The next day, Amelia intended to go to work.
To be precise, he planned to find a job under the district chief, observe up close whether the district chief was the person he needed to find, and then make the next step in his planning.
Having set his plan, he asked Yuzhi to take him to find the district chief.
Yuzhi assumed he was just like other people curious about the district chief, simply wanting to take a look at the district chief’s appearance, so she agreed very readily.
Yu Heng remained a bystander, making no attempt to intervene. He merely reminded his younger sister to be careful, completely ignoring Amelia, who was traveling with them.
Amelia didn’t care about his attitude either, huddling together with Yuzhi to discuss their itinerary.
According to Yuzhi, the district chief usually handled official business at home and rarely went anywhere else, so going to the district chief’s house would most likely allow them to see him.
Thus, after some discussion, they followed the nearest route toward the district chief’s house.
Along the way, he heard a few rumors about this district chief.
This district chief, named “Jiang Huaifeng,” seemed to come from the Eastern Capital.
People from the Eastern Capital possessed somewhat aristocratic habits; Jiang Huaifeng greatly disliked the chaotic and disorderly state the Abandoned District was in initially, and after successfully establishing his position as district chief through several cleansing incidents, he immediately laid down an absolute and sole rule that had to be observed prohibiting any moves against minors.
“However, in reality, the district chief doesn’t like dirty environments either,” Yuzhi said. “The district chief periodically launches district-wide cleaning campaigns; those who cannot maintain cleanliness and tidiness, the milder cases don’t get relief food, and the severe ones are driven out of District C. Only minors are an exception.”
It sounded like this cleaning was meant to sweep away disobedient people. Perhaps it was a way to establish prestige.
To be honest, Amelia wasn’t interested in these things; he had no intention of meddling in human power struggles, nor did he wish to criticize human methods of governance.
Yet he didn’t interrupt Yuzhi’s words, weaving through the shattered roads as he listened, and about an hour later, they caught sight of the district chief’s house.
As the administrator of District C in the Abandoned District, the place where the district chief lived might not be the largest in the entire area, nor the most conspicuous, but it was definitely the best.
A three-story detached villa, cyan-gray roof tiles blending into the bluish-gray sky, off-white brick walls standing tall, connecting exquisite corridors and arches, echoing with the tower structure on the right side, matched with circular arched windows and a gray-black gate. The overall color tone was soft yet magnificent, and the carving and decoration in the details fully demonstrated its owner’s elegant taste.
Amelia even caught sight of a pretty little fountain in the courtyard through the gaps in the villa’s fence, continuously gushing out clear water and letting it flow onto the lush green lawn. In a place where water resources could be considered precious, such a setup could be called extravagant.
Unfortunately, despite the seemingly close distance, he could not advance a single step further.
At the villa’s main gate, two men stood on the left and right like guarding stone lions, blocking uninvited and unwelcome guests.
“The district chief does not hire minors to work here.”
They had robust builds, different hairstyles, and different clothes, yet wore the same fierce and malevolent expressions, looking at Amelia with disdain, “No matter how many magic tricks you can perform or what other intentions you might have, without the district chief’s permission, don’t even dream of sneaking in.”
This familiar, ruthless attitude and familiar mocking language brought to mind the tattooed man guarding the red-light district.
Perhaps these people had all undergone the same batch of phrasing training, just like those demons who always demanded souls as a price when deceiving humans outside… Amelia couldn’t help defending himself: “It’s not magic tricks, it’s magic. And I am an adult.”
Clearly this statement had zero effect, the indifference on the two guards’ faces was as if welded on, and nothing could change them.
Hypnosis magic might work, but his magic power wasn’t enough to support escaping afterward.
“What age counts as an adult around here?” Amelia pulled Yuzhi into a secluded corner, asking in a low voice.
Yuzhi was still surprised by the fact that he had come to seek refuge with the district chief, but upon careful thought, she could understand it… Amelia probably thought it was easier to survive staying by the district chief’s side; many people here held this thought, pitying that the district chief didn’t easily accept others’ allegiance, turning many people away over the years with only a rare few lucky ones succeeding in taking refuge.
