Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 67

Chapter 67 – Ice-Cold Bastards Are Delicious

Lu Bixing couldn’t believe that the legendary Silver Ten actually had a character like this. He first stared in shock at Turan, then remembered that a young woman was speaking to him and proceeded to wave off the inappropriate suggestion while his face reddened.

On the other hand, Turan was also shocked that the “professor” these hooligans of the space station had referred to really was someone that had some shame and was equipped with an appropriate ‘embarrassed’ skill. She found this reaction amusing and poked Lu Bixing’s face with a finger, attempting to find out if there was some nanotechnology under his face that could change his skin color.

“Being thin-skinned will get you nowhere, my friend,” Turan playfully gave him a punch on the shoulder. “Look how shameless Yevgeniya was back then and didn’t even manage to lay a finger on our commander. You have to learn from other people’s mistakes, young man!”

Lu Bixing took a direct hit from her and lowered his head slightly.

“So I’ve tried it with a few men like that, same cold-face type.” Turan licked her lips excitedly, “I know exactly how to deal with these types of men, from how to flirt to how to pace yourself – I can guarantee that you can learn everything from me. Let me tell you, these ice-cold bastards are delicious; you especially can’t miss out on a high-quality brand ice cube like our boss.”

“Okay.” Lu Bixing scratched his head and carefully adjusted his collar as he pulled out some notes from his personal device, “Then I hope you don’t mind me asking some questions.”

Turan quickly crossed her legs and attempted to make a decent impression as she awaited his questions.

“Uh…” Lu Bixing pondered a little before he asked, “Does he have any interests?”

The Captain of the Ninth Squadron blinked multiple times as she awkwardly twirled the little ‘whiskers’ of hair on the side. She wasn’t expecting the first question to already be way out of her league and responded: “…..Huh? What kind of interests does he have?”

Lu Bixing looked at her with his innocent eyes.

“Do artful insults count?” Turan thought hard for a few moments, “No that doesn’t…then I’ve got nothing, because he really doesn’t do anything and I’ve never seen him gamble or party.”

“I…I wasn’t asking about those kinds of interests.” Lu Bixing sighed and continued with the notes still in his hands, “Does he like music? Any type of art he likes? He must have at least a favorite sport, right? He can’t just be born with a nice body like that.”

“Our commander isn’t that refined or elegant.” Turan shook her head, “If he listens to music, then it’s only because Zhanlu got too annoying. His aesthetics were always a mystery, but I feel like he doesn’t even know the way to an art museum. As for sports…physical training is part of our jobs, but I wouldn’t say it’s a hobby. Like me, I absolutely hate exercising. If I can lie down I wouldn’t even want to sit, so I hate it when men talk about sports, but what can I do? It’s not like I can just skip work.”

Lu Bixing was starting to think Turan’s bluff was getting him nowhere: “Then what did he do with his free time back when he was still in the Silver Fortress?”

“Every living being is his entertainment, his biggest hobby is to shit on us. Also he almost never had free time, he was always busy.”

Lu Bixing was shocked: “You guys don’t get vacations?”

“We do, by shifts.” Turan said, “How else would I have time to play around? Sleeping around with coworkers would get me a death sentence from my boss. Except nobody shifts their vacations with him, and from what I could tell besides business trips to Wolto, I’ve never really seen him leave.”

“Not even for sick leave?”

“The medical technologies and health management on the Silver Fortress were top-notch even for the Union, so we just cured any illness on site, there was no need to request for sick leave. Those weird diseases and stuff outside couldn’t even make their way in.” Turan spread her hands in front of her, “Let me tell you this, I’ve heard that he didn’t even attend his own sister’s wedding and had his vice-admiral send the gift on his behalf.”

Lu Bixing shoved his notes back into his personal device after confirming that this pretty girl in front of him was not going at all helpful: “Alright….then does he have any dreams or goals? Long-term or short-term, anything counts.”

Turan looked at him dumbly.

“What about aspirations?”

“How is his relationship with his family? You mentioned that he had a sister earlier, but they sound pretty distant. Aside from his sister, does he have any other siblings?”

“Besides coworkers, what group of friends does he interact with the most?”

“Does he have any unresolved matters in the IU?”

“Bro,” Turan interrupted him in disbelief, “Do you want to fuck him or write a biography for him? Can’t we just sit down and discuss how we can get this sexually stupid ice-cold bastard to drop his pants? Look, we’re all busy here and I still have a bunch of heavy mechs without a place to park, can’t we stop wasting time and get down to business here?”

