Arknights, the Angel of Justice is waiting for level 16

"This is Uptown. I can manage it."

"What do you care about? You want me to report the case to you? Chen, even though I was a little crazy when we first met, you don't hate me so much, do you? Do you want me to die?"

Ji Luo pretended to be horrified, and Chen was so angry that he couldn't catch his breath and started coughing.

"Ji Luo! If you are the reporter, the Longmen Guard Bureau will protect you!"

"Really? I thought... you would chop me off and send my head to the Rat King just to keep the peace."

Ji Luo knew, of course, that Chen would never do that, but the girl was really cute when she was angry, and he wanted to look at her a few more times.

Chapter 22: Questioning

"Ji...Luo!"

Chen looked at Ji Luo with gritted teeth. She had never thought that there could be someone so hateful. His broken mouth always poked at her sore spots, almost making her angry to death.

What made Chen even angrier was that what Ji Luo said were all facts and she had no way to refute them and could only be criticized!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh - I'm so angry, I really want to beat him up!

"What's wrong? Why don't you refute me? Wait! That kind of thing couldn't have really happened! No way~ No way~ No way~"

Ji Luo laughed so hard that his whole body hurt. He looked at Chen's angry look and wanted to tell her that she was very cute.

——But for the sake of his own life, Ji Luo didn’t dare to say it.

"At that time, I was not in the Longmen Guard Bureau!"

Chen was so angry that her chest was filled with rage. She stared at Ji Luo angrily, wondering which law of Longmen he had violated and why she had to beat him up right away.

However, the girl looked at Ji Luo, who was covered in wounds and blood, and ultimately did not harm him.

"Hey! Take care of your wounds quickly, don't die."

Chen threw the waist bag hanging on his body to Ji Luo. Ji Luo was hit on the wound and grimaced. After opening the waist bag, he found that it was full of first aid supplies.

"Chen, is this the first aid kit issued by the Longmen Guard Bureau? It must be quite expensive, it's full of good stuff."

"Use yours!"

Chen held his hands in front of his chest and tilted his head to the side, because at this time, Ji Luo took off his T-shirt and prepared to apply medicine on his chest.

"Chen, I understand that this first aid spray is used to stop bleeding, but what does this ointment mean? Should it be taken internally or applied externally? Should it be used first or later?"

"Use that cleaning agent first! Are you stupid? You can't even do first aid!"

Chen was annoyed by Ji Luo's noise. She felt that all the anger in her life had been vented today.

She hated Ji Luo, very much, because not only did he always stare at her corners, but he also acted very intimately in his words. The most disgusting thing was that he seemed to be very familiar with her, and many of his words were implicitly or explicitly pointed to her.

These are all reasons why Chen can ignore Ji Luo——

But Ji Luo was beaten all over by the Rat King's men in the Upper City area under her jurisdiction. She couldn't give him justice. If she ignored his injuries, she would... feel uneasy.

"Clean the wound first, then use first aid spray to stop the bleeding, and then apply ointment!"

Chen gritted her teeth, her crimson eyes filled with annoyance and resentment. She walked to Ji Luo, snatched the cleaning agent from his hand, and began to spray it on Ji Luo's wound.

The wound on Ji Luo's chest was caused by Wei Hao using the horn of the Fengti tribe. The skin and flesh were rolled up, and although the wound was not deep, it was very wide.

Chen knew that the cleaning agent was painful, so she deliberately sprayed a lot of it, but what the girl didn't expect was that Ji Luo gritted his teeth and didn't even cry out in pain, but just smiled happily to the point of being disgusting.

"Why are you laughing so disgustingly?"

Chen snorted heavily, and his hands did not slow down, but he did not torture Ji Luo deliberately anymore.

Chen's first aid skills were very good. In just a few minutes, Ji Luo's chest and elbow wounds were healed. As for the remaining smaller wounds, the girl ignored them and snorted coldly, letting Ji Luo deal with them himself.

"Thank you."

Ji Luo stopped teasing at this time, and thanked Chen very seriously. The girl punched the grass twice and said in a stiff tone, "You're welcome."

"Ji Luo, what are you going to do in the future?"

"Me? What else can I do? I'll just keep selling my fries."

