All beings are equal, subject to the karma of their own actions from past and present lives. Knowing that did not make it easier to witness others’ suffering. Qin Tian Yi muttered a silent prayer for the beggar laying unconscious on the muddy ground as she walked by. One leg of the pants hung loose and empty.

A few pairs of curious eyes watched her warily as she made her way down the street, scrawny, malnourished children with nothing better to do while their parents worked in the mines.

Most people in the Undercity survived, but for some of them, survival was all they could manage. Ulu Pilah was one of the seven districts that fell under the Malay Union’s jurisdiction and was one of the most poverty-stricken areas within the Undercity. Its location, too far from the center of the city or any of the major mines, made it an undesirable place to live. There were no naturally occurring sources of water within Ulu Pilah itself as well, which meant the only redeeming feature of the district was its cheap rent prices.

Those who stayed in Ulu Pilah were those without options: amputees injured in the mines, orphans left without parents, old, decrepit seniors wasting away without a family. Both the Malay Union and the mayor’s office provided welfare services to the needy, but they were always starved of resources and there were always people who slipped through the cracks. Ulu Pilah is what lay at the bottom of those cracks.

The worst part was that poverty often engendered more poverty. Broken and left with nothing but despair, most of the poor souls that found themselves in Ulu Pilah often turned to more comforting substances than food. Moonshine was one of Ulu Pillar’s local specialty.

A few shifty characters drifted by Tian Yi as she walked, keeping their eyes glued to the ground and a hood over their faces. Almost none of the tiny wooden shacks in Ulu Pilah were lit, but people would frequent some of these houses, as if there were businesses of some sort operating within.

Tian Yi kept a hand over the satchel by her waist. It was uncomfortable being here, not because of how unsafe she felt, but because she had to see the destitution of the people that lived here with her own eyes. It was hard knowing that there were people who suffered as much as they did, while she could still afford two meals a day on her husband’s pension. It was harder knowing that there wasn’t really anything she could do for them.

She could feed them with her own money, of course, but where would that lead? How many people could she feed before she ran out of coin herself? For how many days could she feed them? What happens when she runs out of food? She could not provide them with a job either, not when the rationing was already killing off what businesses and jobs remained.

The food rationing should have helped these people; the mayor had set a price ceiling for most goods, but Tian Yi knew without even asking that even the discounted prices of the rationed food were too much for these people. The only thing she could do was avert her eyes.

Tian Yi stopped in front of a rotting road sign. Jalan Ular.

She turned and walked until she stopped in front of a wooden house, just as broken and rundown as any of the other huts and shanties in Ulu Pilah. The inside of the house was completely dark, with no hint of light from a lamp or a candle.

Tian Yi reached out with her hand to knock, only to realize that the house had no door, just two pieces of roughly cut cloth hanging from the doorway to give a modicum of privacy from prying eyes. She resorted to just giving the doorway two gentle taps.

There was no answer, but Tian Yi kept waiting. She never really liked doing this, interviewing the family of victims and making them relive the grief and the pain. She had been through it herself, every time she went to the mayor to beg him to look for her husband. But she knew it was necessary to bring them justice.

A few minutes passed by and there was still no answer. There was a sudden thud, like the sound of something dropping and hitting the earth.

“Mrs. Shaffi?” Tian Yi asked, pulling out the knife inside her satchel as she pushed aside the cloth and walked into the house. She held the knife in front of her. Dim light from the streetlamp streamed into the room in thin ribbons, illuminating it just enough for Tian Yi to spot a frail Malay woman crumpled on the ground.

“Mrs. Shaffi!” Tian Yi rushed forward and kneeled down by the woman’s side. She put away her knife and took out a talisman from her satchel and activated it. Bright light filled the room and Tian Yi was relieved to see that the woman wasn’t visibly bleeding or injured anywhere.

Her face was pale and her lips blue, but there were no signs of injury anywhere.

“Mrs. Shaffi, are you okay?”

The woman seemed weak, but still conscious. She held Tian Yi’s outstretched hand weakly and uttered a soft grunt. Tian Yi immediately placed a hand on her back and helped her to the bed.

The whole house was a single room. The kitchen was a small stone counter packed into a corner, two chairs and a simple slab of rock for a dining table and a bed tucked into the side of the room. It didn’t seem like it would have fit two people.

Tian Yi laid her down on the thin mattress, making sure to rest Mrs. Shaffi’s head on the threadbare pillow. She then quickly glanced around the house to look for some water.

The house was in a rather strange mess, even for a shack in Ulu Pilah. What little cutlery they had in the house was scattered all across the floor, while one of the wooden chairs had been tipped over. It almost looked like there had been a scuffle here. Something was off about this place. Had somebody already come for Mrs. Shaffi, to shut her up and cut off the investigation? But why had they left Mrs. Shaffi alive, if that was the case? Tian Yi had been outside all along too and with a house as small as this, she would definitely have seen an intruder coming in or out. Tian Yi brushed aside her questions for a brief moment, and

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Tian Yi found a pitcher of water and a tin mug in the kitchen. She filled the mug and brought it back to the bedside, offering it to the sickly Mrs. Shaffi.

Mrs. Shaffi suddenly started making a fuss. There was a sudden fear in her eyes when Tian Yi approached her and she almost knocked the mug of water out of her hands.

“It’s okay, Mrs. Shaffi, I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m just trying to help. I’m an enforcer,” said Tian Yi holding her hands out calmly and raising them to show that she meant no harm.

This seemed to do the trick. Mrs. Shaffi slowed her breathing and put her hands down. After a bit more consoling, she reluctantly took the mug and started sipping from it.

“Are you feeling better now?” asked Tian Yi.

“Better,” said Mrs. Shaffi in a hoarse voice.

