There were more than five hundred people applying for the position of Yan Qiu’s adjutant this time, divided among five examination rooms. All five classrooms were along the same corridor, and quite a few officers participating in the assessment were outside the rooms. Thus, as Lu Qiao walked down the corridor, he received stares from both sides the entire way.
Among those gazes were plenty of gossip, curiosity, and hostility. Lu Qiao calmly observed the people around him, showed no reaction, and walked straight into Examination Room No. 1.
The examination room was very large, with more than a hundred holographic devices arranged inside.
Some people were already sitting in front of the holographic devices bearing their names, while others were gathered in groups of two or three, chatting.
Lu Qiao ran into Song Yue. The moment Song Yue saw him, he lowered his voice and said, “Everyone’s talking about you and Yan Qiu. Luckily, you two didn’t come in together today, otherwise—”
Before Song Yue could finish, someone else walked into the classroom. The moment he saw the two of them, he gave a mocking laugh.
“Well, well. Marshal Yan isn’t here?”
Lu Qiao and Song Yue turned around and saw Seir and his friend.
His friend had both hands in his pockets, his face full of disdain. Seir tugged at his arm, gave Lu Qiao an apologetic smile, and asked with concern, “Did Marshal Yan deliberately walk separately from you today? Sigh, even he must care about these kinds of rumors…”
Lu Qiao looked Seir over, his gaze thoughtful.
Seir’s expression stiffened slightly. He smiled and asked, “…What’s wrong?”
Lu Qiao smiled. “Nothing.”
On his way here, although the people around him had deliberately lowered their voices when talking, he had still heard bits and pieces.
Things like how they were all here today just to make up the numbers, how Marshal Yan could actually do something so unfair, and even more outrageous things…
Like how Marshal Yan had fallen for a beauty trap.
What the hell did that mean? Who was the beauty? Who had fallen for the trap?! Were they filming a TV drama or something?!
Lu Qiao was utterly speechless. At the same time, he was angry that these people were spreading nasty rumors about Yan Qiu and damaging his reputation.
And most importantly, he felt that someone must be deliberately stirring things up behind the scenes.
The moment he thought of this, Lu Qiao’s expression turned cold.
So what if someone was stirring up trouble?
Even if it might cause some of the other examiners to develop a worse impression of him, he would still use his own strength to openly and fairly win the position of Yan Qiu’s adjutant!
Seir’s friend was extremely hostile toward him. Seeing how calm Lu Qiao was, he couldn’t help but sneer.
“Marshal Yan is, after all, the number-one marshal of the Empire. Of course he cares about his reputation. But the rumors have already spread everywhere. What’s the point of trying to cover them up? Isn’t it exactly what everyone thinks it is? Everyone knows.”
The moment his voice fell, Ji Zhuyun and Yan Qiu walked into the classroom.
The instant the man appeared, the classroom suddenly fell silent. Every gaze immediately focused on him.
Yan Qiu… Yan Qiu had appeared!
He had actually come to this classroom. It seemed he had no intention of avoiding the rumors at all!
And even after hearing those rumors, even knowing that everyone was watching the two of them right now, Yan Qiu’s gaze still landed openly and unreservedly on the young man in the classroom.
Seir secretly clenched his fists.
His friend had been slapped in the face so quickly that his expression turned ugly. He then gritted his teeth and glared at Lu Qiao, assuming Lu Qiao must be feeling rather pleased with himself right now. After all, Yan Qiu had still come to support him.
But then—
The moment Lu Qiao saw Yan Qiu, he let out a little “hmph” and turned his head away.
—He was actually throwing a tantrum!!!
Lu Qiao hadn’t completely gotten over his anger yet. There was no way he was going to give Yan Qiu a pleasant look!
Yan Qiu found this rather amusing. Ji Zhuyun shuddered twice and shook his head.
“Too lazy to bother with you two.”
He then walked off toward his own examination station.
Song Yue glanced back and forth between the two of them and asked Lu Qiao in a low voice, “What? You two had a fight?”
Lu Qiao pouted. “Yeah!”
…He actually said “yeah”!
These two had actually gotten into a fight right before the assessment?!
Song Yue looked completely bewildered.
