61 Painful Choice I (1/2)
By the time they woke up, they had found themselves with the mayor, locked up in prison cubicles within the mayor's residence. The chiefs had a common enemy and had decided to resist till death. Yet, the enemy chose not to show himself. Instead, food and drinks surfaced on the table, instantly hooking their appetite. Confident that their enemy wasn't after their lives, those men ate heartily, only to feel their tummy rumbling loudly soon after. Rushing to the bucket in the prison, they found that on it was a picture of their dear god Garison.
They were simply unable to sh*t into their god's mouth, also the opening of the bucket, as the immoral culprit had so specifically drawn. Plus, whoever had dared use it did not need to think about living anymore.
Without a choice, everyone started doing their business in front of one another. They were big and important figures who were unable to prevent nature's call. Hunger could be endured but not bathroom needs. For a whole day, Ah Shina and those figures suffered tremendously.
Just then, a piece of paper appeared before them as someone shouted, ”Write in exchange for your freedom to use the bathroom.”
As such, those men, unafraid of death and interrogation by torture but unwilling to commit blasphemy, obediently wrote their pledge to hand over all weapons of their tribe, to only possess those approved and given by the office, and to make an oath in front of Garison's painting never to betray again.
The only resistance came from Ah Shina himself. He sat in a corner, not moving for three days and nights, in fear that the stench in his pants would be released all at once upon any movement. While in admiration of his perseverance, the other men rejoiced at their freedom to defecate properly.
A calamity that should have shaken the whole city and wiped out all Han citizens within it was, just like that, put to an end through absolutely shameless methods. The originator, also the girl who had arrived into this world like a storm, quickly announced to the city the content within the document, legitimized by an official seal.
”The mayor is ill and unable to see to things. The assistant magistrate has died from a sudden illness, and his responsibilities will be taken over by his substitute, who will now be in charge of the internal military affairs and civil administrations.”
This unrest, not considered extensive, had happened in Yaocheng, a small city in the southern border of Wuji. It should have vanished like a bubble in the history of time, but some of the higher-ups in the seven nations smelled something fishy from it. It was just as how a sharp blade's glint could never be fully concealed even if kept in a pocket.
...
”It's a conspiracy, the massacre,” Feng Xuan, the monarch of Xuanji Nation spoke while reclining in his seat before a purple-lit lamp and fiddling with the tassels of his fan.
...
”It was committed for an opportunity to gain power, and the culprit is most definitely not ordinary,” Xuanji Regent read from the national report.
...
Fei Yan, the lady saint from Fufeng Nation, stood on the highest building in the whole nation and gazed toward the south, her eyes appearing hazy through the fluttering golden muslin curtains and floating clouds. She lifted a finger, and a black crystal appeared on her fingertip. Quietly looking at it for a long time, she finally said in a soft voice, ”God's decree. Her direction.”
...
Standing amid the vast yellow sand of Geya desert, Tiansha Nation's king turned toward Wuji Nation. His darker-than-night pupils glowing from the flames burning enthusiastically within them, just like the eternally burning disk above his head.
”Is that you, Woman?”
He raised his head up and laughed before whipping his horse. Upon neighing and lifting its hooves the handsome horse galloped toward the south like the wind, leaving deep prints on the sand.
...
Outside Yaocheng's city gate, a refined man dressed in purple robe mumbled, ”I'm just a step later, and you've already snatched my city...”
He raised a brow and looked toward the mayor's residence. What was she doing at this moment? The girl whose smile was as bright as the sun, whose body was as soft as spring willows and whose attitude at work was as tough as thunder and as strong as thirty cows. Would she be thinking of the man who had abandoned her for not greeting him?
At that moment inside the mayor's residence, the newly classified mayor, Meng Fuyao, wasn't thinking about the man who had so heartlessly dumped her. Neither was she thinking about the reaction of the important people in all seven nations. She was squatting in prison, staring unbelievably at the corpse on the ground.
It was the man whom tens of thousands of Rong men respected and the leader who had possessed absolute might amid the Rong people – former mayor Ah Shina.
'Sudden death.'
”Darn it, what a time to die,” Meng Fuyao complained, scowling miserably while squatting by Ah Shina's scarless corpse.
While it looked as if she was having a good time as the substitute mayor, she was actually walking on a tightrope and had been so busy trying to stabilize the situation.
First Zong Yue had to report to King De about the recent happenings to get his permission for her to become the mayor temporarily. Then, she had to filter out the more dangerous Rongsmen, recruit Han bailiffs, and form and train up the civil corps in order to strengthen the defense of the Han citizens, who made up a smaller group within the city. She had also divided the household register to have the Rongsmen and Hansmen live alongside each other. At the same time, she beheaded a few of the most vicious and generous ribbon-hangers. Now that all these had been done, the situation within the city was still stable despite the inevitable undercurrents of activities.