B-rank

Tucked among the documents was an official promotional leaflet for the mechanical heart, printed in color.

Its main body was silvery white, with a cross section revealing precision gears and interlocking parts. Red and blue tubes made of two kinds of biomimetic material served as blood vessels. Parts in other colors appeared here and there, but the thirty-million gem was not pictured.

[Xili District's cutting-edge mechanical creation. No premature heartbeats or arrhythmia. Adjustable output. An ultra-long standby time of 90 days...]

"Mechanical hearts are actually pretty good. One of my classmates got one. He can pull three all-nighters without going into cardiac arrest." The young officer had also received a tub of instant noodles and slurped up a mouthful with his fork.

"Why won't that Qiaoqiao get a mechanical heart? Why does it have to be mine?" Ji Tan lifted his cup noodles and drank some hot broth. The salty, savory liquid awakened his numb tongue and warmed his empty stomach.

To prepare for surgery, this body probably hadn't eaten since the previous evening. He had been too tense to notice earlier; only after drinking that salty broth did he feel hungry. Ji Tan couldn't help wondering whether his inability to walk while fleeing earlier had nothing to do with the anesthetic. Maybe he had simply been starving.

"Mm, maybe she doesn't want to charge it." The young officer stuffed a large mouthful of noodles into his mouth and chewed away, urging Ji Tan to eat up. These noodles were supplied exclusively to their Public Security Bureau, and every citizen who had visited had praised them to the skies. Seeing that Ji Tan's fork had fallen on the floor, he enthusiastically handed him a new one. Suddenly, his gaze paused, shifting from the fork to the back of Ji Tan's hand-a mass of bruises densely riddled with needle marks.

The young officer swallowed his noodles and smacked his lips. He edged closer to Ji Tan unobtrusively and said hesitantly, "I heard-and this is just something I heard, okay? I heard only people with real hearts can become Orderlies."

Ji Tan's head snapped up.

Smack! The older officer delivered a solid slap to the back of the young officer's head and scolded him. "What nonsense are you spouting? That's not something you should know about." He then apologized to Ji Tan and told him not to take it seriously. It was all hearsay the kid had picked up.

Ji Tan nodded, lowered his eyes, and continued eating his noodles.

The older officer dragged the young officer away to reprimand him. The intermittent words were hard to make out, but the gist was that he should stop asking about Orderlies. The more he knew, the sooner he would die.

Ji Tan drank the last mouthful of broth and slowly smoothed down the sleeves of his hospital gown, covering the back of the hand he had deliberately exposed.

This was Director Ji's worldly experience at work: show a little weakness and play the victim in front of a young person fresh on the job, and you could get tips outside the rules.

If that was the reason, Qiaoqiao would never give up on the heart transplant, and Huo Zhaixing would certainly keep pursuing him. Ultimately, a world with extraordinary powers could never be absolutely fair. Although this place wasn't hell for ordinary people, it was certainly no safe utopia either. Given the chance, anyone would want extraordinary power.

He had to end this contractual marriage as soon as possible. As long as the marriage remained in effect, Huo had the legal right to take his heart. That was far too dangerous.

"If I'm unwilling to give up my heart now, what can I do?" Ji Tan looked at the experienced older officer.

"Then you need a lawyer, and not an ordinary one. You need a top lawyer." The older officer sighed. "Until then, you'd better leave Beichen District."

The young officer explained that important figures faced restrictions on crossing between districts, while ordinary people did not. Besides, the Huo family's sphere of influence was in the north. In another district, fleeing or seeking protection would be much easier.

Ji Tan lowered his head and looked at his bare feet on the carpet. He really did need to think about where to go after leaving the Public Security Bureau. The body's original owner had married Huo Zhaixing just two months ago and had been living in the Huo family's villa ever since. Returning to the Huo family was obviously out of the question. He could only go back to his original home. The problem was that he had none of the original owner's memories and didn't know where home was.

"Could you notify my family and ask them to pick me up?" Ji Tan asked tentatively. The circumstances in this fictional world weren't quite the same as in the piece he had read before transmigrating. He wasn't sure whether he still had any family, so he could only fish for information.

The young officer shook his head regretfully. "Mm, I'm afraid not. Your parents are both currently registered as missing. Your older brother is in the Western District, but his movements between districts are restricted. At present, he can't come to the Northern District to pick you up."

"Restricted from crossing districts? Is he some important figure?"

"No, he owes money to loan sharks."

"..."

It seemed the character's history was broadly still what A-Qiang had written: a gambling father, a missing mother, a sickly older brother, and his shattered self. His brother's debt was either a mess left behind by their gambling father or money borrowed for medical treatment. The worst possibility was that his brother was a gambler too. That would be disastrous.

Ji Tan really did feel a little shattered now.

