Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 87

Chapter 87 – Is This a Gift for Me?

There was a command post within the surrounding area of the central operational base left by the AUS. Lin Jingheng made himself a temporary living space in the break room on the fifth floor of the command post right next to the meeting room. The command post was located inside the mech station and was normally busy with mechs flying off and landing everyday, and without a noise cancelling system it would be almost unbearable to stay around long-term. There were actually designated residential areas that were built by the AUS filled with beautiful natural sceneries and away from all the noise in the station, but Lin Jingheng didn’t like how far it was from the base and was too lazy to make the trip all the time.

Lu Bixing wanted to avoid people as much as possible so he didn’t take the elevator. He turned to the security camera in the corner and blew a kiss at it as he ran towards the emergency staircase in the back.

Despite carrying a heavy “Eighth Galaxy” in his arms, Lu Bixing made his way up the stairs without any delays. He got distracted by the concerned old Prime Minister earlier and didn’t notice how eager he was to return home until he reached the empty staircase; all his homesickness and thoughts took over his mind like a flood as his desire to see Lin Jingheng grew stronger by the second. It was as if the gravity on the planet suddenly disappeared around him;Lu Bixing felt his footsteps light like feathers. One step turned into two, and before he realized it he was already on the 5th floor as if he grew wings during the process.

The joy in his heart was like a balloon getting pumped with hydrogen that reached its peak once he stepped out of the staircase–and then deflated down the stairs.

Lin Jingheng wasn’t here.

Lu Bixing’s excitable heart dropped to the ground and made a dent.

He let out a deep breath and stood there in disappointment for about ten seconds. He promptly adjusted his mental state and let out a self-mocking laugh as he walked towards the door to Lin Jingheng’s room. He carefully placed the heavy ‘eighth galaxy’ down and pulled up his personal device, ready to give his commander a call as he sighed, “I was just about to give you a surprise too.”

As he lifted his arm subconsciously, Lu Bixing felt his elbow touch the door to the room. The second his arm made contact with the door, a ray of light scanned through followed by a robotic voice: “Scanning identity–”

Lu Bixing froze up and thought, is there a visitor recording camera installed in there?

A recording camera was a small piece of equipment normally installed on a door’s lock that could scan and recognize a visitor’s identity as people entered and sent the information real-time to the homeowner’s personal device.

Lu Bixing swiftly adjusted his posture and expression and leaned lightly onto the door with his shoulder. He turned towards the camera and greeted it lightheartedly but with courtesy: “Hi commander, it’s me, are you…”

Before he could finish asking “are you surprised”, the door interrupted him and said “access granted.”

Lu Bixing: “…..Huh?”

The lock on the door clicked and opened up. Lu Bixing, who was still posing on the door like a pin-up model, was caught off-guard and almost fell face-first into the ground inside the room.

Lu Bixing caught himself in time as he stumbled back with a hand on the closet door. The door was pushed open by accident, revealing a closet full of the same dress shirts organized neatly in a stack. Lu Bixing stared blankly at the pile of clothing for a few moments before it finally hit him that he broke into Lin’s room.

He turned back to the room door in disbelief: “You just let me in like that? You…are you broken?”

The door lock—which doesn’t have an AI function to chat with him, ignored his question.

It was like he accidentally opened up someone else’s personal diary; while curious, Lu Bixing was also flustering, a sense of uneasiness sinking in and didn’t dare to look around. He panicked internally for a while until he finally realized—Lin granted him access to the room on the door lock, which was equivalent to giving him a spare key…even though the commander didn’t say anything.

He hadn’t even given Lin his present yet and already received a surprise himself.

Lu Bixing held his breath as he carefully picked up his ‘eighth galaxy’ and quietly made his way into Lin Jingheng’s small break room, a layer of cold sweat rolling down his back.

The room wasn’t very big and the furnishing was rather simple. Aside from the closet and restroom by the door, there was only a small refrigerator and a single bed inside the room. The bed was neatly made like a perfectly smooth concrete surface; Lu Bixing was too embarrassed to sit on it, but there was nowhere else inside this small room that had a place for him to sit.

The good news was the floor was also clean, so Lu Bixing placed that ‘eighth galaxy’ on top of the refrigerator and sat down on the floor beside it. He scanned the neatly organized space around him and remembered his messy dog pit at home. The initial unease and surprise died down inside him as stranger thoughts began resurfacing. He quickly began to run through strange ideas in his mind: is he actually mysophobic? Can he tolerate me when we get together in the future?

Romance in books had countless stories about the ease of falling in love but the difficulties of maintaining a relationship. Too many emotions and feelings got buried in the trivial details of everyday life.

