Chapter 137: Chapter 119: The Divine Being’s Special Favor
「Police Chief Bureau, Underground Base」
"Nuwa No. 17!" Chu Bamboo called out as soon as he entered. He first set up the usual visitor alert, then stated his request. "Materialize a bed! Then, display both sets of the Spiritual Star Algorithm I mentioned before. I’m going to continue my memorization."
As a matter of course, Chu Bamboo sat on the bed that materialized from the floor, gazing at the countless lines of code that appeared on the silver wall.
He had already dealt with the formal restructuring of the redevelopment zone’s union—
For an outsider, transforming the union into the Management Department would have been indescribably difficult. But Chu Bamboo was the union’s very founder. He knew its members inside and out, and he had built its system from the ground up. He also had more than enough authority to push the reforms through.
Of course, it was called a reform because it was more than just slapping official-sounding names on all the union’s functions—renaming them to this office or that bureau, for instance.
He also used the opportunity to perform a bit of "minor surgery" on the union’s structure by establishing a supreme council—
Through this council, he promoted several students who had excelled in their political theory assessments, pairing them with union veterans. He tasked them with deliberating and formulating balanced policies on this new platform, following the ’democratic centralism’ principle Chu Bamboo had just drafted.
Overall, there would inevitably be a lengthy adjustment period at the start.
But now that the union was considered an official body, even if they made some poor decisions, they had Chu Bamboo—and by extension, the government—as a safety net. The risks were now acceptable.
For the time being, Chu Bamboo planned to watch from the sidelines. Unless the people on the Management Department’s supreme council made a decision so disastrous it could trigger a civil war or lead to mass casualties in the redevelopment zone, he would not intervene.
They were bound to make common mistakes—perhaps even a great many of them.
But he would consider it the price of their education.
You can’t truly learn when people teach you, but when life teaches you, you learn instantly. Only by constantly taking action, constantly getting beaten down by reality, can a person truly grow.
That was how he had trained Zhou Ze, so Chu Bamboo was quite practiced at it.
Chu Bamboo slapped his cheeks lightly to refocus his thoughts. His gaze sharpened as he stared at the code on the silver wall and patiently resumed his memorization.
...
Time trickled by.
Suddenly, the silver wall returned to its usual state. The visitor alert he’d set earlier had clearly been triggered.
His expression unchanged, Chu Bamboo turned his head to see a weary-looking Li Kang walk in, with Ning Linglong trailing behind him.
"Uncle Zhu!" Ning Linglong waved cheerfully.
"Where are the other two?" Chu Bamboo asked, glancing past them and confirming no one else was there.
"Working, obviously," Li Kang said, rolling his eyes. He glanced around the room, his gaze finally landing on the bed beneath Chu Bamboo with a look of bewildered suspicion. "What is this...?"
"It’s a sign of the Divine Being’s favor toward me," Chu Bamboo declared with perfect conviction, not a hint of shame in his voice.
Li Kang was speechless for a moment. He ran a hand through his hair and looked around again, finding nothing out of place, though he still felt something was off... ’Why would the Divine Being show its favor by giving him a bed?’ But he didn’t dwell on it. "We caught the mastermind!"
"And you guessed wrong this time!" Li Kang’s expression lit up. "It wasn’t Qi Heng, it was Hai Yun! Although, you did seem to say Hai Yun was a problem... Hmm."
Li Kang trailed off, lost in thought.
’Should I act surprised, or was this inevitable?’ Chu Bamboo’s heart skipped a beat. For a moment, he wasn’t sure what expression to wear.
’If I hadn’t told Li Kang not to inform Hai Yun... if he’d really gone and tipped Hai Yun off, the entire plan would have collapsed!’
Chu Bamboo clicked his tongue. ’This,’ he thought with satisfaction, ’is the benefit of having backup plans.’
He continued, "And then?"
"After we wrapped things up, that priest, Zhang Hai, asked where you were. I thought about it and realized I hadn’t seen you at all. I got a little worried, so I came back to look for you. And then..." Li Kang’s gaze drifted back to the bed beneath Chu Bamboo. "Anyway, I’m pretty surprised. Knowing you... I’d have bet you’d be there to join in on the excitement."
"What would I have done there?" Chu Bamboo said noncommittally. "In a high-stakes situation like that, with my current strength, wouldn’t I have just gotten in the way?"
’Of course,’ he thought, ’it’s easy to be nonchalant now. But that’s mainly because I’ve been through this whole sequence of events more than once. I already have a general idea of what’s going to happen, so I couldn’t be bothered to go. Otherwise, Li Kang would’ve been absolutely right!’
"You would’ve been in the... ahem, er, I mean, it’s a good thing you weren’t!" Li Kang laughed awkwardly. He was screaming internally. ’This is unbelievable... The Chu Bamboo I know isn’t this self-aware!’
This guy always charged headfirst into danger, wherever it might be.
Honestly, Li Kang had always been amazed. Given Chu Bamboo’s somewhat reckless style, how on earth had he managed to live this long so successfully?
But then he thought about Chu Bamboo’s practically prophetic intelligence-gathering abilities and could only conclude, ’I guess his skill just makes him that bold.’
"Is there anything else?" Chu Bamboo asked.
"Not much. Hai Yun’s been arrested! And with my intel, well, HQ is now suspicious of Qi Heng." Li Kang paused. "He hasn’t been suspended, but they’ve put him on ’extended leave’... Don’t give me that look! It’s not so he has free time to hunt us down and silence us!"
