Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 136

Chapter 136 – If You Don’t Ask, I Won’t Tell You

“General Turan, rumor has it that the Expedition Team ran into the Union Navy this trip out of the wormhole. What exactly is the situation like outside? Can we expect to reconnect with the Union in the future? Will the Eighth Galaxy return to the Union? Do we still face the risk of encountering hostile armed fleets outside of the galaxy?”

“Your news sources are quite up to date, it seems like some of our scientists on the Expedition Team need some extra training in privacy protection.” Turan smiled confidently toward the camera. “Regarding the situation outside of the galaxy, we are still analyzing with our strategy team. Please be assured that regardless of which direction we will head toward in the future, the safety and freedom of the Eighth Galaxy will always remain our top priority. Also, it seems that the chances of foreign galactic fleets passing through the wormhole in numbers large enough to create a threat to the Eighth Galaxy is very slim, so please remain calm.”

“General Turan, we’ve heard that the Prime Minister had openly exposed a piece of very shocking news in front of the Union Troops. There are lots of rumors and gossip surrounding the incident right now, will the government be releasing any official statements on it?”

“The Prime Minister and Expedition Team are currently reorganizing and resting after the trip. Since it is a natural wormhole area, I’m sure everyone understands the dangers and risks of this trip, so please be patient with us. The Eighth Galaxy Government values transparency in our actions; any important information and news will be made public as soon as we finish reorganizing.”

“General Turan, we’ve heard that Commander Lin…”

Poisson stared at Turan handling the reporters left and right with ease for half an hour with no signs of irritation and nudged at the Captain of the First Squadron next to him: “Hey, remember? That one time when she caused so many issues during her break that people complained to the Military Council. The Silver Fortress saw a flood of reporters after that, and she said right in front of everyone…”

The Captain of the First Squadron, Lee Frank, handed him an Eighth Galaxy-grown cigarette: “Try it—right, she said ‘I’m unable to make a statement because Commander told me to stop talking nonsense, how about I strip right in front of everyone instead?’”

Poisson took the cigarette and shook his head. The smile on his face disappeared as he said: “Things and people all have changed. Now that I think about it, all of those days in the past were the good old days–I’m thinking Commander plans on staying in the Eighth Galaxy, what do you think?”

Lee fell silent for a few moments before he answered: “Since the First Squadron answered to his summons, we’ll follow him to the end.”

“The Eighth Galaxy declared independence from the Union; in the old days, we’d call them ‘pirates.’” Poisson gave him a long stare. “So what are we right now? Is Commander really planning on betraying the Union? If we were to engage in a crossfire one day, it would be a battle between two states; are we going to raise our cannons at the people we once protected?”

“Our generation may not have to have that kind of mental burden of being unable to fight against the Union because we were once part of them. The Union’s gone through over a decade of unrest, I’m sure they don’t want to make more enemies. The portals in the Eighth Galaxy are all cut off, nobody wants to cause unnecessary trouble; besides, if that individual really is Commander Lu Xin’s son, the Union would also be careful around him in respect to the Central Militias. The best case scenario would be that everyone lives in peace and maintains their boundaries. We can all pretend to be diplomatic and friendly on the outside to fight off common enemies while minding our own businesses in the dark.” Lee said, “If we can achieve that, I’d much rather stay here.”

Poisson looked up at him.

“The Union had always felt too gloomy and heavy to me over these years, it’s tiring to simply stay beside those people.” Lee continued, “The Eighth Galaxy is different…I feel like a place that had once been buried in the flames of war and natural disasters, then finally forced to cut off their own portals into an isolated land–it’s a miracle that it didn’t turn into a cold military state. It didn’t turn into a hub of ‘space pirates’; they’re even willing to throw money into planetary anti-missile systems and galactic expeditions. This shows that there is vitality here, the legendary vitality of the survivors.”

At the end of the great Age of Exploration, a nihilistic galactic sociologist introduced the theory of survivors.

