After enduring two thefts and one robbery on the bus, Gao Ming arrived "without incident" at the Night Watch outpost closest to the studio.
The unremarkable three-story building was hidden in a filthy, cluttered alley, like a nail driven into the slums.
As soon as he approached, Gao Ming smelled the pungent odor of disinfectant. The road and exterior walls had just been thoroughly disinfected, and traces of blood remained in the corners.
Looking at the road, so ordinary in daylight, Gao Ming imagined the Night Watch hauling boxes of dismembered patients' bodies through it at night.
"Hey! Are you here to pay your public security donation?" A wiry old man opened the little window in the outpost's front door. "Rare to find someone this eager. Usually, they'd rather put off donating until the following evening. This money is for maintaining public security, not lining anyone's pockets. Why can't they understand that?"
"Sir, is this outpost responsible for this whole area?" Gao Ming had another purpose for coming today: to find someone.
"Why all the questions?"
"A member of the Night Watch lost something very important last night. I have to hand it to him in person. Could you help me find the officer who issued this slip?" As Gao Ming showed him the slip, he also handed over a luxury watch he had picked up at the Grand Duke.
"Give it to me. I'll pass it along."
"I really can only give it to him personally." Gao Ming handed over a pearl necklace as well. The beatings he had taken last night had not been entirely for nothing.
"Then I can't help you, unless you prepare a separate donation and put it in the middle drawer of the third cabinet at the post office at five thirty this afternoon."