"At thirty past the upper left point, meet at Three Hundred and Angle Sixty,"
'Star Picker's' letter, at first glance, looked completely nonsensical—no exact time, no specific place. But since Le Yuxin had obtained Qian Yuliu's memories, of course she knew how to interpret this code.
'Upper left, thirty past' was actually a specific time: 'upper left' and 'past' corresponded to the positions on a clock, left as hour hand, up as minute hand. 'Upper left' suggested the starting time was nine o'clock.
But since 'upper left' was so obvious, nine o'clock couldn't be the right answer—it still needed to be shifted, and 'sixty' referred to the angle of adjustment for the hour and minute hands.
According to the code's rules, when the minute hand was less than the hour hand, and the minute hand had to rotate toward the hour hand, small approaching big, you should write it as 'several over several'; but when the hour hand was bigger, and had to rotate toward the minute hand, big approaching small, it was written like 'several tens.'
Thirty was bigger than one, so the minute hand stayed put, and the hour hand shifted 'thirty' degrees—meaning the hour hand rotated thirty degrees toward the minute hand. That made the time ten o'clock.
And the 'point' in 'upper left point' referred to the moon, which in the code stood for night, as opposed to the 'circle' meaning the sun. So the right answer was 10 p.m.
'Three Hundred and Angle Sixty' denoted the meeting place. To solve this little riddle, all you needed was a Star Engraving County map.
Qian Yuliu, as an agent of the Statistical Department, of course always carried a map on him.
Opening the map of Star Engraving County, Le Yuxin easily found the city center—the Glorious Clock Tower rising in the midst of the Academic Square, a striking landmark in every county and city. Using the clock tower as a reference point for exchanging secret messages was, naturally, perfect.
'Three Hundred' was the spot three hundred meters from the clock tower, and 'Angle Sixty' meant sixty degrees clockwise from due north.
Le Yuxin centered the map's compass on the clock tower, drew a circle with a radius of three hundred meters, then from the center drew a line at a sixty-degree angle from due north.
And the point where the line met the circle—that was exactly where 'Star Picker' had designated their rendezvous!
At night, Star Engraving County's streets burned as bright as midday. Le Yuxin walked right down the middle of the avenue, head up and striding boldly—not at all like someone going to a secret meeting. But the Patrol Execution Guards never stopped him; they glanced his way, and then looked away again.
If Le Yuxin had worn a hat and dressed all in black, sneaking around, he probably would have drawn suspicion; but acting so openly and upright was actually the best camouflage. "They say sometimes the most dangerous place is the safest one... Which is total bullshit."
Le Yuxin wore steel-soled boots—the standard Statistical Department gear. No one except the department's agents wore these boots, and the sound they made was instantly recognizable; one step and the guards would know the strutting guy in the middle of the street was from the Statistical Department.
What surprised Le Yuxin a little was that Huiyao had already lifted the curfew—at least in administrative regions like counties; of course, the military districts still had their own rules.
Looking back, it actually made sense: "A curfew is for preventing fires, theft, and drifters—in short, because nighttime's dark, so they just ban everyone from going out. But Huiyao's cities were filled with solar streetlights; nights weren't quite as bright as day, but nobody was blind either."
Plus, the Star Engraving Dance Hall was still packed at night. Most of the commoners couldn't afford to go there, but just keeping the nobility and rich folks happy was reason enough to axe the curfew.
That made things much easier for Le Yuxin—even if the Patrol Execution Guards saw someone from the Statistical Department strolling around late at night, they wouldn't suspect anything—either figuring he was working overtime to snatch a few anti-Sun rebels, or just heading out for a little fun somewhere after dark.
"Hey, brat, stop right there!"
Le Yuxin turned off the brightly lit main street into a side alley with only a few dim streetlights, like stepping into another world: dirty ground, upturned earth, mismatched houses jammed together, trash scattered everywhere, the faint stench of rot, like a corpse moldering away.
Ahead, a teenager in a rough hemp shirt was running full tilt, hair wild, face filthy, barefoot in the chilly night. In his right hand he held a fancy money pouch that didn't match his ragged outfit at all.
Chasing behind him was a big, burly, bald man. The man saw Le Yuxin coming from the other end of the alley and grinned, yelling, "Block him for me!"
The path ahead blocked, the hemp-shirted kid didn't even flinch. When he got within five meters of Le Yuxin, he suddenly turned, jumped over the stinking garbage, snatched a handhold—and scrambled up to the roof.
