"Roya! You bastard—tell me, how did Uncle Liu die?!"
One hand seized Roya by the collar and yanked him upright. Ch'en Hui-chieh's other hand was clenched into a fist, her knuckles cracking sharply. It looked as though if Roya's answer failed to satisfy her, she really would punch him.
As for the "Uncle Liu" Ch'en was talking about, he was the fruit shop owner the two bystanders at the restaurant had mentioned earlier—the one whose shop had been sealed off. Officially, he was listed as missing, but in truth, his body had been found last night.
Roya had been the one to find it.
"Didn't the forensic department already say so? Food poisoning."
Being held up like this, with a desk between them, was deeply uncomfortable. Ch'en was frighteningly strong, too. If that punch really came down, Roya suspected he'd be eligible to file for paid sick leave on the spot.
"You think I'm an idiot?" Ch'en snapped. "You were the first one on the scene. Then tell me this—where did that sword wound on Uncle Liu's back come from? Besides me and that person, you're the only one who knows the Chi Xiao swordsmanship!"
There was fury in Ch'en's eyes—rage so intense it seemed capable of burning through anything. As if sensing her emotions, the crimson sword at her waist trembled and hummed without pause.
"Uncle Liu followed that person for decades. He would never strike that viciously. Speak!"
The "that person" in Ch'en's mouth was Roya's highest-ranking superior: Lungmen's governor, Wei Yenwu. Uncle Liu had served Wei Yenwu for decades—long enough that he could almost be said to have watched Ch'en grow up. The fact that Ch'en had restrained herself until now before coming to question Roya was already a sign of extraordinary self-control.
"Fine... all right." Seeing there was no way to bluff his way past this, Roya nodded. "I killed him."
"You bastard!"
The punch landed squarely on Roya's face, sending him flying backward onto the floor. The burst of pain made him suck in a breath, though he gritted his teeth and refused to cry out.
Without the slightest awareness of what "insubordination" was supposed to mean, Ch'en straddled him directly, seized his collar with one hand, and pulled back the other, ready to strike again.
"Uncle Liu was the former Deputy Chief of the Guard Department. He rendered so much service to Lungmen—how dare you kill him!"
"Stop."
Roya's words made Ch'en's whole body go rigid. Her fist hovered in the air, unable to come down.
"A squad leader assaulting a deputy chief—just that alone is enough for me to suspend you on the spot." Wiping the blood from his nose, Roya grimaced. He'd prepared himself mentally for this, but taking a punch like that still hurt like hell.
"This isn't some departmental dispute. This is personal vengeance, Roya. Want to guess how many people reported you today? You're the Deputy Chief of the Lungmen Guard Department. If this keeps up, your reputation is going to hit rock bottom."
Ch'en was absolutely seething. The trouble was, her authority wasn't enough to shake Roya's position, and Wei Yenwu kept turning a blind eye to everything this man did.
"Oh? So my reputation still has room to fall?" Roya slowly sat up. "Looks like I haven't been working hard enough."
He didn't seem particularly angry, much less embarrassed into a rage the way Ch'en expected. He simply rose to his feet at an unhurried pace, casually lifting the compulsion he'd placed on her.
If Wei Yenwu hadn't reprimanded her in advance, she might have drawn the Chi Xiao right here and now. If the man before her weren't her fiancé in name, she truly might have killed him. No—this person didn't deserve to be her fiancé at all. If not for using the engagement as a way to fend off trouble from the Chen family in Great Yan, how could she ever have agreed to a fake engagement with someone like him?
"All right, all right, look at you." Roya sighed. "I'd better head back first."
He pulled a few tissues from the desk, picked up his coat and the standard-issue black sword he'd brought with him, and prepared to leave. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he pointed at the documents on the desk.
"Finish those for me. I left your lunch on the table."
As he walked away, wiping at his nosebleed, his disheveled appearance was seen by practically every officer in the Guard Department. Roya could say with certainty that they were all thinking he deserved it—probably cheering for Ch'en, maybe even wondering why she hadn't simply punched him to death. In most people's eyes, Ch'en was the one who should have been sitting in his seat.
"Sir, you..." A red-haired woman with a pair of horns froze in place. She knew very well what Roya was capable of. Ch'en actually managed to hurt him?
"It's nothing. I'm heading out on patrol. Jiu, keep your people in line. If there's a next time, you can patrol with her."
