Chapter 439: Who Is the Real Demon (Combined Chapter)

Amid Heishanyang's cursing and grumbling, Li Ang, his body reeking of sour sweat, walked with the bundled-up Witch's Broom along the flow of people until he arrived outside the gates of the Char Hydropower Company.

However, he didn't rush in to begin his investigation. Instead, he first carefully observed the situation around him, walking several laps around the outer wall of the hydropower company.

Sure enough, in a shaded little alley, Li Ang found a large number of people in tattered clothes who looked "suspicious."

After cocking his ear to listen to their chatter for a while, Li Ang didn't directly ask about the situation. Instead, he silently slipped in among them, and with righteous indignation began bitterly cursing the hydropower company's shamelessness, striking a chord with most of the crowd, who then one by one joined in with furious cursing of their own.

After carefully memorizing the content of the curses from those wounded all over, and gathering enough rich information, Li Ang finally carried his broom back to the front gate of the hydropower company, and strode in with his head held high and chest puffed out.

"Halt!"

While Li Ang had been circling the hydropower company, the gate guard had long since had his eye on this suspicious-looking, shabby young punk. Seeing that he had finally come inside, he immediately intercepted him without a word, glaring ferociously as he threatened:

"Do you even know where this is—"

"The Police Department."

After flashing his credentials at the pock-faced gate guard, Li Ang glanced at the burly guard whose expression suddenly tightened, and demanded with a stony face:

"I'm here on a case. Take me to your security department's manager."

"Ah? Right, right!"

Identifying the credentials and rank of public officials is a "required course" for gate guards at big companies like this. After confirming that the seal and signature on the credentials were complete and didn't look like a forgery—

Faced with an assistant-level police officer, the burly gate guard, who had just been full of wariness, instantly fell in line. Without another word, he took Li Ang straight to the security department's office.

And after the security department's manager had looked over the credentials issued by the Cleanup Bureau, he likewise didn't—or rather, didn't dare—doubt Li Ang's identity, and instead asked with a smiling face what his business was.

Looking at the security manager's cautious demeanor, Li Ang figured that as long as he put on a stony face and said the words "classified mission," the man probably wouldn't press further, and would just muddle things along and let Li Ang in.

The reason was none other than this: the Cleanup Bureau's credentials really were useful.

In the kingdom's five-tier civil service system—Executive, Administrative, Clerical, Assistant, and Junior—Li Ang's assistant-level position only ranked fourth. It might sound like nothing special, but it had already solidly entered the middle ranks of the clerical system.

Translated horizontally to the kingdom's Ministry of War, it was equivalent to a company-grade officer able to command a two-hundred-man company. Tossed into a provincial prefecture outside the capital, he would even qualify to compete for a deputy position in a local department with real power.

Add to that Li Ang's age of only sixteen or seventeen, and that rather intimidating surname, and he might as well have had the words "not to be trifled with" written across his face. Faced with such a troublesome, unwelcome guest, the security manager naturally didn't dare block him outright.

After all, if he really pissed the other party off, even though the Char Hydropower Company had deep backing, it might not necessarily stick its neck out for a mere little manager like him. When the man came to retaliate, he'd still have to bear the consequences himself.

However…

Looking at Li Ang's excessively young face, the security manager—around thirty-something years old, with a perpetual ingratiating smile on his face—had the corner of his mouth twitch slightly, and a faint trace of contempt unconsciously seeped into his eyes.

Not daring to block him outright was one thing, but if this "Level-3 Incident Handler" had come with ill intent and wanted to stick his nose into things that were inconvenient to touch, then there were plenty of ways to stall him!

……

"Heh heh, it's actually nothing major."

After reaching into the shopping bag and patting Heishanyang's head, Li Ang looked at the security manager's soul flickering between compliance and resistance, and his expression instantly softened. He smiled gently and said:

"Recently, the number of people coming to your company to cause trouble has really been a bit too many. The Department is worried you won't be able to soothe their emotions, and that they'll storm the hydropower company, so we specially sent me over to make a trip and look into the situation."

Hearing that Li Ang was here to ask about the water supply, the security manager's heart gave an involuntary lurch. He immediately wiped the smile off his face, his expression turning troubled, and said:

"Well… it's not that I can't say, it's just that the company has rules for people like us…"

"Brother, I won't play games with you either."

Cutting off the security manager's stonewalling, Li Ang reached in and pulled out a soft-paper "Gao Te" cigarette case. With a practiced tap on the bottom, he popped one out. Then, mimicking the honest smile of a profiteering boss, and amid Heishanyang's heartbroken cursing echoing in his mind, he cheerfully offered the cigarette over.

"Just tell me straight—what's the actual situation with the public water pipes? I just want one answer: can you guys keep this under control or not?"

"Well… we definitely can."

After casting a covetous glance at the premium cigarettes that cost three silver wheels a pack, the security manager endured the itch in his heart and said with a forced laugh:

"It just needs a little more time, and as for how the final appeasement goes, it still depends on what the compensation plan actually…"

"You'd better tell me the truth!"

