Unifying Hua and Barbarians

The sudden jab left Liu Zhihui at a complete loss for words, leaving him stranded in awkward silence. He couldn't answer. Lu Zhao had real merit to his name, whereas he was merely padding his credentials. Objective truths exist in the world. They might not always take effect at every waking moment, but their existence cannot be denied. Just as at the border defense station, Lu Zhao's superiors—led by Lü Jinshan—primarily praised him in public simply because he was a man who got real work done. "Senior, you ought to learn from him." Lin Zhiyan nudged Lu Zhao with an elbow in mock reproof. The latter was still wondering to himself, *Are we really that close?* Catching on a moment later, he smiled. "An official can't just bury his head in work; he also has to know how to play the game. I'm not very good at playing the game, which is why I haven't climbed very high." Lin Zhiyan was using his words to trade barbed wits; he had ridden on her coattails, and she was borrowing his momentum. Right now, the various departments across the city were refusing to cooperate, but the border defense station was in his hands. The special investigation team had a breakthrough point, and Lin Zhiyan had soldiers at her command. "*Pfft...*" Lin Zhiyan couldn't hold back a chuckle. She found that this stiff wooden block of a man, Lu Zhao, was actually quite humorous—or at least on par with her when it came to snide sarcasm. Strictly observant of rules and systems, yet completely unbound by taboos in his personal conduct; he wasn't really a block of wood after all. Liu Zhihui's expression turned sullen. When had he ever suffered such humiliation? At this moment, Zhao De stepped in to smooth things over. "Everyone is simply doing their duty. My work as city executive is in service to the Federation, and Staff Officer Lu's work on border defense is also in service to the Federation. "Let's eat first, everyone, before the food gets cold." Only after a polite exchange of pleasantries did both sides take their seats. Lu Zhao remained very quiet off to the side, offering only brief answers whenever someone directed a question at him. First, he hadn't yet grasped the full situation, and the less one said, the fewer mistakes one made. Second, he had nothing much to talk about with Zhao De. After three rounds of drinks, Zhao De grew slightly tipsy and remarked, "Last month, a document came down from the Circuit Politics Bureau saying that labor restrictions on Federation subjects in Hua districts are to be appropriately relaxed. "Miss Lin has wide connections and boundless capability. Could you shed some light on what the higher-ups are thinking?" Lin Zhiyan gently dabbed her lips with a napkin. "Perhaps someone wants to change dynasties." The atmosphere instantly turned heavy, and everyone's movements froze. Zhao De was momentarily taken aback, then laughed. "That's an exaggeration. The Martial Marquises are merely trying a new path. After all, dragging things out like this is no solution. Take the birth rate among those Federation subjects, for instance—they breed like mad, to the point of causing famine." In the beginning, the Federation was a beacon, and even after the restructuring, it still gave the Federation subjects a way to live. The Hua ethnic group ate a bit better, the Federation subjects didn't starve to death, and everyone muddled through together. Yet now, famine had broken out in the Foreign District. There were many reasons for it, the biggest being sheer overpopulation, with numbers constantly swelling. On a macro level, food rations for the Foreign District were fixed; even as the population grew, the food supply did not increase. "So we should sacrifice our own compatriots? Without the distinction between Hua and barbarian, wouldn't everyone just become Federation subjects?" Lin Zhiyan's words were razor-sharp, completely uninhibited. "Posing as saints on the surface, while tearing out hearts and lungs beneath." Zhao De surprisingly did not rebut her, even though she was speaking of his former superior. He merely sighed and said, "There are some things only Martial Marquises can decide." He did not agree with unifying Hua and barbarian either. Nobody was a fool; everyone knew what certain people were trying to do. It was just that his hands were tied, and Zhao De could only soften his glare and blend with the dust. Listening from the side, Lu Zhao kept his gaze lowered, his fists clenching slightly before relaxing again. Some matters could only be decided once one possessed power. If one did not hold the steering wheel of the great ship of the era, one could only passively endure being crushed beneath its wheels. The rest of the meal went on in a much more harmonious fashion. Zhao De continually introduced dishes to Lin Zhiyan, while Lin Zhiyan maintained basic respect for Zhao De as a Federation official of regular executive rank. Reaching the Federation's regular executive rank meant one had truly entered the halls of power, and a third rank superhuman was no longer some petty minion. No matter how formidable Lin Zhiyan's background was, she couldn't simply point at his nose and scold him. Until the dinner ended, neither discussed the Foreign District's issues again. Lu Zhao and Lin Zhiyan returned to the