pr: roki
The vibration this time wasn’t from a message, but was from a direct holographic video call.
“Speak.” Chu Si reached out and tapped the communicator, then turned his head to continue frying the cod. Tang and Guy’s images jumped out and appeared above the communicator.
“Executive, we, um—” Tang said a few words before halting, staring blankly at the screen with a face full of question marks.
Seeing that the piece of cod was already past the point of no return, Chu Si unceremoniously pushed the plate into Sa’e Yang’s hands. “Take responsibility for what you’ve done.” His tone was very calm, and he even waved his hand after speaking, driving this person out of the kitchen.
Executive Chu had a problem: anything that he didn’t want to show, he’d turn his head the other way and pretend it had never happened. If someone made things easier for him, that’d be even better— he could instantly recover to normal, smoothly switch the topic, and shoo away the person. It was like when he had terrible headaches as a child, when he’d use “sleepy” as an excuse to dismiss Jiang Qi and return to his bedroom to quietly endure.
Sa’e Yang wasn’t surprised by his reaction or by the fact that he’d been handed the fried cod. He only raised his eyebrows, pursed his lips, and walked out of the kitchen holding the plate. When he got to the doorway, he thought for a second before turning back to say, “Executive, these pieces of cod are only appetizers, right?”
“…” Chu Si wiped his hands and lifted his foot to give a kick. The kitchen door slammed shut in response, pushing Sa’e Yang outside.
He turned back to glance at the communicator and realized that Tang and Guy’s lifeless faces were still on the screen. He said unkindly, “Did you connect to my channel just to daze around? You think you’re particularly good-looking or something?”
Tang gave an “oh,” but didn’t seem to understand what he was oh-ing about in the first place. He asked stupidly, “Executive, what are you guys doing?”
Chu Si thought for a moment and took some more things out of the fridge, smoothly opening his mouth to reply, “Nothing. We happened to be hungry and decided to raid Carlos Black’s food reserves.”
“Ohhh.” Tang said.
“What is it?” Chu Si glanced at him.
“Nothing, nothing.” Tang waved his hand and scratched his head, saying, “That seems right, I just suddenly felt Mr. Yang was different from what I’d imagined before. He doesn’t seem that difficult to handle.”
Chu Si asked indecipherably, “What makes you think that?”
“He can stand in the kitchen, hold a plate, and eat meat. Was that meat? I snuck a glance,” Tang said.
Chu Si looked at him with eyes full of appreciation for his low IQ. “You’re really amusing. What would he be eating if not meat? A gun?”
After rendering both Tang and Guy speechless, he examined the ingredients and muttered, “There’s quite a lot of seafood.”
Tang and Guy gulped down their saliva.
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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“Then politely handcuff them first and chat once they calm down,” Chu Si said.
Tang and Guy had complex expressions on their faces: “…” There were always a few moments when they felt their conversations weren’t too righteous.
“Let’s talk about proper business,” Chu Si reminded them.
Only at this did Tang and Guy slap their foreheads and say, “Oh, right, right! Executive, we almost forgot! There’s good news!”
To be honest, ever since Chu Si crawled out of his cryocapsule, he hadn’t heard any good news. Now that it had suddenly appeared, the moment felt a little novel. He said, “There’s good news even in this kind of situation? Explain.”
Tang laughed. “If it weren’t for this good news, we wouldn’t have dared hang around and would’ve been driven away long ago. We’ve just detected an encrypted signal, one that belongs to our planet’s communication signal and functions for searching and summoning!”
Chu Si’s movements paused as he turned to look at the holographic video call. “Searching?”
If it was simply an internal communication signal, then it wouldn’t be very unusual. Signals sent by people and institutions on all of Aquila Gamma defaulted towards this category. This was also to prevent information about the actions of the planet from being leaked to other planets. There were other signals used for interstellar communications, and for general use, one would switch modes. Normally, this type of communication was only used by Office No. 1 of the Security Building.
Of course, apart from these two relatively bright modes, there were also some derived, more hidden modes that could avoid surveillance— such as the one Sa’e Yang used every time he found Chu Si.
In the present, private communication between ordinary people wasn’t encrypted. But people like Sa’e Yang wouldn’t use such a bright mode at all and usually took a different approach. The most important thing was… the general public would never send out a searching and summoning signal over such a large area.
Bright, encryption, searching and summoning…
When combined, these key characteristics only suggested one possibility— that the other side was an existence with some degree of publicity.
The signal was bright because it was official business, encrypted so its location wouldn’t be determined by other planets, searching for scattered planetary fragments and ordinary people, and summoning those with official duties.
“General government, military headquarters, or Security Building,” Chu Si said. “The signal comes from one of these three.”
Tang snapped his fingers: “That’s right! Some organization has finally arrived. We don’t have to work alone anymore!” He looked both excited and relieved.
Chu Si was frying shrimp, which were giving off a savory aroma. Their thin, transparent shells were reddening bit by bit. He turned back to give them a glance, then seemed to relax a little. “Being able to send search signals over such a large area means that the scope of the organization has already been established and that it’s under the control of upper-level command. It’s not an organization with only one or two members or a scattered network. Sending a summoning signal means that part of it is still stranded outside, so it must be of a certain scale but not complete.”
