Chapter 42: Retribution

41. Retribution

"Monster! There's a monster!! Right on my bed!" Chi Jianjun was so terrified he could barely get his words out. "Eight legs! Glowing green! Teeth longer than my arm! A monster with two other mouths growing on its neck!"

"What!! What are the Marines doing!! Why did they let a monster into Elder Chi's room! This is a joke!!" Tang Xiao was furious. Hearing Chi Jianjun's description, he didn't consider any other possibility.

He immediately patched through to Graham's comms and launched into a tirade. "What the hell are you people doing!! A monster actually crawled into Elder Chi's room!! I'll settle this with you later!! For now, send the Marines to blockade and surround that area immediately! Then kill that monster! And conduct a full security sweep to ensure the safety of the entire colony!"

"Uh... Administrator, let me explain..."

"I don't want explanations right now! Just do it!!" Tang Xiao barked.

"Wasn't it you who ordered that skin to be put there?" Graham snapped back, losing his temper and ignoring Tang Xiao's authority.

"What? Skin?" Tang Xiao froze. Then he remembered that when he was setting up the 'luxury villa,' he had asked them to hunt a beast and place its skin on the bed.

However, perhaps due to the mental inertia of coming from Earth, when Tang Xiao thought of "beasts," he thought of tigers, leopards, or black bears. At the very least, a wolf would have sufficed.

Who knew it would be... this.

A moment later, Tang Xiao stared speechlessly at the terrifying creature before him: a smooth, hairless skin glowing with a green light, possessing four claws, a flattened head and neck, and—in addition to the mouth on the front—two more mouths on either side of its neck.

"I told you to hunt a beast, why did you bring back this thing that drops a person's Sanity to zero just by looking at it?" Tang Xiao said, rubbing his forehead.

"Reporting to the Administrator! Because this is indeed a terrifying beast that lives in deep waters. It attempted to attack our fully enclosed pig farm a few days ago and was killed by our brave warriors using electric prods!" The speaker was the captain of the Dawn City Marines, answering in a strictly professional manner.

Electric prods? Tang Xiao broke into a cold sweat. Looking at the twitching monster skin, he waved his hand to make it disappear, then instantly switched to a smiling face as he spoke to Chi Jianjun. "Professor Chi, we wanted to get something all-natural to make you a mattress. It's much better than that synthetic leather stuff, right? But if you find it unsuitable, I'll have them change it to cotton quilts immediately. It's no trouble at all, don't worry. It's only right for our warriors to come change your quilts in the middle of the night."

"Is it really just a skin?" Chi Jianjun stood far away, still not daring to approach.

"It really is just a skin!" Tang Xiao kicked the head of the skin.

"Take it away! Take it away! No! I don't want this thing! I'd rather sleep under cotton quilts!" Chi Jianjun said with absolute determination.

"Alright, alright, I'll arrange it for you right away." It took a lot of coaxing before Tang Xiao managed to usher Chi Jianjun back to sleep. He then stretched, yawning as he headed back to his own quarters.

However, less than two hours after he fell asleep, a piercing scream suddenly erupted from the direction of Professor Chi's villa: "Help me~~~~~~!!!"

Tang Xiao was now hyper-vigilant. At the sound, he bolted upright and sprinted toward the villa. This time, however, he was cautious; he didn't call Graham to surround the villa with troops, but decided to check the situation himself first.

Sure enough, he saw Chi Jianjun running toward him, clutching his clothes and blankets while shouting hysterically, "Help! Help! There's... there are more monsters!!"

"How are there more monsters? There shouldn't be any left, right?" Tang Xiao scratched his head.

"There are!! Right outside my window!!" Chi Jianjun roared, pointing toward the villa. The old man looked like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

"The window... wait, no way..." Tang Xao suddenly remembered something. He turned to look toward the villa and indeed heard a series of unpleasant *quack-quack-quack* sounds. Then, with a flurry of wings, a large black bird took flight toward the forest.