“Even though I am quite fond of his body, the feeling of pleasure from sexual intercourse is fundamentally just a chain of chemical reactions caused by nervous stimulation. Massaging more sensitive areas of the human body will yield a similar effect.” Lu Bixing explained in a professional academic manner to the party girl before him, “It’s like stroking the good spot of your house pet. Captain, do you really think a pointless topic like this is worth discussing? If you have such interests, I suggest you pick up a few episodes of Animal Planet.”

Turan: “…”

Suddenly, she felt like she wasn’t a lowly deviant of society and was simply an uneducated delinquent.

“Learning about a person and a relationship can bring joy and excitement. If you just want to feel physically satisfied, you might as well just get a full-body massage inside a medical capsule, because finding a partner means you have to communicate and interact with them.” Lu Bixing said, “Don’t you agree that slowly getting to know someone, learning about their personalities and caring for them is a wonderful and very rewarding process?”

Turan felt like she just got dragged into a classroom and was forced into a lecture that completely overturned her own set of values by Professor Lu. It was like someone dumped a bucket of holy water on her and purified her sinful soul, in which she finally admitted defeat and walked out in a daze.

Lu Bixing pulled out a cigarette he picked up somewhere from his pocket and lit it up without putting it in his mouth. The smoke that surrounded him made him feel a sense of loneliness- a solitude that came from Lin Jingheng that was both clear and heavy.

In the eyes of others, Lin Jingheng was like a symbol, a metaphor, a legend that was untouchable; he was everything except human. It was as if he had no emotions, no interests, and no character.

The weight of this feeling pressed on his heart like carrying a boulder on his chest, immovable even after Turan finally left.

The topic of this discussion sneezed twice in this invisible air of gossip pollen.

A human-form Zhanlu beside him commented: “According to ancient superstition, this means that someone is insulting you behind your back.”

Lin Jingheng shot him an unamused glance.

Zhanlu’s mechanical body felt the icy breeze from his stare: “That was a joke- ha ha ha……Okay, have you heard of this joke before?”

Lin Jingheng had no intention of arguing with a mech and proceeded to move his attention

towards his personal device. A wide scanning map appeared above his device marked with various circles indicating areas with abnormal energy reactions.

The planet they are on right now was a planet called “Qiming[1]”, which got its name from the fact that it could be clearly seen rising like the morning star from the old capital planet of Cayley. It was the third largest planet after Cayley and Beijing, and the former base planet of Ares Von’s pirate fleet.

Two soldiers of the Ninth Squadron dragged a man wearing clothing of the Cayley Pirates to Lin Jingheng’s feet. He was a hostage taken in by Lin Jingheng that let the fleet sneak onto the planet without alarming the existing patrols.

The pirate hostage kept his head low and spoke in a husky voice: “The area with the strongest energy reaction is the weaponry, the next would be the armed mobiles….ahem…the armed mobiles were used to patrol and suppress civilians. Right now is the time of prayer for the AUS, which is the time when security is the weakest;the patrols will also have a 15 minute break…but they’re all equipped with energy fields for territorial teleportation towards the mech dock. You guys will need to prepare signal blockages, or it will become quite troublesome if they run through the energy fields.”

One of the soldiers that held him down asked: “And everyone inside is part of the AUS?”

“I guess so,” The hostage responded in a whimper, “We were all taken in by the Prince from outside of the Union, so we don’t really believe in all of that weird cult stuff. But since we were taken in by them, we still have to kind of pretend to abide by their rules. Except our people all followed the Prince, and they were all pretty much eliminated under your guys’ hands. People that are still here in the headquarters are probably all from the AUS…Commander, I can take you in, but please spare me. We never really had much of a life living outside of the Union for so long, and even when we finally got fed, it was by a bunch of maniacs. Everyone in the AUS are madmen that have their heads filled with incomprehensible things; we have to be careful of every word we speak – if they suspect that you’re not loyal to them, they will beat and torture you by forcing you to live their lifestyle. They’ll take away your personal device and even monitor all your conversations; if we weren’t at war with the Union right now I almost swore we would have never been able to see a mech for the rest of our lives.”

Lin Jingheng coldly stared him down and gestured for the soldiers to shut him up.

The soldiers swiftly stepped forward to cover up the hostage’s mouth and drag him away. At the same time, the interference signals interjected quietly out the door as the Ninth Squadron passed through the locked doors inside the headquarters like a breeze of wind.

