Next, Jiang Hong, the acting lord, soon set about her own work. She took that notion of Lord Zhao Chen's and worked it into a detailed decree, and published it down the line.
When this decree was published, the reaction was fierce. Even the people of the Zhao family themselves were astonished beyond measure.
An Owl Dragon System household registration?
What an ancient thing that was — and now they were to go to the time and trouble of doing this? But acting-lord Jiang Hong's attitude was plain: before the end of January, every inhabited planet within the Owl Dragon System's bounds had to have this order conveyed down. And over 1,000 work groups had been formed to be responsible for the task.
The Owl Dragon System's Fifth Planet — this was the planet with the greatest population residing on it within the Owl Dragon System. Though the Owl Dragon main planet had the finest ecological environment, those who lived there were mostly the Owl Dragon System's nobles and middle class, so the population there was, on the contrary, not very great. But the Owl Dragon Fifth Planet had been the Owl Dragon System's only industrial planet before, and so upon this planet there were close to 100 million people in permanent residence. This was also the first place to begin publishing the household-registration decree. Just now, within every residential zone, a statistics work group in charge had taken up station.
"Notice! Notice! Everyone must sign upon this document as to whether you are willing to join the Owl Dragon System!"
The mechanical broadcast voice echoed without cease throughout the whole residential zone.
Toward this so-called household-registration policy, some paid attention, and some were wholly indifferent.
Within a cheap bar—
workers just off their work posts drank cheap synthetic artificial alcohol here.
"Hey, did you go sign that household-registration document just now?" A few people, seeing a thin fellow, asked, cups in hand.
The thin fellow raised a hand and opened a data page of his own, on which was his personal information.
Name: Li Daqiang
Age: 29
Household: Owl Dragon System
Current living planet: Owl Dragon Fifth Planet
Profession: low-grade porter
…………
"Nothing much to it — just collected a gene sample, registered some information, asked a few questions. Start to finish, under three minutes. Our whole family's spending this whole life in the Owl Dragon System anyway; signed it and that's that, no big deal," the thin fellow said with a simple honesty.
Those few, though, gave a scornful laugh.
"Just look at your lack of gumption — let me tell you, signing this thing is as good as signing an indenture-of-sale! Didn't you see what it says up there? So long as the Owl Dragon System has need, you must obey any dispatch and arrangement!"
"I'd never sign this cursed thing; this old man's a fellow bound for interstellar adventuring in the future!"
"My guess is that it's precisely because of the doings of that former lord — causing a great crowd of nobles to migrate out of the Owl Dragon System — and seeing the population flowing out in such quantity, that they now want to use this household-registration trick to keep the Owl Dragon System in hand. And they even take us for fools."
"But is there really a fool willing to sign a thing like this!"
"Hahaha."
Li Daqiang listened to these folks' mockery and paid it no mind; having bought the bit of things his wife had told him to, he walked out of the bar. He didn't care about all that this-and-that; he only wanted to live his own little life well. He'd originally reckoned that signing this thing was nothing of importance. Chiefly, it was that his wife had said he absolutely must sign it. Though after that noble affair before, the Owl Dragon System had had a stretch of upheaval, from then on it had soon settled down, and the commoners' lives were turning better at a pace visible to the naked eye. His wife had said: this Owl Dragon lord of ours is absolutely a good lord, one who won't issue a decree without necessity. So behind this decree there was surely some opportunity, and they had to seize hold of that opportunity. He, Li Daqiang, didn't know a thing about opportunity or no opportunity; he only knew to listen to his wife — his wife said sign, so sign it was.
Over on the work group's side:
"How's your completion coming along? We have to finish this residential zone's registration within three days." The work-group leader raised a hand, and before his eyes appeared row after row of registration information.
"Our Zone One is basically all registered."
"Over here in our Zone Three there are a great many old folk; for those elderly, even moving themselves is a problem, and they simply can't come to the site!"
Hearing his subordinate's words, the work-group leader knit his brows and rebuked, "Have you forgotten how you were instructed before? For those old folk who can't come to the site, you go door to door and register them in person. Anyone at all upon this stretch of land — not a single one can be left out! This is an order!"
"I really do wonder — the lord was doing perfectly fine, so what's he doing with this household-registration business? One word from him, and this pack of us have to run our legs off." Someone grumbled.
"Have you signed onto the household register?"
"My father-in-law's side is planning to arrange work in another system in the future, and I won't be staying here more than a few days, so I'll not sign this cursed thing."
"I don't want to sign either, but my father said — since we live in the Owl Dragon System, then be honest about it. So I went and signed after all."
The work-group leader listened to those discussions of his subordinates and didn't much mind them either. In truth, even he himself couldn't make sense of why the lord had issued this strange order. But who told them to be working for the lord — they took that wage, and this was their toilsome lot in life.
The Owl Dragon System's household-registration policy proceeded, over here, like a blazing fire. Meanwhile, over on the Owl Dragon Fleet's side, the interstellar-warship construction work hadn't fallen behind either. In the blink of an eye the time was drawing on toward late January.
Over on his side, Zhao Chen had some anticipation — of just how many people, in the end, would willingly join the Owl Dragon household register. The household-registration policy was the first step; the welfare treatment that came after was the true sugar-coated cannonball! By then, the whole Owl Dragon System would be set to boiling over.
"So you're saying that after your parents' branch of the Demon Race fled to this region of the Galactic Alliance, they sought out a hidden system planet to live on. They chose to conceal their identities and live in ease, but you yearned for the world outside — so you ran off." Zhao Chen looked at Chitong. The two of them, eating snacks, chatted over the affairs of Chitong's own clan.
Chitong nodded. "In truth the chief reason was still the affair, back then, of my younger brother being carried off by slavers and killed. I was furious at the time; I wanted revenge. But my parents chose to swallow it and endure, holding that revenge would only bring calamity down upon our own clan. I differed with them in opinion, and ran off on my own. And this one running-off has been close to 10 years."
"10 years? You haven't once returned in 10 years?" Zhao Chen was quite surprised; he hadn't imagined Chitong was, of all things, still a "ran-away-from-home" young-girl character.
"I've quietly gone back, and secretly sent home some materials besides. In truth, we of the Demon Race have rather long lifespans; our average lifespan can reach two hundred years, so 10 years, for us, is perhaps not as long as you humans imagine," Chitong explained.
"Then now that you've had your revenge, haven't you thought of reconciling with your own parents?" Zhao Chen asked.
Chitong smiled. "In truth, in my heart, I long since reconciled with my parents; I can understand their considering the matter from the angle of the clan's interest. But I don't want to return to that place — because I already have a world of my own, I've grown my own wings. Would I still choose to return to that 'cage,' and hide my wings away?"
Zhao Chen nodded in understanding.
System Mission Reminder!
The voice that suddenly sounded in his mind made Zhao Chen's heart give a violent jolt.
Mission: The hive-race plague of the North Wind Star Region.