinion surveys showed that any dissatisfaction people still had was directed entirely at Roya himself.
After all, whenever something bad happened in Lungmen, the citizens' first thought was always the same:
Roya did it.
Corporate investment.
Commercial trade.
Urban planning.
Slum governance.
Over the course of the past year, Lungmen had undergone sweeping reforms across the board.
Whenever those reforms brought benefits, the credit went to Wei Yenwu.
Whenever they created problems, the blame landed squarely on Roya's shoulders.
Take the officers who had died during slum-management operations, for instance.
Some said Roya had deliberately sent them to their deaths.
Yet when people spoke of how orderly the slums had become since then, most officers credited only Wei Yenwu and the Rat King.
Of course, after carrying other people's blame for more than a year, Roya didn't feel wronged by any of it.
He had defined himself from the very beginning as a trash bag.
His greatest value was in ensuring certain people didn't have to dirty their own hands.
"Tch..."
The headache struck again.
Roya opened a drawer, fished out three packets of headache powder, dissolved them in water, and drank them down, then leaned back in his chair and waited in silence.
Fortunately, this time the pain did not feel like Death itself using hammer and chisel to perform a craniotomy on him without anesthetic.
The powder had done a little something.
Elsewhere, Ch'en Hui-chieh had not yet reached the slums when her communicator vibrated. She signaled for her team to move ahead, then took a look.
It was information from the private investigator.
After realizing that Roya might be taking bribes in the form of cash and valuables rather than using bank accounts, Ch'en had reasoned that he had to be hiding them somewhere. If she could track his movements, it shouldn't be difficult to identify the places he visited regularly.
Hiring a private investigator had been the simplest solution.
According to the report, Roya's life was almost absurdly regular. He ate three meals on time, showed up to work at the last possible moment, and never stayed late. In the mornings he was at the Guard Department. After lunch, he would go out on patrol—so regularly, in fact, that his disappearance from the office seemed to indirectly affect Lungmen's afternoon economy.
But after work each day, he always went to the slums to meet a Zalak woman.
And every Friday, without fail, he visited a pharmacy in the slums wearing a disguise. The private investigator had noticed certain suspicious patterns, though he had been unable to discover what Roya actually did there.
"A pharmacy in the slums... Is that where he's hiding all his dirty money?"
Ch'en turned the thought over carefully.
Tomorrow was Friday.
She decided that after work, she would go there alone.
This time, no matter what, she would seize evidence of Roya's corruption.
And then Wei Yenwu would have no room left to deny the truth.
Clenching her fist, Ch'en admitted to herself that she was not nearly as calm toward Roya as she had pretended earlier.
Uncle Liu.
Old Xu from the wonton shop.
All those others she believed Roya had harmed.
And the old policemen who had died in the slums last month.
The fact that she had not yet drawn Chi Xiao on Roya was already proof of enormous self-control. She knew she couldn't beat him. She also lacked decisive evidence.
But she would not accept this.
She would never back down.
A man like Roya had no right to sit in the Deputy Chief's seat.
"In any case, tell the Black Cloaks to keep an eye on her. Don't let anything happen."
Roya listened to the voice on the other end and guessed that Wei Yenwu was probably out wandering the pleasure district again. Hah. Maybe he should lead a team over and arrest the old reprobate, lock him up in the Guard Department for a few days? No, better yet—he'd tattle to the man's wife.
"Fine. What about you? You still shouldn't be able to use your power, right?"
Wei Yenwu may have been enjoying music and company, but he had not forgotten what Roya had done last month.
All one could say was this: the threat of death was sometimes much more effective than sweet words.
Those gang leaders now lived in constant fear that Roya might show up at their doors. Their underlings, having taken the deaths of those dozens of gangsters as a warning, behaved more obediently around the Guard Department than grandchildren around a strict grandfather.
Even the latest public surveys showed that the people of Lungmen were highly satisfied with the city's current state.
"I've got just enough left in me to protect myself. That's enough. Who in Lungmen would dare kill me now?"
"Heh. Hard to say. Still, you did well this time. So go on—what do you want?"
Though he'd been thoroughly alarmed at the time, the aftermath had been undeniably positive. Wei Yenwu did not want to rebuke Roya.
You do a job, you get paid.
That had been the deal they struck more than a year ago on that first night.
Roya twirled the pen in his hand as he spoke.
"A school in the slums. At least an elementary school. Put your name and Old Lin's on it. No one will dare touch it that way."
"You're taking your rightful reward and handing the credit to us. Are you sure about that?"
Wei Yenwu dismissed the person beside him and lowered his voice.
"If it's built in my name, I suspect even dogs would go out of their way to avoid it. I'm self-aware enough to know that."
"First the orphanage. Then the free clinic. Now a school. Roya... is there truly nothing you want for yourself?"
At times, Wei Yenwu felt that compared to Roya, he—the so-called ruler of Lungmen—loved this city less.
At the very least, if he placed himself in Roya's position, he knew every one of those decisions would have forced him into a long internal struggle.
"Lungmen's a good place, boss." Roya kept spinning the pen through his fingers. "But I've seen the parts where it still isn't good enough. What I want isn't that different from what you want."
There was a long silence on the line.
Then Wei Yenwu let out a quiet sigh.
"After a while, I'll arrange for you to go to Great Yan. We'll see whether that person can cure you. In the eyes of society, you'll die. As for your situation... I'll tell her."
"Thanks. When the time comes, let Jiu take over for me. She has the ability. And there's no need to tell Officer Ch'en on purpose. Best if Lungmen never needs a Roya again."
Roya hung up and took a deep breath, preparing to rest.
Then the voice in his mind returned once more—that endlessly irritating voice.
[Remaining lifespan: 168 hours]
"There's no way this can be cured."
-------
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