Chapter 1

Lin Youde always felt that if he went to the exam results announcement site to see the results, the information he would get would be different from what he would see at home on the internet—maybe his sincerity of braving the scorching sun in late June and riding for hours to the site could move some transcendent existence, which would then rewrite his college entrance exam scores.

But it turned out that this was all for nothing.

Lin Youde, eighteen years old, was enduring the biggest setback of his life so far.

"However you look at it, this score is way too low..." Lin Youde muttered to himself. Although he was not a top student, he had worked hard for a year and had some confidence. Logically, his score shouldn't be this bad.

Despite his thoughts, the glaring score before his eyes was so real that no matter how many times Lin Youde rubbed his eyes, it wouldn't change.

He sighed heavily and turned to look at the announcement site.

There were still quite a few people who believed that coming to the announcement site could change something, so the large venue was crowded with teenagers around Lin Youde's age. Most of them looked worried, and the few who were smiling stood out like cranes among chickens.

Lin Youde looked at those jubilant people, and his heart felt like a bottle of mixed emotions had been overturned. The only feeling he could clearly express was "sadness."

Lin Youde was very sad.

It felt as if his entire twelve years of life had been negated.

At this moment, his wristband vibrated. He knew it must be his classmates who had found their scores and were holding a virtual gathering. Lin Youde touched his wristband and switched it to flight mode.

Thus, everything became quiet.

Lin Youde had no intention of joining his classmates' gathering at this moment.

But then his wristband vibrated again. Only the people Lin Youde had specially designated could contact him in flight mode.

With a complex mood, Lin Youde opened the communication, and a familiar voice echoed in his mind.

"Will you join the virtual gathering, Lin Youde?" The girl's voice was as pleasant as always.

"I... I'm outside right now," Lin Youde hesitated for a moment before sending this reply—maybe he could calm down on his way home and then join the gathering.

There were still people in the class he couldn't let go of.

The girl said in a light voice, "You're outside? That's great, I also want to go out to change my mood."

"Did you also do poorly on the exam?" Lin Youde felt a surge of hope for a moment, but then he felt ashamed for having such a thought—how could he wish for her to suffer the same setback as him?

"How could I?" The girl's voice remained cheerful, "I'm just being considerate of you. By the way, we're eighteen now, the legal age to drink. Let's go to a bar tonight?"

"Uh, that's not a good idea..."

"Are you at the exam information center? Wait for me, I'll be there soon!" The girl cut off the communication.

Lin Youde took a deep breath. At this moment, he suddenly felt that the scorching sun of June wasn't so unbearable—so, boys really are simple and straightforward creatures, and it's no wonder they're said to think with their lower halves.

With this realization, Lin Youde found a shady spot. He originally wanted to log into WeChat, but that would definitely be noticed by his classmates who were holding the virtual gathering. So he just opened his browser and started browsing the internet in the most primitive way.

Suddenly, he saw a news item on the local portal: This morning, the orbital monitoring station detected a 12-level psionic reaction.

Lin Youde couldn't help but frown. A 6-level psionic ability could serve as a navigator or intelligence analyst in the United Nations Space Force, an 8-level psionic ability could become a ghost agent, and a 12-level psionic ability was an extremely dangerous existence, capable of taking on an entire squad of Hellion troopers.

Lin Youde quickly opened the news link, but to his disappointment, it turned out to be a clickbait headline. It was just a false alarm caused by a mechanical failure, and there was no 12-level psionic reaction at all.

Lin Youde sighed in relief and suddenly remembered his own psionic test results—1-level psionic ability, just the level of an ordinary person. He raised his hand and looked at the veins slightly exposed on his wrist.

In the early stages of the space age, to adapt humans to space, human bodies were modified. Now, humans are very different from the pre-space age Earth humans. Modern humans have 20% of their body composition made up of nanomachines, and even fetuses in the womb inherit nanomachines from their mothers.

The Earth humans of the past had a carbon-based civilization, while the humans of today are a complete carbon-silicon hybrid civilization. It took humans two hundred years to complete this evolution, and during this process, their ranking in the Galactic Council rose from 227th to 99th.

Therefore, humans are also feared by many Galactic civilizations. However, psionic abilities remain a weakness for humans. According to the pan-Galactic psionic standards, ordinary humans have only a 1-level psionic ability, and the most powerful humans currently have only a 9-level psionic ability.

A 12-level psionic ability, if such a powerful being appeared in a human colony like New Zhengzhou, would mean only one thing: the invasion has already begun.

The Galactic Council does not encourage interstellar wars, so no species would openly start a war—Lin Youde thought this, dispelling his doubts. At this moment, his wristband vibrated again.

***

A flying car descended from the sky, and as soon as it landed, the girl in the back seat jumped out.

Lin Youde's jaw almost dropped open from the shock.

