Chapter 90 Taicheng - 40,000 were present, Lu Yi...
With Wan Bing present, Lu Yi couldn't examine the documents closely, so he politely said something to him and got up to walk towards the driver's seat.
Since it concerned him, Tang Bufan felt embarrassed to get up.
"Big brother, I'm going to the driver's seat with Lu Yi to take care of something."
Wan Bing readily nodded: "You two go ahead with your work, don't worry about me."
"Please feel free to do as you please," Tang Bufan said to him again, and then immediately followed Lu Yi.
The two entered the driver's seat. Kai closed the metal partition door, Lu Yi sat down in the passenger seat, and Tang Bufan walked behind him to watch the screen together.
The statement was very long, dozens of pages long, and divided into two parts. The first part was the notarized engagement certificate between Lu Yi and Tang Bufan, and the second part was the guarantee statement from the Western Federation for Tang Bufan.
The first page contained the document number, date, and basic information about the two people, so Lu Yi quickly flipped to the back and saw the main content:
[Declarant 1: Louis Smith…Declarant 2: Tang Bufan…We confirm that this engagement declaration signifies our mutual commitment to marriage, and during this period, to remain faithful, respectful, and supportive of each other, to accept all legal terms and conditions equivalent to marriage, and to assume legal responsibilities equivalent to marriage…Western Federal Central Notary Office.]
Tang Bufan, standing behind Lu Yi, was stunned, while Lu Yi smiled when he saw the words "promise to get married" and happily signed his name on the screen in front of him.
"...Isn't this a bit inappropriate?" Tang Bufan hesitated, not expecting that the Western Federation had not included any clauses favorable to Lu Yi.
Lu Yi turned around: "What's wrong?"
Tang Bufan lowered his eyes, his heart uneasy: "You are an innocent person, but I am not. I'm afraid of dragging you down..."
“I’m not a burden.” Lu Yi interrupted Tang Bufan, reaching out to pull him from behind to stand in front of him. He held one of Tang Bufan’s hands in both of his, his golden-green eyes shining like stars. “I’m happy to be tied to my teacher and help you solve your problems. It makes me feel satisfied… I really like the feeling of being needed by you.”
Tang Bufan raised his eyes, looking at the young orc before him with a complex expression. "You're too young. You probably don't understand that you can't just sign these documents casually..."
"I'm not young! I'm not young anymore!" Lu Yi interrupted Tang Bufan again, finally unable to hold back any longer, "Stop using age as an excuse, teacher. I understand everything. I'm really not as innocent as you think..."
He paused for a moment before confessing to Tang Bufan, "Although you accepted my ring, I still have a feeling that you will leave... So this document is not for you to hold me back, but for me to hold you back."
Tang Bufan was slightly taken aback, not expecting Lu Yi to have such thoughts. Lu Yi reached out and pushed the virtual screen in front of Tang Bufan, looking at him with trepidation: "Teacher, are you willing... to be tied to me for the rest of your life? I will not let you go."
Tang Bufan met Lu Yi's gaze. Lu Yi's gaze was direct and intense, causing Tang Bufan's heart to race and a strange sense of tension to rise within him.
"...That's strange." Tang Bufan muttered to himself, "It feels like I'm the one jumping into a fire pit."
Lu Yi smiled faintly, sat there and looked up at him: "It's you."
"..." Tang Bufan remained silent, still unable to shake off that strange feeling, but facing Lu Yi's expectant gaze, he still raised his hand and wrote his name on the screen with his finger.
Seeing that he had signed, Lu Yi could not help but smile. He then grabbed Tang Bufan's left hand with both hands, raised it, and kissed it on his lips.
“We now have legal responsibilities equivalent to marriage,” Lu Yi said slowly, then kissed Tang Bufan’s gold chain ring on his middle finger again, his voice lower than usual: “So teacher, you can’t abandon me again.”
Tang Bufan looked down at him and asked curiously, "Did I ever abandon you?"
“…You abandoned him.” Lu Yi looked at him intently: “When Anderson pressured you, you chose to die.”
"..." Tang Bufan opened his mouth, wanting to refute, but was surprised to find that he could not refute it.
After thinking it over, Tang Bufan looked at the young orc in front of him who didn't explicitly show it but clearly harbored resentment, and slowly placed a kiss on his lips.
