Warden of the Beast World: Everyone is a Hakimi

Chi Heng was happily trying on his new robe, looking at himself in the shop mirror from left to right, his tail held high behind him.

He had just mentally rehearsed Ye Tang's words praising him for being more handsome than Ling Shou, savoring the sweetness of it all, when a corner of the mirror reflected two figures he least wanted to see in his life.

Bai Jianjia, arm in arm with Bai Jin, the son she had with her phoenix beast husband, was walking gracefully from the other end of the corridor. Today, she was wearing a peacock blue belted long dress, the hem of which was adorned with real peacock feathers, swaying gracefully with every step.

Her hair ornaments were exquisite and intricate, and her makeup was impeccable. From head to toe, she exuded the unique elegance of a noblewoman.

Bai Jin followed half a step behind her, wearing a gaudy brocade robe with red and white phoenix patterns extending from the collar to the hem, making his red and white hair even more eye-catching. He held his chin high, his eyes scanning the mall as if surveying his territory.

The smile on Chi Heng's face vanished the moment he saw them. He put down his robe and folded it neatly, his movements no longer cheerful, but rather a deliberate, slowed calm.

"Chiheng, don't you even know how to greet your mother?" Bai Jin spoke first. He was a few years older than Chiheng and had always been unhappy that his mother always focused her attention on Chiheng.

He was clearly the more obedient and sensible one, and his inherited phoenix bloodline was equally noble, but his mother always talked about Chi Heng's talent, Chi Heng's combat strength, and Chi Heng's Vermilion Bird bloodline.

It wasn't until Chi Heng became a complete troublemaker, gradually exhausting his mother's patience and falling out of favor, that he finally regained her attention. Bai Jin enjoyed this feeling, always taking a jab at Chi Heng whenever they met, just to confirm that he was now the only respectable son his mother had.

"Good morning to my mother, who has been neglecting me for thirty years and finds me shameful." Chi Heng casually performed a perfunctory aristocratic greeting, his right hand swiping across his chest without even bending his waist. His tone was as if he were commenting on the weather, and his gaze swept across Bai Jianjia's face as quickly as if it were passing over an unfamiliar insect.

Bai Jianjia's chin tightened slightly. She could feel the furtive glances from several shop assistants around her, glances filled with curiosity, inquiry, and a hint of anticipation for a spectacle. She maintained her composure and remained silent. She wished she didn't have this son.

A son who overturned a table at a noble banquet, a son who was mistaken for an assassin while singing on the rooftop of the imperial city, a son who was imprisoned in Prison Zero and made her lose face in front of the entire empire's nobility. She didn't lack sons; Bai Jin was very obedient.

"Chiheng, you're getting more and more unruly!" Bai Jin frowned, raising his voice a few decibels. His voice was peculiar, both rough and sharp, as if two completely different timbres had been forcibly twisted together, with extremely strong penetrating power that made one's eardrums itch.

"What's it to you?" Chi Heng slowly and deliberately put the new robe into the shopping bag handed to him by the shop assistant. It was rare for him not to get angry. Bai Jin always caused trouble for him every time they met, and he was used to it. Usually, he would probably argue back, or even fight, but today Ye Tang was there, and he didn't want to argue or fight in front of her. He was still in the observation period.

"Weren't you in jail? What, you've escaped? Even if the Minister of Security is your own grandfather, you can't act so recklessly and disregard the safety of the Empire's citizens!"

Bai Jin took a step forward, raising his voice a few decibels, a barely perceptible smug glint in his eyes. He knew what Chi Heng cared about most, and he had learned how to use the most high-sounding words to stab someone.

"Idiot, I'm out of prison. Colonel Lu Yu personally approved it, the document is in the military archives, do you want me to pull it out for you to see?" Chi Heng rolled his eyes.

"How is that possible?! You clearly..." Bai Jin's voice suddenly became shrill. But he couldn't continue. He had clearly been sentenced to an irreversible fate, and the words swirled on his tongue before he swallowed them back.

He couldn't let Chiheng realize that his mother was paying attention to his case. His mother had read the "irreversible" verdict no less than five times, and each time she would fall silent for a long time after reading it.

"Hey, I mean, is it so hard to go our own way?" A clear female voice suddenly interrupted from the side.

Ye Tang's patience was completely exhausted. The air conditioning in the mall was blasting, but the summer in the beast world was already irritating enough, and on top of that, this scruffy monster was blocking the way and constantly causing trouble, so her nameless anger was rising.

She sized up Bai Jin. Her red and white hair looked like a half-finished product with a failed hair dyeing. Her features were decent on their own, but together they made her face look crowded. Coupled with that rough and high-pitched voice, she was ugly no matter how you looked at her, and not just ugly in a very unremarkable way.

