Enforcer Manual

This girl's name was Zhuang Chi. She had had some interactions with Song Lan before.

Last time, to get the pay-raise document, which the section chief had painstakingly applied for, stamped, he prepared a pack of homemade dried fruit as a gift. Zhuang Chi was the one he dealt with then.

But, when they met last time, Zhuang Chi was just a straightforward girl.

As for now...

"Come, let me inspect the goods first."

She entered a small meeting room, cautiously closed the door, locked it, repeatedly confirmed there was no one around, then lowered her voice to speak.

Facing her unusual behavior, Song Lan hesitated whether or not to emphasize that the bag of gifts did not contain any white pills.

In the end, he silently handed over the gift bag.

Next, Zhuang Chi demonstrated a highly professional method in front of him. She untied the thin cord used to seal the bag, opened a small crack in it, and her index finger and thumb reached in to gently extract a piece of braised beef.

She held the braised beef up to her nose and took a light sniff. The look of delight on her face was unmistakable, even down to a tuft of hair on her head that began to slightly sway rhythmically.

Several seconds passed before she reluctantly put the braised beef into her mouth, biting down lightly.

"Very good."

Zhuang Chi, satisfied, stuffed the gift that Song Lan had brought into the inner pocket of her clothes, "What do you need, tell me."

"What the hell are you doing?"

Influenced by the atmosphere, Song Lan also unconsciously lowered his voice, looked around to confirm there were no cameras in the meeting room, and then asked her.

After Zhuang Chi's mysterious actions, he began to doubt whether what he had given her was actually braised beef or white pills disguised as braised beef.

"Inspecting the goods."

Zhuang Chi replied as if it was the most natural thing. "You're giving the good stuff, so it absolutely can't be known by others. If those greedily despicable..."

She stopped herself at this point, realizing her slip of tongue, and corrected herself. "Anyway, just understand what I mean."

"To be honest, I don't quite understand."

"The last time you brought a big pack of dried fruit as a gift, it had 4 pieces of dried strawberry, 6 pieces of dried banana, 5 pieces of dried apple, 10 pieces of dried grapes. Taking into account the section chief, our department has 47 people, you should understand now, right?"

A grimace of pain was written across Zhuang Chi's face.

She had always been unwilling to recall the unspeakable past.

That afternoon, she gained a deeper understanding of the old saying, "always anticipate the worst from people."

Because, the phrase she heard the most that time was, "Little Zhuang, this looks good, can I have a piece?"

She only managed to taste a piece of dried strawberry before the gift bag was empty, so she still didn't know what dried bananas, apples, and grapes taste like.

Damn it!

Even the most good-hearted person would want to curse after encountering something like this.

"From that day on, I made up my mind to never let those... know that I received a gift."

Song Lan looked into Zhuang Chi's eyes, eyes that could only be had after going through life's ups and downs.

From that day on, Zhuang Chi had matured.

"Got me scared there, you made it look like a drug deal."

"Drugs?"

Zhuang Chi looked puzzled. "Aren't drugs simply put on the table in the locker room?"

Alright then.

Song Lan almost forgot that this was the headquarters of the Law Enforcers in District 17 where the confiscated white pills were piled up on the table downstairs for anyone to take.

"In fact, I came to ask you about something today. I heard that most of the rewards posted in District 17 have to pass through your hands, right?"

"Technically, it's only the rewards below 500,000 watts. Anything more than that is considered major criminals, wanted by the United Government."

500,000 watts.

Song Lan grimaced, even Chai Ke doesn't worth that much.

"Does your department have a roster of major criminals with rewards above 500,000 watts?"

"We do, but only two copies are binded into books. One is with our section chief, and the other one is with Director Lu... why are you suddenly interested in this?"

"With all the panic over Chai Ke recently, I thought about printing out a list and sticking it in the office. It could remind them to be careful when they're going home."

"Phfft——"

Hearing Song Lan's plan, Zhuang Chi couldn't help but laugh.

"You're overthinking it, those major criminals wouldn't bother to confront us small fry."

Zhuang Chi said with certainty, but Song Lan found her point questionable.

Not long ago, he was blocked on the way home by a major criminal with a reward of 620,000 watts. His head was covered with a sack, and a gun was held to the back of his head, it was truly terrifying.

Unfortunately, he couldn't refute Zhuang Chi by revealing his unfortunate encounter.

He obtained critical information from Zhuang Chi, the section chief of the statistics department and Lu Xiang each held a book with the names of major criminals with rewards above 500,000 watts. Song Lan believed that his brother, whose name he till now did not know, was waiting for him in one of those lists.

"I see, then it seems I was thinking too much. I won't disturb your work anymore."

"Wait a moment."

Zhuang Chi stopped Song Lan. He'd given her a pack of "top quality goods", if she let him leave just like that, her conscience wouldn't be at ease.

"Although the bounty above 500,000 watts isn't set by us, the United Government's wanted orders all pass through our hands. If you're interested, I can explain some knowledge about major criminals to you... using Chai Ke as an example, I'll tell you where the 620,000 watts came from."

...

After Zhuang Chi's detailed explanation, Song Lan gained a more comprehensive understanding of Chai Ke, the criminal... he thought of as a treasure.

Only then did he realize the significance of the 620,000 watts reward on Chai Ke's head wasn't due to his 21% prosthetic implantation, but rather it was because of the criminal smuggling gang he had established himself.

Any goods that wanted to be transported to the "outside world" through District 17, or goods from the "outside world" wanting to be laundered back into District 17, all needed to pass through Chai Ke.

This included people.

In fact, Lu Xiang mentioned this before, but did not continue to explain.

Before Lu Xiang's sudden transfer to District 17, Chai Ke was essentially in charge of the district. Describing him as an underground king does not overstate his status in District 17. His business connected some family-run industries in the border regions with the United Government on one hand, and on the other hand, major criminals who had permanently entrenched themselves in the "outside world", beyond the reach of the United Government's laws.

In a sense, Chai Ke and his criminal gang served as a bridge of communication between some of the major families and the "'outside' criminals."

Although Zhuang Chi did not explicitly say it, based on the hints in her words, as well as Song Lan's experiences over the past few days, he quickly reached a conclusion.

Continuing in this thought, Lu Xiang, who had suppressed the Chai Ke Group, would then become the person who destroys the bridge.

And the mysterious major power began to emerge.

The Foster Family.

Because, on the day of the Chai Ke incident, Angel Foster was not a hostage, but the person giving orders to Chai Ke.

This pack of braised beef was really worth it!

"Now you understand, right? Those real major criminals don't have any spare time to deal with us small fry."

Zhuang Chi winked at Song Lan, summarizing their conversation, "Remember, today you came to talk about work with me and you've never given me a gift."