Yan Qiu walked toward the very front of the classroom. Lu Qiao didn’t want to talk to him either, so he went to find his own examination station. As he passed Seir and his friend, he calmly said, “If you don’t believe in Yan Qiu, then why are you competing for the position of his adjutant?”
Both of them froze.
Seir’s friend turned around furiously and glared at him.
There were many people in the military who worshipped Yan Qiu. Of course, he was one of them too. He didn’t want to believe that Yan Qiu would do something unfair either.
But the fact was, how could anyone possibly be absolutely fair?
If the situation they were imagining really happened, wouldn’t all their feelings, their time, and all their hard work have been wasted?!
And the current assessment system had no way of completely eliminating that possibility. Just thinking about it was enough to make him furious.
Seir grabbed him and said quietly, “Bear with it. Now that the rumors have spread, the other examiners will take them into consideration.”
There were people among the examiners who didn’t get along with Yan Qiu. After hearing these rumors, they would certainly have their own thoughts about the matter. On top of that, so many other officers competing for the position were watching.
In reality, Lu Qiao was the person in the worst position right now.
Thinking of this, his friend swallowed his anger and nodded.
With so many people watching, Yan Qiu would naturally find it much harder to manipulate things behind the scenes.
Even if Lu Qiao really did still win the position of adjutant, under the current assessment system, whether he had obtained it fairly would become a matter of suspicion.
And if that happened, the situation of this couple within the military would become extremely complicated.
In short, no matter what happened, they weren’t going to get their way comfortably.
Thinking of this, Seir’s friend’s anger subsided, and he sneered.
Seir lowered his eyes, the corners of his lips also curling coldly upward.
However, at that moment, the classroom suddenly became noisy.
“Second Prince!”
“Why is the Second Prince here?”
“Is he here to be an examiner?”
The two of them froze and looked toward the front of the classroom.
They saw the Second Prince, Luo Yu, walk in with three military officers. After nodding toward Yan Qiu in greeting, he stood there.
This formation seemed different from the assessment procedures in the past.
Seir suddenly had a bad feeling.
Lu Qiao hadn’t expected Luo Yu to appear here either. Once Luo Yu had stopped, his eyes immediately met Lu Qiao’s, and he smiled at him.
Lu Qiao remembered what had happened at the banquet that night and immediately looked away, then glanced toward Yan Qiu.
Yan Qiu’s face showed no particular expression, but his eyes were fixed firmly on him, as though he wanted to monopolize Lu Qiao’s attention.
Lu Qiao found it amusing. He looked away, then glanced back at Yan Qiu again.
After repeating this several times, a hint of amusement finally appeared in Yan Qiu’s eyes.
Luo Yu paid no attention to the little exchange between the two. He glanced at Ji Zhuyun, whose expression had changed the moment he entered the classroom and who had been staring at him nonstop, then tilted his head toward the officer beside him.
One of the officers stepped forward and said seriously, “Everyone, listen up. Starting today, all promotion assessments within the military will adopt a new assessment method. Individual ability tests and interviews will be canceled and replaced with individual simulated scenario exercises. The assessment scenario will be personally selected by His Majesty the Emperor. Scores will be determined by the system, and the person with the highest score will be promoted.”
The moment these words were spoken, the officers below erupted.
The original assessment method was to first select a group of people through an ability test, after which the examiners would interview them one by one.
Because interviews themselves contained many uncertainties, they left plenty of room for behind-the-scenes manipulation.
But now, this assessment method had been canceled!
An individual simulated scenario exercise, with no examiners involved in the scoring whatsoever—only the system would evaluate them.
There was simply no room for behind-the-scenes manipulation anymore.
Most importantly, the assessment scenario would be personally selected by His Majesty the Emperor!
With this arrangement, who would still question the fairness of the assessment?
Who would dare question it?!
This was already the fairest assessment method they could possibly imagine!
Immediately, quite a few people shifted their attention away from Lu Qiao. Seir’s friend also breathed a sigh of relief and focused his thoughts on the assessment that was about to begin.
Only Seir remained stiff-faced, his expression shifting unpredictably.
Luo Yu smiled and said, “Although we examiners won’t participate in the scoring, we will randomly enter your simulated scenarios to observe your examination process and make sure the system’s evaluation is accurate. If the system determines that your physical or mental condition is unsuitable for continuing the assessment, you will automatically be ejected from the scenario. However, that will also mean you have failed the competition.”
