Chapter Thirty-Six: There's No Shame in Making Money

Early morning, inside Evergreen Detective Agency.

"Kelly, welcome to my agency," Li Evergreen said to Kelly Rossedi, who had just settled onto the sofa.

The matter of the Shadow Cult could be considered temporarily resolved, and at last he could focus on running his detective agency properly.

Kelly Rossedi glanced around, sensing the absence of someone. "Where is your previous assistant, Guan Wenyan?"

"He wasn't really suited for detective work, so I let him go."

Hearing this, Kelly Rossedi nodded in agreement. "I said so last time, the man lacked a detective's vigilance and his responses were slow."

"Of course. I've hired a new assistant. Xiaoyu, come out."

The door to the second bedroom opened, and Tang Xiaoyu emerged wearing a pristine white dress. Her long black hair and fair skin made her an undeniable beauty.

"I—I—I'm Tang Xiaoyu, Li Evergreen's new assistant."

Kelly joining the agency and meeting Tang Xiaoyu early would be good for their future work together.

Tang Xiaoyu was now able to present herself before others, and Li Evergreen had surmised that, unless one belonged to the Thirty-Sixth Bureau, few could discern any difference between her and an ordinary person.

Kelly Rossedi thought to himself, after dismissing a foolish assistant, Li Evergreen brings in a beautiful one?

He was, after all, a legitimate noble of the Lamella Empire. Rising with impeccable manners, he offered a handshake. "Such a lovely lady, and yet willing to work as a detective? That is truly surprising."

Since becoming a ghost, Tang Xiaoyu had only spoken with Li Evergreen. Though articulate in his presence, she now seemed somewhat nervous. "Um, Li Evergreen, I'll go count the money and do the accounts. You two talk."

With that, she slipped back into the second bedroom. After Guan Wenyan left yesterday, Li Evergreen had let Tang Xiaoyu move in there temporarily.

Kelly Rossedi smiled and took a sip of milk from the tea table. "This beautiful assistant seems quite amateur—and a bit off. Her gaze just now held not a trace of emotion."

"You know," he continued, "they say the Hongshan Kingdom has a surgery that turns men into women. You'd better be careful."

Li Evergreen coughed, breaking off the topic, and pulled a stack of flyers from beneath the table, placing them on the coffee table. "Kelly, next up is our promotional work."

"What are these?" Kelly picked up a flyer, which featured pictures and brief profiles of both him and Li Evergreen.

"Li Evergreen, top detective in Nanlin City, adept at solving all kinds of cases, with a client satisfaction rate of ninety-nine percent, boasts the most professional team..."

"Kelly Rossedi, Lamella Empire's premier noble detective, of distinguished status, invited by Evergreen Agency as a highly-paid expert from Lamella Empire..."

Staring at the flyer, Kelly Rossedi was baffled. "What is this? Shouldn't we advertise in the papers or collaborate with a TV station?"

In this world, promotional methods were still quite basic. Li Evergreen hadn't yet seen flyers used for marketing.

But it was, for now, the cheapest, most convenient, and most effective method.

He had even tweaked the promotional text, giving Kelly Rossedi a foreign expert's profile, making the overall presentation seem more professional.

"Even the smallest newspaper spot costs at least a thousand Lang coins. I haven't asked about TV ads, but they're likely tens of thousands."

"This stack of flyers, plus the design fee, totals only two hundred Lang coins."

Kelly Rossedi set the flyers down. "But this cheap form of advertising will ruin our agency's reputation among Nanlin City's detectives. They'll ridicule us behind our backs."

"Do you want to earn money from other detectives?"

"Are you joking? They don't come to us for assignments."

"Exactly. Since we don't profit from them, what does their ridicule matter to us?"

Li Evergreen had devised a development plan, dividing clients into high-end and mid-to-low-end.

High-end cases were usually for large corporations or wealthy individuals—investigating business rivals, mistresses, spouses, and so forth.

These clients paid well, but the assignments took a long time and required considerable resources.

Elsewhere he couldn't say, but in Nanlin City at least, nearly all detective agencies focused their business on high-end clients.

Few accepted mid-to-low-end commissions.

Of course, many struggling detectives had no choice.

What if he recruited those struggling detectives into his agency, then dominated the entire mid-to-low-end market in Nanlin City? How much business would that bring?

Just as in his previous life, when Volkswagen acquired Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, and Bugatti.

High prestige alone was useless. The most lucrative market was always the mid-to-low-end.

Li Evergreen patiently explained his idea to Kelly Rossedi.

Kelly Rossedi frowned at the flyer. "My friend, I understand your thinking, but I am a legitimate detective. Handing these out on the street is simply disgraceful."

Li Evergreen laughed. "Honest labor is honorable, and there's nothing shameful about making money."

Kelly Rossedi felt uneasy. "I'm a Lamella Empire noble. If my family finds out, how will I hold my head high?"

"I'd rather die than do it."

"Kelly, if we want to take on big cases, we first need to build our reputation. That's how we grow and compete with the big agencies."

"If we monopolize the detective market, won't we have all the major cases we could wish for?"

"..."

...

By evening, as the sun's rays dipped below the horizon, the day's busy people returned home.

Outside a bustling residential complex, business at the surrounding shops was at its peak. Many vendors were hawking fruit and other goods.

They noticed a peculiar figure, wearing a mask and sunglasses, handing out flyers to passersby.

"Auntie, take a look. Our detective agency accepts all kinds of assignments—from major murder cases down to finding lost cats and dogs. There's nothing we can't handle."

"Miss, hello. Look at your beautiful pet dog. If it were to run away one day, you'd be heartbroken. Remember to call us—we guarantee to find it for you."

"Hey, kid, take this home and show it to your parents."

Looking at the dwindling stack of flyers in his hands, Kelly Rossedi still felt dazed. A noble of the Empire, tricked by Li Evergreen into distributing flyers—this was an insult to his noble bloodline.

The most absurd part was that he had actually agreed to it.