Sister-in-law Lin Yanqiu

The sun sank in the west, its dying light red as blood.

After finishing his day on duty, Li Feng dragged his weary body through the streets of Blackrock City's outer city.

Unlike the inner city's brocade-like splendor, the outer city was a lawless place where the poor and gangs mingled.

Filthy water ran along both sides of the streets, giving off waves of stench. Vagrants in clothes that barely covered them huddled beneath the eaves, watching passersby with numb eyes. Every so often, a few gang thugs could be seen prowling around with cleavers.

Li Feng had long since grown accustomed to all this. He pulled his clothes tighter around himself, threaded his way through the tangled streets and alleys with practiced ease, and arrived at a rice shop on a street corner.

"Shopkeeper, half a jin of brown rice." After waiting in line for ages, Li Feng slapped ten copper coins onto the counter.

The shopkeeper casually scooped up some brown rice mixed with a good deal of fine sand and husks using a wooden measure, then poured it into the cloth bag Li Feng handed him.

These prices... everything just keeps getting more expensive. Li Feng's heart grew heavy.

According to his memories, ten copper coins had bought a jin of brown rice a few years ago. Now they only bought half a jin. Of course, it wasn't that brown rice had become more expensive, but that rampant private and unauthorized minting had made the currency worth less and less.

Naturally, this directly affected bottom-rung White Runners like him. Their pay hadn't increased, but the money kept losing its value. As prices soared, it was always ordinary people at the bottom who suffered most.

After buying the rice, Li Feng stopped as he passed a butcher's stall, where several pieces of fresh pork hung on display.

He looked at the pork, then felt the remaining coins tucked inside his clothes, hesitating for a long time. Ordinarily, he couldn't bear to spend money on something like this for himself, but he hadn't eaten meat for twenty-four hours, and this body was only eighteen, still at an age when it needed to grow...

"Butcher Li, cut me a nice piece of pork belly." Gritting his teeth, Li Feng laid several dozen copper coins on the chopping block.

The thickly bearded Butcher Li glanced at him without wasting any words. His knife rose and fell, slicing off a piece of pork belly with distinct layers of fat and lean meat, which he tossed to Li Feng.

"Thank you."

Li Feng carefully wrapped up the fine piece of pork belly, then quickened his pace toward home.

Before long.

Following the rutted dirt road, Li Feng returned to his home on the outskirts of the South City District.

This was Blackrock City's most dilapidated slum, a sprawling mass of low timber-and-earth houses crammed tightly together.

His home stood among them: a small courtyard with three tiled-roof rooms. One was used for storing firewood, cooking, and piling up miscellaneous belongings, while the other two served as bedrooms.

When he pushed open the courtyard gate, he found a dim yellow light glowing inside the house.

Could there be a visitor?

Puzzled, Li Feng hurried inside and immediately spotted a woman in the uniform of a City Guard Office constable, sitting at the table and wiping down her blade.

The faint lamplight fell across her face, outlining her strikingly beautiful features.

She was exceptionally beautiful. Her long, narrow phoenix eyes and slightly upturned, sword-shaped brows gave her a spirited, heroic air. The rather stiff regulation uniform traced every curve of her alluring figure.

Her tightly fastened belt cinched a waist slender enough to encircle with one hand, making her full chest seem all the more ready to burst free. Her long, straight legs were casually crossed.

Even sitting there quietly, she radiated breathtaking beauty.

"Sister-in-law, how did you find time to come over?" Li Feng asked in surprise.

This woman was none other than Li Feng's sister-in-law, Lin Yanqiu.

Looking at the woman before him, Li Feng couldn't help reflecting on the past.

His elder brother had been frail and sickly since childhood, taking medicine year-round.

Back when his father had been on duty in the outer city, he had come across a little girl on the verge of starvation. Moved by pity, he had brought her home. That girl was Lin Yanqiu.

The family's original intention had been to raise her as his elder brother's future bride, hoping the joyous marriage would drive away his ill fortune.

But Heaven refused to grant their wishes. Before his elder brother and Lin Yanqiu could formally bow together and marry, his brother succumbed to his illness and departed this world.

Li Feng's father, a veteran constable of the City Guard Office, had suffered many lingering injuries while dealing with gang bloodshed in his younger years. The crushing grief of a white-haired parent burying his dark-haired child left him exhausted in body and spirit. Before long, he followed his son to the grave.

With the family's main pillar gone, it seemed the Li family was doomed to be devoured by this man-eating world.

Yet against all expectations, Lin Yanqiu, who hadn't even formally married into the family, gritted her teeth and shouldered the heavy burden of keeping them fed.

She ran from place to place, drawing on the few connections and meager goodwill their late father had accumulated in the City Guard Office. She borrowed a Martial Dao manual and started out as a temporary White Runner.

What no one had expected was that this woman possessed considerable talent for martial arts. Through sheer ferocity and relentless effort, she not only secured her footing in the City Guard Office within a few short years, but rose through its ranks to become an officially ranked Chief Constable.

Li Feng had only managed to land his current temporary constable position in Blackrock City because she had pulled strings and personally gotten him in.

"I was waiting for you to come back so I could tell you a few things." Lin Yanqiu stood, her expression grave. "The City Guard Office has an operation tonight. Orders from above forbid us from leaking a single detail, so I won't tell you what it is."

"All you need to remember is that you're not to go anywhere tonight. Stay home, and don't go outside no matter what you hear."

The City Guard Office was taking tonight's operation extremely seriously, so it was likely dangerous. Afraid Li Feng might wander around late at night, she had come ahead of time to warn him.

With that, Lin Yanqiu turned and pushed open the door without waiting for Li Feng's reply, disappearing into the night.

As Li Feng watched his sister-in-law's figure vanish into the darkness, warmth welled up in his heart.

In this cold, cruel world, his sister-in-law was one of his few remaining family members and his shelter from the storm.

Had Lin Yanqiu not endured the pressure and become a constable, this body's original owner would probably have died in some forgotten corner long ago.

Once I get an advance on a genuine Martial Dao technique, I should be able to become a permanent constable. Then I should be able to help my sister-in-law a little, too.

Tired after a full day's work, Li Feng lay down on the bed and fell into a deep sleep.

Bang, bang, bang! Bang, bang, bang!

Suddenly, a furious pounding came from outside the door, harsh against the silence of the deep night.

Li Feng's eyes snapped open, and he sprang up from bed.

"Li Feng! Open the door! Something's happened!" A man's panicked voice came from outside.

Li Feng recognized the voice of Wang Meng, one of his sister-in-law's subordinates. Remembering what she had said about tonight's operation, he immediately felt a dreadful foreboding rise in his heart.

Without stopping to light a lamp, he hurriedly dressed and rushed into the courtyard.

When he opened the courtyard gate, he found Wang Meng outside, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. "Li Feng, something's happened! Things went wrong for Chief Constable Lin during tonight's operation. She's badly injured and lying in the Spring Renewal Hall right now."

"What?!"

Li Feng's pupils contracted, and his heart plummeted.

His sister-in-law's Martial Dao prowess was far from weak even within the City Guard Office. What sort of operation had they carried out tonight? How had she been so badly injured?