“The scenario will last one hour. Good luck, everyone!”
Another officer said, “Once you’re ready, put on your holographic equipment and enter the scenario!”
All the officers below responded, “Yes!”
The same scene was taking place in the other four classrooms.
Lu Qiao gave Yan Qiu one last look before sitting down at his assigned station and putting on the holographic helmet.
Among the more than five hundred people participating in the assessment, he was the only new recruit.
He had never received military training. He had never experienced the baptism of the battlefield.
He was a blank slate.
But—
Lu Qiao calmed his mind.
After entering the virtual world, a dialogue box floated before him, asking whether he wanted to enter the assessment.
Lu Qiao took a deep breath and selected “Yes.”
Once everyone had put on their holographic helmets, the classroom fell silent.
Luo Yu said to the man beside him, “Aren’t you going to check the other classrooms?”
Yan Qiu glanced at him.
Luo Yu smiled brightly. “Wow, that’s a lot of hostility. Relax, I’m not going to eat him. I’m going to the classroom across the hall to enter some of these people’s simulated scenarios and take a look at how they’re doing.”
Luo Yu waved his hand and turned to leave the classroom.
Yan Qiu quietly watched that figure in the classroom for a while before turning around. He nodded toward the three military officers overseeing the examination, then left the room.
When Lu Qiao came to his senses, he found himself aboard a starship.
Outside the window was a brilliant starry sky. At the same time, a vast, densely packed formation of fighter jets, mechs, spacecraft, and other vessels was traveling alongside the starship he was aboard.
He was on a battlefield.
Lu Qiao calmly observed his surroundings.
Very soon, his terminal rang.
Lu Qiao raised his hand.
The hand was still his own, but he was wearing a military uniform, and the terminal around his wrist was also a military-issued terminal.
The terminal showed that Marshal Lun was calling him.
In that instant, a surge of memories flooded into Lu Qiao’s mind, and he froze in place.
At this moment, he was Marshal Lun’s adjutant.
The Second Legion was fighting their old enemy, the Cosmic Alliance, at the border. They were about to clash with the enemy forces, and after clearing this battlefield, they had to continue forward immediately to support the First Legion, which was ten light-years away.
That was—
Yan Qiu!
As the unfamiliar memories flooded in, Lu Qiao felt his other memories rapidly becoming blurred. At the same time, a large amount of intense emotion that did not belong to him was forcibly injected into him.
Lu Qiao frowned, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.
However, very soon, under the system’s influence, he forgot all sense of incongruity and completely entered the scenario. He became uncontrollably anxious.
Time was running out.
They had to eliminate the enemy in front of them as quickly as possible!
Lu Qiao turned around and immediately ran along the route contained in his memories.
Marshal Lun was waiting for him in the launch bay.
Lu Qiao boarded Marshal Lun’s two-person mech.
Marshal Lun was no longer wearing his usual carefree, playful expression. His face was extremely serious.
He glanced at Lu Qiao and confirmed, “Are you okay?”
Lu Qiao’s nerves were stretched taut. He put on the equipment inside the mech and said stiffly, “I’m fine.”
“Lu Qiao, the more critical the situation, the more important it is to stay calm,” Marshal Lun said in a low voice. “I know you’re worried about Yan Qiu, but your most important task right now is to deal with the enemy in front of us.”
The anxiety in Lu Qiao’s heart grew even stronger, but he frowned and immediately suppressed it.
A soldier should always understand his responsibilities clearly. He could not let his emotions affect his judgment.
He couldn’t keep thinking about Yan Qiu.
Instead, he needed to devote all his attention to the battlefield in front of him.
Lu Qiao steadied himself and shouted, “Yes, sir!”
The mech formation merged with the fighter formation, and the forces of both sides finally collided.
Flames continuously erupted in the silent universe. The flashes seemed even more dazzling than the stars, and even more terrifying.
Marshal Lun’s fighting style was extremely brutal, while Lu Qiao’s greatest strengths were agility and speed.
When the two styles were combined, nothing could stand in their path. They swept through the battlefield like a force of nature.
Thirty minutes after the fierce battle began, the situation gradually became clear.
