Chapter 4 of 10

Chapter 4

13 min read3,329 words

The next day, at the ground base at the bottom of the orbital elevator, Councilor Xia, nicknamed "Summer Tiger," along with his family and various dignitaries who had come to see them off, occupied a large area in the base hall early in the morning.

Over a hundred years ago, when humans first began to coexist with nanomachines, human society went through a period where people preferred not to speak, communicating entirely through electronic means—this was one of the many conveniences nanomachines brought to humans. With a simple wristband, human brains could directly connect to the electronic network, and communication could naturally occur through the network without the need to speak. At the time, some even suggested that vocal cords should be permanently removed from humans.

However, over time, using vocal cords became fashionable again, especially in social settings, where people preferred to speak aloud. However, for situations requiring secrecy or efficient communication, humans still used electronic means.

Clearly, this was not a time that required secrecy or efficiency, so various voices filled Xia Yongzhi's ears.

"Miss Xia is truly remarkable; she will surely become a pillar of humanity in the future."

Xia Yongzhi had been hearing such flattery since yesterday, to the point where her ears were tired of it. She made no effort to hide her impatience, leaving the socializing to her sister, Xia Fanglan, and her father, Xia Laohu, while her gaze wandered around the entrance of the hall.

At that moment, she suddenly heard her father say, "This girl is just so wild, don't mind her. I told her today to wear something nice to say goodbye to the uncles and aunts, but look, she's wearing jeans and a T-shirt, clearly protesting against me. Yesterday, when she said goodbye to her friends, she wore a long dress and even high heels."

"Dad!" Xia Yongzhi glared at her father, the councilor.

"Did I say anything wrong?" Xia Laohu spread his hands and then scanned the dignitaries around him, speaking in a helpless tone, "Ah, my daughter is growing up, and I can't control her anymore. I knew that after raising such a good cabbage for so long, it would eventually be eaten by a pig."

Everyone immediately laughed in a very cooperative manner.

Xia Laohu was a crude person, so it was no surprise that he had a daughter like Xia Yongzhi.

At this moment, her sister, Xia Fanglan, took advantage of everyone's attention being on Xia Laohu to move closer to Xia Yongzhi. She lightly touched her sister's skin, and through the nanomachines, she sent a message: "Is he coming to see you off today?"

"Yep," Xia Yongzhi nodded in response.

"You're still too naive. You shouldn't have come back last night. My script was for you two to stay out all night and arrive here this morning holding hands..."

Xia Yongzhi's face turned red, and just as she was about to retort, a familiar voice reached her ears.

"Xia, I look forward to working with you in the future."

Xia Yongzhi's brows furrowed immediately.

"Save it," she turned her head, raising her eyebrows, and glared at the handsome young man, "Mu Tian, I warn you, don't try to get close to me at the military academy. I hate guys like you the most."

"I wouldn't dare, but we are from the same hometown, and it's only natural to support each other in a strange place like Dajiao Star."

"Hmph." Xia Yongzhi turned her head, her ponytail drawing an arc in the air.

Mu Tian seemed unwilling to give up. He took a step forward and continued, "Compared to that loser Lin Youde, I can offer you more help in the future..."

At this moment, Xia Fanglan clicked her tongue, "Tsk tsk, Mu Tian, you're out of the game with that line."

"He has very low emotional intelligence," Xia Yongzhi said to her sister, "Without his father Mu Yonglin's wealth, he can't even get a girlfriend."

"I seem to hear someone saying bad things about me?" Mu Yonglin appeared at the right moment, speaking in a joking tone to the Xia sisters.

"Uncle Mu~" Xia Yongzhi immediately changed her attitude. Regardless of Mu Tian, Mu Yonglin, as the first-generation colonist and the first capitalist of New Zhengzhou, had a much stronger charisma than his son, and Xia Yongzhi had a very good impression of him.

"I guess I failed in raising my child in terms of moral education," Mu Yonglin said, giving Mu Tian a stern look, which immediately deflated the arrogant young master. Mu Yonglin continued, "Fortunately, he's not too bad intellectually, so I can only send him to the space military and hope they can educate him properly."

Being called a "dog" in front of the girl he was pursuing, Mu Tian's face turned green, but he didn't dare to react in front of Mu Yonglin, so he gritted his teeth and endured it.

Xia Yongzhi, feeling a bit smug, said, "Uncle Mu, how can you call your own son a dog? Mu Tian is very popular in school; more than half of the girls in our class are willing to dedicate themselves to him."

"Hmph." This time, it was Mu Tian's turn to turn his head away.

