“M-Municipal Snow-Dumping Fine?!”
Standing barefoot in the middle of the newly melted public ice-skating rink in his pink snow-bunny boxer shorts, Sect Master Han Jue stared at the five-yard-long yellow scroll unrolling in front of his nose.
Behind him, Elder Bing He and the twelve other Ice-Mirror Sect elders huddled together in their gray undershorts like a flock of plucked geese, shivering even inside the seventy-five-degree dome out of sheer humiliation.
Abacus Su adjusted his brass spectacles with one finger, flicked three jade beads on his glowing three-foot abacus, and cleared his throat professionally.
“Ahem! Please listen carefully to your itemized municipal violation notice, Citizen Han Jue,” Abacus Su read aloud into a small lapel microphone so that all three million townspeople eating shaved ice around the rink could hear every word:
“Violation One: Operating an unlicensed ten-thousand-foot Glacier Dharma Idol within a residential and dining zone without a Dry-Well County Construction Permit. Fine: Thirty million Spirit Stones.”
“Violation Two: Illegal dumping of ten million tons of raw glacier ice directly above Track One of the Interplanetary Sky-Rail. Fine: Forty million Spirit Stones, minus a five-million-stone credit because the ice tasted very good with condensed milk.”
“Violation Three: Moving a three-mile floating palace without taillights or a pilot’s license, resulting in an unauthorized conversion into a public ice-skating rink. Fine: Twenty-five million Spirit Stones.”