"Okay, I'm sorry." Tang Bufan apologized to him, straightening up: "I was really stuck on that point back then."
This was the first time Tang Bufan had taken the initiative to kiss Lu Yi. Lu Yi smiled and finally looked back at the screen with satisfaction.
"Teacher, your kissing style is really old-fashioned," Lu Yi commented. Although this slow kiss wasn't uncomfortable, it wasn't satisfying.
Tang Bufan stood beside him and patted his head: "Kissing you is already a favor, and you're still complaining."
The two continued reading the dozens of pages of documents. Lu Yi wanted to pull Tang Bufan over and have him sit on his lap to read together, but Tang Bufan refused. He felt it was strange and deep down he felt that a man shouldn't sit on another man's lap like that.
Lu Yi didn't quite understand what Tang Bufan was resisting, and said while looking at the documents, "It's just sitting on someone's lap, what's so strange about it?"
"What if you sit on my lap?" Tang Bufan then asked him in return.
Lu Yi looked down at Tang Bufan's thin legs in loose pants and felt uneasy: "I feel like I'm going to crush your bones."
"..." Tang Bufan was shocked that this was the point he cared about.
After Lu Yi finished speaking, she smiled and leaned her head into Tang Bufan's arms: "I don't mind sitting on the teacher's lap. I also like to snuggle in the teacher's arms. It's fragrant and soft."
"Wake up, I don't have any breasts." Tang Bufan thought he was talking in his sleep, but he still reached out and hugged his head, letting him snuggle up to his heart's content.
Lu Yi couldn't help but laugh again. Although Tang Bufan's chest was flat, Lu Yi felt that it was indeed soft to the touch.
The two chatted as they reviewed the documents. The only document requiring their signature was the engagement certificate, while the Western Federation's guarantee document for Tang Bufan had no signature required and was already stamped with the federation's seal.
Suddenly, the RV drove out of the ravine, and the view opened up before them.
In the distance, there is a very conspicuous mountain, and a huge city wall, like a gray horizontal line, divides the world in half from left to right, which is quite amazing.
That's the outer city wall of Taicheng, but the inner city wall can't be seen from their angle.
"Wow..." Tang Bufan couldn't help but exclaim in amazement, his eyes widening. Even though he had seen the holographic images and satellite maps of Taicheng before, the shock of seeing it with real eyes was far beyond what the holographic images could compare to. It was incredibly heavy, extremely sci-fi, and unreal, like a concept painting.
Even Lu Yi's eyes lit up; this was an orc city in the East that was completely different from the foggy city where he grew up.
Although they could already see Taicheng, they were still quite far away and expected to drive for another hour. Tang Bufan remembered that the dining table hadn't been cleared yet, so he forcibly suppressed the urge to continue watching and turned to get out of the driver's seat.
As a result, Wan Bing had already cleaned up the dining table, and the middle-aged orc had even washed the dishes for them.
"Oh dear! This is so embarrassing!" Tang Bufan was so awkward that he actually made the guests wash the dishes for them.
"Oh, it's alright, I always wash the dishes myself at home." Wan Bing put away the brochure introducing Taicheng and smiled at Tang Bufan.
Tang Bufan then poured him another cup of tea: "Have some tea."
After speaking, he sat down opposite Wan Bing to avoid neglecting the guest.
Lu Yi came out a little while later, sat down next to Tang Bufan, and the three of them looked out the window together.
Taicheng's outer city is divided into 12 districts, and therefore has 12 city gates. Each city gate connects to a wide asphalt road, but the asphalt road does not connect to any other road. Instead, each asphalt road connects to a wide square, which is equivalent to an entrance.
Kai was driving the RV toward the nearest square, where he could see dilapidated trucks and cars coming from all directions, passing through the square onto the asphalt road and heading toward the city gate.
It was nearing evening, so there were many cars coming and going. Tang Bufan's eyesight was good now, and he could even see the crowd of people moving around like ants.
He also saw many low, dilapidated tents pitched on the open ground outside the city walls, some densely packed and others scattered.
"Is that... a slum?" Tang Bufan asked in surprise, as these tents were not shown on the holographic map of Taicheng.
