Chapter 36: The Cycle of Hatred: A Deformed Civilization

The brilliance of the Meiro Heavenly Court did not shine evenly upon every corner. Under the banner of "Justice," shadows grew like vines, silently entwining the very foundations of civilization.

The Tragedy of Justice: Cold, Programmatic Verdicts
Celestial City, Seventh District Grassroots Justice Court. The volume of cases handled here is immense, the procedures highly programmatic, and efficiency is prioritized over impartiality. The judge is a middle-aged female angel with a stern face and sharp eyes.

Case Three (Civil, Child Custody Dispute):
Plaintiff: Female angel Lena, an ordinary worker. She claims her ex-husband (a male angel, a retired low-level soldier currently performing manual labor in peripheral mining sectors) has a volatile temper, potential tendencies toward violence, and a meager income, rendering him unable to provide a healthy living and educational environment for their daughter. She demands the deprivation of his visitation rights and an increase in child support to 70% of his income.
Defendant: Male angel Karen, Lena's ex-husband. He looks haggard, wearing faded work clothes, nervously wringing his hands.
He argues that he has never shown any violence toward his daughter. Although his income is low, it is stable, and he is willing to do his best to pay child support, asking only to retain monthly visitation rights. He presents character reference letters from his coworkers and proof of income.
Verdict (Delivered in court):
"The court finds that, based on historical experience and social reality, the probability of male angels posing a potential violent risk to family members (especially female members) is significantly higher than that of female angels."
"Although the defendant provided character references, his risk cannot be entirely ruled out. Furthermore, his economic capacity is objectively inferior to the plaintiff's, making it difficult to guarantee the developmental needs of a minor female angel."
"The judgment is as follows:"
"1. The defendant Karen’s visitation rights are hereby revoked. To protect the safety and mental health of the angel child, he is prohibited from initiating contact with his daughter."
"2. The defendant Karen shall pay 85% of his monthly income as child support."
"3. Litigation costs are to be borne by the defendant."
Karen, as if struck by lightning, staggered back, his face as pale as paper, his lips trembling, yet he could not utter a sound. A trace of imperceptible triumph flickered across Lena’s face. The judge struck the gavel expressionlessly: "Court adjourned!"

Case Four (Criminal, False Accusation):
Plaintiff: Female angel Daisy, a waitress at the Angel Tavern. She accuses male angel Lucas, her coworker, of sexually assaulting her in the back alley after the tavern closed last night.
She provided a torn piece of fabric (claiming it was from the struggle) and testimony delivered while weeping and emotionally distraught. There were no eyewitnesses and no biological evidence.
Defendant: Lucas, a young male angel who appears honest and perhaps even timid.
He is terrified, desperately pleading: "No! Your Honor! Absolutely not!"
"I went straight home after my shift last night! Daisy and I are just ordinary coworkers; we’ve barely even spoken!"
"She... she was scolded by the manager yesterday for breaking a 5,000-year-old vintage bottle and had her wages docked. I... I happened to be standing next to her... did she misunderstand something? Or..."
The defense attorney (an inexperienced young female angel) attempted to request surveillance footage from the high-eye cameras near Lucas's residence to prove his return time, noting that Daisy’s accusation lacked key evidence and had questionable motives (resentment over docked wages).
Verdict:
"This court holds that in cases of sexual assault, the victim's statement holds core status. The plaintiff, Daisy, was emotionally distressed, provided a clear description, and showed physical signs of struggle (torn clothing); her testimony is highly credible."
"The defendant Lucas’s defense is weak and pale, and his attempt to imply a false motive on the part of the victim demonstrates a malicious attitude."
"Regarding the defense’s request for surveillance, this court finds: First, the footage may not fully prove the defendant's whereabouts due to angles and timing; second, even if it proved the defendant was not home at that time, it cannot directly prove he did not commit the crime; third, retrieving the footage would consume judicial resources and might cause secondary trauma to the victim. The application is denied."
"The judgment is as follows: Lucas is found guilty of attempted rape and is sentenced to three thousand years of imprisonment, effective immediately. Upon completion of his sentence, he shall be registered as a 'sex offender' and remain under lifetime surveillance."

