Wang Shoucai

The smoke and dust cleared.

The basement was a mess. The Tiger Head Gang's boss, Brother Hu, slowly opened his eyes and saw tiger corpses scattered across the floor, steaming demon blood, and two young people standing there unharmed.

He hurriedly closed his eyes again.

"Stop pretending." Zhao Xing'er stepped forward and hauled him up. "Tell me, where's the child?"

"Whose child?" Brother Hu hunched his shoulders, his face full of fear.

"Guo Yang's child," Zhao Xing'er said.

"Who's Guo Yang?" Brother Hu scratched his head, frantically trying to remember when he'd fathered a child with someone named Guo Yang.

"Chen Dafā from the factory in the southern suburbs—did he ask you to kidnap the son of one of his employees?" Yue Wen stepped forward and asked.

"That never happened!" Brother Hu blurted. "I know Chen Dafā. He only asked me to send a couple of guys to back him up while he dealt with some employees demanding their wages. There was absolutely no kidnapping involved."

Judging by how indignant he looked, he didn't seem to be lying.

"Could it be..." Yue Wen and Zhao Xing'er exchanged glances, both looking a little embarrassed. "Did we wrong them?"

"You broke in and wiped out the Tiger Head Gang over this?" Brother Hu's eyes were full of shock and grievance.

A moment of silence fell, as if a crow had flown overhead.

Then Yue Wen smiled. "Well, isn't this awkward?"

Zhao Xing'er gave an awkward laugh.

Just then, a bronze ancient sword suddenly burst through the door and clanged into the middle of the basement.

Vmmm—

An invisible ripple of spiritual power spread out from the ancient sword, enveloping the entire basement. Everyone's movements slowed to a crawl, almost freezing in place.

Then a loud shout rang out.

"The Supervision Bureau is here on business! All evil spirits, surrender! Resist, and you'll be killed without mercy!"

"Captain Wang—" Yue Wen strained against the formation and drew out his words, shouting one syllable at a time. "The evil spirits are already taken care of. You can drop the spell—"

"Hm?"

The person outside swept the area with his Spiritual Sense. Only after confirming there were no living evil spirits did he withdraw the formation.

The ancient sword turned into a streak of light and shot back the way it had come.

Then a man of average height walked in. He wore a black Sun Yat-sen suit, had a protruding belly, and looked to be around forty. Several folds of fat bunched beneath his chin.

"Sorry I'm late." The man smiled, giving him a guileless air. "I was at a prostitution raid. As soon as I got your call, it sounded like you were fighting evil spirits, so I had someone pinpoint your location and rushed over right away."

"It's all right. It's after hours, and I'm the one who bothered you." Yue Wen hurried to meet him with a polite smile. "Why did you have to go on a prostitution raid yourself?"

"I was the one being raided."

Yue Wen: "?"

"The Public Security Office asked the Bureau to send someone they wouldn't recognize undercover to gather evidence," the man explained. "I didn't go there on my own."

"Ha ha." Yue Wen laughed again. "I knew Captain Wang wouldn't have gone there on his own."

"Of course." The man nodded. "This time, I really didn't."

"..." Yue Wen gave up trying to keep that conversation going and turned to introduce him to Zhao Xing'er.

The man was named Wang Shoucai, captain of the Supervision Bureau's Seventh Squad in the satellite city, and a direct subordinate of True Person Guang.

When Yue Wen's parents had encountered a Spatial Rift, Wang Shoucai had been in charge of the case. He'd also handled the investigation that followed. After Yue Wen woke up, he'd been in touch with Wang Shoucai often enough to have his number saved in his phone.

Yue Wen then briefly explained what had happened, including the "minor altercation" at the factory earlier.

Wang Shoucai nodded in understanding. "It's not a big deal."

"The Bureau has been keeping an eye on the Tiger Head Gang in the southern suburbs for a while. We suspected they were behind several murders, but these tiger demons were careful, and we hadn't found any evidence. We also don't have enough people to keep tabs on them around the clock. Taking down the Tiger Head Gang is a great service."

"As for Chen Dafā... I'll look into the situation. If he really did collude with gangsters to harm his business rivals and workers who were simply demanding their wages, then he'll have to answer for that too."

"Just don't go overboard next time."

As he spoke, Wang Shoucai pulled Yue Wen aside and lowered his voice. "You know how it is. The higher-ups have always been tolerant of cultivators like you who are on good terms with the authorities. There's just one thing: you can't disrupt public order in the city."

"I understand." Yue Wen nodded solemnly. "We'll act under the Supervision Bureau's leadership, uphold justice, and protect Jiang City's prosperity and stability!"

"Good." Wang Shoucai glanced back, looking a little surprised. "Those tiger demons were powerful. I can hardly believe how much you've grown since we last met. No wonder True Person Guang took a liking to you."