These thoughts spun through her mind, and catching sight of Amelia’s inquiring expression, she felt somewhat helpless: “Eighteen, of course. Do you even not remember this?”
Eighteen?
Amelia pondered; his current appearance converted into human age was roughly fourteen or fifteen, not too far off.
“If I say I am already an adult…” Before he finished speaking, he saw Yuzhi shake her head.
She gestured the height difference of about ten centimeters between the two of them and ruthlessly announced: “Even if you say you’re an adult, nobody would believe it.”
Yuzhi looked twelve or thirteen years old, with a height of around one meter five.
Amelia’s gaze lingered on the hand Yuzhi used to gesture for quite a while before accepting this cruel fact his current self was just a little brat barely ten centimeters taller than Yuzhi.
His gaze swept past the burly guards, refusing to give up, and he walked around the perimeter of the house once more.
There were no railings that could be climbed, nor any dog holes that could be crawled through.
Set against the backdrop of hazardous housing in the Abandoned District, it was truly rare.
“Of course there wouldn’t be any,” Yuzhi pointed at the faint red glow on the tips of the fence: “That’s electrified. Someone tried to climb in before, but got shocked half to death, stuck on the railing for half the night before being let down. There won’t be holes either; the district chief really hates anyone damaging his home, and those who tried don’t know where they went, anyway their corpses were never seen. Right, don’t even think about stealing electricity from the fence; if you’re discovered, you won’t live to see the next day’s sun.”
…She seemed to have casually uttered some very terrifying words.
Amelia shifted his gaze away from those fences, feeling somewhat disappointed.
The main entrance couldn’t be entered, the side entrances weren’t there either, and his magic power was insufficient; it seemed this attempt wouldn’t work. Approaching wasn’t even possible, let alone completing the mission.
Better recover his magic power first… He sighed.
On the way back, since there was still enough time, they stopped by to collect today’s share of relief food.
While the two of them were queuing up, Amelia asked casually: “It shouldn’t be everywhere here that forbids children from working, right?”
If that were truly the case, he might as well leave the Abandoned District early and go look around elsewhere.
Going on like this, he would surely starve to death.
Yuzhi shook her head: “Aside from the district chief’s place, other parts of District C don’t require adulthood.” That was why she had proposed looking for a job.
Even so, this wasn’t good news for Amelia.
For now, he only wanted to approach the district chief and didn’t want to waste time looking for jobs elsewhere. Yet the district chief’s obsession with protecting children blocked off the convenient path.
Even if biological instincts possessed a protective urge toward the next generation, such behavior genuinely exceeded a demon’s comprehension. A demon’s preferential treatment toward children was limited strictly to infancy; it was impossible to protect them to this extent.
“Does the district chief hate children?” Such numerous restrictions would only target things one disliked, right?
Originally expecting Yuzhi, as a local resident, to provide an answer, she lowered her head to ponder for a moment before saying: “I don’t know. The district chief has never said why he does this, and nobody dares to ask him.”
She hesitated slightly before adding: “Though there are some grapevine rumors.”
“What are they?”
“Some say the district chief might be a child-loving pervert,” Yuzhi said earnestly. “My brother also said it could be true, telling me not to get close to the district chief.”
Amelia secretly glanced back, tossing out the remark: “There are rumors like that too?”
If it were true, how could this district chief reject minors from going to his house?
An opportunity to walk right into the trap like this wouldn’t be passed up by any pervert.
This talk was most likely, just like the explanation of exchanging bodily fluids, a kindly white lie told by that older brother to his younger sister.
Just as Yuzhi wanted to say more, someone interrupted from beside them: “You guys don’t get it, how could someone like the district chief possibly like children.”
Amelia had seen this person before; it was the guy covered in purple emotions who had gone to the red-light district the other day. He stood in the neighboring queue, roughly parallel to them, and had probably overheard their conversation.
“Then what do you know?” Yuzhi strongly resented others negating her brother’s words and glared over.
“Hey, I know quite a lot,” this person lifted his chin. “But I won’t tell you for free. Nowadays, whether outside or inside, information is money.”
He rubbed his index finger together meaningfully, “If you want to know something, you have to pay a corresponding price, understand?”
An information broker?