"Do you need to be so surprised to see your childhood friend?" Xia Yongzhi said, pushing Lin Youde's shoulder.

"No, I don't need to be surprised to see my childhood friend, but to see a childhood friend who has never worn a dress except for school uniforms suddenly in a pure white dress, that's quite surprising."

After Lin Youde finished speaking, Xia Yongzhi giggled. She took out a folded straw hat from her backpack, and with a touch of the sensor button, the hat unfolded into the latest fashionable lady's sun hat.

She put the hat on her head and smoothed her dark, long hair.

"How do I look? Do I have the air of a pure girl?"

Lin Youde was at a loss. He looked at Xia Yongzhi up and down again, his gaze sliding over her beautiful face, slender and fair neck, exposed collarbone and shoulders—lingering slightly on her chest, which earned him a precise kick to the shin from Xia Yongzhi.

"That hurts."

"Who asked you to be so eye-catching." Xia Yongzhi pouted. At this moment, the flying car behind her emitted a light hum, and she remembered that the car hadn't left yet. She waved her hand, and the car's computer automatically determined that the rental service was over, and the car took off.

The airflow from the car's takeoff made Xia Yongzhi's skirt flutter, revealing her delicate feet and small high-heeled sandals.

"You actually wore high heels?" Lin Youde was completely shocked, "You usually don't even wear platform shoes, right?"

"This dress is meant to be paired with high heels. For a fresh and clean style, you'd wear flat sandals, but this is a so-called 'princess dress,' which needs to be paired with high heels."

"Alright, alright, I get it. But now there's an urgent question: where are we going next?"

As soon as Lin Youde finished speaking, Xia Yongzhi grabbed his arm, "I checked, there's a pretty well-reviewed bar with a strong cultural vibe. Let's go there. The address is here..."

Xia Yongzhi used the physical contact as a medium to send the address to Lin Youde's mind—because 20% of the human body is made up of nanomachines, humans can easily do such things.

Lin Youde frowned when he saw the location of the bar, "It's quite far. I'm fine, but what about you? Wearing high heels for such a long walk will ruin your feet."

As soon as Lin Youde finished speaking, Xia Yongzhi jumped onto the back of his bicycle.

Lin Youde looked at the girl, sighed, and then got on the bicycle. As soon as he started to pedal, the girl wrapped her arms around his waist, and two soft, youthful things pressed tightly against Lin Youde's back.

Lin Youde felt his heart rate suddenly increase.

"Mr. Lin Youde, my nanomachines tell me that your heart rate has significantly increased."

Now that they were so close, Xia Yongzhi could immediately grasp Lin Youde's physical condition through the interaction of nanomachines.

Lin Youde felt a bit embarrassed, but then an even more embarrassing thing happened—he realized that Xia Yongzhi's heart rate had also significantly increased.

This discovery left Lin Youde speechless, and the girl seemed to have no intention of forcing him to answer. The two of them slowly rode down the nearly empty road, except for a few cycling enthusiasts.

The wind blew through the girl's long hair and the hem of her dress, and the gentle summer sun shone on both of them.

At this moment, the boy remembered the lyrics of an old song from two hundred years ago: At the age of seven, I caught a cicada and thought I had caught the summer. At the age of seventeen, I kissed her face and thought we would be together forever...

He suddenly heard the girl softly humming the same old song.

"Do you know that they didn't end up together in the end?" Lin Youde couldn't help but say.

"How can you be so good at ruining the mood?" Xia Yongzhi pinched his waist and then giggled, "Don't worry, you haven't kissed my face yet, and we don't have cicadas in New Zhengzhou."

Lin Youde laughed.

Suddenly, the girl softly asked, "Do you want to kiss my face?"

Lin Youde swallowed hard.

"Pervert." Xia Yongzhi gave his back a hard punch, "Ah, right, it's just ahead, turn left, turn left!"

The bar was already there, which made Lin Youde a bit disappointed. He really hoped the bar was a bit further away so he could ride with the girl for a little longer.

Xia Yongzhi seemed to see through Lin Youde's thoughts. She jumped off the bike, patted his shoulder, and said, "Alright, I'll have to ask you to give me a ride back. Let's go, let's go, to the bar!"

It seemed she was really looking forward to the feeling of tasting alcohol for the first time in her life.

***

Before they knew it, it was evening.

Lin Youde was riding his bicycle, with Xia Yongzhi on the back.

The nanomachines had already reduced the alcohol concentration in Lin Youde's bloodstream to a level that wouldn't affect his cycling, but Xia Yongzhi seemed to want to enjoy the dizzy feeling a bit longer, so she didn't let the nanomachines do their job.

"Ha ha ha, so fun, the stars are all doubled, ha ha ha... gulping gulping..."

"Are you not tired of narrating your drinking?"

