Chapter 146 Rebooter Base - 3 *** ……
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In a dimly lit room in the Western Federation, Lu Yi, dressed in military uniform, sat wearily on the sofa, staring blankly at the ceiling.
It has been a week since Tang Bufan was taken away by Zero, and he just finished taking over as head of the Western Federation today.
Becoming the head of state was Lu Yi's own request. After the funerals of Luther and Ethan, he walked into Hans's study with a gun in his hand.
Hans was not surprised by his arrival, nor did he flinch when faced with Lu Yi's raised gun. He calmly took out a document he had prepared beforehand from the drawer and gently pushed it in front of Lu Yi.
“I knew you would come looking for me after I sent Tang Bufan away, because you need the power of the entire Federation to save him,” Hans said, the orange light from the desk lamp illuminating his pale, sickly face, which had been deprived of sunlight for years. “And after this, you will no longer trust me.”
Lu Yi could no longer trust the man in front of him, his biological father. The last time he resented him was at his mother's funeral. But more or less, as a child, he still believed that his mother loved his father. It was just that, as the psychologists said, his mother was bound by her identity as the leader of the resistance faction, which led her to choose to break free. He also believed to some extent that Hans cared about him, his son. But Tang Bufan's abduction completely destroyed the last bit of affection Lu Yi had for Hans.
“When Zero entered the banquet, the mainframe notified you immediately. You could have told me right away, but you made the mainframe choose to keep it from me.” Lu stared straight at Hans, his voice trembling slightly: “Give me your reason for doing this.”
“I told you that night that I was protecting you,” Hans said calmly.
"You're destroying me!" Lu Yi couldn't help but growl, his grip on the gun tightening, his eyes reddening. "What makes you think I can't beat Zero!"
“Maybe you can, but you will be seriously injured. Did you see what Anderson looked like that night?” Hans faced Lu Yi’s gun without any emotion: “You are the heir that the Federation has spent eighteen years cultivating. Your identity means you cannot be willful.”
After Hans finished speaking, he slowly leaned back in his chair, looking at his son with cold eyes: "Actually, I'm still a little disappointed in you. I started putting you in charge when you were ten years old, and you performed quite well until you were seventeen. Although you left the Federation behind my back, I knew you would come back. I just didn't expect you to come back faster than I imagined, and that you even regressed in your thinking."
Hans sighed softly: "Your lover has turned you back into an immature child. You wouldn't have acted so short-sightedly and willfully before."
"Is this your reason for letting Zero take him away?" Lu Yi's chest tightened with anger: "Yes, you all forced me to mature, you, everyone, even Anderson! You were all waiting for me to take over, only him... only the teacher..."
Lu Yiyi felt a lump in her throat when she thought of Tang Bufan: "Only he treated me like a child! I'm not as mature as you all think... I know, I've always known, you were just waiting for me to take over from you, so you could be free..."
Lu Yi suddenly turned and fired a shot at the red sofa next to the fireplace. With a "bang," the decades-old sofa burst open.
Hans's face turned pale instantly, his golden eyes glaring fiercely at his son, before he pulled a gun out of the drawer.
“Apologize to your mother,” Hans said, his voice unusually unsteady, pointing the gun at his son. “That’s your mother’s favorite sofa.”
"No, she doesn't love this sofa. She's only sat on it once or twice. Not only does she not love this sofa, she doesn't love you either..."
Before Lu Yi could finish speaking, he was shot in the shoulder where he was holding the gun.
He gritted his teeth and stared fiercely at Hans, who had fired the shot.
"And how mature are you, Father?" Lu Yi said sarcastically, then swiftly returned fire with a shot at Hans, hitting him in the right chest.
Hans felt a pain in his chest, but it wasn't a strong pain. He slowly stood up from his chair, walked around the spacious desk, and headed towards the red sofa with the cotton wadding.
“I don’t care if you hate me or not.” Hans squatted down and picked up the cotton with trembling hands. He hadn’t paid attention to his chest wound from the arrow until he noticed blood dripping down, then he covered it with his other hand to avoid soiling the cotton. “I raised you, I raised Luther, and then I killed Luther… I’ve done everything I needed to do.”
He gently stuffed the cotton he had picked up back into the bullet hole and smoothed it out with his hand, as if doing so would restore the sofa to its original state.
“You should have killed me with that shot just now,” Hans said, turning and slowly sitting down on the red sofa. He looked up and sighed deeply. “Anna… our child says you don’t love me… Anna…”
He seemed to be expressing his grievances, and Lu Yi, looking at him lost in rambling, slowly lowered the gun in his hand with red eyes.
