After Qin Fei stepped into the cabin, she first glanced around the "Noah" and then fixed her gaze on Qin Chu.
This gaze was peculiar, carrying a sense of inquiry, doubt, and something Qin Chu couldn't understand.
He lowered his eyes to avoid Qin Fei's gaze, but noticed that Qin Fei quickly reached out her hand.
Qin Chu subconsciously raised his hand to block, but stopped halfway, letting Qin Fei pinch his face and pull it hard.
The Noah remained silent; no one felt offended by Qin Fei's actions towards Qin Chu.
The person following behind Qin Fei was somewhat surprised. Chu He coughed lightly and reminded Qin Fei, "Tone it down."
Qin Fei withdrew her hand, without explaining the meaning of her action or saying anything else, and simply led the people behind her into the starship.
"Check for weapons and contraband," she said.
This seemed like a perfectly normal screening process.
Just as everyone on the warship came over, Qin Fei suddenly fixed her gaze on a young-looking crew member on the Noah and abruptly kicked him in the left leg.
The team member rolled over, instinctively dodging the attack.
Everyone around was stunned for a moment.
Military training follows certain procedures, meaning that people who graduate from military academies tend to have similar skills.
Qin Fei took the simplest test imaginable.
If she were from the intelligence department, she would deliberately change this habit, but she just happened to pick a military academy student who hadn't even graduated yet.
The team members were sweating profusely.
Qin Fei didn't say anything, but only asked the other members to continue the investigation.
As the investigation deepened, some unexpected events gradually came to light.
There are always people who look up and see a familiar yet unfamiliar face.
Even with strict discipline, some soft whispers could still be heard.
"Damn, Lao Chen? Weren't you resting?"
"The face imitation is pretty good, but it looks a bit old. You need to keep working on it."
"Hey, no, I didn't touch you, why are you crying?"
Similar words rang out everywhere, before fading into a heavy and bewildered silence.
The test did not last very long.
No matter how well prepared, the Noah could never fully meet the testing requirements, because it was built as a replica of a warship.
However, Qin Fei didn't say anything after she came out of the weapons bay.
She glanced at Qin Chu again, but neither pointed out any violations nor allowed him to leave. She simply led her people away from the Noah.
No one urged them on.
Everyone seemed to be waiting patiently, as if they wanted to stay in this dangerous yet stable atmosphere for just one more second, to take one more look.
The passageway for the inter-ship alliance was not closed, nor were the hatches shut.
The First Warship and the Noah, together, stayed at this location, like a brief yet long intersection of two points in time.
The surrounding aircraft were still circling, and they hadn't retrieved their weapons.
But during the rest period after dinner, someone walked through that makeshift passage. They peered into the Noah, looked left and right, and then followed the familiar path to find a familiar face.
Looking at these people who seemed a bit older, although they kept saying "Your face imitation is pretty good," they couldn't help but tease each other like old friends.
This situation continued, with more and more people coming from the first warship.
Some people had to go on patrol at night, so they left again when it was time to change shifts. Others rested at night and simply slept in their rooms on the Noah, only returning home yawning the next day.
Some crew members on the Noah couldn't hold back their tears and broke down in sobs, startling the people coming from the other side.
But after crying, he didn't say anything, just waved his hand and said, "Get lost. I know you like to skip training. You must have sneaked here this time."
For a time, these people seemed to have forgotten about returning to their home port, and they kept running back here every day with great enthusiasm.
Qin Chu saw all this but did not stop it.
Qin Fei obviously did not stop it.
As Qin Chu passed by the hatch, he glanced over through the passageway.
The hatches of the first warship were not closed.
Just as he was about to leave, Levi suddenly appeared, grabbed his hand, and pointed towards the passageway: "Let's go take a look, maybe we can find some information."
Qin Chu hesitated for two seconds, then nodded.
The two boarded the first warship from thirty years ago through the passageway.
The open hatch was right near the cockpit. Qin Chu and Levi walked out and saw Qin Fei and Chu He sitting in front of the control panel.
"They've got some nerve, daring to come over here." Qin Fei glanced in their direction.
Qin Chu remained silent, while Levi replied with a smile, "How can it be that you're allowed to go over but we're not allowed to come over?"
