Take You Down

"Got it, Iron-Blooded Inspector. I won't call you that again." Tu Ran walked off without looking back.

Leaving the old man behind, fuming and stamping his feet.

When Tu Ran got home, another message from Xie Xu was waiting for her—he wanted her at the Black Market training ground by two in the afternoon.

She threw together a quick meal, packed her gear, and headed out.

Today's Black Market looked much the same as yesterday's, throngs of people flowing back and forth. But Tu Ran noticed things she hadn't seen before.

Like the heavily made-up women on the streets, beckoning to passersby.

And the women in bright dresses standing at the doors of drab shops.

If you looked closely, their facial expressions were stiff, lips curved into smiles that never wavered.

They were robots.

Built by humans to service physical needs.

Machines this lifelike were forbidden under Federation law, so they could only surface in a lawless place like the Black Market.

Tu Ran walked past them, heading for the small clinic where the mechanical head had led her yesterday.

Inside, the same cheap disinfectant smell hit her.

Four people lay on the beds—those with the worst injuries from yesterday.

Tu Ran glanced at them. Aside from the one she'd kicked in the vitals, she didn't recognize the other three.

Xiao Jiu came up to greet her. "You're here. Xie is already down below."

Tu Ran nodded and walked toward the storage room in the back, asking casually, "What happened to those three?"

Xiao Jiu didn't get which three she meant at first, blinking in confusion before it clicked. "After you left yesterday, Xie had them spar with him a few rounds. He beat them into that state."

Tu Ran raised an eyebrow. Xie Xu really didn't hold back—he didn't even go easy on his own men.

Xiao Jiu pressed a mechanism, and the stairs down to the underground training ground slowly appeared.

"Ha!"

Xiao Jiu shouted, and all the lights came on.

"Please, Miss Tu." Xiao Jiu made an overly polite gesture of invitation.

Tu Ran headed down the stairs, remembering how Xie Xu had sent someone to ambush her yesterday, so she stayed on high alert.

She walked for eight or nine minutes without running into any ambush. At the bottom, she saw Xie Xu standing on the ring, waiting for her.

Tu Ran pressed her lips together awkwardly.

She'd overthought it.

Xie Xu gestured for her to come over.

For a split second, Tu Ran felt like she was marching off to her doom.

She set down her backpack, took off her mask and sunglasses, and stepped onto the ring.

"I heard you killed Lu Huaiwei from the Executive Department today," Xie Xu said, expressionless.

Word travels fast.

Tu Ran nodded in acknowledgment.

"He was one of the best hand-to-hand fighters among the guards. How did you take him down?"

"Just like you taught me—find different openings based on your enemy's strengths and weaknesses. Lu Huaiwei was bulky and immensely strong, which meant he was clumsier and slower than me. As long as I stayed quick and agile, kept out of his grip, beating him wasn't hard," Tu Ran said seriously.

"And if your enemy were me, what would your strategy be?" Xie Xu stared at her.

Tu Ran was silent for a moment, meeting his gaze, and said calmly, "I'd take you down before you ever became my enemy."

For now, Xie Xu was stronger than her, so she'd do her best to avoid making an enemy of him. But if things ever got to the point of no return—and she was still weaker—she'd use every dirty trick in the book to eliminate him.