Chapter 125 Epilogue (3) Fu Li Min...
Fu Li pursed her lips, put down the spoon in her hand, and looked up to meet Vitley's deep eyes.
"What exactly do you want?" He tapped the rim of the bowl.
"Admiral Vitterle, let's be frank. It's hard not to suspect that you have ulterior motives behind this."
"I am a space pirate. My parents were interstellar fugitives before they died, and so was I. I only got into military school to learn more about interstellar armies so I could escape later. You already knew all that, didn't you?"
"So, I don't understand why you brought me back. Providing me with food and lodging is nice, but is it just a pretense of kindness or do you genuinely enjoy meddling in other people's business?"
"If you're just pitying me for some weird reason, that's unnecessary. I'm not the kind of person who's easily controlled. I never was, and I never will be."
Vitley didn't speak, but just stared straight at him, his deep eyes overflowing with something Fu Li couldn't understand, so melancholy and profound that they seemed to hold an entire galaxy.
"I don't want to see you hiding and being hunted down anymore. Is that what you mean by 'purpose'?"
Fu Liqing scoffed, unconcerned: "The one chasing me? Isn't it you?! Vitley, if it weren't for you, I'd still be a peaceful space pirate, and we'd keep to ourselves. But you insist on killing me. Vitley, don't you find your own words ironic?"
A contemptuous sneer flashed in his fox-like eyes, piercing into Vitterley's dark pupils.
The latter remained noncommittal, only saying, "Fu Li, you shouldn't be a space pirate. You graduated from the Empire's best military academy; you could have a bright future. Instead, you're holed up in a starship, hiding like a rat in space!"
His tone was calm, yet filled with pressure.
Fu Li hated this kind of rhetoric the most and was about to argue with him to the bitter end when Vitley lowered his eyes slightly and spoke again, this time asking a rather inexplicable question---
"Fu Li, didn't you notice anything during those two years at military academy?"
Fu Li was taken aback. "What?"
The handsome man lowered his eyes and said in a low voice, "During those two years at military academy, we ate, lived, and went about our lives together. Didn't you notice anything?"
The original sense of oppression completely disappeared, and the calm demeanor inexplicably gave people the illusion of being wronged.
Fu Li narrowed her eyes. "I can tell. Back then you liked to meddle in my affairs, and you still do now."
Every word he uttered was sarcastic and sarcastic, and he wouldn't stop until he had thoroughly provoked people into anger and embarrassment.
Vitterle's lips curled slightly, a smile seemingly tinged with helplessness. He sighed softly and placed some food into Fu Li's bowl.
"Eat more. You only had nutritional fluid last night." The cool, calm voice, along with the rising steam from the plate, carried a touch of gentle warmth. A single sentence melted away the tense, hostile atmosphere, but it seemed to displease Fu Li.
The young man looked at the man opposite him, who had a straight back and a furrowed brow, seemingly deep in thought. Finally, he put down his chopsticks and stood up.
Like a spoiled child: "I'm full, I don't want to eat anymore."
They went upstairs with a "thump, thump, thump".
The man was left sitting alone at the table, silently putting down his cutlery. His expression remained unchanged, yet his tall, upright figure seemed strangely lonely.
Fu Li didn't go downstairs all day.
He got a new quantum computer from Vitley and spent the whole day playing games on the StarNet. He even ate and drank in his room, living a more comfortable life than he had in the small world.
They acted like spineless cowards, comfortably staying there as if they were family, without ever considering themselves outsiders.
He had nothing to do, but Vitterle couldn't stay idle. He had already taken a day off to personally pick up the person, and as an Imperial General, missing another day was clearly unacceptable. After breakfast, he went to the military headquarters and didn't return until night.
Upstairs, Fu Li had already finished the dinner the man had prepared that morning. The used plates and bowls were all scattered on the floor, and she lay sprawled in the middle of the bed, her personal computer, about to shut down, lying beside her. Her smooth, white legs dangled over the edge of the bed, revealing a conspicuous, still-glowing mechanical device strapped to her ankle. As a serious criminal in the interstellar realm, even after serving her sentence, she had to wear a tracking device as a precaution—a special privilege reserved for convicts.
However, this unpleasant thing did not seem to burden the young man much. He was breathing steadily and lay sprawled on the bed like a well-fed animal.
Seeing this, Vitterle's lips pursed slightly, and the day's fatigue vanished in an instant. A smile appeared on his usually cool face, bathed in warm light, and even carried a hint of doting affection.
If Fu Li were to see his expression clearly, she would probably think that this person had been possessed, and she would get goosebumps all over.
He gently stepped forward, adjusted the sleeping person to a more comfortable position, pulled the blanket up for him, neatly placed the personal terminal on the bedside table, tidied up the things on the floor, and finally glanced at the person's peaceful sleeping face before quietly closing the door and leaving.
For several days in a row, Fu Li did nothing but play games in his room.
Aside from Vitterle knocking on Fu Li's door before going to work each day to let him know and prepare his meals for the day, the two barely interacted.
Fu Li seemed to accept the other party's "support" with peace of mind.
After two weeks of peaceful coexistence, Fu Li suddenly disappeared one morning.
He disassembled and reassembled an electronic device from the room, deactivated the tracker on his ankle and wrist, and threw it into the toilet.
He then climbed out of the window and over the pre-damaged laser mesh behind the courtyard wall. He evaded surveillance cameras and escaped the residential area.
When news of Fu Li's escape after breaking the tracking device reached Vitley from the labor reform bureau, his subordinates were all worried.
"The handling of the labor camp inmates was the result of the general's best efforts. If he had just run away, the general would definitely have been held accountable."
The subordinates were not very clear about the matter between Vitley and Fu Li, only knowing that Fu Li was a space pirate personally captured by the general, and that the two had been classmates at the Imperial Interstellar Military Academy. However, after the general brought him back, he took him directly to the Space Labor Reform Bureau, and the specific details of the verdict and the inside story were even more unclear.
While those around him were indignant and worried about his future, Vitterle stared at a red dot on his personal terminal that was flashing incessantly, its path winding towards the port, his expression gradually becoming profound. He watched the scenery outside the car window, countless buildings and landscapes rushing past, gradually merging with that red dot.
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