Chu He chuckled and shook his head, then turned to Qin Fei and said gently, "Didn't you think it's good to be bolder?"
Qin Fei glanced at Qin Chu again and answered Chu He's question: "Yes, I told you so. If we had met a few years earlier, you might not have been in the picture."
Chu He clicked his tongue, clearly displeased.
Levi was even more annoyed than him, and said directly, "That might not work. He's mine now."
As soon as he said this, Chu He and Qin Fei both turned to stare at him.
That look... even Levi felt a bit of pressure.
The two strolled around the warship for a while, with Chu He following beside them.
He was clearly a smooth talker, and seemed very gentle, more like a school teacher than a soldier.
Levi couldn't help but lean close to Qin Chu's ear and say, "How come you didn't inherit any of his traits?"
Qin Chu gave him a light kick, signaling him to shut up.
After they finished speaking, they looked up and saw Chu He watching them from a short distance away with a smile on his face.
When Qin Fei returned to the cockpit after making a round, she was looking at the photo album again.
“She’s watched it eight hundred times and she’s never tired of it,” Chu He said.
"This kid doesn't like taking pictures, so what can I do with just these few?" Qin Fei said irritably.
Qin Chu still felt a sense of unreality as he listened to their conversation.
He knew the two men were talking about him, but he couldn't immediately connect the conversation to himself.
Levy, however, became interested.
He walked over to Qin Fei, pointed to the photo album in her hand, and asked, "Can I take a look?"
Qin Fei clearly didn't want to agree.
But perhaps thinking of what Levi had just said, she glanced at Qin Chu, then tossed the digital photo album to Levi.
Levy watched with great interest.
The picture above shows Qin Chu as a fair-skinned little dumpling, but his aloof attitude was already very obvious from a young age. The way he stared at the camera in his 100-day photo was very intimidating.
Later, as he grew older, he carried a small schoolbag, wore a kindergarten uniform, and looked like a little adult.
However, during this period, perhaps due to the subjects of the photos refusing to participate, the number of photos decreased significantly.
Perhaps every mother has the desire to show off her child. Even someone as indifferent as Qin Fei couldn't help but chime in when she saw how intently Le Wei was watching.
"He's been like this since he was little, he'll stay silent for half a day, he won't even cry."
Chu He chimed in with a laugh, "He wasn't even calling me 'Dad' by the time he was three. We thought there was something wrong with his throat. We took him to the hospital and went through all that trouble, and then he blurted out, 'I have nothing to say,' which almost drove us crazy."
Levy laughed for a long time after hearing this.
She flipped to another photo and pointed to a spot, saying, "You have to do everything yourself. This is because you were thirsty and didn't want to call the nanny, so you poured boiling water on yourself and scalded yourself."
Levi looked up at Qin Chu and said, "It's still like this now."
Chu He and Qin Chu stood aside, watching the two flip through the photo album.
Suddenly, Chu He looked at Qin Chu and asked, "How old are you now?"
“Thirty-seven years old,” Qin Chu said.
"Thirty-seven and you're a captain?" Chu He was somewhat surprised, then smiled. It was unclear whether he didn't believe it or meant something else.
After a while, he said again, "When I was thirty-seven, you... had a three-year-old child. And you now?"
This topic surprised Qin Chu and made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.
Parents pressuring their children to get married seems to be a common occurrence, but it didn't happen to Qin Chu.
His adoptive father persisted in this for a while when he was alive, but later he probably came to his senses and gave up completely.
But what Chuhe is saying now is different from what his adoptive father used to say.
It felt both more unfamiliar and more intimate, with a touch of Chuhe's unique subtlety.
"I have... a boyfriend," Qin Chu said.
"Hmm?" Chu He raised an eyebrow.
Qin Chu raised his chin and pointed at Levi: "It's him."
"Really?" Chu He was somewhat surprised. "I thought... you would refuse."
He stared at Levi for a while, then smiled and said, "It's good, it needs to be balanced out."
No one questioned the meaning of these words, nor did they investigate who the other person was.
They asked as if it were a casual question, yet it also seemed as if they gradually came to know everything.
When Qin Chu returned to the Noah, he saw two people joking around on the deck.
"Get lost. Everyone knows you have a deck of cards hidden in your foot bath," said the older-looking man.
The younger one was taken aback: "Oh, you even know that."