Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 112

Chapter 112 – Severely Lacking in Vitamin Lin Jingheng

“We’ve estimated that with Qiming and its surrounding satellites alone, we can safely resettle around six billion people, so this small migration won’t be too much trouble. The 3D architecture printers have been working day and night these past few days and we’ve already overheated 16 machines, so now they’re being sent to repair. The immigrants are all stopping temporarily on satellite bases, but their personal devices will gradually be registered into the social welfare program of the Capital planet. If all things goes well, we should be able to complete everything within a week; all departments are working hard right now to determine the amount of resources and people we need to finish everything in time. Professor Lu, we just need you and your engineering te-…department.”

“The department always needs more people, we welcome anyone that wants to join. You don’t need any certificates or educational history, we have room; although we do require professionalism. Applicants only need to take a test after they come in and they’ll be given a position if they pass. If they don’t pass, they’ll need to go through training before they get a position. Applying isn’t the hard part, getting through training and probation will be what’s difficult. Oh, don’t forget to remind them that they’ll only be paid minimum during the training period, so if they want to make more money they should probably consider applying to be the Prime Minister’s secretary so they should really think it through.”

The secretary in question let out an unimpressed grunt in the video channel.

Thanks to Ankur’s sudden change in attitude, the pursuing fleets of the AUS finally retreated temporarily, giving the Eighth Galaxy some time to reorganize.

All transfer portrals near the border of the galaxy had been installed with heavy explosives in preparation for the worst case scenario, like the ancients holding a torch ready to burn down the ropes of a bridge.

Meanwhile, Lin Jingheng personally dragged the frontline partyboy Professor Lu back onto Qiming.

The mech slowly passed through the ozone layer and heavy clouds, land already visible through the window to the naked eye.

The 3D printers quickly filled the designated residential areas with rows of little houses and buildings. Lin Jingheng remembered the area had still been empty land when he left, yet now the area had been cleared for building and constructions as crowds of construction robots worked restlessly on paving roads. The shape of a city could already be seen…although it seemed as if some unfortunate designer had a hand in choosing the colors of the buildings so now these little houses were all in obnoxious macaron colors. The vibrant colors of these houses struck a huge contrast with the monotoned military base of Milky Way City not too far away, it was like a group of cartoon mushrooms that made the scene almost comical to look at.

Lu Bixing asked: “Who did this? This is way too distracting, it looks like the planet grew some rashes if you look from the sky.”

The Prime Minister’s secretary sneered: “Your father.”

Lin Jingheng lifted an eyebrow on instinct: “The old cat’s maiden heart is still alive? It’s been centuries since he gave himself heterochromia, it seems like his delicate soul hasn’t changed.”

Lu Bixing: “……”

Lin Jingheng glanced at him from the corner of his eyes and said: “Unreliability is probably hereditary in your family, I can’t let either of you guys off the leash.”

Lu Bixing gladly accepted the comments and smiled back at him. Lin Jingheng raised his hand, as if he was about to say something, only to see that secretary on the side looking excitedly towards their direction. He held in the desire to make more comments and frowned as he poked on Lu Bixing’s shoulder, then turned to order Zhanlu: “Connect to the tracks, check the passcode and prepare for landing.”

The heavy mech responded with a low buzz as if it was also happy to be back home.

“We’re back!” Lu Bixing cheered towards the signal post inside the base through the large noises from landing. “Did the old Prime Minister miss me?”

Something inside Lin Jingheng’s heart moved slightly as Lu Bixing announced, “We’re back.”

He discovered that he could trace out the signature buildings inside the Milky Way City base and even the curves of the connecting tracks on the launching deck when he closed his eyes. From the launching deck to the command post, then outside the main lobby towards the little stone road, he could see it clearly in his mind. When Zhanlu announced that the mech had safely landed on the tracks, he could almost feel the little uneven stones underneath his boots.

Smokes and fire on the battlefield were suddenly a distant dream to him.

This was a strange feeling for Lin Jingheng. That mansion he had on Wolto was like a foreign land to him; without the help of a navigating robot, he’d be lost inside that house. As for the Silver Fortress where he spent most of his time, it had a naturally strict and heavy atmosphere that never gave him a sense of relaxation like a home.

The next moment, Prime Minister Edward’s howl pierced through the broadcast of the signal post: “You little rascal, why did you go out to the frontlines again!? Didn’t you promise to stay at the immigration station!?”

Lu Bixing gave an insincere excuse: “I was hanging out on the immigration station like you said, it just happened that Commander Lin picked me up along the way, right Lin?”

The Prime Minister didn’t dare to speak to the commander in the same manner and cleared his throat as he was about to run off.

That was when he heard Commander Lin immediately betray the young scientist: “Nonsense.”

Lu Bixing: “……”

Prime Minister: “Lu Bixing!”

The Prime Minister was getting old and naggy; he opened up all the broadcast inside the mech dock and chased Lu Bixing down with his speakers. The angry scolding followed Lu Bixing, giving him lectures ranging from being a reckless non-combat personnel to how irresponsible he was as the director of special advising.

