The Peace Bureau
The planetary Executor, the city lord and the deputy city lord all walked into the peace bureau.
But an unexpected scene appeared before them.
Inside the peace bureau, those peace officers who usually swaggered about were each crouched in a corner, hugging their heads,
each with a look of terror on his face.
And squad after squad of soldiers in black uniforms, weapons in hand, had taken control of the whole peace bureau.
And on these black uniforms were gold Fierce Dragon crests.
"Oh, you've come." Zhao Chen sat on a chair in the hall, looking at the three people who had appeared before him.
He swept his eyes over them,
pointed at the deputy city lord among them, then pointed at the man under his foot, whose individual exoskeleton combat armor had already been driven into his body.
"You must be his old man. You look quite alike."
Because of the resemblance between the two, Zhao Chen recognized him at a glance.
He looked at the other two beside him.
"Then which of you is the city lord here, and which is the planetary Executor here?"
Before that city lord and planetary Executor could step forward and speak,
the deputy city lord roared at this moment, his eyes blazing with rage, "Who are you? You dare hurt my son. You…"
Before this deputy city lord could finish, a fist smashed into his face.
The planetary Executor's flustered, terrified, furious face appeared before his eyes, gripping him by the collar,
punching him in the face again and again.
"You bastard, what are you saying? You dare show disrespect to His Majesty!"
His Majesty?
At this moment, all the guesses in the city lord's mind were overturned.
He had thought that this time his deputy city lord had provoked an inspector from the Governor's Office.
But now, hearing the planetary Executor speak those two words, His Majesty,
he was as if struck by lightning.
In all the Fierce Dragon civilization's Five Great Systems, who else could be called His Majesty?
That, of course, was the master of the Fierce Dragon civilization, the master of the Five Great Systems:
His Majesty Fierce Dragon!
At this moment, the city lord truly had a mind to dig up that damned bastard's ancestors eighteen generations back and curse every one of them.
This fellow had actually dared to provoke a being like this.
Without another word, he threw himself flat on the floor.
"This humble one is the city lord of this city. Not knowing His Majesty Fierce Dragon had come in person, I let Your Majesty be disturbed. Your subordinate deserves ten thousand deaths!" At this moment this city lord had already thought of the worst possibility:
death.
Since the worst case was death,
then rather than wait for it to be laid before him,
better to ask for death himself right now; that way he might still have a sliver of hope.
And even if there was no hope,
then he hoped only that his clansmen would not be dragged in,
and the punishment would fall on him alone.
The deputy city lord had been beaten black and blue.
But he had heard very clearly what the planetary Executor said.
His Majesty!
His Majesty Fierce Dragon?
His son had actually provoked His Majesty Fierce Dragon.
At this moment he too had a mind to die.
Next to the fear in his heart, death was nothing at all.
He looked at his son, beaten until he hardly looked human.
At this moment there was only one thought in his mind:
why hadn't he just spilled this fellow on the wall back then!
Or he should have killed this fellow with his own hands the last few times he stirred up trouble.
Beep-beep-beep-beep.
Several messages popped up on his handheld terminal, and the next moment they were shown before his eyes.
They were messages from his elder sister.
Their content was very simple:
from now on, the two of them, sister and brother, broke off all ties.
What she had handled for him before already counted as paying off the bond between sister and brother.
This matter this time, he must answer for himself.
Seeing his sister's message,
the deputy city lord felt no sorrow at all; on the contrary, he felt relief.
Good, good.
Good that his sister had not stepped in for him.
That way, at least his sister would not be dragged into it.
"Enough. Don't actually beat him to death," Zhao Chen spoke.
That system Executor at once let go.
The deputy city lord, beaten black and blue, slumped to the floor; he forced his body up, knelt, and struck his head against the floor.
"Your Majesty, I failed to raise my son properly. We deserve what we get. We are willing to accept any punishment."
Zhao Chen narrowed his eyes at this deputy city lord.
It had to be said, this fellow was really very clever.
He knew he and his son could not live, so he chose to give up his own and his son's lives outright,
in order to protect those relatives of his.
