Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 197

Chapter 197 – Closing (Part 2)

This public trial became a hot topic among city dwellers due to its complicated procedure and the scale of the case, taking a whole three days before a verdict was decided–the court determined that as the Prime Minister, Lu Bixing’s personal experimentation on the biochip and using the Rainbow Virus in said experiment was considered a misconduct.

He violated procedural rules, but was not guilty.

When Lu Bixing walked out of the court, the main entrance was already flooded with reporting robots and other journalists, all shoving forward in hopes to crash right into the young man. The Prime Minister used his enhanced vision to see that behind this physical barricade, Lin Jingheng sat cross-legged under Lu Xin’s statue to wait for him, unwilling to go near the crowd of people.

“Alright, alright, line up in order,” Lu Bixing took half a step back, “Feel free to ask any questions while the executive office is busy right now, I still have some time to run free and talk nonsense all I want.”

The crowd of journalists laughed as someone started off with a relatively tame question, “Minister Lu, I remember that our company took a photo of you many years ago. The photo was of you holding up Minister Edward’s wheelchair with your bare hands right in front of the hospital, was that the effect of the biochip?”

“Yeah,” Lu Bixing confessed, “But I hope all sports industry personnel and the public stay calm, I promise I won’t enter any sports competition in my life–aside from maybe a beauty pageant.”

“Prime Minister Lu, what are your plans on dealing with the Nuwa Project? From what I understand, you have already destroyed a portion of the research data. The remaining data left by Doctor Laura Gordon and the AUS from both times have been sealed away by the authorities–is the government not considering pushing this type of artificial evolution to the people?”

Lu Bixing’s expression grew stern as he answered, “From the looks of it right now, there are very few success cases from the Nuwa Project. The fact that I managed to survive until this day is merely luck, and I don’t believe this is something that is suitable to be introduced to the masses. It’s still too early to push forth human evolution with this method; besides, even Eden had trouble reaching out to a large portion of the population when it was still in use. The government has decided to temporarily seal up all related data because we cannot solve the safety and other technical concerns right now. Of course, the Rainbow Virus itself and its mutation both have research merits, so under the promise of safety for our researchers in the future, the government will begin hosting medical research facilities to continue that project. We hope that one day the research will be used to benefit mankind. As for the portion of data I’ve already destroyed, I will help restore them if necessary for purposes of research in the future.”

“Will there be associated laws and bills drafted for them?”

“Of course,” Lu Bixing said, “The agencies in charge of this are currently working overtime to draft proposals right now. We have many problems in the future to solve, such as AIs, biochip drugs, and interstellar smuggling. All of these will need to be addressed and have related laws drafted; they will require new solutions to be dealt with. The faster we walk, the more issues in society we must face and the more complex they become. The government’s job in the future is to guide, regulate, and support its people, not to swallow up in greed and push for technological advancement. This isn’t easy, but I believe our Eighth Galaxy government will do our best to serve.”

“Then will you be taking out the chip inside your body, Minister Lu?”

Lu Bixing answered firmly, “Yes.”

A reporting robot picked up on the joke earlier and said, “To enter sports competitions?”

Lu Bixing laughed, “Even if I don’t have biochips, a modified human body is still considered cheating–but my main reason for taking the chip out is because my family may be worried.”

The crowd of reports didn’t catch the implications behind this for a moment and all turned to look at Lu Xin’s statue at the plaza when they heard ‘family’.

Commander Lu Xin was laughing under the daylight like a careless old man, as if he wasn’t worried about his own son.

Lin Jingheng was waiting for him in the plaza. He had been watching the livestream through the giant screen above him and half-heartedly listening to Lu Bixing run wild, yet this unexpected line caught him off guard as the commander almost choked on his own spit.

A reporter from an entertainment company somehow made their way to the front. Tired of listening into all the politics, they chimed in to ask about something more interesting, “Prime Minister Lu, can you elaborate on who this family member is? Did you forget to announce to the public? The official records show that your marriage status is still single.”

A government reporter from the capitol planet wasn’t too happy about a serious topic being interrupted by something so invasive and attempted to bring the conversation back on track, “He must be referring to Marshal Lin; the Marshal and Prime Minister have a long history together and are very close, they’ve always been brothers. But on the topic of our Marshal, I do want to ask; since the Union has recognized the independence of the Eighth Galaxy, how do you see our galaxy in the future in relation to the rest of the galaxies?”

“Perhaps unified but in separate ways. After this battle, the Union’s control over the rest of the galaxies has virtually disappeared. The Eighth Galaxy will not be the first and only independent galaxy, but we have all united on the same warfront before. So no matter if it’s fighting against biochip drugs, scientific research or for economic development, all galaxies will be working very closely together. Aside from the wormhole terminal, we’re also looking to quickly reestablish the Eighth Galaxy’s transport network into other galaxies.” Lu Bixing first answered the political concern with patience before turning towards the Qiming reporter and gave a playful wink, “As for Jingheng, he’s from the Lin family and I’m from the Lu family, how could we be brothers?”

The Qiming reporter was awestruck for a moment; perhaps he wrote a whole brothers to enemies story in his mind within that split second in his head, his expression froze as he attempted to explain himself, “Well of course there are always….brothers not by blood, even though…”

“Even though,” Lu Bixing followed up, “Marshal Lin Jingheng has notoriously strange tastes, is a neat freak, has a bad attitude, doesn’t know when to give leeway to people when necessary, is a huge klutz during times when he was supposed to be careful and detail-oriented–he even managed to lose the custom-ordered wedding rings he made, and I heard he planned on suing a certain AI for his mistakes–”

Lin Jingheng standing in the plaza: “……”

The entire reporter crowd: “…….”