"He picked the perfect escape spot—the dead center of the alley. No matter if Baldy ran forward or back, he'd have to take a huge detour to catch him now."
Baldy clearly realized this too, furiously slamming a fist into the mud wall, cracking it. He roared up at the sky, "You little shit! If I ever catch you again, I'll tear you to pieces!"
In the nearby houses, what little dull light there was instantly went dark. "Maybe this had nothing to do with them, but the poor had learned the best survival trick—don't stick your neck out. What else could they do, anyway?"
Eighteenth Street.
This place had lots of names—the slums, the gambling dens, Flower Street... To put it simply, seventy percent of Star Engraving County's poor lived here, and another twenty percent at the docks and factories.
"In cities where developed production hadn't yet led to abundance, slums were unavoidable. Eighteenth Street was just that—the streetlights were lousy, there were no guards, but at least the cost of living was basically nothing and the roofs kept out the wind and rain. Laborers and the desperate all lived here."
"With officials keeping their noses out, the street had plenty of banned businesses—gambling dens, for example. So compared to the peaceful neighborhoods, Eighteenth Street really livened up at night. The dens couldn't risk challenging the Imperial Court in daylight—they only fleeced gamblers after dark."
"By that logic, Qian's family was actually pretty well-off in Star Engraving County—his folks died young, but he and his sister could still afford to be full-time students until Qian Yuliu turned spy and finally brought in a steady income."
As Le Yuxin sorted through his inherited memories, Baldy suddenly turned to glare at him, then grinned menacingly.
"You, punk, you're with that little bastard, right? Why didn't you stop him just now?" Baldy took brass knuckles out of his pocket, cracked his knuckles together, making a clanking sound, and snarled, "You got any idea who the hell I am?"
Oh, hell.
Le Yuxin froze.
He never expected anyone... would actually dare pick a fight with Qian Yuliu?
"How many antibiotics did this guy knock back to get this drunk?"
"Wait up!" Le Yuxin hurried to cut him off.
"What, begging for mercy already?" Baldy licked his lips, nodded behind him, "Come to the alley out back and hand over your cash—then give me a little something, too. Maybe I'll let you go, hell, maybe I'll even tip you, ha ha ha!"
"Mind if I ask first—who are you? Are you famous around here or something?" Le Yuxin asked carefully.
"You mean to tell me you don't know Big Lei? You know Boss Ying of Xiangle, right? Boss Ying's my brother-in-law!"
"What's Xiangle?" Le Yuxin blinked.
Baldy was losing patience. He charged Le Yuxin like a wild boar after a cabbage. "What are you playing dumb for? Anybody who comes here is either at Xiangle's gambling den or the brothel. If you want to suck up to Big Lei—"
BAM!
Le Yuxin launched a fierce kick, sending Baldy flying. The guy must've weighed a good two hundred pounds, but he hung in the air for a second before crashing to the ground so hard it sounded like a drum. He coughed up everything—red, black, yellow, you name it.
"So you're telling me,"
Le Yuxin stepped on the man's gut, "you're just the gambling boss's little brother-in-law?"
"Y-yeah, that's right, you're fucking doomed..."
"You actually lied to me!" Le Yuxin stomped hard, making Baldy vomit up bile.
"I—I didn't lie!"
"You're this ugly—how hot could a sister related to you possibly be? Not that I don't believe you, but I trust Mendel a whole lot more!"
"Men—Mendel who...?"
Le Yuxin snapped, "Did you just insult Mendel!? Mendel's inheritance laws were the one thing I actually learned in high school!"
"This one's for insulting scientists!"
"This one's for giving me trouble!"
"This one's for drooling over me!"
"This one's for not having hair and still being ugly!"
"This one's for lying about being the boss's little brother-in-law!"
"I—I didn't lie—"
"Still lying? Deserves a stomp!"
Le Yuxin stomped a dozen more times, each kick felt sweeter. He wasn't a total psycho—just had way too much stress these days. "Getting thrashed by Mu Feihong in the morning, Chen Fu secretly threatening him in the afternoon, then bickering with his little sister all through dinner..."
"Le Yuxin was just plain miserable!"
"Sure, he could tell himself it was all just a first-person roleplay as 'Qian Yuliu,' but it still sucked!"
"When life hands you a violent NPC to vent on, how could you not take advantage of it? It'd just be disrespectful to waste a gift from the heavens!"
"Hey, you over there, what the hell are you doing!?"
