Enforcer Manual
Chapter 453: A Good Teacher and Helpful Friend_1

Chapter 453: Chapter 453: A Good Teacher and Helpful Friend_1

Hanna finished her work report and habitually glanced at the cellphone on her desk.

Ah, another day working until the early hours.

If this continues, she will inevitably, like her colleagues, need to see a psychologist, taking antidepressants every evening just to sleep peacefully, and tomorrow, after attending the department’s hearing and handling a series of handover tasks, she still has to attend a class reunion in the evening.

Hanna, I hope this time you can withstand the pressure of work and make it out of the Seventh District unscathed.

After a year of working, Hanna’s dream had changed.

She, like countless other graduates, once dreamed of becoming the backbone of the department and one day making it into the management through her own efforts.

For this purpose, she designed a detailed schedule on her first day at work.

But now, her dream was much simpler and could be described in two words—staying alive.

Every additional day was a victory.

The next day’s class reunion, a precursor to subsequent activities, aimed to reunite classmates who hadn’t seen each other for a year to bond, but this gathering was cast in the shadow of death; Professor Myles’s suicide and the bizarre murder case involving a teaching assistant bred numerous rumors within the academy, blanketing the entire reunion atmosphere with gloom.

Owing to her job, Hanna arrived half an hour later than the scheduled time.

As a former top student in her class, her arrival did not stir any hullabaloos or attention; instead, her old classmates averted their gazes, acting as if they were not familiar with her.

She had no interest in the subsequent sequence of events at the reunion and just wanted to finish the proceedings swiftly and lie down back at her place.

Looking around, Hanna quickly found a spot of tranquility at the reunion venue.

It was Classmate Lu Xiang.

She sat in a corner, aloof, ignoring the classmates’ gossip and their surreptitious looks.

Hanna walked straight to where Lu Xiang was sitting, as they still had some topics in common, "The investigation results of the abnormal artificial humans have come out; the higher-ups don’t think it’s enough to prove that Agent Angle is innocent."

In the face of these obviously abnormal situations, the higher-ups once again adopted a stance of willful ignorance.

They quickly pushed the blame for the abnormal artificial humans onto Agent Angle, claiming that it was he who had tampered with the artificial humans’ programming. He had intended to silence the teaching assistant using the artificial humans, only for those abnormal artificial humans to attack him instead.

This was, of course, a theory full of holes, yet everyone in the department chose to believe it.

Hanna, of course, raised no objections.

Agent Angle had shown everyone what happens when you go against the agency and the company with his own experience.

"Classmate Lu Xiang, although you discovered clues at the scene that we overlooked, I still hope you can leave the case entirely to the Bureau of Unusual Case Investigation. This is for the benefit of both you and me," Hanna said wearily, having seen the perilous moment in the cafe through the surveillance footage yesterday. If the artificial humans had drawn knives or guns instead of plastic bags, her boyfriend’s chances of survival would have likely been slim.

"Hmm, thanks for the reminder," Lu Xiang replied.

Having spent so much time with Song Lan, Lu Xiang had learned quite a few tricks from him.

For instance, to apparently comply and agree on the surface but actually act to the contrary, effectively avoiding meaningless arguments.

"I really wish you would listen to me."

"More than that, what exactly has happened to you this past year? I remember you used to be... much more cheerful."

Lu Xiang asked curiously.

As it was a class reunion, even out of courtesy, one should chat with a former classmate, and she was genuinely curious about Hanna’s transformation.

In her memory, Hanna was a lively girl brimming with initiative, who, despite repeated defeats, always regrouped and challenged her from different academic subjects, but the current Hanna seemed to have lost her soul.

A greeting from an old classmate made it harder for Hanna to hide her sorrow.

She glanced at the bottle on the table, twisted off the cap with her bare hands, and took a fierce swig.

"The Bureau of Exceptional Investigation is no place for humans!"

Under the influence of alcohol, she finally said what she had never dared to say to anyone.

There, people were treated like animals year-round; a business trip meant months without returning home, facing unbelievable cases, and one wrong move could result in becoming a victim of the criminals.

Just like now, she had barely taken a short break and had come to the reunion at the invitation, which was supposed to be a relaxing trip. But as soon as Agent Angle had an incident, the higher-ups dumped all the mess on her to handle the aftermath in the Seventh District.

Hanna’s complaints were filled with genuine emotion, and she was on the verge of tears.

Her heartfelt emotions deeply moved Song Lan and made him temporarily forget Hanna’s identity as an agent of the Bureau of Exceptional Case Investigation, because they now faced a common enemy:

Unrestrained overtime, a system that drains all value from people, and a work environment where superiors always blame each other, making the subordinates take the fall for them.

In such a distorted work environment, even an outstanding graduate from Morning Star Academy could be crushed.

Hanna quickly shifted her complaints from the work environment to her family.

She was born in the core area; her parents were prominent corporate executives who had provided her with elite education since childhood. Every time she complained about her work environment to her family, she was severely criticized by her parents, believing she must have slackened her self-discipline.

To help her grow, they even took the initiative to set a new goal for her—to become a four-star rescuer within two years.

She had been using work as an excuse not to call home for months, and there was a long period during which she would feel nauseated under stress as a conditioned response just from hearing the voice on the other end of the phone.

Lu Xiang gradually stopped her pear-eating action; she hadn’t imagined that Hanna, who had always been so strong-willed, would show such a vulnerable side in front of her.

"This is the impact a hostile work environment can have on a person."

Song Lan said seriously. As a pioneer against overtime and exploitation, he felt compelled to say something, "Classmate Hannah, the power of an individual is ultimately weak. You cannot fight against the work environment, so you must learn how to protect yourself."

For the sake of Hanna and Lu Xiang being classmates, he generously shared his years of hands-on experience in slacking off without reservation.

As he spoke with expressive emotion, surprise gradually replaced the expression on Hanna’s face.

She vaguely realized she had misjudged Song Lan—this person was far from ordinary.

He was clearly a modern master of slacker theory!

This was the first time in her life she had heard about the theoretical knowledge of slacking off in a systematic way. The man in front of her had elevated a job phenomenon into an academic discipline, and his narrative combined with practical experience, case analyses, and guidance gave her an epiphany.

At this moment, Hanna felt what she truly needed was not a psychologist but a theoretical tutor in the study of slacking off!

She only regretted not having met Song Lan sooner.

But then, she made an important discovery which quickly turned into intense curiosity.

"Song Lan,"

Hanna hesitated to speak, but emboldened by the alcohol, she finally asked what was on her mind, "Your immediate superior... is Lu Xiang, right?"

Most of Song Lan’s hands-on experience came from the process of matching wits with his superior, and in their conversation, this superior from the story was now silently smiling at them.

In Hanna’s memory, Lu Xiang had never smiled like this before.

But her smile didn’t make Hanna feel warm or friendly; instead, it gave her an inexplicable chill.

Although she wanted to hear all of Song Lan’s theoretical knowledge, for the sake of the safety of this master of theory, she felt compelled to interrupt the engrossed Song Lan.

One cannot hide the look in their eyes when they’re thinking of harming someone.

Hanna was convinced of this from her experience working at the Bureau of Exceptional Case Investigation—those serial assassins in the bizarre cases often exhibited the same look in their eyes that Lu Xiang had right now.