Chapter 25.3: Be Even (3)

“You…  want to fight me?”

“No, it’s a kind of exercise for you.” Chu Rong answered with a cold expression. He retracted his hands, stood up, tidied up his wrinkled military uniform, coldly glanced at Lin Zhen, and turned away with cold air all over his body.

Lin Zhen followed him. Halfway through, he seemed to think of something. He looked back at Qiao Zhiya and said, “Don’t learn from him.” After speaking, he left.

Qiao Zhiya watched them leave, touched his back collar, and his ears moved—was it a provocation? But every time the White-Haired Monster grabbed his collar, he paid attention and never made him uncomfortable.

The warship landed at the port dedicated to the Military Department. Everyone gathered at the exit hatch and waited to leave the ship. Qiao Zhiya was also stuffed into the medical team by a medical assistant who came up.

“Xiao Rong¹[Xiao (小) literally translates to ‘little,’ which is an address of endearment, often used by elderly or someone older to the young. In this case, the caller addresses Chu Rong.] is back.” A gray-haired middle-aged man greeted him with a smile. He reached out his hand affectionately to pat Chu Rong’s shoulder, and said, “Don’t run around again when you come back this time. How can you personally go to inspect the border? Your health should always be your priority. I let the military vacate the medical room. Why don’t you have a check-up first?”  

“Lieutenant General Wei, how can I trouble you?” Chu Rong avoided his hand without a trace, and said in a polite but estranged greeting, “It’s unnecessary. I don’t like this special treatment and wastage of military resources.”  

After shutting two arguments with just one sentence,²[It’s actually ‘slamming two hats down.’ It’s related to government officials having hats.] the expressions of people behind Lieutenant General Wei changed, but Lieutenant General still smiled cordially, as if he didn’t hear Chu Rong’s implication. He stretched out his hand to pull a young girl next to him and said, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. It’s better to go back and have a rest early. Your spiritual power is unstable, you should not be exhausting your body. This is Xiao Ci. She was admitted to the Federal Military Academy this year. I heard that you came back today, so I took the initiative to ask for—”

The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.

“Tso eslp vbl rlapsd kd nbyatl xydytl vbl rsav sq vbl Ykzkvyau Plryavxldv vs yzzso y nyelv vs nywpyzzu ldvla yde zlyhl?” Ubw Ssdt kdvlaawrvle bkx, bkp lmralppksd clnsxkdt eyaj, yde oyhle bkp byde. Tl pyke, “Dkydtdyd, zlv vbl rlapsd kd nbyatl oakvl y alhklo. Mbl hkszyvsa pbswze cl rwdkpble. Tso nyd R alpv yppwale vbyv vbl pzyhl plvvzlxldv kp pvkzz xu sod cwpkdlpp?”

Wyd Dkydtdyd alprsdele yde kxxlekyvlzu vssj swv bkp nsxxwdknyvsa vs nsdvynv vbl nsxxyde assx sq vbl rsav.

Gqvla clkdt pzyrrle zkjl vbkp, vbl pxkzl sd Nklwvldydv Qldlayz Elk’p qynl qkdyzzu nswze dsv cl xykdvykdle. Mbl lmralppksd kd bkp lulp pydj. Mbl tkaz clpkel bkx czwpble yde bke clbkde bkx.

Mbl pkzldv pxsjl sq twdrsoela qkzzle vbl qasdv, cwv tsppkr qzlo qypv vs vbl xleknyz vlyx.³[Rd svbla osaep, ‘Mbl qasdv oyp qkzzle okvb vldpksd yde pwnb lhldvp(dlop) kxxlekyvlzu alynble vbl xleknyz vlyx yv vbl cynj.]

“Tlal’p ydsvbla sdl. Mpj, vpj, vpj.” Mbl yppkpvydv pkpvla⁴[Gdsvbla vlax: yppkpvydv mkys fklfkl] pbssj bla blye kd ekptwpv yde obkprlale vs vbl lya sq vbl rlapsd dlmv vs bla, “Xwa qyxkzu’p Ubklq⁵[Mblu yal dsv alyzzu qyxkzu kd y czsse-alzyvle oyu. Vlavykdkdt vs psxlsdl yp ‘qyxkzu’ kp psxl psav sq yd yeealpp sq qyxkzkyakvu sa qakldepbkr.] kp alyzzu rsrwzya. Wkapv, vbl ralpkeldv bkdvle yv yaaydtkdt y xyaakytl qsa vbl Ubklq. Tl oyp ps ydtau vbyv bl ayd vs ryvasz vbl csaela yde bke. Tl oyp rwzzle cu vbl Elk qyxkzu fwpv yqvla bl nyxl cynj. Ebyv y talyv nyvnb bl kp.”

“Mbl uswdtlpv xyapbyz sq vbl Wlelayvksd, okvb pvasdt qyxkzu cynjtaswde. Ebu osd’v bl cl rsrwzya?” Mbl yppkpvydv casvbla⁶[Gdsvbla vlax: yppkpvydv mkys tltl] alrzkle yde pyke kd y zso hsknl, “Mblu yal qsankdt vbl Ubklq vs pvyde cu vblka pkel. Mblka vbswtbvp yal yzxspv oakvvld sd vblka qynlp. R blyae vbyv lhld vbl Oxrkal yzps xlydp vs okd shla vbl Ubw qyxkzu cu xyaakytl.”

Mbl yppkpvydv pkpvla lmnzykxle. Fllkdt vbyv vbl rlsrzl yaswde bla zssjle shla, pbl iwknjzu zsolale bla hsknl yde ypjle, “Oxrkal? Rv’p dsv y plnalv vbyv vbl Ubklq byvlp vbl Rxrlakyz qyxkzu. Ebyv yal vblu vbkdjkdt? Psd’v vblu byhl ydu caykdp?”

