Jiang Lijin picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork ribs and put it in her mouth.
The chef Tinia found really had some skills. That plate of sweet and sour pork ribs tasted seventy or eighty percent like the ones from Blue Star, with just the right amount of sweet and sour, except it wasn't clear what animal the ribs came from.
While slowly and methodically gnawing on the ribs, she freed a hand to scroll on her optical computer's screen.
The Starweb forum was now livelier than New Year's Eve.
The location where Felwin was arrested was in the exclusive residential area for S-class females on the capital planet. The security in such a place was extremely tight; normally, not even a fly could get in. The Security Bureau's First Action Group stormed in fully armed to make the arrest, causing a massive commotion.
The neighbors were either rich or noble, and someone had already recorded a holographic video and uploaded it to the internet.
In the video, Felwin's hair was disheveled as she was dragged out by two security officers, her usual pitiful disguise shattered completely.
The comment section had completely fallen. Half an hour ago, this was still a battleground for Felwin's fans to control the narrative, with the screen full of "Feeling sorry for Lady Felwin" and "Arden deserved to die."
Now, the tide had turned 180 degrees, and the netizens, feeling played like fools, showed astonishing fighting power.
[I'm going to throw up. A B-class disguising as an S-class, taking up the Empire's top resources. How dare she?]
[No wonder she only matched with three A-class beast husbands. The main brain is still the authority!]
[The most disgusting thing is that video of her shifting the blame to Arden, crying a river. It turns out Arden was running errands for her in the black market? This female is terrifyingly scheming.]
Jiang Lijin bit her chopsticks, reading these condemnations with great relish.
A highly upvoted comment jumped into her sight.
A netizen with the ID "Interstellar Keyboard Warrior" posted an update: [Yesterday I posted that Felwin's blame-shifting video was too fake, trying to squeeze out tears for ages without a single drop falling. As a result, I was besieged by her simp fans, who scolded me so hard my mother flew away. Now that the solid evidence is out, what do you brainless fans have to say?]
Following right below was a reply whose likes were skyrocketing.
[Permission granted for your mother to return to base.]
"Pfft—" Jiang Lijin couldn't hold back a mouthful of soup and sprayed it right out.
Tinia was quick to react. He grabbed a tissue and brought it to her mouth, gently patting her back with his other hand. "Eat slowly, Sister, no one is fighting you for it."
Chiron handed over a glass of warm water, his movements half a beat slower than Tinia's. His hand paused in mid-air, then he naturally placed the glass by her hand.
Jiang Lijin took the tissue from Tinia's hand and wiped her mouth, her shoulders trembling with laughter.
"These netizens are quite creative when it comes to insulting people." She picked up the warm water and took a sip.
Tinia leaned his head over, glanced at the comments on the screen, and snorted disdainfully.
"Serves her right. It's only because the main network has real-name restrictions, otherwise the insults would be much worse."
Jiang Lijin recovered and continued to scroll down through the comments. Besides the emotional curses, there were also some rational voices analyzing the case.
[Don't celebrate too early. Felwin's three A-class beast husbands are famously loyal lapdogs. They will definitely find a way to bail her out.]
Jiang Lijin's movements paused for a moment.
She quickly went over the original plot in her mind. These three A-class beast husbands were simply the most useful tools in Felwin's hands. In the book, they were utterly infatuated with Felwin. Even when they were eventually used as scapegoats by Felwin and sent to prison, they remained blindly devoted, believing their mate was the purest and kindest person in the world.
Stupid, but definitely a problem.
More importantly, Felwin had been taking black market drugs for a long time to forcibly raise her class. Such a thing couldn't possibly be hidden from the partners she lived with day and night. Those three beast husbands were definitely in the know.
Jiang Lijin put down her chopsticks and turned to look at Chiron sitting opposite her.
"Chiron," her tone became much more serious. "Do you have any acquaintances over at the Security Bureau?"
Chiron was holding a teacup. Hearing this, he raised his eyes. His gray eyes were calm and unruffled as he quietly looked at her, waiting for her to continue.
"Felwin's three A-class beast husbands were too quiet at the arrest scene, it's not normal." She looked at Chiron and voiced her speculations: "Felwin hasn't been taking drugs for just a day or two. They not only knew about it but are highly likely to be accomplices. The financial flow for buying the drugs, Arden's whereabouts before his death—these three cannot escape involvement."
She paused and emphasized her tone.
"The most crucial point is that these three are dead set on Felwin. If the Security Bureau only focuses on interrogating Felwin, she can easily push all the blame for buying drugs and murder onto these three beast husbands. And these three will willingly take the fall for her."
Tinia listened from the side, his brows furrowing. "Sister means these three guys will become scapegoats?"
"Not just scapegoats." Jiang Lijin leaned back against her chair. "Leaving them outside is like leaving three ticking time bombs. Right now, Felwin wishes she could swallow me alive. She only needs to cry and complain a little during visitation, and these three mad dogs will come looking for trouble with me."
She didn't want to have to guard against assassinations from three A-class males every day like guarding against thieves.
