Chapter 17
Back home, Shen Shiqian sat in the living room looking at data on her terminal, seemingly waiting for Feng Ran. She kicked off her shoes, placed the cake she had bought on the way on the dining table, and greeted Shen Shiqian.
"Sir, I'm back."
Shen Shiqian put down the terminal in his hand, pressed his throbbing forehead, and looked at Feng Ran with a softened expression: "Did you have fun? Are you tired after being out all day?"
Feng Ran nodded, his expression unchanged, and said, "There is one thing: Charan Amusement Park has too many attractions to experience them all. It was also very crowded on the first day of opening, but the performances and floats were very exciting."
There really was a newly opened amusement park in the West District that was having an event. Feng Ran made up her itinerary for today, and in doing so, she found an excuse to absolve herself of the mixed bag of smells she carried.
Shen Shiqian seemed relieved and continued to ask her gently, "Have you had dinner? Do you need the robot to make you some late-night snacks?"
Feng Ran: "No need, eating a late-night snack and going to bed too late will make it harder to get up early tomorrow."
"Okay, since you're tired, let's get some rest."
For some reason, Feng Ran felt that Shen Shiqian looked even more tired than her. The warmth he had painstakingly faked yesterday seemed to have failed him, and he had become distant again at this moment.
But Feng Ran didn't want to be curious, so she nodded and went back to her room.
After washing up and lying in bed, it was already 9:30. Feng Ran felt that she had overexerted herself throughout the day, her head was a little numb, and she thought slowly, "Omega pheromones? I didn't have much contact with them before and didn't feel anything, but they smelled better than Alpha pheromones."
She had a vague feeling that she had overlooked something, but she couldn't remember it for the time being.
"Xiaotong, are we overlooking something?"
Xing Tong reacted quickly: "Master, Fran said something like 'Don't you even care about your own life?' today, but you took his words as a threat and didn't take them to heart. Judging from his behavior, I guess he didn't mean to threaten you but had some special information he wanted to trade with you."
"However, I have obtained all the intelligence information about their White Sand Star Pirate Gang, and my analysis indicates that there is no intelligence that can threaten your life."
"Really? Just in case, it's best to ask him."
[Feng Ran: Is there anything else you wanted to tell me today?]
Don't try to fool me. You didn't even know who I was back then, so how could you threaten me with my life?
Fran responded slowly on the other end, seemingly having done a lot of mental preparation.
[Fran: On the planet Carion, number 926, the only original inhabitants, the Sat people, have moved away.]
[It's because their astrologers predicted that a planetary collision would occur in the near future, and the endpoint of the collision would be the Carlos Empire...]
[We originally planned to establish a base in Carrion, but we met Carlo there. He was also a Sat, so... although there was no scientific basis for it, Carlo firmly believed it, so we left.]
[Would you...believe that?]
Although 926 is relatively close to the Imperial main star, it is a very small planet, even smaller than the artificial satellites surrounding the main star. Its natural conditions are also very harsh, and apart from the native inhabitants, there are basically no migrants from outside, resulting in a very backward development.
However, in terms of location, once 4601 starts moving, it will be the first thing to be destroyed on its journey. It is too small and will not even have time to collide with the medium-sized planet before it collapses due to gravity.
Feng Ran hadn't expected that anyone else could predict a planetary collision, and he couldn't help but be curious about the astrology of the Sartars.
[Feng Ran: Of course I believe you! Why wouldn't I? Then why are you still building outposts in the Empire?]
[Fran: Hilde said if we're going to ram, we should ram Carrion first. We have a flying ship, so we can just run away. We might as well make some more money in Kempion before that.]
The bold get rich, the timid starve.
Although Feng Ran had foreseen this, she hadn't taken any action. She probably didn't have much of a will to survive before, thinking that it would be fun to watch others fall into chaos.
But now that she has Basil by her side, will Basil be willing to give up his current world? Obviously, Fran and the others are not willing, but because they are powerless to resist, they can only make this pathetic struggle.
[Feng Ran: But since you're space pirates, what happens to the Empire shouldn't concern you much, right?]
After all, they were stripped of their imperial citizenship the moment they were put on the wanted list.
[Fran: That's true, but we're all from the Empire, so we still have a sense of belonging. Besides, if the Empire were gone, the environment in the Sherlock system would become terrible...]
A sense of belonging, oh, that's really stumped her.
Feng Ran activated the star map monitoring system and accurately located the medium-sized planet that had entered a harsh winter. The abandoned mining planet was gray, like a light that had been extinguished in the night sky.
She thought to herself: Are you a bad kid?
It's a strange feeling to watch others struggle to make a living, but Feng Ran has clearly overused his brain today, and now his head starts to hurt again whenever he starts thinking about these things.
Is there anything she needs to do?
She didn't consider herself a kind person with empathy and great love. After all, her usual virtues were just a helpless pretense. Her world was too small, originally only big enough for her. Even if there was another basil, it wouldn't make much difference. Even if the world was in chaos, she only needed her own sun.
Feng Ran didn't reply to Fran, and Fran didn't want to talk to her either. When she was lying in bed and about to fall asleep, Basil sent her a message.
[Basil: Alas! Safe!]
[Old Sleica is too difficult! He made me write a self-criticism in the study for two hours! I really don't know if Shen Shiqian gave him some benefits in private. He's watching me so closely, people who don't know better would think he's someone's wingman. Even my cousin got scolded for no reason. This time I'm done for, he's really going to ground me. We can only find ways to see each other at school.]
