"I’m afraid our partnership has come to an end. I plan on finding a place to lay low for a bit."

"However, if you two can make it worth my while, I wouldn’t mind killing Chen Cheng for you before I go."

Li Hu and Zhang Bao exchanged a look, both clearly tempted.

Li Hu asked, "Master Fei, what’s your price to make a move?"

Ren Fei held up two fingers. "This much, and not a penny less."

Li Hu’s brow twitched. "Two thousand taels is too much. If we spend that much silver, how are the brothers in the Tiger and Leopard Gang supposed to survive? Besides, Chen Cheng is just a Perfect Martial Artist of the Skin Grinding Realm. He’s not worth that kind of money!"

Ren Fei remained unmoved. "Killing an Official of the City Guard Department is a capital offense. If I kill a Chief Constable, the entire City Guard Department will hunt me down, and I’ll have no choice but to leave Linji City."

"Considering that, this price is already a bargain."

...

An hour later, Li Hu and Zhang Bao politely escorted Ren Fei to a guest room in the back courtyard of their headquarters.

After some haggling, the Tiger and Leopard Gang agreed to pay one thousand taels of silver to hire Ren Fei to kill Chen Cheng.

Ren Fei also laid out a condition: he would decide the time of Chen Cheng’s assassination, and the Tiger and Leopard Gang was not to interfere with his actions.

Back in the main hall, Zhang Bao said, "Big Brother, we just lowered our cut, losing twenty percent of our income. Now we’re putting up another one thousand taels of silver. With the men earning less, I’m afraid they’ll cause a fuss."

Li Hu replied, "Second Master Zhou is the one who wants Chen Cheng dead, so naturally, he should be the one to pay."

"And then there’s Yang Xingyao. He thinks he can make the Tiger and Leopard Gang take a loss just because his uncle is the Chief Constable? In his dreams! That twenty percent cut the gang is missing—he’s going to be the one to pay for it. If he refuses, we’ll expose the fact that he hired Ren Fei to commit theft at Qingshui Pier."

"Either way, once Chen Cheng is dead, our Tiger and Leopard Gang has to come out of this with some sort of profit."

Zhang Bao said, "Big Brother, you always think so far ahead!"

Li Hu shook his head. "If Chen Cheng weren’t a Chief Constable, and a rather formidable one at that, why would we need to go through all this trouble? We could’ve just found an opportunity to take him out ourselves!"

"Having Ren Fei willing to take this job is much safer than our Tiger and Leopard Gang doing it ourselves."

...

Meanwhile, after leaving Sun Chengbang’s house, Chen Cheng followed Ma Zehua and Xie Tao to the alley corner where they had set up their ambush. He looked around. ’It really looks the part.’

"Xie Tao, you were pretty clever to find this spot," Chen Cheng praised generously.

Xie Tao scratched his head and chuckled. "It’s all thanks to your excellent guidance, Mr. Chen!"

Chen Cheng shot him a look. "How is this my guidance?"

Xie Tao quickly replied, "Mr. Chen, didn’t you say there was a ten-tael reward for finding a trace of the thief? When I was on duty, all I could think about was that reward silver, and the idea just came to me."

"Hah!" Chen Cheng hadn’t expected the kid to be steering the conversation toward the reward. But since he was a man of his word, he took out a ten-tael silver note. "Here. This is the ten-tael reward. You two can split it."

"Thank you, Mr. Chen!" Xie Tao took the silver note gleefully. "Brother Ma, how about we split it fifty-fifty?"

Ma Zehua shook his head. "This was all your idea, and you did most of the work. You take seventy percent, I’ll take thirty. We’ll split it fifty-fifty next time."

Xie Tao hesitated, "I don’t know about that..."

"Alright!" Chen Cheng waved his hand, cutting them off. He then pressed two ten-tael silver notes and two taels of broken silver into Ma Zehua’s hand. "All the men who rushed over to help when they saw the signal tonight performed well. Give each of them a one-tael silver reward. You can distribute it when you’re off duty."

"Yes, sir!" Ma Zehua was overjoyed.

"Remember, this is an extra reward. Tell everyone not to go spreading it around," Chen Cheng added, before heading in the direction of his home.

’It’s a bit of a shame I didn’t catch the thief in this Sun Family matter, but I still got a hundred taels of silver. After deducting the thirty-two taels I gave out as rewards, I still have sixty-eight taels left.’

’Judging by how motivated these constables are, there probably won’t be any major cases on the night shift this month. If I give each of them a three-tael stipend, that comes to sixty-six taels.’

’I’ll still have two taels left over. It’s not a lot, but it’s better than nothing. At least all this work wasn’t for nothing.’

’Most importantly, I should be able to go back to being a hands-off manager and focus on cultivating the Martial Dao.’

’By next month, I should be able to cultivate the Momentum for my Powerful Eagle Claw Skill. When that time comes, I’ll need to finally resolve the Gentry Zhang case.’

As for the culprit’s whereabouts, he would naturally demand them from the Tiger and Leopard Gang. And whether they handed the person over or not, Chen Cheng would no longer tolerate them operating right under his nose.

’Only by getting the Jianghu Gangs in my jurisdiction under control and turning them into my own informants can I be considered a proper Chief Constable.’

’Cultivating reliable informants would be incredibly useful for handling cases and dealing with enemies in the shadows.’

After all, cultivating informants was a simple matter for Chen Cheng, not a difficult task like it was for Yan Jian. It wouldn’t get in the way of his Cultivation of the Martial Dao.

...

「The next day.」

Lishui Sub-Office Hall.

The seven constables who had left Chen Cheng’s command arrived early for roll call. Having been assigned to a new Chief Constable, they were naturally eager to make a good impression.

After the roll call, a few of them gathered together to chat.

"Brother Liu, Brother Ma, how are things for you two under Mr. Wang?" one of the constables asked.

"Not bad. Mr. Wang is taking good care of us. We were assigned to patrol a good district," replied the constable known as Brother Liu, puffing out his chest with a hint of pride.

He and the constable surnamed Ma were more powerful, so they had been taken under Wang Xiongjie’s command.

The other five constables were taken in by Chief Constable Yan Jian and assigned to duty in the Lotus Pier area.

"Xiaojin, how about the rest of you?" Constable Liu asked.

"We’re doing great, too!" Constable Jin smiled, then lowered his voice. "Mr. Yan even gave each of us one hundred copper coins, telling us brothers to go buy some drinks."