Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 113

Chapter 113 – Can’t Catch the Thug if You Don’t Sell Yourself Out

Within this official negotiation between the two galaxies, the Seventh Galaxy Central Militia under Ankur presented themselves as the outsiders seeking a truce and apologized for blocking the public terminal last time. They gave a very thorough explanation for their actions, from the details of the Glory Troops leaking out evidence of Lin Jingheng being in the Eighth Galaxy to the Union suspecting him of working with other pirate organizations.

“Ankur said that the Seventh Galaxy Militia was only following orders, they didn’t realize that the AUS pirates were also closing in when they blocked the terminals, which almost cost thousands of lives.” Lin Jingheng reached his hand out and opened up the digital reader as he spoke to the Prime Minister, “They said they want to repay us for the trouble they caused.”

The Prime Minister had just gotten back from hearing the monthly financial report and was drowning in concern over the cost of military supplies. As he sat in anxiety and suddenly heard the word “repay,” the old man’s eyes lit up instantly and he asked: “What kind of repayment?”

As the director of the special advisory board, Lu Bixing cleared his throat loudly on the side to remind the Prime Minister to watch his posture.

The Prime Minister pulled back his gaze and quickly put his rusty brain to work: “Uh…I don’t think this is an excuse from him. While they did block off our terminals, they didn’t actually fire at us and even retreated to kick the butts of the pursuing AUS when they left–by the way, did they not mention….why they suddenly retreated even though they were ordered to stay with the Union?”

“They did. Ankur claimed that he only wanted to kick the AUS out of the Seventh Galaxy and didn’t care about working with the Union. He was only being performative.” Lin Jingheng said lightly, “and just as he was blocking our roads, the former director of the Hummingbird Fortress Yelvich committed suicide. His death leaked proof that the Eden Committee set up Commander Lu Xin’s death as well as the handful of direct evidence they falsified. From illegally using Eden to trigger anger among the citizens to tipping the scales and influencing bias during the national jury, there was more than enough proof. Most Generals stationed in the Central Militias were former subordinates of Lu Xin, so they immediately announced their secession from the Union. Ankur was one of them, so he was more than happy to join his old comrades and retreated.”

Lin Jingheng soon realized that everyone in the meeting room that was over middle age was staring blankly at him after he finished his explanation.

The Prime Minister sat dumbstruck for a few moments until he mumbled: “So…it wasn’t that they did him wrong, they purposely set him up…but why? What kind of crimes did he commit for people to want him dead so badly?”

Monoeyed Hawk slammed on the table, got out of his seat and walked out.

Lin Jingheng’s gaze lowered; it was unclear whether he was looking at the corner or Monoeyed Hawk’s coat or simply dozing off.

He didn’t answer and fell silent along with the crowd for a moment. The commander then spoke up in his signature emotionless voice: “My apologies for bringing up all this clownery in the Union.”

Lu Bixing was the only person in the room that was young enough to not have any personal relationship to Lu Xin but could have a say in the meeting. He noticed that everyone else was busy swallowing their complicated emotions and quickly spoke up to change the topic: “Without any other sources of information for now and judging by the contents of the letter, I think it makes sense. But what does this General Ankur want from us?”

“Spatially speaking, the communication between the Seventh and Eighth Galaxy is more closely connected than the Seventh and Sixth Galaxies. The other side of the Sixth Galaxy is also the territory of the AUS, so Ankur can’t possibly turn towards that direction. Now that the Union is broken up by warfare, he’s attempting to appeal to us to become allies.” Lin Jingheng said, “His offer included but is not exclusive to the connection between the Seventh and Eighth Galaxy’s internal networks, opening up both galaxies’ terminals, signing Military cooperation contracts, and rebuilding intergalactic trade. To show his sincerity, he even mentioned that he was willing to offer needed supplies to the Eighth Galaxy.”

Lu Bixing asked suspiciously: “Why is he so generous – is this charity work?”

“That’s not the case. He said he can give us a free set of medical equipment as an apology for blocking our terminals. However, if we want anything else, it will be seen as an intergalactic loan with interest that can be discussed in detail later. I will say this: the interest rate during wartime will not be low, but we can slowly repay it once the Eighth Galaxy’s manufacturing returns to standard. Of course, the supplies will be limited to public services only, they won’t provide military resources.”

