That evening, in Lu Zhao's room.
Zhang Like carried a crate inside, grinning ear to ear. "Old Lu, look what good stuff I brought you."
Lu Zhao had a bad feeling.
Under his gaze, Zhang Like set the battered crate on the floor and pulled open the lid, revealing a box filled with "red gourds."
They were treasure-vase-shaped red ceramic gourds, their surfaces glazed with golden rosette patterns and the large character "Lang."
Zhang Like took one out to admire it, clicking his tongue. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Prime stuff. Real quality. This is intermediate life supplement—our border defense station usually never gets so much as a drop.
"Old Lu, care for a taste..."
He looked up, only to meet a pair of dead-fish eyes radiating undisguised contempt.
"What's with that look?"
Lu Zhao said, "No dogs or corrupt officials allowed in here."
"I knew no ivory would ever come from a dog's mouth." Unfazed, Zhang Like chuckled. "If you don't take it, someone else will. You're broke, yet lately you've been chugging life supplements like crazy. Out of pity, I played the crooked official just this once for my brother.
"Besides, this hardly counts as graft. Mo Kun bought it with his own money. When has our station ever had a quota for intermediate life supplements?"
Lu Zhao retorted, "And where did his money come from? Truly an unsolvable mystery."
"You really don't want it?"
"No."
"I figured you wouldn't."
Zhang Like fished a receipt from his pocket. "Mo Kun brought this to butter me up, but I didn't actually accept the bribe. I bought it at the internal price.
"'Promotions and fortune call for Honghualang.'"
Lu Zhao glanced at the receipt, his expression softening somewhat. "That really is cheap. A thousand a bottle."
On the open market, intermediate life supplements averaged three thousand yuan. Their energy density was twice that of low-grade ones, but with fewer impurities, making them much easier to absorb.
One thousand a bottle was indeed the standard internal price, but in this era, quota came first, ahead of money.
Many goods couldn't be bought with cash alone; one needed ration coupons.
"That's the perk of being inside the Federation system," Zhang Like said. "Out there, much of the economy is market-driven, where rarity drives up the price. But within the Federation, we operate on a rationing system, sometimes pricing things below cost.
"It's also the advantage of holding rank. Every ounce of power has its perks."
The two of them had merely taken temporary control of a battalion-level unit, yet someone had already presented an entire case of intermediate life supplements.
Zhang Like counted them up, opened the refrigerator, and crammed them inside.
"Nine bottles in total. Pace yourself. Good stuff like this doesn't come around every month."
Lu Zhao took out twenty thousand yuan from his pay and handed it over to Zhang Like. "Including what I owed you before."
Zhang Like didn't bother counting it, shoving the cash straight into his pocket.
There was no need for hollow pleasantries or feigned refusals; even close brothers settled accounts clearly.
Lu Zhao hesitated for a moment, then added, "My life force has reached 37 points."
"That's great. Higher life-force development leads to faster promotions..."
Zhang Like's words trailed off midway as he snapped his head up. "How much?"
Lu Zhao repeated, "To be exact, 37.4."
If he intended to remain in the Federation, his level of life-force development couldn't stay hidden forever. The quarterly physical assessments and evaluations each year were unavoidable, and every promotion or benefit was tied directly to one's degree of life-force development.
Late bloomers were hardly rare throughout history; many Martial Marquises hadn't stood out from the start either.
Lu Zhao was already regarded as a genius, so even if his life-force development advanced by leaps and bounds, no one could fault him.
With Zhang Like supporting him so staunchly, Lu Zhao couldn't repay him materially just yet, so showing his progress in life-force development was his way of demonstrating commitment.
Calculating the timeline, the next physical would be in September, and by then he had already decided on his destination.
Once his life force reached fifty points, he would apply to transfer to the Chishui Legion, where localized warfare was still underway.
"37.4... Back in March at the start of the year, you were only at 35 points, weren't you? Our station only provides low-grade life supplements, yet relying on those alone, you've gained over two points in less than half a year!"
Zhang Like stared in astonishment, growing all the more shocked the more he thought about it.
Two points in four months meant six points over a full year.
For Lu Zhao to advance at such a pace while juggling demanding duties, using nothing but low-grade life supplements, made him a genius among geniuses.
With talent like that, there truly was no need to fear Lü Jinshan.
"At this rate, you'll hit fifty points the year after next at the latest. When that time comes, you can request an autonomous transfer to civilian work—you won't have to pander to anyone anymore."
Zhang Like grabbed Lu Zhao by the shoulders, his face flushed red with excitement. "Once you move to a better unit and secure more resources, your rate of development will only get faster!"
The Federation's administrative hierarchy comprised eight ranks: Clerk, Deputy Clerk, Chief Clerk, Officer, Adjutant, Chief Officer, Martial Marquis, and Palace Martial Marquis.
Once someone reached the Chief Officer rank—the chief executive of a prefecture—they were without exception superhumans of at least the third rank.
Previously, Lu Zhao's resources had been constrained by his rank, and his rank had been suppressed by factions led by the Chen family, leaving him with virtually no hope of rising.
Now, even with limited resources, Lu Zhao could develop so swiftly that the Chen family wouldn't be able to hold him down at all.
Lu Zhao was now like the Great Sage Sun about to break free from the Five-Finger Mountain.
Zhang Like fished the twenty thousand yuan back out and grinned. "Brother Lu, let me lend you another twenty thousand. Once you become a prefectural chief executive, just remember to pay me back a hundredfold."
"Get lost."
"I'm not joking. You still need money to buy your life supplement quota this month, don't you?"
Zhang Like shoved the money back into Lu Zhao's hands, making it abundantly clear that no matter how Lu Zhao refused, he was dead set on getting in on the ground floor of this investment.
Familiar as the two were, Lu Zhao revealing his level of life-force development had clearly shifted the dynamic.
Zhang Like seemed even more thrilled than Lu Zhao himself, pacing back and forth across the room and counting on his fingers how many points Lu Zhao would gain in a year, and how many in ten years.
Ultimately, he concluded that Lu Zhao would at least become a third-rank superhuman in the future, with a real shot at rising to a prefectural chief executive.
"All right, let's talk business."
Lu Zhao held down the restless Zhang Like. "How did the investigation into Lü Jinshan's brother go?"
Zhang Like answered, "His brother is named Lü Bowen. He runs three bars."
Lu Zhao said with conviction, "So he's tied to organized crime?"
"Hard not to be," Zhang Like said, shrugging. "Most likely he's even a local gang boss."
In this era, bars were hands down the most lucrative service industry.
Any random bar could turn a profit margin of over ninety percent; it was practically picking up free money.
And that was only the smaller portion. The real money lay in the gray industries.
Such venues served as dens for fencing smuggled goods.
All sorts of contraband smuggled in, female and male prostitutes trafficked from Miye Sanjiang, and illicit funds from various channels were laundered through these bars.
At the same time, operating a bar required a gang presence to keep order and enforcers on the payroll, and gunfights could erupt whenever things went south.
Anyone capable of opening a bar couldn't possibly have clean hands; anyone with clean hands wouldn't open a bar in the first place.
The era following the Cataclysm was already half an age of chaos. The Federation could only maintain broad, general order, leaving it powerless against the chaos festering in the shadows.
Chapter 44