Ji Luo knew what Chen was asking, but he didn't explain in detail, he just told the result.

"Don't worry, the Rat King has calmed down after my beating. He probably won't bother a little grasshopper like me anymore."

"That's... not bad."

Chen actually wanted to say that was great, but when she thought about the connections involved, the girl felt ashamed and angry. As a member of the special inspection team, why did she have to keep giving in when it came to matters related to the Rat King!

"Right~ I'm already doing pretty well. I made the Rat King unhappy, but I'm still alive. As for those whose bodies became fertilizer for growing flowers, I guess their graves are already covered with a sea of ​​flowers."

Ji Luo's words were mixed with praise and criticism, and every word between the lines was stating the power of the Rat King. Chen grabbed the grass with both hands and broke all the stems.

"Ji Luo, you don't have to keep reminding me! I understand! Our Longmen Guard Bureau can only manage the Upper City District. The affairs of the Lower City District are under the control of the Rat King. We have no right to interfere!"

"Is it that I have no right to ask, or that I cannot ask?"

Ji Luo turned his head and looked at the girl with burning anger in her eyes. There was no joy or sadness in her eyes, like a pool of water.

"Chen, what was your dream when you graduated from the Victoria Royal Guards School? Are you getting closer to your dream now?"

"I……"

Facing Ji Luo's calm gaze, Chen suddenly could not utter any evasive or perfunctory words. She remained silent and looked away.

"Chen, what does the Dragon Gate look like in your dreams? Now, is it as close as you dreamed of?"

"..."

"Chen, what do you dream of yourself like? Now, are you getting closer to your dream self?"

"enough!"

Chen finally couldn't stand Ji Luo's questioning anymore. She had thought about these questions before!

For countless nights, she was alone, asking herself these questions. Every answer made her depressed, and increasingly unable to answer, to the point of... despair.

She seemed to be stuck in a quagmire. She was full of vigor and vitality when she graduated and wanted to protect everyone in Longmen, but now she has been constantly compromising and giving up. In the end, it seems that all she can protect is such a small corner.

"Why...why did it become like this!?"

"Because you put too much pressure on yourself."

Ji Luo was applying medicine to the wound on his calf while mumbling his answer.

"Chen, there is a saying in my hometown that each generation can only do its own work. The previous generation supported Longmen and made Longmen develop, grow and prosper. What do you think your generation should do?"

"Make Longmen better!"

Chen's eyes were red, but she didn't cry. She glared at Ji Luo, as if she would punch him if he said something wrong.

"Well... Chen, your idea is good. But have you ever thought about what the previous generation thought?"

Ji Luo put down the ointment, unwrapped the bandage, and wrapped the wound in circles.

"In their eyes, you are still young, or too young. You are impulsive, irritable, and emotional... In the eyes of the elderly, this means you don't know the importance of things and don't know how to weigh things."

"What they actually hope is that the next generation will be mature and steady, and keep Longmen the way it is now. They don't seek to make any achievements, but only to avoid mistakes. As long as they can protect the empire they have established, that's enough."

"Besides, they are not dead yet! This city belongs to them. Their hard work, soul, and hope are all here. You want to change, but do they want to? Will they let you? Chen, what makes you think you can succeed?"

Chapter 23: Ji Luo, you broke the law

Facing Ji Luo's questioning, Chen's eyes were rippling like water waves. These questions, these key points...she had never thought about them before.

The girl habitually thought that since everything she did was to make Longmen better, her interests must be consistent with Wei Yanwu and all the people of Longmen.

However...is it really like this?

"Ji Luo, everything I did was to make Longmen better. Am I wrong?"

Chen is not a fool, on the contrary she is very smart. She understood the meaning of Ji Luo's words and became confused.

"It is human nature to yearn for beauty and justice. You are certainly not wrong, but... you are too clean."

Ji Luo's words were meaningful. Chen frowned, not understanding the deep meaning, but Ji Luo did not explain to her.

Because Chen now has too little experience, many of the things she does are essentially unable to change any situation.

She was just forcing herself to run in the opposite direction.

She went with hope, but in the end all she had left was disappointment, because she was wrong, many things were wrong.

If she continues on this path, she will pay a huge price and eventually lose everything she has now.

