Zombie Apocalypse: Creation-Chapter 665: Trust and Laws

Chapter 665: Trust and Laws
"Before you can chop those trees, you need to have someone drive up all the way to the city to ask for permission and give a on why you’re doing it.
And that’s a problem when they live hundreds of miles away from the city... You see what I’m getting at?" Yuqi asked.
"They wouldn’t need to do that, though. Doesn’t the mayor already appoint a village leader who can decide on his own?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"That’s true on face value. But in reality, there’s a of village leaders choosing to seek high-ups’ permission first rather than just letting them do it.
Even on the most basic things that clearly don’t need to be asked. But they just don’t want to afford to make mistakes."
"Then what’s the problem? Avoiding mistakes and coordinating with the city is a good thing, no?"
"Remember, I said they lived hundreds of miles away from the city center? They would need to rely on the bus or someone else who happened to drive by."
"I see... But do you really think removing the city mayor as the high-up of the village leader will fix it?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"It wouldn’t hurt to try. Do you have any other ideas you want to give?" Yuqi questioned back.
"Hmm..."
The more Xiaoyun looked towards Yuqi’s idea, the more he felt there was a massive flaw in her plan.
"Wait, so instead of the city mayor being the village leader’s high-up, they would be equal, right?" Xiaoyun asked.
"Yeah."
"Then their new high-up would just be us... We live even further away from their nearest city. What’s stopping those village leaders from doing the same thing with us?"
Yuqi fell into silence, her mind realizing Xiaoyun’s point had some truth to it. There was a very high chance of the sit repeating, but on a whole other scale.
"Actually, now I think about it, I doubt they would ask us for permission. That would just be stupid and incompetent."
Xiaoyun suddenly argued back, going against his own point that he had just said out loud a few seconds ago.
"Wait, why would you say that?" Yuqi curiously asked.
"Because we have the power to fire them. You forgot the city mayors have no power to fire the village leader they appointed?"
"What does that have to do with them asking us questions?" Yuqi asked again, her face still looking a little confused.
"If you saw a letter from a village leader asking you if they can chop down some trees on the road, what are you going to do?" Xiaoyun asked.
"Tell them to go for it?"
"No, you sent a small team to conduct a test to see if they are qualified for the job. They should have been able to decide it on their own if they are really capable."
"Oh. I get it. So you’re incentivizing them to make their own decision. Am I getting this right?"
"Yep. That’s exactly what I’m getting at... But we should probably just give this power to the city mayors, to be honest."
"Huh, why?" Yuqi asked, her mind unable to catch up with Xiaoyun’s thinking.
"Remember what you said earlier? We are even further away from those towns. Imagine needing to send hundreds of different teams to conduct in the towns.
We can just have the city mayor near the town or village to be the one conducting the test if those village leaders can’t decide on their own."
Yuqi finally slowly nodded her head, understanding what Xiaoyun was trying to get at. However, a concern popped up in her mind.
"But wouldn’t this be too much power for each of the city governments? I don’t really feel like we should delegate that much power to them."
"Yuqi, have you ever heard of the proverb? Trust the people you employ, and don’t employ the people you doubt."
Hearing Xiaoyun point it out clearly, Yuqi couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed by not realizing it sooner.
"You’re right... But people change. Isn’t there a proverb that goes along the line of power corrupts people?"
This time, Xiaoyun fell into silence for a second, but he quickly came up with his own counter-argument.
"That’s why we have Yueyue. If we can’t even trust her, then who else can we trust in this town?"
"I guess..."
Seeing her unwillingness to accept defeat, Xiaoyun decided to pull out his trump card.
"Here, you say power corrupts people, right? You and I have the most power. Do you think the two of us are corrupt?"
"Um... No? We haven’t forcefully seized anyone’s personal property or violated their liberty."
"Exactly. We have absolute power, but we haven’t gone around robbing people’s money and their families as slaves.
The reality is, it doesn’t matter if power manages to corrupt people. What matters is being able to serve justice towards those who are corrupt."
You have to learn to trust others first and fix their mistake afterward... As you said it yourself, you want them to decide for themsleve."
"Okay, Mr.philosopher."
Despite Yuqi rolling her eyes, Xiaoyun smiled as he watched her begin a new draft on restructuring the power dynamic of the city and the rural areas.
"Governor Chen, Li Fa is here." Jianlin’s voice suddenly appeared outside as she knocked on the door.
"Okay, I’m going now... See you later tonight."
"See ya."
---
"Li Fa, what are you looking to talk about?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as the two of them took a seat in the meeting room.
"Governor, I ran into a question while I was going through a few of the court cases... Are you above the law??"
"Me? Above the law?"
Xiaoyun hesitated for a second as Li Fa coldly sat before him with two separate files right in his hand.
"What makes you ask that?"
"An elderly couple had been protesting in front of the courthouse for the past few days... And it’s related to this case."
As Li Fa slid one of the files over to Xiaoyun, he quickly opened the cover before closing it just as fast the moment he saw the two names listed inside.
"What do you think? Do you think I’m above the law?" Xiaoyun asked, not reading the file any further.
"I... I hope not, sir... It would be really cruel for those elderly couples never to get an answer for their lost sons."
This time, Xiaoyun reluctantly opened the file again as he began reading through the content one by one.
It was a court case filed against Yuqi and himself, specifically with regard to the handling of an ’accident’ that happened years ago.
An accident that led to hundreds of prisoners’ deaths, with the plaintiff being one of the parents of those who died in the chaos of the zombie attack.
"Didn’t I already designate this as a terrorist attack by the white lotus? Why are they filing a lawsuit against Yuqi?"
Xiaoyun tried to ask as calmly as possible, but deep inside, his mind was in full panic mode, worrying that the secret had been leaked.
"Although it was a tragic terrorist attack, the two parents had argued that the government had acted with extreme negligence."
Li Fa’s answer made him let out a small sigh of relief as the secret behind the whole ordeal wasn’t actually exposed in the spotlight.
"They aren’t wrong. It is negligence on our part... What do you think the sentencing should be then?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"I was leaning more towards giving a small compensation, since nobody expected the terrorist attack on such a scale to happen in the first place."
"Just go for it. Give those elderly couples and those impacted by it enough to live in comfort for the rest of their lives."
"But their sons were a part of a coup before... Some might think this is too unfair to those parents whose kid died on the battlefield." Li Fa raised his concerns.
"Then give compensation you see fit... But this isn’t the reason why you came here today and asked me if I’m above the law, is it?"
Li Fa fell into silence for a second before speaking up again as he handed Xiaoyun the second file.
"That question is more for this second case... A man had sued you specifically, Governor."
"Me? Really?"
Xiaoyun was instantly intrigued by the prospect as it opened past the cover, reading it line by line before understanding why Li Fa asked that question earlier.
It was a plaintiff who was suing him for violating the marriage law, specifically, how Xiaoyun had a public record of marrying nine wives.
In contrast, the plaintiff tried to register two wives to the government, but was rejected on the grounds of monogamy laws.
"Li Fa, what do you think my sentencing should be?" Xiaoyun casually asked, his face holding the urge to crack a smile.
"Um... I don’t know, sir." Li Fa answered, running out of courage as he felt it was a trick question, no matter how he answered it.
"Just tell me what the normal sentencing would be for polygamy. You won’t get in trouble or anything."