Lu Bixing nodded slowly.

Interest not being low in diplomatic language essentially meant an extremely high interest rate; however, asking for such high rates was not uncommon in a time like this. Ankur’s conditions were still within reason and clearly stated what he wanted yet were frank about his demands, displaying his trust towards Lin Jingheng and the Eighth Galaxy in a roundabout way. If this “government” of the Eighth Galaxy broke down in a few days, these loans and interests talk would all become a joke.

In other words, there was nothing wrong with these demands.

“That sounds rather believable, at least more reliable than a free lunch,” Lu Bixing turned to ask Lin Jingheng, “what do you think?”

Lin Jingheng shot him a glance.

Lu Bixing only then noticed that he asked an unnecessary question. The commander had already gone from the head of the house responsible for hunting food for the family to a bankrupted ex-CEO.

The ‘business’ of stealing from pirates made some profit in the beginning, but as the war grew more fierce and complicated, it became almost impossible to sustain this lifestyle. The Eighth Galaxy could only rely on their incomplete and new military factories to supply necessary resources. Yet military factories were like a black hole for funding that collectively ate up a large portion of the government budget along with the training required for all the newly enlisted soldiers.

As a bankrupt business owner, the fact that Lin Jingheng didn’t immediately jump on this offer as a new source of income already explained his opinion on the matter.

The Prime Minister asked: “Commander Lin doesn’t seem to trust in Ankur’s offer, is it because this person isn’t trustworthy?”

“I’ve never had much contact with Ankur personally, so I can’t say much. He was transferred out of the Council very early, and then made his way to the Seventh Galaxy Central Militia. He’s never caused any issues these last few years nor made any significant accomplishments. My only impression was that he seemed to have a good social network, so this will depend on what the Prime Minister thinks.” Lin Jingheng paused before adding on, “However, I tend to look at the bad side of others, so I have two things I will point out for you all to think about–First, we were in an emergency when Ankur came out and blocked the terminal. We’ve attempted to request communication with him multiple times with no response; second, if everything he said is true, then we’re extremely lucky. I’ve personally never had much experience with being lucky in any way.”

“Good luck” was also a strange concept to the people of the Eighth Galaxy; everyone in the room was a veteran in the department of bad luck. The crowd collectively stared greedily at this gift from the heavens until Lin Jingheng poured the harsh reality over their heads; their minds clouded with concern and they could only adjourn the meeting with heavy hearts.

While nobody else was around, Lu Bixing quickly made his way over towards Lin Jingheng and kindly gave the commander massages on his shoulders and legs: “Here’s a reward for our Commander that worked hard running between the capitol and the frontlines.”

Lin Jingheng was still thinking about Lu Xin’s case; he wondered how that man would feel if he found out that his innocence was proven 30 years after his death under these circumstances, and how great of an impact it made for the war. The commander’s gaze softened as he turned towards Lu Bixing, he lifted a hand up against the fringe on the young man’s forehead and gently touched the corner of those bright eyes….only to crush that last bit of kindness after five seconds as Lin Jingheng grabbed Lu Bixing’s hand and said: “Where are you touching?”

Lu Bixing quickly turned to hold the commander’s hand and said: “Don’t worry about it, Commander. Didn’t we already set up the explosives in the portals? This time we can remote control the explosives and won’t need to sail over to fire a missile. If Ankur is really up to no good, we can physically block him out of the galaxy, and then you’ll completely be my….”

Lin Jingheng shot a glance at him.

Lu Bixing corrected himself without hesitation: “….be one of us in the Eighth Galaxy. We can run without paying back, isn’t that exciting?”

Lin Jingheng felt extremely conflicted as Lu Xin’s own son talked about wanting to isolate himself from human society all day and now run away from debt, planning on dropping the ball on Lu Xin’s ex-subordinates without guilt.

Why couldn’t there be a proper certification to becoming a parent? These people couldn’t control the child they gave birth to, clearly there needed to be some regulations.

“Professor Lu, is this something an educator like you should say?”

Professor Lu laid his arms out: “You can’t catch the wolf without bait, likewise you can’t catch the thug without selling yourself out.”

