Volume 2, Chapter 34 – The Commission

What Yu He had just said basically laid the Demon-Suppressing Bureau’s political stance bare.

From the sound of it, the Demon-Suppressing Bureau had plenty of grievances against the court.

Fair enough.

Thinking it over, Bai Xiang also found it reasonable.

Great Yu’s Mandate had lasted 1,600 years, but in reality, every century or so a new clan took the throne and changed the surname to Yu just to make things look proper.

But the rules were what they were—you either refused to acknowledge those rules from the start and overturned everything by force, or, once you acknowledged them, then aside from changing the surname, you also had to accept everything in the “Yu Rites.”

And the Yu Rites didn’t just cover all kinds of old feudal nonsense—how to walk, what cut of dress to wear, the angle to pour wine, ancestral rites and festivals… It also covered various institutions and legal codes.

Those were constantly being amended.

That much was true.

In modern times, new cultures and new ideas were battering tradition. Some overly archaic rites were being abolished.

For instance, in ancient times, women could never wear skirts that showed their ankles—even skirts that would be considered conservative today would still have been seen as improper.

There were bound to be ongoing arguments at court over which parts of the Yu Rites to keep or scrap.

A new imperial clan, once it seized power, would definitely want to revise the rites to display its authority. That was an inherent, irreconcilable conflict between the Imperial House and the chief ministers.

On some “rites,” the ministers would yield.

But there would definitely be other “rites” that the majority of ministers clung to and would absolutely never allow the Imperial House to abolish.

The Demon-Suppressing Bureau was probably one of those “rites.”

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Judging from the name, it was an agency that dealt only with demons and aberrations. It couldn’t interfere with court politics or civil affairs, but it held a lofty, above-the-fray status—even the Imperial House had no right to abolish it.

Naturally, the Imperial House would resent the Demon-Suppressing Bureau.

Not because these people slew demons and did good deeds—that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that those good deeds were credited to the Demon-Suppressing Bureau, credited to Great Yu’s Taizu who had established the system in the first place.

Mm… In short, they were offended because the Bureau wasn’t “one of their own.”

They’d definitely been targeted, which meant they had to act low-key. That, too, was a way of avoiding suspicion.

Bai Xiang withdrew her gaze from Yu He.

No wonder he was disgruntled.

She felt she might know why Yu He hadn’t been assigned a car.

But the bill still had to be tallied.

Playing with the phone in one hand, she stretched out her right hand toward Yu He.

“Hm?” Yu He was stunned. What was that supposed to mean?

“Not enough.” Bai Xiang didn’t even look up. “Don’t tell me this is standard issue for every new recruit and you’re calling it my ‘benefit’.”

How can this little girl be this sharp!

Yu He was so annoyed at his own clownery that he gave a bitter laugh, then, in resignation, took out his own device and swiped across it a few times.

“Okay…” His voice had gone weak. “I covered your commission fee… Someone’s already helping you post your info at the Jobs Directorate. You don’t have to walk a single step—just wait for the replies…”

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“Just posting my info can’t cost that much.”

“I also posted a ‘credit-collection’ mission for you.” Yu He ground his teeth and spoke each word clearly. “Not our Bureau’s points—your social professional credits at the Jobs Directorate!”

“People will put all the small game they’ve accumulated under your name! That way you can rush through the newbie phase. You won’t get stuck when you want to go deeper into the jungle later!”

Now that was more like it.

Bai Xiang nodded.

“You’ve had your welfare. Time we talked about obligations, right?” Yu He coughed, swapped to a different expression, and rubbed his hands together as he leaned closer to peer at her.

With that sleazy air, it was a shame he wasn’t acting in dramas.

“Tell me what I need to do.” Bai Xiang turned off the screen and looked at him.

Of course she knew there would be obligations.

In some overly conservative setups, obligations were equivalent to power. Rather than saying she’d joined for the benefits, it was more accurate to say she’d agreed precisely for that power.

“Simple.” Yu He glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, then rattled off in a low rush, “There’s a secret in Qingyun Pharmaceuticals’ lab. Lord Fang suspects they’re conducting taboo experiments. That so-called new cultivation drug, ‘Marrow-Washing Pill’, likely has huge hidden dangers. But right now he doesn’t have proof he can submit, so we need to find the evidence and bring it back for him to use.”

“The New Affairs Faction doesn’t have the guts for that.” Bai Xiang saw it clearly. “This is the Imperial House’s idea. What good is Lord Fang’s opposition?”

“The Imperial House doesn’t dare push it too far…” Yu He’s voice dropped to almost nothing.

“You get what I mean…?”

“It’s an open environment now… Not just here—there are plenty of eyes outside watching too…”

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Oh~

Bai Xiang understood.

It was the same old topic: the Imperial House had to save face.

As long as they could find proof that Qingyun Pharmaceuticals was colluding with foreign companies to “poison” people and make that evidence public, then even just for the sake of its own image and authority, the Imperial House would be forced to swallow back the shit it had already dragged out.

Just picturing that vivid scene put Bai Xiang in a much better mood.

She asked Yu He, “When do we move?”

“Wait for the notice.” Yu He nodded. “The fallout will be big this time. Your Aunt Tao will be making moves too—the entire Qizhou Demon-Suppressing Bureau will be coordinating. Once we’ve drawn their attention away, we slip in.”

So she still had time to take care of personal matters.

Buzz buzz.

Her new phone suddenly vibrated twice.

Bai Xiang unlocked it and saw that the job-seeker profile Yu He had posted for her already had results.

Not just results—quite a lot of them. Because Bai Xiang was now a public figure, once her information went up, plenty of security consulting firms went crazy sending her invitations.

She was a walking advertisement.

Even if they hired her just to keep her around and do nothing, they still wouldn’t lose out.

Bai Xiang had expected as much. She went through the invites one by one, ignoring all those that promised “easy work.”

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After she finished reading them all, she was a little disappointed.

Not a single local Qizhou security consulting firm was serious. The only two with a relatively earnest attitude were in Zezhou and Luezhou, and both required her to stay there long term.

That definitely wouldn’t do.

With no other choice, she opened a remote window to the Jobs Directorate’s main hall listings and started browsing the posted commissions, seeing if she could take on a few as an individual.

Hm?

Halfway through, Bai Xiang narrowed her eyes.

She’d spotted a commission. The client was “Chilong Jinshui Construction Co.” The job description read, “Inauspicious—details in person.”

Below was the reward: Two million yuan.

Two million—that was absolutely a major commission. Don’t think that’s small: remember, these commissions on the hall board were mainly aimed at individuals and small teams.

Jobs in the tens of millions or hundreds of millions usually went straight to security consulting firms. It was rare to see one leak out like this.

“Inauspicious, details in person” was also a known code. Any commission labeled like that, without exception, involved a Demon Pool.

This job had been up for a while already. The history record showed the client had raised the price seven times. The original reward had been only a hundred thousand, slowly ratcheted up to where it was now.

What caught Bai Xiang’s attention wasn’t the mysterious description or the high pay.

It was that this “Chilong Jinshui Construction Co.”—if she remembered correctly, the unfinished building Bai Shengju wanted to acquire belonged to them.