The matter of Annie privately selling items connected to Commander Zhao Chen had been found out. After a round of "knee-to-knee heart-to-heart talk" with Commander Zhao Chen, 50% of its proceeds were to be set aside for the future gathering-and-party expenses of Zhao Chen and the rest. Which was to say — the group meals from here on out, Annie foots the bill!
Just how Annie walked out of the bridge, she herself didn't know. She only felt her own heart dripping blood.
……
Time slipped by, bit by bit. For the people of the North Wind Star Region, this first quarter of Galactic Star Calendar year 3032 was, beyond doubt, one etched deep in memory. They had suffered the ravages of the hive-race disaster; on account of the hive-race disaster, tens of billions of people had been left homeless and adrift, and hundreds of billions had had their lives affected, directly or indirectly. It had, at one point, even driven up the price of grain — indeed, even the price of nutrient rations — across the North Wind Star Region!
And the Owl Dragon System within the North Wind Star Region, for its part, was in the grip of another disturbance altogether. That was, naturally, the household-registration decree promulgated by the Owl Dragon lord!
March the 30-first.
Upon a certain planet in the Owl Dragon System, this night was fated to be a sleepless one. For, by the promulgated decree, from around eight o'clock on the morning of April the first, the permission to purchase grain by Owl Dragon household registration would be thrown open.
Natural crops!
For the vast majority of families, this was something they might not get to eat so much as a few times in a whole lifetime. But now, it could become a commodity they could purchase at exceedingly low cost! For them, it was, quite simply, a matter of pies dropping down from heaven.
In the plaza of one settlement city, an electronic projection happened to be rolling, around the clock, the decree information the Owl Dragon lord had promulgated earlier. At this moment, several thousand people who'd not gone home for the night had already gathered here. They were all waiting for the arrival of eight o'clock tomorrow. And among them, a very large portion were, in fact, people who had not joined the Owl Dragon household register. Most of them, at this moment, were likewise given to talking cold, mocking talk.
"I tell you, every last one of you is a fool — this decree they've promulgated, how could it possibly be real, buying natural grain at cost price? If this turns out to be true, then I'll… I'll… stuff this wine bottle up my own backside!" A drunkard, holding a wine bottle, tipsily jeered at those craning-necked, eagerly hoping register participants. What that wine bottle held was artificial wine — as vile in flavor as a nutrient ration, but able, like wine, to get a man drunk. And so it had, all the same, a rather decent market.
"Old drunkard, you didn't join the register. Don't stand here talking your cold talk — go find somewhere cool to sit yourself down." Someone, put out with this old drunkard, said with scorn.
The old drunkard sneered. "Today I'm just plain not leaving — I'll stay right here and get a good look at those disappointed mugs of yours tomorrow!"
In a corner of the plaza, a married couple sat cross-legged.
The husband gave a yawn, the very picture of drowsiness. "Wife, why don't we just head back and sleep after all."
"You want to sleep, you go back and sleep." The wife stood her ground there, drawn up and braced for battle.
The husband looked at his own wife. In truth, his urging her to go back was out of not wishing her to be disappointed when the time came. He didn't much believe the lord's decree either; but back then, when his wife had spoken up, he'd gone ahead and chosen to enter the Owl Dragon register — for, anyhow, people of their lowly stratum likely could never in this life leave this planet. This register, to them, made not much of a difference either way. To please his wife, he'd entered it. But his wife took it very much to heart, and had even come here specially to wait. Whether the decree was true or false, he didn't care; he simply had no wish to see the disappointed look on his wife's face.
"Haah…" The husband heaved a sigh; he'd already begun to think over how he'd console his disappointed wife when the moment came.
In a residential building on the plaza's outer edge —
A young woman pushed open a window, and, looking at the swaths upon swaths of waiting people down in the plaza, said with a sneer, "That's just a pack of blockheads — actually believing this decree, whatever it is. Natural crops at cost price? Only a fool would believe a thing like that!"
"With the present register population of 100 million-odd, to satisfy so vast a quantity of natural crops — think how great the monthly outlay would have to be. Never mind a paltry Owl Dragon viscount-lord; even a count or a marquis couldn't cover it here." A young man embraced his girlfriend from behind.
The young woman looked at the man with admiring eyes. "You promised me before — this time you'd take me away from this godforsaken back-of-beyond!"
"Set your heart at ease! You know the Jiang family, don't you? Once a family of towering renown in our Owl Dragon System. But on account of the Zhao family's muddle-headed incompetence, they migrated out of the Owl Dragon System last year. My cousin's husband's third aunt is of a branch line of the Jiang family. She promised me before that she'd arrange a post for me in the Jiang family's enterprises. And when that time comes, I'll take you out to see something of the wide world!" the man said, full of self-conceit.
"Darling, you're the very best!" The woman was all sweetness and honey, leaning into the man's embrace. Thinking, in her heart: after taking up with so many men, she'd at last found herself a reliable one. Once he'd taken her off to broader skies and wider lands, she'd find a way to climb a still-higher branch!
Time slipped by, bit by bit.
The black night passed, and the first light of dawn began to shine upon this stretch of land. Some who'd dozed off now, muddled and bleary, opened their eyes and cast a glance at the time. Four in the morning — four hours yet to the hour of eight. At this moment, all around the plaza, more and more people had begun to gather. Indeed, several of the surrounding roads had all been blocked up, alarming this settlement's administrator.
The administrator sat aboard a hovering airship up in the mid-air, watching the situation at the plazas throughout the settlement, mopping the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief.
"This situation… if the lord's decree really does go back on its word when the time comes — the guess is it'll stir up public grievance!" The administrator at once gave the order to make an emergency mobilization of the security squads. So as to be ready to meet the series of things that might, next, break out.
"That lord, truly. Before, he did nothing much of note, and that was that; now, all of a sudden, he goes promulgating a decree of this kind. Isn't this just courting his own humiliation," the administrator said, with some resentment.
Selling natural crops at cost price? Being of the management stratum himself, he understood all the more clearly the difficulty of putting this decree into practice. Now, one could only wait for the moment this bubble was pricked.
Five o'clock…
Six o'clock…
Seven o'clock…
When there was still half an hour left before eight, very nearly every last person stood up, their eyes fixed on the sky. They were waiting!
"A pack of blockheads — I'm just going to watch that disappointed look of yours in a little while." The old drunkard swayed his empty wine bottle, jeering.
That couple in the corner had, at this moment, clasped their two hands together, the wife with an expression of expectancy. The little pair of lovers in the residential building outside the plaza were, at this moment, likewise leaning at the windowsill, sitting to await the staging of a good show.
At last!
The time reached eight o'clock!
But everything seemed to have undergone no change whatsoever.
The old drunkard clutched his belly and roared with laughter, pointing at the people around him. "Take a look at the state of you — actually took it for the truth, did you? Stupid swine!"
The time had already passed eight; yet now, the people who'd entered the Owl Dragon register were at a loss for what to do. For they had received no reply or explanation of any kind. Weren't they told they'd be able to redeem natural food ingredients? Could it be that they truly had been deceived?