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Lee's Detective Agency is a private detective agency in Lungmen known for unusual cases. Its founder, Lee, born to a merchant family in the Yanese heartland, left home for Lungmen many years ago. Well-connected in both law-abiding and underworld circles, he serves as a neutral third party among factions, with connections ranging from street vendors to Wei Yenwu, Lungmen's overlord. The agency began as a one-man operation, later renting a cheap office after Lee took young people under his wing. It deals only with clients who visit in person. Its four members are Lee, Hung, Aak, and Waai Fu, each handling cooking, medicine, and combat respectively. Lee treats them as family, giving them discretion and New Year's gifts. Rumors surround his past, including that he declined an offer from Wei Yenwu. The L.G.D. often consults him on unusual cases. Lee prices commissions case by case, and the author suggests the agency's existence may help rekindle trust in personal relationships.
Lee's Detective Agency is a private detective agency in Lungmen, known for unusual cases. Its founder, Lee, is well-connected in both the law-abiding world and the underworld, and often consults as a neutral third party in matters involving multiple factions. All that is known of his past is that he was born to a family of merchants and left his ancestral home in the Yanese heartland for Lungmen, a commercial hub on Yan's northwest border.
Lee became Lungmen's living encyclopedia through street smarts and people skills. Though reclusive and appearing lazy and overcautious, his network stretches from street vendors to Wei Yenwu, the overlord of Lungmen. The agency began as a one-man operation without an office, registering only to satisfy legal requirements. Besides standard private eye work—looking up people, investigating affairs, recording conversations, legal consultation—Lee also takes official commissions. After taking young people under his wing, he rented a cheap office. On principle, the agency only deals with clients who visit in person, though clients showing sufficient sincerity can meet Lee elsewhere.
Rumors hold that Lee retired from civil service after court machinations disillusioned him; none are confirmed, and Lee changes the topic. He enjoys tea and good food, and cares for kids who are not his own; of Waai Fu, he says she is a friend's daughter who needs something to do. The agency has no formal organization: Lee, then Hung, Aak, and part-time Waai Fu. The kids have strengths but are too young to decide independently; Lee gives them discretion and follows discreetly to keep things under control. Hung cooks, Aak handles medicine, Waai Fu handles combat and tactics, while Lee reads a newspaper. Few believe his claim of being a lousy fighter; rather, his appetite for sticks and stones has diminished.
The office sits in expensive downtown Lungmen, down tiny alleys near snack stands, grocery stores, and hardware shops with cheap prices. The agency never advertises; clients come through word of mouth and Lee's connections. The L.G.D. often consults him, prompting gossip that he turned down Wei Yenwu's offer. For Lee, the agency's people are family, perhaps reminding him of the big family he once had. Hung learned cooking from Lee; Waai Fu is a friend's daughter, Hung was found by chance, Aak met under complicated circumstances. The agency exists because Lee wanted to give these young people a home, and they see him as a father figure, even receiving New Year's gifts.
Contrary to imagination, the agency is not regularly involved in major conspiracies. Common requests include retrieving rings from ponds, investigating dreams and odd husbands; unusual ones, like pretending to be gangsters or breaking a water meter, are politely referred elsewhere. Wei Yenwu did invite Lee, discussed at a finball stall, with embellished versions of why Lee declined. Lee charges case by case, based on his own standards; the kids only care that payday is not missed. The agency's existence may hold the key to rekindling trust in personal relationships and showing the many forms a company can take.
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Speak only of right and wrong, not of gain and loss.
— Lee
Lee's Detective Agency is a private detective agency in Lungmen, known for its work on unusual cases. The founder, Lee, is extremely well-connected in both the law-abiding world and the underworld, and is frequently called upon to consult as a neutral third-party in matters involving multiple factions.
All we know of Lee's past is that he was born to a family of merchants, and that he left his ancestral home in the Yanese heartland to begin a new life in the commercial hub of Lungmen on the northwest border of Yan many years ago.
Lee quickly found his footing thanks to his street smarts and people skills, gradually becoming Lungmen's living encyclopedia. The middle-aged man may look lazy and overcautious, but he is well-connected with all the major factions of Lungmen, and more than a few minor ones. Despite living a reclusive life, his massive network of connections stretches from humble vendors in the streets to Wei Yenwu, the overlord of Lungmen. He has been spotted at many important occasions.
Lee's Detective Agency started out as Lee's one-man operation without a formal office, only registering as an entity to satisfy legal requirements.
While Lee's business includes standard private eye work like looking up people, investigating affairs, recording conversations, and legal consultation, he is also regularly engaged to carry out commissions from official sources. As he began to take some young people under his wing, Lee finally decided to rent a cheap office in Lungmen.
On principle, Lee's Detective Agency only deals with clients who visit their office in person. However, prospective clients who refuse to deal with the mess in the office can get Lee to leave his nest and meet them at one of Lungmen's many social spaces by demonstrating sufficient sincerity.
There are many rumors about Lee's past; the most common version holds that he retired from civil service and came to Lungmen after the machinations of the court made him disillusioned. None of the stories have been confirmed, of course. Lee changes the topic whenever the conversation turns in that direction.
