Chapter 1422: Chapter 1422: The Person Walking on the Edge of the Cliff (Requesting Monthly Tickets)
Denno City·Northern District
Ding——
Accompanied by a crisp sound, He Ao walked out of the elevator.
A slender, clean corridor flickering with bright lights appeared in his field of view.
On either side of the corridor were narrow doors, each with a number indicating the apartnt’s identifier.
Very soon, He Ao reached the end of the corridor, standing before the apartnt with the lit number 1923 on the door.
Judging from the exterior wall, this apartnt seed slightly larger than others, but only marginally so.
At the end of the corridor was a narrow window, where bright sunlight stread in, landing at He Ao’s feet.
He Ao lifted his head, glanced at the number light again, and pressed the doorbell.
Ding dong——
With the crisp doorbell sound, so noise seed to emanate from behind the door.
Soon after, a light flickered at the door’s peephole, as if soone was observing the scene outside through a remote cara system.
“Please wait, stay in the living room for a mont.” Then, a slightly hoarse middle-aged man’s voice sounded in He Ao’s ear.
Ka——
Soon after, the lock naturally unlocked, and the entire door retreated a bit, indicating it was unlocked.
But that was all.
Clearly, this wasn’t one of the high-grade electric doors popular in the Federation’s central high-end apartnts, as it didn’t have an automatic opening function.
He Ao took a look at the opened door, then reached out his hand, grasped the handle, and gently pushed the door open.
From deep within the apartnt ca the rustling sound of water, as if soone was washing their hands.
He Ao slowly lifted his head, inspecting the entire space, the first thing catching his eye was a simply decorated living room.
The living room wasn’t big, just enough to squeeze in a seventy-five-inch wall-mounted TV, and one large and two small beige, sowhat outdated sofas.
To his left, right at the entrance, was a wall-adjacent alloy shoe cabinet painted with wood varnish.
An electronic photo was hanging on the wall above the shoe cabinet.
In the photo was a thin-faced middle-aged man holding a small girl in a pink dress, standing with his wife.
He Ao closed the door, his body continuing forward.
Various decorations were hanging on the living room walls, while storage cabinets were placed against the wall.
Those decorations and ornants didn’t seem aesthetically arranged, more like they were placed in empty spaces or hung up.
These ornants varied, including children’s drawings and so bizarre little souvenirs that seed to be collected from the wilderness or other cities.
On a small low table against the wall was a cloth doll that seed made from a dley of items, with awkwardly stitched text on its bottom,
[Thank you for your help to these poor children, God and the world will rember your kindness——Denno City’s Holess Children’s Relief Association]
‘Holess Children’s Relief Association.’
This term brought back so mories for He Ao, as he had donated to an organization with a similar na in Dawn City.
He Ao’s gaze was about to shift away when he noticed another item beside the doll.
It was a small pendant, unremarkable, casually laid next to the doll.
The entire pendant was composed of a silver chain and a black-and-white smiley face mask.
While He Ao was observing the ornants around, the sound of water from deep within the apartnt suddenly stopped.
Imdiately after, hurried footsteps echoed from inside the house.
A middle-aged man with a thin face wearing a slightly faded checkered apron erged from deep within the apartnt, appearing in He Ao’s field of view.
His hands were still slightly damp, with an awkward smile on his face, “Sorry to keep you waiting, the toilet was clogged. I thought you would take a while longer, so I decided to fix the toilet first.”
While speaking, he seed to realize the apron didn’t feel quite right. He raised his hand and brushed it twice on the apron, wiping away the water stains, then untied it and hung it on a hook casually fixed to the wall, “Please sit, feel free to sit on the sofa.”
Then he glanced at his hands and sowhat awkwardly opened the fridge, “Would you like sothing to drink?”
He looked at the contents inside the fridge, “There’s coffee, orange juice, and beer.”
“A glass of orange juice, thank you.” He Ao walked to the main area of the living room and sat on the small sofa in that soft set.
Perhaps He Ao’s natural deanor eased so of the awkward atmosphere.
The middle-aged man’s state quickly cald down. He took out a large box of orange juice from the fridge, then felt around the storage rack beside him and pulled out two glass cups.
He looked at the glasses, ensuring they were clean and tidy, before pouring the orange juice into them.
anwhile, He Ao sat quietly on the sofa, watching his actions until he walked over.
“Slant,” the man handed the orange juice to He Ao, “Ms. Vigina should have already conveyed my information to you.”
“Paxiu.” He Ao smiled as he accepted the orange juice and introduced himself.
