Impatience

"Sorry~ I didn't mean to~"

Ji Huaishu rubbed her hands with an embarrassed grin, while Chu Hengkong silently turned his head away. This childish gesture made his partner retreat in the face of difficulty, and she instead ran over to mutter to the others, "This is bad. What do we do? He really seems angry."

In the seat of honor in the conference room, Ji Qiufeng blew at the tea stems and pretended not to hear. Youyou beside him was trying desperately not to laugh. As Jie An handed out documents to everyone, he shook his head and sighed. "Girl, you really can't blame him this time. It's like a swordsmith struck by inspiration forging an extraordinary weapon. He's considering whether to name it Giant Que Greedy Wolf or Victorious Steelbreaker, when you suddenly say, 'I think this sword's design is quite unusual, so why not call it a toilet plunger?' The moment those words come out, it's over. No matter what it's called afterward, everyone will only remember it as the Divine Sword Toilet Plunger."

Ji Huaishu sucked in a breath. "I didn't actually mean to say you unclogged toilets with your hands... Ah, no, a spring..."

Youyou let out a quacking laugh. This was the first time in Chu Hengkong's life that he had heard a snake laugh, and it sounded remarkably like a duck. He threw back his head and sighed. "Are we holding this meeting or not?"

"Fine, no more nonsense. The meeting begins. Let's start with the changes in the situation over the past month..."

The hotpot they had failed to eat was already a matter of the day before yesterday. Now, Chu Hengkong was in the conference room attending a meeting. Being promoted to Senior Inspector made him an officer. He had to attend the monthly regular meetings and biweekly meetings, formulate emergency plans, and participate in discussions of every kind of future decision. At the moment, Jie An stood beside a huge map of Dragon's Return City, pointing here and there. The map was covered in circles of every color, each connected by long lines to wanted posters.

He raised a black pen and crossed out the wanted posters one by one. "...Last month's suspicious-case clearance rate reached 93%. The current arrest rate for wanted criminals is 65%. Of those, Inspector Chu arrested fourteen, while Captain Ji arrested ten. Reconstruction of the first Healing Temple has been completed, and the second is on the schedule. Medical pressure has been greatly reduced. It may sound inconceivable, but if we look only at the Central District, we can call local public security fairly good. The small and medium-sized gangs in the Central District have basically been cleared out. What are everyone's thoughts on the next step?"

If rebuilding order were treated as a game of "reclaiming lost territory," then the Resurrection Corps's base of operations now covered three-quarters of the Central District. The workshop district on the upper level was almost entirely blacked out, while the lowest level was a chaotic patchwork of large and small dark circles, marking territories where the force had almost no control. Their influence was limited to the Central District.

"The Central District's greatest threat hasn't been dealt with." Ji Huaishu spoke first. She pointed to the west of the map, where an enormous gray circle encompassed nearly a quarter of the Central District. Inside that circle lay Dragon's Return City's most prosperous area: villas for the rich, bars where revelry never ceased, and casinos. A gray cat crouched atop that wealth, greedily coveting the city in the night.

That gray cat was called the Maiweia Club, a giant in the gambling and flesh trades, and the chief culprit behind nearly every missing-person case in the Central District. Everyone in Dragon's Return City knew that, so long as one paid a sufficient price, one could obtain the Club's protection. Countless villains burdened with blood debts had entered the gray cat's lair, squandering their days in pleasure beneath lavish lights.

"As long as the Club exists, the people of the Central District will never be able to set their hearts at ease." Ji Huaishu's tone was cold. "All the little fish and shrimp have been caught in the net. We can finally free up our hands. We should concentrate our forces and take down the Club in one stroke!"

Jie An offered no comment, instead asking, "What is Inspector Chu's opinion?"

"Clear the swamp." Chu Hengkong was concise. The swamp was the lowest district of Dragon's Return City: the impoverished, chaotic Jade Marsh, where all manner of cults clustered together.

Jie An immediately beamed. "Oh, I think that's a good idea! The swamp is vast and rich in resources. Who knows how many rare medicinal herbs we could scour up..."

"Don't mix personal considerations into a meeting!" Ji Huaishu frowned. "Chu Hengkong, I know you're thinking about that bastard who hired someone to kill you, but the swamp isn't a good place. The people there have gone stupid from believing in demons, and there are too many sinister tricks. The risks are high and the returns low. It isn't a good choice."

The five assassins from the day before yesterday had not kept their mouths shut. They had readily sold out their employer. That mystifying white-robed figure looked very much like a cultist from the swamp, so Ji Huaishu believed this proposal was made to settle a personal grudge. Chu Hengkong did not refute her. Instead, he suddenly said, "Since Tina's case, I've been looking for the white-browed thug."

"You found him?" Ji Huaishu perked up.

"I found nothing. There was no relevant information in the Remembrance relic, the nearby residents had no impression of him, and our people have been watching the Club's entrances and exits every day, yet we don't have a single scrap of intelligence on him." Chu Hengkong pointed out the key issue. "The Club's secrecy is too thorough. I even suspect they possess relics that grant invisibility or spatial transfer. Right now, we can't even grasp the movements of a mere thug. How can we talk about destroying the organization behind him?"

Ji Huaishu was speechless for a moment, then said stubbornly, "We'll smash open their doors and search every establishment one by one!"

