Qin Muge reached out to stroke her black hair. Chaoge's sleeping posture was actually a bit restless, especially when she was held in Qin Muge's arms. She couldn't help but move around, and her furrowed brows looked like a pleated bun.
Chaoge felt that if she lay down any longer, she would want to sleep until dawn the next day. So she had to sit up to wake herself up. But because she moved too quickly, her hair felt like it was stuck in something. She reached out and touched her hair, feeling that if she pulled any harder, she would pull out a few strands.
"It's tangled." Qin Muge's voice was tinged with laughter as he reached out and broke off a section of his hair, thankfully only a few strands.
Chaoge tilted her head and stared at her expressionless face. Seeing her dazed look, Qin Muge reached out and pinched her soft cheek. Her eyes still held the same smile as always, and she was so lazy that she didn't even want to say a word. So she asked her with concern in her eyes what was wrong.
Unexpectedly, Chaoge suddenly reached out and covered her beautiful eyes. Anyone who saw those red eyes would be captivated, and Chaoge was no exception, but she just didn't want to see her smile at that moment.
The rest of her features, even with her eyes obscured, remained as exquisite as ever. The lines of her profile were as beautiful as a painting. Chaoge leaned closer to her delicate face, turned her head slightly, and gently touched her moist lips with her own. She didn't let her see her expression, the slightly furrowed brows, or the indescribable sadness in her eyes.
Chaoge felt she understood Qin Muge less and less, and this wasn't just her imagination. She didn't know what had happened during her efforts to catch up with her, but she couldn't think of any way to comfort her, so this was all she could do.
Qin Muge's eyes were as bright as peach blossoms, so beautiful they could lie, and for some reason Chaoge was afraid to meet their gaze.
Qin Muge was touched. His fingers, which were resting on the bed, twitched as if he wanted to take Chaoge's hand away, but he refrained from doing so.
Chaoge's rare initiative shouldn't be interrupted, no matter how much she wanted to say. A self-deprecating look appeared in Qin Muge's eyes, but no one could see it.
The arrogant General Qin, the one who held absolute power in the Crystalless Empire and the Red Cloud Galaxy, was desperately suppressing the regret that was rising in her heart. She had personally laid a huge net, calculating everyone but overlooking her own heart.
For the first time in her life, she even felt afraid, afraid that she would regret it.
Since they got together, the kiss, intertwined with the most complex emotions, lasted gently and quietly for several minutes.
After putting her hand down, Chaoge looked relaxed again. She turned around and sat on the edge of the bed to put on her shoes. As she bent over to tie her shoelaces, she said, "I want to eat your cooking~"
Qin Muge also stood up, her slender, beautiful fingers smoothing her long hair. She slipped on her spotless white military boots, which hugged her shapely calves, making her long legs so beautifully proportioned that it was impossible to look away. Fortunately, from the first time Chaoge saw her, she knew what kind of goddess-level figure she was dealing with, and the thought that such a beautiful person was hers filled her with immense satisfaction.
Since the homework was finished and it happened to be the weekend, Chaoge calmly prepared to go and watch her handle official business at the palace.
Qin Muge smiled beautifully and took her hand. "Weren't you curious about how I appeared?"
Just when Chaoge thought she was going to tell her the answer, Qin Muge blinked her right eye and slowly continued under Chaoge's expectant gaze: "I'm not going to tell you."
Chaoge: ...
#Even though it's not the first time I've known how awful she is, why do I still stubbornly hold onto hope for her?#
↑In short, the "I'm so stupid" series.
As Chaoge left the dormitory, she was still wondering how to explain this guy's sudden appearance in the Yuandu Military Academy student dormitory, given his standard Imperial General uniform.
As soon as she took a step, she found herself in a bizarre and fantastical world, as if she had stepped into a rift in time and space. If Qin Muge hadn't been holding her up, she felt she would have been lost in this world filled with colorful blocks all around her.
"What's going on..." Chaoge blinked. At times like this, she felt that eyesight was the least important thing, because she couldn't tell the direction at all, and she didn't even know where her next step would land.
Qin Muge turned to look at her. To Chaoge, Qin Muge was now the only real person in the world. His red eyes reflected various colors, making them shine even brighter. His smile remained unchanged as he continued, "Close your eyes and come with me."
A door a few rooms away from Chaoge's dormitory opened silently. Sikong Yufu leaned against the door frame with her arms crossed, looking in the direction of Chaoge's dormitory, seemingly determined to remain in that position forever.
☆ Chapter 44: The forty-fourth evaluation of General Qin
Chaoge had never known that the AI's network could be used for spatial positioning and teleportation. The feeling of being able to travel the world at will was truly... terrifying.