“By the way, the pair of rings he lost was even directly copied from his grandparents, he virtually stole the original design from them without making even the slightest change. I’m not even sure if he’s trying to use it to propose or offer it to his grandmother. Thankfully, I secretly prepared a backup pair behind his back,” Lu Bixing laid his hands out in defeat. “But what can I do? If you all have time, please do me a favor and go interview the Galactic Forces, ask them when their Marshal is ready to make his public announcement.”

Lu Bixing gave Lin Jingheng a smile across the plaza.

That was when the entire group of reporters finally realized what the Prime Minister had revealed and virtually exploded on spot with this world-changing news.

“Alright, that’s enough updates on my private life. The executive office will later make an official announcement regarding this trial, so please be patient.” Lu Bixing walked past the crowd of people while dodging a robot that was about to crash into his head, “Hey, careful! You can’t ruin a man’s hairstyle, I still plan on making a living with my handsome face in the future!”

Someone in the crowd managed to capture the unspoken words behind that line and asked, “May I ask what that means, Minister Lu? Do you not plan on staying the Eighth Galaxy’s Executive Prime Minister anymore? Does it have something to do with this trial?”

Lu Bixing paused slightly, a faint smile appeared by the corner of his eyes as he said in a casual tone, “A little bit, but not too much related. In fact, when the Eighth Galaxy government was first established under warfare, Minister Edward had appointed me as a temporary wartime planning advisor. After the old man passed, the war continued in and out of the galaxy, so my job had simply extended for these past years as I took the seat of Prime Minister. Now that the Eighth Galaxy has finally settled in peace, the wartime ordinance should be ready to retire now, am I right?”

“Minister Lu….”

“We’re working on finalizing the election terms,” Lu Bixing said, “If things go smoothly we should be able to push out a complete procedure for election by the later half of the year. I’ll also be working to pass on the job to my successor within the first half of the year.”

He strolled down the stairs and walked towards the statue as he spoke.

“My future plans? Hm…raise a dog? Hahaha, I really do want a pet dog but I never had time in the past. Maybe I’ll rest for a little while and then travel around for a bit, then come back and get back to my old job.”

“What was my old job? Oh, I was just a teacher. That textbook called Introduction to Mechs was something I wrote in the past, it’s now up to Edition 6. What? Royalties for writing a textbook? That’s way more than I make yearly as a Prime Minister.”

“As for all the gossip news about the Marshal, you all can ask him yourselves…you’re scared? Oh so that that’s why you’re all asking me now? Hey pretty girl, look up and see who’s right in front of you about fifty meters away…hey, wait, why is he running…”

Lin Jingheng was making his way towards Lu Bixing when he heard those reporters trying to scoop up some gossip, felt a little guilty inside and shooed them all away. Lu Bixing lowered his head and started laughing, his hand reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box–

Another year had passed, the scattered biochip human forces were pressed down by the might of the Central Militia. The first generation with little substance reliance were forced to remove the chips as they struggled to return to society.

In the Eighth Galaxy, the capital planet and First Galaxy collaborated in a digital calendar publication that could easily switch between the two calendars used across both galaxies. This was created to support citizens working on foreign trade and affairs, and an official announcement of developing foreign relations among galaxies.

Soon after, Eighth Galaxy Prime Minister Lu Bixing announced the end of wartime and his retirement as the Executive Prime Minister.

But Minister Lu’s dreams of having a dog didn’t get realized; the thirteenth month of the same year, the Eighth Galaxy hosted its very first demonocratic election. The government wasn’t fully prepared at the time and was missing one more candidate to host a fair election. The Government had no choice but to put Lu Bixing’s name on the ticket, in order to create an even number, yet everyone underestimated the popularity of this former Prime Minister when the results came in–Lu Bixing won by a landslide and was re-elected as the Prime Minister for a term of five independent years.

The following years, with the Third Galaxy as lead, all major galaxies in the former Interstellar Union announced their independence. The Union no longer had power to control them and simply offered a peaceful transfer of power to these galaxies.

The remaining anti-humanity extremist groups in the AUS were all arrested under the help of Prophet Harris. This former pirate organization was left with innocent and peaceful followers, as well as the few soldiers who had supported the Human Alliance during the war–all receiving their deserved benefits and treatments across the galaxies.

The AUS organization still remained under heavy restrictions by the law, but Harris later legally registered a business under the name “Hope Ecological Agriculture Limited Company”. The company aimed to provide the freshest and most environmentally friendly natural produce, their slogan was ‘for life and nature’–the old Prophet finally managed to realize his life-long dream of farming.

Independent Year 17, all galaxies sent a representative to the Heart of the Rose and signed the first Human Union Convention.

Another page of history turned.

Independent Year 19, Lu Bixing officially retired and peacefully handed the baton to a new generation of the government. On a space station near planet Beijing-β, he built a new Starry Sea Academy.

Of course, Lin Jingheng was still on the board of trustees.

Now, the turbulent stars had finally returned back on a peaceful track.

Mankind is born from faith, and will die for their faith.

Mankind will be reborn from the fallen ashes of faith.

-END-

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