“My wife bought the orange juice from the supermarket,” Slant said awkwardly, “The quality might not be that great.”
He Ao brought the orange juice to his lips, took a sip, and said with a smile, “It’s quite good.”
Slant was clearly surprised that He Ao didn’t hesitate to drink the orange juice he offered. He paused and took a sip himself, then laughed with relief, “As long as you have no complaints.”
And while they were talking, He Ao again glanced around the apartnt and softly asked, “This apartnt doesn’t seem very large.”
The position of City Police Chief is not insignificant; in many Federation cities, it’s a City Cabinet mber or a key official of the city’s justice departnt.
Denno City’s Police Bureau is under the justice departnt, being the most powerful agency within the departnt.
For a ‘police chief,’ especially one who has secured a foothold in Denno City, this residence compared to Slant’s ‘colleagues’ in other cities seems a bit shabby.
“This apartnt was bought relatively early, real estate prices in the Northern District are much cheaper than in the Eastern District,” Slant said with emotion as he sat on the sofa, “Back then, I was just a regular policeman without much inco, chose a high-interest super-low down paynt, calculating it, in another five years, I should be able to pay off the mortgage.”
Then he looked at He Ao and explained with a smile, “After becoming the police chief in Denno City, although my salary increased so, it actually isn’t very high. Plus, I have so other expenses, what actually remains isn’t much.”
He continued softly, “Although my wife works at an insurance company with a fairly decent inco, our child’s schooling costs a lot. After covering essential household expenses, we basically have no savings, sotis even slightly overdrawing the credit card.”
“Additional expenses?” Upon hearing this, He Ao raised his head and glanced at the stuffed doll placed on the nearby low cabinet.
“That’s from the Denno City Stray Children Assistance Society. This organization is a new one, aiming to care for and nurture stray children. It’s said to be a branch organization derived from sowhere in Dawn City.”
Seeing He Ao’s gaze, Slant softly explained, “They’ve developed quite well in Denno City, helping many children.”
Saying this, his tone slightly paused and sunk, but quickly adjusted, continuing, “They say this doll was handmade by a child who received my assistance.”
He smiled, took another sip of orange juice, “I haven’t actually spent much. They don’t know my identity, but since it’s handmade by a child, I kept it.”
“I heard you’re running for mayor,” He Ao absorbed his expressions and softly said, “Hasn’t anyone extended an olive branch to you?”
“Honestly, I don’t have much confidence,” regarding this issue, Slant appeared sowhat embarrassed and softly said, “I don’t actually have much reputation in Denno City, my support rate isn’t very high, nor do I have much money for campaigning. Regarding the olive branch,”
His tone slightly paused, smiled, “There is, but they don’t quite look favorably upon . Though, I did receive a letter from the current mayor’s election committee. They hope I withdraw from the election and let my supporters turn to back the mayor.”
“Seems this letter includes so sort of ‘threat’?” He Ao softly chuckled.
Currently, Slant’s ‘police chief’ position is still subject to the mayor’s appointnt and dismissal.
To this, Slant rely smiled without directly answering.
He rubbed his brow, with a sowhat self-mocking chuckle said, “I actually don’t know how I suddenly got swept up in the mont to run for mayor. Now it’s brought even more trouble.”
“When I ca, I looked at so information. Your supporters are mainly in the Southern District and Northern District, where most residents are miners or miner families, along with so impoverished people,”
He Ao took a sip of orange juice and softly said, “Your support rate has surpassed 10%, now steadily ranking in the top three. Ahead of you is the forr deputy mayor with a support rate of 13.5%, and the current mayor with 14.5%. The gap between you and your opponents isn’t large.”
He slightly paused, looked at Slant, and continued, “And between the two before you, the gap is even smaller. This basically ans if you choose to support one of them, they can be elected. You should be very popular right now.”
“If I aim to maximize my interests,” Upon hearing He Ao’s words, Slant took a sip of orange juice, gave a bitter smile, “Now is indeed a good ti. I can sell my ‘supporters’ for a good price.”
“Perhaps you have another choice?” He Ao looked at Slant, holding the orange juice, and softly said, “For instance, you can impress the Kewort Group with an appealing ‘bargain,’ making them ultimately choose you, providing you substantial support during the final days before the election, thus having a high chance to replace the current mayor and beco the new mayor.”
Upon hearing He Ao’s words, Slant seed to grasp what He Ao intended to convey. His expression subtly changed, words faltered on his lips.
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