Although Qin Muge didn't see her expression, he had already anticipated her reaction and said without turning his head, "Don't overthink it. Not everyone has this authority."
That's true, there's also the issue of permissions.
Speaking of permissions, Chaoge remembered this matter. Last time, Little Red Riding Hood suddenly told her that her current permissions were at the same level as Qin Muge's, which meant that if she wanted, all the recordable data of the Crystalless Empire would be open to her.
Yan Chen's story was exactly the same as what Little Red Riding Hood had told her. However, judging from Chao Ge's intuition, if the matter was really more than what she had seen, then the truly unknown part must be the part that everyone kept secret.
The interaction with General Qin was no different from usual, until something happened in the afternoon—a planet around the Emperor Star lost contact with the main star and was completely destroyed.
The fleet seemed to appear out of nowhere behind Tianzi Star. No one knew how it bypassed the entire Red Cloud System's reconnaissance teams and silently attacked Tianzi Star's outer defense zone. Tianzi Star was surrounded by seven planets, each providing either energy or food to the main star. Tianzi Star had also deployed a considerable number of military facilities on these seven planets, using them as its defensive perimeter.
Even during the height of the Red Cloud Galaxy war, no one could break through this impenetrable wall. Now, not only have the people of the P4 Nebula circled around to the rear, but they have also occupied a planet!
The Red Cloud Star System military completely blocked the news, and Qin Muge knew about it before anyone else. Chaoge would always remember that afternoon, when she was woken from her nap. Qin Muge had his hands on her shoulders, his red eyes crinkling with laughter, as if nothing serious had happened. "Darling, you should go back to school."
However, the background noise for the two was a level one alarm sound that had never been heard in the palace before, but had only been seen in textbooks.
Chaoge couldn't remember how she got dressed and put on her shoes, or how Qin Muge sent her into that information transmission channel. She subconsciously turned around to take her hand, but only touched the black glove before missing it.
She saw Qin Muge turn around and walk outside without hesitation; his tall, slender figure in his white military uniform became the last image she saw him that month.
Even as she stepped out of the corridor and her boots touched the dormitory floor, her expression remained blank. The next second, a knock sounded at the door. She snapped out of her daze, went to open it, and saw Sikong Yufu outside. She paused for a second when she saw her casual clothes, then smiled and said, "Didn't you see the notice? Hurry up and change your clothes, the school is having a group meeting."
[Yuandu Military Academy just sent a notification to every student's terminal, requiring them to change into their military uniforms and assemble in the school's auditorium in twenty minutes.] In fact, Little Red Riding Hood had already told Chaoge about this in the corridor, but Chaoge seemed completely absorbed in her own world, so Little Red Riding Hood had to remind her again.
Chaoge nodded to indicate she understood, closed the door, and went back to her dormitory. Picking up her school uniform, she casually asked Little Red Riding Hood, "How long did I walk in there?"
"When the information channel is unstable, time may differ from reality. You walked for fifteen minutes, but two hours have passed here." Little Red Riding Hood answered her methodically, her tone somewhat serious.
In other words, within those two hours, the entire upper echelons of the Tianzi Star military had received the news, and orders at all levels had been relayed. Chaoge, still fastening his military uniform jacket, asked Little Red Riding Hood again, "Is it true that one of Tianzi Star's subsidiary planets has been occupied?"
Even knowing that Little Red Riding Hood had used her privileges to connect all the networks on Tianzixing, Chaoge still made sure to do a final check.
Little Red Riding Hood really wanted to roll her eyes at her, too angry to talk to Chaoge. Chaoge nodded to herself, indicating that she completely understood. With only the cufflinks left, she flicked her wrist and fastened one in a second with one hand.
Following Sikong Yufu to the venue, Chaoge realized that the meeting was quite different from what she had imagined, most notably in the number of attendees. Yuandu Military Academy couldn't possibly have only this many students; her gaze swept around and she discovered that those present were all descendants of prominent military families.
This, of course, includes Yan Ziyu and Yan Xi.
Although the seats in the huge conference hall were chosen by the participants themselves, everyone seemed to have a sense of self-discipline and automatically sat down from far to near according to some kind of pattern.
Yan Xi and Yan Ziyu sat closest to the principal and the three major families. After Sikong Yufu and Chaoge arrived, they showed no interest in moving forward and sat down at the very edge. As a result, those who came in later saw Yan Xi and Yan Chaoge's seats and began to secretly plot their next move.
