Book 4, Chapter 260: Going Home With The Family

Shannan Road’s garrison had gone through a sudden, major upheaval overnight. Many high-ranking officers, including several important commanding officers, were either demoted or sent for interrogation.

Since more than half of the mid- and lower-ranking officers were also involved in the selling of firearms, they, too, were demoted and investigated. A large number of other people involved were also dragged out into the spotlight.

The National Defense Ministry sent up a special investigation team. Based on emergency protocol, they promoted a group of officers who had stayed true to their principles and transferred some officers from the merged space to take over command to stabilize the garrison.

No matter what, this was an internal matter. Even if the military officers had ties with other interest groups, once the military secured evidence and started punishing them accordingly, those external forces couldn’t interfere. Because of this, the matter was settled in no time.

In comparison, something else related to this matter brought an even bigger impact to a certain group in Central City.

Since Aunty Bai was involved and under suspicion for trying to interfere with the operation, she was heavily injured by another martial arts master and apprehended.

This news brought a major shockwave to Shannan Road’s Central City.

After all, Aunty Bai had been around from when Shannan Road built its Central City. She had tons of life experience and plenty of mentees as well as nieces and nephews. Since she also had a good image, many of those in the upper-class society admired her, especially the elite students and teachers from martial arts groups, high-class martial arts schools, and Shannan Road’s own Martial Valor University. They treated her as their goal and source of motivation.

But now, they heard that she had been easily defeated by a martial arts master younger than she was. It shocked them to their core.

This wasn’t all. She had been stationed in Central City for so long that she had business ties with practically all parties in Central City. Now that she was suddenly captured and isolated, it caused quite a lot of them to panic. The groups and organizations she supported started having all sorts of problems. If the Department of Administrative Affairs let them fester, it was going to lead to an even larger upheaval.

The Defense Bureau and City Patrol were ready for this and managed to swiftly quell these problems. During the process, the municipal government and many companies didn’t cause any problems, even though they usually stood at odds with the Department of Administrative Affairs. Instead, they cooperated fully.

This wasn’t because they saw the full picture, but because they knew that the martial arts master who defeated Aunty Bai was still around and clearly on the side of the Department of Administrative Affairs and the military. If anything happened in Central City, it was highly likely that the Department of Administrative Affairs would call him over, and they didn’t want that. They refused to give the Department of Administrative Affairs a reason to do that.

The residential area of the soldiers became much emptier, especially the places where the high-ranking officers stayed. Only a handful of people walked on the streets.

Chen Chuan was completely unaffected by this. He trained and rested as he usually did while spending time with Yu Jie’s family.

Han Cheng also stayed put over the next few days. He felt scared but also lucky, because all the things he did were just minor infringements. However, he had received news that several of his peers had been captured by the Department of Administrative Affairs, even though what they did was also just minor crimes. Some of them were from more powerful families, but still couldn’t escape arrest. This meant that if it weren’t for Chen Chuan being his cousin, he would have also been arrested.

On the twenty-fourth, Chen Chuan received a report from Shannan Road’s Defense Bureau. It was a summary of the operation and some reference materials related to the case.

The National Defense Ministry headed the operation while assisted by the merged space military and Shannan Road’s Department of Administrative Affairs. Their goal was getting rid of the parasites that had been infesting the garrison for a long time.

The departments had been planning on doing this for years and had set up several backup plans. However, the most crucial problem was Aunty Bai.

The Department of Administrative Affairs had hired her when they set up Central City. During the first few decades, she contributed greatly to stabilizing Shannan Road. Afterwards, though, she started becoming more conservative and caring more about her personal interests. She focused on keeping both sides in a balance and refused any type of major changes.

They had a lot of evidence pointing toward her mentees, disciples, and relatives being involved in various webs of vested interests. She herself stood at the top of these webs and received plenty of calorie-dense nutritional fluid from the municipal government every year.

With her around, it was impossible to change Shannan Road’s garrison in any substantial way. However, Chen Chuan’s arrival changed things. Chang Shuyu noticed the opportunity to break the stalemate once his faction member arrived and immediately convinced all parties to launch the operation. The fuse that set off the operation was the National General Affairs Bureau officer handing Chen Chuan a note, so there really was no warning sign.

Based on the results, the operation went smoothly with Chen Chuan playing a key role. Shannan Road’s Department of Administrative Affairs thanked him for that and promised to give him something as thanks.

After reading through the report, Chen Chuan set it aside to take a look at the bright sun outside. What came after had nothing to do with him, and his New Year holiday was coming to an end too. He was going to stay for a few more days. If nothing else happened, he was going back to Jibei Road.

