Return to the base for a promotion

The little phoenix followed Lin Changli around the villa with a worried expression, chattering on about its concerns: "You can't smash the windows here, it'll be hard to get them repaired. Don't be so violent. Even though I'm the thug, it's all what you want."

Amidst the little phoenix's incessant chatter, Lin Changli finally found the ideal entrance—the window he had opened for ventilation while taking a shower.

He hadn't been to the artificial island in a long time. Eve closed and locked all the doors and windows within two hours of his last departure, leaving only invisible ventilation ducts. It would be a pipe dream for even a child, let alone an adult, to climb in.

Fortunately, he likes to open the window when he takes a shower.

Eve brought out the housekeeping robot from the storage room, so Sangye didn't need to tidy up at all.

So after chasing the man and the bird out the door, Sangye was somewhat at a loss.

Just then, she heard a "plop" from the second floor, accompanied by a screeching sound of splashing water, as if someone had slipped, followed by the rattling of mechanical parts.

Given the unique geographical features of artificial islands, although it seems incredible, there should be no other possibility.

Kuwano went up the stairs and opened the largest door on the second floor.

At the far end of the room was a transparent bathroom, where Lin Changli and Xiao Fenghuang sat on the floor with awkward and solemn expressions.

The hardworking housekeeping robot hadn't finished cleaning the bathroom yet; the wet mop was still hanging on its arm when it was knocked over, pitifully lying on its back.

Sangye walked to the door, knocked on the glass, and squatted down with a smile: "We should go back to the base now."

Lin Changli lowered his eyes, and the little phoenix spoke up for him: "Can't we not go back? It's so much better here, there aren't so many people around."

“No one comes to the West Building often either. Only my master and I are usually there. Even Chengcheng doesn’t come back often. Besides,” Sangye replied, “don’t we live together at the base?”

"Will you still go to Chaohai?" Lin Changli asked the question that had been bothering him, through the glass door of the bathroom.

Sangye choked for a moment, but still didn't lie to him: "I also raise seafood in Chaohai. No one else can plant it except me. I will definitely go back to Chaohai later."

Lin Changli's face visibly fell, and he looked sullen.

His status, power, and the man himself seemed to hold no appeal for Sangye.

When a person's external qualities fail to attract another person, they will experience a strong sense of insecurity.

“I have my own things to do.” Sangye pushed open the glass door in front of them, removing the barrier between them. “Your mother agreed to waive my sentence, but I still have debts—I don’t want anyone to help me pay them off, after all, it was ‘me’ who committed the crime—and I still have to live here. If not on Black Tower Star, then on another planet. I need to have my own means to make a living. Until then, I don’t really want to think about anything else.”

Kuwano actually takes a very relaxed view of the debt issue.

She is neither a saint nor a villain.

After all, the original owner of this body caused the deaths of her classmates, and several of them are still in a vegetative state.

The classmates did indeed do wrong, but it was far from warranting the loss of their lives.

Therefore, as compensation for his family, Kuwano felt there was no need to escape.

Of course, all of this is contingent on their family members not continuing to cause trouble.

Lin Changli would understand if she could, and if she didn't, she wouldn't force Sang Ye; she had always been indifferent to matters of the heart.

People need feelings, but not necessarily romantic love. The familial affection that his master and Rong Cheng gave him was enough for Sangye.

"By the way, can you do me a favor?" Sangye suddenly thought of something.

"Go ahead," Lin Changli said, a fleeting look of sadness crossing her face.

Sangye then told Lin Changli about his previous negotiations with Aso Mente, explaining that the difficulty lay in getting the royal family to voluntarily relinquish this portion of the profits.

The black crystal raw materials exported from Black Tower Star are enough to cover all the base's expenses, including subsidies for personnel, and are even more than sufficient.

The fact that Aso Ment could hold a stake in the base's processing plant was itself a special favor from the royal family, as she was the first high-ranking officer to apply to manage Black Tower. With her assistance, and later the addition of Jiang Sili, the mentally unstable sentinels were properly settled here, solving a major problem for the Empire.

As for the collaboration proposed by Kuwano, Kuwano himself would provide the raw materials, while the processing plant would provide the energy.

The difficulty lies in the fact that Sangye can disregard the cost of raw materials because there is indeed no cost, but the cost of each piece of black crystal energy in the base is calculated.

Asking the royal family to give up profits is tantamount to spreading costs across other projects.

Kuwano couldn't think of any good reason for the royal family to give up.

"Sure," Lin Changli readily agreed.

"Wouldn't this be a bit awkward? The accounts are a little difficult to calculate." Sangye said whatever came to mind.

"Oh, it's nothing. All the profits from Black Tower Star's exports were given to me. My mother let me keep them all to myself. Now, it's just a number."

Lin Changfa exuded the arrogance of a landlord's son.

"The money to buy Black Tower Star back then came entirely from my family, so we can also enjoy all the profits."

Sangye blinked and met his gaze.

She was wrong. She shouldn't have empathized with capitalists or considered their interests; that was all trivial.

After holding it in for a long time, Sangye finally managed to utter one sentence: "Then you really are your mother's rebellious little darling."

Lin Changli thought for a moment and said, "That's true."

*

When they left the artificial island, the two did not take a speedboat or a warship.

Because Little Phoenix insisted on letting Sangye experience the feeling of flying.

He was very persistent; when Lin Changli disagreed, he kept biting his arm and wouldn't let go.

And it's a larger version with a sharper beak, which hurts terribly when it pecks you.

