Chapter 48: Miss Dong

After the collapse of the Peiyuan district branch of the Pengci Gang, Madam Dong had led a group of old men and women to establish the General Administration of Harmony.

Since then, the pengci scandals in Peiyuan district, as well as various other types of disorderly conduct, seemed to instantly disappear.

No one wanted to be accosted on a street corner by a bunch of old men and old women while on the way to work, and forced to recite the core values of cultivation as well as the eight honors and eight disgraces in the red book... because of this, no one parked illegally on the streets anymore, or ran a red light.

In just these last few days, the General Administration of Harmony had escorted over one thousand local habitual thieves to the local General Administration of Cultivation in Peiyuan district, leading to the detention center's food supplies being severely depleted. The entire police force at the General Administration of Cultivation had had to work overtime to process the offenders... it was as if the stately local cultivation police station had dumbly become a subsidiary department under the General Administration of Harmony's Madam Dong.

The most frustrating thing was that the police couldn't say anything.

Because they had to admit, since the emergence of the General Administration of Harmony, conditions in Peiyuan district had improved tremendously. Furthermore, these old men and women were shrewd enough to not leave behind any trace of their activities; on the surface, they didn't seem to be violating any laws or rules... even if they did drag a person into some corner to beat up at leisure, they would make sure to choose a blind spot.

In a word, Madam Dong was now thoroughly famous.

When she walked around Peiyuan district, even the traffic police who saw her couldn't help shuddering and would respectfully address her as "Miss Dong"...

...

...

However, Miss Dong wasn't very satisfied with the General Administration of Harmony's current situation.

This morning, she strolled along at an unhurried pace with her hands behind her back, like an old leader with veteran behind-the-scenes experience, and finally arrived at the secret headquarters of the General Administration of Harmony.

This headquarters had originally been an ordinary, abandoned factory building for rent or transfer. The rent was very cheap, and Madam Dong and several of the senior leaders of the General Administration of Harmony had each taken a bit of money out of their retirement funds and pooled the amount together to buy this building.

In a brief two days, the unused junk in the factory building had been cleared away and the space inside divided into several areas.

First, the harmonious report area, where the people of Peiyuan district could report any incidents of uncivilized behavior in society. As long as the core values of cultivation were involved, the General Administration of Harmony would do whatever it could to help.

Second, the harmonious entertainment area, which was a zone specially sectioned off for the old men and women of the General Administration to enjoy dancing in; so that they wouldn't bother the nearby community, Madam Dong had personally purchased a soundproofing system, as well as set up two regular songs. The theme song was "Superstar in Troubled Times" and the second song was "Elysium"— while mainly aggressive songs, they also carried hints of joy...

Third, the harmonious conference room. As the name implied, Madam Dong presided over senior leadership meetings here; it was also used for emergency assignments.

In addition to these three areas, there were two other smaller areas, namely the harmonious fitness room and Madam Dong's personal office.

As usual, the first thing that Madam Dong did after entering her office was to immediately fetch a pail of water from the bathroom. With a clean white cloth, she began to carefully wipe the revered stone on her table.

To an outsider, the stone was nothing special, but for all the people of the General Administration of Harmony, the stone held great significance... because the Twenty-Four True Words were engraved on it. This was the exact same stone that Wang Ling had left behind for Madam Dong.

As she was wiping the stone, an old man with a red strip of cloth around his arm knocked on the door of the office. "Miss Dong, are you busy?" This old man with the surname Zhang was Madam Dong's right hand. The red armband was a symbol of executive leadership in the General Administration of Harmony.

Madam Dong didn't say anything, wholeheartedly focused on wiping the stone.

Five minutes later, she wrung the white cloth dry and tossed it into the pail, then arranged the stone on the table before lighting three sticks of incense to place before it.

While she was doing this, Master Zhang didn't say anything else, standing perfectly straight at the door as he silently waited for her to finish. Finally, Madam Dong slowly turned around to look at him and say coolly, "Come in, let's talk..."

"Have there been any new developments?" Madam Dong asked as she stared unwaveringly at the stone on the table.

"No, at present we haven't received any messages from the director... has the director discarded us?" replied Master Zhang.

"Impossible! Back then... the director left this stone for us to give us confidence and hope for public order. We have been adhering to the core values of cultivation, sticking to the principle of 'from the masses, to the masses,' and serving the people with all our hearts and souls..."

At this point, Madam Dong suddenly became excited, her eyes revealing an enlightened expression. "I know! It must be because our works of harmony haven't been enough to move the director."

"I agree." Master Zhang nodded in approval.

Madam Dong frowned. "However, given our current funding situation, we don't have enough to spread our forces out into the other districts. Even now we already don't have enough manpower in Peiyuan district."

Master Zhang also sighed. "The newcomers only know how to play cards and mahjong all day long! This is already a serious violation of our General Administration of Harmony's ironclad principles."

"The newcomers don't know the rules, it'll be fine once we teach them. We just have to be a little more patient. Has the financial report come out? I'll calculate how much we still need."

Master Zhang was silent for a moment. "The report will be here shortly. With regard to our funds, I don't think Miss Dong needs to worry about it for the time being. This morning, the enthusiastic masses left a bankcard in our mailbox. The money on it... it's already enough for our initial operation."

"Huh?" Madam Dong had a strange expression on her face. "Could this card be from the director? Did you check where it came from?"

"It's probably not from the director... currently we're still investigating its origins. In addition to this bankcard, there was also a letter indicating that the reason this card had been given to us was to provide our General Administration of Harmony with sufficient funds..." Master Zhang recalled carefully, then his eyes widened as he remembered something. "Oh, that's right! Auntie Li in the technology department found a light watermark on the envelope, it seemed to be a string of numbers... maybe it's a clue that the other party left us."

Madam Dong rolled her eyes and cupped her chin as she thought for a moment. "The other party is likely testing us. If we don't have the ability to solve even this small puzzle, our General Administration of Harmony would be too worthless. We must find out who sent this letter as soon as possible!"

"Yes, Miss Dong!" Master Zhang nodded.

"Ah, that's right, what were the numbers?" asked Madam Dong.

Master Zhang replied, "They seemed to be... 8823?"