"So that was the bird's nest I told them to put outside the window? 'Birds singing and flowers blooming'... next time it'll probably be a man-eating flower..." A bead of cold sweat rolled down Tang Xiao's temple.

"Huh? What did you say about birds and flowers?" Chi Jianjun was so terrified he hadn't heard Tang Xiao clearly.

"Oh! Nothing! I'll send people to thoroughly inspect your room immediately. This time, I'll ensure there are no problems!" Tang Xiao promised, patting his chest.

"Let them take their time. By the way, where do you sleep at night?" Chi Jianjun suddenly asked.

"Oh, me? I usually live a bit more ruggedly, just making do in the City Hall dorms." Tang Xiao didn't catch the implication.

Without another word, Chi Jianjun clutched his quilt and started running toward Tang Xiao's quarters.

"Hey, Professor Chi, what are you doing? Your villa is over there!" Tang Xiao rushed over to grab him.

"Don't stop me! Let me go live a 'rugged' life too!" Chi Jianjun struggled desperately.

"Professor Chi, that villa is the luxury home we worked so hard to build for you..." Seeing that he couldn't hold him back, Tang Xiao ended up just hugging the old man.

"Luxury my foot! Let me go! I, Chi Jianjun, will give up my sixty-seven-year-old bones; even if I die today, I'm dying in your room!!" From some unknown source of strength, Chi Jianjun began marching forward step by step.

Tang Xiao didn't dare use real force for fear of injuring the old man, so the two of them ended up entangled, eventually making it back into Tang Xiao's room.

Chi Jianjun was not polite at all. Pointing at the sofa, he said, "You're the leader, you sleep in the bed. I'll sleep on the sofa." With that, he tossed his quilt onto the sofa, lay down, and fell asleep immediately.

Tang Xiao sighed, rubbing his forehead. But since it was late, he couldn't bring himself to kick the old professor out again, so he climbed into bed and went to sleep.

...

In the dead of night, Dawn City was deep in slumber. Aside from the Marines on shift patrolling the streets, no one was seen moving about.

Tang Xiao, however, lay with his eyes open, staring blankly at the ceiling. On the sofa, Chi Jianjun's snoring was thunderous. Tang Xiao looked wordlessly at the water glass on his nightstand, which was rippling with every snore, and muttered to himself, "Retribution..."

The next day, Tang Xiao finally crawled out of bed around noon. Rubbing his dark circles, he saw that Professor Chi had also just risen; the old man was slowly practicing Tai Chi in the courtyard outside the window.

Tang Xiao put on a coat and walked over. Before he could even speak, Chi Jianjun said directly, "Don't say anything. I'm living here from now on. Whoever wants to live in that luxury villa can have it."

"But..."

"I told you before, I'm just here to live out my retirement."

"However..."

"Sigh, I'm just an old man. Why do you have to keep pushing me around and making things so difficult?"

"Speaking of which..."

"I know, you want to talk about natural disasters. Our civilization reached that level of development, yet we were still destroyed by endless disasters. Void Demons, the Consensus Protocol, high-dimensional beings—which of them are easy to deal with? If you ask me, we shouldn't have provoked such existences. Maintaining an agrarian civilization like this is perfectly fine. Have you ever seen an agrarian civilization farming while piloting a spaceship? So, I'll just stick to my retirement."

*You certainly think fast when you're being argumentative...* Tang Xiao thought, speechless. He thought for a moment, then signaled a T-850 to bring over a computer. He placed it in front of Chi Jianjun and began playing the footage of the brutal aerial battle from a week ago when the three bounty hunters attacked.

Chi Jianjun continued his Tai Chi movements, but his attention was clearly drawn to the battle. His movements slowed, his expression grew increasingly grim, and finally, he stopped. He stood before the computer, his face dark.

After a long silence, he looked up and glared at Tang Xiao. "You are our leader? The Administrator?"

"That's right, I am," Tang Xiao nodded.

"Leader my ass! Go be a murderer instead! You have a talent for that." Chi Jianjun cursed, turned around, walked back into the room, slammed the door, and locked it.

(End of Chapter)