The Order Administration Bureau stood in the city center, on the edge of the area controlled by the Crown Prince.
From a distance, it looked like a small park on a street corner. A low building nestled deep inside it, so at first glance one might mistake it for the park management office. There were no shops nearby, probably because an arrested Orderbearer could suddenly go mad and endanger ordinary people.
As soon as Ji Tan got out of the car, he was taken toward the interrogation rooms.
“Cooperate with them, and whatever you do, don’t provoke the people from the Order Administration Bureau,” the lawyer warned him as she got out and followed along. “The Sequence-Breaking Unit has the authority to execute Orderbearers who cause trouble on the spot.”
Ji Tan obediently nodded.
Lawyer Qiao approved of his attitude and followed them to the stairway leading underground. Then, all of a sudden, she stepped in front of Ji Tan and refused to let the silver-uniformed officers take him downstairs. “My client is the victim! You shouldn’t be taking him to an interrogation room. You should be taking him to a reception room!”
Ji Tan: “…” This doesn’t look much like cooperation to me, ma’am.
The interrogation rooms were underground. Standing before the metal spiral staircase, Ji Tan cautiously leaned forward to peer down.
It was pitch-dark below. The silver stairs reflected a faint glimmer, resembling a gigantic silver drill bit boring relentlessly into the earth, down and down without end.
“Go on, kill me if you’ve got the guts!”
“I admit I was wrong! Please, don’t lock me in there…”
Shouts of defiance and desperate pleas came from below at the same time, triggering the voice-activated lights. Ji Tan shivered and finally got a glimpse of what lay underground: metal floors and walls, giving the place a distinctly futuristic appearance.
But those stairs were far too long. He had only just fought that enormous fish, and the thought of descending them made his exhausted legs go weak.
Lawyer Qiao tossed her long waves of hair and declared brazenly, “If my client suffers any harm during questioning, including psychological harm, verbal threats or intimidation, or even being subjected to an excessively ugly interrogator, I will sue you!”
The silver-uniformed officers seemed accustomed to the Senior Lawyer’s unreasonable demands. Turning to Ji Tan, they delivered the classic line: “Sir, you have the right to remain silent, but every word you say will be used as evidence against you in court.”
They had launched straight into it, with absolutely no buildup.
Ji Tan: “…”
He suspected these people were taking the opportunity to act out their statuses, but he had no proof.
While the two sides were still locked in a war of words, Xie Zhi fetched an ordinary pair of handcuffs and, with a click, fastened one cuff around Ji Tan’s wrist. He waved a hand. “That’s enough. I’ll take him.”
The two silver-uniformed officers offered no objection. They saluted and left immediately.
Lawyer Qiao, whose argument had been cut short, reached after them with an outstretched Erkang-style hand. “Hey, hey!”
Elio’s Note ¹: The “Erkang hand” is an exaggerated reaching gesture associated with the character Erkang from the Chinese television drama My Fair Princess. Here it makes Lawyer Qiao’s interrupted protest look wonderfully theatrical.
Hooking one finger through the free cuff, Xie Zhi led Ji Tan toward a private elevator nearby. He swiped his access card, stepped inside, and told Lawyer Qiao when she tried to follow, “No ladies allowed.”
By the time the lawyer recovered from her surprise, the doors had closed. She stamped one slender high heel in frustration. It was an elevator, not a men’s bathhouse! What did he mean, no ladies allowed?
The elevator was luxuriously fitted with thick red carpeting. Ji Tan relaxed against the wall, delighted that he wouldn’t have to take the stairs that looked so easy to fall down.
Xie Zhi said coldly, “Interrogation is a necessary procedure. I’m not going to show you favoritism.”
With the tension finally leaving his body, exhaustion surged over Ji Tan twice as hard. Warm and comfortable in the elevator, he was already drifting off and gave a perfunctory, sleepy “Mm.”
Xie Zhi seemed displeased. He lifted the handcuff by one finger and gave it a shake. “Student Ji, you don’t look frightened at all.”
Ji Tan barely managed to open his eyelids, which were threatening to stick together. “Does your Sequence require you to act like a melodramatic teenager?”
“…”
Before Xie Zhi could say anything else, the elevator reached its destination.
The interrogation room had metal walls and metal stools too. Normally, the person being questioned would be strapped into a confinement chair roughly one meter square, unable to move.
The Order Officer who would absolutely never show favoritism did not come inside, but the confinement chair had been temporarily replaced with an ordinary one.
Two stern-faced silver-uniformed officers sat behind the interrogation desk. They behaved as though they hadn’t seen the employee carry the replacement chair into the room. They simply motioned for Ji Tan to sit and began asking him questions in a businesslike manner.
Had he known what was inside the shipping container beforehand? How had he gotten inside it? And so on.
