Wutong Street

Once they left the Patrol Station, Chen Jue's phone immediately began vibrating.

Private messages from the seniors of Group Three, filled with amazement and praise, drifted toward him like snowflakes. Only his uncle asked whether he had been hurt.

After replying to each of them, Chen Jue turned off his phone and followed Uncle Lin toward Wutong Street.

By then, the autumn sun was already high overhead. There were not many moving vehicles on Wutong Street, but plenty of trucks were parked there unloading cargo.

Workers emerged from the small workshops lining the street one after another, carrying out crates of goods.

The goods included freshly harvested mountain delicacies and medicinal herbs, chickens, ducks, fish, and turtles from the countryside, and even salt-cured fish preserved in heavy brine. The salt frost was so thick that it had wrapped each fish into a snow-white dagger.

When Lin Shoucheng saw that truckload of salted fish, his eyes immediately lit up.

He led Chen Jue over, rapped on the truck's cab with his scabbard, and told the driver to turn off the engine and get out for an inspection of his badge and documents.

When the clerk from the general store who was moving the salted fish saw this, he hurried inside to call the owner out.

He was a balding middle-aged merchant dressed in a suit jacket and black trousers, a style that had only recently become fashionable in Great Ming. With a broad smile plastered across his face, he hurried over to them.

"Ah! Brother Lin is on duty today. You've worked hard, you've worked hard."

He took an oil-paper envelope from his pocket and, with practiced ease, slipped it into the pocket at Lin Shoucheng's waist.

Meanwhile, the merchant was already cursing up a storm inside.

Those lazy bastards usually don't show their faces on the street before eleven. Today they're suddenly so diligent—the salt truck had barely arrived when they came...

At that thought, the merchant shuddered. He turned around and eyed his own clerk suspiciously. Could there be a snitch in the shop?

Lin Shoucheng took out the envelope, weighed it in his hand, and sneered. "Boss Mi, are you giving tribute to me alone because you look down on the fresh blood in our Patrol Station?"

"Tch. A twenty-year-old True Qi Realm martial artist... who knows how far he'll go in the future?"

Mi Mang's expression froze at those words. Only then did he look at the young man behind Lin Shoucheng with utter disbelief.

The youth stood tall and radiant, with sword-like brows and starry eyes. One glance was enough to tell that his future would be extraordinary.

Damn it!

Young men who rise to prominence are the most vindictive of all, especially when they serve in the public offices.

"Brother Lin, why would you say such a thing?"

"This little brother is handsome and refined, with an extraordinary bearing. I, Mi, am deeply impressed at first sight. How could I possibly mean any disrespect?"

"A few local specialties, nothing worthy of mention." Like a magician, Mi Mang produced two more envelopes and stuffed them into Chen Jue's pocket.

Chen Jue watched in a daze. So patrol inspections could be this profitable?

Having accepted the tribute, Lin Shoucheng naturally did not inspect the truckload of salted fish any further. He led Chen Jue onward along Wutong Street to continue their patrol.

"Uncle Lin, there had to be at least two thousand chao in those envelopes. Won't the merchant lose money?"

It was Chen Jue's first time doing something illegal, and he felt somewhat nervous and uneasy.

Lin Shoucheng laughed. "Why are you sympathizing with a merchant?"

"Tell me, how much does official salt sell for on the market right now?"

"Fifteen chao per jin."

"Then do you know how much salt that semi-trailer can carry? A hundred thousand jin!"

"After that bald Mi Mang finishes this job, even after greasing all the palms he needs to grease, he'll still make at least a hundred thousand chao... do you still sympathize with him now?"

Hearing that, the faint sense of guilt that had just arisen in Chen Jue's heart vanished in an instant.

That saying the wandering heroes always kept on their lips was indeed right.

The most profitable businesses in the Divine Dynasty were all written into the Great Ming Code.

After work today, no matter what, I have to pull out the Great Ming Code we use to prop up the table at home and read it over a few more times.

Wutong Street itself was only two kilometers long, but it intersected with an especially large number of alleys.

