"Um... I understand."
Xu Xiaoyou couldn't win against the woman and eventually accepted the peace bracelet.
The jade beads on the bracelet were crystal clear, strung together with fine cord. The texture was delicate and the design unique.
The exquisite inlay work revealed its extraordinary quality at a glance; even at a pawnshop, it could be exchanged for a considerable amount of money.
Xu Xiaoyou estimated that this bracelet was worth at least a thousand credit points.
She didn't understand why the woman, whose life seemed so impoverished and who was suffering from a serious illness, was unwilling to sell the bracelet to improve her situation. Instead, she had kept it like a precious treasure until today.
Perhaps this bracelet held a very special meaning for her.
And yet, she had given such a valuable thing to her.
To a stranger she had only met once.
When it was time to say goodbye, Xu Xiaoyou stood at the door and watched the woman's breathing gradually slow down as she slowly closed her eyes.
The afternoon sunlight spilled over the woman's body, and the wind blowing into the room played with her hair, making it shimmer in the gaps of light.
After a long time, the woman looked as if she were asleep, her face serene.
In the afternoon, Xu Xiaoyou continued to wander through the slum. As she passed the entrance of a pawnshop several times, her gaze toward the bracelet wavered slightly.
Ultimately, she recalled the woman's eyes at that moment and silently tightened her grip on the bracelet, pressing it to her chest.
While she couldn't claim her morals were particularly noble, she couldn't bring herself to do something as low as selling a treasure someone had entrusted to her.
"I'll keep it on me, for peace," she whispered.
At dusk.
The setting sun cast its glow on an agency. In the golden light, the sign of this agency appeared somewhat dilapidated and old; the words 'Raven Agency' were blurry and hard to read due to peeling paint.
On a few locust trees planted at the courtyard entrance, several ravens perched on the branches. Their black feathers seemed to reflect the light, looking brilliant from a certain angle.
Their wings were tucked against their bodies, their sharp gazes fixed on something until movement from below sent them fluttering into the sky.
"Sigh... another day with no revenue. If this keeps up, the agency is going to have to close down."
A youth holding a broom dusted off the courtyard, sighing as he looked at the increasingly ruinous state of the yard while sweeping away fallen yellow leaves.
"Rent, utilities... and protection fees. Heavens! The three grade 1 fixers I managed to recruit last month haven't been heard from since. I'm just too unlucky..."
"Damn it, you could have at least finished the commission for me before dying! The commission failed, causing the agency's rank to drop again. I already couldn't get much work, and now the commission page won't even recommend resources to my agency."
The youth kept complaining as he returned inside after finishing the cleaning.
There were still a few scattered figures in the room. They were all bottom-tier fixers within the hive city, having no reputation to speak of.
It made sense; famous fixers grouped together or had long since signed contracts with high-ranking agencies that monopolized the big jobs. The cleverer ones even started their own agencies to cut out the middleman.
As for these guys in front of him, some might not even be registered with the association, taking jobs under self-proclaimed fixer titles.
Normal agencies wouldn't look twice at this kind of fixer; only an agency like his, located in the slum, would give them work.
Though the youth looked down on these guys in his heart, he had to remain polite on the surface.
After settling their commission fees, the youth found an excuse to send them all away.
Only a woman dressed in a tight black outfit remained.
She wore a black bodysuit, her entire face covered by a heavy metal mask, and a long trench coat draped over her. To him, she felt like a mountain whose peak could not be seen, her presence steady and powerful.
The emblem pinned to the shoulder of her coat was very conspicuous. The pattern was an open palm with an eyeball in the center. The veins were so realistic it felt as if a hideous eye were actually staring at him, making the youth shudder.
"Li Xu, Director of Raven Agency, a grade 1 agency. A total of thirty-two commissions were processed this month. You are required to pay 1,200 credit points to the association."
The woman's voice came from beneath the heavy metal mask, devoid of any emotion, cold as the sound of mechanical gears grinding.
Hearing his name, the youth hurried forward and paid the credit points in front of her. Only after watching her leave did he dejectedly close the agency doors.
Li Xu knew she was a 'Palm' member of the Fixer Association, specifically tasked with collecting protection fees from every agency registered in the hive city, euphemistically called taxes.
Ordinary fixers dealt with these people most frequently. As one of the association's primary sources of funding, their attitude toward collecting these fees was terrifyingly firm.
The power of these Palm members could almost rival that of a Wing investigator. They didn't care if you were registered or what your agency was named; as long as you opened for business under the guise of completing commissions and finished even one, they would be at your door the next day to collect taxes like jackals tracking prey.
God knows how advanced their intelligence system was; nothing could escape their sharp noses.
If you were smart, you'd just register your agency on the official website and pay the money to be done with it.
If you dared to resist, an extermination commission with your name on it would be listed on the commission board the next day. The Palm members wouldn't even need to lift a finger; the rogue fixers scattered throughout the hive city would swarm like sharks smelling blood to tear you apart and grind your bones to ash.
Sitting in the empty agency, Li Xu stared blankly at the association page showing his barely grade 1 agency.
It had been almost half a year since he took over his father's agency. The Raven Agency, which used to be somewhat famous in the slum, had completely declined, dropping from grade 3 all the way to grade 1. He had thoroughly squandered the family business.
After paying the protection fee, the agency's current liquid assets weren't even ten thousand credit points. It wouldn't be long before he had to close up shop.
At the thought of this, he couldn't help but feel a wave of grief. He stumbled to the backyard and came before his father's grave.
The solitary cross standing in the ground had been blown crooked by the wind, looking incredibly desolate.
"Dad..."
Li Xu sprawled on the ground, weeping bitterly.
"Just one step... I was just one step away from becoming a grade 4 agency and getting the association's attention and resources..."
"Just one step away from letting you rest in peace up there."
"I'm sorry, Dad. I failed your expectations and couldn't inherit the family business properly."
"It's so painful, Dad. I really don't know what to do anymore... I'm a failure as a son!"
At that, Li Xu's expression turned resolute and fierce. He stood up and kicked the cross over.
"From now on, we're through! I'm no longer your son! You old fogey, dying so early and making me suffer so much."
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