Chapter 27: Passing score, stubborn and self-righteous!

"Come in."

A powerful voice came from the room. Cheng Ye turned around, patted Raul's stiff shoulder, and pushed the door open.

As the duty stationmaster of North Station, Bean Downs has an independent office of 150 square meters.

The office is divided into inside and outside.

In the outer area, huge floor-to-ceiling glass windows cover the entire west wall, allowing you to take in the entire wilderness outside the checkpoint.

There is a large dark walnut desk in front of the window, with leather folders and brass paperweights neatly stacked on the table. An old-fashioned clock makes a steady "ticking" sound in the corner.

The inner rest area is separated by a sandalwood screen inlaid with mother-of-pearl patterns, through which the outlines of a leather sofa and a whiskey cabinet can be vaguely seen.

This is an old man who knows how to enjoy life.

Cheng Ye walked in slowly, his eyes sweeping across the wall opposite the door, where hung photos of all the previous duty station chiefs of the North Checkpoint, and finally settled on the individual photo in the center.

The man in the photo had a neatly trimmed gray beard and eyes as sharp as an eagle. He was the perfect example of a typical British gentleman in Cheng Ye's stereotype.

At this moment, the real person was sitting behind the desk, holding a half-smoked cigar between his fingers, flipping through documents, and the ashes fell into the carved wooden ashtray, forming a small pile of light gray snow.

"Hello, Station Chief Tang Si, I'm Cheng Ye, the trainee prosecutor reporting to the North Inspection Station today."

"Young man, I've heard of your name."

Bean Downs slowly raised his head, put down the information, and smiled, "But that dates back to seventeen years ago, when your grandfather was still alive."

"My grandfather?"

Cheng Ye remained calm.

Liu Bi has kept Cheng Long's mouth shut about how and where he died, saying only that he would tell him the truth when Cheng Long completed his first field mission and was able to survive independently, let alone a "grandfather" whose name he had never heard of.

That’s not right. Where did my predecessor get so many awesome relatives?

With such a background, he wouldn't end up in such a miserable state in the inner city. He would still be a... ahem. until his death.

"Ah, you don't look like Cheng Long at all, but you do look a lot like your grandfather..."

Towns' eyes were a little wandering and his speech was incoherent, as if he was reminiscing about the past long ago.

It took more than ten seconds before he gradually came to his senses.

"If you hadn't fired, I would have given you a 90 for your performance today. You've already shown potential to be even better than Cheng Long at this age. You're more mature and more resourceful than him."

"If you had only fired one shot, I would have lowered your score to 70. Knowing how to use the rules to protect yourself and to restrain the enemy is something that should be praised!"

"But unfortunately, you fired two shots, so I can only give you a passing score of 60. Don't learn from Cheng Long, and even more so from Liu Bi. They got to where they are today not by muscle or recklessness, but by...luck."

As if he was teaching his juniors, Towns spoke slowly and shook off the ashes from his cigarette from time to time.

"Okay, don't worry too much. I have some friendship with that old man Cheng Wu. Although he didn't have the face to ask me to look after the younger generation before he left, I won't pay special attention to a junior like you at this time."

"Stay inside the checkpoint. I will ensure that you are absolutely safe. No one will specifically target you."

"Out of that line..."

Tang Si pointed outside the floor-to-ceiling window. Cheng Ye turned around and saw a widened yellow line about three meters thick running across the eight inspection passages.

The yellow line is particularly eye-catching. If you want to cross the yellow line, you have to leave the passage, which is equivalent to going to the wilderness outside the isolation area.

"Any questions?"

"That's all. Thank you, Station Master Downs, for your care. I will always remember it!"

Cheng Ye bowed slightly and felt more favorable towards the old man in front of him.

There's no need to lie to him given his status. If you really want to do something dirty, there are too many ways to do it.

But since these words can be said, it means that the Western faction is not as monolithic as they think, and there must be different voices within it.

This also conforms to normal logic. It would be strange if a faction only had one voice left.

"Okay, now that you've reached 60 points, you deserve this first evaluation. Also, remember to come to me for my signature before each rotation."

Downs pulled out a piece of white paper covered with words from a leather folder.

The upper half of the white paper contains Cheng Ye's basic information, the lower half is the internship evaluation column, and the bottom is stamped with the vermilion seal of the North Inspection Station.

According to the inspection station's rules for probationary conversion, if Cheng Ye wants to leave the probationary period and become a formal first-term inspector, he must obtain three such evaluation papers at the central inspection station and the north-south inspection stations.

Towns' willingness to give him one at this moment clearly indicated his recognition of his performance during the report, both in terms of methods and mentality, which met the minimum standards of an inspector.

Of course, Cheng Ye guessed that if he could get what Towns called "90" points, he would have not one, but two, or even three.

but...

"Thank you, Station Master!"

"Go ahead."