Those alleys were also part of the Patrol Station's patrol route. By the time they had walked through them all, two hours had passed.

With an hour still left before noon, Lin Shoucheng led Chen Jue into a chain restaurant that did not yet have many customers.

Seeing that they were two Patrol Station inspectors, the servers hurriedly cleared a spot by the window with a broad view and brought over plenty of "free" tea and pastries.

"Why does it feel like the common people here are all so afraid of us?" It was Chen Jue's first time patrolling the streets, and everything felt new to him.

"How could they not be? Look at this." Lin Shoucheng patted the long saber at his waist, then patted his inspector's uniform.

They possessed the power to trample lives like grass, as well as the authority to trample lives like grass.

It would have made no sense if ordinary people were not afraid of patrol inspectors.

Chen Jue was only twenty. The education he had received at school had all been righteous doctrine—ideas like "all men are equal" and "Heaven cherishes life."

Yet reality had slapped him across the face several times in rapid succession, leaving him with a serious case of indigestion.

"Just now, when we collected sanitation fees from each shop, did you notice any pattern?"

While sipping his tea, Lin Shoucheng questioned Chen Jue.

It was clear that he wanted to teach Chen Jue something real.

Chen Jue frowned and pondered for a while before answering, "General stores and businesses related to daily necessities paid the highest sanitation fees. Herbal shops and pill shops only paid a token amount, while martial arts schools paid nothing..."

Lin Shoucheng could not help giving Chen Jue a thumbs-up. "You brat, you really notice every detail. You were born to be a patrol inspector."

"Most general stores and businesses dealing in daily necessities are run by rural gentry from county-level regions and below. Their roots are in the counties and villages, and when they come to the big city to do business, they usually don't want trouble. So, without needing to say it aloud, they pay somewhat higher sanitation fees."

"Shops selling medicinal herbs and pills, the kind with huge profits, are basically properties of powerful clans and aristocratic families. It's enough to pay a token sum as a sign of respect..."

"As for martial arts schools, they have force of their own to back them up, and they're poor but fierce. If things turn ugly, you could easily get clubbed from behind, so we basically don't charge them anything..."

Chen Jue committed it all to memory. It seemed that patrol work was not simple after all. It was not merely a matter of walking around the marketplace.

One taught while the other learned. More than half an hour passed, yet not one of the dishes they had ordered beforehand had been served.

Chen Jue rose to urge them along, but the moment he stood up, he sensed that something was wrong.

At mealtime, the restaurant was strangely deserted. Even the servers who had been bringing them tea and refilling their cups had disappeared.

Seeing Chen Jue's expression change, Lin Shoucheng immediately stood and surveyed their surroundings as well.

"Go!"

As an experienced old hand of the Patrol Station, Lin Shoucheng instantly felt an enormous danger bearing down on the two of them.

He led Chen Jue toward the restaurant exit. But the moment they reached the doorway, a flash of cold light cleaved toward his face.

In twenty years of patrolling the streets, Lin Shoucheng had never encountered such a ruthless man who dared murder an official in broad daylight.

Caught unprepared, even though True Qi erupted beneath his feet and he kicked backward fiercely, he was still too late to evade.

The blade was about to miss Lin Shoucheng's head and chop into his chest instead.

At that critical moment, Chen Jue, half a step behind Lin Shoucheng, had already struck first.

The instant the blade descended, he reached out, seized the back of Lin Shoucheng's collar, and yanked hard.

Lin Shoucheng was dragged bodily to the ground, narrowly avoiding the saber meant to kill him at the door.

After pulling Uncle Lin down, Chen Jue bristled from head to toe. He stamped forward violently, drew his blade, and slashed toward the doorway.

The force of that strike surged from his feet to his hand, running through Chen Jue's entire body. Bolstered by a thread of Five Elements True Qi, it shot through the narrow doorway in an instant, its edge as swift as rushing thunder.

"Aah!"

Blood burst forth in a flash.

It came with a shrill scream from the doorway.

A man whose body had been cleaved diagonally from neck to waist collapsed into a pool of blood.

Dragging the upper half of his still-moving body, he wailed without pause as he crawled outside.