Lucas collapsed to the floor, letting out a wail of despair: "No! I am innocent! I didn't do it!!"
A female angel bailiff dragged him away without expression. Daisy, at the plaintiff’s table, wiped away non-existent tears with a handkerchief, the corners of her mouth curling upward slightly.

Withered Numbers: The Death of Male Angel Lucas
Three days after the verdict was handed down.
Male angel Lucas was held in the temporary detention center of the Seventh District of the Celestial City—an overcrowded, poorly managed facility.
Labeled a "rapist," he became the target of bullying and scorn from other inmates (mostly male angels imprisoned for various "old" or "new" crimes).
The prison warden (a female angel) turned a blind eye to his plight, viewing him with contempt.
The endless humiliation, beatings, despair, and utter fear of the future crushed this formerly timid young man.
On a cold morning, when the warden made her routine rounds, she found him hanging from the bars of his cell using a rope twisted from the shredded fabric of a diamond-fiber bedsheet.
There was no suicide note, only a dark pool of blood on the floor from previous beatings.
His death was like an insignificant pebble cast into a deep pool, adding only a cold line of record to the detention center's logbook: "Prisoner, male angel Lucas, ID A7-10842, died by suicide. Cause of death: Hanging. Next of kin notified (no direct relatives in the Angel Civilization)." There was not even a simple funeral. His body was hastily cremated, and his ashes disappeared without a trace.
His death was merely an unremarkable point in the skyrocketing statistics of non-natural deaths among male angels. This string of cold numbers silently told the story of the suffocation and extinction of countless "Amons" and "Lucases" under the iron curtain of "Justice."

The Three Queens' Chamber: Silent Anxiety
In the quiet room deep within the Heavenly Blade Palace, the atmosphere was more stagnant than the last time. A top-secret report, automatically generated by the Heavenly Foundation System and visible only to the Three Queens, hovered on the projection screen in the center of the room. The title of the report was shocking: "Abnormal Changes in Angel Civilization Population Structure and Potential Social Risk Warning (Centennial Period)."
The core data of the report was like a blood-stained blade:
Male angel population share: Plummeted from approximately 45% before the trials to 17.3%, with the downward trend continuing.
Male angel annual non-natural death rate: 357.7 times that of female angels (excluding natural aging factors).
Male angel suicide rate: 8522.5 times that of female angels, with a trend toward younger demographics.
Judicial system data: The conviction rate for cases involving male angels as defendants is as high as 99.72%; for cases where female angels are defendants and male angels are plaintiffs, the case filing rate is less than 0.2%, and the conviction rate is nearly 0.
Social sentiment monitoring: The despair and hatred indices of the lower-class male angel population continue to climb toward dangerous thresholds; extremist feminist rhetoric is spreading exponentially on unofficial online platforms, with some discourse openly advocating for the "Uselessness of Male Angels" and "Purification Theory."

Keisha’s gaze swept over these cold numbers, and deep within her golden eyes, a trace of an extremely subtle ripple finally flickered, like a grain of sand falling into a calm lake.
But her powerful will instantly smoothed it over. Her voice remained steady, possessing the grandeur of one overlooking history:
"Data... is merely a surface phenomenon. There can be no great rebuilding without great destruction."
"The toxins of the old order are embedded deep in the marrow; how can scraping the bone to heal the poison not be painful?"
"The sharp decline in the male population is the release of historical grievances, the natural elimination of inferior genes."
"The inclination of the judicial system is a necessary means of protecting the vulnerable during a special period; the Heavenly Palace ideology must be eradicated from their hearts."
"Overcorrection is the necessary path toward true balance. Time... will correct everything."
"When a new generation grows up under a pure new order, hatred will dissipate, and true equality will naturally be established. The current growing pains are laying the foundation for the eternal peace of the future."

