Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 88

Chapter 88 – It’s Like a Sprouting Seed

Lu Bixing looked at Lin Jingheng incomprehensibly as if he was dreaming: “You actually kissed me after I asked…I, I’m probably still not quite awake.”

Lin Jingheng took half a step back and carefully placed his hand on the young man’s head, finally able to touch the hair he wasn’t able to feel before. Lu Bixing’s hair had a slight natural curl to it and didn’t feel as soft as it looked; it was a little cold with only a hint of warmth near the roots. Lin Jingheng disliked physical contacts with others and didn’t really know how to control his touch. The blisters on the tips of his fingers brushed gently on Lu Bixing’s head like a soft wind that blew by, almost too faint of a touch to catch. Lu Bixing shivered a little subconsciously as he felt all his sensation heighten to a peak; his freshly woken body couldn’t process the sudden adrenaline rush and concentrated a rather inappropriate reaction down his lower body.

Lu Bixing frantically pulled a leg back in the dimly-lit dark room and almost performed an ancient sweep kick martial art in this cramped space. His leg moved too fast and nearly knocked Lin Jingheng over, in which the latter responded by adjusting his balance and held his balance on something else–Lu Bixing’s leg. The young scientist gasped audibly and jumped on instinct, then leaned down to grab the empty gift box on the side in a frenzy and held in his breath like his life depended on it.

Lin Jingheng: “……”

Lu Bixing’s burning red face was exposed under the glow of the crystal ball.

Commander Lin—despite used to being the standard of abstinence, still spent most of his time around Turan and probably heard way more R-rated content stories than the amount of nutrient bars headmaster Lu had ever eaten in his life. No matter how clean and unstained he was, there was a limit to how much he could play dumb. Lin Jingheng immediately realized the situation and awkwardly pulled his hand back as he offered: “The bathroom is over there.”

Lu Bixing broke down in embarrassment: “Don’t mention it.”

The two men looked at each other face to face with a giant gift box in between them.

Lin Jingheng wasn’t a good moodmaker or chatterbox; if he wasn’t making snarky comments he essentially didn’t know how to talk. He was desperately looking around and picking his brain to find something to say at this time to ease the awkwardness: “Uh…where did the refrigerator ball on top of the crystal come from?”

“I made it myself…pff…” Lu Bixing only noticed the obvious slip of a tongue the commander made from nervousness during the middle of his response. He couldn’t hold in his laughter and bursted out like a comedian finding his own joke funny before he could even say it out loud, “I made it…hahaha…I made that ‘fridge ball’ myself.”

Lin Jingheng: “……”

Moments later, the commander himself also let out a quiet laugh as he kicked Lu Bixing’s leg lightly: “What are you laughing at, you shameless thing?”

Lu Bixing was laughing while flustered, shameless but embarrassed; his arm rested on the gift box on his knee while his hands covered his face as he attempted to explain himself: “Listen, I just woke up, so…you know that, it’s just a normal biological reaction.”

“Good morning, Professor Lu,” Lin Jingheng’s short-lived awkwardness passed and he could feel himself regaining his ability to speak properly as he began making sarcastic remarks: “You woke up before the sky turned dark, you sure are getting more hardworking by the day, what a role model for your students.”

Lu Bixing sneakily peeked out at him from the cover between his arm and the gift box with a slightly mischievous look in his eyes, almost like a little kid ready to try out a new exciting prank for the first time in his life.

Lin Jingheng pulled out a cup and some wine from the fridge. Lu Bixing quickly said: “I’ll just have water, no alcohol.”

Lin Jingheng lowered his head to look at him, and Lu Bixing added another self-exposing comment: “I’m just thirsty, it’s not what you think.”

Lin Jingheng: “How was your trip this time?”

“The Prime Minister gave me a special…uh…” Lu Bixing realized that his brain short-circuited from staring at his crush for too long, everything in his mind evaporated into thin air from the great surprise earlier. He couldn’t remember his title and had to pull up the notes from his personal device, “Oh, special board of management director, I can also temporarily take over for the Prime Minister under special circumstances.”

Lin Jingheng could tell immediately that this trip wasn’t very successful and forced the Prime Minister to latch onto anyone in desperation.

“It’s the Eighth Galaxy,” Lu Bixing shrugged as he took the water cup, “a lot of people have to struggle just to survive and have never gotten any support, so they don’t trust anyone. If you try to give them a hand, they’ll think you have ulterior motives and pull out a dagger before you can ‘carry out your plan’ on them.”

Lin Jingheng took a sip of sweet wine and leaned on the wall, his eyes rested on Lu Bixing through the night light.

“We’ll take it one step at a time—I don’t want to talk about the Eighth Galaxy with you tonight.” Lu Bixing lifted his head, “Commander, you’re probably already tired of seeing the place I grew up in, what about your birthplace?”

