Vow of Silver Dawn Chapter 35

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You know how it goes
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Chapter 35: Highly Effective Negotiation Strategy
By 国王陛下, Translated by 74translations
Notes at the end.

	An Ping put his communicator down, shot Shawn a look, and then walked downstairs.

	Shwan had originally planned to pull Tian aside and ask him about Silver Exchange, but at this point had nothing left except to follow behind An Ping.

	The journey from the Silver Exchange to where the Warden was, the Tianxuan Jade House, was a path adorned on all sides by brilliant lights, displaying Li Station's bustling prosperity in all directions.

	But despite being so utterly submerged in a city of light, still the vast dark expanse of space above was apparent, and Shawn couldn't help but think back to what was previously said: On this gigantic station in the space between Kun and Xun, crime had never been truly stamped out.

	As a result, after a while the curious excitement was gradually replaced with a cautious alertness.

	The Hongxing Squad obviously weren't here to sightsee, but to steal back from a gang of thieves and to otherwise "settle their accounts."

	Based on An Ping and Lü Nan's conversation, this was not an account they were counting on settling peacefully, and so Shawn had prepared to meet that particular challenge head on.

	But on the other hand, Shawn still hoped that there would not be any pointless slaughter. Shawn still hoped there'd be a way to peacefully resolve things.

	Although perhaps that was just the attitude of a pearl-clutcher who fancied himself on the side of justice and righteousness——Shawn could tell that the veterans of the Hongxing Squad didn't look upon attitudes like his very kindly.

	But the world would always need people who were willing to champion the cause of justice.

	And more pearl-clutchers would be better than more criminals.

Such were realities that had been carved into his heart in his time as a Jedi.

The Galaxy didn't need everyone to be Jedi, but the Galaxy would always need Jedi.

While he was lost in thought, Shawn's following of An Ping had taken them to right in front of the Tianxuan Jade House.

The building was built right in the centre of the Tianxuan Plaza, and was a structure of unbounded beauty. Rising over 500 metres out of the ground, the entire facade was a sparkling front as though it were made of bricks of jade.

This tower, in excess of 150 floors, was the Tianxuan Ward's most noteworthy feature, and contained the station's largest financial institutions as well as branches of Kun and Xun's largest firms.

Some said that the Tianxuan Jade House contained so much money that the building was effectively worth more than its weight in gold.

At the top, a number of floors were set aside as the Warden's personal office and living space, letting one look down from these 10 floors upon the most prosperous ward on this city in space like a sovereign king from their throne on high.

And now, the king was welcoming in some unexpected guests.

An Ping walked up to the young lady at the reception desk on the Tianxuan Jade House's first floor, and produced a languid and an unconvincing smile.

"If I could trouble you, please inform Mister Zhang that An Ping's looking for him."

The receptionist was clearly startled, but maintained her courteous smile, "Please wait a moment sir."

After a little while, the receptionist got a reply on her communicator, and with an apologetic smile said, "Apologies, Mister An, but Mister Zhang is out today-"

An Ping smiled, and cut her off, "Tell him that if he's still out in a minute, then Lü Nan and I will be waiting for him in his office."

The receptionist didn't know what to make of this. Who was this person, she thought, that would dare be so rude to Chief Zhang?

But somehow, beneath An Ping's sleepy-eyed gaze, she herself didn't dare disobey, and so she sent the message up to the secretary at the building's top.

In less than half a minute, she received a second communique, with an entirely different message.
The sudden change shocked the young lady, whose jaw dropped.

"Ch-Chief Zhang invites you to meet with him at the top floor."

"Ha, despite all these years, seems like Mister Zhang still remembers us old friends fondly."

Accompanying An Ping's laughter however was the shriek of the Tianxuan Jade Houses's security alarm.

Lü Nan, clad in a fairly thick protective jacket, with a rifle case on her back longer than a person, had strolled in from the main entrance, the security alarms serving as a backing track to her ever approaching footsteps.