"Is your manners all about making trouble out of nothing?"

"This is our family matter, it's none of your business to interfere!" Bai Jin glared at Ye Tang, her face turning red and white in turns.

"If you're ugly, that's none of my business." Ye Tang leaned against You Lie's side, arms crossed, her tone as calm as if stating a fact that everyone could see.

"You!" Bai Jin's face instantly turned a deep shade of liver. He hated it most when people said he was ugly. From childhood to adulthood, he had put so much effort into his appearance so that he wouldn't be outshone by Chi Heng when they stood together.

But every time he stood in front of Chi Heng, his red and white hair and his disproportionate features would pale in comparison. That was his most painful secret that he didn't want anyone to touch.

Chi Heng strode over and covered Ye Tang's eyes with an exaggerated gesture, as if he were blocking something extremely terrifying. "Little warden, don't look, don't look, it's polluting your eyes..." he muttered, his robe sleeves wide open, completely blocking Ye Tang's view.

Bai Jianjia gently pressed down on Bai Jin's arm. What she cared about most was never Chi Heng, but her dignity. She could beat Chi Heng until his skin was torn and bleeding at home, but it was definitely not the behavior of a noblewoman to curse someone in public.

She glanced at the guards behind Ye Tang. The uniforms of those guards all bore the insignia of the Imperial Research Institute. There were no more than five people in the entire empire who could mobilize the institute's guards.

She quickly weighed her options in her mind, then spoke, her tone polite yet distant, carrying a hint of scrutinizing coldness: "Madam, whose daughter are you?"

"This is my own home. If you're not buying anything, can you please not block the way? Others want to buy things too." Ye Tang's tone was even more polite than hers, and she even had a professional fake smile on her face, but every word carried an impatient "whoever you want, don't delay my shopping."

Several passing customers had long disliked the peacock mother and her chick, and were standing in the middle of the road talking loudly, completely blocking the shop entrance. Now that someone was speaking up for them, they all cast grateful glances at them.

"My mother is talking to you, and this is how you treat her?" Bai Jin took a step forward, her chin held high, her red and white hair particularly striking under the soft mall lights. "You have absolutely no manners. Where is your upbringing?"

Ye Tang leaned against You Lie's side, not even changing her posture, but only glancing at Bai Jin through Chi Heng's fingers, her tone as indifferent as if she were commenting on a crooked bonsai: "You scruffy chicken, will you die if you don't squawk? You're blocking the way."

Chi Heng burst out laughing. He was still covering Ye Tang's eyes with one hand, while the other hand was on his knee as he laughed so hard he bent over, his shoulders shaking and his wings almost popping out from under his robe.

Mixed-feather chicken! Mixed-feather chicken! When the young warden called it Ling Shou free-range chicken last time, he didn't have a particularly intuitive feeling. But this time, when he called it Bai Jin mixed-feather chicken, he felt that the word was simply tailor-made for him.

Bai Jin's face, contorted with rage, paired with her red and white mixed hair, resembled, if not quite, a scalded chicken—it was exactly the same.

The tuft of meticulously groomed red and white gradient short feathers on his collar now formed a comical echo with his flushed face.

Bai Jin's face flushed from a liverish color to purple, then turned black. His chest heaved violently, his red and white hair trembled slightly from the vibrations of the air, and the short feathers he was so proud of at his collar bristled into two tufts. He opened his mouth to curse back, but could only manage "You—you—" before he couldn't utter a single word.

Bai Jianjia gripped Bai Jin's wrist, her fingertips tightening slightly. There were two things she hated most in her life: being called vulgar and losing control.

Ye Tang's comment, "miscellaneous chicken," perfectly hit all her sore spots. She felt her dignity was about to collapse in that instant, but she forcibly suppressed her surging emotions. The little female in front of her was surrounded by the research institute's guard team, with a silver-haired wolf and her son Chi Heng standing beside her. She was composed and had an open and honest look in her eyes, showing no fear even when confronted in public.

The empire has many reclusive families, and some ancient clans rarely show their bloodlines in public, yet their status is extraordinary, even the royal family treats them with deference. Bai Jianjia's greatest fear is offending such people. She doesn't care about Chi Heng, nor does she care about Bai Jin, but she cannot gamble with her own status and position.

"Bai Jin, let's go." Bai Jianjia took Bai Jin's wrist and turned to walk in another direction. Her back was straight, and the peacock blue skirt trailed gracefully on the floor, her posture still dignified and composed.

From beginning to end, she didn't glance at Chi Heng even once. She didn't ask him how he was doing, when he was released from prison, or who the little female beside him was.

Chi Heng stood behind Ye Tang, watching his mother's figure disappear at the end of the corridor. His crimson eyes held neither sadness nor anger, only a calm that he had long been accustomed to.