Chapter 43: Law
Following Aman, Chu Jiu hurried to the foot of the back mountain.
When they reached the bee farm, two black-robed figures had opened the wooden barrels filled with honey and were using spoons to scoop out the honey, “inspecting the goods” by the torchlight.
And two other black-robed individuals were even trying to take away the hives used to raise the bees!
Grandpa Du, who had handed over the honey out of obligation to the “Permit,” was absolutely unwilling to let them take the hives. He knew that these hives were now full of bees, and all hope for honey production after the new year lay within them!
The old man blocked the hives with his body, Douglas stopped the black-robed men, and the old village chief, his face flushed, argued with them, saying that it was one thing to take the honey according to the “Permit,” but how could they take the hives too!
The leader of the black-robed men had a long face with a long, upturned nose in the center. The long-faced man’s tone was polite, but the meaning behind his words was unreasonable and impolite: “Gentlemen, the ‘Permit’ states that the goods we are requisitioning include ‘related tools for storing, transporting, and maintaining the freshness of the goods.’ Since your freshest honey is all in the hives, we naturally have to requisition the tools as well.”
After the long-faced man finished speaking and was about to take another step forward, he heard a clear and firm young voice:
“You can’t take the hives!”
“Not only can you not take the hives, but you can’t even take the honey!”
The long-faced man turned his head to look—
A teenager who looked no more than sixteen or seventeen, with no intimidating presence, not appearing to be a supernatural being, and with an indistinguishable animal perched on his shoulder.
The long-faced man sneered, thinking to himself that this was just another ignorant and reckless youth.
He didn’t want to bother with the other party, but whispered to his subordinates behind him, “We have already given polite notice. Next, we can directly take action.”
Unexpectedly, the teenager shouted, “Are you trying to openly defy the laws of the kingdom?”
“Defying the laws of the kingdom is contempt for the royal family! If the royal guard is not present, in an emergency, members of the supernatural patrol team can take the violators to the royal city for trial!”
Reg, who had followed Chu Jiu, didn’t know what Chu Jiu was planning at this moment.
But he very cooperatively took a step forward, and a small spark crackled in his palm: “Patrol team member present. Who has violated the laws of the kingdom?”
Only then did the long-faced man turn around, his head held high, relying on his unusually long face to achieve a strange condescending effect: “Young man, do you have evidence for your words? If you don’t have evidence, slandering the association is punishable by a huge fine.”
As the man spoke, his subordinates once again showed the others the permit in their hands:
On the parchment permit was the clearly visible seal of the royal family, highlighting the “legality” of this operation.
Chu Jiu waved his arm, pointing to the shadowy back mountain, the distant road signs, and the even more distant wilderness where demonic roars seemed to echo: “Do you know what this place is?”
A sneer appeared on the long-faced man’s lips: “Bean Village.”
Chu Jiu continued, “Then do you know that Bean Village, located at the very edge of the kingdom, was designated by the late king as one of the ‘Special Tax-Exempt Zones’?”
The long-faced man said, “Of course we know that.”
The late king, in order to encourage the residents to reclaim wasteland and to prevent demons from devouring more of the kingdom’s territory, demarcated some villages at the very edge. All residents of these villages enjoyed a tax-exempt period of a full two hundred years.
The sharp-mouthed black-robed man behind the long-nosed man continued his words, his tone mocking:
“What? Do you think that tax-exempt zones can’t be requisitioned?”
“Let me tell you, according to the laws of the kingdom, in tax-exempt zones, only crops such as ‘wheat, rice, beans, and corn’ are exempt from requisition!”
“Are you trying to say that your honey belongs to one of these types of crops?!”
After the sharp-mouthed black-robed man finished speaking, the long-nosed man snorted through his nostrils and said, “No wonder. Such remote villages probably don’t even understand what ‘tax-exempt’ means. We, as members of the association, should show our due politeness and demeanor and explain it to them properly.”
The sharp-mouthed black-robed man and the long-nosed man sang in harmony, sternly saying, “In short, young man, tax exemption or not has nothing to do with our requisition today. Don’t waste our time here—”
Chu Jiu interrupted him, “Wrong!”
“It has everything to do with it!”
The long-nosed man’s nose twitched, and his eyebrows furrowed unpleasantly.