Before, Tang and Guy were only focused on being happy and didn’t consider much. Now, after listening, they spoke again: “Then Executive, should we launch a response? After all, we used Fort Barney to detect them. In fact, they’re still a little out-of-range from what’s usually detectable, but very close to the location you sent me, Executive.”
Chu Si: “Oh? Very close to my current location? Send over a synchronized star map after this.”
Tang: “No problem.”
Chu Si thought for a moment. “As for sending a response, wait a while first. Don’t send it yet. Since it’s close to where I am now, I’ll take a look at the situation first.”
The unidentified military aircraft that had previously surrounded the planetary fragment hadn’t gone far. If the other party’s goal was also Jiang Qi’s research draft, then their goal obviously hadn’t been achieved. Would they give up, just like that?
Chu Si had never believed they’d really left. Perhaps they were hiding somewhere, trying to reverse spacetime.
So, he thought that sending a response signal too early wasn’t a good idea.
If the searching signal was the military headquarters, things would be easy to handle. Dozens of military aircraft were small fry for the military headquarters. But if it was the general government or the Security Building, it was impossible to determine the firepower they would have… and proving reinforcements against those military aircraft would be a bit more troublesome.
They couldn’t be rescued by the organization yet. If the organization was harmed, the situation would become even worse.
“Try to figure out if you can estimate what the other side is, and their approximate size.” Chu Si pondered for a split second before explaining to Tang and Guy.
Tang and Guy expressed that they understood.
“Oh right, how are those people from the shelter?” Chu Si asked.
“Miss Le Pen is working like a fish in water. In just a short time, she seems to have become their leader.” Tang pouted and said, “Her violent temper scared those people. They did whatever she commanded, didn’t make trouble, didn’t rebel, and didn’t make blind suggestions. I flew the aircraft over an hour ago to take a look, and the injured had all entered the medical cabins of the shelter. The rest of them familiarized themselves with the area, tidied up, settled down, and are now resting. They’re sleeping soundly, having finally found a reliable place to stay. Le Pen and Liu planned to circle the entire Emerald Harbor to see if there were any others who were awake and search for them together.”
“If I remember correctly, there are probably over a hundred thousand emergency route notification points in Emerald Harbor. First connect the energy sources of those notification points, mark each line, and then use Fort Barney to search for city-wide communication. Send notifications to their communicators at regular intervals, so that those who wake up can come to the shelter.” Chu Si explained.
“Alright.” Tang and Guy replied.
Chu Si asked, “Send the star map to me first, and I’ll see how far away the signal is. Is there anything else?”
Tang’s hand reached towards the screen, clearly intending to turn off the communicator, but Guy added, “There’s one more thing.”
“Speak.”
Guy coughed. “We can’t see clearly from our angle, but it seems the food in your pan has burnt, Executive.”
Chu Si: “………………………………………………”
Two minutes later, at the dining table, Sa’e Yang squinted at the burnt cod and shrimp on the table. His fingers lightly tapped against the table’s edge, drumming from his little finger to his index finger three times, before he drawled, “Executive, do you poison yourself this way three meals a day?”
Unable to find an excuse, Chu Si resolutely shattered what was already broken and deadpanned, “Yes, to maintain my resistance to poisons. Don’t eat if you’re afraid of dying.”
Sa’e Yang pursed his lips and admired for a while before finally reaching out his hand.
His movements were still slow and orderly, but for some reason, there was a hint of reluctance mixed with an uncontrollable curiosity. He was like a large feline beast, flipping over its food bowl and pawing at the contents.
It was rare for the two of them to have such a peaceful, face-to-face meal at the same table. Coupled with the commotion in the kitchen and the burnt food, it inexplicably gave a hint of a homely atmosphere.
Very strange, and very marvelous.
Chu Si suddenly spoke up: “Tang just received some news.”
This was probably the first time he’d taken the initiative to share information with Sa’e Yang like this. It was unclear whether this was due to the atmosphere, or because Sa’e Yang’s expression and movements were a little funny.
The person across from him was obviously also taken aback, but then he lifted his gaze and smiled, with a hint of lazy interest in his transparent eyes. “What news? Let’s hear it.”
Chu S said, “Good news, the government’s here.”
Sa’e Yang: “…”
Chu Si: “…”
The two of them stared at each other silently for two seconds before Chu Si thought, oh, I forgot. Mr. Yang was wanted for an entire seventeen years and had only just escaped prison. Meeting the government, there was only one sentence to say: “Fuck you.” If he was interested, he might even be able to direct a row of gun muzzles over.
This was really some wonderfully good news.
“Where are they now?” Sa’e Yang raised his eyebrows, asking calmly.
As soon as the words fell, Tang’s synchronized star map was sent over. Chu Si opened the holographic screen and gave a hollow laugh: “It’s over, we’re nearly face-to-face.”
loop: I’m sorry everyone, it’s been a long time 
thank you for sticking around this long~ chapters will be 1x a week on Wednesdays from now on, hopefully that’ll keep updates more consistent~
Thank you for the chapter! So happy they got to share some homely bliss time ꈍ꒳ꈍ
YAHHHHHH WE’RE BACK FOLKS!! Big cliffhanger you left us on translator, glad your back! 🥰
Oh wow!
Thank you for the update!
omg thankieees for the update!