pr: roki
After returning to the White Wolf Ship, Chu Si made Sa’e Yang return to his office to use SkyEye and the optical computer to continue decrypting the research draft from Jiang Qi’s apartment, while he himself returned to the command center.
When Shao Heng had come back before, he’d explained to Zilder Feng and the others that excessive leaping had caused problems with Chu Si’s cardiopulmonary function, which also affected his mechanical limbs. Therefore, he needed to go to the White Eagle Military Hospital to borrow a treatment device for adjustment. Although the matter was urgent, it wasn’t very serious.
Coupled with the fact that Chu Si appeared well again, although Zilder Feng and the others had many speculations, they ultimately chose to believe Shao Heng’s explanation.
Although there was a limited number of rescue personnel, every time a batch of planetary fragments was found, part of the rescuers would stay behind to help activate emergency facilities on the fragments, settle down the people who had woken up, carry out inspections and repairs of the core facilities of the shelter and other important places, and then teach the people how to use the various functional areas inside the shelter. Only then would a rescue be completed.
This kind of rescue took five hours to complete, and if any emergency equipment malfunctioned and required repair, it would take even longer.
To maximize efficiency, while those rescuers were working, the remaining rescue personnel would continue forwards and step onto the next batch of planetary fragments. There was also a group of rescuers who sent critical-condition civilians who couldn’t stay in the shelter to the White Wolf Ship.
When all rescuers were at work, a pause would appear in the rescue operation.
During this pause, there were no new voyages, and all rescue teams were settling matters on occupied planetary fragments. The current rescue operation had reached this pause, marking the end of the first day of rescues.
The command center issued an order that all rescue team members should rest for four hours after completing the rescue at hand to relieve the physical discomfort caused by multiple leaps and physical exertion, and to supplement nutrition and treat wounds.
The joint meeting between the military headquarters, the general government, and the Security Building was also able to have an intermission.
The number of people on the White Wolf Ship was noticeably higher than before. Some were rescue team members rushing in and out, and some were people with special circumstances brought back from other planetary fragments. Personnel from the medical emergency center in the living area came and went. Medical capsules were transported in rows.
Chu Si instructed Zilder Feng and the others, who had been issuing orders for a long time, to take a nap, while he led the guards to the living area to keep an eye on the emergency aid work until it was confirmed that all the people brought back had been arranged into special care level medical cabins and were under the care of professional physicians. Only after that did he walk to the place where Old Master Shao lived.
Shao Heng originally wanted to follow, but he was stopped halfway by medical personnel who said he had obvious symptoms of excessive leaping.
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.
“Although the feeling is a little similar, how could it be?” Shao Heng had a habit that many people, including Sa’e Yang and Chu Si, had. He’d shoulder minor illnesses and pains and refuse to admit them until he was about to die, as if admitting his discomfort would kill him. It was unknown where such a habit came from.
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So in the end, Chu Si was the only one who went to see Old Master Shao.
The guards brought over stood straight at the door. There were ten of them in total, five in one shift, and two shifts. Their specific purpose was to ensure Old Master Shao’s safety.
Originally, Shao Heng actually wanted the old man to live with him. After what happened before, he was a little worried about the old man’s mental state. After all, he was getting on in years. If he was really hiding from someone or something, it would be more reassuring to keep him by his side. Moreover, Shao Heng had plans in mind and wanted to use the excuse of living together to coax, deceive, and dig out what the old man was hiding.
But perhaps because of the relationship between father and son, Shao Heng’s thoughts seemed to have been discovered by Old Man Shao. The old man was not willing to live with him in the same house. The two sides fought for a long time, but the ultimate result was that each took a step back, and Old Master Shao was finally settled next door to Shao Heng.
When Chu Si walked in, the old man glanced at the guards outside the door and said with a dissatisfied expression, “What a waste! I’m an old man with death breathing down my neck. Why do I need guards? Are you really treating me like some kind of antique? I don’t want them. Take them away when you leave.”
“You’re thinking about me leaving the moment I walk in?” Chu Si avoided the guard situation and joked to Old Master Shao.
Executive Chu spoke so much nonsense on a daily basis that it was almost a physiological instinct. However, there were a few people whom, when facing them, Chu Si could restrain himself a little for. One was his adoptive father Jiang Qi, and the other was Dr. Shao.
The former went without saying, while the latter was mainly due to his period of hospitalization.
When he was hospitalized at the White Eagle Military Hospital with a broken body, he hadn’t yet left the special training camp and had been dealing with various missions all year round. A person used to that kind of life was suddenly locked up in the hospital like he was paralyzed, which was really quite unbearable. So at the beginning, Chu Si told many lies, intending to brainwash all the medical personnel in order to be discharged as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, the doctor in charge was Shao Dun. The old man was stubborn, and for patients like Executive Chu who relied on their good looks to talk nonsense all day long, he had always implemented the “Three Nos and One Everything” policy—
No showing off, no giving face, no talking back, and turn down everything.
