What Cheng Weilu had originally thought would be a supply-buying trip that would take half a day at most had dragged on for an entire day. In the end, the two of them were invited to Zhou Yan’s estate.
Cheng Weilu lay in the medical pod for several hours. When she woke up, she found herself lying on an unfamiliar, luxurious bed.
She sat up and tugged at the smooth, soft, light-colored nightdress she was wearing, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with it. She walked into the outer room and looked around, only to find Li Xu sitting in the living room, dealing with some matters on his optical brain.
He had changed clothes as well. His clothes were crisp and obviously of excellent, expensive quality. The black fabric set off his skin, giving it a jade-like luster. Compared with Cheng Weilu, he seemed much more suited to his surroundings.
Seeing her come out, Li Xu put aside what he was doing and walked over. “Is anything still bothering you?”
“No.” Cheng Weilu shook her head. She glanced at the darkened sky beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows and the lights in the courtyard, looking somewhat bewildered. “Aren’t we going back to the spaceport? I haven’t told Robert and Xiao Wei about the change in our itinerary.”
“Zhou Yan had someone bring the spaceship over. It’s behind the estate,” Li Xu explained. “I promised Adela that I’d provide her with the fighter’s test data, so we need to stay here for three days. During that time, Zhou Yan will replenish the spaceship’s energy supply and install the weapons upgrades. After that, we’ll set off.”
A complicated, strange feeling welled up inside Cheng Weilu. She didn’t know whether it was because she wasn’t accustomed to her surroundings or because things had completely deviated from the simple plan she had initially envisioned. One unexpected development after another kept coming, and Li Xu had dragged her into one new situation after another.
Cheng Weilu returned to her room and changed back into her own clothes. The bloodstains on them had already been washed away completely. She then followed Li Xu to have dinner with Zhou Yan and Adela.
She was very quiet throughout the evening, listening as the three of them discussed the current situation within the Alliance, weapons equipment, and the military strength of various factions. To a salvager, all of those things were far too distant. At the same time, she was rather surprised that the three of them were discussing matters that could be considered confidential without making any attempt to avoid her.
After dinner, Zhou Yan clung to Adela, practically hanging off her as she dragged him away. The estate was left to the two of them.
Li Xu accompanied Cheng Weilu as they strolled leisurely through the courtyard. She watched the flowers in the greenhouse for a while, their light, temperature, and humidity precisely controlled, all sustained at considerable expense. Her expression grew somewhat downcast before she called out to Li Xu.
“That’s enough for today. Thank you for your hospitality,” Cheng Weilu said. “I’m leaving.”
Li Xu paused and frowned. “What did you say?”
“Your subordinate practically owns all of Alto Star, and apparently has a side business that covers the entire process of manufacturing and selling smuggled weapons.” Cheng Weilu furrowed her brows and looked at Li Xu in confusion. “You have no reason to insist on having me take you to Freedom Corridor anymore. He has money and connections. He can definitely help you obtain the new identity you want.”
“I don’t want the one million star coins either. It was only a verbal agreement in the first place, so let’s consider it void.” Cheng Weilu made a fist in a martial-arts-style farewell gesture. “Commander, let’s part ways here.”
With that, she turned to leave.
“Wait.” Li Xu grabbed her wrist in one motion. He used a little too much force, pulling Cheng Weilu off balance. He quickly steadied her, but he didn’t release her hand. His tone was somewhat stern. “Why void it?”
“You don’t need me anymore, do you?” Cheng Weilu said seriously. “Your subordinate can help you obtain the new identity you want. If you want to go to the Freedom Corridor, you can ask him for a spaceship with greater firepower and stronger capabilities. You could even use an official route and take a starship there once you have your new identity.”
“My spaceship is small, and it isn’t a combat vessel. Even after modification, its firepower will still be heavily restricted. I’ve seen you when you piloted the fighter jet. This ship will definitely limit your abilities.”
“I need you. I don’t agree to voiding the agreement.” Li Xu’s tone was somewhat cold and firm. He looked at Cheng Weilu. “Is it because I had you test the fighter jet and measure your mental strength today? I’m sorry that you were injured. It won’t happen again.”
“It’s not entirely because of that either.” Cheng Weilu touched her nose. Her discomfort had long since disappeared. After resting for several hours, she felt perfectly fine now. The nosebleed was probably just because she had never used a military fighter jet before and hadn’t adapted to it.
