translator: loop
proofreader: roki
Tang’s message only gave one vibration, while the other vibration came from Jiang Qi’s communicator.
Chu Si responded to Tang’s message while glancing at Jiang Qi’s movements from the corner of his eye.
“Negotiate with Carlos Black, ask the wanderers if they are willing to convert from captives to collaborators, prepare a contract, those who are willing to sign may regain their freedom while those who are not willing to do so will be re-cuffed on the spot and stored as food reserves.”
He quickly typed out a message and sent it. Just the blink of an eye later, he received a response from Tang—
Executive, he says we’re extorting them past the point of shamelessness.
Chu Si replied without blinking an eye—
I’m giving them a choice, this is already very humane.
He couldn’t open the holographic screen clipped on his sleeve in front of Jiang Qi, but from Tang’s previous message, there were a considerable amount of floating objects around the planetary fragment. Relying solely on him, Sa’e Yang, and those five training camp people, engaging in direct conflict was not to their advantage. Right now, it seemed the only way forward was to join forces with those wanderers.
The wanderer way of life let the wanderers work together in groups very easily. One just needed to find something they were interested in as a bargaining chip.
What most wanderers wanted were abundant living supplies and weapons. Those two things influenced how well they could survive out in the universe, so they would never go out-of-date. But right now, Chu Si and his group’s own stock of living supplies and weapons was a problem. Trading them away was out of the question.
So, they needed to find alternate bargaining chips.
Chu Si replied: Tell Carlos Black there’s a high probability we’ll be working together against the City of Silver.
Just a second later, Tang’s message arrived: Executive, he says deal.
Chu Si: Contact Le Pen and Liu. There are emergency military aircraft in the shelter, tell them to fly a few out to consolidate our numbers.
As he and Tang sent messages back and forth, Jiang Qi leaned against the sofa, eyes lowered at his message. He briefly tapped a few times on his communicator, and it seemed whatever reply he sent was very short.
A long time ago, he was like this. Whether he was connected to a channel or replying to a message, he would always keep everything short and simple and never said anything more than what was needed, completely different from everyday chatting.
And usually what made him immediately read and immediately respond in this way was official business about his work.
After replying, Jiang Qi put away his communicator and looked up apologetically, saying, “I’m being called to the meeting. I may not be able to stay until the apartment repairs the energy pool.”
He glanced at the time display in the living room and said rather helplessly, “They’re less efficient than I thought they would be.”
Upon hearing him say this, Chu Si breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.
He spoke up almost immediately. “We’ve been bothering you long enough. No matter how low the apartment’s efficiency is, they won’t take more than a few hours to repair the energy pool. We can find somewhere else to wait for a while.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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He was like this toward the sleepy little Chu Si, and he was like this toward the adult Chu Si.
Towards Sa’e Yang…
Fine, Sa’e Yang was an exception.
Even if this dangerous man sat peacefully and quietly like he was now, it was difficult for anyone to have any feelings of seniority toward him.
Chu Si stood up from the living room sofa, but Sa’e Yang lingered behind. He took a sip of water from the glass he had left untouched this entire time, then put down the glass and leisurely stood up as well. Smiling at Chu Si, he said, “I really was a little thirsty.”
“Spoken as if you’ve been chatting for a long time.” Chu Si replied.
“My dear, water is for drinking, not for holding and admiring.” Sa’e Yang lifted his chin at the glass he had been rotating for a while.
Chu Si lowered his eyes to the glass of water in his hand, then looked at the glass that Sa’e Yang had drunk out of. Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind. Without saying a word, he tilted his head back and took two gulps. As he swallowed the water, he glanced aside out of the corner of his eye— Jiang Qi was walking towards the study, presumably to pick up the research draft he had forgotten to bring.
Keeping an eye on Jiang Qi’s movements, he bent his waist to pick up the glass Sa’e Yang had put down. Just as he touched the brim, he felt something wipe the corner of his mouth neither lightly nor heavily. It felt dry, with a slight roughness.
Chu Si’s fingers jerked, and he almost dropped the glass cup to the ground.
When he turned to look, Sa’e Yang stood with one hand in his pocket and the other raised, thumb waggling towards him. He tilted his head and said, “You were distracted, water was leaking out.”
Bullshit.
Chu Si instinctively touched the corner of his mouth.
“I’ve already wiped it clean.” As Sa’e Yang spoke, he spread out his palm toward Chu Si, mouthing with a smile: Give me the communicator.
Chu Si looked at him for a moment, but hearing Jiang Qi’s footsteps, he finally took out his communicator and put it into Sa’e Yang’s palm. Then, picking up the three used cups on the table, he turned and walked towards the kitchen.
“I’ll borrow your sink to wash the cups.” As Chu Si turned on the faucet, he saw Jiang Qi leaving the study out of the corner of his eye, so he said this line.
In fact, there was an automatic cleaning and disinfecting cabinet on the nearby table, but Jiang Qi had some slight mysophobia. Dining utensils had to be washed twice by hand before being put into the automatic cleaning and disinfecting cabinet.
And it didn’t count if someone else washed them. He had to wash them himself.
In the past, every time he returned home after spending a few days on a business trip, he would have to rewash the dishes the nanny had washed.
Fortunately, he only tormented himself like this, and didn’t force Chu Si to do the same.