The security on call rushed over, raising their own weapons to aim at Lü Nan, and shouted warnings for her to stop, which she then ignored.

The officer in charge was moments from firing a warning shot, but after his communicator chirped, lowered his blaster, and raised a hand to motion for his men to do the same.

And so Lü Nan, armed to the teeth, was allowed to simply stroll into the Tianxun Jade House.

Shawn, who was behind Lü Nan, couldn't help but let out a very long sigh.

He had been quite worried. If a fight did break out, how was he going to minimize the casualties? Most of the people in the lobby were innocent... but luckily, no such thing came to pass, and Lü Nan, armed to the teeth as she was, was not given the opportunity to demonstrate her abilities.

Shawn did suspect that depriving herself of the opportunity was precisely why she was over-equipped, however.

For the Jedi Apprentice, who had grown up in the Republic Core, and to which had long held to the ideology of forgoing weapons, it gave him much to think about.

On the other side, An Ping waved for Shawn and Lü Nan nan to follow him, as they swiftly left the lobby and made for the restricted area.

At the entrance to the restricted area were two black-clad security, who displayed no acknowledgement to their presence, nor were acknowledged by An Ping. And instead led his two teammates to a blue elevator shaft.

Deftly entering the code for the top floor, An Ping then said, "Zhang Jincheng is not an easy person to deal with. From here on out, it'll be trouble."

Lü Nan smirked, "Trouble for whom? Us, or him?"

"Good question. The Zhang Jincheng isn't the same Zhang Jincheng we knew. After all these years, Jincheng became Zhang, and Zhang became Mister Zhanga. He's been sitting on that throne so long he's more concerned about trouble than we are."

An Ping's face turned pensive, "I used to sort of admire him back then, the lowly Zhang who would question authority regardless."

"If it were that Zhang calling the shots, then there wouldn't currently be many still alive in the lobby," Lü Nan remarked coldly.

An Ping sighed, "There's no point to senseless slaughter, so let's show a little courtesy to Mister Zhang alright? The Hongxing Squad's responsible for its own finances, and you know as they say, amiability makes you richb. If you don't wanna play nice, just leave the next bit to me, that alright?"

Lü Nan scoffed, "So, what, I'm just here to be a pretty face?"

"Not necessarily," An Ping replied, "Mister Zhang's got nine district wardens who report to him, a few of them probably won't be interested in playing nice either. When that time comes, if you could be so kind as to talk to them, that'd be lovely."

"Ha, sure," Lü Nan said, smiling a bit.

When the doors slid open, a spacious hallway of opulent splendor glittered before them. Flanked on either side by exquisitely carved columns, it was difficult not to be dazzled by the sight.

At the end of the hallway was a staircase of 23 steps, at the top of which sat a pair of massive scarlet wooden doorsc, through the seams of which light spilled.

An Ping couldn't help but smile at what he saw, "Mister Zhang just keeps getting richer. It wasn't this over the top a few years ago."

In apparent reply, a hoarse voice came from behind the doors when An Ping finished speaking.

	"In my old age, I like to keep things that are easy to see at my side because my eyes aren't what they used to be, not because I'd like to be mocked by old friends."

At the same time, the voice seemed to come from all directions, and although it was not a powerful voice, it nevertheless produced quite a forceful impression, and one couldn't help but recede somewhat.

Shawn was first startled, and then shivered, until he realized that this audio system was meant as a psychological intimidation tactic.

An Ping too seemed to find the whole thing unimpressive.

"Mister Zhang, I appreciate you regarding me as an old friend, so I don't wish to mock, but I must say, this display of yours does make me want to laugh."

The voice from all around faded shortly after, leaving behind only a sigh from behind the doors.

"Have you ever heard the saying absence makes the heart grow fonder?"

"Well since you're familiar, let's get our business done, and then we can go back to being absent from one another."

As An Ping spoke, he ascended the stairs, and gave the doors a gentle push.

Behind the doors was a spacious void, a smooth plane of smooth whiteness, stretching out into a plaza a hundred metres wide.