The more he pondered this question, the more Lu Bixing discerned the difficulties of this problem and began to take it more seriously. He pulled up the notes in his personal device and projected it towards the wall in front of him, filling it with notes and drawings with his digital pen. He began designing an automated house cleaning system that can automatically detect when Lin Jingheng is only 10 minutes away from home and clean up the entire house–everything from dusting, noise cancelling, disinfecting, doing laundry and putting everything back in place…

Lu Bixing followed the Prime Minister around the Eighth Galaxy for a whole week from day to night and stayed inside a mech for over 12 hours during travel; after the adrenaline rush of excitement, exhaustion quickly engulfed him. The images of the furniture jumbled in his head until they merged together into a blur. Lu Bixing leaned on the small refrigerator and fell asleep with the notes still projecting on the wall.

The door lock wasn’t very smart and would only send an alert to Lin Jingheng when it scans a ‘visitor’. People that were granted access were automatically treated as its master so the lock remained silent.

By the time Lin Jingheng returned, it was already near dawn.

Turan finished her questioning of the hostages and as expected, didn’t obtain much information. She reported to her boss as she walked over: “these people were hired merchants that don’t know who their higher-ups are. Their organization is very closed-in, and someone that looked like a team leader there said that he used to smuggle opium in the Seventh Galaxy and was sent over to the Eighth to test the market. There should be another 10 to 20 small mech fleets that followed them over as well. They said that the benefits of working for the organization is great, it even includes free chip replacement.”

Lin Jingheng: “Free chip replacements? So they all injected these chips already.”

“Yeah, otherwise how is it possible for these thugs to have such a high sync rate with mechs—their average are at least 80%, and ever since our average were pulled down by those lackeys from the self-defense squad, I haven’t seen anything above 80. Fortunately their piloting skills are garbage and we have more people.” Turan said, “You know how we have to remove the chips before we put them in questioning? Tsk, it was awful…no anesthetics work on them, and even if they get knocked out they can wake up crying like children from intense pain. We don’t even need to pull out interrogation tools and they’re already going insane. The power and addiction brought by these chips are completely unimaginable, it’s way more intense than Eden.”

Eden at least had an official management and a proper supervising team. Whether it was controlling hormone levels or stimulating senses, every procedure has to go through a strict medical survey to ensure its safety. Back when Yevgenia openly confessed her love to Lin Jingheng, she was caught with overstimulating hormones above the committee standard. The songstress herself, marketing company and area management department all had to pay 500 million in fines….of course, since they were all political allies, it was hard to say if they really paid the fines.

However, the people’s reliance on Eden was still fundamentally psychological.

Lin Jingheng asked: “You said this chip will destroy brain function and create an irreversible reliance on it?”

Turan answered: “Absolutely. Remember when old Hawk brought that medical team during the mutated Rainbow Virus outbreak? I had them take a look at the chip and they just responded that they will need to do further research, but it’s likely that these chips are more deadly than any other existing drugs in the galaxies. Among the hostages that we captured, the most recent user of the drug just started a week ago and already developed a severe withdrawal reaction. Commander, if this continues, even if Eden recovers in the future, the people that are using the opium chips will never be able to escape from it.”

Lin Jingheng frowned. He remembered that Lu Bixing never suffered any severe reaction when he took out the biochip; despite showing a bit of reluctance at first, he never had any physical withdrawal reaction. Even the injuries on his body were all caused by outside damage and his mental state was considered stable; a full-body scan in the medical capsule afterwards also indicated that he didn’t show any signs of addiction.

He remembered that Monoeyed Hawk once said that Lu Bixing had shown signs of a vaccuocerebral when he was little…

“They market this thing as ‘Eden’ in the Eighth Galaxy since nobody here has even seen what the real Eden looks like.” Turan continued, “the first injection is free but the chips will need to be replaced about once per month. As for how they will be priced after that, apparently the higher-ups haven’t decided and will depend on the market of the Eighth Galaxy.”

Lin Jingheng mulled over the issue for a bit and said: “The medical system inside Eden can detect the dangers of this biochip, so once Eden recovers, the people that haven’t touched this chip will return to their shell of safety. The profit one can gain from this will depend on how long Eden remains unusable…so is it possible that the mastermind is someone that can affect the reconstruction of Eden? For example, someone that has significant influence within the committee.”

Turan responded: “Right, the seven directors and their close relatives.”

A shadow of unease was cast on Lin Jingheng’s heart at this comment despite knowing that Turan didn’t mean harm and remembered Lin Jingshu, who was sent to evacuate to the City of Angels.

The two arrived at Lin Jingheng’s room as the commander casually opened the door. The lock automatically detected its master’s identity and opened up, letting out a ray of light from inside the room.

Both Turan and Lin Jingheng froze on spot.

There was a dim projection on the wall inside a room that was supposed to be empty and dark, casting a ray of warm light on the cold white wall. Messy lines and numbers covered the wall with a bunch of indescribable notes scribbled below it. The strange scene gave the lifeless room a new sense of vitality.

On the small refrigerator beside the bed rested a large crystal ball with a starry sky glistening on top. The dome-like cover sculpted with natural scenery and buildings glowed in the light of the wall projection, making the little stars and sculptures inside the crystal ball dance with life as its shadows casted onto the white bedsheet in an almost artistic manner.