“What happened here? Did somebody break into the house?” asked Tian Yi as she motioned at the mess around them.

Mrs. Shaffi looked down, as if in thought. There was a long pause before she finally said, “I’m fine. It was just a fit. I have those from time to time.”

“Do you need a doctor?”

“No, I’m fine.”

Tian Yi noticed the stilted way that Mrs. Shaffi was speaking, almost like she was holding something back, but she didn’t want to press the issue yet. There were some things that people preferred to keep to themselves.

“I’m so sorry to catch you at a time like this, Mrs. Shaffi. I was hoping to ask you a few questions about your late husband. Is that okay?”

Tian Yi looked into the woman’s eyes, expecting to see pain or grief or hesitation, but they seemed almost lifeless and emotionless. Mrs. Shaffi simply nodded.

“Let me know if you need to stop at any time, okay? I don’t want to compromise your health,” said Tian Yi before she bent over and pulled out her notepad and a pencil from her satchel.

Suddenly, Mrs. Shaffi spoke as she held out the tin mug, “Before we start, can I have more water?”

Her voice was so hoarse and jagged, it seemed a miracle she was even able to speak with how much pain she must be in. Tian Yi nodded and took the mug over to the kitchen counter.

She was filling the mug when she heard a noise behind her. Light, shambling footsteps. Without another second of thought, Tian Yi hurled herself to the side.

A body crashed into the kitchen counter, knocking pots and pans to the ground. Mrs. Shaffi stumbled back onto her feet, a knife gleaming in her hands. Tian Yi’s knife.

Alarm bells were going off in Tian Yi’s mind. A hundred thoughts were racing across her mind, but she knew she was in danger. She shoved everything down and scrambled to her feet. Mrs. Shaffi lunged at her again, stabbing wildly with the knife. Tian Yi kept her distance, but she wasn’t a trained combatant. Neither was Mrs. Shaffi either, judging from her poor technique, but the wild, desperate swinging had been enough to leave several cuts on Tian Yi’s arm.

Tian Yi finally managed to deliver a kick to Mrs. Shaffi’s stomach. She hurried over to the dining table and kept the large slab of stone firmly between her and Mrs. Shaffi. The woman tried chasing her, but Tian Yi would simply run around the table. Mrs. Shaffi was clearly too frail to catch up, but somehow she persisted with the fruitless chase for several minutes.

“Mrs. Shaffi, what’s wrong? Put the knife down and we can talk!” shouted Tian Yi at the woman in between her pursuits.

However, Mrs. Shaffi didn’t seem to hear her, and if she did, she gave no indication of it. Suddenly, she leapt onto the table and started to crawl her way toward Tian Yi.

Tian Yi immediately ran for the bed. She dove and grabbed her satchel and started rummaging through it. Mrs. Shaffi had cleared the table. She held the knife out in front of her, ready to stab.

Right as the tip was about to reach Tian Yi, she pulled out a red talisman and tore it. The symbols on the talisman glowed bright red as a loud explosion went off.

The impact sent Mrs. Shaffi flying across the room, while Tian Yi felt herself shoved violently into the bed by the recoil. Mrs. Shaffi crashed into the opposite wall and fell limply to the ground.

Tian Yi rubbed her shoulder and picked herself up, hacking and coughing. She tried to wave the smoke away, but it was far too dense. The dining table and the chairs had been knocked over by the blast. She went over to Mrs. Shaffi’s side and placed two fingers on her neck, praying that the worst hadn’t happened.

It did. Mrs. Shaffi was dead.

Tian Yi forced herself to take a deep breath. She had just killed a Malay woman in the Union’s district. Sure, she was an enforcer and she was defending herself, but who would believe her if she claimed Mrs. Shaffi had just suddenly gone crazy and started coming after her with a knife. She had even tried reasoning with her.

Tian Yi went back to the satchel and took out a yellow talisman, which she promptly tore apart. It was a signal talisman. The talisman’s twin was kept by Captain Yue Ran’s side. She was supposed to only use it for emergencies. Well, this probably counted as an emergency.

She tried to step out of the house to get away from the smoke, but she quickly noticed how the crowd that was starting to gather around the place. Not wanting to attract unwanted attention or start any more trouble, Tian Yi had no choice but to slink back into the house and wait inside.

She thanked her lucky stars this was Ulu Pilah. Any other district in the Malay Union, and their neighborhood watch would already be on her and she would have to answer to a bunch of angry imams and muftis.

Fifteen minutes later, the large, round but reassuring figure of Yue Ran appeared outside the door. Two enforcers followed by his side.

He stepped into the house and was immediately taken aback by the sight. His eyes flitted over to the dead woman and grew as wide as dinner plates.

“What happened here?” he said grimly, trying to sound as calm as possible.

“I was interviewing her and she started coming at me with a knife. Wouldn’t stop. Just like that man the other day, at the funeral house. Irrational. Couldn’t reason with her at all,” Tian Yi said between gasps of air.

“And the explosion?”

“Talismans. Song Teng left them for me. I didn’t know it was going to be so powerful. It—it just killed her.”

“Well, we should probably go get—”

“We need a coroner. Now. I want to do an autopsy on her right here.”

“Right here?” asked Yue Ran incredulously.

“Right here. If we want our answers, that is.”

“We will have to inform a mufti and ask for permission if we want to do an autopsy on a Muslim person. He will have to fetch the funeral house director.”

“No, Captain, not the funeral house director. Go get the coroner from the morgue.”

Having said that, Tian Yi leaned in by Yue Ran’s ears and whispered something. The captain of the enforcers looked shocked for the second time that day and immediately hurried off into the distance, leaving the two enforcers behind to escort Tian Yi and protect the crime scene.