Enforcer Manual
Chapter 794 - 792: Good Leader Lu Xiang_1

Chapter 794: Chapter 792: Good Leader Lu Xiang_1

"A raise? What, have you been running short on cash lately?"

Lu Xiang felt that, if she hadn’t remembered it wrong, Song Lan had recently been busy with business trips. It was with great difficulty that he had managed to visit prosperous trade cities like The First Region and The Second Region, but each time he left, the cities would be in a state of rebuilding. Shops were closed, and naturally, there was no chance for shopping.

She did know that Song Lan had saved a decent amount of money. As described by Dumb Bird, all of it was for future plans like buying a house and a car for his future wife.

"Haven’t you paid attention to the recent housing prices in District Seventeen? Even the old city areas where the welfare institutions are located have gone up by 2000 Valerians per square meter!"

Different eras, the same problems.

Using the privileges associated with his position, Song Lan had specifically obtained the annual real estate report. Less than 3% of the families in District Seventeen with their own properties were local. Most people lived in housing with "unclear origins," which meant that as long as companies were willing, they could legally evict the residents of District Seventeen from their apartments at any time.

What was worse, there were no housing purchase restrictions in this era, so more than eighty percent of the properties in District Seventeen belonged to company assets.

Fortunately, some of the company directors in District Seventeen were sent to the suburban prisons during the last crackdown on organized crime by the Law Enforcers, leaving their wealth as bad debts.

In summary, Song Lan could only say that the waters in District Seventeen were very deep, and even someone like him who had lived there for a long time couldn’t see the bottom.

"I’ve heard about it."

Lu Xiang remained noncommittal.

A few days ago, she happened to overhear Captain Doug discussing this matter with Chief Snick; the stark contrast between the two men’s joy and sorrow was quite evident.

Chief Snick had bought a house early on. Recently the value of his property had almost doubled over the last six months, whereas Captain Doug, who had waited and watched without a girlfriend, was not so lucky. He had his eye on an apartment for a long time but had never had the heart to pay off the down payment. When he checked the price recently, it was completely beyond what he could afford.

The Ragus Foundation had built matching commercial and living facilities near the apartments, which turned the area into a bustling hub comparable to the plaza district.

In his sorrow, Captain Doug managed to extract some money from Snick, coercing him to take out some of his long-cherished good liquor to console a wounded good brother.

"By the way, I’ve never asked, did you buy this apartment we’re living in?"

"It was allotted by the Law Enforcers department; didn’t cost anything."

Lu Xiang replied truthfully. Indeed, the Law Enforcers department also had many unresolved debts, a historical issue left by previous managers. After thinking it over, she added, "Theoretically, I only have the right to live here. I can’t rent or sell the apartment to others, just like with the hovercar—it’s actually department property."

Otherwise, how could a student who had just graduated afford to buy a house or a car?

"Theoretically?"

"That’s what the department regulations say, but not many in District Seventeen follow them. To my knowledge, the previous manager engaged in selling off a lot of department property while in office and made quite a bit of money from it."

Bribery, exploitation, providing a protective umbrella for criminal forces—if you can think of it, the previous manager was involved in it.

Lu Xiang was a principled person, "When I leave the position, I will have to return the apartment and the hovercar to the department. But you can be at ease. I’ve made some calculations; with our salaries, we should be able to buy a new apartment in the city area. If that doesn’t work out, the Void Town also has complete facilities, and it would be pretty good to live there."

As the first residents of the town, Spicy Chicken and the mayor of Sheep Village had introduced the whole town on the website, attracting a lot of people with their advertisement.

"You haven’t been back to the town for a while; many people have moved in, most of them homeless vagabonds. They regard it as their new home."

According to the locals, aside from the fog that rose at night, strange creatures that lingered around the outskirts, and the odd sounds that occasionally came about, everything else was still fine.

Lu Xiang roughly understood why Song Lan wanted a raise, but as the head of the department, she had to treat everyone equally and adhere to procedures. She crossed her arms and evaluated Song Lan with a scrutinizing gaze, "How do you propose to convince me to give you a raise?"

"First of all, I believe my job performance is remarkable, being the only one in the department to hold the rank of Chief twice. Logically, that means I should be receiving double the salary."

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiang was somewhat surprised, and her gaze sharpened.

This Dumb Bird not only wanted a raise but was also aiming to double it!

How dare he?

Especially since this guy seemed to completely disregard his attendance over the past few months. Even if business trips were included as working hours, his time spent on-site did not exceed 30%!

The three members in his section had even resorted to calling or texting to confirm that their Chief was alright and had not encountered any criminal elements on the streets of District Seventeen, dying prematurely.

They couldn’t be entirely blamed for their concern. Before, any Chief in the Law Enforcers department with such attendance was either dead or injured.

"Although you’re nominally the Chief of two sections, the number of people you manage is the least across all sections—just three people."

Even the original logistics section had more people than his department.

