Golden Eagle

Chu An lived up to his name: he went with the flow and made his peace wherever he landed.

Eight months after inexplicably arriving in the Zerg society, he had completely adjusted to everyday life here. He could even browse the Starnet Forum over breakfast without batting an eye.

In the Zerg society, there were few males and many females. Male Zergs were physically frail, but their role in the race's reproduction was decisive, granting them especially exalted status. Female Zergs, though physically strong, had an innate flaw in their mental power and had to receive mental soothing from male Zergs regularly. Otherwise, they risked dying from a mental breakdown.

Thus, males determined both the future of the race and the lives or deaths of females, and they enjoyed numerous privileges in this society. Even though the identity Chu An had inherited was only that of a lowly D-grade male Zerg, the government subsidy deposited into his account each month was staggering.

And so, Chu An, once a low-ranking civil servant who wrote official documents every day until he went bald, no longer had to bend for five pecks of rice. He could find no way back to modern society, nor did he want to form social ties in this warped world. With nothing much to do, he picked up his youthful literary dream again and began writing a novel on Zerg Planet Literature Network.

Who could have guessed that the novel would become an instant hit, and that a rising star of Zerg literature would emerge under the pen name Second-Level Clerk?

Pleased with himself, Chu An kept writing diligently. His popularity climbed ever higher, and in only a few months he had joined the ranks of the Starnet's top novelists.

Now, even on the General Discussion board, the Starnet Forum's highest-traffic section, readers' posts discussing Second-Level Clerk's work were a frequent sight.

So every morning, Chu An browsed the forum over breakfast to enjoy strangers praising him, and that was enough to put him in a good mood for the whole day.

But the forum homepage was unusually lively today, and not a single post mentioned his novels.

Everyone was discussing the same thing—

Ning Bai had gotten divorced.

[The High Court has issued its final ruling dissolving the marriage between Major General Ning Bai and Mr. Bei En. This is the first divorce case involving a senior military officer in more than five hundred years.]

[The court awarded all property to Mr. Bei En. If Ning Bai remarries, he can only accept compulsory assignment by the government and may only be assigned as a female slave to a C-grade male Zerg or below.]

[A female soldier getting divorced? Without soothing from a male lord afterward, how is he supposed to go to the front lines once his mental power collapses?]

[Apparently, Ning Bai filed for divorce first half a year ago. Then Mr. Bei En countersued, claiming mistreatment by his principal mate. They tore each other apart all the way to the High Court, and now there's finally a result.]

[That female Zerg brought this on himself. He could have been the principal mate of an A-grade male, yet he had to make a fuss about divorce. Satisfied now? He'll spend the rest of his life serving low-grade males like an ox and horse.]

[The full trial recording is out!]

[Central discussion thread for the trial recording (remember: do not post the link in the thread)]

A trial recording? It had been released so quickly?

Chu An's eyes paused on the post. He clicked in and saw that, as expected, the recording had been leaked through illegal means and had to be bought on the darknet.

The darknet was the Zerg race's black market: illegal under Zerg law, yet indispensable to every Zerg—especially female Zergs who needed mental soothing.

After living here for eight months, Chu An had already learned the ins and outs of the darknet. He quickly found the trial video's address, paid one hundred star coins, and waited for its owner to grant him viewing access.

The name Ning Bai was not unfamiliar to Chu An. To adapt to Zerg society as quickly as possible, he regularly watched the news and had seen reports about the young, handsome blond major general more than once.

Blond-haired Ning Bai was this nation's finest commander in interstellar deep-space combat, with a dazzling record of military achievements. Not only was he an exceptional commander, but his individual combat ability was unmatched in a century. In last year's battle on K-12 Planet, Ning Bai piloted a mech alone to raid enemy headquarters. He captured the enemy commander and three others alive, directly turning the tide of the battle. He was hailed as the Golden Eagle who protected the Zerg race's territory. The military specially awarded him a one-of-a-kind Golden Eagle Medal in recognition of his service.

