Chapter 35 Who can make the overseer bow his head and put on the shackles of restraint...?

Relaxing holidays always pass too quickly. On the first day of September, Shu Qing pulled out a formal suit from her closet, a rare occurrence. The two of them dressed very neatly and went to the Supermarket Management Bureau together.

Because the incident involving Huiyao Group had a significant impact, several heavyweight figures from the Supermarket Management Bureau—Jin Wanli being one of them—took it very seriously. Xie Heng, the "chief specially appointed expert" who had previously issued the license to Shu Qing, also came, and even the deputy director of the Supermarket Management Bureau, the second-in-command, rushed to H City to oversee the situation.

Shu Qing originally thought that someone of their rank wouldn't be able to meet a high-ranking official at the vice-ministerial level directly. However, upon entering the Supermarket Management Bureau, Jin Wanli led the two of them into the conference room, where the high-ranking official and Xie Heng were already waiting.

Shu Qing: "..."

She thought she was sending her monster boyfriend to serve in the military, but judging from the situation, it didn't seem like she was there to serve; it seemed more like she was parachuted in as some kind of super-special talent.

The deputy director's surname was Yang. He was in his fifties, with some stray gray hair that wasn't dyed black. He had a claw-like scar on his face, which made him look particularly sharp and serious. Sitting there, he resembled a scarred old military knife.

His gaze was sharp. When looking at Shu Qing, he would try to soften his expression and be more gentle so as not to frighten the younger generation. But when he came into contact with Jiu Su, he did not restrain himself at all. His eyes were filled with vigilance and a sense of oppression, like an old hunter who had encountered a ferocious beast on a narrow path.

Jiu Su neither felt flattered by this "onboarding ceremony" nor intimidated by Director Yang's gaze. He went through the brief greetings and self-introduction process with the two leaders, and at the end, he made a special emphasis: "Just treat me as a new employee of the Special Operations Department."

Shu Qingxin said: What else?

Director Yang and Xie Heng, however, were not offended at all. On the contrary, they both seemed to breathe a slight sigh of relief. Director Yang, who looked very stern, even nodded and said, "That's how it should be. Then, everything will be done in accordance with the regulations of the Supermarket Management Bureau."

Jiu Su agreed, and the subtly turbulent process of getting to know new faces came to an end. It was time for the old friends to exchange pleasantries.

Xie Heng gave Shu Qing a friendly smile and shook her hand: "Miss Shu, it's nice to see you again."

Compared to Director Yang, Xie Heng seemed exceptionally gentle and easy to talk to. Shu Qing had a very good impression of him and gave him a genuine smile, "Hello, Professor Xie."

This was the first time Director Yang had met Shu Qing, but he clearly already knew who she was. He admired this young woman who had ideas and could stand on her own two feet, praising her as "young and promising" and "with a bright future." However, when the topic of her relationship with Jiu Su came up, he hesitated for a moment.

Jiu Su interjected at the opportune moment: "She is my supervisor."

"What?" Shu Qing was taken aback, thinking to herself, "Am I not your girlfriend?"

However, under Director Yang's deep gaze, she didn't voice her question. Instead, she stared at Jiu Su with a puzzled look, hoping he could give her an explanation.

Jiu Su gently squeezed her hand to comfort her, but said nothing. Director Yang spoke first, asking Xie Heng, "Does Miss Shu meet the requirements?"

"Objectively, it does." Xie Heng answered conservatively, "She performed exceptionally well during the initial assessment for obtaining the breeding license. Even when attacked by the supernatural creatures from the Huiyao Group, she remained calm and made a video teaching people how to protect themselves in similar situations. It can be said that she fully possesses the qualities expected of a regulator of high-risk supernatural creatures."

"What about subjectively?"

“It’s subjective,” Xie Heng smiled helplessly. “In reality, it’s difficult for any regulator to meet the subjective conditions. If they were truly objective, calm, and devoid of any feelings for each other, which high-risk supernatural being would be willing to accept regulation? For example, Wanli and I aren’t without feelings for each other.”

