Jiang Ye didn't speak immediately. After a few seconds of silence, he stood up.
He first pulled all the curtains shut.
He opened the electrical box on the wall and flipped the breaker.
The lights flickered and then died, plunging the room into darkness. The air conditioning grew weaker and then stopped. With the main breaker pulled, the entire office lost power.
Cong Chenghong felt a prickle of unease. What was he doing? Cutting off external contact to murder him in secret?
Jiang Ye took out his phone, turned it off, removed the battery, and then placed it in the metal safe. He then turned to Cong Chenghong. "Do you have your phone? Or any other electronic devices?"
"Report, no," Cong Chenghong's voice trembled.
Jiang Ye closed the metal safe. A fully metal environment could block phone signals; even a thick metal tea box could do it. Moreover, the safe was thick enough to block sound, preventing any potential listening software on the phone.
Finally, he closed the office door and locked it with a click.
Thus, the entire office became a dark room, where no outsider could overhear their conversation, nor could any device eavesdrop.
Jiang Ye walked into the bathroom, turned the shower on full blast, opened the toilet lid, and wedged his toothbrush to hold down the flush button. The gushing water and the toilet's loud groan immediately filled the entire office.
Sweat beaded on Cong Chenghong's forehead. He didn't understand what his superior was doing, but the actions sent chills down his spine. His mind warred with itself, and he hesitated whether to jump up and flee.
Finally, a dark figure sat down next to Cong Chenghong.
"Are you a colony officer?" Jiang Ye's voice was low.
"Report..."
"Keep your voice down, speak in whispers. Stop reporting, we're having a private talk," Jiang Ye said. "What I tell you today, you must keep buried. If you tell anyone, everyone on this planet will die, including yourself."
Cong Chenghong felt a chill, as if Jiang Ye had transformed into a ghost. He had a premonition that a great secret was about to be revealed to him. Once he knew this secret, his perspective on the entire world would change.
"I am a colony officer," Cong Chenghong said softly.
"When you first arrived on this planet, what were your feelings?"
"I was... afraid, lost, very lonely..."
"I had those feelings too, but my primary emotion was anger!" Jiang Ye gritted his teeth.
Cong Chenghong was startled. In the pitch darkness, he saw the whites of Jiang Ye's eyes; he was glaring.
"Why?" Cong Chenghong asked.
"Ten thousand of us were thrown here with nothing, not even food. Thousands starved to death in the first few days. When winter came, tens of thousands froze to death. In just over a year, more than half of the ten thousand were gone!"
"Our title, 'colony officer,' sounds nice, but it's bullshit. We're just slaves for land reclamation! Worse than robots! We're just livestock!"
"We are all human, yet we've become livestock. Should we not be angry?" Jiang Ye retorted.
Cong Chenghong was speechless. He had never considered these things, but he felt something deep within him being uncovered.
Jiang Ye picked up his teacup and took a sip, then continued:
"I can understand that the Galactic Empire needs to develop and fight alien creatures like the Mil, so it needs to colonize many wild planets. However, my demands are simple: at least provide colony officers with basic survival needs, give them food and tools! Give them a cotton coat so they don't freeze to death in the harsh winter! Give them a gun for self-defense! These things are cheap, but we got none!"
"At that time, I wasn't a general yet, and people weren't united. Everyone lived separately. One night, I was digging in the ore pile, working desperately with a pickaxe in the dark. I worked like that for a long time, my back aching, my whole body like a zombie. When I was about to faint from exhaustion, I looked up at the starry sky and suddenly had an idea."
At this point, Jiang Ye suddenly stopped speaking.
He simply gazed at Cong Chenghong, his eyes holding the look of a sufferer observing another sufferer.
Cong Chenghong watched him for a long time, then suddenly understood the meaning in Jiang Ye's eyes. The moment he understood, a great fear and excitement surged through him, as if struck by electricity, and Cong Chenghong trembled slightly.
Rebellion!
To shatter the system of colony officers with violence, to change the world with strength.
After the rebellion, there would be no more tragedies of tens of thousands of colony officers lacking food and clothing, dying on strange planets.
"Do you understand?" Jiang Ye asked.
"I understand," Cong Chenghong said softly. "I support you. I hope to see the day you succeed."