Yet such a battlefield hero had lost all his property and the freedom to marry for the rest of his life because of a divorce suit. Chu An could not help sighing mournfully. The warped institutions of Zerg society would, sooner or later, drag this race into a dark abyss.

Data transfer on the darknet was unstable. After a wait, the trial video Chu An had bought finally began to play.

In the video, Ning Bai wore a pristine white military uniform and stood straight in the defendant's box. His pale gold hair gleamed beneath the courtroom's bright lights.

Across from him, the potbellied Bei En sat at the plaintiff's table. Two female slaves knelt beside him, each holding a tray of fresh seasonal fruit.

The first half of the video was like every trial: both sides presented evidence, tedious and drawn out.

Bei En's lawyer delivered a lengthy condemnation of Ning Bai for failing to care properly for his male lord. For example, throughout their five-year marriage, he had never accompanied his male lord on a vacation; when his male lord fell ill, Ning Bai had gone to fight at the front rather than personally tending to his daily needs.

Ning Bai explained that he was busy at work every day because, after marrying him, Mr. Bei En had gone on to keep twenty-eight secondary mates and female slaves. At his male lord's demand, those female Zergs did not go out to earn money. They spent every day at home entertaining the male Zerg, leaving the entire household's living expenses on Ning Bai's shoulders. Ning Bai had no choice but to hold several posts at once to earn allowances.

Bei En's lawyer gave a cold laugh. "Major General Ning Bai, being busy with work is no excuse for evading your responsibilities and subjecting a male Zerg to emotional neglect. And let me ask you: after five years of marriage, you had not produced a child. Did you secretly use illegal contraception because you coveted opportunities to earn military merit?"

No matter the setting, reproduction was the issue Zerg society cared about most.

The question sent the courtroom into an uproar.

Rumors had long circulated that when Ning Bai, known as the "blond beauty," married, he had actually had plenty of choices. He had ultimately chosen to marry the ill-tempered Bei En because he had his eye on Bei En's A-grade pheromones. He hoped those rare high-grade pheromones would help him attain grade advancement from B-grade to A-grade sooner. Otherwise, however outstanding B-grade Ning Bai's military merits were, he would have struggled to continue rising through the ranks.

A female Zerg willing to do anything to climb higher might indeed use contraception for the sake of his career.

"Why aren't you answering?" the lawyer demanded loudly. "Answer immediately, Major General Ning Bai!"

"I..." A faint crack appeared in Ning Bai's voice. "I rarely slept with Mr. Bei En..."

"Lies! As the principal mate of the household, you shared a bedroom with your male lord, every day—"

"No." Ning Bai cut the lawyer off softly. "In five years of marriage, I received complete mental soothing only three times. I did share a bedroom with Mr. Bei En, but under his orders, I was not permitted to sleep with him..."

"Are you accusing Mr. Bei En of refusing to provide you mental soothing?" The lawyer narrowed his eyes and said icily. "Do you believe Mr. Bei En had no right to refuse you?"

"I would not dare," Ning Bai said. "I only want to explain clearly. When Mr. Bei En married me, he promised that as long as I obeyed him absolutely and satisfied his demands whenever he needed to vent his emotions, he could provide me with mental soothing. I agreed. But in truth, every time I endured pain in exchange for it, I received only a few seconds of mental regulation."

Before he had finished speaking, murmurs broke out everywhere.

No matter how thoroughly Zerg society was built on male supremacy and female subordination, and no matter how absolute a male's control in marriage, explicitly making such an agreement at the time of marriage was beyond outrageous.

More outrageous still was that Ning Bai had agreed.

Seen that way, he truly had only wanted to use Bei En as a springboard to achieve grade advancement...

The elderly judge had to rap his gavel. "Order! The arguments are concluded. The defendant will now make his final statement."

