Night hung overhead, and Nanshan Town, which should have settled back into peace with the passing hours, fell into clamor once more that night.
Of the nearly thousand patrol inspectors in Nanshan Town, aside from those stationed at the mine, all the rest moved through the night under Li Jinghong's orders.
Squads of patrol inspectors searched house after house, and after each search, they stuffed vivid, lifelike wanted notices into the hands of the drowsy commoners.
That generous bounty, an amount the vast majority of ordinary people might not earn even after striving their whole lives, combined with the temptation of lifelong exemption from forced labor for one's entire family, old and young—on this night, all of Nanshan Town seemed to boil over completely.
And under Li Jinghong's will, this boiling fervor also spread rapidly beyond Nanshan Town, even toward all of Qinghe County.
As a member of the Qinghe County patrol inspectors, Chu Mu naturally moved under Li Jinghong's will as well.
Compared with when he had once been an ordinary patrol inspector, now, having formally assumed his post as a Squad Leader commanding a dozen-odd patrol inspectors, he could barely be said to possess a bit of authority in Nanshan Town.
In the Patrol Inspectorate, when handling affairs, he now had no small measure more composure.
If it had been before today, Chu Mu would certainly have been unable to avoid feeling pleased for a while.
But in this short span of just over half an hour, the shock brought to Chu Mu was clearly far, far too great.
The understanding of this world he had painstakingly built up over several months had almost shattered in an instant! What authority, what status—compared to that higher level of transcendence... it all seemed insignificant.
This point could be seen with