Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 140

Chapter 140 – Not Even the Renowned Silver Ten Had Seen this Coming

In Lu Bixing’s memories, aside from the one time the Engineering Department came over to help him fix Zhanlu, his house had never been this crowded.

With the wheelchair resting in the middle of the already limited space in the living room, the entire space suddenly felt jam-packed. Even though the sofa still had empty seats, Commander Lin’s unique way of welcoming guests had him sitting at the center of the sofa like a king on a throne. As for the others–minus Doctor Hardin who couldn’t stand, nobody dared to step near the sofa.

The Captains of the SIlver Ten all stood in a clean row behind their commander, backs straight as a paved road. Their intimidating stance sent out an air of pressuring force that made Lu Bixing feel as if they would walk out the door the next second to commit murder.

White grabbed onto Popcorn to make sure it didn’t slither away while he sat on the tall stool by the bar, whispering to the Captain of the Silver Ten closest to his corner behind everyone’s backs.

The moment Lu Bixing opened the door, these top guards behind their commander stiffened as their gazes all turned onto the Prime Minister like bright spotlights on the stage. Then before he could comment, all of these spotlights saluted him in unison: “Prime Minister Lu!”

Prime Minister Lu had no other choice and could only force a friendly smile onto his face. He heard his own voice roll out of his mouth as his teeth ground through at least two whole layers of enamel before he finally said: “Welcome.”

Lin Jingheng originally planned to bring Doctor Hardin to meet a certain someone to allow him to continue studying the biochip; what he didn’t expect was that shit Thomas Young inviting himself right in without looking at the mood. This shameless Captain virtually glued himself onto his boss and pestered to visit, even calling his comrades over, ruining Lin Jingheng’s plan to invite a single guest into this whole mess within a matter of seconds.

Commander Lin was someone that already found slow reptiles in his home annoying, let alone those lawless hooligans. He already mentally prepared a hundred slippers to welcome Thomas and the others, wanting only to ask them to tour around the place a bit before sending them off after quenching their curiosities, and of course the plan was once again ruined when he saw Lu Bixing’s face the moment the Prime Minister opened the door.

Lin Jingheng was sitting on the hot seat at the last second and decided to cross his legs as he leaned back into a more comfortable position with no plans of shooing away these uninvited guests anymore.

“Here, take a seat. Why are you all standing like you’re in time-out?” Lu Bixing first saved Popcorn from White’s hands, then scanned the Silver Ten in his house. When his gaze fell on Turan, the two quickly dropped their eyes from each other awkwardly.

None of the Silver Ten dared to move.

Lu Bixing lowered his head to look at the king of their house, unsure of what to say.

Lin Jingheng: “Right, all of you, take a seat.”

“Attention,” Lee said. “Sit!”

The Captains then surrounded the sofa and sat down together in the same position. They all lifted their heads up to look at Lu Bixing, making the latter feel as if he needed to prepare an impromptu speech for them.

The Silver Ten had followed Lu Xin before their current boss, and even though they weren’t as close to the late commander as Lu Xin’s own subordinate generals, they still maintained a good relationship with Lu Xin. So their impression of this Prime Minister who single-handedly carried multiple forces in his hand through the Heart of the Rose was relatively good.

Thomas pointed at the person beside him gleefully and introduced: “Hi Prime Minister, I’m the Captain of the Third Squadron Thomas Young. That one over there that copied my face is my younger brother Poisson. We may look similar but it’s not hard to tell us apart; the uglier one with a perpetual shit-eating face is the younger brother.”

Lu Bixing gave him an attentive nod in acknowledgement and thought: Oh, it’s the one that pesters the commander 24/7, the infamous first candidate for being laid off.

“And the guy beside him is the Captain of the First Squadron, Lee Frank. The First Squadron’s job is mostly information technology, so you better be careful of him from now on. There used to be this dumbass called Yevgenia back in the Union who clung onto the Committee and harassed our commander everyday; she finally stopped after multiple scandals made it to the headlines, and rumor had it that it was all thanks to the heroic deeds of Captain Lee here.”

Lin Jingheng turned to the Captain of the First Squadron in surprise: “You did that?”

“No,” Lee denied the deed, unfazed. “Prime Minister, what’s the Eighth Galaxy’s official definition of slander?”