Jin Wanli gave a haughty "humph" from the side, but did not deny it, which shows that he was just being hypocritical.

Director Yang pondered for a moment, seemingly accepting the explanation, nodded, and then asked a few more questions. In reality, it was nothing more than requiring Jiu Su to follow the rules of a society governed by the rule of law, strictly abide by discipline and laws, and even be loyal to the country and the people, serving the people—just some routine, politically correct statements.

However, he was not perfunctory at all; his tone was serious and firm, as if he wanted to engrave this lesson into the bones of the great monster with his eyes and tone.

Jiu Su was very cooperative, agreeing to everything Director Yang said. But judging from his style of doing things, Shu Qing felt that she probably still needed to give him some family re-education.

Seeing that there seemed to be nothing more for him to do here, Xie Heng took the opportunity to extend an invitation to Shu Qing: "Miss Shu, if you have time, I'd like to take you to the temporary containment room to see those supernatural creatures brought back from the Radiant Group?"

Shu Qing had already been considering adopting a few little monsters, and even if Xie Heng hadn't brought it up, she was going to bring it up today anyway, so she immediately said, "Okay." She gently squeezed Jiu Su's hand, indicating that they should separate for a while.

Jiu Su smiled and released her.

Shu Qing followed Xie Heng out of the conference room, finally having the chance to ask the question she had been wanting to ask: "What is a regulator?"

Xie Heng was taken aback, then laughed, "Didn't he tell you?"

Shu Qing shook her head honestly.

Xie Heng smiled helplessly, a hint of disapproval in his eyes, but he didn't comment on the matter. Instead, he dutifully explained to her, "According to the regulations of the Superpower Management Bureau, high-risk supernatural beings like them... especially those that have injured people, need to be supervised by a trustworthy person to prevent them from getting out of control and causing an irreparable tragedy."

“I am Wanli’s supervisor.” He opened the elevator door, stepped aside, and politely invited Shuqing in. He then said, “My main responsibility is to guide him to integrate into modern society and supervise him to prevent him from doing anything illegal or criminal. As for the corresponding powers, you have seen them.”

Without him saying anything, Shu Qing remembered when she went to take the parenting license test, Jin Wanli turned on her halfway through and suddenly attacked her, but Xie Heng stopped him with a wave of his hand.

Shu Qing asked, "Is it some kind of restraint device? The monster has to wear it all the time, and the hunter can turn it on or off?"

“Yes.” Xie Heng nodded approvingly, admiring her quick wit. He said seriously, “But your situation is a little different.”

With a "ding-dong," the elevator stopped, leading directly to the temporary containment room of the Superpower Management Bureau. Xie Heng stopped in front of the heavy metal door of the containment room, smiled, and asked, "Miss Shu and Mr. Jiu Su... are you in a relationship?"

Shu Qing readily agreed, "Yes." They had no intention of hiding it at all.

“That’s the difference.” Xie Heng became serious. His usual gentle and refined demeanor mainly stemmed from his smiling expression, but now that he had changed his face, he was surprisingly intimidating. “I understand that Miss Shu is willing to ignore racial differences and make this choice. You must have your reasons, and I know that saying this is very annoying, but I still have to ask you to control your emotions.”

Shu Qing frowned slightly.

"Since we've accepted Mr. Jiu Su as a member of human society, we should give him the same respect as humans. There are some things I can't say more about," Xie Heng said. "But Miss Shu must know very well the real cause of death of that General Manager Chen from Huiyao Group. There was never any 'sudden rebellion.' When he fled, he even had a level 7.6 superhuman as a bodyguard. Does Miss Shu know what that means?"

Shu Qing replied expressionlessly, "It means he violated the 'Regulations on the Classification and Private Breeding of Extraordinary Organisms,' and the circumstances are serious."

This seemingly trivial truth left Xie Heng speechless.