Chu Jiu stood under the torchlight that Aman and the others were holding up with all their might, and said, word by word:
“Regarding special tax-exempt zones, the late king once signed a series of clauses.”
“Some of these clauses are not included in the ‘Tax-Exempt Zone Decree’ but are scattered among other special decrees.”
“For example!”
Chu Jiu straightened his body and glanced at all the black-robed people present;
“There is an independent ‘Special Clause for Marketable Goods’.”
“‘To encourage residents of tax-exempt zones to actively cultivate, it is hereby decided that for marketable products originating from tax-exempt zones, if their commercial value exceeds 100 kingdom silver coins, all individuals, whether administrators of the tax-exempt zone or members of the royal family, shall exert their utmost efforts to facilitate the realization of their commercial value.’
“‘All individuals, whether administrators of the tax-exempt zone or members of the royal family, shall not, for any reason, compel residents of tax-exempt zones to alter the intended commercial use of such products.
“‘Other regulations, clauses, documents, and orders, whether written or unwritten, shall be subordinate to this clause in case of conflict.'”
These words were forceful and resounding, causing fine beads of sweat to appear on the sharp-mouthed black-robed man’s forehead and the long-nosed man’s nose to gradually turn red.
Chu Jiu took a breath and continued, his voice ringing:
“Furthermore, according to Article 122, Section 5 of the Kingdom’s Commercial Law, one of the criteria for judging the ‘commercial value’ of a crop or product is the ‘price stated in signed, soon-to-be-signed, or conventionally to-be-signed orders and contracts’.”
“Marco!”
Chu Jiu turned his face and shouted at the fat merchant who was staggering over with the help of his apprentice, “Has our honey been contracted?!”
Supported by his apprentice, Marco struggled to straighten up, his voice still trembling slightly, “Yes, it has!”
Chu Jiu: “What is our price?!”
Marco puffed out his chest, pulled out the parchment he had hidden in his chest, and roared the numbers on it loudly, “150 silver coins! Far exceeding 100 kingdom silver coins!”
Chu Jiu looked directly at the long-nosed man, his clear black and white eyes showing no fear: “Your Excellency, your act of requisition will undoubtedly cause us to breach our contract and prevent us from realizing the ‘commercial value’ of our honey.”
“Isn’t this act of forcibly changing the commercial use of our honey an open provocation to the authority of the late king?!”
“Or are you planning to take your ‘Permit,’ escorted by the supernatural patrol team, and go with us to the royal city to have the Kingdom’s Special Tribunal handle this matter?!”
The sharp-mouthed black-robed man ground his teeth, his voice filled with hatred, “You, you… you don’t know what’s good for you…”
The long-nosed man hissed, “Shut up!”
His nostrils flared a few times, and he turned his head to whisper, “Go and find out now if this clause he’s talking about actually exists!”
The sharp-mouthed man immediately bowed his head in agreement and trotted away.
The long-faced man looked back at the teenager in front of him:
Under the dim torchlight, the teenager stood straight and firm, with a look of “absolute refusal to yield” in his eyes. Where was the “reckless youth to be manipulated at will” he had thought him to be just moments ago?
Just then, the indistinguishable animal on the teenager’s shoulder slowly raised its upper body and let out a beast’s unique warning roar at the long-nosed man.
The flickering torchlight magnified, magnified, and magnified the shadow of the animal, making the long-nosed man’s heart tighten and his palms sweat.
He glanced sideways at both sides:
The fire-elemental ability-user’s hand had never stopped producing sparks.
And the former ability-user team captain, who had once served as a patrol team leader, stood with his arms crossed, always blocking the way.
…This time, he was probably not going to get anything good.
The long-nosed man made up his mind.
A moment later, the sharp-mouthed man ran back looking disheveled and reported:
“It… it really exists… tucked away in a pile of scrolls, no one ever paid attention to it…”
“Plus, these dilapidated villages have never produced anything good. This clause is basically never used…”
As the sharp-mouthed man spoke, he began to tremble uncontrollably, almost collapsing into a kneeling position.
The long-nosed man’s nostrils flared open and closed, open and closed.
He took a deep breath and forced a smile, “So that’s how it is.”
“Our association was not familiar enough with the laws. A misunderstanding, a misunderstanding.”