As Ji Tan answered these routine questions, he quietly observed the two officers.
The officer from the Inspection Division handled the questions, while the one from the Sequence-Breaking Unit stood guard. Their uniforms were slightly different. The Inspection Division wore a magnifying-glass emblem on the chest, while the Sequence-Breaking Unit wore scissors. The latter’s uniform also fit more closely and had mechanical bracers at the cuffs.
After finishing their questions about today’s incident, they changed the subject and asked about Ji Tan’s movements over the past few days.
“Do you know Zhao Gang?”
Ji Tan was momentarily bewildered and shook his head.
The Inspection Division officer laid several photographs in front of him. They showed a youth who looked strikingly like Qiaoqiao and had an alluring air.
Ji Tan’s mouth twitched. “So his name is Zhao Gang? He’s a former colleague. I saw him at a property agency a few days ago.”
“On the day you moved, someone searched your old home on Broken-Wire Street. Afterward, those people went to Purple Arc Street and found Zhao Gang. According to Zhao Gang, they were four Orderbearer bodyguards employed by the Huo family in the Northern District.” The Inspection Division officer told Ji Tan everything they had learned during the past few days of investigation.
Ji Tan frowned slightly. After a moment’s thought, he understood how the pieces fit together.
The bodyguards had wrecked his old home, then gone to Purple Arc Street, a place he’d mentioned only in passing at the property agency. Zhao Gang must have tipped them off. But how had the Order Administration Bureau traced the matter back to Zhao Gang?
“They’re connected to two cases involving the murder of unlicensed taxi drivers.”
One unlicensed driver had died on Broken-Wire Street and another on Purple Arc Street, both in bizarre circumstances. The deaths coincided with the movements of the four bodyguards, naturally raising suspicions. The Sequence-Breaking Unit was now trying to arrest them.
“If they’re trying to take me back to the Northern District, why would they kill those taxi drivers?” Ji Tan couldn’t understand it.
The Huo family had so much money, yet these bodyguards apparently murdered people over a little taxi fare. Beastly masters certainly raised beastly servants.
“We understand. Thank you for your cooperation.” The Inspection Division officer closed his notebook and asked Ji Tan to leave.
Ji Tan drew a deep breath. “I can be the bait! Let me lure them out!”
Four Orderbearers were lurking in the shadows, looking for traces of him and his brother. It felt as though four predators were crouching in the dark, ready to pounce, and the thought sent chills down his spine.
His brother Ji Sinan, that obsessive-compulsive fellow, insisted on finishing his month’s work at Quick Knife. He appeared on Broken-Wire Street every day and refused to listen no matter how Ji Tan tried to persuade him. If those bodyguards went back to Broken-Wire Street, it would be all too easy for them to find out where Ji Sinan worked. It was far too dangerous!
The two silver-uniformed officers exchanged glances, then nodded. “Thank you for offering to help. We’ll contact you.”
When Ji Tan emerged, Sister Qiao had already arranged his Orderbearer registration.
“Here’s your new identification. Make sure you keep it safe.” Lawyer Qiao handed him a new identity card bearing a star emblem. “I don’t know why the Order Administration Bureau is so efficient today. They made it in ten minutes! When I replaced my own Orderbearer ID card, I had to wait a whole week.”
Ji Tan gave a little cough when he heard that. “Who knows? Maybe you’re just lucky, Sister Qiao.”
It certainly couldn’t have anything to do with that upright Order Officer bending the rules to favor him.
Lawyer Qiao shrugged and mimed holding a phone to her ear. “I have to go. There’s an urgent case. Call my mobile if you need anything.” With that, she hurried away and climbed into the car her law-firm assistant had driven to the entrance.
Ji Tan said goodbye to Lawyer Qiao and looked around, but there was no sign of Xie Zhi. Instead, he ran into two familiar faces. “Little Zhang, busy?”
Little Zhang, who was about to head out on field duty, stammered when he saw Ji Tan. “Y-yes. Going to sell grilled sausages.”
Ji Tan: “…” You really don’t need to work that hard at staying in character.
The chubby officer beside him noticed the star-marked card in Ji Tan’s hand and exclaimed, “You’ve become an Orderbearer? Is it because you want to join our Inspection Division?”
In only a few days, the impoverished young man from Broken-Wire Street had transformed himself into an Orderbearer. That was proof of just how determined he was to pass the civil-service recruitment exam and land a government job!
“No, thanks.” Ji Tan waved a hand and said with a grave expression, “I still… want to be a fish butcher.”
Even if he, Little Ji Tan, spent the rest of his life slaughtering fish in a supermarket, even if he butchered every fish in the oceans and cleaved the very heavens apart… he would never, ever work under Xie Zhi again!