"With the main battlefield winding down and many corps and military districts returning to their home districts, can we consider the foreign war to have entered its final stage, with domestic recovery becoming our main task?"
This was Lu PingAn's first time at Wanjing Parliament. It was nominally the highest seat of power, as well as the primary legislative and deliberative body.
In the past, formal parliamentary sessions were held only at fixed times each year. Most councilors were actually retired provincial leaders, stationed permanently in Wanjing as bridges between Wanjing and the regions.
By the time matters reached Parliament, everything worth discussing had already been settled between Wanjing and the local representatives. They merely needed to bring the agreed-upon decisions before Parliament on schedule. Without the time-wasting process of haggling, the efficiency was astonishingly high. From another perspective, though, proposals that could not pass were never submitted in the first place, which gave it something of an insider-deal flavor.
But now, that was clearly impossible.
There were simply too many real problems demanding solutions. Every region, province, company, and council had its own demands. The old working model had instead become far too inefficient, and Parliament, as a deliberative body, was facing a rare overload.
Inside the parliamentary building were many small and medium-sized Meeting Rooms and tea lounges. At this moment, Lu PingAn...
"Councilor Zhao will probably come over during the break. At the earliest, it will take half an hour, though it may be afternoon before he arrives. Would you like lunch first?"
"No need. Just bring me a cup of tea."
It was an official institution, after all, and the reception room was built with considerable grandeur. The brown sofa was soft and comfortable.
Sitting on it, Lu PingAn rather impolitely lay back. But since there