The thug in question loosened up his shirt collar and said: “Leave.”

Days had gone by without a response from the Eighth Galaxy, and Ankur once again sent a message to announce that he wanted to personally visit the Eighth Galaxy.

Lin Jingheng responded courteously to his request, but gave a list of demands: military mechs shall not sail into the Eighth Galaxy, the visiting starship shall not carry any arms including guns, security guards shall not exceed ten persons total, and everyone must go through security after landing on the capital planet.

Ankur almost threw a fit the moment he received this clearly unfriendly response. In the heat of the moment, he wanted to bypass the official spokesperson of the Seventh Galaxy to say he will arrive at the Eighth Galaxy completely naked and cleanly shaved, in case the delicate young Commander Lin would get offended by his intimidating chest hair–of course, this vulgar message was immediately shot down by the Seventh Galaxy. The Seventh Galaxy Central Militia eventually responded that they would gladly accept the invitation and follow the requests of the Eighth Galaxy, and were looking forward to meeting with the government.

It wasn’t a time of peace, so negotiations didn’t take long to settle; four days later, Ankur arrived all by himself with only two secretaries to take care of his daily life and paperwork.

Even though Ankur himself was quite crude and thick-skinned, he was very careful and thorough during work. When he arrived in the Eighth Galaxy, he parked his own starship outside the border, gave all the medical supplies to the Eighth Galaxy Galactic Forces, and personally asked to step onto the Prime Minister’s starship. He didn’t rush to Qiming the moment he stepped inside the Eighth Galaxy and instead stopped by Cayley for half a day to pay his respects to the ex-capitol by placing a bouquet of flowers on the burnt land before returning to Milky Way City.

Back during the Union Parliament meetings, the Prime Minister had his share of experience with fake politicians. Meeting someone as sociable and sincere as Ankur gave him confidence to hold a smooth meeting with the Seventh Galaxy. The Prime Minister was very fond of Ankur’s bold personality and almost wanted to take him as a friend; if Lin Jingheng wasn’t right beside him watching the negotiations, he would have almost agreed to pay the Seventh Galaxy a visit himself.

The group very quickly and efficiently settled the negotiations with Ankur and Prime Minister Edward representing the Seventh and Eighth Galaxies respectively, signing the military cooperation treaty and the first loan supply contract. They agreed to send out a fleet of escorts from each galaxy and build an intergalactic supply station near the border of the two galaxies as the main connection between the two galaxies’ terminals.

The Prime Minister then arranged some free time to give Ankur a tour of Milky Way City as they both strolled towards the central plaza.

Ankur stared at Lu Xin’s large stone statue dumbfounded as he rubbed his eyes and spoke to the Prime Minister with a smile on his face: “There used to be one of these on Wolto as well, but the statue got taken down later…this…is this Commander Lu Xin? I’m not mistaking it, right?”

The Prime Minister placed his hand on the general’s shoulder.

Ankur nodded quietly; his facial muscles stiffened as if he was biting his lips harshly, then opened his mouth a few times in an attempt to say something. Yet nothing came out of his mouth. His head raised and lowered multiple times as if he didn’t know how to face his former boss until his eyes grew red, he stood still under that statue wordlessly for five whole minutes.

Everyone that had once followed Lu Xin’s footsteps and joined in the battle to fight for the Eighth Galaxy stood in silence with him.

Monoeyed Hawk felt his eyes itch and walked to the side as he hid himself in the corner with a cigarette in his mouth. He turned only to see Lin Jingheng watching emotionlessly on the side with a human-formed Zhanlu standing beside him like a bodyguard. Lin Jingheng and Ankur didn’t get along very well and had already sparked a small disagreement during the negotiation for supplies, so he didn’t actively participate in the escort and only stayed along the sidelines to keep an eye on Ankur.

Monoeyed Hawk said: “Since we haven’t blown up the portals yet, we still need to have some foreign relations. The Seventh Galaxy Central Militia should at least be more reliable than those pirates and dogs of the Union.”

Lin Jingheng: “Why do you think he’s still alive and standing here?”

Monoeyed Hawk answered in exhaustion: “Say, are you so used to pretending to be a villain that you’ve forgotten how to be a good person?”