Hearing this, Amelia recalled that after being in this world for so long, he didn’t seem to have seen silver coins, gold coins, crystal coins, gemstone coins, or anything similar from his hometown.
Succubi basically never worked; plenty of people proactively delivered money. He had originally thought he could quickly complete his mission and go home, never expecting to encounter so many twists and turns.
Only after starving for so long did he accept the tragic reality that without making money, he wouldn’t get to eat his fill, and he intended to go look for a job.
Before that, hanging around various places looking for food, he had only seen people here bartering, or finishing a transaction by touching hands together and ending it with a “beep” sound, without seeing actual money.
What did the money here look like? What kind of currency system did they have?
He wanted to ask Yuzhi, but Yuzhi had started arguing with the person rumored to have information, leaving her no time to mind him.
Yuzhi: “What you know is just stuff heard anywhere, what makes you say what I heard is wrong?”
“You little brat, do you know what connections are?” The information broker clicked his tongue, “What I’m talking about is something you couldn’t even imagine, naturally much more reliable than yours.”
“I think you’re deliberately lying and saying other people’s news is fake just to scam money.” Yuzhi looked entirely unconvinced, “Actually, you don’t know at all.”
The information broker instantly flared up as well: “That news of yours sounds completely made up just to coax you; only a little kid without any sense of proportions like you would believe it. Who doesn’t know how many people the district chief has turned away who tried to send kids to his house?”
Amelia squeezed in: “Then why do you think he set this kind of rule?”
“Of course it’s because he lost his younger brother or sister in his early years, feeling a sense of guilt…” The information broker suddenly stopped, growing vigilant, “Turns out you guys were trying to scam info out of me!”
“Who cares about your bit of fake news.” Yuzhi remained bitter about this person’s negation, “Nobody would believe it even if you told it for free.”
The information broker retorted, “Ha, if you ask me, with someone like you, lying flat at the district chief’s doorstep wouldn’t make a single person spare you a second glance!”
“Who are you talking about?”
“Who else could it be, of course…”
Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly noticed the voice was off it wasn’t that little girl, it was an ominous male voice, and it came from behind.
He instinctively turned back, locking eyes with a pair of deep, grayish-green eyes.
The owner of the eyes was walking over slowly, a small knife fluttering between his fingertips and flashing a silver light, “Go on, I also want to know who.”
Seeming coerced by the oppressive aura, the surrounding people slightly cleared a path for him. Everywhere there were people who simply wanted to survive and didn’t want to court trouble.
“I, I…”
The information broker instantly felt things weren’t looking good, looked left and right, coughed twice, and while nobody was paying attention, suddenly lowered his head, slipped into the crowd, oiled his soles, and ran away.
“Brother…” Yuzhi looked indignant, filing a complaint, “That guy was just a liar, talking nonsense.”
“Mm.” The moment Yu Heng faced his younger sister, he put away that murderous aura, stashed the knife away somewhere, and patted her head, “Don’t mind what he said.”
“I know.” Yuzhi puffed out her cheeks, “But he insisted on saying Brother you were wrong, so hateful!”
“What he says doesn’t count.”
“Right, doesn’t count. But Brother, why did you come?”
“Just passing by.”
After the two chatted for a bit longer, Yuzhi’s mood gradually calmed down, and she chattered away about the events of their trip.
Amelia was left out of the picture, watching the heartwarming scene between the siblings without the slightest surprise.
This guy had been leisurely following behind them, observing their every move ever since they stepped out the door; how could he possibly let his younger sister get bullied?
Along the way, hearing those footsteps that remained persistently not far away, he could only recall a vocabulary term he had heard from humans back in his hometown what was it called… seemed to be, overprotection?
Or a sister complex?
Whichever it was, Yu Heng definitely leaned toward that tendency regarding his younger sister.
Next time, he’d better try his best not to go out with Yuzhi. Having someone always tailing along made certain things clumsy to execute.
Amelia narrowed his eyes slightly, recalling what the information broker had said earlier.
The district chief had once lost a younger brother or younger sister?
If it were true, what if he disguised himself as this younger brother or sister would he be able to approach him faster?
It seemed somewhat easier than approaching through work, and at least nobody would drive him away on the grounds of being a minor.