Lee enjoys tea and good food in his free time. To outsiders, it must seem strange for a middle-aged recluse to spend time caring for a bunch of kids who are not his own. When asked, Lee grumbles, "Well, what am I supposed to do? Waai Fu's the daughter of a friend. And I've got to give her something to do."
Lee's Detective Agency has no formal organization. There is Lee, and then there is everyone else. That makes a total of four individuals, including Waai Fu, who currently works part-time.
The non-Lee employees, Hung, Aak, and Waai Fu, all have their respective strengths, but are still too young to make decisions independently. Lee gives the kids a great deal of discretion, and is happy to let them hold the spotlight. By his own account, after assigning responsibilities to the kids, Lee is content to follow them discreetly, making sure that things stay under control.
Lee is rarely involved on the front lines, or matters that require physical exertion. Hung takes care of the cooking, Aak takes care of medicine, and Waai Fu takes care of combat and tactics. As for Lee? He can most likely be found reading a newspaper in his office. Few actually believe Lee's claim that he is a lousy fighter. Rather, at his age, his appetite for sticks and stones has long since diminished.
Lee's Detective Agency is located in expensive downtown Lungmen, but one would have to leave the wide streets for one of the tiny alleys, turn left at the third trash can without a lid, and go through a bunch of shabby apartments, before seeing the agency's sign by the side of an even tinier alley.
Shops here are rather subdued, with snack stands, grocery stores, and hardware shops buried amongst the numerous apartments around. Prices are cheap, though. Employees of Lee's Detective Agency frequent these establishments in their free time.
Hidden in an urban jungle, Lee's Detective Agency is one of those "if you know, you know" things that stays out of public eye. They have never placed an ad, most of their clients coming through word of mouth and Lee's wide-reaching and complex network of connections, which is extremely rare in a bustling commercial center like Lungmen.
Lee gets his fair share of visitors from official sources; the L.G.D. often consults him on unusual cases, for example. The cases that Lee has assisted have led to people saying that he should just join the L.G.D. outright, which has in turn led to gossip that Lee had turned down an offer from Wei Yenwu.
For Lee, the people at his agency are not so much his employees as his family. Perhaps the presence of young people around him reminds him of the big family he was once part of.
Hung, one of Lee's employees, learned his culinary skills from Lee, with a particular knack for Lungmen cuisine. Cooking is, of course, not something most employers would teach their employees. In turn, Hung has to do most of the cooking in the agency.
It is a very different model from Kazimierzian or Columbian corporate management. Indeed, Lee does not run his agency like a corporation at all; Waai Fu is the daughter of a friend he took under his wing, Hung he found by chance, and Aak he met under complicated circumstances. The agency is the way it is now because Lee wanted to give these young people a home.
In turn, they see Lee as a father figure. Lee has taken in these young people to maintain personal relationships. He even gives them New Year's gifts. Lee
Contrary to popular imagination, Lee's Detective Agency is not regularly involved in major conspiracy. In most cases, the client's request does not call for Lee's personal involvement.
"Can you retrieve my ring from a pond?"
"I keep dreaming that a man is knocking on my window. Can you find out what's going on?"
"My husband seems to be acting unusually lately. He often disappears for several hours with no explanation. Can you follow him and see what he's up to?"
These are the more commonplace requests. For more unusual ones:
"My son is obsessed with novels. Can you pretend to be gangsters and give him a scare?"
"Can you break my water meter? I don't want to pay my water bill."
Lee politely refers these visitors to the appropriate agencies. It's Lee's Detective Agency, after all, not Lee's Handyman Agency. He leaves the kids to take care of jobs that do not require too much thought.
It is true that Chief Wei had, indeed, extended an invitation to Lee before. There is no doubt that the two of them had sat at a finball stall together, though there are multiple versions of what they actually talked about. In short, Wei had visited Lee with a request, and Lee had taken him out to a finball stall. In the end, Lee declined the invitation, citing philosophical differences because Wei had put different toppings on his finball from Lee. There is a certain degree of embellishment to all the stories, of course, and these two seem to share a past. There are numerous versions of why Lee turned down the invitation, from a power struggle to an old grudge, though the most popular version holds that they both loved the same woman at one point.
— From a now-defunct Lungmen gossip magazine
grumbles whenever this is brought up, saying grudgingly, "It's okay, I guess. We all share the same bowl of rice." There is still a curious employment relationship between them, however. Lee's Detective Agency lacks a formal pricing structure, his prices seemingly arbitrary. For this reason, some mistakenly believe that detective work is merely a hobby to Lee, having little understanding of how much effort it takes to maintain a complex network of relationships. In fact, Lee charges for each commission on a case-by-case basis, based on his own standards, taking into account both personal relationships and efficiency. All the kids need to worry about is doing their jobs. They do not concern themselves with the agency's "arbitrary" pricing, as long as Lee does not miss payday at the end of each month.
■ Floor plan of Lee's office. He has kept it around all these years, perhaps as a kind of commemoration.
Lee's Detective Agency seems so out of place with everything around it, its founder so unconventional, that I felt it was worthwhile to give it its own entry to discuss the impact that its founder has had, as well as the relationship he maintains with his employees. Its very existence may hold the key to rekindling our trust in personal relationships, and providing an example on the many forms a company can take.