As soon as Jiang Qi walked into the living room, he heard this sentence. Placing the black document folder in his hand on the armrest of the sofa, he headed straight to the kitchen. “Let me do it.”
“It’s alright, it’s no trouble.” Chu Si answered, deliberately rinsing half-heartedly.
Jiang Qi glanced at him and couldn’t help but laugh: “Your technique came from the same assembly line as my son’s.”
Chu Si smiled too: “Really?”
Jiang Qi stood with two hands empty, tolerating him finishing those three cups before taking over for a second wash, saying, “That’s alright, I can do it. Go dry your hands.”
His tone was too natural, as if he was speaking to a family member. Hearing him, Chu Si’s steps paused, and he couldn’t help but glance over.
“What is it? You want to watch and learn?” Jiang Qi joked.
“En.” Chu Si took a paper towel and wiped his hands as he said, “I was lazy when I was younger, and only half-heartedly washed such things. Now that I have a chance, I might as well learn a little.”
“Even if you learn these skills, will you ever use them?” Jiang Qi laughed. “If you always eat outside, then you’ll always get to skip this step.”
The position where Chu Si stood seemed very casual, as if it was really to watch how Jiang Qi washed the cups. But in fact, standing there, he just happened to block Jiang Qi’s view of the living room.
As Jiang Qi finished washing the cups and turned to put them into the automatic cleaning and disinfecting cabinet, Chu Si quickly glanced into the living room. He saw Sa’e Yang walking away from the black document folder, lifting the communicator in his hand while giving him a wink.
When Chu Si and Jiang Qi returned to the living room, Sa’e Yang was standing next to the double-person sofa with one hand in his pocket, tapping on the communicator with his head lowered.
“En? You’re done?” He looked up at the two of them and tapped the screen twice before throwing the communicator into his pocket. His movements were very natural, as if he had been passing the time like this just now.
Jiang Qi walked up to the coat hanger, picked up his coat, and draped it over his arm. He then walked back to the double-person sofa and bent down to touch the head of the curled-up child, saying, “Son?”
The curled-up little Chu Si remained motionless, as if he had entered hibernation.
Jiang Qi couldn’t help but laugh: “This kid.”
He stood there and watched the sleeping, unresponsive little Chu Si, before whispering, “Son, I’m leaving. I’ll come back soon.”
When he said the last sentence, he had already turned his body away. His gaze just happened to collide with Chu Si’s.
However, in an instant, he lowered his gaze and reached out to pick up the document folder from the armrest of the sofa. He offhandedly glanced inside to confirm he hadn’t taken the wrong thing, and then walked towards the door.
“We’ve troubled you, we’ll leave first.” Chu Si and Sa’e Yang stood a step outside the door.
Chu Si’s message vibrated again. It was another message from Tang—
Executive, those floating objects have landed around you. Carlos Black and I are on an aircraft, leading a large army of wanderers over. Guy and everyone else is guarding this side. We’ll reach you in about five minutes.
Chu Si was about to reply when he felt a sudden tremor run through the entire building. It was very slight, and if they weren’t on a higher floor, he might not’ve felt anything at all.
“An earthquake?” Jiang Qi’s hand that was about to close the door paused.
“Maybe, but the magnitude shouldn’t be too big,” Chu Si replied. His gaze shifted to Sa’e Yang.
This shaking wasn’t an earthquake. He’d experienced the difference in a simulated environmental test before. It was more like a precursor to the imminent breakup or collapse of a virtual or temporary environment.
At the moment, chances were that this forcibly rewinded time-space continuum was about to disappear.
For Chu Si, this was a good thing. If this piece of space-time disappeared, then the apartment, Jiang Qi, who was about to go attend a meeting, and the draft in his hand would all disappear from this planetary fragment, and they would continue in the space-time continuum where they should have existed.
Chu Si wouldn’t have to worry about the unknown people around them disturbing this place.
And when he’d dragged Jiang Qi to go wash cups, Sa’e Yang should’ve already used the perspective scanning function implanted in his communicator to create a copy of the contents in the document folder.
He had already taken what he wanted to take, and he had already met the person he wanted to meet.
Everything was perfectly successful, and his mood should’ve been good, but as they hurried downstairs and Jiang Qi waved goodbye to them, walking alone along a road towards the southwest gate of the apartment, Chu Si’s mood fell.
A long, long time ago, a year before Jiang Qi’s death, a conversation between him and Chu Si turned to time. Back then, he said seriously to Chu Si, “If there were ever a day when time could be controlled and moved across freely, perhaps it would become the most tempting thing in this world.”
Once, he had sighed and warned Chu Si not to make too many interferences if such a day came, because the effects of those interferences could magnify until they were too big to predict or measure. After all, temptation always walked parallel with danger.
At that time, Chu Si couldn’t quite understand, because there was nothing that could make him find the temptation hard to resist.
But now, he suddenly understood.
After Jiang Qi had been walking for some time, and just as he was about to leave the apartment complex, Chu Si suddenly opened his mouth and spoke to his receding figure. “November 14th, 5667.”
Jiang Qi was taken aback and turned his head to look at him. “What?”
“On November 14th, 5667… don’t leave the house, okay?”
The author has something to say:
Happy Children’s Day~
t/n
Grabbing my head and yanking my hair, I hope Jiang Qi is alive by then! 😭😭😭