[Jake's POV]
The atmosphere inside the Golden Koi had shifted from tense to toxic.
It had been three days since the confrontation with Wei in the VIP room, and three nights since I had started sleeping in Li's private quarters. We hadn't crossed the final physical line—the System's Conquest notification was still pending—but the emotional intimacy was absolute. She relied on me for everything. I was her sounding board, her shield, and the only person in the syndicate she trusted with her life.
But my rapid ascension from a street-level runner to the Matriarch's right hand had not gone unnoticed.
I stood by the reinforced steel door of the counting room on the ground floor, my arms crossed, watching the morning collection come in. The room was a hive of activity, filled with the smell of old paper and the rapid, rhythmic clicking of money-counting machines.