The original logistics section could be considered another historic issue. During the previous manager’s time, he arranged positions for those from the trust fund system, and these positions hardly involved any substantive work; mainly, they were just biding their time.

When she later investigated the department records, she found that Song Lan was appointed in this manner as well.

The former manager had given a favor to the Godfather, arranging for this young man from the orphanage to be placed in the logistics section.

"It’s four!"

Song Lan immediately corrected Lu Xiang’s mistake, "Even though Nami is just a navigation robot, she’s an important member of our section too!"

"All right, four then."

Lu Xiang rolled her eyes at Song Lan, "According to department regulations, unwarranted absences over 30% will result in the forfeiture of all bonuses."

Song Lan knew Lu Xiang would respond this way and retorted confidently, "I haven’t been absent without cause; I always asked for leave from you."

"When was that, I don’t remember?"

"In the morning, every time I get up."

"Hiss—"

Lu Xiang gasped in surprise, unable to understand why someone could speak about skipping work with such righteousness. Those unaware might assume this Dumb Bird had long been oppressed by a superior.

"Raising your salary for no reason will only hurt you. If other chiefs from different departments find out, how will they see this?"

It would dishearten the hardworking Law Enforcers and encourage a negative attitude towards work in the department.

In recent months, under the leadership of Song Lan, more and more people had started slacking off.

Of course, this also had to do with the increasingly peaceful situation in The Seventeenth Region; they often went several weeks without encountering a single gang firefight.

The Dead Man’s Lottery show team had even abandoned the region, moving to other cities.

"That is a problem."

Song Lan fell into contemplation; following the current trend of skyrocketing housing prices in The Seventeenth Region, he would not be the only one unable to afford a house when the time came.

Poor Captain Doug...

Why was it always him who was unlucky?

Song Lan offered silent condolences to Captain Doug once more in his heart.

Seeing his worried appearance, Lu Xiang felt somewhat sympathetic again.

In fact, with the contributions this Dumb Bird made for the United Government, he could have received more money than he could spend, but he had refused the job offered by the Chairperson of the Council and had even declined to stay a single day longer in The First Region, rushing back here instead.

"Alright, alright, I’ll apply to the higher-ups this afternoon, and if everyone gets a raise, no one will complain."

It just so happened that he had heard the Ragus Foundation had given considerable donations to the city hall.

Mayor Aureliano wouldn’t have to go gray overnight worrying about road damage anymore.

"Old Lu, you’re truly a great leader!"

"Good to know... But starting from tomorrow, you’ll report to the department honestly, and you’d better stick with it for a while even if it’s just for show!"

Thus, after... who knows how many days, Song Lan finally returned to the Publicity Department in his capacity as Chief.

When he entered, Roger, Zhuang Chi, and Valerian were casually chatting, discussing trying out the restaurant newly opened in the Plaza District after work.

With the arrival of the Ragus Foundation, The Seventeenth Region finally had a restaurant that was open to the public.

Upon seeing Song Lan, they first looked stunned and then, simultaneously, revealed expressions of disbelief. Valerian was especially close to tears of joy.

"Chief, congratulations on being discharged!"

With her electronic eyes forming a smiley face, Nami approached and spoke with her familiar synthesized voice, "Biometric verification in progress... Identification complete. Respected Chief Song, the time is now 3:15 PM. I am the guide robot Nami. Congratulations on your recovery! (*^▽^*)"

"... Discharged?"

Three question marks appeared above Song Lan’s head.

After some warm inquiries from the trio, he, "the person concerned," finally understood the entire process of his supposed encounter with an attacker.

This went back to when three employees concerned about the Chief occasionally asked the supervisor where the Chief had gone, and the supervisor invariably replied that he was on sick leave.

Since someone in the department had once seen Song Lan in a prosthetic hospital, the news spread quickly.

One dark and stormy night, the Chief was attacked by thugs on his way home from working overtime. He took a heavy blow to the back of his head and, after attacking Song Lan, they forced him to ingest some kind of drug with a mind-paralyzing effect, causing him to fall into a vegetative state.

To contain the news, the supervisor had been claiming that the Chief was on sick leave.

In fact, he had been bravely injured for the sake of the department.

"Ah, yes, that was indeed a merciless blow to the head."

This time, Song Lan chose to go along with the rumor.

Rather than letting the members of his department know that he had been lazing around at home most days, it was better to leave them with the impression that he had been valiantly injured.

"Chief."

After the sympathies, Valerian placed her hands on his shoulder. Her eyes serious and earnest, she once again displayed the demeanor of a descendant of a warrior race, "Whoever attacked you, we can’t just let it go."

This was a good question that struck deep into Song Lan’s soul.

The two stared at each other, and even Roger and Zhuang Chi were silently watching Song Lan, as if all he needed to do was say a name and the whole department would mobilize to seek justice for him.

Finally, after much contemplation, Song Lan came up with an answer to the question.

"Chai Ke..."

He took a deep breath, "It must have been Chai Ke’s remnants."