Ning Bai was not given much time for this. He could only state briefly that he would accept any ruling, so long as he could divorce Bei En. As for the division of property, all he wanted was to take his fourteen military service medals.

At last, the judge delivered the verdict in open court.

There was no suspense in the outcome. It was exactly what Chu An had already seen on the forum.

Ning Bai paid a terrible price and left his male lord, Bei En, as he had wished.

But he did not get his military service medals back.

All his property and personal belongings were awarded to his former husband, Bei En.

In the recording, Ning Bai's pale gold hair trembled faintly in the hollow courtroom.

The chief justice rose to leave.

Then Ning Bai suddenly called out, "Your Honor, please wait!"

He ran out of the defendant's box and over to the judge. "I'm sorry, but could you ask Mr. Bei En to return my fourteen military service medals? Those medals belong not only to me, but also to my countless comrades who died on the front lines. They risked their lives for this country to earn these precious honors. To me, those small medals are priceless treasures. Please, please!"

The chief justice adjusted his glasses. "Major General, please abide by the law."

But the judge seemed to feel sorry for him too. He added, "The ruling cannot be changed. Perhaps you could discuss it with Mr. Bei En. I trust Mr. Bei En will forgive your past rudeness and neglect, and graciously give you the medals."

Ning Bai lowered his head. "...All right."

He turned to face Bei En. After a long silence, he bowed deeply.

"Honored Mr. Bei En, over the past five years, I have not cared for you properly. I now deeply recognize my sins and offer my apology. Could you forgive my mistakes and give me the fourteen medals? I will forever be grateful for your kindness."

Bei En looked arrogantly at Ning Bai and let out a contemptuous laugh.

"You lowly female slave, you dare speak to me like that? Do you know how to apologize to an A-grade male? Ning Bai, I can give you those worthless medals, but you must kneel down, crawl over here, and lick my shoes clean. I'll give you three seconds to think it over. One, two..."

There were more than a dozen of Ning Bai's female-soldier subordinates in the gallery. Hearing Bei En's words, nearly all of them went mad.

They had endured for a long time in that courtroom, their fury with nowhere to go, already on the verge of eruption.

All it would take was the slightest resistance from their major general, and they would rush forward without hesitation and throw the shameless Bei En to the floor.

Yet—

With a thud, the blond major general in his plain white uniform dropped to both knees before everyone's eyes. He knelt on the cold floor, slowly crawled before Bei En, and touched the toe of Bei En's shoe with his soft lips.

"Ha, ha, ha!" Bei En roared with laughter. Deliberately raising his foot, he rubbed the sole of his shoe against Ning Bai's unyielding cheek. "I'll give you the medals. Make sure you keep them safe."

He took out a small box and tossed the glittering military service medals inside onto the floor one by one.

"Ning Bai, count them carefully. All fourteen are there. Don't come asking me for them again."

Ning Bai kowtowed. "Thank you, Mr. Bei En."

Bei En sneered, casually dumped the leftover fruit peels over Ning Bai, and called to his female slaves. "Let's go."

Expensive leather shoes ground viciously over Ning Bai's fingers.

And in the next instant, that same shoe crushed the one-of-a-kind Golden Eagle before Ning Bai's lowered eyes.

Crack!

The nation's only Golden Eagle Medal shattered in the silent courtroom, never to be restored.

At the breakfast table, Chu An set down his knife and fork. He stared for a long time at the pale gold hair trembling faintly at the center of the recording.

Then he could not help switching back to the Starnet Forum and posting one curse of his own—

Bei En, you fucking idiot!

Author's Note:

Note: This story is set in an unequal Zerg society. Both the protagonists and the author criticize this warped inequality, and the protagonists will work to resist the status quo. Chapters 1 through 4 contain some scenes that differ greatly from real-world society in order to establish the atmosphere and introduce the setting; they may make readers uncomfortable. Sorry.