Secrets

The evening breeze billowed through his loose hospital gown, exposing his smooth belly. Ji Tan had only a proposal in his hands. He could cover his crotch or his chest, but not both, and in the end he could only cover his face. He elbowed Xie Zhi. "Why are you lying on my back? Are you planning to use me as a cushion when we land?"

Xie Zhi sounded resigned. "My prohibition only affects other people."

The speed limit did not apply to him, so his only choices were to lie on Ji Tan's back and pretend to be a skydiving instructor, or hang from Ji Tan's waist so they formed a bamboo-copter. Comparatively speaking, lying on his back was more dignified.

Two meters above the ground, Xie Zhi calmly flipped over, landed first, and caught Ji Tan securely. Fortunately, Huo Zhaixing and his bodyguards, who were being brought down by the silver-clad police, also had to obey the speed limit. By the time they came out, all they saw was the Administrator's dashing landing pose.

Xie Zhi gave the man still covering his face a little bounce in his arms. "It's all right now."

Ji Tan refused to lower his hands. "Some people are alive, but socially, they're already dead." On his very first day after transmigrating to City A, he had exhausted a lifetime's worth of humiliation.

"What are you afraid of? I'm the only person you know in all of City A." Xie Zhi raised his chin slightly, though it was anyone's guess what he was so proud of.

Boss Xie did have a point: there really was no need to fear embarrassment where nobody knew you. Just as some people dared to wear thongs on beaches abroad but were too embarrassed to do so at home. Still, Ji Tan could not resist arguing. "What if I become famous someday?"

Then, whenever citizens mentioned the famous Mr. Ji, they would say, oh, that young fellow who floated through the sky in a hospital gown.

As the two exchanged this pointless nonsense, they heard President Huo shout, "Hey! Ji Tan, how dare you let another man hold you! Do you even remember that you're married?"

Huo Zhaixing tried to charge over as he shouted, but the silver-clad police stopped him. A silver cordon crackling with electric arcs appeared out of thin air between Huo's group and Ji Tan, warning them not to intimidate ordinary citizens. One bodyguard was moving too fast to stop and ran straight into it.

Crackle! As if alive, the cordon coiled around the bodyguard the instant it touched him, binding him into a tight bundle and continuously releasing electric arcs. The bodyguard, as burly as a full-grown rhinoceros, toppled stiffly to the ground and began convulsing, occasionally making strange "uh, uh" sounds.

At this sight, not only the bodyguards but even President Huo became considerably better behaved. Huo Zhaixing stopped charging around and simply stood there babbling incessantly.

Ji Tan rolled his eyes. He did not want to talk to someone missing his frontal lobe, but the man was so noisy that he had to respond. "Then give me your shoes."

Huo Zhaixing, who had been going on about family traditions and reputation, faltered. He ignored that remark and continued his speech. "We signed an agreement. You have to remain faithful during our marriage, or the money I promised you will be cut in half!"

Ji Tan: "..." After all that talk, he still would not give him his shoes.

Qiao Qiao, looking very weak, came chasing out, panting three times for every step. He immediately began accusing him. "Ji Tan, get down. The Huo family is a prominent family in Beichen District with strict rules. You're putting Huo in a difficult position. If you're unhappy because of me and want to make Huo jealous too, there's no need to do this. I, I can..." As he spoke, he began sniffling.

Ji Tan said, "Then give me your shoes."

"Huh?" The cherished first love stared blankly for a long time, his mouth half-open and tears poised on his eyelashes, before stammering, "My shoe size is small. They won't fit you."

As expected of a cherished first love. At least he had not left the question unanswered.

Xie Zhi nodded in agreement. "Right, his won't fit you. He's short."

Qiao Qiao regretted answering as soon as he had spoken. That man Xie was even mocking him now, and his face flushed with mortified anger. Pointing at Xie Zhi, he told the silver-clad man beside him, "Mr. T-police, that man is impersonating the Administrator to swindle people. He's at least a Class C Orderly. Arrest him!"

The official title for employees of the Order Administration Bureau, including members of the TS Action Team, was Order Operative. However, people usually treated the TS Action Team's silver-clad police as a separate category, and North District residents called them T-police. Sweet-talking Qiao Qiao naturally would not address them so bluntly, instead following the convention of promoting them a rank by calling them officers.

"Qiao Qiao, don't make things up!" Huo Zhaixing immediately warned him.

"I'm not making things up. He's wearing a mask now because he has a guilty conscience."

Ji Tan had felt perfectly at ease, but Qiao Qiao's absolute certainty made him a little unsure. He turned to look at Xie Zhi, who was still thoroughly covered up.

Xie Zhi looked back, his exposed eyes narrowing slightly as he whispered, "Let me tell you a secret. I'm actually not the Administrator."

Ji Tan's eyes widened, and he glanced nervously from side to side with small movements. The area was already surrounded by a full eight silver-clad T-police. What would happen if each of them gave Xie Zhi the same treatment they had just given that bodyguard? He swallowed and whispered back, "Then what's the penalty for impersonating the Administrator?"

"No one's ever done it before. Probably death," Xie Zhi said with a perfectly straight face.

"Then run!" Ji Tan struggled to get down.

