After stepping out from the detention wing, Flandre decided against leaving the Guard Department complex right away. Instead, she wandered over toward the high-ceilinged offices housing the Major Crimes Unit.
Adhering strictly to the spirit of 'since I'm already here anyway,' she planned to drop by and say hello to Ch'en and Hoshiguma. After all, passing by their primary workspace without stopping to greet them would feel rather impolite.
"You two go on up without me! I have paperwork piling up," Beatrice called out from behind, waiving her hand lightly as she watched the pair head toward the central stairwell before turning back toward her own office.
Arriving at the entrance of the Major Crimes Unit, Flandre pushed the heavy oak doors open to reveal a room bursting with bustling activity.
This was easily the busiest sector in the entire Lungmen Guard Department—and simultaneously its most unshakeable anchor.
Although the Guard Department naturally shouldered border security duties along Lungmen's outer perimeter—meaning the Major Crimes Unit wasn't the city's highest-tier heavy tactical force—they were undeniably the ones operating closest to the daily, chaotic dangers faced by ordinary citizens.
The populace of Terra, after all, was fundamentally different from ordinary citizens of peaceful worlds. Infected individuals, high-tier Arts practitioners, and seasoned martial artists were everyday realities here, to say nothing of militarized hardware and dangerous Originium gear circulating through dark channels.
The Major Crimes Unit was tasked with stepping directly into armed robberies, serial homicides, and high-threat crises.
Lungmen was vast, and with the city expanding rapidly over recent years, the demographic composition had become increasingly complex. On top of that, the baseline physical capabilities of Terrans were naturally high. As the old saying went, 'with a weapon in hand, the urge to strike arises naturally.'
In a Great Yan cultural sphere where martial arts had flourished for centuries, there were always individuals who had mastered a trick or two and possessed an ego to match.
As everyone knew, martial artists who trained themselves to become as humble and broad-minded as Master Chongyue were a tiny minority. Most martial practitioners were far closer to Zuo Le when he had first arrived on the scene—utter hotheads with fiery tempers, convinced they were superior to everyone around them.
Not only did they consider themselves above civilian laws, but they also possessed hair-trigger tempers. This inevitably led to endless street brawls between rival martial arts schools, or arrogant practitioners picking fights with ordinary civilians.
When the Guard Department arrived to break up these altercations, even if those martial artists knew deep down they were in the wrong, their stubborn pride made them refuse to cooperate with LGD Operators. Many would instinctively lash out and resist arrest, turning what should have been a simple public disturbance into a full-blown martial artist riot.
Cases of that nature ultimately fell straight into the lap of the Major Crimes Unit.
Just looking around the main office today, a good portion of the open case files pinned to the bulletin boards fell into that exact category. Because of this high operational intensity, every single Operator assigned to Major Crimes possessed impressive combat skills and sharp reflexes, giving them a much more composed, reliable aura than standard patrol officers.
The moment Flandre strolled into the room, several busy Operators froze for a second before lighting up with warm, welcoming smiles.
"Miss Flandre! What brings you over to Major Crimes today?!"
"Good morning, Miss Flandre!"
Flandre cheerfully waved and greeted everyone in return, even though she couldn't match names to most of their faces.
Soon, the lively commotion at the entrance caught the attention of a certain remarkably tall, green-haired Oni. Hoshiguma stepped over, her towering frame casting a soft shadow, before effortlessly reaching down and lifting Flandre up into her arms like a huge plush toy.
"Flandre!" Hoshiguma chuckled warmly, her voice dipping into a playful, affectionate tone. "What brings you all the way over to our side of the building?!"
"Flandre came to visit a friend down in holding!" the little vampire replied happily, swinging her legs slightly. "Since I had nothing else to do, I wanted to drop by and see everyone before heading home. By the way, Sister Hoshiguma, where is Sister Ch'en?"
Flandre glanced around the spacious office floor, but couldn't spot Ch'en's rigid, upright figure anywhere. Given her workaholic nature, Ch'en certainly wasn't slacking off in a breakroom.
"She's out on a rapid-response call," Hoshiguma explained, holding Flandre comfortably on one arm. "You know Lungmen United University, right? Someone was causing a massive disturbance right at the main school gates, and the campus security placed an urgent dispatch call. If it were anywhere else, local precinct units might have handled it, but United University is essentially the prestigious public face of Lungmen's academic sector. So our unit was dispatched directly. Judging by the time, she should be wrapping things up right about now."
