Chapter 94: Covenantor (XVII)

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Chapter 94: Covenantor (XVII)

Using his personal savings together with his share of the Yue Family’s profits, and with Lu Xiufan’s help, Shang Ke spent two months officially establishing a new Covenantor Placement Center. At the same time, he created a website and published a comprehensive set of oversight regulations.

The inspectors were themselves Covenantors. Every two months, they would conduct follow-up investigations on Covenantors working for outside employers. If they discovered any form of abuse, it would be reported to the relevant authorities.

Several thousand people became Covenantors in the Empire each year, with the Mental Virus generally manifesting between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five. Once someone over thirty-five suffered an outbreak, their survival rate was less than one percent, so most surviving Covenantors were quite young. To attract more Covenantors, Shang Ke specifically established that the Placement Center would cover fifty percent of the cost of the Mental Virus removal surgery, while the remaining fifty percent could be repaid in installments after the Covenantor began working.

Most people afflicted by the Mental Virus came from ordinary civilian families, for whom the surgery represented a considerable financial burden. Shang Ke’s policy removed a major difficulty for them. As a result, within only three months of opening, the Placement Center had already accepted nearly a hundred Covenantors.

Shang Ke divided the Center’s responsibilities into detailed roles and assigned them to more than a dozen Covenantors, granting them full authority over its day-to-day management. He himself was responsible only for supervision and coordination.

As the number of Covenantors increased, many of the nonofficial positions around Lu Xiufan were filled by them as well, including guards, drivers, assistants, and others. Working alongside Covenantors gave the ordinary employees a considerable sense of pressure, and overall efficiency improved dramatically.

Everything proceeded smoothly—until two cases of abuse occurred.

Through the inspectors’ follow-up investigations, it was discovered that two Covenantors employed by nobles had suffered varying degrees of abuse over the course of two months.

“Don’t worry. Leave it to me.” After reading the report detailing the abuse, Lu Xiufan spoke reassuringly to Shang Ke.

Shang Ke calmly looked at the report and slowly said, “I founded the Placement Center. I have an obligation to protect their safety.”

As he said this, a faint ripple seemed to pass through Shang Ke’s usually placid eyes, like moonlight shimmering across a lake, strikingly beautiful for that brief instant.

Lu Xiufan said nothing more and silently accepted Shang Ke’s decision.

This time, Shang Ke intended not only to handle the matter personally, but to make it impossible to ignore. He immediately investigated the circumstances, gathered information, organized it into evidence, and submitted everything to the relevant authorities. The result was complete silence, as though the report had vanished into the sea.

Shang Ke had anticipated this and was not discouraged. He moved on to the next stage of his plan: publishing the investigation process and all of the evidence online. He revealed the identities of the two nobles while concealing those of the victims.

Sure enough, the moment the material was published, it drew widespread attention. Although most people had never paid much attention to Covenantors’ rights, compassion was universal. Faced with photographs of those shocking injuries, few could remain unmoved. The public naturally sympathized with the weaker side, and with such substantial evidence, calls for a fair ruling grew increasingly loud.

Taking advantage of the momentum, Shang Ke submitted the evidence once again and formally demanded a fair judgment from the relevant authorities.

If Shang Ke had been merely an ordinary Covenantor, the matter probably would have been suppressed almost immediately. But Lu Xiufan stood behind him. Even though the accused were two nobles, the officials handling the case could no longer pretend ignorance.

Finally, under the pressure of public opinion and Lu Xiufan’s supervision, the two nobles accused of abuse were brought to court for a public trial. Shang Ke appeared as both the head of the Placement Center and a representative of the prosecution. He presented the case and evidence with clear, orderly reasoning, remaining composed and answering fluently throughout the defense attorneys’ questioning.

Several Covenantor inspectors were also called to testify.

The public trial ended with the nobles losing the case. They were ordered to pay the victims a total of 250,000 in compensation and were also sentenced to fifteen days of detention.

The punishment was light, but this was the first major victory ever won in defense of Covenantors’ rights.

The nobles’ defeat gave the trial an almost legendary quality. No one had expected Covenantors to actually sue members of the nobility, much less win. Shang Ke and the other Covenantors involved allowed the public to see an entirely different side of them.

Neither servile nor overbearing, unwavering in their principles, and unafraid of power—they had won despite beginning from an overwhelmingly disadvantaged position.

Shang Ke attracted enormous attention from the case and was soon regarded almost as a representative figure for Covenantors.

His background was also uncovered. Yue Ze, eldest son of the Yue Family and its designated future heir, had been exceptionally capable and achieved outstanding results in everything he did. At eighteen, he was misdiagnosed as having contracted the Mental Virus and forcibly subjected to the removal surgery, turning him into a Covenantor. His stepmother later sent him to a Placement Center, where he was eventually hired by Lu Xiufan.

The revelation caused an uproar. The future heir of the Yue Family had actually been misdiagnosed with the Mental Virus? A young man from a prominent family with limitless prospects had simply been transformed into an emotionless Covenantor with a shortened lifespan? What kind of cruel tragedy was that? People could scarcely imagine the despair he might have felt if his emotions had remained intact. He had been perfectly healthy, yet because of an absurd mistake, his entire life had been plunged into ruin. Afterward, his ill-intentioned stepmother had even sent him to a Placement Center. Given his appearance, everyone knew what might have happened had he fallen into the hands of some shameless person who wanted to keep him for themselves.