If he could beat up his own spiritual body, Lin Changli would have already done so.

Sangye was eager to try; he had never ridden a phoenix in both of his lives.

When it transformed into its complete form, the phoenix was larger than the villa behind it, its wingspan seemingly blotting out the sky. Its downy feathers were thick and warm, and Sangye could even bury himself in them.

She grabbed the long, colorful feathers behind the phoenix's head to maintain her balance. Lin Changli sat cross-legged beside her. He was used to this mode of transportation and seemed quite at ease.

Once airborne, Sangye discovered that there was no need to worry about the temperature at all. The phoenix was like a giant furnace, able to regulate the temperature around him, and even Sangye's earlobes felt warm.

Lin Changli looked at Sang Ye beside her with a curious expression. She climbed up to the phoenix's head, hugged the phoenix's neck, and curiously felt the breeze coming towards her.

The fresh scent of her after-bath wafted in with the breeze, her red hair danced in the wind, and a strand landed in Lin Changli's palm.

It tickled his palm.

Just like his current state of mind.

*

Sangye finally understood how Lin Changli had broken into her room from the back of the cliff when they first met—she had taken over that room.

He flew up.

If Sangye hadn't been holding Phoenix by the neck, he would have wanted to barge into the room this time as well.

Glass? What's that? It doesn't matter, let's just get in there first.

The thoughts of male beings are always difficult to understand.

Du Yuan was anxiously fertilizing and loosening the soil for the flowers left by Sangye in the back garden, burying animal entrails under the rose bushes, his hands covered in blood, when a huge phoenix landed in the back garden.

The back garden was a bit too small for his size; he could barely stand on two legs, leaving huge claw marks on the ground, which even crushed the hot spring. It's hard to say whether it was out of selfishness or not.

After landing, he quickly shrank. After Sangye and Lin Changli jumped off his back, he turned back into a little phoenix with beady eyes and sat on Sangye's shoulder.

"Did you like it?" He pressed his arm against Sangye's slender neck, warm like a little sun, asking if Sangye liked the flight just now.

"I like it." That's the truth.

“Then we can go to other places together next time and fly there.” Her beady eyes sparkled. “Let me tell you, I love flying over the Tide Sea and the Loda Plain the most. It’s boundless and feels so free. I don’t like snow-capped mountains; they’re all layered and there’s radiation.”

As the little phoenix chattered on, Du Yuan rushed over, holding up her bloodied hand: "Sang Sang! Thank goodness you're alright!"

However, Du Yuan's gaze towards Lin Changli was not so friendly. She snorted and turned her head away, ignoring him.

Du Yuan's mindset is not hard to understand, and Lin Changli can't really hold it against him.

Upon landing at the main base, a new message came through Sangye's terminal.

There was only a short text message above—

Sangye, a colonel, belongs to Black Tower Star.

In recognition of his outstanding performance in providing psychological support and treatment to the Sentinels during his imprisonment on Black Tower Star, as well as in the Snow Mountain Uprising and other major emergencies, His Majesty the Emperor has specially approved his promotion to the rank of Major General.

All sentences have been waived, and restrictions on personal freedom have been lifted. You are now free to travel (application is required for special areas; please do not travel hastily to war zones, borders, or other dangerous areas, as every guide in the Empire is invaluable).

Effective immediately.

This announcement will be made public within the military. All promotions of active-duty personnel follow a public announcement process, and all such announcements are traceable.

If Kuangye were to specifically investigate, he might even be able to find early photos of Lin Shuangqiao herself.

The first thing Kuwano did upon returning was to go find Aso Mente.

When he saw Asso Ment again and brought her the good news, Asso Ment looked her up and down several times, as if she had never been there before. But that's how promotions are in the military; if you seize the opportunity, you can leap forward a thousand miles.

However, Kuwano was still only concerned with her food processing business, and Aso Ment readily agreed.

“Sangye.” Aso Mente called out to Sangye as she was about to leave.

Sangye turned around, somewhat puzzled.

Aso Mente stood up and turned to face Sangye.

It hasn't been long since I returned from the snow mountain, but if you're lucky, you can see results very quickly.

Sangye stared at her for a while, until his gaze fell on her lower abdomen, and his confusion turned into sudden realization: "Ah..."

Aso Mente was unusually gentle, and Kuwano noticed that her mental strength was becoming increasingly stable.

Actually, her and Jiang Sili's condition wasn't serious to begin with; it was just that they were triggered by extreme stimulation, and because there was no guide to help them through the several outbursts, they had no choice but to come to Black Tower Star.

“I won’t be here for long,” Aso Ment said. “I’ll be going back to the army, and so will Jiang Sili. We need to give it a good start in life. My mother will continue to live on Black Tower with it, and when it grows up, it can come with me or Jiang Sili. After I leave Black Tower, I hope you will treat it and my mother well, just like I did.”

She tacitly agreed that Sangye would take over the planet.

Kuwano was very grateful to Aso Mente. Just the fact that he protected her and allowed her to have secret affairs with others right under his nose was something that not everyone could do.

However, Sangye had some doubts. As far as she knew, the Jiang Sili family was a very powerful family. With Jiang Sili returning to the army and Jiang Siwei growing up, they would only become more powerful, and the capital planet was also more suitable for children to grow up.

“This is my child, and only my child,” Asso Mente responded to the question. “Give me time, and I can give her everything.”

On the way back, Sangye looked at the bright sunshine over the base.

This is truly a great era; everyone has unlimited potential, and different women can act according to their free will.