"To put it simply," Xie Heng had no choice but to reveal, "the Superpower Management Bureau has at most one Level 8 superhuman in each province, and some provinces even only have T7 superhumans. A Level 7.6 superhuman, along with four or five Level 5 and Level 6 superhumans, is almost equivalent to the combat power of a province's Special Operations Department. Jiu Su didn't escape from this group of superhumans; he subdued them all by himself. The two are completely different, do you understand?"

Shu Qing gritted her teeth.

She wanted to continue feigning ignorance and retort, "I understand, he subdued the vicious criminal gang, reducing many unnecessary casualties for the traffic management bureau," but the words stuck in her throat. The barbed words, swallowed back, stung her throat, causing a dull ache.

Xie Heng had already made his point very clear: Jiu Su was too powerful and too dangerous to control. Not only was he a formidable fighter, but Jin Wanli was also unusually close to him; the two were practically brothers.

But he is not of my kind.

For such a terrifying outcast, it is of utmost importance who can make him bow his head and put on restraints. That is why Director Yang wanted to see her in person, and why Xie Heng wanted to personally come and explain these things to her.

She retorted without hesitation, which felt good, but what if they thought she wasn't good enough?

Who will hold his fate in their hands? Who will choke him?

She forced herself to swallow her anger, silently adding a grudge against Jiu Su in her mind, and tentatively asked, "In his case, what if there's no supervisor? How would you handle it?"

Xie Heng knew she understood, smiled slightly, and resumed his usual refined expression, explaining, "Then society will not be able to accept him. If he hides in the mountains, we may be able to ignore him, but once he shows himself in society, we will immediately arrest him, or at least expel him."

Shu Qing's chest heaved slightly, wishing she could put herself in a juicer and squeeze out some more tolerance and patience.

“I’m sorry, Miss Shu.” Xie Heng sighed understandingly. “I also feel that this is unfair to high-risk superhumans. However, once a high-risk superhuman gets out of control, the damage it causes is devastating. Thirty years ago… although you weren’t born yet, you should know that the Category 18 storm in N City was caused by Wan Li, and the losses are too numerous to mention.”

Everyone knows about this great natural disaster. Half of the city was razed to the ground in that storm. Now, if you go to N City, you can still see that half of the buildings are new and half are old, creating a stark contrast.

"The safety of the people is ultimately the most important thing," Xie Heng said solemnly. "We cannot take this risk."

His words were reasonable and logical, and Shu Qing had no words to refute them. Whether from a public or private perspective, she couldn't find anything wrong with them.

However, in that instant, she inexplicably recalled what Jiu Su had repeatedly told her before: "We are just friends" and "I am just a passerby in your life."

He once said that he wanted to return to the mountains and countryside...

Did he already know the price of staying in this world? Was it because he knew that he had so much reluctance and struggle before?

Her face must have been pale, because when Jiu Su walked up behind her, she not only put her arm around her shoulder, but also asked worriedly, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing..." Shu Qing said, trying to cover it up, and looked at Xie Heng, "Didn't you say you were going to take us to see those little monsters?"

Xie Heng smiled and didn't insist on discussing the topic of "regulators" with Shu Qing any further. He went to the metal door, scanned his face and work card. As the chief expert, he had extremely high authority in any super-super-regulatory bureau. A green light flashed above the heavy door, and the two doors slowly opened, revealing a long corridor behind them.

"This way, please—the containment area here isn't very big. When it was built, we never imagined it would house so many supernatural beings, so the conditions probably aren't great." Xie Heng explained as they walked. "So we hope that someone can adopt them as soon as possible. There should be quite a few people who meet the criteria among Miss Shu's fan base. I'd like to ask Miss Shu to help spread the word."

"That's not a problem," Shu Qing nodded in agreement. Xie Heng then said, "There's another matter I hope to discuss with Miss Shu."

"What's up?"

"I heard from Wanli that Miss Shu possesses a special talent that allows her to transform 'popularity' into 'monster power'?" Xie Heng asked with a smile. "It sounds very special. I wonder if it's true?"

-----------------------

Author's Note: Director Yang's speech referenced some civil service exam questions.

Please add this to your favorites! [Please!]