But it was already too late. All the silver-clad T-police looked their way. Perhaps because of the nature of their special abilities, silver-white flickered within their black pupils as their eyes moved, like silver gleamstone of exceptional quality. Beautiful though it was, that inorganic luster gave them a somewhat inhuman air.

When the two rows looked over, that inhuman quality, combined with the oppressive concentration of extraordinary power, was chilling.

After surveying them silently for a moment, they all stood at attention and saluted. "Sir!"

Xie Zhi nodded in acknowledgment. "I was just passing by and rescued an innocent citizen. Proceed according to regulations."

Qiao Qiao delivered a thoroughly stereotypical villain's response. "Impossible!"

Huo Zhaixing, meanwhile, looked thoughtfully at Xie Zhi, who had never removed his mask. He signaled for a bodyguard to pull back the theatrically performing Qiao Qiao, then took out his phone and dialed the chairman of the Huo Group.

Ignoring the noisy bunch, Xie Zhi placed "Mr. Ji, the innocent citizen" inside a police car flashing red and blue lights, fully discharging an administrative official's duty to assist an ordinary citizen.

"Was it fun lying to me at a time like that?" Ji Tan punched him.

"I didn't lie." Xie Zhi took the punch without concern and put a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture. All the surrounding noise instantly vanished, as though the two of them had been isolated in a vacuum.

"What?" Ji Tan was drawn in by this miraculous scene. This was a great ability. He would never have to worry about noisy neighbors again.

"Let me tell you another secret." Bracing one hand against the car's doorframe, Xie Zhi pulled down his mask and smiled. "Without the mask, I'm the Administrator. With it on, I'm the Dictator of North District."

City A's districts were relatively independent and handled all their own administrative affairs. A district's highest-ranking administrative official was called its Dictator, meaning he could decide everyday matters within the district himself without reporting to the Central District.

After hearing this piece of common knowledge about City A, Ji Tan's brain stalled for a moment. In other words, someone had become mayor without resigning from his previous position as district chief. How deranged was that?

"You work two jobs!" Ji Tan was shocked.

Was the cost of living in City A that high?

"..."

A few minutes later, Ji Tan sat in the bright, spotless Public Security Bureau, wearing his hospital gown with a thick stack of A4 paper tucked into his waistband.

Police stations here were called Public Security Bureaus. They handled only ordinary public security matters, and their officers were ordinary people in blue uniforms. Huo Zhaixing and his bodyguards, meanwhile, had been taken to the Sequence System Management Bureau farther away.

After dumping him in the police car, Xie Zhi had disappeared somewhere. Before leaving, he had even taken back the coat he had lent him. Cheapskate.

Fortunately, the Public Security Bureau was very warm. Ji Tan sat in a soft office chair, and someone had even pressed a cup of warm water into his hands.

The young officer carefully recorded the entire sequence of events, exchanged a look with his colleague, and explained apologetically, "Mrs. Huo-no, Mr. Ji, we're very sympathetic to what happened to you. However, under your prenuptial agreement with Huo Zhaixing, he does have the right to sign an organ donation consent form on your behalf."

The young officer considerately turned his monitor toward Ji Tan to show him the electronic records. They included their marriage certificate, a scan of their prenuptial agreement, and the declaration of intent to donate and surgical notification form signed by Huo Zhaixing on his behalf.

The document stated that the two would enter a three-year contractual marriage, for which Huo Zhaixing would pay Ji Tan one million City A dollars. Two hundred thousand would be paid before the marriage as a deposit, with the remaining eight hundred thousand paid in installments after they registered their marriage.

Eight hundred thousand, and even that had to be paid in installments.

Weren't Overlords in novels always doing business deals worth tens of billions?

Ji Tan began to have serious doubts about this Overlord's financial strength. What exactly had the original owner of this body seen in Huo? Why had he insisted on boarding this pirate ship? Selling drinks at a karaoke club for three years would have earned him that million too, without the risk of losing his heart, liver, and kidneys.

"What living person would agree to donate their heart?" Ji Tan pointed speechlessly at the supplementary note on the declaration of intent, which presumed his consent.

"Probably out of kindness." The young officer scratched his head. The Public Security Bureau had many such cases on record, with all manner of reasons, but after racking his brain for quite a while, this was all he could come up with.

"Doesn't that count as killing someone?" Ji Tan did not understand. A heart was different from a kidney. A person could survive losing one kidney, but not their heart.

The young officer brought up a purchase record. "The filed records show that Huo Zhaixing did purchase a mechanical heart made in Xili District, inlaid with precious sapphires and valued at no less than thirty million. So it doesn't count as murder."

Ji Tan fell silent.

He realized he could not keep asking. Clearly, there was some common knowledge here that he lacked. For instance, the mechanical heart worth over thirty million that Huo Zhaixing had bragged about really could be used. Before leaving, Xie Zhi had reminded him not to let anyone know he was a transmigrator.

An older police officer passing by with a bowl of instant noodles glanced over and said in surprise, "Whoa, that's one of the good pieces from the auction, isn't it? Whoever gets that installed could replace it with a cheap one and sell it if they ever ran short of money. Young man, want some instant noodles?"

"...Yes." Ji Tan asked the young officer to print out all the agreements for him and read through them again carefully. By the time the kind officer pushed the prepared noodles over, he had finally found what was wrong.

Would a miser who paid even eight hundred thousand in installments really be willing to buy him a thirty-million-dollar heart?