The AUS was in the midst of some shady cult ritual that had a sea of followers praying with knees and faces on the ground following some prayers through a speaker. Despite being galactic soldiers, the soldiers of the Ninth Squadron were no less organized and effective as land soldiers. They divided themselves up into teams of four and quickly invaded the main control room with impressive teamwork. With just a few blinks of laser, the patrolling pirates were all on the ground without a chance to call for help; the team of soldiers carefully placed the bodies neatly onto the side as they hacked in and took control of the entire armed mobiles of the AUS on land.

By the time the AUS realized what was happening, it was already too late. Their energy fields had been blocked by the interference signals and they stepped right into the trap of their enemies.

It took less than 20 minutes for the Ninth Squadron to take control of the entire headquarters from the moment Lin Jingheng gave them the order.

“From the military maps we’ve obtained, it seems like the main target of the AUS is the other seven galaxies of the Union. Even pirates generally agree that the Eighth Galaxy is a desert with no useful resources, so aside from Ares Von, nobody planned on wasting their time here.” Zhanlu reported as he walked behind Lin Jingheng. “Ares Von had been prioritizing destruction ever since he came to the Eighth Galaxy. He first destroyed three planets, then started hunting down underground terminals; we managed to find the original order of the AUS on the Cayley pirate mechs, which indicated they originally wanted to have the Cayley pirates take control of the Eighth Galaxy within 6 months so that they could open up a new terminal and passage into the Union. The AUS would then build a remote base of operations here while they sent the main fleet into the seven galaxies.”

“Ares Von is a two-faced man.” Lin Jingheng commented quietly. “He wanted to be the dictator of the Eighth Galaxy.”

Of all the Eighth Galaxy, only Cayley and Beijing-β were equipped with anti-missile protection and a sizable armed forces, so naturally Ares Von would decide to point his cannons at those two planets.

He was a hundred-year old mummy that wasn’t completely dead; he carried his half-broken body across the galaxy in a desperate attempt to revive the old glory of the Cayley royal family.

“That is correct, sir. I took control of the internal communication network between the AUS and Ares Von and intercepted the messages. I’ve discovered that Ares Von hadn’t reported his whereabouts and plans to the AUS, and as of now, news of his death has not been made public yet. The Eighth Galaxy is still currently closed off to the rest of the galaxies.”

“Very well,” Lin Jingheng said. “Let Turan bring her mechs over and tell her that Ares Von’s base is now mine. Inform…”

Lin Jingheng stopped abruptly in the middle of the sentence and looked towards the corner of the headquarters. Zhanlu’s gaze followed him and saw that Lin was looking at a mini eco-park.

The teachings of the AUS emphasized the relationship between mankind and nature, and therefore their living spaces and territories were often filled with numerous plants and flowers. If it was possible, they would even turn every habitable planet into a natural preserve. In the corner of their headquarters, fruits and plants peaked out of their greenhouse as a handful of small animals ran around the mini garden, creating an ironic contrast to the brutal pirate organization.

At the bottom of the mini eco-park was a farm of fungi.

Lin Jingheng made his way over and leaned down to look at the culture of mushrooms.

The group of shrooms under the shadow held up their little umbrellas against the moisture.

Lin Jingheng took off his gloves and reached down to pick out a tiny mushroom, not minding that the wet molds of the shroom covered his bare hands.

According to Zhanlu’s behavioral analysis, he concluded that Lin Jingheng wouldn’t enjoy having these things take up space inside an operational base, and kindly suggested: “Should we move this out, sir?”

“Leave it.” Zhanlu heard his master gave an uncharacteristic response after a moment of silence.

Lin Jingheng tossed the shroom away and took a few steps forward. Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, he turned around and pointed towards the medium of growing mushrooms: “That…growth medium and fungus mold, ask someone to take a few samples and move it onto the Model 3.”

Zhanlu was completely lost: “Sir, where do you plan on growing them on the Model 3?”

“Isn’t there a greenbelt?” Lin Jingheng answered without turning back, “Get rid of all the useless greens and replace them with this.”

Zhanlu: “…”

The mech felt slightly insulted that its greenbelt would now be filled with shrooms.

[1] The original text is 啟明星, which is the ancient Chinese name of the planet Venus in Chinese astrology. This refers specifically to when Venus shines during sunrise, and it is also known as Changgeng 長庚 when it sets in the evening. (Yes this is the same Changgeng from SPL!)