Xia Yongzhi wanted to reveal more of Mu Tian's past to Mu Yonglin, but at that moment, Xia Fanglan poked her in the waist.

"What are you doing, sis?"

Xia Fanglan didn't answer but pointed towards the entrance.

Xia Yongzhi immediately looked towards the entrance—there was no mistaking the person she had been eagerly waiting for, Lin Youde!

At that moment, Xia Laohu came up to greet Mu Yonglin, and everyone's attention was on the two important figures of New Zhengzhou. Xia Yongzhi took this opportunity to slip out of the crowd and run towards Lin Youde.

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At this moment, Lin Youde saw the world in a completely different way.

To better understand and absorb the essence of human civilization, Noah injected a special nanomachine into his body last night. The young girl, who claimed to be "the super-civilization itself," proved her claim with a tiny syringe containing less than 150 milliliters of nanomachines. Incidentally, to create these nanomachines, Noah once again alarmed the psychic detection station in orbit, but she then hacked it as if it were a game.

Now, Lin Youde's senses were synchronized with Noah's. According to Noah, this synchronization was similar to the telepathy used by psychic users of level seven or higher, allowing information to be exchanged regardless of distance and without being detected by outsiders.

Lin Youde was quite moved, as a level one psychic user, he was now enjoying the privileges of a level seven psychic user.

After synchronization, the world Lin Youde saw was completely different. A large amount of information converged and presented itself to his brain in visual form.

For example, when he looked at Xia Yongzhi, a flood of data about the girl's body entered his consciousness.

This girl has a 91 cm bust, that's terrifying...

[Compared to all the females around, I believe this one is the best in your species in terms of appearance] Noah's voice echoed directly in Lin Youde's mind.

So, Lin Youde replied, [You're right] (When communicating with Noah in his mind, he used [ ] to indicate it, author's note).

"You finally came..." The girl's smile suddenly changed, and her gaze fixed on the little girl behind Lin Youde.

Xia Yongzhi's nanomachines immediately activated the scanner on her wristband to scan the little girl.

"Hey, Lin, did you strike it rich overnight?" She stopped, crossing her arms, "The first thing you bought was a robotic maid, and a lolita-sized one at that? Why didn't you choose someone with my body type?"

"You care about that?" Lin Youde said, scratching the back of his head as he stopped in front of Xia Yongzhi.

"Then you bought a robotic maid as a substitute for your girlfriend who's going far away? You're quite self-aware, aren't you? Just stay in this colony and be happy with your robotic maid."

Xia Yongzhi was about to retort, but Lin Youde cleared his throat.

With everyone's attention on him, Lin Youde cleared his throat again, then lifted his chin and looked at Mu Tian. A flood of data about Mu Tian also entered Lin Youde's consciousness, but what was the point of looking at a man's shoulder width and waist circumference...

[He's on the thinner side for a male.] Noah's voice echoed in his mind.

[Noah, we are humans.] Lin Youde finally reminded her.

[Oh, male humans, or do you prefer 'male' humans?]

[Male humans.]

[Is 'male' a specific term for intelligent species?]

Lin Youde decided to ignore Noah's chatter in his mind. He stared at Mu Tian, crossing his arms. The speed of communication with Noah was so fast that only a fraction of a second had passed.

"Mu Tian, you're well-informed," Lin Youde said, "I just started dating my childhood friend yesterday, and you already know today. I don't think we were very public about it on WeChat or social media... Did you follow us?"

"Hmph, Lin Youde," Mu Tian sneered, "Keep pretending. See the time on the display over there? You can only pretend until 9:00 AM today. I don't believe you two can withstand the distance of a thousand light-years and four years of separation! If I can't have it, neither can you!"

"But he already kissed me yesterday," Xia Yongzhi immediately jumped in to show her solidarity with Lin Youde.

Lin Youde pulled Xia Yongzhi aside and winked at her.

Xia Yongzhi stepped back, puzzled.

Lin Youde took a step forward, stopping less than fifty centimeters from Mu Tian, and looked him in the eye.

"How can you be so sure we won't last?"

"Hmph, of course, human hearts change. Four years without seeing or communicating, even the hottest love will cool down."

Lin Youde laughed coldly, "I'd like to say 'true love conquers all,' but that's not necessary. Because—"

Lin Youde raised his right hand and pointed to his chest with his thumb.

"I've also been accepted into the United Nations Space Military."

At that moment, Xia Yongzhi and Mu Tian had different reactions.

Xia Yongzhi, who knew Lin Youde's terrible score, looked particularly surprised, so much so that her beauty seemed to distort for a moment.