He said: “Since the ancient times when mankind stepped on the grasslands and walked out of the woods, they conquered their surroundings: lands, earth, and now the universe. Today, we climbed to the peak of history; from now on, we will either decline as a civilization or walk along the edge at the top of the mountain. Every little invention and every little reform will create groundbreaking changes to human life. The dimensions of change will grow more profound, its impact will grow wider; yet the fragility and crooked nature of mankind will forever remain for as long as we live. We are all madmen carrying fatal weapons in our hands as destroying the world and our own civilization become increasingly simple. We will continue to search in darkness; nobody will know if the next step will lead us to heaven or hell.

“However, there is an incredible vitality that exists within our species that allows us to once again sprout from a wasteland. When the world begins to sink into destruction, the few ‘survivors’ of mankind will be chosen by this mysterious force of life; they will carry the unbearable pains of history, walk down the path of thorns, and continue the legacy of mankind.”

“That’s right,” Poisson answered in a mumble, “they even kept Commander Lu’s Pledge of Freedom here–did you hear anything from Commander yet?”

This was a well-known habit of Lin Jingheng; when the Silver Ten was gathered, he preferred having the more reliable people on the team to pass on his orders for him. If it wasn’t Poisson Young from the Third Squadron, it would normally be Lee Frank from the First Squadron; he didn’t really like giving attention to the rest of the troublemakers.

“Oh, right, I just got a message from him. Commander told us to take a three-day break to reorganize,” Lee said. “He suggests that we take a tour around the Eighth Galaxy during this time and already asked Turan to arrange everything for us–although your brother sure shares the same sentiment as him on this aspect. The Commander hasn’t even officially announced for us to leave our posts and he’s already in tourist mode.”

“I swear, that obnoxious dumbass Thoma…” Poisson shoved the cigarette in his mouth and forcefully stopped himself from complaining. Then, as if he suddenly thought of something, turned around and asked, “Oh by the way, don’t you think Commander’s relationship with that Prime Minister Lu is a little suspicious?”

The topic of their gossip, Lin Jingheng, was currently standing inside the kitchen with a grim face. He pulled out a long spindle-like object with steel wires covering the top from the hands of a robot; he couldn’t make out what this tool was for, but judging from the shape of it, he concluded that it had some blending function and carefully placed it inside the small pot boiling with tea leaves.

A robotic arm slowly peeked out of the wall. This almighty digital butler watched quietly for a while before finally asking: “Sir, what are you doing to the tea?”

“Increasing the speed of extraction.” Lin Jingheng scanned the fire under the pot with his personal device without lifting his head. After comparing the strength of the fire with the standard recipe, a small red line flashed on his personal device and warned him: “fire too strong.”

Lin Jingheng “oh’ed” and lowered the temperature. His personal device once again scanned the fire and displayed another line of blue text: “fire too weak.”

Lin Jingheng: “……”

What kind of garbage is this?

Zhanlu said: “The recipe book in your personal device is the latest edition of ‘The Gourmet Guide’ and requires specific kitchenware. The tools in the kitchen are rarely being used and have not been updated for over a decade, so they lack many new functions. Shall I update the system of the kitchenware for you?”

Lin Jingheng thought about it for a moment and concluded that the concept of cooking all boiled down to heating up food. As long as there was fire, kitchenware wasn’t important; he waved off Zhanlu’s suggestion.

Zhanlu once again interrupted: “Also, sir, that tool in your hand is called a whisk or egg-beater.”

Lin Jingheng’s hand froze momentarily as he responded with a straight face: “Fool, you thought I didn’t know? Mixing thoroughly will ensure it’s boiling evenly so that the flavor can be fully extracted, you have issues with that?”

Zhanlu: “I don’t, your creativity sure has a flavor of humor, hahaha.”

Lin Jingheng turned off the stove gravely as if he was pondering the fate of humanity–then poured the dark red tea through a filter into a cup.

Zhanlu couldn’t help but comment again: “Sir, you should use a finer filter for this. The type you’re using right now can’t properly filter out liquids.”

Lin Jingheng thought, This is just a damn filtering net, why are there more gears than a missile launcher? That’s simply ridiculous. Yet he still needed to pretend he knew what he was doing in front of Zhanlu and responded nonchalantly: “I know, I’m going to filter it twice.”

