"I've been doing well lately. I found a new job. It's still contract work, but the pay is high-a guaranteed five thousand a month, plus bonuses."
"I didn't have much experience at first, so I made plenty of embarrassing mistakes and had some management problems too. But our boss didn't give up on me. He guided me along, little by little."
"I'm in charge of human resources planning now. Basically, I figure out what people are suited for and what they can do, then assign them accordingly."
"The first station is up and running. Now we just have to replicate its model and expand. Young Master Chen doesn't need to make a profit, and he protects us from extortion too, so the profit margin isn't high, but the surplus is actually pretty substantial."
"It was a bit tiring at first, but knowing that everything would be ours if we did a good job gave us the energy to keep going. Some of the others didn't believe they'd actually get paid here at first, but they all believed it once they got their money."
"Oh, right, some of the others still had gambling debts, and the casinos were taking everything they earned. At first I thought they weren't trying hard enough, but later I found out why. After that, Master Wang went out to have a talk with the casino people and got all the money back. He didn't say how he did it, but I imagine he stepped over their corpses to get it."
Little Lunatic rambled on, rubbing his neck as he spoke.
The longer he worked at the Service Station, the more at ease he felt.
The ring of leech-like characters around his neck was fading, and the contamination he had suffered before was easing. His mind was