"It's good that you understand. Don't speak of it, don't tell anyone. We'll do it slowly," Jiang Ye said. "All the captains under me share the same aspirations as you and I. We are true comrades; our lives are bound together."
"But," Cong Chenghong was confused, "what does our goal have to do with you bombing Sector C today?"
"Think carefully. Put yourself in my shoes," Jiang Ye said. "Most normal people, after I issued the immigration policy, rushed over. Over ninety percent are currently in the three cities I established. These are normal people."
Cong Chenghong nodded. He was also attracted by Jiang Ye's immigration information, then by the conscription notice to join the army, and now he was here meeting the esteemed leader.
"The remaining people have now formed over a dozen small settlements, each with its own leader, and they are hostile to each other. Sectors B and C had a battle before; over a hundred people were killed in Sector B. The fighting was quite fierce," Jiang Ye said. "These people are like bandits, difficult to subdue. They are ambitious, reclusive, and crucially, they stick together. They are all time bombs."
"Time bombs?"
"Yes, time bombs. One day, these small settlements will be a menace. Remember, I previously dropped leaflets in Sector C, urging them to surrender, to disperse and live in seclusion if they didn't surrender to me. I was very merciful to them; I didn't want to slaughter them. But a few hours after I dropped the leaflets, they regrouped and fought again, killing over a hundred people each."
Cong Chenghong remained silent, his brow furrowed, his head bowed in thought.
"They are stubborn, obstinate. I can't leave the risk for later. My clearing out Sector C today and executing the stubborn elements is to kill one and warn a hundred, to deter the other dozen or so small settlements and extinguish their will to resist. If I let these settlements remain, my soldiers will die by their guns in the future, the residents of my cities will die by their guns, and they could very well develop into bandits," Jiang Ye said. "Mercy to the enemy is cruelty to one's own people."
"After saying all this, do you understand my predicament?" Jiang Ye asked.
Cong Chenghong stood up. "I... I can't be sure."
Jiang Ye frowned, crossing his arms.
"What you said seems to have some logic, and I can understand your difficulties," Cong Chenghong said. "However, I went to Sector C today to collect bodies. So many dead bodies, I felt very sad. Perhaps the leader of Sector C, Saito, was a bandit leader, but the other people in Sector C were not necessarily bad. Surely some were innocent, and they gathered together perhaps just for warmth."
"Why didn't they come to the cities for warmth? Living like animals in the wilderness versus living a modern life in the city, why choose the former?" Jiang Ye asked.
Cong Chenghong was choked up. He scratched his head. "I... I don't know how to refute you, but..."
"Innocent people will always die. Individuals are insignificant; you and I are just drops in the ocean. So many people have died, and I am also very sad, but there are some dirty jobs I have to do. If I don't go to hell, who will? Have you heard the story of the monk eating meat? A brutal invading army occupied a city and the officer threw a piece of meat to a monk in the temple, saying if you eat meat, I won't massacre the city. Should the monk break his vows and eat it?" Jiang Ye's voice was low, like a sigh. "I am that monk. I love everyone in the city, so I must break my vows and eat meat, even if it ruins half my cultivation and I can't achieve Buddhahood."
"I think, perhaps there might be other ways, not necessarily firing those missiles," Cong Chenghong said, bewildered.
"My abilities are limited. Perhaps there will be other methods in the future. You can help me think of them."
Cong Chenghong nodded.
"This world is cruel, but we can make it better, and let more people live happier lives," Jiang Ye said, patting his shoulder. "Go back and rest. The devil's week is about to begin. Train hard, and if you get through it, I'll promote you to captain."
Cong Chenghong snapped a salute. "Sorry to disturb your rest. I'll go back and think about it."
Jiang Ye sat on his desk, watching him leave.
The room was completely dark, and the air grew colder. Jiang Ye sat like a statue for a long time. Moonlight filtered through the cracks in the window, falling on the carpet like sharp, gleaming knives. As the tips of the knives landed on his face, they illuminated Jiang Ye's face, filled with self-doubt.
He looked at his hands in the moonlight, and faintly, they seemed to be stained with blood. He had just convinced his subordinate, yet he doubted whether what he had done was right.
The weariness finally washed over him. Jiang Ye jumped off the desk, walked to the wall, and flipped the breaker. Lights and warm air flooded back in. He took off his clothes and collapsed onto the bed to sleep.