Prime Minister Edward had a whole stomach full of anger as he continued criticizing the young man: “When you represent the Eighth Galaxy, your life is not only yours, it belongs to all the citizens! Look at you right now, you’re like an unreliable young man, aren’t you ashamed!?”

Lu Bixing held his hands out: “But I am an unreliable young man, mister Prime Minister. How did you just realize this now?”

Prime Minister Edward almost choked on his own spit and decided to have a talk with this young man’s father. The old man opened up the window inside the signal post only to see those colorful townhouses not too far away.

Prime Minister: “…..”

If it wasn’t for the fact that he was also broke, the old Prime Minister also wanted to give Monoeyed Hawk some grants to fix that awful colorblindness.

Lin Jingheng’s eyes curled up slightly as he turned and walked towards the direction of the command post. Lu Bixing ran up to him from behind and pulled his arm.

Lin Jingheng: “What do you want?”

Lu Bixing answered in a serious tone: “You promised me.”

Lin Jingheng: “Promised you what? Giving you a leash?”

Lu Bixing didn’t answer and dragged the commander towards a different direction. They passed by the mech dock and discovered a newly constructed road for armed mobiles.

As the most powerful vehicle on land, armed mobiles can go as fast as the speed of sound at their highest speed. Before the areas were developed, the land between Milky Way City and the military base was a desert land where they could drive around freely. Now that the area was slowly being constructed into residential areas and expanding cities, armed mobiles would need to follow traffic laws and drive inside enclosed terminals during non-emergency times to ensure the safety of residents.

Lin Jingheng: “What is this?”

“A special terminal.” Lu Bixing said, “Non-military staff that work in the base need to go home after work, and government officials often need to go between the government building and the base, so we planned a specialized terminal for ease of transportation. Here, get on.”

He pulled Lin Jingheng’s hand and pressed his finger on the fingerprint scanner as he spoke, registering Lin Jingheng’s identity on the machine. An armed mobile quickly pulled up from an underground storage and opened its door.

“This terminal goes directly into the main area of Milky Way City and is a little faster than running out in the wild. It will only take twelve minutes and six seconds total to the end of the track,” Lu Bixing said, “But we’re not going into the city today.”

The mobile slowly started up as he finished his explanation and accelerated to its highest speed within a minute. A few moments later, the mobile stopped outside a platform by the terminal; the total travel time was less than two minutes.

Lu Bixing: “Follow me.”

Outside the platform was a newly built residential area filled with houses of different sizes. The smallest houses were only one-story while others went up to two or three stories tall. The streets between the houses were clean and all pedestrian roads, banning any vehicles from entering. The small gardens around the roads and houses were already filled with beautiful plants and flowers welcoming their new residents.

There was a stone sign outside this residential area that said: Milky Way City Military Base Residence.

“This area wasn’t designed by my dad.” Lu Bixing said, “this is the first Military Base residence area. If the troops in the main base increase in the future, we’ll need to build more. It takes only a minute and 56 seconds from here to the mech dock in the base, which is about the same time it takes for you to walk from your command post to the dock.”

Lin Jingheng: “A minute and 56 seconds? My leg isn’t broken.”

Lu Bixing stopped his footsteps in defeat and turned his head to look at Lin Jingheng’s cold face. He waved for the commander to walk closer toward him, then leaned in and bit Lin Jingheng’s ears as he whispered: “If you’re going to keep pretending you can’t read the room, I’m going to publicly harass you on the streets.”

Lin Jingheng glanced coldly at him– I dare you .

Lu Bixing: “….Nope, how about you harass me instead?”

Lin Jingheng pushed his face away and Lu Bixing softened his voice: “The best engineers always need to have first-hand information ready. Everytime it goes through a messenger, the truthfulness and accuracy of the information gets lost along the way. Didn’t your Third Squadron friends ever step out to the frontlines back when you were still in the SIlver Fortress?”

Lin Jingheng was unmoved: “When did the Third Squadron enlist you?”

Lu Bixing felt like this person was difficult to talk to and always shifted the subject and topic. Unable to convince him, Lu Bixing could only hold the commander’s chin and place a kiss on his cheeks.

“Go away, don’t give me that.” Lin Jingheng leaned back slightly. “Why didn’t you inform me beforehand and went up to the frontlines on your own?”

Lu Bixing played dumb: “What? Did Captain Turan not inform you when she called for engineers to do some emergency repairs….hey, no no no, why are you frowning so much like that? I can be worried about you too. If I can’t personally go up front and experience what supplies we’re running short on, how can I solve the problem, give timely support to you all, or even protect you?”

The word “protect” jabbed at Lin Jingheng’s heart a little as the commander stood speechless on the spot: “You really think I need you to protect me?”

“Of course, an on-site engineer that follows the navy is like the sheath of a sword; our job is to protect the soldiers on the frontlines.” Lu Bixing said, matter-of-factly, “hey, let’s talk it out from now on. Do you ever see me playing cold war with you when I get mad? Don’t you think you’re being unreasonable here?”