Some new gangsters had just popped up at the alley entrance. They saw Le Yuxin stomping Baldy and freaked out. "Big Lei! Who the fuck are you to beat up our guy? Let him go!"
"Slice up that bastard! Get him for Lei!"
"Break his arms and legs!"
Le Yuxin figured his stress was about worked out by now. He kicked the battered Baldy back toward them, then stomped the ground and lifted his head, glaring coldly, "You all want to start something with me too?"
"Who the hell do you think you are..."
One of the rowdy gangsters suddenly went pale, urgently tugging the others back. He spoke carefully, "Sir... you're not from around Eighteenth Street, are you?"
The sound of steel-soled Statistical Department boots was the stuff of nightmares here.
Le Yuxin didn't answer. "From Qian Yuliu's memories, he already knew exactly how to handle this bunch:" "I'm counting down. If you and that bald pig are still here after ten seconds, your gambling den's out of business tomorrow. Ten, nine, eight, seven..."
Gangs, gambling dens, thugs.
To normal people, these were scary as hell. But to the Statistical Department... Hell, even a junior agent wasn't to be messed with by these nobodies.
As one of Governor Ding's closest departments, Statistical was a law unto itself in Star Engraving County. On the surface, nobody dared lay a hand on them; as for the underworld... even the Statistical Department's janitor wouldn't bother dirtying his boots here.
"Even leaving all that aside, any excuse like 'hunting down the anti-Sun rebels' would let Le Yuxin turn Eighteenth Street upside down. The gangs and their so-called bosses weren't even worthy to polish his boots."
The other thugs quickly caught on. They hustled Baldy up and hauled ass out of there before Le Yuxin's countdown finished, not uttering a single threat as they left his sight.
"Maybe they were a little suspicious—steel-soled boots didn't necessarily make Le Yuxin an agent—but thugs weren't stupid. If they attacked, he might not be real, but they might lose anyway. And if he was real? Then they were dead meat. If they withdrew, it didn't matter if he was fake—they could still give their boss an excuse, since only Baldy got his ass kicked."
"Le Yuxin wasn't careless with his kicks. Apart from the first one, which used Combat Technique, the rest were all for show. Sure, he'd rearranged Baldy's face and teeth a little, but he wasn't actually lethal—hopefully the beating convinced Baldy to straighten out."
Le Yuxin scraped the bloody muck off his boots, and kept walking up the alley. Suddenly a voice came from the rooftop, "Hey, I'll split it with you."
A money pouch dropped down. Le Yuxin caught it easily and saw the hemp-shirted boy perched on the roof, eyes sparkling like stars despite his dirty face.
Le Yuxin asked, "What's this about?"
"You helped me run off Fat Lei. It's only right to split it with you," the kid patted his skinny chest, "It's called justice."
"Even thieves care about justice? Guess you really do have honor among thieves," Le Yuxin chuckled.
"Honor among thieves? I like that." The kid's eyes brightened, "You were awesome just now—you stomped Fat Lei, and even Boss Ying's guys kept their distance. How'd you pull that off? What gang do you run with? Can I join you?"
Le Yuxin smiled and tapped his boots, "See those? Guess which gang I'm in?"
"Wait, you're Black Dog!" the boy said, suddenly realizing.
"Don't say I didn't warn you. You can rob a thug and get away, but if you say Black Dog to their face... Well, better hope you reincarnate as a cockroach."
"Pfft, you're saying Black Dog right now."
"When you've got what it takes to wear these steel-toed boots, you can say it too." Le Yuxin checked his watch—he was actually running late—so he stopped bantering with the kid and strode off down the alley.
The hemp-shirted kid watched Le Yuxin's back disappear, his eyes full of longing and hope.
...
...
"Crap, I can't be late, right?"
Because of all the drama along the way, Le Yuxin realized he might not make it in time, and got a little anxious—this wasn't a date, after all, but an underground rendezvous between a mole and an informant!
"If you blow off a date, your girlfriend just dumps you; if you blow off a secret meet, your informant probably thinks you're busted, skips town, and puts you on the obituary list!"
Le Yuxin sped up—and when he was just two blocks away from the meeting spot, a dim doorway beside him suddenly swung open, and two beams of dark light exploded out.
Le Yuxin reacted quick—Qian Yuliu's body was hardwired for this—but his attacker was even quicker, even stronger!
Two hands locked down on Le Yuxin's throat and left arm like iron clamps, yanking him into the pitch-black house!
In the darkness, Le Yuxin heard a chilling voice,
"Finally caught you."