On all sides were transparent glass windows, allowing for a 360-degree view of the surrounding Tianxuan Ward.

At the end of the plaza was a massive desk and an imposing-looking throne, where a white-haired sat, looking rather like a toy on the oversized seat.

The three of them walked to the table, allowing Zhang to wordlessly look down upon them from up high on his throne.

An Ping knocked the table, "So old friend, now that we're here, care to say a few words?"

Zhang's eyelids raised slightly, "It was you who came here to meet me, perhaps you should start."

"Our property's been stolen, and it was on your turf."

Zhang smiled, "If you want me to console you, then I have candies I can offer you, but if you don't want consolation, then I question your logic. Your property is stolen, and instead of searching for it, you come to me? You don't suspect me do you?"

"I suspect you know who did it," An Ping answered.

Zhang smiled again, "The Tianxuan Ward has a few hundreds of a few thousands of people who know who's robbed you, all you need to do is head to a pub and ask one of the protocol droids and you'd have an answer. There was no need to come see me."

"Well, a pub's protocol droid wouldn't help us find them."

"And why would I help?" Zhang asked.

"There's a gang of thieves operating on your turf, who can even get one over on the Silver Knights, and you're wondering why you should help?"

As he spoke, An Ping's tone gradually grew more forceful.

"You're the warden of the whole place, so maybe such a trifle is below your notice, but you've got subordinate district wardens haven't you?"

hang slowly nodded, "There is some sense to that. I recall that your property was lost in District Seven, so I'll have the Warden of that district speak with you."

Zhang then moved for the communicator built into the desk, but at that An Ping shook his head, "There's no need for that, I've already had someone speak to him."

After which An Ping activated his own communicator to ask, "Uncle Xu, what'd the District Seven Warden say?"

"uh, he said, have mercy, I had no choice."

Hearing this, Zhang's expression suddenly changed.

It was An Ping's turn to smile, and continued to speak into his communicator, "A grand district warden, at the top of the Tianxuan Jade House, saying that they had no choice? Doesn't that seem funny? The way I see it, they're having a laugh at your expense, just saying whatever they feel like. I think you ought to go and have a longer talk with them. After all, Mister Zhang wishes it, too."

Zhang suddenly stood up, "An Ping!"

Uncle Xu's voice once again came from the communicator, "Captain, we're pretty much done here, if you can have the next District Seven Warden sent over we can continue."

Putting down his communicator, An Ping asked Zhang, "How about it then? Is the replacement ready?"



Translation Notes
a Here, An Ping says that Zhang Jincheng has gone from xiao zhang (小张, lit. "little Zhang") which is a familiar, friendly form of address (Zhuang, the engineer girl, is usually addressed as as xiao zhuang) to lao zhang (老张, lit. "old Zhang"), which is still a familiar form of address, but older (with all the social implications that carries), to zhang xiansheng (张先生), which is a polite title equivalent to Mister. Interestingly, the characters for xiansheng are read as sensei in Japanese.

b This is a Chinese idiom (和气生财, hé qì shēng cái), and I couldn't think of an English equivalent.

c I don't know if it's what the author's going for, but I imagine big red doors like the kind they've got at the forbidden city. Those like, imperial palatial doors with the rows of pegs.

肖恩 - xiāo'ēn - Shawn, Jedi Apprentice
莫斯提马 - mòsītímǎ - Mastema, Jedi Master
李钰 - lǐyù - Li Yu, Commander of the Silver Knights
白 - bái - Bai, Li Yu’s droid
安平 - ānpíng - An Ping, Captain of the Hongxing Squad
吕楠 - lǚnán - Lü Nan, Hongxing Squad Sniper
许伯 - xǔbó - Uncle Xu, Hongxing Squad Medic
庄原瑛 - zhuāngyuányīng - Zhuang Yuanying, Hongxing Squad Engineer
田路遥 - tiánlùyáo - Silver Knights something-or-other, the one who lost the Xuanming

At any rate,

https://74translations.wordpress.com/

Thanks for reading!