Liangbing did not even bother to look at the report in detail. She was boredly filing her nails, flakes of Dark Su-Silver falling softly.
"Sister is right. Numbers? What’s a few dead people?"
"The evil they committed in the old era can never be repaid even if they died ten or a hundred times over! Those who left, those who died, are just the weak who couldn't bear the price, the pus and blood automatically expelled by the body of civilization."
"Those who remain are the 'materials' that can truly adapt to the new order and be of use to us."
"As for those nagging extremist remarks?" She sneered, a cold light flashing in her eyes. "Let Ruoning and the others keep a close watch; find a pretext to deal with the ones who jump the highest. They can't make any waves."
Her gaze swept over the words "hatred index" on the report with a touch of cruel playfulness: "Hate? Let them hate."
"In the face of absolute power, hatred is nothing more than the whimpering of a defeated dog. In fact, if there is hatred, there is an even greater need for our 'management' and 'guidance,' isn't there?"
In her view, male hatred was merely another resource that needed to be controlled and exploited.

He Xi’s gaze, however, lingered for a long time on the curves and cold percentages representing the loss of life on the projection.
Within her silver eyes, data streams surged, calculated, and projected like a waterfall. She saw:
The labor gap caused by the imbalance in population structure (especially in heavy manual and high-risk industries) would explode within the next thousand years.
Judicial injustice is creating a massive, invisible, hate-filled underclass that is becoming a hotbed for social unrest.
The proliferation of extremist female angel ideology is dismantling basic trust and the spirit of cooperation, and has even begun to erode the unity within the female angels themselves (the ostracization of female angels with dissenting views has already begun to emerge).
Long-term gender antagonism will cause irreversible distortion in the mental health and social cognition of the next generation of angels (regardless of gender).
These conclusions, like cold steel needles, pierced the models she had built with reason.
Anxiety solidified in her chest like tangible ice. She knew that Keisha’s "time correction theory" was overly idealistic, and Liangbing’s "power crushing theory" would only add fuel to the fire.
If left unchecked, the Angel Civilization, while winning its reckoning with the past, was digging a deeper grave for itself, one filled with malice and division.
She opened her mouth, her cold voice almost breaking through her throat: "Keisha, Liangbing, the data shows..."
However, as the words reached her lips, they met Keisha’s unquestionable gaze, which held the will to control the entire course of history, and Liangbing’s mocking and impatient glance. He Xi’s words stopped abruptly.
She thought of the male angel Arthur’s ship disappearing into the darkness, the cold collar on the neck of the male angel Amon.
She thought of the corpse of the male angel Lucas hanging from the cell bars.
She also remembered the similarly stubborn and firm look in her brother’s eyes before the Battle of Fury Sea.
A challenge at this moment would be ill-timed.
It would be seen as weakness, as a betrayal of the fallen sisters, or even... as some unspeakable sympathy for the exiled remnants of her brother’s faction.
In the end, all the data, all the projections, and all the anxieties turned into a faint, barely audible sigh, dissolving between her lips and teeth. He Xi lowered her eyes again, her long silver eyelashes masking the complex emotions surging within her gaze.
She merely nodded gently, responding in a tone as flat as electronically synthesized sound:
"The Heavenly Foundation System will continue to monitor relevant data variables. If there are further anomalies, I will issue a warning in time."
She chose silence.
She sealed that heavy, foreboding report, along with her deep hidden concerns for the future, back into the depths of the cold database.
In the quiet room, there remained only Keisha’s grand depiction of the future, Liangbing’s caustic mockery of "inferior genes," and the countless drowned wails and despair beneath the silent, flowing, cold torrent known as "Justice."
The tilting of the scales was a foregone conclusion, and the end of the fall remained known to no one.