He picked up the stack of documents on the table, flipped through them, and saw that Hans had already signed his name.
Lu Yi glanced at the camera in the corner of the room again and said in a hoarse voice, "Transfer all control permissions to Evelyn. You're out of office."
"...Yes, Your Majesty." The mainframe responded calmly through the camera.
Lu Yi took the stack of documents and walked out. When he reached the door, he heard Hans say to him in a deep voice, "I know you will be leaving with your troops soon, but remember that you have a child here."
That night, Hans arranged for a doctor to remove the embryo from Tang Bufan's belly, and it is now being cared for in the medical room on the fourth floor.
Lu Yi paused slightly, then replied coldly, "I don't want that child, I only want my wife."
Behind him, Hans sighed softly again.
Afterwards, a meeting was held, various documents were signed, and a succession ceremony was quickly held. The people of the Western Federation had not yet recovered from the news of Luther and Ethan's sudden death when they were surprised to welcome their new leader.
Everything was progressing quickly, but Lu Yi still felt it was too slow. Under his orders, the military was working day and night to prepare, and finally the aircraft's supply depot was refilled. Tomorrow he will return to the Eastern Federation to meet with Guo Shen.
But now there's a big problem: they still don't know the location of the Rebooters.
How can one find an invisible base on this vast earth? Lu Yi raised his hand to his forehead in frustration.
There was a gentle knock on the door, and elderly Emma slowly pushed the food cart in.
She was already quite old and highly experienced, so delivering meals shouldn't have been her job. But Lu Yi was a child she had watched grow up, and she wanted to personally coax him to eat properly.
“I asked General Angus, and he said you didn’t eat lunch today.” Emma pushed the food cart to the corner window, placed the exquisite food on it on the small round table, and gently coaxed Lu Yi: “To celebrate your appointment, the chefs have prepared a lot of dishes.”
Lu Yi's grandparents passed away early, and Emma was like a grandmother to him, so Lu Yi slowly walked over to her.
Sure enough, the chefs made a lot; the food cart was filled with plates of all sizes, so much so that even the small round table couldn't hold them all.
Lu Yi was hungry but had no appetite. Suddenly, her eyes fell on a plate of lettuce salad, and she reached out and took it from the food cart.
He cut a piece of raw steak with a knife, wrapped it in fresh lettuce leaves, and put it in his mouth.
Emma was delighted to see that he was eating, but she was also a little surprised: "When did you start liking vegetables?"
Carnivorous orcs generally do not like to eat fruits and vegetables.
“…I don’t like to eat, but the teacher said that eating vegetables is good for your health.” Lu Yi lowered his eyes, which were filled with memories and tenderness: “He would wrap meat pieces in lettuce like this, pinch them with his fingers and put them into my mouth…My lips would touch his fingers, and I could smell his fragrance…The lettuce made a crunching sound when I bit into it, and I felt very happy.”
Emma's eyes reddened slightly as she listened, and the old woman quickly wiped the tips of her eyes with the back of her hand.
"Little Louis, eat well." The old woman continued to put the food from the food cart onto the table: "You can only go out and bring the lady back when you have the strength."
“…You’re right.” Lu Yi perked up slightly and continued to eat the meat pieces wrapped in lettuce.
Once there was no more room for food on the small round table, the old woman slowly sat down opposite Lu Yi, watching him eat with satisfaction.
The room was quiet, with only the sound of Lu Yi eating. Suddenly, the old woman remembered something and said to Lu Yi, "Madam has placed some strange pens and paper in the upstairs studio. The pen tip is very soft and rests on a small porcelain piece. The servants can't find the box where it was kept and don't know how to put it away. They're afraid of breaking it, but if they don't put it away, it will collect dust."
“It’s a calligraphy brush.” Lu Yi looked up knowingly. “It needs to be rolled up and stored in a brush holder. I’ll go up in a bit.”
"Well..." Emma looked at him nervously and cautiously, "Could you also check on the young master?"
Lu Yi has taken over the Federation and become the head of this family. The young master that Emma mentioned is the embryo that is immersed in the incubation chamber.
That instrument was specially prepared by Hans because he was afraid that Anna would harm the fetus in her womb. Unexpectedly, Anna had a good pregnancy, although she didn't even want to hold the child after it was born.
Emma never expected that it would be Lu Yi's child who would ultimately use this device.
"..." Lu Yi fell silent, only then realizing that Emma had brought the calligraphy brush just so he could take a look at the child, leaving his medical room and art studio on the fourth floor.
Lu Yi was in low spirits and busy all week, and didn't even go to see her once.
