#On what it's like to be exposed by a big boss and invited to his home#

Tang Tang didn’t know how others felt. She just felt like she was going crazy. She didn’t dare to accept the favor given by the boss...QAQ!

What was she supposed to say? Should she just make up a lie and not tell the truth? Tang Tang felt like the boss on the other side would find more holes to expose her before she even finished her lie. Wouldn't that be even more torturous? But if she had to tell the truth, how could she say it? There were so many things that were hard to explain, right?

Just imagining what would happen next, Tang Tang felt overwhelmed and anxious, spinning around in circles. Zhang Shang, who was standing next to him, didn't mind watching the fun. He looked at Tang Tang spinning around with a look of curiosity:

"Sister Tang, what's wrong with you? Why don't you agree quickly? After you agree, can you ask the boss if one more person can come with you? We can get up close and personal with the boss and even visit him at his house. Oh, that's awesome! Hurry up, Sister Tang, have you agreed? Or are you constipated and can't reply because you need to go to the bathroom? It's okay, Sister Tang, go to the bathroom. I'll reply to the boss for you!"

Tang Tang: Screw your constipation! You're constipated, and you need to go to the bathroom! Wouldn't it be even worse if I asked you to reply for me?

Although Tang Tang was complaining in his heart, after simulating several answers in his mind, he found that this lie seemed difficult to tell.

Just based on the settings and legends of the game's mythical beasts, the boss was able to find patterns and accurately infer that it was most likely an astrological symbol. From this point of view, we can see that the boss's brain is definitely not comparable to that of ordinary people. He has very detailed logic and is very sharp and careful in observation.

Maybe if she lied, not only would she be easily recognized, but more clues would be found out, revealing her true identity even more.

After thinking about it over and over again, Tang Tang still felt that he had to tell the truth, but the truth should not be told too bluntly. It needed some more logical words to cover it up a little.

So, when former Captain Wen Changping sent another invitation, asking Tang Tang if he could come to his house, Tang Tang took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and agreed, and set a time for the meeting tomorrow.

After Tang Tang finished greeting the big boss, she couldn't help but contact her brother Tang Sheng tremblingly, asking her brother if he knew the big boss Captain Wen, and asked her brother to help her with some ideas.

Tang Sheng certainly knew Captain Wen Changping. It should be said that almost all soldiers with some ability knew this former Captain Wen.

Although Tang Sheng was surprised that his sister was suddenly invited to the home of former Captain Wen, he did not say much. He just told Tang Tang not to worry. When he first became a mecha soldier, it was Captain Wen who introduced him to the industry. He said that Captain Wen had a very good temper and was the type who was gentle to young people. He invited Tang Tang to chat and was probably really interested in the fantasy beast modeling made by Tang Tang, so a normal chat would be fine.

But it's bad that Captain Wen is interested in modeling fantasy beasts.

However, from my brother's impression of that big guy, I can tell that he is a relatively easy-going and easy-going person, and he is not afraid of more contact. I also heard that since Captain Wen voluntarily retired and moved out of the Federal Center, many people wanted to make an appointment with Captain Wen but did not have the opportunity to do so.

Therefore, Tang Sheng felt that it would be okay for Tang Tang to go and meet the other party. If he was really scared, Tang Sheng could also apply to his superiors to accompany Tang Tang.

"No need, brother. I'll just let Xiao Zhang go with me. You'd better not ask for leave again. Last time, Brother Geng Zhiqiu secretly complained to me that you were about to use his leave note as well."

"Okay, then please be careful. If anything happens, remember to contact me."

Tang Tang finally breathed a sigh of relief after hearing his worried brother say this.

After all, if her brother really wanted to come along, she really wouldn't be able to explain it this time. Even though Tang Sheng said that the boss on the opposite side was such an easy-going person, Tang Tang was still a little nervous, which made her a little distracted from work that day. She thought that they couldn't just go there empty-handed, so she had to bring some gifts.

With this in mind, Tang Tang decided to prepare some pastry-based snacks. After the last experiment at the military region, it could be seen that everyone was quite craving and fond of buns, although they preferred seafood, stewed meat, barbecued meat, and other foods with stronger flavors.

But considering the good appearance and whether the old man's body can adapt to it, Tang Tang still thinks it would be better to make some snacks with milder taste. Fortunately, there is still a small pot of homemade wine at home, and another batch of wine is already in the making, but the fermentation time is not enough, so it cannot be taken out for drinking yet.

As for the assistant Zhang Shang, when he heard that he was honored to go along, he became a little distracted from his work and kept glancing at Tang Tang absentmindedly.

Seeing this, Tang Tang decided to go all out and posted another leave request on both his and Zhang Shang's personal Star Network accounts. The players couldn't help but grumble again, saying, "Another delay?!"

Of course, under normal circumstances, there is no need to inform players whether the game designer is absent or online, but because the game "Xianxia Qiyuan" is quite special, Tang Tang spends most of his time collecting various player data and opinions for fine-tuning, and answering and analyzing players' objections to the game, etc.

So Tang Tang is basically always there. In order to prevent her players from waiting in vain, she will send a notification on the Star Network when both she and Zhang Shang are not online. This has become a habit for the players of "Xianxia Qiyuan".

Of course, the players of "Xianxia Qiyuan" were just complaining as a joke and they didn't really have any objections to Tang Tang's leave request.

So, soon, at the appointed time the next day, Tang Tang and Zhang Shang packed up, and nervously took the small gift and drove the hover car to visit the boss's house.

