Chapter 108

Chapter 108

Only after Shen Huaizhou dragged her out of the cafeteria did Xie Qingling calm down a little.

“Thanks, Shen Huaizhou,” she said, relieved. “Good thing you were there. Otherwise I’d have another self-criticism to write.”

Shen Huaizhou glanced at her. “You’re too impulsive.”

“Mm. Yes.”

“Challenging someone on his own turf? Are you stupid? What if he cheats?”

“…?” So it was fine as long as it was not his turf?

Xie Qingling thought about it and decided he had a point.

He seemed quite experienced.

Xie Qingling followed Shen Huaizhou, asking, “Did you used to challenge people to fights all the time?”

“How come you know so much about this?”

“Did you get burned a lot?”

“How did the Director deal with you?”

Shen Huaizhou held back for a while before forcing out, “…You’re curious? Why don’t we have a fight?”

“…”

So Xie Qingling decided to keep quiet.

Beating up someone else might require only one self-criticism. But if she and Shen Huaizhou beat each other up, it would probably be double.

They continued strolling around, then returned to the dormitory area as though nothing had happened. Just as casually, they reported their itinerary to Ling Fang, leaving out the encounter with Tang Yuanxiao, and brought their first day in the Old Royal City to an end.

Early the next morning, at about eight, Ling Fang came knocking.

He gathered his two team members and told them, “It’s time for the shift change. Our colleagues on the night Patrol Unit are returning, and now the day Patrol Unit takes over fieldwork. You need to be at your posts by eight thirty.”

“Xie Qingling, you’re responsible for Seventh and Eighth Streets in the East District, together with the other day Patrol Unit members. Shen Huaizhou, you’re responsible for Ninth and Tenth Streets in the East District, also with the other day Patrol Unit members.”

“Remember, whenever you encounter something you don’t understand, observe, ask, and learn. Don’t be impulsive or assume you know best.”

“Understood.”

“Understood.”

Seeing them full of energy, Ling Fang nodded, considerably reassured. “All right, off you go. I won’t be doing fieldwork. I’ll wait for you in the Technology R&D Department.”

Hm?

Remembering the sign outside the Technology R&D Department, Xie Qingling asked, “Director, are you a member of the Technology R&D Department?”

“I am now,” Ling Fang said. “All right. Get going.”

–

Xie Qingling went to Seventh and Eighth Streets in the East District; Shen Huaizhou went to Ninth and Tenth Streets.

They parted ways and entered their respective work areas.

In addition to three day Patrol Unit members from headquarters, Seventh and Eighth Streets had Xie Qingling and another core member who had come from a regional city to provide support.

She was a girl with a smoothly contoured oval face and two long, narrow eyes, as though she had stepped out of a classical painting.

Her gaze swept over Xie Qingling, identifying her badge and the uniform without gold trim. “Hello. I’ve come from Hope City to provide support. My name is Yang Ruoyu.”

Yang Ruoyu. Xie Qingling knew that name because she had seen it before.

It was Yang Ruoyu’s name in second place on the Rookie Ranking.

Xie Qingling smiled. “Hello. I’m Xie Qingling. I’ve come from Future City to provide support.”

At her introduction, Yang Ruoyu did not hide her astonishment. After a moment of blank surprise, she said, “So it’s you. Number one on the Rookie Ranking.”

Xie Qingling: “…”

Apparently the whole world knew she topped the Rookie Ranking. Except her.

Xie Qingling could only offer a polite smile.

They were assigned to patrol one shopping street and three residential neighborhoods. As Xie Qingling and Yang Ruoyu walked along the street together, neither spoke for quite a while.

Perhaps most beauties were aloof. Yang Ruoyu pressed her lips together and said nothing, as though thinking.

The shopping street was lively and prosperous. They patrolled the shops one by one, with great care.

As she observed their surroundings, Yang Ruoyu said, “My Director says I’m the most driven rookie she’s ever seen. My score is high too, but…”

Unfortunately, she had encountered Xie Qingling.

Otherwise, Yang Ruoyu could have taken first place this year.

Yang Ruoyu paused. “The Director says she doesn’t understand how you did it.”

“Hm?” Xie Qingling was puzzled.

“All those points,” Yang Ruoyu said. “Before you, Future City already had a rookie who passed ten thousand. That broke the record that year too.”

“Hope City was hoping to make a push for ten thousand points this year, but Future City produced another record breaker.”

There was even a numbness to Yang Ruoyu’s cool, beautiful face. “Can you tell me how you did it?”

How had she done it?

Xie Qingling did not know either.

She had only recently learned this ranking even existed.

After thinking for a moment, Xie Qingling said tactfully, “Maybe Hope City is too peaceful.”

Yang Ruoyu frowned, not quite agreeing. “I’ve been here less than a year and prevented five mysterious incidents. I killed a rat spirit whose stolen meals in a flour mill caused an explosion, destroyed a Substitute Water Ghost that posed as a water monkey and bewitched people, and killed an evil god before it could be born after it took up residence in a fetus.”

“I’m busy,” Yang Ruoyu said. “Hope City isn’t like headquarters, but it’s not peaceful either.”

Yang Ruoyu looked earnestly at Xie Qingling, with an unusual stubbornness. “I want to know where I lost.”