For a time, Shang Ke’s tragic circumstances earned him the sympathy and regret of countless people. Now, as a Covenantor himself, he was fighting for the rights of other Covenantors. Although everyone believed he had no emotions, his actions nevertheless revealed unmistakable courage and strength.

As public attention continued growing, the case quickly made national headlines. Soon afterward, many previously concealed cases of Covenantor abuse were exposed one after another, causing the controversy to spread rapidly and provoking an unending public outcry. Lu Xiufan quietly pushed the matter forward and compiled rough statistics on Covenantors who had died from abuse over the years. At least eighty percent of Covenantors had failed to receive proper treatment after being hired.

For the first time, society truly confronted the conditions Covenantors lived under.

The situation gradually developed in the direction Shang Ke had hoped. His Placement Center also gained the support of many Covenantors’ families. He selected several family-member volunteers to join the oversight team, working alongside Covenantor inspectors to safeguard Covenantors’ rights.

The system grew increasingly complete and gradually gained public recognition. People began demanding that the other Covenantor Placement Centers adopt the same model of management and oversight.

While Shang Ke’s efforts were flourishing, he did not know that the two nobles he had successfully prosecuted were quietly considering how to retaliate against him. Lu Xiufan’s presence was the only reason they had not yet dared act.

Half a year later, Lu Xiufan received a secret report in the middle of the night and hurriedly left the mansion. He was gone for several days without making a single call.

Shang Ke could not safely contact him, so he could only gather information through other channels.

Lu Xiufan’s absence emboldened the two nobles again. They first used their influence to suppress the Yue Family’s businesses, then sent several skilled operatives to try to kidnap Shang Ke. Unfortunately for them, Lu Xiufan’s security arrangements around him were too thorough to penetrate. With no way to reach Shang Ke, they settled for easier targets instead—such as the dozen or so Covenantor inspectors working for the Placement Center.

Shang Ke noticed nothing unusual because the kidnapped Covenantors were soon released. Since Shang Ke did not ask about it, they did not volunteer information they considered unrelated to their assigned work.

Several days later, Lu Xiufan returned safely. Shang Ke finally relaxed and was just about to arrange for him to rest when a report came from outside the door. “Sir, Jill has come to visit. Shall we let him in?”

Jill was one of the two Covenantors who had been with Shang Ke in the runaway hovercar. He now worked at the Placement Center and was responsible for website maintenance and technical support.

“Mm, let him in.” Lu Xiufan slipped an arm around Shang Ke’s waist and was just about to walk farther into the mansion when a sudden beep, beep, beep alarm sounded behind them.

Lu Xiufan whirled toward the sound and saw a guard pulling an alarm device from his waist, panic on his face. “Sir, this person is carrying explosives! Please immediately—”

Before he could finish, a deafening explosion erupted. A massive shock wave blasted outward along with blood and flesh.

Without the slightest hesitation, Shang Ke threw himself around Lu Xiufan and used his own body to shield him from the blast.

A scorching wave slammed into them as debris flew in every direction, countless fragments driving into Shang Ke’s back.

The tremendous force hurled both Shang Ke and Lu Xiufan through the air, sending them crashing heavily to the ground.

Their ears rang continuously, and all the noise around them seemed to come from impossibly far away as their minds went blank.

“…Ze! Little Ze!” An anxious voice faintly reached Shang Ke’s ears. He tried to answer, only to cough up a large mouthful of blood.

“Get a doctor!” Lu Xiufan held the grievously injured Shang Ke in his arms, his expression terrifying. Blood covered Shang Ke’s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, while his back was a mangled mess.

Several meters away, at the center of the explosion, only a mass of blood and flesh and a few scraps of cloth remained. Jill, the Covenantor who had been carrying the explosive, had clearly been blown apart.

Murderous fury blazed in Lu Xiufan’s reddened eyes.

Five or six minutes later, several doctors arrived and immediately began treating the injured. Shang Ke was by far the most seriously wounded. Several pieces of debris had penetrated deep into his back, nearly piercing his internal organs.

Shang Ke had shielded Lu Xiufan from most of the blast and had fallen into a semiconscious state.

On the way to the hospital, Lu Xiufan had the doctors treat Shang Ke’s wounds while simultaneously contacting his personal guard and ordering an immediate investigation.

After ending the call, Lu Xiufan sat rigidly in his seat, a thick layer of frost slowly gathering in his eyes…

Shang Ke was quickly rushed into emergency treatment. Lu Xiufan remained outside the doors with several of his own wounds still untreated, refusing to let anyone approach him because he could not guarantee he would not lose control and accidentally kill someone.

The moments before the explosion replayed endlessly through his mind. Every time he remembered Shang Ke’s broken, blood-covered body, Lu Xiufan felt as though his heart were being torn apart.

“Damn it!” There was nothing in Shang Ke’s contract requiring him to protect his employer at the cost of his own life. So why had he done something so foolish?

【Promise me, Little Ze. If you encounter danger again, put your own safety first.】

【Sir, your life takes precedence over everything.】

Lu Xiufan’s vision gradually blurred…

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