With that, he waved his hand and led the group of black-robed figures away, carrying torches, their faces darker than their robes.
After the group had walked far away, looking at the honey and hives left behind, Chu Jiu finally let out a long breath and sat down directly on the ground.
Hoo…
Although he had been confident, facing such a situation for the first time, being questioned so aggressively by a group of ill-intentioned black crows, still made his legs feel weak.
Chu Jiu wiped the fine sweat from his forehead.
At this moment, he heard intermittent sobbing behind him.
Turning his head, he saw that it was Marco and Grandpa Du. This usually cheerful middle-aged man and the old man who dared to go to the cliffs alone to collect honey, were hugging each other, patting each other’s backs while shedding tears.
Marco cried, his nose running, “I thought I was finished, I would have to close shop and pay compensation, and I would never be able to be a traveling merchant again…”
Grandpa Du’s old eyes were filled with tears, “Our bee farm, we almost lost our bee farm…”
Even the old village chief was secretly wiping away tears, and Marco’s young apprentice was wailing loudly without any restraint.
Looking at the old and the young crying together, Chu Jiu let out another long breath.
That was close, so close.
At this moment, a system prompt popped up:
[Host has triggered the hidden condition of the related event “Guardian of a Small Dream”!]
[Does the host choose to accept the reward now?]
[The reward for this event is 500 points, and the reward for the host’s unclaimed related event is 300 points.]
[If the reward is accepted now, the host can receive a total of 1600 Pioneering Points.]
[If accumulation continues, the reward will continue to double.]
Wow, it really doubled!
Good! Of course, continue to accumulate!
Just as Chu Jiu chose “continue to accumulate,” Reg walked over and sat down beside him, sighing, “Impressive. Just a few words scared off the association.”
Chu Jiu shook his head, “It wasn’t just those few words.”
“If you and Douglas weren’t here, even if I slapped the laws in their faces, they would have chosen to ignore them and still acted recklessly.”
At this time, Douglas also walked over and nodded after hearing Chu Jiu’s words:
“Having ability-users present can make them wary. But what really made them leave empty-handed was Xiao Jiu’s quick thinking.”
“However… this time the association suffered a setback. According to their style, they will probably look for another reason to cause trouble.”
After saying this, he discussed with Reg and decided to have the ability-users in Emerald Town pay special attention to the association’s movements. They would be informed of any disturbances so that they could prepare early.
After everything was arranged, Douglas looked at Chu Jiu again and asked with admiration:
“Xiao Jiu, how did you know about these laws? I don’t think even those association people understood them.”
Chu Jiu honestly said, “I borrowed two sets of compilations from an old gentleman and happened to read through them all last night.”
He had to admit, regulations and clauses were really tiring to read…
He had almost fallen asleep several times, thinking of just giving up, it wouldn’t make much difference to skip this one night.
But every time he was about to put down the scrolls, Chu Jiu would remember the black-robed people leaving in a hurry, and he would feel uneasy.
And so, he stayed up all night and finished reading both compilations.
During this time, Little Can also refused to sleep alone and insisted on staying by his side.
Strangely enough, as long as the little kitty put its small head against Chu Jiu’s cheek, he would feel his brain become much clearer, and he could memorize those long, convoluted sentences.
Reg was even more surprised, “You stayed up all night reading books, and you were reading this?”
“I heard you went to borrow books, but I never expected you to borrow these kinds of books.”
He sincerely admired him and said, “If it were me, I would never have thought of learning about these laws in advance.”
“Thanks to your foresight, otherwise this bee farm would have really been lost today.”
Chu Jiu, who hadn’t shown any fear when facing the black-robed men just now, now smiled somewhat shyly, thinking to himself that it wasn’t his own foresight—
The person who told him to find these books as soon as possible and make sure to study them thoroughly was actually Lu Qingyan.
If it hadn’t been for his suggestion, he wouldn’t have specifically looked for Mr. He, and he wouldn’t have been able to scare off the association with such irrefutable reasons.
Hmm… if he saw Lu Qingyan again, he would definitely thank him properly!
*
Alsa Star.
“Marshal, are you saying…” He Fang organized his thoughts in his mind, trying to express them as clearly as possible, “The spiritual bodies of several officers, including yourself, underwent infantilization in WT0906 and are… recuperating in a juvenile form?”