Cheng Ye nodded, folded the evaluation paper, put it in his backpack, pushed the door and left the office.

What was somewhat surprising was that Raul did not leave, but was standing at the railing not far from the office waiting for him.

"Hmm? Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

Cheng Ye couldn't help but feel curious.

According to the usual villain's behavior, Raul should now say a few harsh words to tell him that this matter is not over.

As long as he stays at the North Checkpoint for one day, the second-generation rich will unite and target him to death.

Unless one day he is willing to kneel down and beg for mercy, this matter can be put to rest.

However, the reality was completely opposite to what he thought.

"Prosecutor Cheng, if possible, I would like to make a deal with you."

Raul came over, his face no longer stiff, his expression calm with a hint of flattery.

"Oh, tell me about it."

"Garcia is Jamie's uncle. He's targeting you largely to vent his uncle's anger. We instigated Jamie at the time simply to see the Eastern prosecutor embarrassed. To be honest, we would have done the same thing today whether it was you or another Easterner. We weren't targeting you specifically."

Cheng Ye hummed with a nasal sound and gestured to continue.

"The struggle between the Eastern and Western factions is a conflict between prosecutors, a conflict of interests. It has nothing to do with us, the younger generation, who don't know when we will succeed."

At this point, Raul lowered his voice, "Jamie's father only has this one son. Even if I kneel before you today, I can still be a prosecutor in the future. But I'm different... My father has four sons, and I'm the eldest. If I surrender to you today, he will never let me inherit the position."

"So you want me to act with you?"

"No need." Raul shook his head quickly. "As long as you don't tell anyone about what happened today, and don't spread it around among the Eastern community like Uncle Jamie Garcia did, I will make sure nothing happened today, and everyone will forget these unpleasant things."

Hey, there's something.

Cheng Ye narrowed his eyes and looked up and down at the blond boy in front of him.

The others still had a sense of childishness and ignorance, but in Raul, he had already caught a hint of calculation that did not belong to his age.

"What can I get?"

"A promise."

Raul immediately spoke seriously, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the buttons on his cuffs. "This is the most valuable bargaining chip I can offer after careful consideration. As long as it doesn't involve the prosecutor's factional struggle, I can guarantee... no matter what happens within the North Station, I will unconditionally protect you once."

"Or to be more precise, even if it involves a direct conflict between factions and you are trapped in the North Station, I can buy you some time to call the Easterners for help."

Cheng Ye didn't care about the first half, but the second half...his eyelids twitched after hearing it.

"You seem a little brave, don't you?"

"You're welcome."

Realizing that the deal was done, Raul breathed a sigh of relief and smiled from the heart.

"There's only one inspector's seat, and my three younger brothers are all eyeing it. What do you think? Should I roll in the mud with them, or make friends with someone who dares to shoot at a checkpoint?"

"Okay, I'll pretend nothing happened today."

Cheng Ye waved his hand and walked away.

They are just a bunch of second-generation rich kids who grew up in a greenhouse. When it comes to ruthlessness, they can't even compare to the kids in the orphanage.

What's more, he had no intention of revealing this matter to anyone, so getting Raul's promise was an unexpected surprise.

However, after taking two steps, Cheng Ye suddenly stopped and turned his head, which frightened Raul so much that he almost had PTSD.

"Is there anything else?" Raul suppressed the panic in his heart.

"I'm supposed to be on duty in Area A today. Since this is my first time here, why don't you take me there?"

"It's my honor."

Damn, why didn’t you tell me earlier? You scared me.

Raul secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but he also made up his mind to stay away from this plague god in the future.

In fact, I should have thought of it earlier. How could someone who dared to come to North Station for the first rotation be unprepared?

It's just that the other party was born too young, which gave everyone the illusion that he could be easily controlled.

But in fact, they and Cheng Ye are not opponents of the same dimension at all. This man's methods are so ruthless that they are even tougher than some second-term inspectors.

And the most troublesome thing is that this guy knows how to exploit the rules of the checkpoint.

It’s better to leave it to the prosecutors of Harlem’s faction to deal with such smart people.

...

"This young man is too aggressive. I think he'll die after just a few rounds."

The footsteps outside the door gradually faded away.

A figure appeared from behind the office screen. It was none other than Deputy Station Director Ivan Davidson.

"Acting ruthlessly but with an unstable foundation, you will ultimately be stubborn and self-willed, harming both yourself and others."

"So I said... he is a bit like Cheng Wu."

Tang Si chuckled and continued, "But if young people don't have a strong temper, can they still be called young people?"

This statement seems to have a specific meaning and is obviously a double entendre.

Davidson's expression changed, and his back suddenly straightened. "I've been busy with field work lately and haven't been strict with my discipline. Stationmaster, don't worry, this kind of thing will never happen again."

"That's good. North Station has been so noisy lately, it's inevitable...it's making a fool of itself for outsiders."

...