[Feng Ran: That's okay, we can skip class.]
[Basil: This doesn't seem likely. Chris betrayed me after getting scolded for no reason, and my dad found out about me skipping class last time. If I skip class again, he'll really have to take action.]
[Feng Ran: Okay, it seems like skipping class all the time isn't a good idea.]
[Basil: Hmph, that's how it is. It seems this is the only way for now. But I'll take this opportunity to train hard and redeem myself in this year's mock tournament!]
[Feng Ran: Hey, so if I don't want to work hard, can I deliberately lose to you?]
[Basil: Hey! Get your act together! Wait, do you really think you can easily beat me this year? I just underestimated you last year, and I basically got full marks in the practical exams this year. Shouldn't I be the one who went easy on you?]
[Of course, don't be discouraged if you lose, after all, I'm the top student in the direct-advancement class...]
Basil started chattering away again, and Feng Ran watched quietly as his eyelids began to droop, feeling a sense of relief that nothing had changed.
Basil received no response for a long time, and finally sent a message to Fengran before reluctantly putting down the terminal.
Goodnight, Ranran.
/
Shen Shiqian is not a workaholic, especially since he is currently on vacation. The military meeting this morning was actually just to discuss the new planet that appeared near the No. 4 black hole. A detachment was needed to survey the situation before deciding to send a mining team. If alien species were to inhabit the area, it would be another war.
Of course, the alien species are basically just brute force without intelligence. In most cases, they are no match for the Imperial mech warriors. However, they are numerous, and once they consume too much energy, they will upgrade and evolve. In short, they are difficult to completely eliminate. The interstellar battlefield has never truly stopped, and everyone has become accustomed to it.
Planets near black holes are most prone to harboring alien species, and these deployments require the joint approval of legion commanders before any expansion is undertaken. Shen Shiqian merely attended their discussions and stamped the approvals; he returned shortly after the meeting ended.
However, Feng Ran went out. His idea of getting closer to Feng Ran started to hit a wall early in the morning. He couldn't tell whether Feng Ran went out to play with his close friends or simply to avoid him.
She had only been discharged from the hospital for less than 24 hours. Although he had promised Feng Ran that he wouldn't take her for a check-up, Shen Shiqian still hoped that she could rest well today out of concern for her health.
However, something unexpected happened in the afternoon: the White Sand Star gang was arrested. Of course, because of their large number of members, the entire police force in the lower city was mobilized, and a request for support was sent to the military.
However, in their previous life, they were arrested just after Feng Ran defected, which was four years later. On a mining planet in the southern star sector, the military patrol ships detected the traces of their spaceships, which led to their capture.
Shen Shiqian did not suspect that there might be any hidden reasons for their arrest. It was just that the space pirates had hidden a huge weapons manufacturing factory on the mining planet. After the Empire seized it, it decided to take it over for its own use. However, the mining planet was far away from the main planet, and the transportation of materials was troublesome, so the manufacturing work was uniformly carried out by mechanical life forms.
Mechanical lifeforms were the latest type of special robots designed for dedicated work. They reduced the number of overly complex intelligent systems and focused more on improving the precision of operation. In order to match the job content, not every model had a beautiful humanoid shape. In addition, they only had basic command intelligence and were reclassified as mechanical lifeforms.
The mechanical lifeforms' rebellion was the most dramatic chapter in Feng Ranban's criminal career. Dealing with the weak mechanical lifeforms was not difficult. However, when the guards finished clearing out the factory and entered the manufacturing plant, a massive explosion occurred. Half of the surface of the mining planet was blasted bare. Two squadrons of guards and the resource-rich factory were completely wiped out. The Empire suffered heavy losses.
Of course, there is no evidence to prove that Feng Ran did it, but at that time Feng Ran possessed advanced technology that the Empire did not have. It would have been too easy for him to turn mechanical life forms without intelligent systems into defections. Although now, it is clear that the Empire's hackers could have done the same thing, all the suspicions at the time were unbiased and pointed firmly to Feng Ran.
In order to find out the truth about the mechanical counter-revolution, Shen Shiqian also investigated the White Sand Star gang. One of their team members was a hacker who, after being imprisoned, once took the opportunity to knock out a prison guard, steal his terminal, and hack into the public security system in an attempt to escape from prison but failed.
Shen Shiqian didn't think that their navigation ship's coordinates could be so easily detected by patrol ships, let alone five ships. However, they were arrested four years ahead of schedule. Although not all of them were apprehended, the reason their whereabouts were exposed was because of an anonymous report, which made him suspicious.
But could this be made by Fengran? After all, there are no mechanical life forms or manufacturing plants yet.
Shen Shiqian had read the intelligence report attached to the anonymous report. It was very flat and objective, without any distinguishing features. He couldn't make any judgments, but he was still a little worried. He specifically asked Feng Ran if he wanted to pick him up, but the other party refused.
Feng Ran seemed perfectly normal, as if she had simply spent the day at the amusement park with her friends. Shen Shiqian even worried that she might be too good at disguising herself to have noticed. However, the girl had a faint sweet scent of Omega, which made Shen Shiqian lose his desire to investigate.
The police informed him that the Baisha Star gang was also involved in a case of trafficking banned drugs, and the Control Yuan was also sending people to participate in the investigation and interrogation. In short, things had become complicated.
Shen Shiqian thought irritably, "Is it the butterfly effect?"
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