car. "Zhao De's backer is the head of the prefecture-level Personnel Bureau in Nanhai West Circuit," Lin Zhiyan revealed to him about Zhao De's background and ties. "And that bureau chief was once Martial Marquis Chen's secretary, as well as your biggest obstacle in Nanhai West Circuit. "Martial Marquis Chen stepped down a year ago, but his influence remains enormous today. You're not well-suited to stay here." With that, she gazed at Lu Zhao, half-shrouded in shadow, waiting expectantly for him to make a request. Lin Zhiyan undoubtedly wanted to take Lu Zhao with her to Nanhai East Circuit; his abilities were well worth it. Her proposing it would be recruitment; Lu Zhao asking for it would be submission. Although there wasn't much difference between the two, Lin Zhiyan harbored a certain mischievous streak—she wanted more and more to see Lu Zhao bow his head. Lu Zhao nodded. "Thank you." *Tsk!* *I'd like to see how long you can hold out.* Lin Zhiyan curled her lip. ----- When Lin Zhiyan returned to her office, she questioned her adjutant, Xu Fang. "What did the Fangshi Public Security Office say?" Xu Fang answered, "The Public Security Office stated they've already mobilized the informants planted in the Foreign District and guaranteed they will locate the robbers as quickly as possible." "I'll be lucky if they even bring me a corpse. Fangshi is full of the Chen family's people; from top to bottom, it's been forged into an iron barrel." Lin Zhiyan didn't believe for a second that Fangshi would hand the man over. She suspected that the very first fugitive had been let through by Lü Jinshan in the first place. An earth-nature superhuman with depleted ammunition and no supplies had somehow managed to walk through the ant territory for a day and a night. Even so, the border defense station hadn't dispatched any personnel to track him down. Xu Fang said, "You could file a complaint with the Circuit Politics Bureau." "If every special investigation team relied on complaints, the Federation would have fallen apart long ago. If filing a complaint worked, things wouldn't have reached this point." Lin Zhiyan cast a glance at her. With the amplification of her psychic divine power, she could naturally sense the woman's thoughts. It was an attitude of awe and rigidity mixed with a hint of disdain. Xu Fang's so-called complaint carried the subtext of having Lin Zhiyan leverage her connections and use a higher-ranking office to suppress Fangshi. One couldn't blame her. Most of Lin Zhiyan's peers who had grown up in the same compound were indeed useless fools who could rely on nothing but connections today. This was especially true for families that had risen to prominence in the last three generations. A Martial Marquis possessed the power to indulge them, but a Martial Marquis would inevitably die. When the source of power disappeared, they would naturally plunge from the clouds. Therefore, many Martial Marquises chose to steer their descendants into business, which could at least guarantee lifelong wealth. Chen Qian could act recklessly, and Lin Zhiyan could as well, but every abuse of power was a door locked against one's own future. Lu Zhao was originally assigned to a local Fangshi unit, so mobilizing him was within her purview; pulling strings was only for when someone else broke the rules first. Lin Zhiyan's sight was set on the Circuit Politics Bureau, and ultimately on becoming a Martial Marquis; she naturally had to cherish her feathers. Xu Fang clearly hadn't seen through the essence of how power operated, asking with lingering confusion: "We're all part of the Federation, so why oppose us at every turn? Capturing the criminals won't harm them." This was what she found most incomprehensible. The special investigation team had only come to carry out the Circuit Politics Bureau's mission, and their target was merely a roving gang of robbers. Lin Zhiyan pointed out, "Some things cannot be weighed on the scales, and no one willingly hands over leverage against themselves." Xu Fang understood even less and said, "Whatever it is, we can communicate as much as possible and clearly divide the scope of the investigation." "Perhaps." Lin Zhiyan gave a perfunctory reply, suddenly finding herself missing her senior. Although he was the same kind of person as her father—which Lin Zhiyan disliked intensely—she preferred conversing with smart people. If Lu Zhao were here, he would have understood immediately. From the very start, this had never been an issue of crime. If an investigation into the Foreign District had been required in the past, the higher-ups would have set the tone right at the beginning and notified those below accordingly. Now, Lin Zhiyan had received no such word, and Fangshi's officials—great and small—presumably hadn't either. If the top didn't explicitly forbid investigating the Foreign District, that meant it could be investigated—and better yet, that something ought to be uncovered. When the Martial Marquises had not spoken, how could those below possibly make a decision? Lin Zhiyan's phone rang. She glanced at the number; it was a call from Zhao De, the city executive of Fangshi. "The card that is Senior is actually quite a deterrent." When the time came to abide by the rules, a person like Lu Zhao was a peerless sword.