Because he'd been punched in the nose, Roya's voice had turned a little nasal and stuffy. Jiu was Ch'en's direct superior, so if Roya didn't say something, it would be hard to justify.
Meanwhile, another woman, a green-haired oni, cast a worried glance toward the office, concerned that Ch'en might end up at a disadvantage. To be honest, she herself had wanted to plant a punch on Roya's face too—but doing that might really have killed him.
Only after Roya finally drove away did the officers in the Guard Department dare clench their fists and cheer aloud.
"As expected of Miss Ch'en. If only that punch had been a little harder."
"It would've been best if she'd just beaten that bastard to death."
"What a waste. Miss Ch'en actually having a fiancé like that—ugh!"
"Hey, didn't you hear? Her family's been pressuring her to marry, so she just picked that bastard for a fake engagement. I mean, at least he's a deputy chief."
Listening to the chatter around her, Jiu thought for a moment, then headed toward the washroom and reported everything that had just happened to her superior.
Outside, her colleagues were still discussing the incident, still saying how badly they wished they could have thrown that punch in Ch'en's place. Jiu only felt irritation knotting in her chest. She wanted to explain—but in the end, she could only bury it all inside.
Meanwhile, in the car, Roya's claim that he was "going on patrol" was, of course, a lie. Those scraps of paperwork could be left to Ch'en. He planned to go home, lie down for a while, and maybe count his money.
But before he could decide exactly how to dispose of the garbage later, his phone rang, forcing him to set the thought aside. He reached out and hit the answer button.
"Roya, I heard you were hurt?"
A low, dignified voice came from the other end. Other than Wei Yenwu, there weren't many people who knew his number.
"Yeah. Your niece hit me. She was really furious. But I took the blame, so at most she'll probably only question why you haven't fired me yet."
"She's young and hot-blooded. There's still a lot she doesn't understand."
"I know. And there's no need for her to understand these things." Roya turned the car into a narrow alley. "Did you get anything out of him?"
"Old Xu was one of Old Liu's contacts. He handled passing the information along. Ursus ordered them to determine whether Talulah had any contact or dealings with Lungmen, and promised them generous benefits."
Talulah.
The name made Roya pause for a moment before he finally remembered—she was Ch'en's half-sister from the same mother. Which meant, technically, she was his sister-in-law. But that girl had been taken away long ago by Duke Koschei of Ursus. In recent years, all he'd heard was that she'd killed Koschei. Nothing beyond that.
"They were investigating whether Talulah had contact or dealings with Lungmen, not whether she was in Lungmen..." Roya immediately grasped the problem. "So they may already know where Talulah is."
Wei Yenwu gave a low grunt in agreement. Talulah was the knot he could never untangle from his heart. His sworn brother had died by his own hand, and that brother's only bloodline had vanished without a trace. It had tormented him to the point of losing sleep for years.
But now was not the time to dwell on that. Wei Yenwu seemed to be considering what kind of compensation he ought to give Roya.
"So how are you calculating the extra pay for this job?"
"The usual rate. Put it into the subsidy fund for the orphanage and the clinic in the slums."
"All right... sorry for making you do this." Wei Yenwu set down his pipe. "When this is over, I'll clear your name."
"Better not."
Roya parked the vehicle at the entrance to the slums, leaned back lightly against the driver's seat, wiped away the last trace of blood from his face using the rearview mirror, then straightened his collar.
"Wasn't this our deal from the start? I do the work, you pay me. Nothing between us but business. Anyway, enough talk. I've got a debt to collect."
"You've been loan-sharking?" Wei Yenwu raised a brow on the other end of the line. "I told you to play the bad guy, not to give a method performance."
Kidnapping, poisoning, assassination, bribery—Roya's performance had been so convincing that even Wei Yenwu couldn't find fault with it. This wasn't acting anymore. He practically had to order the man to show some restraint.
"Come on, sir. How could I possibly be a bad person?"
Roya set the sword aside in the car, then took a metal baseball bat from the back seat and stepped out.
"I just never do anything good."
In front of him lay Lungmen's slums—a place that housed ninety percent of the city's gray and black industries. Ever since Lungmen had been founded, managing this place had always been Wei Yenwu's greatest headache.
And yesterday, a small incident had occurred here.
Roya glanced at the entrance to the alley. The blood of those old policemen from yesterday still hadn't been washed away—as if it had been deliberately left there as a provocation. He stepped around the stain and walked straight into the slums.