The first person to appear in front of them was Captain Wen's grandson Wen Xiaole. He was very excited to see Tang Tang and the others, like a little fan meeting his idol. With a blushing face, he wanted to take a photo with Tang Tang and Zhang Shang.

Before he could take a few photos, Captain Wen called him back and asked him how rude he was and why he didn't welcome the guests in. Only then did Wen Xiaole react and welcomed the guests in with an embarrassed look on his face.

As soon as he came in, Tang Tang saw an old man coming out of the living room to greet them. It was a bit of an exaggeration to call him an old man. Although Captain Wen was a bit old, he looked to be in his forties or fifties at most. It seemed that the higher the level and the stronger the strong man, the less likely he was to look old, just like Captain Wen.

Just as Brother Tang Sheng said, Wen Changping did look like a very easy-going and approachable elder, but this was not what made Tang Tang most emotional. The most emotional thing was that they had just sat down and exchanged a few words when Captain Wen pointed out Zhang Shang's identity.

He just smiled and said to Zhang Shang:

"Friend Zhang, have you ever worked at the military's combat pet base? Your position was likely quite important, involved in the care of high-level combat pets, right? You have a solid knowledge of combat pet habits and more, making you a highly skilled individual. Restored the Ant Beast Cave to its present state, quite impressive."

Hearing this, Zhang Shang was so impressed that he was speechless.

Tang Tang was also like this, but before the boss asked him, Tang Tang couldn't help but boldly asked first:

"Captain Wen, why are you interested in the mythical beasts I fabricated? Since you already know they're fake, just figments of human imagination, not real. If they're fake, there's no need to be curious, right? At most, you'll just be listening to a fake story."

"My dear Tang, I'm older than you. Just call me Grandpa Wen. No need to call me Captain Wen. I retired a long time ago."

In response to this, Wen Changping did not answer anxiously, but spoke to Tang Tang casually. After seeing Tang Tang's expression relax, he said jokingly:

"Friend Tang, you know that after I retired, I became more interested in studying the folk customs and cultures of different galaxies, right? Do you know why? Do you think an old man like me has nothing to do? Why would I choose to stay in the Federation Center and go to a secondary military region? I think many people probably think the same way."

Tang Tang knew that Wen Changping was also a folk culture researcher. Zhang Shang had explained it to her yesterday, but she really didn't know why such a good captain turned to studying these completely unrelated things.

"Actually, the reason wasn't anything else. It's just that with the end of the last great battle of the 'Interstellar Alien Beast Tide,' as I watched some of the interstellar alien beasts voluntarily retreat, instinctively seeking space to survive, and gradually forming the rudiments of a social system, I couldn't help but wonder, where did we come from? From my earliest memories, my impression of our Federation civilization seems to have only been mechas."

"But mechas, weapons, and steel—those are all inanimate objects. From what I know of history, our Federation and the neighboring Empire have been people living in steel cities since the very beginning. But we are organic life forms. Tracing our origins, our life forms are composed of something like interstellar beasts. Mechas, steel, and the like are merely products of our civilization."

"So... before mechas and steel were invented, what was our civilization like? We probably lived like interstellar beasts, right? What kind of civilizational changes did we undergo in the past to produce our current civilization? Where did some of our customs, passed down orally, originate? We don't know, and there's no record of them in history!"

"Because our civilization is not a complete civilization system! It is a fragmented civilization system!"

"Young friend Tang, don't you want to know? What kind of continuity did our ancestors go through? Where did we come from? What kind of civilization should we be? Where are our roots?!"

At this point, Wen Changping couldn't help but become excited, even his face flushed with excitement. Looking at Wen Changping like this, Tang Tang was as if he saw those scholars in the past who were keen to complete our civilization and cultural system, constantly working to complete our thousands of years of history! Let us know where our roots are!

Even if these things don't seem to bring much value, unlike machinery and steel, which can enhance technological capabilities, are the historical civilizations formed over thousands of years truly without value? No, their existence and the way they live here are all the result of the accumulated wisdom of countless past civilizations!

In every person, they can more or less see some traces of the development of past civilization systems.

At that moment, Tang Tang seemed to understand what Captain Wen was thinking. Perhaps for him, the end of the "interstellar alien beast tide" was not an end, but another beginning, the beginning of the establishment of a complete civilization system.

Of course, this was also the first time Tang Tang heard about the civilization system of this world. It turned out that it was not a complete civilization system, but a faulted civilization system.

It is probably because in the past, due to the influence of the interstellar alien beast tides that oppressed the living space, in order to survive, people instinctively chose methods and evolutionary systems that could improve their survival rate. Therefore, civilizations such as mechas and steel cities continued to develop and grow. Gradually, the past was forgotten until an irreversible fault was formed in the civilization system.

Tang Tang didn't know what the past civilization of this interstellar era was like. Perhaps it was completely consistent with the Earth civilization, or perhaps it was completely inconsistent with the Earth civilization. However, Captain Wen's enthusiasm and desire to explore the past civilization system made Tang Tang unable to help but have an impulse, an impulse to tell everything.

Then, in the next moment, Tang Tang recalled the past and said in a hoarse voice:

"I don't know exactly which galaxies these four divine beasts and five major sects originated from. These are just stories I heard when I was a kid. I don't know if they were real civilizations or just made up by someone to coax me. I only know these legends and stories all come from a galaxy called 'Earth.'"

"The four sacred beasts, the five major sects, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and so on, all originate from a civilization with a history of approximately 5,000 years, which some call the Huaxia civilization."