At that time, Chu Si’s life was basically in an endless loop:
With his cold, intellectual face that could deceive people, he’d go about brainwashing all the medical personnel— succeed— see the discharge permit in sight— be caught by Old Master Shao’s stern expression and given a lecture— and then he’d be kept under stricter watch.
He’d pretend nothing happened and brainwash again— succeed— be blocked by the old man again and given a lecture— and then he’d be kept under stricter watch.
……
The final result was that instead of being discharged early, Chu Si was forced to stay by Old Master Shao for an extra month. Chu Si didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry and was nearly running out of determination.
In any case, since then, whenever he saw Old Master Shao, his habit of speaking nonsense automatically switched off.
So, if Shao Heng hoped that Chu Si would brainwash the old man, he was really counting on the wrong person. However, Chu Si still planned to give it a try. Even if he couldn’t convince this stubborn old man, at the very least, he could find some clues.
The old man didn’t have much luggage, except for what Shao Heng had helped him pack up from the things in his office at the White Eagle Military Hospital. Chu Si had heard Shao Heng say something about it before as they made their way back to the White Wolf Ship. What he helped the old man pack were some changes of clothes and essential medical kits. But before he left, the old man took with him an electronic dynamic photo album that had been casually placed on a bookshelf.
“That album itself doesn’t have much value. Most of it is photos of my mother, as well as graduation photos of the old man when he was young, and… a piddling amount of my own photos.” Shao Heng was quite dissatisfied when he introduced the photo album, and after speaking, he clasped his hands together and sighed. “Ah— every time I see this album, I feel like I’m not his biological son.”
When Chu Si sat down on the sofa in the living room, he saw the electronic photo album spread on the coffee table, which must have been the one that Shao Heng had been talking about.
The album was opened, and the old man had flipped halfway through. The dynamic video stored in a photo was still playing automatically above the album——
A group of young people wearing academic robes tidied up their clothes and hats in front of a camera, then sat down on arranged chairs. However, as soon as they sat down, the people in the second row seemed to have made a prior agreement and reached out together, pulling away chairs in the front row. As a result, the people in the first row all sat down on nothing and fell onto the ground, laughing and cursing in a heap.
Chu Si studied it for a while, then smiled and said to Old Master Shao, “Is this your graduation photo from back then?”
The old man nodded, looking at the image, and laughed as well, “Yes, we were the first graduating class of the White Eagle Military Engineering College, later renamed the White Eagle Military Academy.”
“Then that must’ve been very long ago. To be honest, I scanned through but couldn’t find where you are,” Chu Si said. “There are quite a lot of people in your major.”
Old Master Shao sighed. “We were young and only just adults back then. Look— here I am.”
Chu Si had actually only swept a glance over the people, not paying close attention to their facial features. His attention was drawn to the prank. The old man pointed to a young man in the middle of the second row, and Chu Si followed his finger and said, “You look a little like Shao Heng.”
“How could you say that, it’s that brat who looks like me,” Old Master Shao said with a ferocious expression. “But this photo isn’t a group photo of our medical school, it’s a group photo of a club. There are people from quite a few majors, you can see them in the previous photo.”
As he spoke, the photo began to replay again. Twenty or so young people tidied up their clothes and hats and entered the camera one after another. The young Dr. Shao had no expression on his face, and he even frowned as he straightened his hat, similar to the present.
“You were even in a club? What kind of club?” Chu Si asked casually as he watched the video.
In the video, Dr. Shao stood still in his place, while another young man, who seemed to be late, talked and laughed all the way to Dr. Shao’s side before stopping. Back turned, he said a few words to Dr. Shao. Chu Si subconsciously moved his gaze away from Dr. Shao’s face and watched at the young man.
When the young man turned and stood in position to face the camera, Chu Si froze.
It was clearly Jiang Qi!
The young Dr. Shao and the young Jiang Qi murmured a few words to each other, then followed the people around them and stood up straight to look at the camera. When the photographer said, “Ready…”, they smiled slightly and reached out to the chairs in the front row.
Bang—
The first row fell into a heap, the second row all laughed, even Dr. Shao, and a few fun-loving people even whistled.
The young man whose chair had been pulled away by Jiang Qi had his hat crooked, and it covered half his face, making it indiscernible. He laughed and tried to tug at Jiang Qi and Dr. Shao’s robes, but the two of them avoided him.
The twenty or so people made a lively scene, and Jiang Qi turned his head in the laughing crowd. Just as he looked towards the camera, the video reached its end and thus stayed fixed there.
Chu Si froze for a long time until the photo automatically began to play again. He looked at Master Shao, “The person standing next to you…”
“En—” Old Master Shao responded with a sigh. “I’ve always forgotten to tell you. When I was in college, I was friends with your adoptive father, Jiang Qi.”
More about Jiang Qi now? 🙀
Jiang Qi is so sus (but a nice guy sus)
yay
thank you for the chapter