"Are you done?"

A cool breeze blew into the lobby as the glass doors opened and closed. The corridor lights came on automatically, piercing the deepening dusk and bleeding into the Public Security Bureau's dingy gray carpet. Ji Tan looked up and saw Xie Zhi, who had entered at some point without his noticing.

He stood planted right in front of him, one hand in his pocket, his coat draped over his shoulders, and a large paper bag in his other hand.

Ji Tan stared blankly at the little mole in the middle of his nose until his eyes went crossed. Only then did he come to his senses. The man wasn't wearing a mask.

"Young man, your eyes are crossed." Xie Zhi waved a hand in front of his face.

"Why aren't you wearing a mask?" Ji Tan blinked.

Only Beichen District's officials and the Order Administration Bureau's T-police knew his masked identity. His unmasked face, however, was known throughout City A.

"What, worried I'll get mobbed by fanatical citizens? Relax. People who've seen me on TV soon forget what I look like." Speaking with complete indifference, Xie Zhi took a pair of shoes from the bag to put on Ji Tan's feet.

Ji Tan glanced around and saw that neither the young officer nor the older one had recognized the Governor. That made sense. Someone who had only briefly appeared on the television news once wasn't easy to remember. In all his years of working, he hadn't even known what the mayor of the city where his company was located looked like.

When Ji Tan turned back, he gave a startled jolt. At some point, Xie Zhi had gone down on one knee in front of him. Holding his ankle in one hand and a shoe in the other, he was slipping it onto his foot, like the prince putting the glass slipper on Cinderella in the fairy tale... if the shoe hadn't been a blue-and-white-striped cotton slipper.

"This style you bought..." Ji Tan trailed off.

"It's from the same collection as your clothes." Xie Zhi tried to claim credit. With such a rare pattern, he had clearly spent ages searching the mall before finding it.

Ji Tan looked at his blue-and-white-striped hospital gown, then at the cotton slippers, and said irritably, "Well, thank you very much."

He had thought that would be the end of it. Ji Tan figured the man was simply too excited to see a fellow Earthling and couldn't resist being a little shit and teasing him. But what Xie Zhi did next made him seriously question the man's mental state.

Xie Zhi, his robotic boss who knew nothing but work, money, and efficiency, pulled a blue-and-white-striped wool overcoat from the paper bag.

Ji Tan was genuinely afraid his next words would be, "Put on this coat, and you'll become the wise Afanti."

The old society turned people into ghosts, the new society turned ghosts into people①, and another world turned people into lunatics.

It seemed his boss hadn't had an easy time in City A over the years either. Ji Tan chose to forgive him for now and accepted the coat with great tolerance. Looking at his perfectly color-coordinated outfit reflected in the Public Security Bureau lobby's glass doors, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

After spending all this time in his new world, Ji Tan finally saw his own face. It was almost identical to his original one, only thinner and frailer. Apparently, he hadn't gotten much good food during his time with the Huo family.

"Let's go." Xie Zhi handed Ji Tan the paper bag, and the two walked out of the Public Security Bureau together.

Ji Tan checked the contents of the bag: bread, drinks, an ID, a bank card, and a phone. The ID was brand-new, still bearing its freshly applied laminate. The photograph on it was probably an old one saved in the system: a youth with medium-length hair combed back, looking stiffly into the camera.

"Don't be surprised. The Dictator does have a few privileges in the Northern District." Xie Zhi picked up the phone and entered his number.

"Xie Zhi, thank you." Ji Tan put the proposal into the bag too and thanked his former boss sincerely.

"Why so formal? Helping employees adjust to life in a new city is a boss's duty." Xie Zhi smiled. "If you insist on thanking me, how about..."

Before he could finish, a wide black Maybach pulled up nearby with a squeal. Its rear window slowly lowered, revealing Huo Zhaixing's sharply chiseled jawline.

President Huo didn't turn his head. He merely shot the two of them a sidelong glance and ordered imperiously, "Ji Tan, get in."

Is he sick in the head?

Ji Tan couldn't be bothered with him and said to Xie Zhi, "Let's go."

"Hah." Huo Zhaixing snorted and looked at Xie Zhi. "Don't think Xie can protect you. I've already asked my grandfather. Mr. Xie, your strength in Beichen District is lower B-rank at best. Are you really going to oppose the Huo family?"

"Is that so?" Xie Zhi snapped his fingers with a smile. "Exiting vehicles is forbidden here."

President Huo, who had reached for the car door to get out and grab Ji Tan himself, rattled it with repeated pulls.

"You're a middle C-rank. What gives you the right to look down on a B-rank? Your grandfather is B-rank too. According to Lagrange's theorem, rounding things off, I'm your grandfather too." Xie Zhi looked at President Huo with exasperation at his failure to do better.