Li Xu looked intently at Cheng Weilu’s face. His gray eyes, combined with that focused expression, were extremely captivating whenever he fixed his gaze on someone. Whenever Li Xu spoke to her like this, Cheng Weilu simply couldn’t bring herself to refuse him.
But the current problem involved the journey back. Given Li Xu’s tendency to stir up trouble, the trip had barely begun and he had already become the commanding officer of the Lord of Alto City. There were still three more stretches of road and several checkpoints ahead. Cheng Weilu didn’t even dare imagine how far he would take things.
Li Xu looked at her hesitant expression. “What are you concerned about?”
Cheng Weilu touched her nose again. “Commander Li, your identity is far from ordinary. What I’m worried about is getting dragged into things again. What happened at the Gray Dove Base was just bad luck on my part. We both saved each other, so we’re even. What I want now is simply to return safely to Freedom City.”
“Ever since I met you, I feel like an unusually large number of unexpected incidents have happened. I understand that because of your special identity, the things you have to deal with are bound to be different from those of an ordinary person like me. But I’m just a salvager. I’m only suited to living a quiet, ordinary life.”
“So let’s just stop here and let me go.” Cheng Weilu tugged at her wrist.
Li Xu paused. His expression darkened, and then he released her hand.
He was unhappy.
Cheng Weilu had noticed that Li Xu only revealed his personal emotions on very rare occasions.
When she had first salvaged him, he had been extremely amiable and friendly after waking up. Yet, behind the scenes, he had quietly been making moves of his own. Even after she exposed him, his expression had remained completely unchanged.
After what happened at the Gray Dove Base, as the two of them gradually became more familiar with each other, Li Xu had begun showing more of his personal emotions around her: cunning, irritation, dejection…
Yet in front of people like Zhou Yan and Adela, he was completely different. The cold hardness of someone in a position of authority, the aloofness of a stranger…
This person was far too complicated, Cheng Weilu thought. If she continued letting herself be led around by the nose like this, she would definitely end up falling into a huge pit.
It was better to pull away in time and stay as far away from him as possible.
Naturally, Cheng Weilu didn’t manage to leave that night.
Li Xu returned to his room in a foul mood. Cheng Weilu didn’t have access to the estate’s security system, and the low-profile service robots didn’t respond to her commands to leave. In the end, she could only stay for the time being, planning to talk to Li Xu again the next day.
Early the next morning, Cheng Weilu had barely stepped out of her room when Li Xu came looking for her.
“Based on your concerns, I’ve added some supplementary clauses to the agreement.”
Li Xu projected a formal electronic contract in front of Cheng Weilu. “First, I’ve increased the contract amount to ten million star coins. The five-hundred-star-coin deposit will be transferred immediately, and the remaining balance will be settled once we reach the Freedom Corridor. Second, I must guarantee your safety throughout the journey. If you or the spaceship are injured or damaged because of me, I’ll take full responsibility, and you’ll determine the amount of compensation. How about that?”
The electronic contract was extremely detailed, with each clause listed one by one. It also stated that the agreement could be adjusted at any time according to the wishes of Cheng Weilu, the party concerned.
At the very bottom of the document was a golden electronic seal. Inside the circular ring was a mountain-shaped emblem, with some kind of writing underneath that Cheng Weilu couldn’t understand.
“This seal is my family’s private insignia. Each one has its own identification code. This agreement will remain valid permanently,” Li Xu emphasized. “Even if I die.”
Not only was he providing the money and weapons, but he was also essentially acting as her bodyguard throughout the journey to ensure her safety. Looking at Li Xu, Cheng Weilu realized that he was serious. She was utterly baffled.
“But this seems like I’m the only one benefiting. I can’t figure out why you’d do this.”
“I’m willing to.” Li Xu said, “When I say I need you, I really mean that I need you.”
“Compared with taking a starship or traveling alone to the Freedom Corridor, a place I’m completely unfamiliar with, I’d rather travel with a salvager who has extensive experience in space travel. Besides, you and I are already somewhat familiar with each other.”
Cheng Weilu sat there staring at him for a while. Li Xu showed no intention of backing down in the slightest. Somewhat helplessly, she asked, “Do I have to agree?”
“I hope you will.”
