If you want to live well, you have to make money. The right to money isn't divided up—once you have the right, why would you fear not having enough money?
To have more power, Rowton had two plans.
The first was to get promoted as much as possible. Of course, promotion alone is very difficult. There's a ceiling that presses down on you. For example, once you become a sergeant, it's difficult to break through to assistant deputy inspector.
The second plan was to take the civil service exam, which could immediately push him up in position and potential. Originally, Rowton was a civil servant who had hoped for a position in Kaurabang.
But after Rowton discovered that his memory was exceptionally sharp, far better than most people's, he felt that he might as well try the federal civil service exam.
However, there were many obstacles. Even if he took the exam, without connections, it was very likely that he would be eliminated during the interview.
Of course, Rowton didn't think he needed to worry about that for now. The national exams were incredibly difficult, and it was possible he might not even pass the written part.
You could only start thinking about such issues once you passed the written test.
Anyway, Rowton was determined to take the public exam.
Only by passing the federal civil service exam could he truly enter the realm of power in the Indian government. The state civil service exam wouldn't cut it.
State civil servants had a limit to their power. Even though a few federal civil servants got promoted from the state every year, they were still looked down upon by other exam groups.
In other words, only those who passed the federal civil service exam would be recognized. They had their own circle, and those who passed the exam were the majority, holding the power.
Since Rowton had such a memory advantage, it would be a waste not to give it a shot.
That morning, Rowton arrived at the police station and found that Deputy Director Gert Singh had arrived early.
This was unusual. Gert often showed up late, especially when Director Bida was around. Was the sun rising from the west today?
Rowton approached the early-bird Gert and asked, "You're in a good mood today, Deputy Director. Anything good happening?"
Gert was indeed in a good mood. His face was all smiles, and he was even humming a popular song.
You see, Gert had been in a bad mood for the past few days, his face dark at the police station.
Rowton could easily guess why.
It had to do with Yada sending money, which made Gert feel dejected, especially since the Black Lion Gang had been destroyed.
Of course, Rowton also noticed that Gert seemed a little off today.
He had been mentally prepared for this. After all, Rowton had surrendered to Yada, and under such circumstances, Gert was bound to dislike him.
Previously, Rowton had tried to stay neutral, but as a second-level officer, he wasn't really in a position to pick sides.
But this time, he had done something significant for Yada. Would Yada still stick with Gert's side?
In any case, whether in a police station or a company, picking sides had its pros and cons.
From Rowton's perspective, the benefits of aligning with Yada outweighed the risks.
It was clear that Yada was the head of the station, and though Gert was a deputy, the true power at the station lay with Yada.
Today, Gert seemed unusually cheerful, which piqued Rowton's curiosity.
"I don't know," Bud replied. "Just now, the deputy director said he was waiting for someone and had good news to announce."
Just then, Yada walked in, and when he heard Gert was about to announce some good news, he was not pleased.
What's with the secrecy, even in front of the director? If it was a private matter, fine, but if it's a public matter, Yada would have to step in.
But Gert didn't keep them in suspense. Once Yada arrived, he spoke up.
"Director, I have good news from the Inspector General," Gert whispered, addressing everyone.
Yada's heart skipped a beat. He knew that Gert's backer was the Inspector General from the higher-level police station. Was this a way of showing off his close ties to the Inspector General?
However, Yada kept his expression neutral, simply smiling and replying, "Good news? Go ahead, tell us."
"Not long ago, I heard that the higher-ups were giving us several spots for promotion to the position of police chief for the grassroots stations. So I went to the Inspector General and finally convinced him. As a result, Spanda Police Station has been allocated a spot," Gert said, his smile wide.
The first-level officers in the room immediately perked up, their eyes shining.
It was obvious that this promotion would be given to one of them.
At the police station, there were only five sergeants. None of them had the chance to become the sixth.
But of course, this was only theoretical, and everyone soon calmed down.
Rowton, for example, furrowed his brow. With his promotion ambitions, it seemed he had no chance of getting the sheriff position this time.
Such was the reality.
Most of the other first-level officers knew they wouldn't be chosen. Some had been promoted to first-level officers only recently, while others were long-term officers with average performance and no standout merits.
Rowton's eyes briefly flicked to a first-level officer standing near Gert, a man named Love Gore, who was around thirty and one of Gert's confidants.
The promotion spot had clearly been won by Gert, and his high-profile announcement was aimed at showcasing Love.
And Love Gore was indeed impressive, having shown outstanding performance. So, no one could really compare to him.
"Director, according to the principle of fairness, I suggest we promote the best candidate among the first-level officers," Gert said, glancing at Yada.
Love was indeed a strong candidate, so Gert felt confident pushing for fairness.
"Hmm, fair enough. Go ahead and choose who you think is the best," Yada replied, though his expression was hard to read. Gert was clearly pushing things too far.
"Well, we'll have to wait until the promotion quotas come down," Yada added.
Yada was trying to buy time, not sure what Gert's motives were, but he was trying to delay the matter.
Gert, on the other hand, wanted to push things further and help Love win the promotion spot. But seeing Yada's lack of enthusiasm, he decided to hold back.
In any case, the matter had already been decided. The Inspector General had said that if Yada forcibly reassigned the promotion quota to someone else, it wouldn't be approved at a higher level.
Gert had paid 30,000 rupees to secure the spot for Love, so he wasn't going to let it go easily.
"Then we'll wait," Gert sighed.
He didn't want to create any unnecessary tension with Yada, especially since today was a good day for him.
Gert's deputy director office had secured the promotion spot for the sheriff, but what about Director Yada?
Everyone in the room looked at Gert with a new respect.
As an old-timer in the police station, Gert had earned their admiration.
Many of them began to waver, unsure of where to stand in the ongoing power struggle between the director and deputy director.
It was widely known that powerful relationships lay behind the chief, but it was also known that Gert's backer was none other than the Inspector General, a direct leader of the grassroots police stations in this district.
For such a backer, Gert had secured the promotion spot for Love.
Who's to say that Gert couldn't do it again, perhaps for a bigger role next time?
After all, even first-level police officers were valuable to many second-level officers, who looked up to the promotion opportunities.
This time Rowton got promoted, but there were still over 60 second-level officers vying for their chance.
For them, if Gert could get the sheriff's promotion spot for Love, it wouldn't be impossible for him to do the same for a first-level officer next time.
Rowton was soon called into Yada's office.
"Rowton, I'm going to assign you some new tasks. You'd better be prepared," Yada said, staring at him.
"Yes, Director, I will give my all," Rowton replied immediately.
"Good. If you perform well, then you'll be qualified for a promotion," Yada said.
"Director?" Rowton was stunned. "Are you referring to the sheriff promotion this time?"
Rowton's heart raced—did he have a chance?