Lin Jingheng walked forward to see the light source from Lu Bixing’s wrist resting on his knee. Lu Bixing himself was already curled up beside the fridge and fell asleep. The reflected light from the crystal ball also scanned across Lu Bixing’s face; the sparkling lights glistened on his slightly long hair resting on his face like a starry sky on his head.

Turan covered her mouth with her hand and screamed internally; she thought this boy was just a pure science nerd and shared all her hookup experiences with him without hesitation, but she was wrong.

No wonder why Lu Bixing refused her advice courteously back then, he was actually a secret master of the arts! Turan glanced over at Lin Jingheng’s expression and apologized in her mind: I’m off boss, I underestimated him, I’m defeated.

Turan ran off without a second thought and kindly closed the door for them. She dashed into the distance with a lingering fear in her heart as she felt her entire philosophy of anti-monogamy completely shaken: it might be time for her to stay away from them.

Lin Jingheng only realized that Turan left after the door clicked. He was like a lost lamb standing in the middle of nowhere and remained completely dumbfounded for a moment before discreetly making his way over to Lu Bixing. He kneeled down and lifted a hand in hesitation; his fingers reached out and curled back in a few times as he pondered what to do.

He remembered his 10 year old birthday—due to unknown circumstances, Jingshu and his own birthday were recorded 10 days later on Eden than their actual birthday. The twins would always receive countless greetings and noisy celebrations from both Eden and people around them every year on the wrong day. Only on their actual birthday was Lin Jingheng able to exchange a digital birthday card with his sister.

Except he had just separated with his sister that year, and for strange reasons Lin Jingshu’s personal device couldn’t be reached so he wasn’t able to send out the yearly birthday card. He remembered the home he could no longer return to and the anxious little girl that chased after him; but he was no longer with the little girl and had to hold in his worry, pretending nothing had happened. Young Lin Jingheng’s mood was down for the whole day and refused Eden’s multiple requests to adjust his emotional state…until he went back to his room that night to see a mini model mech a little taller than an average adult man. It was scaled to size as a real mech, where kids could sleep inside and connect to a simulation mental network that let them play games.

Lin Jingheng remembered that he stood in shock in front of his door and almost forgot how to walk as he thought: is this a gift for me?

If it wasn’t for the model mech game system he received when he was 10, Lin Jingheng would perhaps not have entered the Black Orchid Academy and spent the rest of his life working around mechs. He may have been a scholar, a normal government official of the Union, or left Wolto at a young age and become a wanderer in the vast galaxies.

Almost 40 years later, Lin Jingheng watched the young man before him as a strange indescribable feeling resurged in his heart.

Is this a gift for me?

Perhaps tired from the awkward position, Lu Bixing suddenly moved. His head leaning on the refrigerator door rolled off and broke his balance. Lin Jingheng quickly held Lu Bixing as he watched the young man about to fall to the ground; the commander’s cold fingers pressed onto Lu Bixing’s face, the latter jumped and woke up.

Lu Bixing was still half asleep when his eyes opened and forgot where he was for a second. He stared at Lin Jingheng in front of him with a blank mind: “Uh, I….”

Lin Jingheng tried to move his hand from his face, but it was like the warmth in his palm was a strong glue that made him almost reluctant to move away: “Hm?”

Lu Bixing grew skittish and licked his own lips subconsciously as he attempted to explain: “I’m here to deliver some stuff, uh…th-that door just opened on its own, you…”

A breath of air caught in his throat. Lin Jingheng’s hand that was on his face earlier rested on the fridge behind him as the commander suddenly moved in closer. That memorable and handsome face suddenly closed in on him with intimidation, the grey mist inside those mesmerizing pupils looked as if they were ready to draw up a storm that would swallow him up whole. Lu Bixing then heard him say with a deep and surprisingly uncold voice: “I set up access permission for you.”

Lu Bixing’s fingers stiffened.

Lin Jingheng’s gaze lowered as his eyes glossed over Lu Bixing’s lips before he ruined the mood and asked: “I’m not that easy to get along with, nor am I that good to you, so why did you choose me?”

Lu Bixing: “….”

You’re ruining the fun sir, am I supposed to turn in a thesis paper right now?

Lu Bixing questioned back: “You gave me access first before requesting for an interview—commander, I think the HR procedure in the Silver Fortress might have some issues. If you want to kiss me, why are you holding back?”

Lin Jingheng remained silent for a moment. The slim-fit collared shirt and military boots were both restraining and conservative that kept him restricted within a clear-cut boundary. Even when he was on Beijing-β where everyone was wearing strange outfits, this fully covered military uniform and gloves were still on his body like constraints that always make him second-guess, always keeping himself back.

Why is he holding back anyway?

He repeated this line in his mind numerous times. He suddenly leaned forward, captured Lu Bixing’s lips with his own and closed his eyes. It was like he lost his balance while walking on a wire across skyscrapers, he fell down and continued to descend uncontrollably until he passed through the core of the planet into the vast void of space.

His soul ascended weightlessly while a rush of colors poured violently into his monochrome world, dazzling before his eyes until he felt completely disoriented.