Lin Jingheng thought about it and said: “Do you want to hear the 30-year political power struggle between the central Union government and the seven galaxies, the economic battle and games among the galaxies, or the internal strife among the different political factions within the central government?”

Lu Bixing didn’t know if he should laugh: “Why should I hear about these?”

“Aren’t you that…” Lin Jingheng also didn’t remember that long title Minister Edward came up with and almost bit his tongue, “that whatever backup Prime Minister? You can study beforehand.”

Lu Bixing discovered a hidden skill Lin Jingheng had; anything he described could be replaced by a similar derogatory term when it reached commander Lin. The special ‘temporary Prime Minister’ turned into a ‘backup Prime Minister’ out of Lin Jingheng’s mouth. Perhaps it was because the commander just took advantage of him earlier, he didn’t say ‘spare tire Minister’…Lu Bixing was convinced that he was about to say that judging by the way he spoke.

“I’m a ‘wartime’ planning advisor,” Lu Bixing said, “I’m off the job when it’s peacetime.”

Lin Jingheng asked: “Why?”

“Everyone’s normal lifestyle is thrown under the bus during wartime and we all have the same desire to find peace as soon as possible so we can get our good lives back. I feel like there’s meaning to do something for the people during times like this because you know that you’re improving most people’s lives and working towards the right direction. But once war is over and everyone rests for a few years, society will be like a flowing river that separates land and water as it washes away sand and dirt, forming a new social order and governing organization. A politician can never stand simultaneously in two camps; to step on the stage of politics means that one will always have to steal from others for the sake of your camp’s benefit until all heroes become criminals at the end. I’m a childish and naive person that doesn’t like that.” Lu Bixing pondered for a bit after adding on with serious thought, “Aside from being naive, I’m also very weak and always want to avoid conflict and fights to pretend everything is good…I’m well aware of this myself and will try to fix this flaw in the future, but I’m afraid nature might be difficult to change. Sometimes I might end up fanning your fire, so…yeah, you can scold me, but please don’t get too upset at me.”

Out of 365 standard Woltorian days in a year, Lin Jingheng is irritable for perhaps 360 days. But he understood that being hard to get along was ultimately because he can’t make peace with himself, so why would he even dare to ask others to change their nature for him?

A thousand words were stuck inside Lin Jingheng’s heart that couldn’t be spoken.

Lu Bixing softly asked: “I don’t want to listen to those messy politics in Wolto, I want to hear about your friends and family.”

Lin Jingheng’s mind went blank for a moment.

Lu Bixing added: “Aside from Zhanlu and your Silver Ten friends, there should be at least someone outside of the military that can drink and talk with you outside of work, right?”

Lin Jingheng nodded and remained silent for a few moments: “…..Like Monoeyed Hawk?”

Lu Bixing: “…..”

This definition of a “friend” was a little too groundbreaking; it was like a friendship of mortal enemies built on vengeance and hatred, can it really last long?

“When I was in the Black Orchid Academy, I had a pretty decent relationship with the school doctor Lance, and a few classmates.”

Lin Jingheng suddenly stopped after this. Lu Bixing waited for what felt like an eternity and realized that talking to the commander was like trying to squeeze out a half-empty tube of toothpaste, he only managed to squeeze out this one sentence and had to continue following up himself: “Where is Doctor Lance now, are you still in contact with you?”

“He’s been dead for 30 years.”

Lu Bixing made a mental note for himself—the commander likes to hang out with people older than him—and asked: “What about your classmates? What are they doing right now, what kind of people are they?”

“I don’t know,” Lin Jingheng tried digging through his memories. The light in adolescence had been completely swallowed up by that rainy day in the past so everything else was like a blur, those years later passed by in a muddle. He only just now realized it was mentioned that he couldn’t even remember whether this ‘good friend’ was male or female, tall or short, and could only respond tastelessly: “I don’t really remember.”

Lu Bixing didn’t give up: “What about your family?”

“My mother died young, my father was a military officer that also didn’t live a long life. He never really went home when he was alive, so I don’t have much impression of him. My adoptive father…Monoeyed Hawk must’ve introduced him to you already when he was shittalking me behind my back,” Lin Jingheng was reluctant to talk much about Lu Xin in front of Lu Bixing and only glossed over their relationship. “I have a younger sister, a twin. We were adopted by different families when we were young and had no contact with each other for a while. I only found out later that the people that adopted her were the Eden Committee.”

The shadow looming over his heart that Lu Bixing unintentionally cleared out reappeared as he thought about Lin Jingshu: “Jingshu…”

Lu Bixing: “Huh?”