“R fwpv blyae kv. Psd’v pralye kv swvpkel.” Mbl yppkpvydv casvbla’p hsknl clnyxl kdnalypkdtzu zsola yp bl pyke, “Gduoyu, vbl pkvwyvksd kp wdnzlya dso. Ohlau kdqzwldvkyz qyxkzu’p clpv—”

“What are you doing?”  

Zhuang Yu suddenly interrupted their conversation. She reached out to pull out Qiao Zhiya who was standing next to them, glared at the two, and said, “Talk less and don’t guess what’s running in the heads of those people above. Be careful to get into trouble!”  

The two assistants were silent and respectfully stopped chatting.

After advising her subordinates, Zhuang Yu walked forward with Qiao Zhiya. Seeing him with a thoughtful look, she frowned and explained, “Don’t listen to those rumours. Chief did not inspect the border because of an arranged marriage, and he won’t marry just for connections. Don’t believe the messy news outside, be careful to be deceived. Have you seen those people outside? One of the four influential families of the Federation, the Wei family, has a good relationship with the Xiang family.⁷[Kris Xian: Remember those people who sent thieves and human traffickers to Chu family’s mining star?] He came here today and brought a girl with him. The purpose is not just to pull strings, but also to monitor these slaves and help the Xiang family kill them and cover up their scandal.”  

Qiao Zhiya’s line of thought was immediately shifted to this intriguing news, and he felt that he couldn’t understand it—what was this place? Intrigue⁸[勾心斗角 pertains to fighting and scheming against each other.] and murder were so common. It was no wonder that his father said that human society was very complicated, and it was best not to set foot in it.

“When you follow the Chief in the future, you will face all kinds of unprovoked hostility, kindness, and temptation. You have to learn to distinguish them.” Zhuang Yu sincerely and earnestly instructed him. She patted him on the shoulder, looked at his innocent, tender, and immature appearance, and sighed.

For such a simple cutie, she was only hoping that the Chief would give some strength to protect him, and also wished that this cutie would grow up quickly.

Without knowing how the discussions went outside, as Qiao Zhiya left with Zhuang Yu, the Wei family didn’t follow. Of course, the group of slaves could not be taken away, and they were not even allowed to meet them.

The suspension car was driving steadily in the air. Qiao Zhiya was holding the window of the car, looking at the various aerial tracks and high-rise buildings that were rapidly flashing past outside, amazed and dazzled.

A pure black suspension car suddenly sprinted past his side. Qiao Zhiya keenly caught a flashing profile face in the car window, and pulled Zhuang Yu beside him, “Zhuang Yu-jie, I saw White— I saw Chief! Why didn’t he sit with us?”  

Zhuang Yu was admiring his little blushing lovely appearance. She took a look outside upon hearing him, and replied, “That’s the Chief’s car. He has to go back to the military headquarters first to hand over some matters. I will be the one to take you to his house, so you won’t be going together.”  

After she thought of something, she suddenly smiled again, pinched his pointed ear, and asked, “Calling him ‘Chief’ so quickly,  it seems you have decided to follow the Chief with us?”   

When Qiao Zhiya heard this, his ears moved and his face turned red. He glanced at her and explained, “I know I’m not qualified to follow him yet. I call him that because I just don’t know his name. When I introduced myself to him, he didn’t respond to me…”As he spoke, his spirits withered again, feeling slightly aggrieved.

Later, he thought about taking the initiative to ask, but every time, he was distracted by other things. When he remembered, the other party had already left and he was not able to ask him. Moreover, in dwarf etiquette, if a person was unwilling to reveal his name to someone, it would be very impolite to ask.

Unwilling to say his name— it means that the other party did not want to be friends with him… But the White-Haired Monster clearly said that he wanted to support him. In a sense, they were considered family.

Zhuang Yu was stunned when she heard this. She stared blankly for a while before she dared to say, “So you still don’t know the name of the Chief?!”  

Qiao Zhiya nodded, a little sad.

This was really… Zhuang Yu was speechless for a few seconds, and glanced at his drooping ears. Qiao Zhiya, raised his hand to wipe his face. She remembered Chu Rong’s d*mn reason that she was not suitable to live together and take care of Little Cutie due to different genders. An evil idea suddenly popped up in her heart. She held Qiao Zhiya’s shoulder, looked him in the eyes, and coaxed, “Do you want to know the Chief’s name?”  

Qiao Zhiya’s eyes brightened upon hearing this. He nodded vigorously and answered expectantly, “Yes, I want to know his name!”  

“Okay, then I will tell you…”

That night, Chu Rong finished his affairs at the military headquarters. After communicating with his eldest brother, he returned to his personal residence near the military headquarters.

He entered the door with a passcode. He unbuttoned the collar of his military uniform and reached for the light.

Bang.

The light turned on, and Qiao Zhiya, wearing cartoon home clothes, got up from the sofa with sleepy eyes. He looked at him for a while, suddenly sat up straight, and greeted softly, “Honey,⁹[亲爱 also translates to ‘darling, dear, beloved.’] you’re back. Will you take a bath or eat first?”

Chu Rong accidentally pulled off the military button with force.

The author has something to say:

PS. Fei, fei, fei¹⁰[This may mean fertilizers, or becoming rich by illegal means. This translator isn’t sure.]  ︿(⊙v⊙)︿

One out of three Ko-fi sponsored chapter parts

Once again, thank you for the support!