Just as she finished speaking, a desk phone nearby began to ring. Hoshiguma carried Flandre over and scooped up the receiver. "Major Crimes Unit!"
"It's me, Ch'en. The situation at the university gate is resolved. If there are any other high-priority calls in this district, forward them directly to my unit!" Ch'en's sharp voice came through the receiver, sounding distinctly annoyed.
"Whoa, Ch'en, why are you so fired up?" Hoshiguma teased with a grin, ignoring the operational request for a moment. "Did you run into a tough customer out there?"
There was a brief, tense silence on the other end of the line as Ch'en apparently realized her tone had given away her emotional state.
"...The troublemakers had already been completely neutralized by a university instructor before we arrived. By the time our squad pulled up, they were all tied up in a neat pile on the sidewalk..." Ch'en grumbled through the speaker.
"Huh?" Hoshiguma blinked in genuine surprise.
According to the initial dispatch report, the troublemakers were a notoriously aggressive gang of street thugs who thought university students were easy targets. They had been loitering around the campus entrance, demanding "toll fees" from passing students and harassing female undergraduates until an outraged passerby called the emergency hotline.
While those thugs were hardly high-tier martial masters, they possessed zero moral boundaries, were thoroughly crude, and carried concealed knives and dangerous restricted weapons. While not overly complex to handle for LGD veterans, they were certainly dangerous to unarmed civilians.
Yet, that entire group had been completely flattened before Ch'en's squad even arrived.
Flandre blinked her crimson eyes as she listened. A tiny rat-eared figure instantly popped into her mind. If she remembered correctly, that person had mentioned during a previous gathering that she worked as an instructor at Lungmen United University. Furthermore, her practical combat abilities were top-notch, and she shared a long history with Ch'en.
Could it be her?
"Was it Sister Lin who beat them up?" Flandre asked innocently, tilting her head toward the phone receiver.
"Huh?" Hoshiguma blinked, looking down at Flandre in confusion. Who was "Sister Lin"? Why hadn't she heard Ch'en mention such a person before?
Ch'en, listening over the line, also caught Flandre's voice clearly. She was initially surprised to hear the little vampire hanging out at Major Crimes, but after putting two and two together, she let out a heavy sigh.
"Judging from the clean crystal-glass lacerations and internal contusions on these thugs, it's undeniably the work of that rat," Ch'en replied, her voice laced with mild exasperation. "There were dozens of student witnesses standing right at the school gates, so she couldn't hide her involvement even if she tried."
"Uh... then don't we need to track her down and bring her back to headquarters to file an official Good Samaritan statement?" Hoshiguma asked, somewhat puzzled.
Ch'en was notoriously rigid when it came to protocol. She executed every single procedure strictly by the book. Under standard operating conditions, even if a civilian helper had already resolved the threat, LGD protocol required bringing that individual back to the precinct to log a full statement. Yet Ch'en seemed completely intent on skipping that step entirely.
"No need," Ch'en answered crisply without an ounce of hesitation. "I'll arrange for a junior officer to take her written statement on campus later and bring the paperwork back to the office."
What a joke! Lin Yuxia was the daughter of the Rat King—the undisputed shadow ruler of Lungmen's underground network!
Inviting the Rat King's daughter to the main LGD headquarters for a casual cup of police tea? If her underground contacts misunderstood the situation and sent a fleet of black sedans full of mobsters to block the front entrance, what then? At worst, if those gangsters put on a grand public spectacle of 'welcoming the Young Mistress back from custody' right outside the Guard Department's front doors, where would the LGD's public reputation go?!
Even though they were childhood companions, the grown-up Ch'en understood all too clearly... that in certain delicate political situations, keeping an appropriate distance was the only sane choice.
"Uh... alright then," Hoshiguma chuckled, hanging up the phone before setting Flandre down gently onto her feet. She looked down at the little girl curiously. "So, who exactly is this 'Sister Lin'?"
"Sister Lin is just Sister Lin!" Flandre smiled brightly, her crimson wings fluttering softly behind her back. "We met previously during Madam Fumizuki's private tea party, and she mentioned she was working as a teacher over at United University!"
Flandre intentionally omitted Lin Yuxia's deeper family background. Simply stating that they had met at Madam Fumizuki's exclusive private gathering was more than enough—the sharp-witted veterans of the Major Crimes Unit would automatically fill in the high-society blanks and know better than to dig any further into her file.