City Executive

At noon. Lin Zhiyan and Lu Zhao went into a restaurant for lunch. The interior was lavishly decorated in glittering gold, and most of the patrons were black-haired, dark-eyed Hua. Here, in the Foreign District reputed by the outside world to be the poorest and most backward, he actually saw a dish of stir-fried yellow cattle beef on the menu. The moment Lu Zhao saw it, his eyes visibly widened, followed by a furrow of his brow. Beef was contraband. The last time he had eaten beef was back at the welfare home. Hearing back then that beef production was about to be prohibited, Old Tang had gone out of his way to bring back ten kilograms of beef for them. Eight years ago, not long after the beast tide subsided, the Federation had adopted a limited planned economy to stabilize a volatile, shaken society. Over the years that followed, this limited planning had expanded continuously. The production structure shifted steadily toward bare survival, prioritizing arable land for high-yield staple crops such as rice, wheat, and potatoes. In livestock farming, raising beef cattle was explicitly outlawed, and beef was barred from commercial circulation; only dairy cows could be legally raised. At present, only chicken and duck were permitted for meat production. Yet there was always a backdoor for everything. The more forbidden something was, the more it sprouted like bamboo shoots after a spring rain in the Foreign District. Lu Zhao's brow gradually smoothed. This fell neither within his jurisdiction nor within his power. Why torment himself over it? As long as he kept himself in line, that too was a way of upholding order. If he ever had the power to do something about it in the future, that would be a matter for another day. Noticing the dish he had been looking at, Lin Zhiyan specifically told the waiter beside them, "Bring us a plate of the stir-fried yellow beef, too." She then handed the menu to Lu Zhao. "Order whatever you like. This meal is on me. There are many things here you won't get to eat out there." "More like you'd never see them at all. I thought cattle were kept solely as breeding stock now." Lu Zhao closed the menu, set it aside, and said, "I don't think I should eat this meal. Team Leader Lin, I'll wait for you outside." Lin Zhiyan looked stunned. By the time she gathered her wits, Lu Zhao had already walked out of the restaurant, his stride brisk. *What happened?* She turned to the waiter and asked, "Are men always this temperamental?" Lin Zhiyan had never had a boyfriend. She had socialized with the opposite sex, but most of them were spoiled heirs from official compounds. She could never stand being around those fools. Whenever they met at family dinners over the holidays on account of the elders, Lin Zhiyan would look at them as though looking at idiots. Regardless of gender, she despised every idiot equally. The waiter offered an awkward smile. "Perhaps the gentleman is feeling unwell. Would you still like to dine, ma'am?" "Forget it." Her appetite spoiled, Lin Zhiyan stood up and walked out of the restaurant. Fifty meters to the right of the entrance, a handsome man was squatting by the curb smoking a cigarette, his posture completely at odds with his refined features. Seeing her approach, Lu Zhao asked in surprise, "You're not eating?" Lin Zhiyan replied with dry sarcasm, "A certain someone proved to be quite the buzzkill. I'm in no mood for food now." Lu Zhao answered in all seriousness, "I don't eat beef." "Huh? You won't even eat beef—do you want dragon meat instead?" Lin Zhiyan tilted her head. "You won't touch the other dishes in the restaurant either?" Lu Zhao added, "I don't eat at restaurants that sell beef, either." Lin Zhiyan understood at once. Buying and selling beef was illegal now; he simply refused to break the law. She sighed in exasperation. "Does that do any good? There are plenty of things you can't change. Besides, the original purpose of banning beef cattle farming and sales wasn't to deprive people of food; it was to optimize the structure of grain production." "Senior, you're far too rigid." Lu Zhao turned his head to look up at Lin Zhiyan, who stood over him—from this angle, he couldn't even see her chin—and countered, "Which lecture did you choose for your mental philosophy class at Dijing University?" Lin Zhiyan replied, "Laozi's." She still remembered that was probably the first time she had seen Lu Zhao. She had just enrolled back then and knew nothing of his past, only thinking that the instructor looked remarkably young. "'He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened. He who conquers others has force; he who conquers himself is strong.' That is