Thomas clicked his tongue irritatedly. At the same time, another individual to the right of Lee stood up abruptly. From his looks, he was visibly shorter than his tall colleagues, but had a memorable large face with sharp features. He smiled courteously to reveal clean white teeth that looked almost frightening: “Let me introduce myself, I’m the Captain of the Tenth Squadron, Robert Bayer. My job ranges from ambushes, cutting off the tail, sneak raids, sneak attacks, to assassination.”

Thomas: “Right, it’s not like we ever need you out in the frontlines.”

Lu Bixing: “……”

He now kind of understood why Turan would bring up disbanding the Third Squadron to her boss back then; this Captain was a master of harassment.

“I’m the Captain of the Fourth Squadron, Anakin; you can just call me Kin.” The next individual that spoke seemed to be of a unique ancestral background. His hair was almost pitch-black that complimented his light brown skin, making him stand out quite a bit among the other pale galactic soldiers. He had naturally rounded and amourous eyes that carried a hint of kindness like his soft voice that sounded like a warm breath of wind. “I’m only a temporary Captain right now. The original Captain of our Squadron died during a pirate ambush; we used to be one of the main forces of the fleet, but unfortunately we have very few survivors today. I’m afraid we may be reassigned into other squadrons at this rate.”

This line was followed by a short silence in the room.

Lin Jingheng: “Don’t worry, we can rebuild the Fourth Squadron.”

Anakin’s gaze visibly softened as he looked towards Lin Jingheng, almost as if he was ready to consume the commander with his eyes.

Lu Bixing: “……”

This man looked all proper and respectable a second ago, but was clearly not who he presented himself as earlier!

“I’m Liu Yuanzhong of the Silver Sixth Squadron. If you forget my name, feel free to ask again; I’m used to it already.” The Captain of the Sixth Squadron immediately followed up as Thomas was about to open his mouth to interrupt, “The Sixth Squadron is also one of the main forces of the fleet, we weren’t picked up on the streets by Commander nor are we here to look pretty–but Commander, I’ve noticed that the Eighth Galaxy’s military industry is extremely advanced. Do we really need to raise a whole squad of mechanics that pretend they know what they were doing?”

Thomas shrugged nonchalantly: “Apparently it’s politically correct to target and bully the Third Squadron in that little groupie.”

The rest of the group virtually chanted back in unison: “We’re only bullying you.”

Thomas: “……”

Thankfully, the Captain of the Third Squadron had a heart big enough to take a joke; to put it bluntly, he was simply unapologetically shameless and didn’t even feel awkward about being put on the spot. Instead, he turned to Lu Bixing and said gleefully: “Peasants and commoners are all like that, they get all worked up when they see someone that’s more talented than them. Don’t worry about it, right, Prime Minister Lu? I’m sure you can understand–we’ve only met you once since we arrived. I’ve heard that you’ve been busy; so what’s up, did our commander also invite you over today?”

Lu Bixing: “……”

Everyone fell into an eerie silence after this as they turned their heads over to Poisson. The younger brother sat like a statue with a soulless expression on his face, pondering which recycling center would take his embarrassing older brother away for cheap.

Lin Jingheng lowered his head and covered up a slightly mischievous smile at the corner of his lips.

The Silver Ten was the unshakable symbol of Lin Jingheng’s reign in the Silver Fortress for 30 years, they were his arms and legs. Under the stares of these people, Lu Bixing felt as if he had suddenly returned to the starnight dome on Beijing-β where he was interrupted by the mafia boss before he could finish his speech to the students of his school. A thin layer of sweat appeared on his back as he forcefully remained calm before his audience, pretending he was unfazed by this interruption.

It was rather strange; perhaps it was because it was related to Lin Jingheng, those memories that he thought he had forgotten suddenly reappearing like pearls hiding under the water. An invisible string pulled them all together as he carefully tugged on the end of the string, revealing the line of pearls that even made the awkwardness in the room shine like jewels.

Zhanlu controlled the automatic dining cart into the living room while the robotic arm skillfully poured out tea for the guests–like a true AI that didn’t mind being put into this lowly position. Thomas thought he was smart and took this opportunity to tease the poor AI: “Hey Zhanlu, so you were called ‘Zhanlu’ back when you were a mech core, did you change your name to ‘Engineer 001’ now that you’ve moved on to be a digital butler? You sure are devoted to your job!”

Zhanlu handed him a cup of fruit tea: “I did not.”

Lu Bixing cleared his throat: “….I am ‘Engineer 001’.”

Thomas spat out his tea onto his shirt.

Lee quietly moved away from him in fear of being infected with stupidity.