It felt just like school, when the second-ranked student chased after the top student asking what practice papers they did and what books they read: I’m already trying so hard, so why can I never score higher than you?
Xie Qingling was no stranger to that feeling. Nor would she turn away genuine enthusiasm, so she began counting off what she had done in these fewer than twelve months.

“When I first joined, I killed an unknown number of Carrion Ghosts and brought down a teaching building.”

“I killed two Painted-Skin Ghosts together with the department members,” Xie Qingling said. “Then I killed another Painted-Skin Ghost that had escaped, on my own.”

“Then I killed the Bride in Red, a Celebration Ghost who came from the River of Forgetfulness to force a marriage.”

“I subdued a half-immortal.”

“I slaughtered a River God who’d enjoyed incense offerings for thirty years.”

“Killed a number of monsters and ghosts in the Ghost Market.”

“Killed a follower of the Eleventh Realm in Future City.”

“Yesterday, I fought two people from the Eleventh Realm in the Old Royal City. I won.”

She had also written many self-criticisms and produced a great deal of literary rubbish.

But there was no need to mention that.

After listing it all, even Xie Qingling felt she had been very busy.

“…” Yang Ruoyu finally understood why Xie Qingling said Hope City was peaceful.

After a long while, Yang Ruoyu said, “Well, that’s good. My Director should feel much more reassured with you on my team.”

Those words hinted at so much history that Xie Qingling could even relate to them herself.

Just then, they came to an open-air tavern that was doing business.

In broad daylight, the tavern had few customers. Only a handful sat in the outdoor booths, leisurely watching people come and go along the street.

Someone pointed in the direction Xie Qingling and Yang Ruoyu were passing and shouted, “Hey! You! Come here.”

“Yes, you. Hurry up and come over.”

The man also wore black, but his clothes had gold trim.

Yang Ruoyu frowned. She strongly disliked such imperious shouting. But she did not know this person, so he must have been calling Xie Qingling.

Xie Qingling acted as though she had not heard.

“That person seems to be calling you,” Yang Ruoyu reminded her.

Xie Qingling waved a hand carelessly and smiled. “Ignore him. It’s just a dog barking.”

Yang Ruoyu: “…”

“He’s from headquarters. His rank is higher than ours,” Yang Ruoyu reminded her again.

Xie Qingling nodded. “Yes. He’s in an Operations Squad in the Operations Department. He doesn’t have to patrol, so he’s probably here to drown his sorrows and pass the time.”

They seemed to be discussing entirely different things.

Yang Ruoyu could only remain silent.

Tang Yuanxiao, seated in a booth, heard them. His face reddened with anger again. He slapped the table, stood, and shouted after them, “Bullshit! I’m here ready to reinforce you little rookies at any moment!”

Tang Yuanxiao was almost beside himself with anger.

He had truly never met a rookie who gave him so little respect.

Perhaps he should simply give up on recruiting her.

But once Tang Yuanxiao said that, Yang Ruoyu’s expression darkened too. She decided to ignore the black-corona badge on his chest and walk away quickly with Xie Qingling.

By the time they finished patrolling the entire shopping street, midday had passed.

They ate lunch at a restaurant on the street, then split up, each taking one residential neighborhood before meeting in the last one.

With their route decided, Xie Qingling and Yang Ruoyu parted ways.

Arriving at a relatively old residential neighborhood, Xie Qingling was walking along a tree-lined path when she suddenly heard sharp cries.

A baby’s crying echoed between the buildings, piercingly loud.

Xie Qingling’s first thought was that she had encountered a Ghost Infant. Only after a moment did she realize it was merely an ordinary human child’s crying.

She followed the sound and looked up. On the eighth floor, she saw a child caught between the railing bars, about to fall.

The child looked two or three years old. Most of the body was already outside the railing, with only the two feet wedged at an angle between the bars, temporarily preventing a fall.

A fall from that height might well be fatal.

The child’s cries attracted people nearby. More and more gathered, and the frightening sight left their legs weak. “Oh no! Isn’t that Old Zhou’s place? Old Zhou’s only just died, and already there’s nobody looking after the child?”

“Call 119![^119]”

“Who… who can go up and save the little one? This is agonizing!”

At this, an elderly man in his seventies or eighties looked eager to try, while the others rushed into the building to see what they could do.

Xie Qingling stopped the elderly man who wanted to climb the building. She climbed up herself, using the outdoor air-conditioning units as footholds.

Eight floors posed no problem to Xie Qingling. To the people below it looked perilous, but for her it was easy.

In just two or three minutes, Xie Qingling was hanging from the railing, supporting the child with her other hand.

As she tried to push the child back inside, she suddenly noticed a pair of enormous chicken-foot prints on the lime-covered balcony.

[Footprints appear in incense ash; wine and vinegar are sprinkled in the courtyard. On the day the dead return, a baleful deity comes with them. On this day when the dead return home, the Chicken-Foot God has caught a baby alone. An ominous deity, the Chicken-Foot God is about to bring calamity. One light kick is all it takes for the baby to fall to its death.]

[But an interfering dead soul holds the baby up, and the Bedside Granny, worshipped with a simple bowl of incense ash at the bedside, grips the deity’s chicken foot. Now there is yet another interfering Spirit Wielder. When can all these troublesome Spirit Wielders be driven out of the Old Royal City?]

[The Chicken-Foot God is considering this.]

[^119]: 119 is China’s fire and rescue emergency number.