“Yes.” Lu Qingyan looked at the information on the screen.
Twenty days ago, he interrupted his mental projection and “returned” to Alsa Star.
The moment he sat up from the transmission pod, the physician rushed over to tell him that the load caused by this projection had exceeded the limit.
Marshal Lu could no longer use his mental power in the short term—that is, he could neither merge with his spiritual power again nor send probes to WT0906.
Lu Qingyan was not surprised.
After a brief rest, he integrated all the information obtained from this investigation, including what he had seen and heard, as well as the spiritual body memories obtained after the fusion.
It was impossible to carry an observer during mental projection.
Therefore, Lu Qingyan manually reproduced all this information.
Or rather, he reproduced most of it.
Some information that was too personal and did not affect the overall judgment of the matter, he decided not to disclose.
For example…
Lu Qingyan glanced at his hand resting on the table.
In his mind, the image of the young man placing his hand in his palm, and himself extending his arm to protect him, leaping up with him, came to mind.
His eyes narrowed slightly, and he shifted his attention back to the present.
“In my understanding, this young man is doing a series of ‘repair work’ without exceeding his cognitive limits and without causing temporal and spatial chaos.”
“At the same time, I confirm that there are Zerg lurking in WT0906.”
The Zerg reproduced based on his memory appeared on the screen—the “giant demonic creature” that almost trapped Chu Jiu in the cave.
He calmly narrated what might have happened in WT0906 and what the Zerg were plotting.
Although a few pieces were still missing from the puzzle, this did not prevent him from making a basic judgment.
After he finished speaking, General Bai said, “Marshal, in that case, should we directly send ‘reinforcements’?”
Lu Qingyan: “We should.”
“But any radical form will ‘startle the enemy’.”
“A slight carelessness will only accelerate the destruction of WT0906.”
That ancient world, those spiritual bodies that had become juvenile, and that young man, would all suffer a catastrophe.
Lu Qingyan concluded, “I will handle the reinforcement of WT0906 directly.”
*
Pioneer’s Cabin.
“Rawr rawr rawr, what I want to do?” Rawr Rawr Rabbit rolled over in its soft rabbit nest, its limbs spread out, turning into a white little rabbit pancake, “Of course, I want to farm, rawr rawr rawr!”
“Although I don’t like eating vegetables, I love growing them, rawr rawr rawr! Seeing the little sprouts pop their heads out of the ground makes me so happy!”
“I’m doing what I want to do every day now, rawr rawr rawr! So I’m happy every day, rawr rawr rawr!”
This was what Chu Jiu had promised Little Can in Sea Moon City: after returning to Bean Village, he would ask Rawr Rawr Rabbit and the others what they wanted to do.
Actually, Chu Jiu could almost guess.
But he still kept his promise, and when the spirit beasts were all washed and lying down comfortably, he started the “bedtime talk.”
Glup Glup had already burrowed into his little nursery. He leaned comfortably against the soft grass beside it, his little bean eyes closed, his mouth forming a happy arc: “Glup glup glup, I want to build houses.”
“Besides houses, there are many other things I want to build too…”
“Waterwheels, windmills, chicken coops… glup..glup…”
Kakaba’s bed was a wooden basin filled with half a basin of clear water. Its hind paws slowly paddled the water, and its front paws reached out of the basin, gently patting the edge: “Dang dang, dang dang…”
“What I want to do is, of course, play in the mud.”
“First, jump, jump, jump in the mud pit, and then sit down and play with the mud—it would be even better if there were friends playing together!”
The spirit beasts’ answers were exactly as Chu Jiu had expected.
But Little Can listened very attentively.
After listening, it silently walked to the pillow and curled itself into a furry cat ball:
Besides catching bugs, what else did it really want to do?
It tilted its head and looked at Chu Jiu’s face.
It looked again at the three small ones on the ground.
It always felt like… the answer was right there, but it couldn’t grasp it.
Sigh.
The little cat sighed softly, moved a little closer to Chu Jiu’s cheek, and closed its eyes to sleep.
*
The next morning.
Little Can unusually woke up a little earlier than Chu Jiu.
