It was almost dinnertime, and the empty base was bathed in warm orange light, with the aromas of various snacks and rich dishes wafting from all directions.
The snacks are designed around the national treasure, while the meals come from the base's canteen.
It was quite empty inside, with only chefs who had likely been temporarily brought in.
Base Commander Wu led Di Xiu to the canteen, accompanied by an elderly man with gray hair who exuded an air of dignified composure. Behind them followed a young man who bore a resemblance to the base commander, looking like an inexperienced thief, constantly scratching his head and glancing furtively.
The base commander introduced everyone to Di Xiu: "This is Chang, who previously served as the captain of our base's guard team. Just call him Lao Chang. And this is my younger brother, a die-hard fan of yours. He was there when he received the call saying you were here, and he insisted on coming to see you."
The base commander turned around and glared at his good-for-nothing younger brother, then coughed heavily. The brainless young fan immediately froze, swallowing hard as if he were very nervous: "Hello idol, my name is Wu Pei."
Emperor Xiu replied with a greeting, and the other party responded with genuine excitement.
The restaurant table was set with nine dishes and a soup. There were no delicacies, just home-style dishes, accompanied by a bottle of Moutai that someone's treasured collection.
The giant panda had its own table, where it enjoyed a feast of bamboo shoots, milk, and chicken.
Chinese culture is profound and extensive, emphasizing both the importance of not speaking while eating or sleeping, and the importance of engaging in conversation over drinks.
Following the latter approach, Commander Wu urged Wang to drink while saying, "Comrade Wang, we are very grateful for your contributions to this country and the world. We appreciate your silent dedication behind the scenes. The leaders also very much want to meet you and personally award you a medal."
Logically, after saying this, Di Xiu should have been sensible enough to suggest a time, and after thinking about it, he did indeed nod in agreement.
Base Chief Wu shared a drink with him and said with a smile, "There are helicopters in the base, you can leave whenever you want."
He paused, glanced at the giant panda being devoured on the table next to him, and added, "You can take the panda with you too."
001 exclaimed in surprise, "You really think we can raise them? Isn't that illegal?"
Emperor Xiu asked a question.
The base manager sighed, "If we're talking about breaking the law, who wouldn't be in jail by now? Ultimately, the purpose of the law is to protect these animals, and you've done a much better job protecting them than we have."
Di Xiu glanced at the panda he had been raising for over two years and almost suspected that the base chief was talking nonsense.
After two drinks, the young man's eyes finally stopped wandering and became resolute.
001 clicked her tongue in admiration: "Look at these layers of progressive emotions. If you could have 50%, no, 30%, we could all be doing entertainment industry missions. Isn't that easier than fighting and killing?"
Emperor Xiu communicated with his mind and decisively refused: "Fighting and killing are my domain."
The young man approached with a wine glass in hand, his eyes burning with fervor, looking like a devout believer ready to kneel down at any moment: "Idol, thanks to the cultivation techniques and body-refining skills you provided, otherwise, as a support ability user, I would definitely have died after the second red rain. I, Wu Pei, toast you."
"Comrade Wang, I also toast you. Without the valuable information you provided, humanity would have suffered even greater losses." The old man, who had been silently drinking while secretly observing Di Xiu, also raised his glass.
The base commander chimed in, "Count me in, Comrade Wang. I thank you on behalf of the people."
After several rounds of drinking, Di Xiu didn't get drunk, but he was overwhelmed by the praise from these people.
The young man, holding his wine glass, looked at Di Xiu with a sickeningly obsequious gaze, his tongue seemingly slurring: "Hero, those eight—pillars of light, were you the one who did it? It must have been you, you're so—amazing. And you came back right after the pillars disappeared, the timing makes perfect sense."
Di Xiu was given a lot of drinks under various pretexts, but his eyes remained clear. He observed the attitudes of the young man and the other two, and finally said indifferently, "I am just a person."
He figured out the young man's role: he was pretending to be crazy to get information out of the other two people, and he was also acting as their mouthpiece, asking those absurd and bizarre questions that no one would believe and that were inappropriate to ask.
Although their understanding was repeatedly overturned, the things that Emperor Xiu did—just how he went to various countries, how he silently set up formations, how he made all the zombies commit suicide, and the lightning that struck randomly as if playing around—each and every one of them seemed beyond human capability. They couldn't force themselves to believe it.
When the young man asked this question, the other two inadvertently revealed their curiosity and disbelief.
The young man shook his head haphazardly, making himself dizzy, but stubbornly insisted, "It must be you. You can even come up with skills and techniques, and maybe you can even fly on a sword, hiccup, hiccup, right? Idol, where's your sword? I heard you have a hiccup sword."
“If you don’t even believe it yourself, there’s no need to ask.” Di Xiu looked at the other two, and these words were also spoken to them and those waiting for their news.
The base commander chuckled and patted his younger brother on the shoulder: "This guy's been reading too many novels, too many. Come on, let's keep drinking."
In the end, Di Xiu said what he could say and pretended not to hear what he didn't want to say, eventually getting those who wanted to get him drunk drunk instead.
Someone came and carried the three drunkards away, while others took Di Xiu and Panda to rest.
After taking a nice, relaxing shower, Di Xiu glanced at 001 rolling around with the panda and then took out his phone from his spatial storage.
After two years without charging, it stubbornly turned on again after being plugged in.
Di Xiu scrolled through the web, searching for information about Mao Qiu and the other two. He was surprised to find that they had figured out a way to do it, although it had a bit of a pyramid scheme feel to it.
He summarized it as follows: first, use the gimmick of free emotional release to attract people to try it; then, use mental power to stimulate people's rebellious emotions; and take the opportunity to recommend a training course trial class; after three classes, he would give away another emotional release experience as a favor.
Those who think it's good will promote it for free, and repeat customers will become members of the regular classes.
Then……
(↑↑↑I'm just making this up, please be gentle. Feel free to offer suggestions, I'll take a look and revise.)
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