Darkstone Code

Chapter 1237 - 1235: Different Fates

"How did he pull it off?"

A man in his forties, looking a bit thin but carrying the mature charm of middle age, was pressing down on top of a woman.

Men are strange, especially those who are excellent and outstanding—the older they get, the more attractive they become.

This was a very attractive man, a textbook "Mr. Federation" who matched the aesthetic of Federation women.

Only his expression at this moment was a bit odd, some excitement hidden in the distortion, like the look some sadists wear when their excitement reaches its peak.

He was Chris’s husband, a Chief Justice of the State Court, and beneath him was his wife, Chris.

She didn’t answer, just clenched her teeth tightly.

The man didn’t care, and went on talking all sorts of humiliating nonsense to himself. He was tormenting her, and he seemed to be savoring the lines.

A moment later, everything returned to silence, and the two of them lay at the head of the bed.

The man handed Chris a cigarette, took one for himself, and lit up.

The two of them lay naked on the bed like that, without the slightest attempt to cover themselves. The messy sheets gave off a strange smell.

"Did he agree?" the man asked.

Chris glanced at him, then withdrew her gaze without answering.

The man didn’t press her, his expression still carrying a trace of excitement.

After about a minute or two, Chris finally said, "I haven’t brought that up yet. It’s still too early. If I say it now, he’ll think I approached him with an agenda. You have to give me some time."

The man seemed to find this reasonable. "You don’t need to be too anxious. As long as you can maintain a close relationship with him, it doesn’t matter how my posting gets adjusted next."

Chris still felt somewhat...ashamed to talk about this.

She had gotten involved with the President. Even now, when she thought about it, she found it unbelievable. She was just an ordinary woman.

Because of her husband’s work, she had enjoyed a privileged living environment, but that life was slipping away from her.

There were some controversies in two cases her husband had presided over, which drew the attention of the Ministry of Justice. No one knew what the people upstairs were really thinking, but it was obvious they were planning to move Chris’s husband to a less important position.

This would be fatal to the family. Once the man lost his job as Chief Justice, it meant that the Judge whom people had to show respect to would become a dispensable nobody on the margins.

No one would show up at their door with gifts because they needed his help, or use various methods to offer them certain benefits, like anonymous accounts and ways to deposit and withdraw money.

Through certain channels, the man had learned that once the candidate for Governor was settled, the list of personnel at the State Court would be reshuffled.

To change the fact that he was bound to lose power, they had to do something.

Just like they had done in the past!

Chris had some issues of her own as well. She had only just recently completed her first intimate encounter with the President, and even that had taken longer than she’d expected.

The President was extremely cautious, and he was too old.

With age, desire weakens. Sometimes she would give very obvious hints, but the President would ignore them.

It wasn’t until she discovered that dressing provocatively while playing bowling would make a change flicker in the President’s eyes that there was finally some substantive progress.

After several months, she had finally found the breakthrough point. Just now, when her husband asked what method she’d used with the President, she hadn’t answered.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to answer; she simply didn’t know how.

Because even now, after these months, it was still one‑sided.

The two of them each sank into their own thoughts. After a while, the man spoke again. "Tracy’s victory is basically locked in. Hicks withdrew on her own. She has no opponent now."

"When you’re around here in the near future, you can go see her a bit. If there’s no way to push from your side for the time being, we can try something through Tracy as well."

His attitude grew very serious. "If the Governor takes the initiative to keep me on or proposes that I stay on as Chief Justice, the Ministry of Justice will also have to think twice!"

The Federation’s unique system gave Governors a great deal of power. They couldn’t directly interfere in personnel changes in certain vertical institutions, but they could make recommendations.

From the perspective of "uniting all states of the Federation," the upper echelons of the Federation Government would, to some extent, grant Governors certain "privileges."

These privileges would never be written down anywhere. They existed only as a kind of shared understanding.

When a Governor made a suggestion, the Federation Government had to take it seriously. Even if they meant to refuse, they had to communicate first before turning it down, at least to make the other side understand why it couldn’t be done.

Chris turned her head and flicked off some ash. "Why did Hicks withdraw?"

Her feelings about Ms. Tracy, this "friend," were very complicated. Chris was very jealous of her.

Jealous that she had a father who was a mayor, able to give her the most perfect life from birth to adulthood.

Jealous that she had an uncle who was a Shepherd; even if she did nothing at all, she’d have enormous influence in society, since roughly eighty percent of people in the Federation had Faith.