“Most of them are business people from other places who have come to Taicheng to do business. They’ve set up tents temporarily, and a few are tents belonging to scavenging beastmen.” Wan Bing immediately took out his own belongings and explained to the two of them, “Without a residence permit, you can only apply for temporary entry. Generally, people can apply for three days the first time, but it’s expensive to stay in hotels inside, so they come out before nightfall to set up their own tents to sleep. There are patrols in the city, and they don’t allow people to sleep on the streets. Once you’re caught, you’ll be blacklisted and won’t be allowed to apply to enter the city again for three years.”
After Wan finished speaking, he wasn't afraid of being laughed at by the two of them. He cheerfully said, "Every month, our town hauls bricks to the city to sell. The speed of our trucks is not as fast as yours. We set off at six in the morning and don't arrive until seven or eight in the evening. We just find an open space to park and lay out our mattresses to sleep."
Tang Bufan understood, and listened with a sense of unease.
"So, do they issue access cards to get in?" Tang Bufan asked curiously.
“It has computers and cameras.” Wan Bing’s words became proud: “Our Eastern Federation’s technology is slowly catching up with humanity. We can now produce many electronic products ourselves and have started using facial recognition and AI management.”
"Our Western Federation is the same," Lu Yi said, turning to Tang Bufan. "We're gradually breaking through the technological blockade imposed on us orcs by humans."
"Didn't I hear that your Western Federation has started building aircraft?" Wan Bing said enviously, "That's amazing! You already have aircraft. It will be so convenient for you to come to our Eastern Federation in the future."
“There is airspace control,” Lu Yi said with a slight smile. “If you want to fly over, you still have to tell the Eastern Federation, but you can really go anywhere else in the world without any restrictions.”
Although he didn't know how his father had obtained the aircraft manufacturing technology from the humans in the Western District's underground city, Lu Yi, as a citizen of the Western Federation, was still very happy about it.
After he finished speaking, he turned to look at Tang Bufan beside him: "We can take a flying machine to wander to more distant places, like North America and Australia."
"..." Tang Bufan thought to himself, "Do you really enjoy wandering that much?"
“There are still many undiscovered and unexploited post-apocalyptic resources there,” Lu Yi added.
"..." Tang Bufan remained silent. Well, he should have known about Lu Yi's so-called wandering on the surface, but in reality, it was an exploration and investigation.
Upon learning that entry into the city would be by facial recognition, Tang Bufan realized that his status as a wanted criminal meant he could no longer evade surveillance. Fortunately, he now had a guarantee document, which made things much safer.
The RV slowly drove into the square ahead. More and more orcs were around, most of them dressed in tattered clothes, but they were obviously much more presentable than the wandering orcs that Tang Bufan had encountered before. The square was obviously a large market, with many people setting up stalls to sell things.
The arrival of the RV attracted the attention of everyone in the square. Tang Bufan also saw orcs dressed in uniforms like city management officers. Two people wanted to stop the RV, but after seeing Lu Yi through the window, they were clearly stunned and immediately retreated in fear.
If the car owner is a mid-level orc, they can stop him and ask questions, but for high-level orcs... even if the other party punches them to death, the Federation will only detain them symbolically for a few days.
Tang Bufan always thought that the social hierarchy among orcs was exaggerated, but he didn't realize how sensitive orcs were to strength and weakness; it was an ineradicable bestiality ingrained in their genes.
Under the watchful eyes of the urban management officers, the RV swaggered from the square into the black lane. Pedestrians on both sides of the lane stopped to stare at them. Tang Bufan, even as a former model, was not used to such a staring gaze. Lu Yi, on the other hand, was much more natural. Wan Bing, sitting opposite them, couldn't help but raise his head slightly, unable to hide his pride and self-satisfaction.
He saw many other mid-level orcs like himself. In the past, he would have politely passed by them. His husky genes were below average among mid-level orcs, with many birds of prey and beasts above him. But now... he was receiving the envy and attention of those orcs who were more powerful than him.
He knew they must be wondering who he was and what bloodline he was, that he could sit in the same vehicle as a high-ranking orc.
Wan Bing's vanity was greatly satisfied, and he followed Lu Yi and Tang Bufan all the way to the city gate.
The city gate was open, but there were sturdy railings across the middle of the road. Kaige slowly stopped the RV. Tang Bufan saw a brightly lit convoy parked not far away through the window, and a well-trained team of orc soldiers standing neatly in that area.
They seemed to be waiting for Tang Bufan's RV. The door of the black luxury car at the front opened, and a handsome young man in a suit and shiny leather shoes stepped out.
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