Lin Jingheng relaxed his stature a bit to lean on the wall by the small alleyway and crossed his arms: “There needs to be someone who kills the fun and someone who takes the overly cautious route. Besides, we still don’t have an answer to the two suspicions I pointed out last time–Zhanlu, send a message to the Prime Minister’s personal device. Tell him to bring it up to Ankur that we want to look at the full report leaked out after Yelvich’s death, not a summary. Or…didn’t he want to connect the Seventh and Eighth Galaxy’s networks? Ask him to give us a code to connect with other galaxies.”

Monoeyed Hawk asked suddenly: “Where’s that little rascal Lu Bixing?”

“He’s setting up a satellite inspection for the refugees by the Prime Minister’s request.”

Monoeyed Hawk’s eyes narrowed as he looked towards Ankur’s back and said in a low voice: “Everyone knows what Lu Xin’s stone statue means to them, he’s the only one that doesn’t.”

“I was just about to bring this up to you.” Lin Jingheng’s gaze scanned the surroundings quietly, and after making sure nobody else was around, he lowered his voice, “Zhanlu, protected file number 081, the data result of his brain scan…”

Monoeyed Hawk realized what he was saying and turned his head over.

Lin Jingheng: “Destroy it.”

Zhanlu asked: “Sir, once I destroy this file, I will no longer remember that I have scanned…”

Lin Jingheng: “I know, trash it.”

The instant he confirmed the order, lines of code flashed inside Zhanlu’s human-like pupils as the AI stood still on the spot.

Monoeyed Hawk looked at Lin Jingheng in shock.

“From now on, only you and I know about this, there will not be a third person that finds out.” Lin Jingheng’s voice was almost a whisper as he said this

Monoeyed Hawk’s gaze swam between Ankur and Lin Jingheng: “You’re saying you don’t trust…”

Lin Jingheng shook his head: “I’ve been thinking about something for the past few days.”

“What?”

“Back when I was investigating the underground terminals from the Eighth Galaxy outside the Union, I found an illegal transfer portal Lu Xin left near a small planetary belt codenamed ‘surprise’. This portal wasn’t recorded on any of the internal documents within the Union…not even on Zhanlu.” Lin Jingheng’s whisper was almost gentle as he explained, “When the Ten Great Swords were first being designed, the mental threshold required to use them was set extremely high and only very few people were able to meet the standard. Zhanlu had always been created for him, and when he rose up to the ranks of Top Commander, Zhanlu was upgraded to include a genetic lock for him that fully turned Zhanlu into his personal mech…so who erased Zhanlu’s records? If he did it himself, then why? Who was he trying to hide from?”

Monoeyed Hawk’s brain couldn’t follow this train of thought and he forgot to tap the ashes of his cigarette off.

“I can feel that Lu Xin lost trust towards a lot of people before he died.” Lin Jingheng’s gaze stared deeply toward Ankur’s figure. The men under the statue had finished paying their respects to their idol and were about to make their way back to the Executive Building of the central government with heavy hearts. Lin Jingheng gestured for Zhanlu to follow them and continued, “I don’t trust anyone. I can cooperate, but will keep my reserves–old man, unless someone is dead, you can’t make any decisive conclusions about anyone.”

Monoeyed Hawk trembled slightly, unable to give a response.

After signing the contracts and treaties, Ankur received an emergency summons from the Seventh Galaxy on the same day about the AUS forces within the galaxy making a move. He quickly took off and left the Eighth Galaxy before he could stop by for dinner to take care of the situation at home.

Lin Jingheng asked Turan to escort him to the border and watched as Ankur left with his own men back towards the Seventh Galaxy.

Ankur threw all the paperwork to his secretary then ordered them away as he claimed to need some rest.

Then, using a special passcode, he connected to the City of Angels.

“The Eighth Galaxy already completed the move of their citizens, and based on the deployment of guards around the border, I’m guessing they already set up the explosives in the portals. Lin Jingheng’s a careful and meticulous man, we can’t give him the chance to close off the Eighth Galaxy. Secretary Wang, it seems like we’re going to need to go harder this time, what can you guys give me? I won’t accept a blank check.”