Zhanlu continued nit-picking without reading the room: “But increasing the number of ineffective filters will not…”

“Are you done yet?” Lin Jingheng cut him off, “Why do you have so many damn suggestions? You think you can do whatever you want now that I can’t shut you up?”

When Lu Bixing ran down the stairs in a frenzy, water was still dripping from his hair after his shower. He didn’t even bother drying it before he rushed down the stairs, saw Lin Jingheng’s back in the kitchen, and finally let out a sigh of relief.

Lin Jingheng heard the sounds of this young man rushing down and turned his head for a quick glance. He then dragged the nosy Zhanlu out of the wall and tossed it onto the sneaky little Popcorn sticking its head out the door. Popcorn was born a timid soul uncharacteristic for a snake; after the shock of having the robot arm thrown on it, the poor snake wiggled out in fear with Zhanlu on its body.

The corner of Lu Bixing’s lips lifted slightly as he held onto the railings and sat on the staircase. He watched Lin Jingheng through the railings and felt as if he was floating on soft clouds, dreamy and unreal like he could fly away from the shackles of Qiming’s gravity at any moment.

After the effects of relaxant number 6 completely wore off, Lu Bixing quickly recollected his overflowing emotions. The ability to maintain a collected image despite experiencing a nuclear explosion in his heart wasn’t a skill that could be easily adapted overnight, nor was it a habit that could be changed at will.

There was supposed to be a whole river of emotions he wanted to express after this reunion, but the outlet for this overflow was too narrow for everything to pass through. The raging tides of unresolved feelings were trapped in this dyke, unable to be formulated into proper words as Lu Bixing let these surging emotions drum inside his heart.

And for some reason, he realized he couldn’t bring himself to ask where Lin Jingheng had gone all those years and what he did.

Lu Bixing carefully rubbed his hands together, attempting to warm up his cold limbs, and thought: Why am I so afraid to ask?

He had grown used to examining his own thoughts and feelings over the years; if he didn’t ask, nobody else would dare question anything. The nosy seniors would ask about the naive young man’s struggles, but nobody dared to chase after the Prime Minister and ask what his personal thoughts were. From Lu Bixing’s own experiences, no matter how painful and agonizing his words were, he still had to listen to them whether he wanted to or not.

If someone was able to feel that there were words in their hearts that needed to be expressed but chose to ignore them, these unspoken words would often come back to haunt them in unexpected ways. For example, they tempted Lu Bixing with the dangerous possibility of creating a clone.

Yet at this very moment, he instinctively felt hesitant to bring up the topic of the last sixteen years.

When Lu Bixing lived in a dream, he’d mastered a new skill. Because he knew that the person in his dreams would vanish the moment he woke up, he learned to let go of these short fever dreams but enjoyed them while they lasted as if he was counting down every day to the apocalypse. All of his suppressed thoughts were released upon this dream, like the past with no restraints.

Yet after the ecstatic realization that his dream had finally come true, he discovered that this skill he honed over the years had also vanished. There were too many words he couldn’t say, too many emotions he couldn’t express; a whole body full of filthy desires and love-hate intertwined in the hands of fear until they devoured his heart. The chaotic forces inside him tugged on his soul and pulled him to hell and back uncontrollably to the point where the thought of self-destruction seemed almost tempting.

As he faced his internal struggles, Lu Bixing slowly turned his head up as a cup was shoved into his face.

“Freshly brewed milk tea,” Lin Jingheng reached a hand out and ran his fingers through Lu Bixing’s wet hair. He carefully brushed a small strand of hair covering the young man’s forehead back. The blisters on the commander’s hands zapped Lu Bixing like a small electric shock. “Try it.”

Of course, how tasty could a tea brewed with an egg-beater be? Anyone with normal taste buds that was used to drinking freshly brewed tea could tell that this was simply an awful-tasting cup of milk with extra water in the mix.

Yet Lu Bixing’s brain skipped the process of actually tasting the ‘milk tea’ and automatically offered a delicious response to the milk water. He carefully packed up all his insecurities in his heart and responded casually: “A man like you who lives off nutrient packs actually knows how to make this?”

Lin Jingheng didn’t smile and stared at Lu Bixing’s face.