Mu Tian, on the other hand, frowned suspiciously—he didn't know Lin Youde's score, and the United Nations Space Military's selection criteria were always "unpredictable." As long as the score wasn't particularly low, there was a chance of being selected.

Mu Tian was about to ask, but Xia Yongzhi beat him to it, grabbing Lin Youde's collar, "Really?"

"Warning," the "robotic maid" suddenly said, "I detect an intention to harm my master. Please step away from my master..."

"No, she's fine," Lin Youde waved his hand, then pointed at Mu Tian, "If that person grabs my collar, stop him immediately."

"Understood." The small "robotic maid" immediately stepped between Lin Youde and Mu Tian, assuming a comical horse stance.

At that moment, Xia Yongzhi's fingers touched the skin exposed by Lin Youde's collar, and their nanomachines established a connection. Xia Yongzhi's voice then directly entered Lin Youde's mind: "What's going on? How did you get accepted with your score?"

"It seems my parents did something while they were alive. I was accepted into their alma mater, the Space Military Vessel Service Academy."

"The Vessel Service Academy? Isn't that famous for producing 'red shirts'?"

The "red shirts" referred to the mechanical department members on space warships, including the engine room and external service departments. They made up the largest proportion of the crew, about 90% of the personnel. These departments wore red uniforms.

In various combat operations, as long as the ship wasn't completely destroyed, most of the casualties were the red-shirted personnel, so they were often seen as cannon fodder.

Lin Youde had also investigated the academy last night and was well aware of what Xia Yongzhi said. However, being able to go to Dajiao Star with Xia Yongzhi was the most important thing for him at the moment. The possibility of being cannon fodder in the fleet could be considered later.

"Never mind," Xia Yongzhi's voice continued in Lin Youde's mind, "Being able to go to Dajiao Star together is already great. We can think about other things after graduation."

"Right, maybe after a few years, I'll be transferred from the red shirt department to the blue shirt department." The blue shirt department was the scientific research department of the fleet, and the red shirt department, responsible for mechanics and engineering, was the easiest to transfer to the blue shirt department.

"With your math scores?"

Xia Yongzhi laughed.

Others couldn't hear the conversation between Lin Youde and Xia Yongzhi, and because it was conducted through the electrical signals of nanomachines, the entire conversation took only a fraction of a second, a difference from the humans of two hundred years ago.

In short, to the onlookers, the scene was this: Lin Youde and Xia Yongzhi stood close together and smiled at each other affectionately.

Mu Tian's lips trembled visibly.

"Lin Youde!" He finally managed to say, "You, you wait, once we get to Dajiao Star, my dad won't be able to control me. Just wait and see what I'll do to you."

Lin Youde was about to respond when Xia Yongzhi released his collar and hugged him, shouting loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Great! You got into the space military too! I'm so happy!"

Xia Laohu and Mu Yonglin rushed over, and Xia Laohu raised an eyebrow at Lin Youde—he was one of the few who knew about Lin Youde's poor score.

[Based on the mathematical model I just created to describe human expressions, he's very surprised.]

[Noah, I can tell.] This conversation took only a fraction of a second.

"Xiao Lin, really?" Xia Laohu asked.

"Really, Uncle Xia." Lin Youde said, projecting the acceptance letter with his wristband.

Mu Tian stretched his neck to see the letter, and the moment he read the content, he gritted his teeth and cursed.

Xia Laohu and Mu Yonglin exchanged glances. At that moment, the announcement sounded, instructing passengers to board the orbital elevator.

The orbital elevator of New Zhengzhou had a small capacity, so it carried few passengers besides cargo. Both Xia Laohu and Mu Yonglin chose to see their children off on the ground.

Xia Yongzhi hugged her father, said goodbye to Mu Yonglin, and then ran towards the entrance of the orbital elevator with Lin Youde.

Mu Tian immediately followed them.

After the younger generation left, Mu Yonglin came to Xia Laohu's side and whispered, "Did you see the letter? Dock 15."

"Yes, Dock 15. Indeed, even the marginalized branches of the Lin family are still part of the Lin family."

"I hope my foolish son doesn't foolishly confront the Lin family." Mu Yonglin shook his head lightly, "Your daughter has good taste."

"I didn't say a word to her; she really likes Xiao Lin."

"That's even better." Mu Yonglin patted Xia Laohu's shoulder lightly.

(Oh, sorry, I got the books mixed up. Recommendation votes! Member clicks! Favorites! By the way, someone mentioned that the year 2196 doesn't match the previous statement about it taking two hundred years to evolve from carbon-based to carbon-silicon hybrid civilization. Well, the year is a joke, and I didn't consider the time consistency when making the joke. But it doesn't matter, just ignore this small bug.)

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