“Not your student, my sister is also named Jingshu,” Lin Jingheng paused. “She is a…..quiet and introverted girl. She likes cleanliness, very careful about her looks and rarely cries or throws tantrums. She can always dress herself up nicely, but she used to be a little scared of insects when she was little.”

Lin Jingshu’s image was always blurry in his mind. Whenever Lin Jingheng remembers her, he would always think of the little girl in the past and not the beautiful flower of the Union.

“I can never really tell what she’s thinking; she won’t speak up if she’s happy nor sad, and when she’s upset she will just hide herself from the world. When she’s happy, she’ll pull out her little piggy bank savings and buy little toys to put into my room, but when I ask why she’s happy or angry, she’ll never say or acknowledge anything.”

Lu Bixing thought: they’re definitely related.

“I rarely visited her,” Lin Jingheng said, “My…adoptive father’s death was closely related to the committee, yet she wanted to marry into the committee. I tried stopping her before, but she didn’t listen.”

Lu Bixing asked: “Are you blaming her?”

“Why would I blame her? It’s actually not a bad decision. She’s naturally more fragile and weaker than other kids, always looking a little less spirited than other girls her age. Having someone that can take care of her, walk around with a team of bodyguards and spend her free time doing recreational activities or shopping isn’t that bad. The Gordon family is also pretty decent to her and sent her to the City of Angels in these turbulent times, I’m actually quite thankful for that.” Lin Jingheng finished the rest of the wine in his cup as he twirled the empty cup in his hands, “But I was thinking back then….one of these days I’ll be going against the committee, it’s best for everyone if she distanced herself from me so that she doesn’t get stuck in this battle.”

That way, even if they sever their relationship in the future it would be less of a hassle, and no matter who ends up winning the battle between himself and the committee, she will still have a decent life ahead of her.

Lu Bixing noticed that despite saying “good for everyone”, Lin Jingheng’s eyebrows didn’t relax and teased: “Guess it looks like we only need to get my dad’s approval then.”

Lin Jingheng was about to speak when the clock inside the room rang. Lu Bixing only then noticed that there was a little digital board below the clock that had a simple daily schedule written on it. The “evening break” sign flipped over and changed to “mental training”.

Lu Bixing was shocked; he realized that the “evening break” probably included dinner time and the only real break Lin Jingheng reserved for himself. Lu Bixing completely took all the time with chatter and only saved him time for a bottle of wine, then quickly stood up and said: “Sorry, did I bother you?”

Lin Jingheng didn’t say anything and only turned off the alarm with his personal device. He turned the digital sign over and physically showed how kings don’t wake early. However, Lu Bixing knew him and understood that whatever he couldn’t finish today will be made up from sleeping time; without a strict schedule, he would never have such a high and stable mech sync rate. After realizing the fact, Lu Bixing could only leave reluctantly despite wanting to spend more time with him.

The lights in the Milky Way City lit up in the distance, seemingly safe and peaceful. Ironically, the pandemic ended up becoming a blessing in disguise as it reestablished social order within the city. Every residents’ personal devices were connected together and followed the same system as the shopping district before, allocating virtual currency that ldcou be earned through the market and traded for living essentials. The city was filled with jobless residents with no real workers so it was very easy to find work; the essential goods for the citizens were distributed through the self-defense squad’s wartime supplies, and due to the bountiful natural environment, resources and sizable population, the city could be completely self-sufficient once it fully recovered.

Lu Bixing thought: It’s like a sprouting seed.

His excitable body calmed down for a short while before it turned into physical energy that engulfed him whole that wiped out all the exhaustion from his long travel. Lu Bixing felt like he had endless energy that could send him up to space to fly around the planet, and rushed into the mech station like a maniac and checked up on all parked mechs in the station. He didn’t rest here and even barged into the central lab under Zhanlu’s full support and spent the whole night battling with the AUS’s protected files.

He worked restlessly for 12 hours until he received a meeting invitation from the Prime Minister and realized the sun has already risen.

Lu Bixing answered the summon with panda eyes in a completely opposite energetic mood as if he had just taken steroids.

“Building order is like gathering all the small streams into the main river and sending everything down the same direction,” The newly appointed wartime planning advisor said. “This requires a strong and powerful attraction force to open up the water passes for the currents to enter and a river course large and tall enough to contain these currents. The ‘river course’ is the galaxy’s productivity, and through the network we established with the veterans of the former Independent Navy…”

Prime Minister Edward asked: “What’s the attraction force?”

“Everyone’s needs.” Lu Bixing said, “it’s the desire everyone yearns for when they’re pushed to the edge, like when everyone wanted to live when the mutated Rainbow Virus broke out within the Milky Way City.”

The Prime Minister hesitated: “The city is currently running on Commander Lin’s wartime supplies, but…we can’t support the entire Eighth Galaxy.”