The municipal pressure vanished overnight.
It didn't happen with a formal announcement or a signed treaty. It happened in the quiet, bureaucratic margins of the city. The sudden tax audits scheduled for the Jade Palace were indefinitely postponed due to "scheduling conflicts." The zoning inspectors who had been harassing Mei-Ling's commercial properties were reassigned to the northern districts. Superintendent Cho reported that the Mayor's office had completely dropped their inquiry into her division's evidence logs.
I sat in the Golden Koi penthouse, watching the morning traffic on the Cotai Strip. The glass was warm from the sun. Outside, cars moved in slow lines. The light reflected off the buildings and made the room bright. The AC hummed low. Cool air moved across the back of my neck.