Li Kang noticed Chu Bamboo’s doubtful gaze and quickly explained, "It’s basically house arrest!"
"That’s not so bad, then." Chu Bamboo nodded slightly. ’That figures,’ he thought. ’That old coot from the First District’s special operations HQ is no soft-hearted, indecisive fool.’
"So, we have a pretty major problem now," Li Kang said, but then trailed off hesitantly.
Chu Bamboo crossed his arms but didn’t ask, simply eyeing Li Kang expectantly.
"Alright, fine! I’ll never understand why you always look so completely devoid of curiosity." Li Kang sighed and threw his hands up in surrender. "It’s the Second District. The captain and vice-captain are both gone. Things are a total mess over there right now."
"Most importantly, HQ feels that since both the number one and number two guys were compromised, the integrity of the entire Second District Captain’s Office is highly questionable."
"You’re getting a promotion?" Chu Bamboo asked, surprised by the implication.
"HQ did ask me about it," Li Kang said, his lips tightening. "But I turned it down."
"This is why I think you’re impossible!" Ning Linglong finally spoke up. She gritted her teeth and glared daggers at Li Kang, her voice dripping with resentment.
’After all, if Li Kang had been transferred away, wouldn’t she have been promoted?’
’Besides, following Li Kang’s old routine, Chu Bamboo would have to discuss everything with her from now on. The more they interacted, the more their feelings could grow, right?’
’She imagined it: young, with a profound heritage, a fast-track promotion, and she could even find a hus... ahem. It was the protagonist’s story arc to end all protagonist story arcs, the ultimate life-winner scenario! She’d be walking straight to the pinnacle of her life... Just thinking about it was a little thrilling.’
’Ning Linglong had even started daydreaming about what to name her and Chu Bamboo’s first child—one name for a boy, another for a girl—’
But! With one casual refusal, Li Kang had killed her perfect plan before it ever had a chance to start!
’She hated him!!!’
"If you want the job so badly, I can call HQ right now and recommend you for interim Special Operations Captain of Zone Two. Er, vice-captain, I mean," Li Kang said, giving Ning Linglong a sidelong glance. "You’re already a vice-captain, so it’s more or less a lateral move. Besides, it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to pick a new captain over there anytime soon... In the short term, that vice-captain position is as good as being the captain!"
"On second thought, forget it!" Ning Linglong pouted, all the fight going out of her. "I heard that team has a bunch of Second Realm experts. I wouldn’t be able to keep them in line at all."
"Oh, so you’re aware of that, are you?" Li Kang laughed in exasperation and pointed at himself. "You’re in the Second Realm, so what about me? Am I not?"
’At least you’re a proper Cultivator! And me?’
’Am I supposed to use these two iron fists to suppress a special operations team in Zone Two that has more Second Realm Cultivators than I can count on one hand?’
’You’ve got to be kidding me!’
"But-but you have seniority!" Ning Linglong said, blinking her eyes. Her expression was pure and innocent, with even a hint of admiration.
"..." Li Kang’s expression froze for a long moment. He raised a trembling finger and pointed at Ning Linglong for a while before finally turning to Chu Bamboo. "See? These are her true colors! Not a single honest word comes out of her mouth."
"Hey, hey, hey! Who bad-mouths someone right to their face?" Ning Linglong flew into a rage. "An attitude like that just dropped my respect for you by ten percent! That’s a failing grade. A complete and utter fail!"
"You never had any respect for me to begin with," Li Kang sneered.
Chu Bamboo watched them, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, as a thousand thoughts raced through his mind.
The First and Second Districts were the foundation of Jinghai City’s prosperity. Many old-time Jinghai locals even considered those two districts to be the *real* Jinghai.
The Third District, on the other hand, was more like the rural-urban fringe of the Real World, just with an industrial core slapped on top.
In the eyes of the old-time Jinghai locals, its residents were nothing more than country bumpkins.
And the Fourth District was another story entirely. Despite being the largest in area, its primary role was to supply food to the First, Second, and Third Districts. It also took on the low-end industries that the Third District was gradually phasing out. It was true countryside, no arguing that.
But for this very reason, the quality of the security forces in the First and Second Districts was far superior to those in the Third and Fourth...
Furthermore, judging by Li Kang and Ning Linglong’s attitudes, and the fact that Zhang Hai had casually summoned that Priest from Zone Two—even assuming that Priest was a high-ranking figure there, his strength was still an astonishing Third Realm.
All of this showed that the First and Second Districts were where the real powerhouses gathered like trees in a forest.
Transferring the Captain of Zone Three to the Second District might seem like a lateral move, but in reality, the prestige of the position would have skyrocketed. Chu Bamboo was genuinely surprised that Li Kang could refuse so calmly.
But still... Chu Bamboo sighed. "I’m suddenly realizing just how weak the Captain’s Office is."
How could the special operations department of the Captain’s Office, on its own, not even be able to handle the God Worship Society? No, it was past the point of just being unable to handle them.
’Look at the current matchup,’ he thought. ’Li Kang, a Second Realm Body Cultivator, leading a four-man squad against Zhang Hai, who’s at the Peak of the Third Realm... Could they possibly win?’
And that wasn’t even mentioning the host of other threats, like the Mechanical Moisture Teaching, the Three Demonic Societies, and so on...
The more Chu Bamboo thought about it, the more strangely he began to look at Li Kang.
’Are you guys *really* the official authorities?’