"I hear one of your brothers-in-law holds the post of Secretary-General at the Governor's Office. Just now you must have sought your sister's help?"
These words of Zhao Chen's made this deputy city lord feel as if he had fallen into an ice hole.
Flustered, he said hurriedly, "Your Majesty, I beg you to see clearly. Though I did contact my sister, my sister did not step in to help me with anything at all, and told me she was breaking off ties with me. This matter arose entirely because of my son, and from my crime of indulging my son. We are willing to accept any punishment. I ask only that the innocent not be dragged in."
As he spoke, this middle-aged man knocked his head on the floor again and again, asking only that the man before him give his family a chance.
"Won't you ask what actually happened with your son? Maybe your son really is innocent?" Zhao Chen said mockingly, narrowing his eyes,
pointing at the spoiled young man lying on the floor.
A guard beside him drew out a healing injection and stuck it straight into this spoiled young man,
bringing this spoiled young man, who a moment before had only half a breath left, suddenly back to his senses.
"Ahhh… don't… don't hit me anymore…"
The spoiled young man felt pain all over his body.
Just now he had fought this man before him hand to hand, wearing individual exoskeleton combat armor.
The man had agreed to it too.
But he had never in his wildest dreams imagined
that the strength of this man's body would actually exceed his individual exoskeleton combat armor.
The individual exoskeleton combat armor on him had been smashed straight into his flesh in the fight.
The pain of it was something he did not dare recall.
He moved his body backward, turned his head and saw his father kneeling on the floor.
At this moment it was as if he had seen hope.
He crawled over like a stray dog.
"Dad, save me! Save me! This fellow wants to beat me to death. He's a rebel. Quick, get someone to kill him for me! Kill him for me!"
Hearing the boy's words,
the system Executor and the city lord were both sweating at the forehead.
This bastard actually dared say kill the Fierce Dragon Emperor.
He truly must not know how to write the word death.
He might not want to live, but they still wanted to.
The two stepped back two paces without thinking, unwilling to be linked in any way with this idiot.
And that deputy city lord watched the son he had always doted on crawl toward him.
The old doting look was gone from his face.
Instead he smashed a fist straight into him.
Then he sat straight astride his son's body,
and smashed down one punch after another.
"Ahh… Dad… you're hitting the wrong person. You should be hitting him… not… Dad…"
The spoiled scion, who had only just got his breath back, very soon stopped breathing under his father's blows, one after another.
He had actually beaten his own son to death with his bare hands.
This made even Zhao Chen admire this deputy city lord's resolve.
The deputy city lord raised his bloody fists and looked at his son, whose breath had left him completely.
He knelt before Zhao Chen once more, his head striking the floor.
"Your Majesty, my son committed many crimes before he ever offended you. I've kept all the evidence of them. My son deserved worse than death. I myself shielded my son, indulged my son, and also deserve worse than death. I am willing to atone with my death here. I ask only that Your Majesty not drag in anyone else," the deputy city lord pleaded.
Zhao Chen stared at this man before him who had just killed his own son.
The smile vanished from his face, and he said coldly, "What the people around you did, they won't be free of all responsibility just because you and your son are dead. I'll have the Embroidered-Uniform Guard investigate it thoroughly, and sentence them according to what they did. Of course, they won't be dealt with more heavily because of tonight."
Hearing the Fierce Dragon Emperor's words, the deputy city lord could be said to have breathed a sigh of relief.
He knew that those clansmen of his, his sister included, would at least live.
Most of what his son had done, he had been the one to deal with.
The others had at most covered up the crimes afterward.
He knew the present Fierce Dragon laws.
The heaviest punishment among those people ought to be stripping them of all their present posts, then sentencing them to terms of ten to twenty years.
Though such a punishment was very severe too,
at least they would keep their lives.
Most important of all, this way his sister and brother-in-law would not be dragged in.
He took a deep breath: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your mercy."
With that, he charged straight at the wall beside him.
Boom!
A great crash.