And he's leaving again tomorrow, Emma thought he should go and see the poor little thing.
“The genetic testing has passed. He’s a healthy orc boy, very lucky, without any problems,” Emma said earnestly. “Little Louis, your child.”
“…If the teacher isn’t here, what’s the point of his existence?” Lu Yi lowered his head, the food in front of him losing all its flavor. “I want to raise the child with the teacher, not that I want to raise the child.”
"...Don't say such heartless things." The old woman frowned in distress, not understanding why the Smith family beastmen were so indifferent to children. The patriarch, who resolutely chose to euthanize his sick wife, Hans, who only had eyes for Anna, and even Lu Yi now...none of them had ever thought about the children.
“Maybe he looks like Mrs. Tang?” Emma said.
Lu Yi was subtly touched by her words, and after a moment of silence, he nodded: "I will take a look."
Emma felt a little relieved.
After Lu Yi finished eating, she went to the fourth floor. There was a doctor and a maid in the medical room who were taking care of the fetus. They briefly told Lu Yi about the baby's growth and then left, giving Lu Yi and the baby some space to be alone.
The fetus was very small; it couldn't even be called a person yet. Its translucent body was curled up and was no bigger than a walnut.
Lu Yi didn't feel much at first, but when he thought that this was a little piece of flesh that had fallen from Tang Bufan's body, he suddenly felt that it was a little cute, and his feelings became complicated.
"I'm sorry." After a long silence, Lu Yi slowly spoke to the fetus: "Although I am your father, please forgive me for not being able to be with you as you grow up. I have to go find your mother."
After Lu Yi finished speaking, he lowered his head and fell silent. After a moment, he looked up again and continued, "If he can't come back, I don't think I will either."
After he finished speaking, he left the medical room. The doctor and maid waiting in the corridor nodded respectfully to him. Lu Yi gave a slight response and then turned to go to the art studio.
The medical room and the art studio were separated by a distance, with other functional areas in between. When Lu Yi passed by the entrance to the library, he saw two maids tidying up books and talking in hushed tones.
"Why don't we put them in a separate box for now?" a maid suggested. "Madam said not to mix them up."
Lu Yi withdrew his foot from the art studio and retreated to the entrance of the library.
"What are you doing?" he asked, walking in with interest.
Upon his arrival, the two maids immediately straightened up and stood side by side.
"Madam used to come here often to read," the maid on the left respectfully told Lu Yi. "He asked us to bring out all his travel books, saying he was looking for an island..."
The maid couldn't remember the island's name, so the maid next to her immediately added, "Penglai."
“Yes, Penglai.” The maid said, looking down at the several stacks of books on the table. “Because there are so many books, the madam told us not to tidy them up, since he still wants to read them, so these books have just been left on the table.”
But now that Tang Bufan has been arrested, these stacks of books can't just sit on the table gathering dust, so the maids decided to pack them up in boxes.
“Travel books…” Lu Yi frowned and looked down, recalling that Pei Zhishu had also given Tang Bufan a lot of old maps before, but the island seemed to be a county-level city, and there was no mark on the map at all.
Lu Yi also remembered that Tang Bufan had said it was a tourist attraction.
Seeing Lu Yi reach out to touch a book, the maid who had just been replenishing the supplies mustered her courage and spoke to the young and handsome Lu Yi: "I was actually looking for one for Madam."
Lu Yi's golden-green eyes looked at her, and the maid's heart skipped a beat under his gaze. She blushed slightly, picked up an oriental travel guide, opened it to the page she had marked with a bookmark, and leaned close to Lu Yi: "Here, 'The beautiful oriental island - Daishan Island,' it says that during the ancient Sui Dynasty in China, it was named 'Penglai Township'."
The maid nervously looked up at Lu Yi: "I'm not quite sure. There isn't much space described about this small island, but I still marked it for Madam."
This travel guide was written a thousand years ago by a British couple. At that time, China opened its doors to visa-free travel, and a large number of foreign tourists flocked to the country. In order to make it easier for their compatriots abroad to travel in China, the couple published this portable travel guide magazine.
Lu Yi carefully scanned the contents. The couple's travel guide was very concise; they only briefly described the attractions, but provided detailed information on how to get there, how to book tickets, and the best route for the tour.
Daishan Island is located in the central part of the Zhoushan Archipelago on the northern coast of Zhejiang Province, between 30.7'–30.38' north latitude and 121.31'–123.17' east longitude. There is no direct high-speed train; you need to go to Ningbo first and then take a two-hour bus ride…
Lu Yi's eyes lit up instantly when he saw the latitude and longitude coordinates on it.
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