Warden of the Beast World: Everyone is a Hakimi

She Qing slumped onto the cold metal floor of the corridor, his back pressed against the wall, his vertical pupils contracted sharply into thin slits with fear. His gaze darted frantically between the people in front of him.

Chi Heng was still crying while holding Ye Tang. Ling Shou leaned against the wall and looked down at him coldly. Jing Yao locked onto him with his amber tiger eyes from behind the glass wall. Lu Yu stood not far away, tapping his personal terminal unhurriedly. At the end of the corridor, the mermaid was floating on the surface of the pool, its deep blue eyes coldly watching this side through the observation wall.

"This...this has nothing to do with me..." She Qing's voice trembled, the hissing at the end turning into a pitiful breathy sound, "I'm just a gofer, I have no say in the Ye family's affairs..."

"You're from the Ye family, how can this be none of your business?"

A deep, unfamiliar male voice echoed in the corridor. It wasn't Chi Heng, Ling Shou, Lu Yu, or Jing Yao. Ye Tang slightly raised her head from Chi Heng's embrace, her tear-blurred eyes looking in the direction the voice came from.

The hunter transformed into human form.

His long, silver-gray hair cascaded down his shoulders, his features were deep and cold, and his gray-blue eyes were burning with icy fury. He was a head taller than Chi Heng, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, his body lines were sharp and sleek, and he stood there like a drawn military sword.

He walked past Chi Heng with steady, powerful steps, each step carrying the oppressive aura unique to SS-rank Canglang. He stood before She Qing, looking down at the slumped, lazy snake. Then he reached out, his fingers gripping the back of She Qing's neck, and lifted him up like a chick.

"Tell me, how do you want to die?"

She Qing's feet twitched wildly in the air, his vertical pupils reflecting You Lie's cold and stern face, and a gurgling sound came from his throat. These were all top-tier combatants of the empire; even a slight release of their pressure was enough to make an A-level orc lose his footing. Now, the pressure of six people was pressing down on him simultaneously. His heart was pounding as if it would jump out of his throat, his vertical pupils contracted and dilated violently, his breathing was rapid and shallow, and cold sweat poured down his forehead.

Ye Tang peeked out from between Chi Heng's wings. She Qing was so frightened that she almost fainted; her face had turned from ashen to bluish-purple. If they pressed her any further, she would die.

Her goal today wasn't to kill this scoundrel. If something happened to him in Prison Zero, it would be difficult to explain to the security department, and besides, dead people don't get paid. She wiped away her tears, crawled out of Chi Heng's arms, patted the bird feathers off her clothes, and cleared her throat.

"Ahem. Well then, I'm not a member of the wild family anyway." Her voice still had a nasal tone from crying, but her tone had regained some shrewdness. "Give me the money, and I'll pretend this never happened."

Hope instantly ignited in She Qing's vertical pupils.

Then, under everyone's watchful eyes, Ye Tang pulled an abacus from her spatial storage. The abacus had a mahogany frame and white jade beads; it was a decorative item she had found at an antique market in her previous life, which she had later added to her post-apocalyptic stockpile list, and now it was finally coming in handy. She placed the abacus on the corridor railing and began to move the beads with practiced ease, her movements clearly indicating that she had done a lot of accounting in her previous life.

"Look, let me break it down for you—compensation for emotional distress. When you bastards threw me out, I fell on the gravel ground, scraping my knees and palms. I was walking and crying alone in the primeval forest in the middle of the night. Shouldn't we settle this score?"

She moved the abacus beads a few times. "Child support? I've lived in the Ye family for eighteen years. Has your family ever contributed a single grain of rice? Even if you're not the head of the Ye family now, you're still a member of the Ye family. You can pay this amount first and then ask the Ye family for reimbursement later." She moved the abacus beads a few more times.

"Nutrition expenses? Look how thin I was, look how skinny my wrists were—I'm much better now, but back then I was just skin and bones. If your family had just given me a bite to eat, would I have grown up like that?"