When the principal announced the news that had alarmed Tianzixing, some people cooperated by showing expressions of surprise, but the vast majority of people reacted as if they already knew, just waiting for the principal to explain why he had come to them this time.
The family holds high-ranking positions in the military, so such students are naturally outstanding in Yuandu. Class leaders and small group leaders are all here, and the children who have close ties with the three major military families naturally receive certain preferential treatment, especially since they are already studying hard.
The reason the principal had to personally intervene was because the entire army and commander of the affiliated planet had been wiped out, and the Allied forces and the P4 Nebula's army on the front lines had already clashed. Within just one hour, one-tenth of the troops had fallen into chaos with command paralysis.
【Little Red Riding Hood.】 In a strange tone, Chaoge called out to a certain AI that seemed to be playing dead.
When Little Red Riding Hood realized that downplaying her presence wasn't working, she could only argue, "I...I...I only mentioned the network connection to Tianzixing. The Alliance Legion is too far away; it's normal that I can't connect to that network."
"So the Alliance Legion's messages bypassed the vast network of the Crystalless Empire and directly connected with General Qin's brainwaves?" Chaoge sneered inwardly and asked.
Little Red Riding Hood: 【…You're mocking me.】
Yes, any objections?
[You mocked me! How dare you mock me! Do you believe I'll crash right now?] Little Red Riding Hood pulled out her trump card.
Chaoge: ...Having a stubborn brat like Zhinao is such a draining thing.
The army's communications were cut off by the enemy, and its doorstep was attacked. The once invincible Wujing Empire became a joke at this moment. However, the most ridiculous part was not that.
The principal proposed that some senior command students could directly enter the army after graduation, and everyone present agreed. However, Yan Ziyu and some directors belonging to the three major families proposed several students, but none of them were in this meeting room.
They believed from the bottom of their hearts that the Crystalless Empire was invincible. Even when faced with the largest defeat in history, they still thought that as long as they sent a few people out to die, the command in the rear would surely be able to stabilize the situation.
Chaoge suddenly felt a pang of sorrow for Qin Muge. The invincible legend she had created, the person she had tried so hard to protect, had ended up like this. These armchair strategists were all incredibly capable, yet they couldn't even see the greatest crisis in the history of the Wujing Empire.
The most terrifying thing about war is that you don't know when it will strike. You might have been planning your trip last night before bed, only to be jolted awake by a cannon blast the next day, plunging you from heaven to hell.
Future high-tech wars will be even more terrifying, happening directly in our dreams, disappearing silently along with the entire planet into the vast universe.
Chaoge watched them as if they were a live, absurd drama, but she wondered if she herself was also a laughingstock in other people's eyes. Like the ancient story of the man who looked up at the sky every day, wondering if it would collapse; later generations called this story "The Man of Qi Who Worried About the Sky Falling."
Chaoge turned her head casually and saw that Sikong Yufu's face was calm. It was a calm that seemed to be indifferent to her affairs, making her look even more like an outsider than she did.
Noticing her gaze, Sikong Yufu turned her eyes over, smiled slightly, and gave her a reassuring smile, as if she had seen through her worries.
Chaoge then looked at the principal and the group of directors. Yan Xi and Yan Ziyu also participated in the discussion. It was hard to imagine that students of a school could participate in the school's planning process. However, the people who participated in the discussion actually determined the fate of another group of people.
Yan Xi's gaze suddenly shifted to Chaoge, a hint of smugness appearing in her eyes. She actually spoke up, "To prove how much the Yan family values this experience, I propose that our family's Yan Chaoge be chosen. I've heard that her performance in her field is outstanding. As her older sister, I believe this opportunity for practical training will be very useful for her. It can also, to some extent, supplement the lack of talent on the empire's front lines. Chaoge, are you confident in this?"
Sikong Yufu's eyes flickered slightly as she looked in Yan Xi's direction, then glanced indifferently at Yan Ziyu beside her, before calmly looking away and focusing on the back of the chair in front of her, as if she had just routinely checked who the spokesperson was.
Yan Ziyu suddenly felt a chill and immediately looked at Sikong Yufu, thinking that she had not offended this eldest daughter of the Si family, so why was her gaze so unsettling?
"Do you believe me if I say I'm confident I can beat you down right here?" Chaoge's gaze wandered aimlessly, as if he hadn't heard her words at all.
Yan Xi pretended not to see her reaction and was about to make a decision for her, but Chao Ge suddenly changed the subject the moment she opened her mouth: "I have no problem with that. Since the principal and leaders of the military academy agree that General Qin's biggest defeat since taking office is not a big problem, I don't mind going to the front line to see the world according to everyone's idea."