So, Ji Luo decided to tell her, tell her some truth, a corner of this world.

This way, at least she can be given a chance to turn back and prevent future tragedies from happening.

Ji Luo could have chosen not to say these words, but looking at the young and innocent Chen, he still said them.

Because, he likes Chen the most in the game.

"Chen, you are regarded as stubborn by your superiors, and you are also regarded as stubborn by your subordinates. Do you know how others view you?"

"I...want to protect them."

Chen knew that the "downtown" in Ji Luo's mouth referred to the people in the downtown area. She couldn't answer Ji Luo's question because she knew very well that the slums' prejudice against the Longmen Guards made them hate themselves.

"Chen, why do you think the Lower City District hates the Longmen Guard Bureau?"

"Because there are so many infected people in the lower city, they feel that... Longmen has abandoned them."

“That’s an important point, but it’s not realistic enough.”

Ji Luo tied the bandage on his leg, picked up a wooden stick from the ground, and started drawing.

"Chen, you have to know that the essence of human survival is resources! Food is a resource, clothing is a resource, housing and education are also resources. Human output is a constant, but distribution is a science."

"People are not worried about the lack of resources, but the inequality of resources! How many resources can each person in the upper city of Longmen get on average? How many resources can people in the lower city get on average? If I were a person in the slums, I could only drink cold water and eat steamed buns every day. I would want to blow Longmen up to the sky!"

"This is survival and hatred! How much investment has been made in the downtown area? How many factories are there? How many jobs are there? How much are the salaries? They are human beings and can create value! But you just throw them there, watching them eat garbage, drink sewage, and live like dogs. Who do you want to be grateful to you?!"

When Ji Luo finished speaking, it even sounded like he was questioning Chen. Chen lowered his head and listened to him without saying a word, his throat was dry.

"Chen, Longmen's resources are fixed. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. If the slums are left alone, they will only expand, not shrink. You've seen it with your own eyes, am I right?"

“Yes, the number of people in the downtown area has been increasing.”

Chen You has specifically looked into this. Although there is no accurate data, many poor people who are not infected have been forced to live there.

"Chen, people have to live. There are people in the lower city too. They all have to live and have something to eat! Without proper jobs, what do you think they should do? What do you want them to do?"

"..."

"What's the downtown area like? You know, the Dragon Gate Guard Bureau can't get in, gangs are rampant, and the Rat King maintains the balance with a gray order. What does this mean? Do you understand what this means?"

"..."

"The downtown area is like a garbage dump, a stinking garbage dump! The infected, the poor, the criminals, the spies, the local gangs, the foreign gangs, the Integration Movement, the bounty hunters, and all kinds of unknown people are all free, just like going home!"

Ji Luo had been to the slums, and he felt that he had really broadened his horizons. Public security was maintained by gangs, and death was as common as the death of a rat.

"Chen, the upper city below you is as bright as the lower city! Counterfeiting, smuggling, stealing, hiring assassins, murder, robbery, and rape are common! Do you know what else is there? There are also casinos, drugs, and brothels!"

"That's enough! I know...I know!"

Chen knew it, but she didn't dare to think about it. She really didn't dare to think about it. But at this moment, Ji Luo tore open his wound bloodily and questioned her.

"Chen! Right now, at this very moment, there are countless people in the Lower Town who are addicted to gambling, living a life of drunkenness, and forcing women of good families into prostitution! Do you understand?"

"I understand! I understand!"

The girl gritted her teeth, covered her cheeks with her hands, and cried in pain.

Because of her integrity and justice, she could not tolerate these things and felt even more desperate and painful.

Chen was born into a wealthy family. She had never felt hunger or poverty. A good education made her honest, brave and confident.

She is dedicated to her duties and hates evil. Her courage and perseverance are moving. No matter how dark the road ahead is, she never retreats.

——She has never retreated, will not retreat, and does not know how to retreat.

Just at this moment, when Ji Luo revealed all this bloodily, and described the darkness of decadence with the most real and cold words, the girl finally collapsed.

Because of powerlessness, because of incompetence, because of impossibility, and also because... there is no solution.

"Chen, please raise your head. You have done nothing wrong. Everything you have done has made beauty even better and light even brighter. So many people need to thank you."