Lu Qiao and Lun returned to the starship and began directing the subsequent strategy.
Lu Qiao had no problems whatsoever coordinating with Marshal Lun in battle.
He simply seemed somewhat mentally exhausted, perhaps because he was constantly thinking about Yan Qiu.
He wanted to contact Yan Qiu, but when he thought of how Yan Qiu was also fighting the enemy on the battlefield right now, he abandoned the idea.
Lu Qiao gritted his teeth.
He was so restless that he couldn’t sit down at all, pacing back and forth continuously.
Suddenly, footsteps came from behind.
Lu Qiao turned around and saw one of his subordinates.
His subordinate looked at him, then glanced out the window. He suddenly smiled.
“Very worried about him? You can’t be like this. Otherwise, you won’t be a qualified soldier.”
“I know.”
Lu Qiao clenched both fists and stared at him.
“You can’t blame Marshal Lun either,” his subordinate said calmly. “Who told you that when you entered the military, Marshal Yan already had an adjutant? Marshal Lun was only looking out for you and wanted to train you, which was why he had you compete for the position of his adjutant. You can’t be beside Marshal Yan to protect him right now because that’s your own problem. You hesitated for so long before entering the military that you missed your chance to compete for the position of Marshal Yan’s adjutant.”
“I know!”
Lu Qiao was getting angry. He suppressed his emotions and asked, “What exactly are you trying to say?!”
The subordinate tilted his head.
“I just want to remind you to understand your responsibilities right now. Even if Marshal Yan dies on the battlefield, you still have to fulfill your duty as a soldier.”
Lu Qiao stepped forward and grabbed the man by the collar, his emotions completely exploding.
Of course he knew!
He had always understood a soldier’s responsibilities. He also knew that at this moment, he shouldn’t be getting into a confrontation with his subordinate because of Yan Qiu.
But he loved Yan Qiu.
There was simply no way he could suppress the anxiety in his heart.
What right did this person have to come and say these things to him when he was already doing everything he could to suppress his emotions?!
The subordinate looked at him with pity, his eyes filled with sympathy.
That trace of sympathy struck directly at Lu Qiao’s nerves.
Yet in the next second, the subordinate suddenly reached out as though he wanted to touch his face.
Lu Qiao turned his head and dodged the hand, glaring at him.
The subordinate sighed.
“Lu Qiao.”
“…What?”
Lu Qiao forced the two words through clenched teeth.
The subordinate asked softly, “Have you ever seen the Milky Way and gears?”
Lu Qiao frowned.
“…What do you mean?”
Before he could understand this seemingly nonsensical question, another voice suddenly interrupted their conversation.
“Adjutant Lu.”
In the distance, an unfamiliar-looking soldier stood there. He glanced indifferently at the subordinate in front of Lu Qiao, then said to Lu Qiao, “Marshal Lun wants you to come over.”
Lu Qiao released the man in front of him, glanced at him once more, then brushed past him and left.
On the way to the control room, Lu Qiao received a call from Marshal Lun telling him to go to the launch bay.
He suddenly thought of something.
His footsteps abruptly stopped.
He looked at the soldier beside him.
That’s right.
If Marshal Lun wanted to find him, he could simply call him through the terminal. There was no need to send someone over.
This man had not been sent by Marshal Lun.
He had deliberately been sent to lure him away.
The soldier clearly knew that Lu Qiao had realized this, yet there wasn’t the slightest trace of panic on his face.
He looked at Lu Qiao and said in a soft voice, “Are you afraid?”
Lu Qiao froze and pressed his lips tightly together.
“You don’t need to be afraid,” the soldier said softly. “You need to understand that no matter what happens… he will always be with you.”
Lu Qiao’s entire body shook.
“He won’t blame you for not making it to his side. He won’t blame you for hesitating back then and missing the chance to become his adjutant,” the soldier slowly continued. “In fact, he doesn’t even want you to go to the battlefield, because he doesn’t want to see you get hurt.”
Lu Qiao’s eyes widened as he stared at the person in front of him.
“Don’t be afraid of losing him, because you will never lose him.”
The soldier gently patted him on the back.
“Alright. Go to Marshal Lun.”
Lu Qiao arrived at the launch bay in a daze and saw Marshal Lun.