Lu Bixing: “What’s up?”

Lin Jingheng pulled his hand that was still holding the cup over to his mouth and gave the ‘tea’ a sip, then frowned in response: “I’ll let Zhanlu brew another pot for you.”

Lu Bixing’s fingers holding onto the handle of the cup tightened: “Wait, it’s okay.”

He paused awkwardly as he attempted to trace back his memories and reclaim that shamelessly smooth tongue of his: “Even if you give me a cup of cold water, it’ll automatically turn sweet as honey in my hands. I…”

Lu Bixing stared at the man before him and was suddenly at a loss of words as he stopped abruptly, the impending awkwardness in the air stretching silently between them. Lin Jingheng’s gaze looked into his eyes with great patience, like the countless times he had attempted to break through the signal barrier on that isolated galactic prison.

Lu Bixing felt pressured by that stare and turned his head away subconsciously.

“You can’t remember what to say now?” Lin Jingheng stood at the bottom of the staircase and leaned downwards slightly. “Here, let me show you. If your disastrous partner ever gets the sudden urge to handmake a bunch of awful food to force feed you, then pins you down to ask how it tastes, this is what you’d normally do–”

The next moment, he took another sip of that ‘milk water’ in his mouth, pulled Lu Bixing in front of him, and force fed it to the young man mouth-to-mouth. Lu Bixing’s eyes widened, his pupils contracted slightly in shock, and he downed that mouthful of milk water.

Lin Jingheng wiped the corner of his mouth with a finger and continued: “Then you’ll tell me, ‘taste it for yourself and tell me how it is’– get it now?”

Lu Bixing was speechless for a short while. He took in a breath of air and choked on the milk tea that was still rolling down his throat, then turned around and coughed violently.

Lin Jingheng took the cup from his hands and knocked on the railings of the staircase. The digital butler that roamed the household reached out a robotic hand from the staircase and took away the cup. Lin Jingheng pondered for a few moments before he made his way up the stairs and sat down beside Lu Bixing. He grabbed the young man’s wrist, pulled up both of their personal devices and set up a special positioning program.

Lu Bixing was finally done coughing out that milk tea when he heard a light beeping sound from his personal device, where a small notice popped up: “One-way positioning function installed successfully.”

Soon after, a small map popped up from his wrist. A small red dot indicating Lin Jingheng’s location appeared beside him; a gentle touch to the red dot could let him see Lin Jingheng’s surroundings through the commander’s personal device.

Lu Bixing was shocked: “Wait, you……”

Normally, only a parent or legal guardian would set up a GPS tracking function on their personal devices with a child under the age of six so that they could track the whereabouts of their child at any given time. However, even that was usually a two-way tracking setup between the parent and child. The only place a one-way tracking would be used would be in a prison; it was like an invisible shackle for prison guards to track their prisoners.

Lin Jingheng pressed on his hand: “If you don’t want to see me, you can turn it off.”

Possessiveness was like a demon living inside of Lu Bixing’s heart, howling desperately through the steel bars of its cage. It was a ferocious beast with ugly desires; Lu Bixing was locking up this beast with his own body as the prison, he couldn’t afford to let it out of its cage to hurt others even if it was ripping him apart from the inside.

Lu Bixing felt like a demon slayer that was chaining down this monster with all of his energy, his hands already bloodied by the restless struggles inside his heart. Then, a single hand reached into the cage and lightly tapped the head of that monster as it fed the hungry creature a piece of fresh meat.

Lu Bixing stared dumbly as that monster finally lowered its head and laid on the ground as it slowly quieted down for the first time.

“I knew there was a natural wormhole area near the Heart of the Rose, and I’m assuming you had your guesses about it too. I passed through that place when I first came to the Eighth Galaxy.” Lin Jingheng said, “But it wasn’t until sixteen years later that I had the chance to return and try my luck; do you want to know what happened after the Seventh and Eighth Galaxy ambush?”

Lu Bixing’s eyes glistened slightly in excitement.

“If you want to listen, then ask,” Lin Jingheng didn’t hesitate to make his demand. “If you don’t ask, I won’t tell you.”