After hearing this, Chiron's slender fingers tapped lightly on the table.
"Your speculation is very reasonable," he gave an affirming evaluation. "The Security Bureau's case handling procedures are tedious. Usually, after arresting the primary suspect, they summon other involved personnel based on confessions. This time gap is enough for those three beast husbands to collude their stories or destroy evidence."
He picked up the optical computer resting aside and brought up an encrypted communication interface.
"I will contact the Director of the General Bureau directly. Under the name of 'suspected involvement in the murder of an S-class male and harboring illegal drug trade', I'll request them to immediately detain and investigate these three A-class males."
Chiron's ability to take action was extremely strong. Without a single word of nonsense, the command had already been sent out.
Tinia was not willing to be left behind either.
He switched to the internal network of the Yunlan Group and quickly entered a few commands.
"Relying solely on those by-the-book agents from the Security Bureau isn't enough," Tinia snorted coldly. "I'll have Yunlan's intelligence network check the personal account transactions of these three people. As long as they pooled money to buy black market drugs, the flow of funds can definitely be dug out. Also, I'll pull up the movement tracks of these three on the capital planet on the day Arden died."
He turned his head to look at Jiang Lijin, lifting his chin as if claiming credit.
"Don't worry, Sister, I'll make the chain of evidence ironclad for them. As long as they go in, I guarantee that Yunlan's legal team, even if they don't get them a death sentence, will be able to nail them in a maximum-security prison. They won't ever think about coming out in this lifetime."
Jiang Lijin looked at the two top-tier males in front of her, whose execution capabilities were maxed out, and the stone in her heart finally dropped.
Having power and influence really made things easy to handle.
Before she could finish this meal, her optical computer suddenly started vibrating violently.
It wasn't an ordinary social message, but the highest level red alert.
Jiang Lijin frowned, but still answered it.
A holographic projection automatically popped up. In the frame appeared a male wearing a Federation military uniform. His face looked terrible, and the background was a noisy command room where alarms could faintly be heard.
"Ms. Jiang, I apologize for the intrusion." The other party got straight to the point, speaking at a rapid pace. "I am with the Logistics and Medical Department of the Federal Military. A large-scale mental energy riot has broken out on the frontlines of the Sirius Galaxy. While leading a breakthrough, Commander Baal's mental core was contaminated. He is currently in an extremely dangerous, berserk state."
Jiang Lijin tightened her grip on her chopsticks.
"The frontline medical officers have exhausted all options, but Commander Baal's rank is too high for ordinary purification to have any effect." The officer's eyes revealed a nearly desperate hope. "You are currently the only 3S-rank female in the entire universe, and you are Commander Baal's matched female. We need you to head to the Sirius Galaxy immediately!"
The atmosphere in the room instantly froze.
Tinia was the first to stand up, his movements so forceful that he nearly knocked over his chair.
"No! I will not allow it!" Tinia's voice rose several pitches. "Do you know what the situation is like in the Sirius Galaxy right now? It's a warzone! Stray bullets, the Zerg, mutated beasts, mental energy storms—are any of those a joke to you? Is the military completely out of people?"
Although Chiron didn't say a word, the chilling aura radiating from him was enough to practically freeze the air.
"The Empire has enacted a specific protection law for 3S-rank females tailored for Ms. Jiang Lijin, granting 3S-rank females the highest level of immunity in the Empire. Without the guarantee of absolute safety, even the Supreme Commander of the Military has no right to forcefully conscript Ms. Jiang. Baal's life matters, but Ms. Jiang's safety is the Empire's ultimate bottom line."
Inside Jiang Lijin's mind, Little One was also screaming frantically.
[Host! Host! We cannot go! Isn't it nice just staying here eating ribs? Is the Sirius Galaxy even a place for humans? Baal might be handsome, but your life is more important! If we lose this husband, we still have four more!]
Jiang Lijin ignored the noise in her head and didn't rush to refuse.
She leaned back in her chair, looking at the officer in the projection, and suddenly asked, "If I go, can you guarantee my safety?"
The officer paused, clearly not expecting her to be so calm.
"We will dispatch the Federation's most elite Aegis escort fleet! Three Major Generals of S-rank or higher will personally escort you, taking full responsibility for your absolute safety at all times and in all aspects! Even if the defense line completely collapses, we will prioritize your evacuation!" The officer, as if grasping at hope, promised loudly.
Jiang Lijin calculated rapidly in her mind.
She was no saint, and she actually didn't care all that much whether Baal lived or died. But her current situation was very delicate. Although she was nominally a 3S-rank female and highly revered, in reality, she was more like a captive premium resource.
Just now, watching Chiron and Tinia use their resources and connections to effortlessly crush Felwin's three A-rank beastmen husbands, she had been thinking—why couldn't she be the one with power and influence?
A 3S-rank female capable of performing mass purification on a large-scale battlefield held enough strategic value to make the entire Federation, and even the Empire, bow down to her.
When that time came, even if she couldn't become the rule-maker, she would at least no longer be anyone's accessory!
"I will go," Jiang Lijin said.