After glancing at the other man's soul, which was growing increasingly disordered under the pressure, Li Ang narrowed his eyes slightly and abruptly raised his volume to apply more pressure:

"What things have gotten to outside, I already saw on my way here!

The people blocking your gate may have been driven off by you, but the words on the wall—'Either pay for our medicine or come out and drink sewage'—haven't been scraped clean yet! You think I'm blind?"

"Well… I'm sorry, I'm just a security manager. How many people this actually affects this time, and how compensation should be handled—these things, I really don't know!"

"You may not know, but once you take me inside, you can help me find out."

"Well… although you're from the Police Department, these things are company secrets. No matter what, I'm still the security department's manager, I can't just…"

"The reason I came to you and not someone else is precisely because you're the security manager!"

Li Ang silently stepped forward half a pace, stared into the somewhat flustered security manager's eyes, lowered his volume again, and coaxed in a gentle voice:

"I originally thought I wouldn't need to remind you of these things, but it seems you don't have much self-awareness, huh?

Brother, use your head! If things really go south later, and a mob storms the hydropower company, will the higher-ups let you let them in? Or will they let you lead people to block them?

If during the process of blocking people, blood happens to be drawn, or if some of those patients who can't afford treatment and were carried here demanding money end up dying, do you think this thing will end up being pinned on you, the security manager, acting on your own authority?"

"Well…"

After hearing Li Ang's hypothetical, the security manager's expression couldn't help but change slightly, and a faint sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"I'm only following the rules, and… well… well, it's not necessarily going to blow up, the company might not necessarily…"

"Stop with the 'well this' and 'well that'! Would a company that, to save costs, directly pours sewage into the public water pipes care about the life or death of a single manager like you?"

After a glance at the other man's extremely unstable soul flame, judging that his psychological defenses had been shaken, Li Ang grabbed the security manager's hand and forcibly stuffed the entire pack of cigarettes into it.

Then, one by one, he pried the man's fingers closed, pressed his palm slowly around the cigarette case until it was gripped tight, then leaned in a little closer and said in a near-whisper, in a soft voice: "Think it over carefully. This thing really isn't that hard. In the end, there are only two possible outcomes.

The first: I investigate seriously, and you cooperate fully.

If something really does happen later, our Police Department will be prepared, and we'll get the situation under control sooner. You might even earn credit for timely notification and proper cooperation.

The second: you deliberately conceal the hydropower company's situation, delaying my investigation.

If a major mess breaks out later, the Department loses face, I take a serious fall, and you get stuck with the blame for triggering a bloody conflict, get fired from the hydropower company, and your whole family ends up scavenging in the slums."

Through a bit of rhetoric, he had secretly narrowed the scope of the other man's thinking down to a simple yes or no. Watching the security manager sweating buckets before him, Li Ang's heart was actually pounding fast, but his voice unhurriedly painted the picture in soft tones:

"Brother, have you ever been to the slums in the capital? Have you seen how the people there survive?

If you don't know, then I can tell you — they wear tattered clothes they picked up every day, even wrapping themselves in burial shrouds stolen from funeral companies.

They have to fight crows and stray cats for the garbage in the bins, scrounging through piles of toxic alchemical waste all day long, just to find a few scraps of old metal worth half a copper wheel.

And every winter, after a single heavy snowfall, the next day the trash heaps by the Public Works Department's cleaning carts would have a few more stiff, bony corpses on them — so frozen even wild dogs couldn't gnaw through them…

"Brother, think it over carefully. If you choose this path, will you and your family become one of them this year?"

After painting a bright future for the security manager, Li Ang watched the man's soul billowing with towering black flames, judged the moment was ripe, and abruptly pulled back, retreating more than half a step at once.

"Wait! Wait!"

Boom!

The grey-white defensive line in the security manager's soul — already thinner than an eggshell — was completely burned through by the surging black flames from below.

Li Ang's sudden, unheralded retreat was as if he had directly removed the last barrier between himself and the slums. The ashen-faced security manager followed almost on instinct, grabbing Li Ang's arm in a death grip, and stammered:

"You… I can take you to some… some places that aren't that important, but you can't sell me out! If you sell me out, I… I'll… I'll…"

"Heh heh, you can rest easy on that point."

After observing the man's soul state once more and confirming he had completely "broken," Li Ang — outwardly steady as an old dog, but in truth with his heartbeat already at a hundred and sixty — smiled and asked directly:

"Do you think selling out a single security manager would do me any good?

So you can fight to the death and stab me? So the higher-ups can find out I used improper means to get information? Or so the Water Company can file a complaint against me for stealing secrets?

Don't worry, I'm no fool. Something with not a single bit of benefit, and in fact nothing but trouble — how could I possibly do it?"