She continued manipulating the abacus beads, muttering to herself, "Tuition fees, you wouldn't let me go to school, and now I haven't even finished Chapter 3, Section 5 of the elementary school textbook 'Fundamentals of Imperial Culture and Customs.' This is compensation for my education. Accommodation fees—the dilapidated house in the backyard, the windows have no glass, it lets in drafts in winter and rain in summer, the living conditions are worse than a prison, all the suffering I've endured must be included..."

Her fingers flew across the abacus beads a few times, then she pushed the abacus forward and announced a number: "The total is 1.4 million star coins. Credit card or cash?"

She Qing was held aloft by You Lie, his vertical pupils staring blankly at the abacus. The fear in his mind was temporarily suppressed by shock. 1.4 million? He was a non-staff investigator in the security department. His annual salary and allowances were at most 80,000. After deducting daily expenses and gifts for his master, even if he took out all his savings over the years, it would still hurt. What difference was there between this and taking his life?

"Wild Tang—Warden Wild," his voice trembled with a fawning tone, "I'm not your father, so these child support payments, tuition fees, and room and board fees... how could they be on my shoulders?"

Ye Tang blinked. The tears still lingered in her eyes, her eyelashes were wet, and she pretended to sniff, then stretched out a finger to wipe away non-existent tears from the corner of her eye, her lips pursed.

She Qing immediately felt the wolf claws on the back of his neck tighten suddenly, and five slender fingers clamped his cervical vertebrae like steel clamps. There was a soft "crack" sound - not that the bone broke, but that the joint was being squeezed.

The murderous intent in Youlie's grey-blue eyes was undisguised, and his voice was as deep as a muffled thunder rumbling from the depths of his throat, each word striking She Qing's already collapsing nerves.

"The Ye family's debt is being held against you, do you have a problem with that?"

"No, no, no—I'll give it! I'll give it!" She Qing practically screamed. His legs kicked wildly in mid-air, his vertical pupils dilated in terror. He dared not haggle any longer—any further haggling wouldn't be a matter of paying money, it would be a matter of survival. "One million four hundred thousand, I'll give it! I'll give it right now!"

Youlie released his grip, and She Qing fell to the ground. Trembling, she pulled out her personal terminal, her fingers shaking so much that she had to press the wrong password several times before she could enter it correctly. One million four hundred thousand star coins were transferred from She Qing's account to Ye Tang's name, and the notification sound of the successful transfer rang crisply in the empty corridor.

Ye Tang looked down at the payment notification that popped up on her personal terminal, nodded in satisfaction, put away her abacus and slung it back over her shoulder, dusting off non-existent dust from her hands. Then she turned around and flashed a bright smile at everyone in the corridor: "Alright, extra treat today, everyone gets one—a whole roasted lamb."

Ye Tang put the abacus back into her spatial storage, dusted off non-existent dust from her hands, glanced down at the 1.4 million star coins that had just arrived in her personal terminal, and smiled broadly, feeling so happy she could take off on the spot.

She looked up and saw several gray figures still standing in the corridor—the investigators from the security department's review team were huddled at the corner of the corridor, unsure whether to go in or out, their eyes unsure where to look, their expressions like a group of rabbits who had accidentally wandered into a predator enclosure.

"Why aren't you leaving yet?" Ye Tang tilted her head, her tone sincere and frank. "Would you like to stay for dinner?"

The investigators jumped up in unison like cats whose tails had been stepped on. Stay for dinner? Eat at the same table as these S-class detainees who could dismantle armored vehicles with their bare hands? Eat with a female who could drain someone's savings with onion tear gas and an abacus? They wanted to live a few more years.

"No, no, no, thank you for your hospitality, Warden Ye. We'll be going now—" The head of the investigation team almost forgot to take his briefcase. He was pulled by his colleague behind him and hurriedly tucked it under his arm. The group scrambled out of the Zero Prison gate, jumped into the black bulletproof car, and the roar of the engine disappeared into the distance at the speed of their escape.