Just the corpses on the ground were powerful tiger demons, and the one that had escaped was even stronger. Even an experienced Supervision Bureau investigator would have had trouble dealing with such creatures.

Yet Yue Wen and Zhao Xing'er, two young people, had simply charged in and killed them. It was truly astonishing.

"Just lucky," Yue Wen said with a modest smile.

Wang Shoucai patted him on the shoulder, then suddenly asked, "By the way, any news about your parents lately?"

Yue Wen shook his head. "No."

Wang Shoucai gave him a meaningful look. "Let us know as soon as you hear anything."

Later, more Supervision Bureau staff arrived and thoroughly swept through the Tiger Head Gang's premises, arresting all the gang members in the area.

Their inspection showed that before they arrived, another gang of thieves had apparently broken in and made off with anything worth money. They'd even taken the batteries out of the air conditioner remote.

Wang Shoucai lit a cigarette and stood there chatting with Yue Wen and the others, now and then.

Before leaving, he said, "Oh, right. The evil cultivator you killed last time was confirmed to be a wanted member of Flame Ghost Hall. You should get a notice in the next couple of days, and then you can claim the reward. It'll be tens of thousands, at least. This time, taking down the Tiger Head Gang should count as an act of bravery, too. I don't know how much the reward will be, but I'll have them pay it all out together."

"That's great!" Yue Wen was delighted.

For his fledgling team, money really was a problem.

Excluding anything they'd earned outside the business, they'd made only fifteen hundred yuan from commissions these past few days, and two hundred and fifty of that had to be split with Zhao Xing'er.

If they didn't bring in some extra cash, they'd have trouble paying rent and utilities.

"Don't get too excited yet," Wang Shoucai warned him. "Flame Ghost Hall may be loosely organized, but the man you killed was likely the personal disciple of its leader, Ah Hei Yan. He's ruthless and vindictive, and he's been roaming Tianbei Prefecture for years without getting caught. You'll need to be careful."

"Ah Hei Yan?"

Yue Wen's expression tightened. He'd heard the name before. Ah Hei Yan was one of the most notorious evil cultivators in Tianbei Prefecture.

That black-clad man had been his disciple?

The two tiger demons who'd escaped today might come back for revenge, too. All things considered, he had quite a few enemies to watch out for.

Still, that was part of the job. If he wanted to kill more evil spirits and earn more Demon Suppressing Coins, he was bound to make enemies. He couldn't exactly expect to call an evil spirit "brother" and have it reply, "If you're calling me brother, what's there to talk about? I'll just die, then."

"Thanks for the warning, Captain Wang. I'll be careful," Yue Wen said earnestly.

The Tiger Head Gang had been completely wiped out, but they still hadn't found Guo Yang's child. Neither Yue Wen nor Zhao Xing'er could feel happy about it.

They still had to tell Guo Yang so he wouldn't keep waiting at home for nothing.

So the two of them rode their little electric scooter to Guo Yang's home near the southern suburbs. It was an old apartment building, its exterior peeling and looking very run-down.

Yue Wen knocked on the door with a grave expression.

"You're here!" The one-armed man opened the door, beaming.

"Brother Guo." Yue Wen's voice was heavy. "We went to the Tiger Head Gang today, but we still couldn't find your son. The Supervision Bureau is questioning them, so there might be something more to come of it, but... the chances don't look good. You'll definitely get your compensation, though, and our agency will keep looking into what happened to your son..."

"No need." Guo Yang turned and called into the house. "My son came back."

"What?"

Yue Wen and Zhao Xing'er looked inside. A little boy with a tigerish look about him walked over to the doorway, gazing up at them timidly.

"He really did sneak out to play games with his friends and didn't tell me. What a mess this caused. I gave him a good scolding just now, but I haven't had a chance to let you know yet." Guo Yang looked a little embarrassed. "Are you two all right?"

"We're fine," Yue Wen said. "The Tiger Head Gang, on the other hand, isn't."

The child had been found, the bad guys had been dealt with, and they'd gotten their five hundred yuan...

It really was a happy ending for everyone.

Of course, the biggest windfall had been the eighty-three Demon Suppressing Coins he'd gotten from killing those three tiger demons! It was the biggest haul Yue Wen had made so far, enough to pay back four months of what he owed Big Dragon.

Guo Yang invited them in for a while, but they smiled and politely declined. It was already late, after all, so they exchanged a few more words and turned to leave.

They hadn't gone far when the boy called after them, "Hey, big brother, big sister!"

They looked back. The boy ran over with two arcade tokens in his hand and pressed one into each of their palms.

"Dad told me you fought bad guys to find me." The boy looked up at them. "I don't have any money, so you can have these two game tokens as your reward."

Yue Wen looked down at the gleaming token. It didn't have the name of an arcade on it, only a smiling fox's head. It felt pretty solid, too.

He tucked it into his pocket and smiled. "Thanks, boss."