Lu Bixing: “When Prime Minister Edward first built the new government, he didn’t have many people working under him. I was the one that established the Eighth Galaxy’s Engineering Department, so I used the title ‘001’ back then…”

Lu Bixing didn’t know how to continue when he realized that everyone was staring at him in a clear “nobody cares about your ID number in the Engineering Department, we’re here carrying the spirit of the Eighth Galaxy waiting for you to explain why this house is called ‘the home of Commander Lin and Engineer 001’” manner.

“I…” Lu Bixing choked on his own words when he looked into Lin Jingheng’s eyes. The commander lifted an eyebrow as if it was none of his business, a slightly playful look as he waited to see how this young man would explain himself. Lu Bixing stared into his eyes and felt he was suddenly enchanted by something deep within those pupils and blurted out without thinking: “……I waited sixteen years for this man.”

Lin Jingheng was taken aback for a moment as the hint of playfulness on his face disappeared.

Lu Bixing could hear his rapid heartbeat that drummed uncontrollably in his chest, almost a bit too noisy to his own ears.

He exhaled like he had been awoken from a nightmare; Turan, who had been strangely quiet throughout the whole time felt her eyes tear up at this scene.

Lin Jingheng let out a sigh and reached both his arms out at him: “Bixing, come here.”

Lu Bixing ignored him and grabbed onto Lin Jingheng’s collar, then under everyone’s shocked and fearful gaze, pressed a kiss to the commander’s lips.

Aside from Turan, none of these renowned Silver Ten Captains had seen this kind of absurdity and craned their heads around like a bunch of meerkats.

Anakin mumbled: “Should we find someone to keep an eye out and make sure our ex-Captain doesn’t crawl out of his grave?”

Bayer reached across Lee and tapped Thomas, who was stunned as if the whole world around him had collapsed. The Captain of the Tenth Squadron even hid a needle between his fingers and poked at Thomas, who then yelped in pain and jumped out of his head. Bayer nodded his head and told Lee regretfully: “Looks like we aren’t having a mass hallucination, Lee.”

White carefully pulled out a tissue and handed it to Turan. Doctor Hardin, who had been completely silent the whole time, let out a faint smile as his gaze wandered off into the distance.

Memories came and went during a life of 300 years; countless people lost their lives or betrayed their morals. They built their reputations, committed crimes; but when they recalled their deeds at old age, the only scenes that flashed in their minds were a still image or a few cutscenes from the past.

Hardin remembered that he used to be enamored by books when he was young. He was a bookworm that distanced himself from the outside world and would often spend his day reading books in a quiet corner all by himself. Most children his age didn’t speak with him, only Woolf would always interrupt his reading. The young Doctor Hardin would be reading his book while a young Chief Woolf would pretend he was talking to a black hole and rant about his life in a strange harmony.

Occasionally, when Hardin stepped out of his book world, he would notice countless mentions of “Lin Ge’er” surrounding him.

The day their big brother Lin openly proposed to his wife, Hardin didn’t open up his book and instead shared a night of cheap beer with Woolf. He listened to his friend rant once again that night as this drunk young man, covered in tears, chanted in denial “I’m very happy for him.”

Strict social hierarchy in the old Sidereal Era was like a fossil buried in the foundations of civilization. Powerful leaders used AIs to keep an eye on everyone below them; for the rebellious generation that came after, these young souls learned to pilot mechs under this dangerous world and grew up in the turbulent storms of unrest. They risked their lives to explore the unknown territories and planets in space. Many left and never returned, but every reunion with one another was like a tearful moment between long lost family members.

These powerful emotions that once boiled the blood of the young generation were unbreakable like diamonds. They shined like sparks of fire in the long and dark night before they disappeared like fireworks, but that second of existence was a meaningful eternity to them.

The Silver Ten that finally caught their breath exploded in shock as if they were about to turn the world upside-down. Thomas got back to his feet like he just gave himself a shot of steroids and dragged White out the door, checking to see who else in the Engineering Department and his classmates were still on the planet to call up a private party at the commander’s residence. Prime Minister Lu finally settled down and was ready to shoo away these uninvited guests, only to see Lin Jingheng purposely keeping his mouth shut. The poor Prime Minister shrunk into a distraught ball like Popcorn and had to force a smile to welcome these people.

Doctor Hardin looked at these strange young people and touched Zhanlu’s robotic arm.

But where did these people in his memories go? He thought.