A great dent caved into his head, and he crumpled to the floor.
A guard beside him went over to check and shook his head at Zhao Chen,
confirming this deputy city lord's death.
In the space of just a few minutes,
this father and son had died here, just like that.
The system Executor and the city lord swallowed, their foreheads all sweat, the clothes on them soaked through.
Neither of them now dared meet His Majesty's eyes.
"How do you think this matter should be dealt with?" Zhao Chen looked at the two.
The system Executor said at once, "I was lax in managing my subordinates; I bear responsibility. I request punishment, and if necessary, I'm willing to resign all my present posts. But before that, please allow me to root out every cancer on this planet. Until these cancers are cleaned out, I won't rest!"
The system Executor wore an expression that said he meant to set all of this right.
The city lord said at once too, "I'm also willing to clean out the cancers in this city. Once they're cleaned out, whether to kill or punish me, I accept it all!"
Zhao Chen looked at the two.
At this moment every minute seemed so long to the two of them,
as if their future fates all hung on it!
"The matter of you two: the departments concerned will come to investigate later. How you're punished is for Fierce Dragon law to say. Under the Fierce Dragon civilization, it isn't up to me; it's up to the rules I made." Zhao Chen's light, casual words
let the two of them breathe a sigh of relief.
Both knew their road to promotion was finished, but they knew too that they had kept their lives.
What each of them had done, they actually both knew very well:
no great wrongs, some small ones.
Should it really be investigated, it would be at most suspension, fines and docked pay.
And what the Fierce Dragon civilization lacked right now was administrative talent.
So most likely they would still be used.
Still, looking at the two bodies on the floor, they cursed them several times over in their hearts.
If not for these two fellows stirring up trouble here,
their prospects would have been quite good.
One was to go to a post at the Governor's Office in the future, with hope of becoming a deputy governor.
The other could have become a system Executor in the future.
All of that bright future had been shattered.
"If there's nothing else, I'll be going. My child is tired. Children need to go to bed early and get up early; if they don't get into the habit, it won't be good when they're older." Zhao Chen pointed at the room behind him, just like an ordinary parent talking about family matters.
The door of that room opened.
Chu Xuan came out carrying Nannan, already asleep.
In that instant everyone present held their breath; everyone even began controlling the sound of their breathing and their heartbeat,
afraid that the slightest noise would disturb this little princess.
She was, after all, the Fierce Dragon Emperor's daughter.
Now the two of them felt all the more relieved in their hearts.
Those two bastards had actually brought the whole family here while the Fierce Dragon Emperor's daughter was with them.
Death was too good for them.
"Will you be resting with us tonight? I'll go arrange a hotel for you right now," the city lord said at once.
"No need; we'll make our own arrangements." Zhao Chen walked outside.
The city lord and the system Executor at once followed, bent at the waist.
Just then,
a voice came from the front of the peace bureau.
"I want to see your chief. Why have you arrested people for no reason? I want to see my friend!"
At the gate of the peace bureau, a middle-aged man had been stopped by the guards.
The two sides were arguing.
Zhao Chen looked over.
It was actually someone he knew:
Sidon.
"What's going on? Why all this racket in the middle of the night? Don't wake the little princess!" The city lord grew angry and made to go over and give them a dressing-down.
"I know that man; call him over," Zhao Chen spoke.
The city lord said at once with an ingratiating smile, "So he's a friend of Your Majesty's; I'll go invite him over right now."
With that, he ran quickly to the main gate
and pushed aside the guard blocking the way: "What kind of attitude is that? So what if he wants to come in?"
"City lord… this…" The guard looked completely lost; when had he ever seen the city lord so approachable?
Was the sun rising in the west?
"City lord!" Sidon, looking at the man before him, recognized him too as the city lord.
He said at once, "City lord, I have a case of injustice here and beg your help. A friend of mine only had a small quarrel with the deputy city lord's son in a restaurant, and that young master had my friend's whole family of three arrested and brought to the peace bureau. I still haven't seen them. Whether they're alive or dead, no one knows!"