from Chapter Thirty-Three of the Dao De Jing." Lu Zhao finished his cigarette, stood up, and crushed the cigarette butt underfoot, his height suddenly putting him half a head above Lin Zhiyan. "As a psychic superhuman, you should understand that one's world belongs to oneself and has nothing to do with anyone else." Lin Zhiyan took half a step back. "Which is why I believe beef cannot simply be wiped out by human decree." Lu Zhao gave a noncommittal nod. "Nor do I believe that what is wrong should be taken for granted." "..." Lin Zhiyan's eyes widened slightly, a flash of astonishment in her gaze. Then, as though she had realized something, her expression settled into calm. She had encountered people like Lu Zhao before, and they were the kind of people she resented most. Major General Lin Youmin of the Federation, who had sacrificed his life ten years ago—her father. Lin Zhiyan pointed toward a hole-in-the-wall diner in the distance. "Then let's go eat at that one." Lu Zhao raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised by how easy she was being. "Your treat?" "We split it." "Then I'm not hungry. I'll wait until you're done." Seeing Lu Zhao genuinely prepare to squat back down, Lin Zhiyan grabbed him and hauled him back up. "You really don't have a shred of grace, do you?" Lu Zhao spread his hands. "My salary is only twenty thousand yuan a month, and I have a kid to feed. Even a casual bite around here runs several tens to over a hundred yuan." Amused by his candor, Lin Zhiyan realized he was strapped for cash. "Fine, I'll pay for you, all right?" *** That evening. Lu Zhao thought they were dismissed for the day, but Lin Zhiyan dragged him to the eastern district of the city for a dinner engagement. The car pulled up before a restaurant decorated in traditional Chinese style, where a valet assisted with parking at the entrance. The two were guided by a server into a private dining room, where guests had already been waiting for some time. One was an elegant, refined man in formal attire; the other was a middle-aged man wearing a blue-and-white collared shirt. The former appeared to be around thirty, his life-force development likely lower than Lu Zhao's. The latter looked to be around forty, his hair lightly frosted with gray. Lu Zhao sensed a faint edge of danger emanating from him. He was at least a third-rank superhuman. Zhao De, the city executive of Fangshi. Before introductions even began, Lu Zhao had already deduced the man's identity. For a third-rank superhuman to appear in Fangshi, he could only be the city executive. Lin Zhiyan spoke up, "Executive Zhao, we're late." "Not at all; we simply arrived early." City Executive Zhao De stood and stepped forward to shake Lin Zhiyan's hand. He then looked toward Lu Zhao and asked, "And this is?" Lin Zhiyan drew Lu Zhao forward, her manner subtly familiar as she introduced him: "This is Lu Zhao, my senior from school, and a staff officer at Ant Ridge border defense station, one of Fangshi's subordinate units." A look of realization crossed City Executive Zhao De's face. "I've heard Comrade Lu Zhao's name. Every year in our city's flood prevention work, he receives a special commendation." Although the Chen family had always deliberately kept Lu Zhao down, he had never been denied the commendations he rightly earned. That was precisely how Lu Zhao's monthly salary had climbed to over twenty thousand yuan, along with a free allowance of more than a dozen bottles of life supplements. In an era where the average salary was only two to three thousand, he already belonged to the high-income bracket. "I didn't expect Staff Officer Lu to know Team Leader Lin as well." "After all, we were in the same department at the same school. Senior Lu even taught one of my classes." "It seems Comrade Lu Zhao had quite a distinguished record at school as well." Zhao De turned to introduce the man beside him. "This is my secretary, Liu Zhihui. While he may not be a graduate of Dijing University like the two of you, he comes from a top-tier institution all the same." With a gentle smile, Liu Zhihui extended a hand. "A pleasure to meet you, Team Leader Lin." Lin Zhiyan did not take his hand, asking instead, "How old are you this year, Secretary Liu?" Liu Zhihui froze for a second before replying, "Twenty-seven by nominal age." "Then you're about the same age as my senior here. He's still only a captain and staff officer, while you're already the city executive's secretary." Lin Zhiyan's tone was flat, her demeanor worlds apart from how she had greeted Zhao De, carrying an unmistakable bite of veiled mockery. "I imagine you must have racked up quite a remarkable list of merits?"