Gloria turo Marcus, this time she really was surprised, a little shocked, even. Marever mentiohis person. If he had known already, everything would have been so much easier.

  “Are you saying - Mr. Liaoran is - ”

  “What his name was, is, is not important.” Chef Tang shrugged: “Liaoran is but a ritualistiame, with no ties to his birth identity. It belongs to that temple he resided in. It’s a temple no one has authority over and wants to be in charge of.”

  “Wait - I heard of him as well.” Gloria raised her hand: “He’s - he’s the mentor of my boss - I mean my mentor.”

  “Oh.” Chef Tang almost ughed out loud: “I see - good to know that he is not locked in his position and still trying to make a difference, fragile bance be damned.”

  “’t say that I’m surprised. Those who made the deal obviously are not holding up their end of the deal - or at least not holding it as holy as they should.” Marcus took a deep breath: “Maybe - maybe I’ll go ask him.”

  “What else do we know about this - this Master Liaoran? ” Gloria scratched her head: “What you tell us about him? I mean - he even tell us if we asked? He’s a pilr, that means - there’s a ton of responsibilities on his shoulders.”

  “I trust that you already know, he was one of the most powerful mystic martial arts practitioners of his time. No one really knew what style he started with, but it’s been proven that he is deeply knowledgeable and experienced in a wide variety of them.” Chef Tang sighed: “And I guess this is for the best, because whatever he teaches you, they will have a hard time trag ba. And even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

  “I sure hope so.” Marcus sighed.

  “And there’s one more thing I believe you’d be ied to know.” Chef Tang snapped his fingers: “sider this a bonus, and a token of my gratitude and appreciation. Have you entered watchers of sites?”

  Marcus and Gloria looked at each other ohen Gloria answered on behalf of them: “No - I don’t think we have - ”

  “Good then. Because that would be - suboptimal.” Chef Tang nodded: “These are remnants of the old days, we haven’t had any sihe st 15 year cycle - they are powerful guardians of various sites of paranormal death of burials - they are, in theory, uhe trol of the highest power in the unity collective, or the city. They are, in principle, stationed in every site spread around the city. But they are short-handed because they haven’t had any viable new didate in a while.”

  “But - how - ” Gloria wao follow up with a question before a staffer rushed into the room and whispered something to the Chef’s ear.

  “Just go get that folder.” Chef Tang said to the staffer with a frown: “We’ll deal with this ter.”

  The staffer nodded ahe room in a hurry, just like he came in.

  “Something wrong, Chef?” Marcus asked.

  “A group of people of unknown loyalty attacked your prect, Detective Cai.” Chef Tang looked Marcus in the eyes.

  “What - what the fuck! How dare they!?” Marcus wao rush out, but ulled back by Gloria.

  “Yoing back to your prect might not do anyone any good.” Chef Tang also moved to block Marcus’ artially: “It seemed either the city or your captain had sent in a team to deal with it. The pce is in total lockdht now, only specifically authorized personnel are allowed in. There were no casualties so far. Some officers were injured, a few of them were in critical dition. And some other officers were missing - your friends included. There’s no evidehat they are subject to any harm. Just hang on a sed.”

  “But - what for?” Marcus wao bash something or throte or a tea cup to the wall, it was only the fact that he was in the shop keeping him in check.

  “For what you came here for. I think it’s time that I deliver anyway.” Chef Tang sighed.

  The staffer that came in earlier came back, with a thin dark browher folder in his hand. Chef Tang took the folder, took a quick look at the files inside and ha to Marcus: “This is all we gathered so far from those men. Not a lot. Far from enough. We were only able to verify some of the information. So - e baore, though don’t be too hopeful. The measures put on them - they’re awful but they did the job.”

  “Thank you. Thank you Chef.” Marcus bowed to Chef Tang, before rushing out of the noodle shop.

  Shout outs to my patrons:

  mant06

  Jonathan

  Thank you very much!