"You… you…"

Looking at the young man before him smiling gently, the security manager felt his eyes blur slightly, as if above the other's head he saw two sharp ram's horns wreathed in black qi.

After a sudden shudder, he dared not look again at this honest-looking young devil. He hurriedly turned his head away, hunched his back slightly, and led Li Ang toward the records room.

……

'Tsk tsk tsk… resentment, betrayal, envy, fear… you kid are something else!'

Looking at the security manager's soul, which had nearly burned pitch-black, Heishanyang couldn't help widening his eyes and clicked his tongue in wonder inside Li Ang's mind:

'You only said a few sentences, so how did his soul get stained black? This… don't tell me you have some other anomalous object? But I didn't sense one!'

'This isn't the effect of an anomalous object — it's the result of observation and judgment.'

Taking out a small bottle of cheap loose liquor he'd prepared in advance from the shopping bag holding the ram's head, Li Ang held his breath against the eye-stinging stench and took a big swig, activating the 【Martyr of the Wine Country】 badge. Feeling the fear and tension gradually fading from his heart, he pressed a hand against Heishanyang's forehead and explained calmly:

'Senior Auntie Ai Ma told me that no matter the situation, never underestimate the importance of intelligence. Careful observation, calm thinking, cautious judgment — those are why she's been able to stay safe in the Cleanup Bureau for six years.

And before I came in, I deliberately observed the injuries of those people who came to protest, and found they were all struck on the fleshy parts, which proves the security department was told to control their force. The one most likely to do this — after a serious incident — is the security manager, who would most likely be thrown away as a sacrifice.

From this I figured out that although he's part of the Water Company, his interests don't completely align with theirs. As long as I emphasize attacking what he fears, and pry his interests away from the Water Company, I can turn him into our helper.'

Good lord… setting that aside for now, you've already learned to communicate through souls? You really are a born devil!

Feeling the intent transmitted through the fingers into his own soul, Heishanyang felt a twinge of envy at Li Ang's "devil" talent and couldn't help but argue back:

'You got lucky! It was your first meeting — how do you know he wasn't just being soft-hearted, deliberately ordering them to hit lighter? And how do you know what he's afraid of?'

'If he were soft-hearted, he wouldn't have done it himself, and after achieving the goal of driving people away from the door, he wouldn't have kept chasing and beating those unarmed people with a weapon.

As for what he's afraid of… his collar is clean, his trouser creases straight, there's a family portrait in the frame on his desk, and a polo mallet in the corner — clearly a man with a stable life, a happy family, and the energy to pursue his own hobbies.'

Recalling the man in the family portrait, smiling warmly with his arm around his wife and child, and then the battered protesters in the alley, Li Ang couldn't help shaking his head with a complicated expression and continued summarizing:

'People like that fear most of all the breaking of their peaceful, stable life, and the fall of their own social class.

So as long as I link the consequences of not cooperating with me to those things, and keep interrupting him without giving him time to think, he'll naturally give in bit by bit.'

'…'

Damn! You kid really are… compared to you, this devil of mine feels like a fake!

After racking his not-very-bright brain and finding no obvious flaw, Heishanyang couldn't help but deflate and click his tongue, feeling his years as a devil had been for nothing. But he quickly recovered, and with an excited expression, shamelessly pleaded:

'Li Ang, Li Ang! When you sell him out later, can you take me along?

Heheh, because of his own weakness and cowardice, unable to resist the devil's temptation, cast down from peaceful human life into hell… that's just too interesting! I'm really starting to appreciate you more and more!'

"…"

'Why aren't you saying anything?'

After waiting a long while with no answer from Li Ang, Heishanyang couldn't help but be stunned, then said in exasperation:

'You wouldn't be going soft on him just because he has a wife and kids, would you? Damn it! Can you be clear-headed for a second? He's a Water Company lapdog! He led people to beat up those who came demanding compensation!

Kid! Didn't you want to punish evil and promote good? Then go all out! Once you've finished investigating the Water Company's problems, turn around and report him — sell him out hard!

Then step on his head with your shoe, tell him arrogantly why you did it, and let him taste what despair is in a living hell!'

"…"

'Let's see how things go…'

After a slight shake of his head, Li Ang sighed:

'Can't you see his soul too? He's not a good person, but the dark side of his soul isn't really much greater than an ordinary person's — it basically fluctuates around the same level, and even has a warm feeling to it.

If later we find out he's done a lot of dirty work for the Water Company, then when it's time to sell him out, I absolutely won't hold back. But destroying him and his family's life without even knowing his name — I feel that's still a little reckless… what's wrong with you?!'

Watching the dark flames suddenly surge up in his soul-vision, and feeling the intense yearning welling up from deep within Heishanyang's soul, Li Ang was about to ask in detail when Heishanyang's hysterical shriek suddenly rang out in his mind:

'My heart! My heart!'

'Who cares about reckless or not! Turn around now! Someone in that room we just passed touched my heart!'

(End of chapter)