These words were hardly polite, and even subtly insulted some people. The cold treatment she received at the Yan family didn't teach her any restraint; instead, it made her even more arrogant than before.
"You mean, with your first-year knowledge, you want to analyze the current situation on Tianzixing for the teachers and students here?" Yan Xi's response was extremely impolite. Yan Ziyu, sitting next to her, showed the same expression on her face. The two were so close that they looked almost identical.
Chaoge, on the other hand, adopted a "I'm here to teach you a lesson" attitude, standing up with his hands behind his back and speaking seriously about his views. Having spent so much time with Qin Muge, he'd learned nothing but how to act pretentious: "Since the Tianzixing's AI system has become increasingly complete, and General Qin's own strength has led the people of Tianzixing to develop a blind dependence on the country's system and leadership, to the point that even when others are attacking their doorstep, they're still immersed in the dream of the empire being the strongest. The biggest problem is that the command system was paralyzed so quickly."
If the AI on Tianzi Star is truly omnipotent as described in the books, then its terminal should be immune to all poisons. The current paralysis of the command system strongly suggests a new type of virus capable of threatening the AI. I don't know what makes everyone so blindly trusting of it. In my view, if the Empire fails to retaliate against the P4 Nebula's provocation on its doorstep, the destruction of the entire Red Cloud system is only a matter of time.
One person's insight has led to questions about the survival of the galaxy. If Chaoge were to summarize her topic with a list of taboo words, her words today would be entirely censored. She not only questioned the AI and the authority system, but also, to some extent, opposed the state and society; she must be arrested and used as a negative example.
However, no alarms were triggered on anyone's smart terminal, including the entire Yuandu conference room's surveillance system. Everyone else was stunned by her bold and thoughtless remarks, except for Sikong Yufu, who looked up at her, her hand supporting her chin, her index finger touching the corner of her eye, and a slight smile appearing on her lips.
If there were a more perceptive person sitting here, they would surely have realized what Chaoge's words implied. However, those scheming individuals were all gathered at the military meeting, not forgetting to seize every opportunity to strike at their opponents.
A faint smile played on Sikong Yufu's lips, a mixture of surprise and understanding. "My dear Chaoge, she has indeed entrusted you with the highest authority on the entire Tianzi Star. Such a generous gift, delivered to my hands, how could I refuse?"
☆ Chapter 45: The Forty-Fifth Evaluation of General Qin
While everyone was still in a daze, Sikong Yufu calmly stood up, one hand on the armrest of her chair. She tugged at Chaoge's sleeve and suddenly seemed to remember something: "Ah, I'm sorry, teachers and students. Due to the urgent meeting, her previous high fever may have had some impact on her brain. I'll take her to get checked out."
When Chaoge turned her head, her delicate face filled with "What are you doing, undermining me?", she was pulled away by a tremendous force. The strange strength made it seem as if Chaoge was following her out, but only she knew that she was being forced.
After leaving the conference room where even the air felt nauseous, Chaoge swung her arms and casually complained, "You're really strong... But did you come out so early? Is there something you need to do?"
Sikong Yufu, who was walking ahead, suddenly narrowed her eyes, paused, turned around and looked at her with a look in her eyes that Chaoge could not understand, and suggested, "Let's go to the cafeteria for lunch."
ha?
Chaoge looked up at the sky in confusion, then looked Sikong Yufu up and down. After a long while, she managed to squeeze out the words: "...Actually, you were the one with the fever, weren't you? I remember you didn't really like going to the cafeteria."
Sometimes Sikong Yufu really wanted to pry open her brain to see if it was brain matter or mush inside.
She had discovered everything that needed to be discovered, yet seemed to have missed something that she should have understood. Was she faking it or was she genuinely confused? Sikong Yufu was a little unsure.
She met Chaoge's questioning gaze without batting an eye, then suddenly put on a smile that was exactly the same as always. Her bright eyes and white teeth were especially warm in the sunlight, and her eyes were also filled with a little bit of laughter: "How could that be? I'm just too lazy to go to the Yuandu cafeteria, you know that."
It refers to the adorable little puppy in her dorm room.
Chaoge suddenly realized that her memory had deteriorated to the point that even such a cute creature couldn't contain it. Somewhat embarrassed, she reached up and smoothed her long, curly hair behind her head. She blinked, trying to get away with being cute. After all, it would seem rather heartless to forget about her friends after spending the last few days together.
Very well, it seems she really wasn't faking it; she was genuinely naive. Sikong Yufu stared at her expression for a long time, feeling a sense of helplessness for the first time. However—her return was imminent, and her time was running out.