"This isn't narration, I'm really taking big gulps of alcohol." As she spoke, two Mulan missiles (don't ask what they are, just use Baidu) hit Lin Youde's back, "Actually, you're secretly enjoying it, right? After all, I've given you so many perks, like this, this, and this!"

As she spoke, Xia Yongzhi started rubbing her chest against Lin Youde's back.

Lin Youde didn't know what to do, his face was burning, and his ears were hot.

"Oh oh, your ears are red, your ears are red, hehehe." Xia Yongzhi was even more playful.

"Stop moving, you might fall off." Lin Youde couldn't help but warn Xia Yongzhi, but the girl didn't care.

"I'm a 5-level psionic ability holder, a little fall won't hurt me."

Lin Youde wanted to argue, but a sudden sense of inferiority stopped him—yes, unlike himself, who only had an ordinary psionic ability, Xia Yongzhi was a 5-level psionic ability holder, and even without good exam results, her future was bright.

"Tell me, how did you do on the exam?" Lin Youde thought for a moment and then asked.

Xia Yongzhi fell silent instantly.

Because the silence lasted too long, Lin Youde couldn't help but look back at the girl on the back seat.

He saw her calm profile, her face flushed from the alcohol, and the moonlight falling on her long eyelashes.

"I... I'm joining the United Nations Space Force," Xia Yongzhi suddenly lifted her eyes from the ground and turned to meet Lin Youde's gaze.

Lin Youde's heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively squeezed the brakes, almost falling over.

But he managed to steady the bicycle, and as he stopped, Xia Yongzhi lightly jumped off the back seat onto the concrete road.

The girl took a few steps into the middle of the road, turned to face Lin Youde, and put her hands behind her back.

The night wind blew over the surrounding fields, and the crops swayed, making a rustling sound. The girl's long hair and dress moved with the rhythm of the sound, and the light from the two moons of New Zhengzhou fell on her, giving her a dreamlike glow.

"You... joining the United Nations Space Force?"

The girl nodded lightly.

"I'm a 5-level psionic ability holder. 'The United Nations Space Force needs you!'" The girl mimicked the tone and gestures of the old recruitment ad, and then she laughed, her voice like a silver bell.

But Lin Youde couldn't laugh.

"The officer school is..."

"On Deneb," the girl continued, pointing to the sky, "946.70 light-years away from New Zhengzhou."

"Why the extra zero?" Perhaps because he was too shocked, Lin Youde couldn't help but nitpick a trivial point.

Xia Yongzhi explained seriously, "Because, the pronunciation of this number is 'jiushi liu qiling,' which means 'old affairs left behind.'"

The girl said this with a sad expression.

Lin Youde instantly understood Xia Yongzhi's meaning—no, he had realized it as soon as he heard the news.

946.7 light-years, even at the speed of a regular cargo ship, would take two months to travel—of course, for Xia Yongzhi, who would travel by warp, it would only take a few minutes, but for the outside world, those two months would pass. This meant that even during winter and summer breaks, Xia Yongzhi wouldn't be able to return from Deneb, as the four-month round trip would be too long for a two-month summer break.

In other words, when Xia Yongzhi boarded the cargo ship to Deneb, Lin Youde and she wouldn't see each other for years.

Lin Youde's heart ached.

"We still have the internet..."

The pan-Galactic network, using ansibles as the medium, can achieve real-time communication across the universe (ansibles are a fictional type of wave in this book, which do not exist in reality).

But the entire New Zhengzhou only had four ansible communication devices.

Lin Youde bit his lip hard, silently enduring a sadness even stronger than that of the morning.

"You didn't try to persuade me to stay."

"Because you've wanted to join the Space Force for a long time, right?" Lin Youde forced a smile, "How could I persuade you to give up your dream?"

Xia Yongzhi sighed lightly, "Yes, a dream."

Then neither of them spoke. They stared at each other for a long time before Xia Yongzhi took a step forward and lightly kissed Lin Youde's cheek.

—At the age of seventeen, I kissed her face and thought we would be together forever...

Lin Youde struggled to hold back his tears but saw that the girl's cheeks were already wet with tears.

"Next year, I could try again, maybe I could also enter the officer school..."

"It won't work," Lin Youde shook his head lightly, "My uncle and aunt won't let me take the exam again. According to my parents' will, they will raise me until I graduate from high school at eighteen, and then they will get their half of the inheritance. They have—already stopped being nice to me—actually, they're not nice to me now, as you know."

As Lin Youde finished speaking, Xia Yongzhi hugged him again, using all her strength to tightly hold Lin Youde's shoulders.

"I... I..."

"It's okay, I'll work hard to earn money and then go to Deneb for a vacation." Lin Youde forced himself to smile at the girl.

Xia Yongzhi let go, took a step back, and wiped her nose and tears with her wrist.

"When are you leaving?" Lin Youde asked.

"Tomorrow, the cargo ship