In the governorate's conference room,
the representatives of the steward families present had all seen this bloody scene.
Of those guilty members of the blacklisted families, hardly one was left with a whole body.
The flesh had been torn from them by sheer force.
Some had even had their eyes gouged out.
It was plain to see how bitterly these natives hated the people of these steward families,
and how many deeds these blacklisted steward families had done before that outraged gods and men alike.
"You've all seen it. We of the Fierce Dragon civilization don't wish to see such things happen again. We want development, but not development built on squeezing certain people without leaving them any room! Development like that isn't sustainable!" Governor Fire Phoenix looked at these people with a stern expression.
Hearing these words,
the representatives of the steward families on the white list basically all breathed a sigh of relief.
At heart they accepted this way of administration.
That they could be on the white list was in large part because they still had a bottom line at heart.
It was only that before, under pressure from the Dax Empire's existence,
they had had to carry out the Dax Empire's orders and do those things.
And now that the Fierce Dragon civilization's new system was different,
they were naturally willing to stop doing that squeezing.
"I know what you're worried about too: nothing more than how the Fierce Dragon civilization will rule you. First, the system our Fierce Dragon civilization practices at present: the people on each planet are administered by a household-registration system; anyone who wants to go to another planet must register. We won't forcibly restrict the movement of people, but we need to know the reason for that movement: whether there's no chance of a living on their original planet, whether they've been oppressed, or what. We also have a dedicated system inspectorate that specifically inspects the situation on every planet in the system. Once any problem is found, whether it's a family or mid-level cadres, we'll deal with it severely."
Fire Phoenix paused, then went on, "As for each planet's development and administration, our Fierce Dragon civilization will issue, according to each planet's actual circumstances, development blue books for the next one, three, five and even ten years. Within a period after receiving the development blue books, you put forward your ideas and opinions. We'll revise them accordingly. These ideas and opinions must of course be reasonable. Unreasonable ones we won't accept. Ordinarily, so long as there's nothing wrong with your families' administration, these development blue books can basically be over ninety percent achieved. We'll also send you advisory teams then, bringing funds and technology to help and work with you. So you need not worry about failing to meet our required targets. Every year our governorate will assess you steward families. We'll have a scoring procedure internally. If your score is high, in the future you may even have hope of being assigned by us to administer more planets. If your score is too low, then your steward family may be stripped of its status and become an ordinary family. And in your whole administrative process: of a planet's final output value each year, ten percent stays for the local planet's livelihood and development, ten percent your family keeps, and ten percent is held in reserve at our governorate as a reserve fund. The remaining seventy percent is what you hand over to the Fierce Dragon civilization. What you hand over can be star coins, or the specialties your local planet produces, and so on. All of this will be arranged specifically in due course. …"
Governor Fire Phoenix set all this out in great detail.
Most had no objections.
A few raised some questions, and Fire Phoenix could explain all of them clearly.
Very soon the meeting came to an end.
Some took the chance as the meeting ended to come up and chat with Fire Phoenix of their own accord, wanting to host him privately, have a talk, give gifts, even drawing forward young women of their own families' younger generation.
The meaning was already plain.
To this sort of thing,
Governor Fire Phoenix's attitude was quite plain too:
all private hospitality refused, all gifts refused.
Any matter of work, all through the normal procedures.
And he warned those steward families with some not-so-good ideas that if anything like bribery happened again,
next time it would not be as simple as a mere warning.
With all this finished,
Governor Fire Phoenix went back to his office.
"Big brother, I thought a few of those women just now were pretty good. That one with six eyes, didn't she have a bit of exotic flavor? And that one, I heard, is even a hermaphrodite. She might even let you experience some sort of incredible sensation, brother dear."
In the office, Fire Lydia was laughing and teasing her big brother.
Though she had not been at the meeting itself just now, she had used her access to watch it all the way through,
naturally including, at the very end, the scenes of those steward families' people trying to cultivate ties with Fire Phoenix,
and the scenes of them pushing women… or rather men… on him.
"What are you doing here?" Fire Phoenix was somewhat surprised to see his younger sister turn up.
"My fleet happens to be responsible for patrolling this system. And I don't have anything to do, so I just came to see my dear brother. Didn't I hear my dear brother is a system governor now? I've come to offer my congratulations!" Fire Lydia said earnestly.
"Congratulations? Then where's the gift? You came empty-handed?" Fire Phoenix looked at his sister sprawled carelessly on the sofa, with no sign of any gift around her.
His sister looked heartbroken: "Big brother, your dear sister coming to see you, isn't that the best gift of all? You've truly made your beloved sister too sad. I never imagined you were such a materialistic man, brother. Can it be that now you've become a system governor, you won't acknowledge this dear sister of yours anymore?"
Fire Phoenix looked at his sister putting on this act,
and covered his face, speechless.
He had thought this sister of his, holding a high post in the Fierce Dragon fleets now, ought to have become much more obedient and sensible.
But he had never imagined that, in front of him, she would still be this same child.
He should never have expected anything of her.
"If you've got something to say, spit it out. If you've nothing to do, get lost back where you came from. I've still got a lot of things to handle here. If you're really that bored, then go back to our Frost Dragon Kingdom," Fire Phoenix said, looking at his sister.
Hearing herself told to go back to the Frost Dragon Kingdom,
Fire Lydia at once hugged the cushion on the sofa, looking thoroughly unwilling.
Then she said, "I won't go! Don't you think you can dump all those family matters on me. I'm fine just as I am."