Jealous that, relying on this influence, she quickly became a promoter and leader of the feminist movement, with great impact not only in the Federation but around the world.

What she envied even more was that Trish was actually about to become the first female Governor in the Federation’s history. She was making history, she would be written into the Federation’s history books, and later she’d even become a required page in history classes.

And what about Chris herself?

Aside from sleeping with different men to maintain a life that was really nothing special, she was nothing at all!

Maybe some people would remember her, but absolutely not because she’d done anything great, and certainly not because she’d achieved anything.

They’d remember her only because she was the Chief Justice’s wife, and at the same time a whore, nothing more!

From sleeping with a Professor in the law department, to sleeping with the President... well, not completely sleeping with him; they were missing some of the judicial elements required by definition.

When the man heard this question, the corner of his brow lifted. "Some big shot stepped in to clear the way for Trish. In just a few days, just as public opinion was heating up, Hicks voluntarily withdrew."

"His excuse was depression!"

The man couldn’t help bursting out laughing. "A Lawyer getting depressed because he defended bad people—that’s the funniest joke I’ve ever heard!"

Chris also showed a faint smile. She was actually a law student too; she’d met her husband back in college.

She could follow what he meant, and she knew it was ridiculous.

If there’s anyone in this world who has no concept of right and wrong, it’s Lawyers!

As long as you pay them, pay them enough, they’ll betray morality and justice and argue "not guilty" for criminals.

If people like that could get depressed over defending bad guys, then pretty much every Lawyer in the Federation would be depressed by now.

The smile came quickly and left just as fast; she started feeling jealous again.

Trish had shone her whole life; there was always someone willing to stand up for her when she ran into trouble. But look at herself.

It seemed that every time she ran into trouble, she could only rely on herself to solve it.

Right now she still had some ways, but what about when she got older?

Who’d be willing to sleep with some old mama?

The couple watched TV for a while, then fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning Chris got up early, picked out a decent outfit, then called Ms. Trish and headed over to visit.

Ms. Trish received her in her own office. The two women hugged as soon as they met and even did the cheek‑to‑cheek air kiss.

"You really didn’t need to bring gifts!" Ms. Trish was in a very good mood now; Hicks’s withdrawal had completely lifted the pressure off her.

When people are in a good mood, even a pile of shit looks pleasing to the eye. How could there be such pretty poop in this world?

She’d originally had some opinions about Chris, but now that she was in high spirits, those unpleasant bits seemed to have all been forgotten.

She handed the small gifts Chris brought to her secretary, and then the two of them went into her office.

Looking at this bright office permeated with the scent of power and desire, Chris’s mood was nothing like the smile covering her face.

"You look wonderful. I heard Hicks withdrew from the race—congratulations, Trish, you’ve won!"

She said the flattering words, and Ms. Trish smiled with no real modesty at all, yet spoke very modestly: "No, not necessarily. There are still other candidates. I might not be the final winner."

She paused for a moment. "I haven’t heard anything about you for a while. What have you been up to?"

Chris hesitated for a second and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "I opened a bowling alley in Bupen."

Ms. Trish was a bit surprised, but it also felt reasonable.

That last tournament had given Chris some name recognition in the bowling scene. On top of that, she was a woman, gave her some pull in certain areas and certain advantages, so opening a bowling alley wasn’t unexpected.

The fact that the President liked bowling had already spread, which pushed the sport’s development. It could be considered a sunrise industry.

She looked Chris over again. "Looks like your business is doing well!"

She was referring to the clothes Chris was wearing—this season’s newest fall‑winter line. For people like them, an outfit’s lifespan was only one season.

Once the season changed, these clothes would be donated or tossed. They wouldn’t sell them, especially the women.

They didn’t want some poor person walking around the streets in their clothes; that would make them very uncomfortable.

Some ladies would even rather burn their old clothes than let them circulate in society.

"It’s okay..." Chris pressed her lips together, her smile a bit forced.

The two chatted idly for a bit. Ms. Trish never asked about the real purpose of her visit, as if someone might actually come to see her purely for small talk.

After a few more lines of chatter and seeing that Ms. Trish still hadn’t changed the subject, Chris had no choice but to bring up the real reason for her visit herself.

"...Trish, there’s something I might need your help with. Will you help me?"

Ms. Trish agreed without the slightest hesitation. "Of course. We’re friends; I’ll do my best to help you!"