It quietly pressed against Chu Jiu’s chest, staring at the young man’s face in the morning light.
A few minutes later, Chu Jiu also woke up.
He woke up to see a pair of ice-blue round eyes staring at him unblinkingly.
Chu Jiu, not fully awake, smiled.
He temporarily forgot Little Can’s reminder not to kiss the cat casually and leaned over to kiss the little guy’s forehead.
Little Can didn’t resist at all.
Chu Jiu lay back down and whispered, “After we have breakfast later, we should set off.”
“Crossing the Sunny Plateau will take us to Sanctuary Valley. The ‘sugarcane’ we’re looking for is somewhere in Sanctuary Valley.”
“Once we extract the cane sugar, we can make the gemstones that the little squirrels like.”
Speaking of gemstones, Little Can consciously widened its eyes.
It even deliberately asked, “Chu Jiu, do you remember the very special blue gemstone we saw in Sea Moon City?”
Chu Jiu was slightly stunned, then remembered, “Yes, I remember.”
Little Can scratched its face with its paw, “That, don’t you think that color, um…”
Chu Jiu suddenly realized, “Yes, yes, it looks a lot like your eyes!”
“No wonder I thought it was so beautiful at the time, I wanted to keep looking at it after just one glance!”
Little Can felt extremely pleased now.
However, it still wanted to hear Chu Jiu say the meaning represented by this rare color with his own mouth.
Its paws kneaded Chu Jiu’s chest back and forth, and it softly “meowed,” “Hmm, eyes of this color are very rare, right…”
Say it, say it quickly, say I’m a unique kitty, the most loyal, steadfast, and honest good companion!
Chu Jiu sat up and nodded, “Yes, they are very rare.”
“Besides you, Little Can, the only other person I’ve seen with eyes this color is Lu Qingyan.”
Speaking of this, Chu Jiu thought of a scene and couldn’t help but smile, his eyes crinkling, “Ah, if we have the chance to see him again in the future, I wonder if we can have you sit together in a row, that would definitely be beautiful!”
All black, plus a pair of clear ice-blue eyes! How interesting!
After saying this, Chu Jiu jumped out of bed and patted Little Can’s head, “I’m going to make breakfast. Come down with Huhu Rabbit and the others to eat later.”
Leaving Little Can alone, standing blankly on the bed.
Little Can’s tail, which had been swaying back and forth just now, froze in the air.
Lu, Qing, Yan.
After a long while, the little cat lowered its head and viciously repeated the name in its heart.
*
Gu Lin Fortress.
The reception room of one of the association’s vice-presidents.
A kind-faced gray-haired man sat in a velvet high-backed chair, listening silently to his subordinate’s report.
The long-nosed man knelt on one knee on the ground, full of resentment as he recounted his encounter in Bean Village.
“Such a small village actually had an ability-user from the patrol team. I was worried that a direct attack would end badly.”
“And that ignorant young man actually brought out the late king’s decree to suppress us with it.”
“We… we couldn’t directly defy the late king, so we had no choice but to…”
The long-nosed man suddenly lowered his head, “Vice-President! It was our mistake! Please punish us!”
The gray-haired man sighed softly and said, “Since it was a mistake, why punish you? The true god will not be displeased by the small faults of believers.”
“I will naturally explain things to the president.”
“Actually, I don’t understand why the president is so concerned about a few jars of honey and even temporarily signed a permit, demanding that you bring back those hives as well.”
“But what’s done is done.”
“It would have been better if those honey and hives had been accidentally damaged…”
“But they are still sitting there intact, and they will be circulated in the market in the future. It will inevitably be mentioned that ‘these were the goods the association wanted but couldn’t get’.”
“If these words reach the president’s ears, it will be really difficult to explain.”
Hearing this, the long-nosed man’s mind buzzed, and sweat instantly began to drip from his forehead.
The gray-haired man stood up, his smile amiable, “But there’s nothing we can do.”
“After all, it’s the late king’s decree. Since they are citizens of the kingdom, they should naturally abide by the law.”
He walked to the long-nosed man, bent down slightly, and whispered, “People, of course, must abide by the law. But if they are not people…”
Without finishing his words, he just patted the long-nosed man’s shoulder and left the reception room directly.
I hope the people who schemes to take the honey get punished