"If I were still an assassin, I'd smash them in the moment you gave the order. If you wanted the Club owner's head, I'd even help you take it off." Chu Hengkong said, "But I'm a Senior Inspector now. If I break down doors, I have to take responsibility for the lives of the brothers under my command. I can walk away unscathed after breaking in. The others can't."

He did not use a rhetorical question, only a mild statement. That sentence suppressed Ji Huaishu's impatience. She ground her teeth, her voice falling. "You're right."

"Of course I'm right. I have far more experience than you in gang wars." Chu Hengkong smiled. "And though cults large and small stand everywhere in the swamp, they all see one another as competitors. In the early stages of clearing out the cultists, not only would we face less obstruction, the local forces would even be happy to see it happen."

"But there's no benefit in going to the swamp." Ji Huaishu stressed it again. She was clearly deeply resistant to this decision. "If we take down the Club, we can seize a huge amount of Flow Pearls and relics..."

"Nearly half the city's population lives in the swamp. If we eliminate the swamp's cults, the overall order of Dragon's Return City will become vastly more stable." Chu Hengkong pointed out. "No amount of money can buy Dragon's Return becoming stronger."

The observing Youyou nodded repeatedly, looking at Chu Hengkong with the friendliest gaze in recorded history. Ji Huaishu herself had been persuaded as well. Somewhat unwillingly, she turned her head. "Old man, what do you say?"

Ji Qiufeng smiled faintly and gestured for them to wait until he had finished his tea. Chu Hengkong found it somewhat strange. Given this man's temperament, he should have jumped in long ago to crack jokes and steer the discussion along. He should not have let Chu Hengkong waste so much breath.

Ji Qiufeng set his teacup aside, opened his paper fan, and said with a smile, "Chu Hengkong's opinion is very good. Discuss the specific details yourselves, but you must be caref...ul..."

Halfway through, he lowered his paper fan slightly. A patch of vivid red seeped through the back of it, like ominous red embroidery. Ji Huaishu sprang to her feet in panic. "Old man!"

"It's nothing." Ji Qiufeng brushed away the blood at the corner of his lips with his fan and smiled. "I accidentally bit my tongue, I... cough...!"

He suddenly began coughing violently, coughing so painfully it seemed as though he would vomit out his heart and lungs. Great gouts of foul blood sprayed across the conference table. At first it was bright red, but the blood he coughed afterward was gray. Chu Hengkong had never seen human blood turn such a color—ashen, withered, like burned-out bones. The wooden table began to rot the moment it touched the blood, becoming a patch of lifeless, decayed wood in an instant.

Ji Qiufeng coughed until he bent over. This man, who had always been so effortlessly at ease, could no longer maintain his smile. The light had vanished from his eyes, and he looked like an old man on the verge of death. Everyone was stunned for a moment. Only Youyou leaped up in urgency. "Xiao An, go prepare the medicine! Everyone else, get out! Don't come in!"

"I'm going now." Jie An's face went deathly pale as he hurried out the door. Ji Huaishu wanted to tend to her father, but Chu Hengkong silently dragged her away. His instincts told him that gray blood was something utterly terrifying. They absolutely could not touch even the slightest bit of it.

Before the door shut, he saw Youyou wade through the bloody filth without regard for his own safety and breathe a clear, cool light toward Ji Qiufeng.

"Mr. Ji, eat slowly."

"...Much better. Thank you."

"Please don't say that." Jie An squeezed his eyes shut tightly. "If I were more capable, you would have long..."

"Don't be so hard on yourself." Ji Qiufeng smiled weakly. "I'm much better. Go rest."

Jie An was equally pale-faced. He nodded without a word and moved to stand in a corner. They were still in the conference room. As the severely injured Ji Qiufeng could not be moved conveniently, a bed and blankets had been brought in temporarily.

Ji Huaishu helped tuck the covers around her father, her voice trembling despite herself. "I told you that you were pushing yourself too hard before! You haven't rested for three whole days..."

"I'm going to die eventually either way. Whether I sleep or not makes no real difference." Ji Qiufeng said mildly. "You need to learn to accept it. This works out nicely—you can help your old man write down his will in advance..."

"I won't write it down!" Ji Huaishu roared. "How could I possibly accept it?!"

Ji Qiufeng looked at her helplessly, fatherly indulgence showing in his eyes. That gaze forced every word she wanted to say back down her throat. Ji Huaishu strode out the door, shutting it behind her with a forceful bang.

Chu Hengkong stood at the door holding a water bottle. At that moment, he silently stepped back, refusing to look at his partner's reddened eyes. Ji Huaishu wiped her eyes hard and shoved him aside. "This has nothing to do with you!"

She hurried away. After she reached a corner beyond Chu Hengkong's sight, a faint sob drifted from the distance. Chu Hengkong remained standing by the door and did not go inside. He recalled every action Ji Qiufeng had taken in the past—the man's flame-like eyes and his eternally composed bearing, the reassuring air of a powerful man.

So it had all been an act. This decaying patient was the real Ji Qiufeng, watching death draw nearer every second of every minute. He looked so powerful, yet even a Water Bullet gun would be enough to take his life.

That was why Ji Qiufeng had been in such a hurry whenever he taught others. If he did not hurry, he really would die.