***

Three days later, it was the twenty-seventh.

Chen Chuan’s family walked out of the villa with their suitcases in hand. Han Kuang’s family sent them to the mooring point.

When they were about to part ways, Yu Jie and Yu Wan were still talking and crying.

Han Kuang seemed to be in a good mood too. He had been in charge of most of the main operations in the Staff Department over the past few days, like mobilizing the officers. If nothing went wrong, he was guaranteed to become the deputy commander. If he did well, he might even become the commander in the future.

After he finished talking to Nian Fuli, he turned to Chen Chuan. “I might be your uncle, but I have nothing to teach you. None of what I’ve learned in my life can be turned into useful advice for you. You’re going to climb to unimaginable heights, so I only hope that you won’t end up like Security Advisor Bai.”

Chen Chuan could hear the sincerity in his voice. He wouldn’t have said that unless he really treated him as family. If he didn’t care, he would have just said some polite pleasantries.

“Don’t worry, Uncle. I won’t walk down her path,” he promised seriously.

Han Kuang nodded in satisfaction.

While they spoke, the younger cousins said goodbye to each other. Then, Chen Chuan’s family boarded the airship under the gazes of Yu Jie’s family.

After waiting for a while, the propellers started turning, and the airship slowly rose from the mooring point before leaving in the direction of the sun in the east.

When Han Kuang saw that Yu Jie was still crying, he hugged her shoulders and patted her head. “Don’t be sad. They’re moving to Jibei Road’s Central City, so it’ll be easy for them to visit us from now on. Didn’t your sister say that she’s going to come next year as well? If you want to visit her, I can also make arrangements for you. After all, I’m the deputy commander now.”

Yu Jie glared at him. “Enough with that! I can’t leave. You can’t take care of yourself, and Xiao Cheng is a troublemaker. I’m going to be worrying about you and the kids the whole time if I leave for a month.”

“Dad, Mom, if you two can’t go, I can go for you,” Han Cheng immediately volunteered.

Han Kuang exchanged looks with Yu Jie before saying, “That’s not a bad idea. Let me think about it.”

Han Cheng trembled and suddenly thought that he might have said something wrong.

***

After Chen Chuan’s family went to the main cabin, Nian Mo and Nian Lu saw Dawncall lying on a cushion, and their eyes lit up. They ran over to it while making chirping sounds in its direction.

Chen Chuan hadn’t brought Dawncall to the residential area, because the bird-reptile had grown too large. If it entered Central City, it would stand out, so he had it stay in the airship.

When he saw how happily his cousins were playing with Dawncall, he smiled and let them be. In any case, there were security guards and airship crew around. Nothing could go wrong.

He set down their suitcases before bringing Nian Fuli, Yu Wan, and Nian Qian to the observation cabin. After serving tea to everyone, he sat down and said, “Uncle, I’ve gotten you a job at City Patrol. You’ll be managing the officers there. If you don’t like it and want to patrol the streets instead, I can get you such a position, but Central City is quite dangerous. You need implants to protect yourself during operations.”

“I don’t want to cause you any trouble, Xiao Chuan. I’ll just sit in the office,” Nian Fuli said with a shake of his head.

“Your uncle is old now and doesn’t know Central City. Why send him to patrol the streets? He has been sitting in his chair all day long as a brigade commander for a while now. His back is no longer as good as before, and his stomach is much larger too,” Yu Wan chimed in.

“No! That’s not true!” Nian Fuli immediately denied it.

“Fine, fine. It’s not,” Yu Wan said.

Chen Chuan smiled. “I’ve also contacted a teacher for Nian Mo and Nian Lu. If they want to study at home, the teacher will come to them. If they want to study in a private school, I can get that settled too, but they’ll need to stay in a dorm and will only be able to come back once every ten days.”

“Chan’er, let me talk to your uncle for a bit about this,” Yu Wan said.

They did think that it was better for children to study at school, because they could mingle around with people their age, but they weren’t familiar with the situation in Central City. It was a dangerous place, so they thought that they should decide after taking a look around.

Chen Chuan nodded. He could understand their worries, and they wouldn’t feel at ease just because he gave them some reassuring words. He turned to Nian Qian. “Don’t you have around three months of leave? Want to spend some time in Central City?”

“Sure. I haven’t been back for years, so I’d like to spend more time with Dad and Mom, but I haven’t stayed in any Central City either. I only got to sightsee a bit around Shannan Road’s Central City, so once I’m at Jibei Road’s Central City, you’ll need to bring me around,” Nian Qian said.

Chen Chuan grinned. “Deal.”

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