Lin Jingheng nodded expresionlessly and said: “I do, so what? Is this your first day knowing me?”

He lifted Lu Bixing’s collar up and moved him aside like an annoying log on the road, then continued walking on his own.

Lu Bixing caught the commander’s reddening ears and held in his laughter: “Do you even know which house it is? Why are you walking like you know where you’re going…okay, I guess you do know where you’re going.”

Even though it was the first time Lin Jingheng walked into this area, he didn’t get lost because he had already spotted the strange looking building towards the very end of the houses. The front yard was decorated with two dancing robots that guarded the gates like stone lions. The robots weren’t particularly good-looking, and it was unclear whether Lu Bixing had simply tossed random parts together or not; they seemed to have a strange ancient hip-hop feel to them.

Above the dancing robots was a wooden placard framed by artificial flowers that said: “The Home of Commander Lin and Engineer 001”.

Commander Lin’s steel-like heart that held out throughout the entire cold war broke down at this moment. The two dancing robots performed a strange samba before him as they leaned down with their robotic hands holding onto each other. Then, the robot on the left picked out a small flower petal from the bushes on the side and gave it to the commander on its metal palm. The robot on the right pulled its head out as if taking a hat off, then Lu Bixing’s voice recording played from its chest: “Welcome Home.”

Lu Bixing nudged over from behind and said shamelessly: “I had people move all your stuff over, you promised you were going to move in with me. My dad lives next door and yelled at me because I didn’t want to stay with him. I’ve been living with him for 20 years already, it’s time for a change.”

Lin Jingheng’s cold face finally softened as he let out a sigh in defeat.

Lu Bixing watched his expression change and immediately turned his tail up in the air and blew a whistle at the two dancing robots…unfortunately, the act this time was a little too excitable, and one of them ripped the limbs of its partner on accident. The robot with the broken arm immediately exploded a little in its chest as it short circuited into a broken record, playing “Welcome Home” endlessly. Lu Bixing quickly ran over and dragged his embarrassing little subordinates into repair.

Lin Jingheng: “……”

Mister Engineer 001 sure was an unreliable young man, were those mechs that he personally fixed before doing alright?

“The port for installing the digital butler at home is already ready, when Zhanlu comes in he can automatically connect…oh right, where is Zhanlu?

“On the mech,” Lin Jingheng said, “I’m dropping you home right now, I’ll need to leave soon. I think I have to get in touch with Ankur, I feel like he…hmph.”

He was pushed onto the sofa by Lu Bixing before he could finish.

Lin Jingheng wrapped his arm around the young man out of instinct and sunk into the sofa. The sofa was made from a special kind of transformable material that could adjust its hardness according to the seated position of the master. If the person sitting on it was sitting upright, the sofa would turn into a hard surface; if the person was rolling on it, it would turn into a soft waterbed and warp around the person like a seamless burrito.

Lu Bixing: “Where did you say you were going?”

Lin Jingheng responded sternly: “To the frontlines, I need to arrange a security post at the border.”

Lu Bixing’s eyes narrowed slightly as he licked his lips. He leaned down and gently bit the fringe covering the commander’s eyes and swiped it to the side. The sound of his breathing fell into the commander’s ears as a familiar yet strange sensation swept through Lu Bixing’s body: “Say it again, where are you going?”

Lin Jingheng: “Stop messing around, I have to…”

Lu Bixing leaned in and licked the commander’s lips the moment Lin Jingheng opened his mouth. Lin Jingheng held his breath instinctively and felt a strange shock through his nerves, poking into his body from his lips, almost instantly numbing his whole body.

Lu Bixing looked at him with a mischievous smile: “Please mister, can you just spare a night for me out of your busy schedule? My medical report says I’m severely lacking the essential vitamin Lin Jingheng from my body, and if I don’t take it soon it would be life-threatening.”

Commander Lin had never in his life faced this kind of threat, and before he could even build up an effective defense, he was already defeated.

He very much felt the need for the Eighth Galaxy to pass a law banning unnecessary cravings for a spoiled child.

The battle near the border of the Eighth Galaxy stopped temporarily. The night of Milky Way City was gentle and quiet. People leaving from work were slowly making their way home from the plaza; even the small merchant shops on the streetside were closing up as the merchants chatted on their way home. Lu Xin’s stone statue watched them quietly from the plaza; there was a row of flowers beneath the statue that were left by people in memory of the lives lost on planet Egret. The stone eyes of the late commander looked out to the direction where the sun of the Eighth Galaxy rested and rose every day.

Three days later, Lin Jingheng signed off on the completed plan of the frontline security post. Before he could even investigate Ankur, the old general himself tossed a ball to to the Eighth Galaxy from the Seventh Galaxy—

“Commander, they sent us a request for a long-distance connection in hopes to connect into the Eighth Galaxy internal network. They want to build a relationship with us. The Central Militia of the Seventh Galaxy even sent an official letter requesting a truce.”

Lin Jingheng lifted an eyebrow.