At this point Fire Lydia's eyes darted, and she said with a giggle, "Right. Aren't we fine just like this? You govern, I serve in the army. And now, in the Fierce Dragon civilization's system, martial strength is what's honored. I'm the woman behind my brother's success!"
Fire Lydia thumped her chest, swearing to it.
Fire Phoenix covered his face.
He truly did not want to admit he had a sister like this.
It was simply too embarrassing!
"Brother. So now you're serving here as some kind of system governor, have you just washed your hands of our Frost Dragon Kingdom over there?" Fire Lydia asked.
"I've handed the Frost Dragon Kingdom over to people I trust. Under the Fierce Dragon civilization's system, all that's needed is to set up a parliamentary system and let them follow the Fierce Dragon civilization's steps of development on their own. Basically nothing will go wrong. If there's really some emergency, they can contact me too," Fire Phoenix explained.
Fire Lydia nodded in understanding: "Looks like you're quite at home as a hands-off boss, brother."
Why did this girl always say things so unpleasant to hear?
"Anything else? If not, go find yourself somewhere cool to sit. I've still got a lot to handle here; I don't have time to play with you," Fire Phoenix said, waving her off helplessly.
"Mm." Fire Lydia did not waste any more time either.
She had come this time only to see her brother.
"Since my brother doesn't want to see this sister of his, I'll just go. But you're not young anymore either; it's time you thought about your personal matters. Otherwise, when you're a bit older, if you can't even carry on the family line, won't our family's incense go out? So you'd better find me a sister-in-law. I think that hermaphrodite just now would do nicely. Then when you're not at home, she can be both the daddy and the mommy, can't she?"
Fire Phoenix grabbed the cushion off the sofa and threw it, but it only hit the door; that sister of his had long since vanished.
He looked at the cushion fallen on the floor,
walked over and picked it up, shaking his head with a light laugh.
That his sister was still like this in front of him: that was rather good.
——————
The governorate system was set up, and the new order began to run.
At the very start, a few problems might still have come up.
But under the governance of each governorate, these problems were soon dealt with one by one.
The running of every system gradually grew smooth too.
The three systems formerly under the Dax Empire's governance also soon recovered from their former hellish lives.
The local people saw hope in their own lives once more.
Though at the very start their productive capacity could not match that of the days when they were squeezed,
as life got better and better, along with the technological upgrades the Fierce Dragon civilization provided, the gap was gradually made up.
Half a year later,
Zhao Chen took Chu Xuan and Nannan aboard a starship to travel among the five systems.
"Daddy, what planet is this?" Nannan looked through the porthole at the somewhat red planet before her.
"This one? It's Planet No. 078 of the Fierce Dragon Third System. The locals also call it Red Soil Planet. As the name says, it's because the soil of this planet is a kind of red, and on this planet the great majority of the plants, mountains, even the animals and rivers, are all a kind of red. Even the snow is red; the clouds are pale red too, and the rain is red. So when you look at it from outside, this planet seems like a planet dyed red," Zhao Chen explained.
"Daddy's so amazing; you know so much!" Nannan looked at Zhao Chen with some admiration in her eyes.
Zhao Chen gave a chuckle and explained nothing.
But Chu Xuan beside them saw right through it all.
She saw that Zhao Chen's arm, behind Nannan, had quietly opened a handheld-terminal page, and on it was shown this planet's data.
"It's nearly time to eat. What would Nannan like to eat today?" Zhao Chen asked, stroking Nannan's head.
He had seldom managed to find the time to take Chu Xuan and Nannan out to play.
Naturally, in everything, he went along with Nannan as far as he could.
"Nannan doesn't want to eat on the starship. Nannan wants to see what good things to eat there are on this planet. Can we eat on this planet tonight?" Nannan looked at Zhao Chen, blinking her big, liquid eyes.
That look truly left one with no thought of refusing.
"All right. Let's land on this planet right now." Zhao Chen agreed outright.
A request from his precious daughter: how could he refuse?
Zhao Chen looked at a bodyguard standing not far off: "Make the arrangements: in fifteen minutes I want to land on this planet. But don't make too much of a fuss. Don't tell the local steward families. Just make sure we're safe; that's all."
"Very good, I'll go arrange it now." The bodyguard withdrew and began arranging the matter at once.
Fifteen minutes later,
a small interstellar transport was ready.
"Your Majesty. The identity we're playing is a transport team delivering supplies. Once we've landed on this planet, we can stay on the planet for twelve hours. I'll have a squad of bodyguards accompany you," the bodyguard captain said beside him.
"Mm, so long as they don't disturb our vacation," Zhao Chen said; this time he did not refuse the bodyguards' company.
Had it been only himself,
Zhao Chen would have done whatever pleased him.
But this time was different; he had the child with him.
He could not fail to think of the child's safety.
Very soon,
a T1 small interstellar transport left the fleet.
Interstellar transports like this had basically already been retired from shipping; not even short-haul shipping used them anymore.
The few places they were still used were only last-leg shipping:
the stretch between a starport and a planet, or between a starport and starships at anchorage,
taking on part of the work of last-leg shipping.
It counted as a use of their leftover value.
Aboard the T1 small interstellar transport, they landed on this planet.
Where they came down was an airport on the ground.
This airport could handle the takeoffs and landings of the planet's own aircraft and shuttles,
and at times could also handle the takeoff and landing operations of small craft that met the requirements.
Once Zhao Chen and the others had landed,
they left the airport directly by the back-door passage the bodyguard squad provided.
Outside, a minibus had long since been ready and waiting.
Zhao Chen's party left this airport almost without coming into contact with any outsider.
During all this,
no one on this planet yet knew that so special a guest had come to visit their planet!