Li Xu displayed an astonishing amount of patience over the matter. Whenever Cheng Weilu refused to sign the agreement, he would sit there with a dark expression and say nothing. He would ask whether she had any other requests and continue increasing the amount. Even after Cheng Weilu refused, he still wouldn’t leave.
Li Xu stayed in the estate and wore her down for an entire day. In the end, she somehow agreed. She hadn’t even noticed how high the contract amount had been raised. She simply felt that if she refused to sign, the two of them would be stuck in this stalemate forever.
After that, the two of them stayed in Alto City for another three days. Cheng Weilu brought Robert out of the spaceship and let it move freely around the estate. With no additional housekeeping duties to perform, Robert happily spent three days on vacation in the greenhouse.
Throughout those three days, Li Xu cooperated with Adela on the fighter tests. At first, Cheng Weilu went along with them as well. She had no trouble connecting to or starting up the fighter jet, but she could never quite get the hang of operating some of its modules.
It truly was a fighter jet with outstanding performance, like a crouching beast lying in wait. Cheng Weilu only wanted to watch the beast display its agile form, not unleash it to charge out and attack and tear apart its prey.
In the end, Li Xu still performed most of the testing operations. Once he had adapted to it, his movements were incredibly smooth. He drove the fighter jet out of the hangar and shot rapidly into the sky, nimbly dodging Adela’s attack-test missiles and striking the test formation.
Cheng Weilu couldn’t help but marvel. Unlike her, this person was probably born for the battlefield.
Zhou Yan successfully installed the weapons and equipment Li Xu had selected onto Cheng Weilu’s spaceship. Adela also performed some maintenance and upgrades on Xiao Wei, allowing it to adapt to and successfully operate those devices.
After obtaining all the test data, Adela gave that fighter jet to Li Xu. It was dismantled into smaller modules and placed in the rear cargo hold of Cheng Weilu’s spaceship. She also equipped him with an assembly robot that could quickly piece the modules back together whenever they needed to use the fighter jet.
During those days, Zhou Yan came to see Li Xu many times. When the two of them talked in the living room, Li Xu made it clear that there was no need to avoid Cheng Weilu.
Of course, Cheng Weilu usually excused herself anyway. Even so, she still overheard some key phrases, such as “Arvid,” “the cabinet faction interfering,” “colluding with pirates,” “the mole,” and “the secret legion.” These things should all be related to the accident Li Xu had suffered back then. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have awakened from hibernation only to keep concealing his identity.
So what Li Xu wanted to do should probably be the kind of story with keywords like “returning from the dead,” “revenge,” and “reclaiming everything that once belonged to him.”
Cheng Weilu had read plenty of stories like that, so she was very familiar with the usual plot.
On one hand, she felt that the beautiful-but-tragic character archetype really did suit Li Xu. On the other hand, she felt somewhat melancholy. She truly had no great interest in this sort of thing.
Finally, the day of departure drew near. Looking at the spaceship, now fully equipped after the modifications, and at Cheng Weilu, who had barely spoken over the past few days, Li Xu felt a slight pang of guilt for a brief moment.
He remembered what Adela had said while comparing the data from Cheng Weilu and himself during the fighter tests.
“The two of you really have completely different mental temperaments. If this fighter jet were a cheetah, you’d have a clear target and release it to tear into its prey, whereas Cheng Weilu would simply want to let it run freely across the wilderness.”
“For a piece of military equipment, your aggressiveness is more suitable. Cheng Weilu’s style is too peaceful, too…” Adela narrowed her eyes as she looked at the sky beyond the glass walls at the top of the hangar. “Too pure. Too free.”
Li Xu thought that he was about to drag someone pure and free into a vortex.
But for the sake of accomplishing what he needed to do, he had to do it. Cheng Weilu was the only person he had encountered who made him feel there was hope of changing the course of that event.
“I don’t know what you’re actually planning to do. I’m only taking you to the Freedom Corridor. Just don’t get us killed along the way,” Cheng Weilu said.
“Us?”
“Me, Xiao Wei, and Robert. I’ve already purchased an online data-hosting service for Xiao Wei, and Robert will stay inside the spaceship. As long as this spaceship stays intact, it should be fine.” Cheng Weilu paused. “As for me, do whatever you want. After all, you wrote that agreement.”
“Anyone else?”
“…Anyone else what?”
“Nothing.” Li Xu lowered his eyelids.
…
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