Marshal Lun silently looked at him for several seconds before saying, “Lu Qiao, the plan has changed.”
Lu Qiao’s heart sank.
He asked hoarsely, “What happened?”
Lun avoided his gaze.
“We just received a signal. Enemy reinforcements will arrive on the battlefield in five minutes. We can’t get through.”
They had to break through this region of space before they could go support Yan Qiu. Otherwise, the entire battlefield situation would be thrown into chaos, which would be detrimental to the Alliance forces.
Lu Qiao clenched his hands.
“We can eliminate the reinforcements as quickly as possible, then go support Yan Qiu.”
Lun remained silent.
Lu Qiao’s heart turned cold.
His voice trembled as he asked, “What happened to Yan Qiu?”
Lun said nothing.
Lu Qiao stepped forward and stared at him.
“What happened to Yan Qiu?”
Lun’s lips moved.
Finally, he said quietly, “We lost contact with him.”
In that instant, Lu Qiao was stunned.
“Lost contact” were only four simple words.
But under the current circumstances, the meaning behind them could only point toward the worst possible outcome.
Lu Qiao nearly forgot to breathe.
When he finally came back to himself, his body swayed. He grabbed onto the mech and barely managed to remain standing.
Lun grabbed him and supported him.
“We have to get into the mech, Lu Qiao.”
Lu Qiao’s eyes widened. He leaned against the mech, gasping for breath.
He gritted his teeth.
“Once we break through this battlefield, we go support Yan Qiu!”
Lun frowned.
“We have to follow the orders of Alliance military headquarters.”
Lu Qiao stared at him in disbelief.
“Isn’t that exactly what the Alliance military headquarters’ plan was?!”
Lun closed his eyes.
“But Yan Qiu has lost contact. The situation on the battlefield has changed. Alliance military headquarters is discussing a new strategy.”
Lu Qiao’s ears began to buzz.
“…What does that mean? Are they planning to abandon Yan Qiu?”
Lun couldn’t say anything.
Clearly, Alliance military headquarters very likely was considering exactly that.
How could they do this?!
Lu Qiao thought of that man.
The way he smiled.
The way he was gentle.
The profile of his face when he sat beside Lu Qiao, repeatedly swept by the lights outside the aircraft window—handsome, composed, beautiful.
This was the person Lu Qiao kept hidden in the deepest part of his heart.
To this day, he remained the softest place in Lu Qiao’s heart.
And now, this man’s life or death was unknown.
Alliance military headquarters might very well be planning to abandon him just like this.
The situation on a battlefield could change in an instant. Anyone could become a casualty. Headquarters had to prioritize the collective interest above all else.
And Yan Qiu might very well be abandoned because of that.
A powerful sense of anger and unwillingness surged through Lu Qiao.
He could not accept this reality.
His entire body trembled.
Marshal Lun asked beside him, “Lu Qiao, are you getting into the mech or not?”
Lu Qiao’s eyes were red.
He said nothing, only staring at him.
There was sorrow on Marshal Lun’s face as well, but he still looked at Lu Qiao and said in a low voice, “I want you to get into the mech right now.”
Lu Qiao’s five fingers tightened.
His nails scraped across the surface of the mech, producing an ear-piercing sound.
Marshal Lun said, “When you became a soldier, you should have understood this. When you fell in love with a soldier, you should have anticipated a scene like this. Between your lover and your duty as a soldier, which one will you choose?”
Lu Qiao lowered his head, his fine hair casting a shadow across his eyes.
He was trembling violently.
His fists were already clenched tightly, every vein standing out.
His mind was filled with Yan Qiu.
Yan Qiu in every possible form, speaking to him, smiling at him.
His heart felt as though several pairs of hands were viciously tearing it apart, almost ripping it to pieces.
He couldn’t lose Yan Qiu.
He couldn’t even imagine what he would become if he lost Yan Qiu…
Yet at the very moment he was on the verge of breaking down, other images suddenly flooded into his mind—
He saw his father.
He saw Uncle Gavin, supporting himself with prosthetic limbs.
He saw Mia, Uncle Gavin’s beloved.
The backs of the three of them appeared in front of Lu Qiao’s eyes, slowly swallowed by the sunlight.
A sudden, violent pain shot through Lu Qiao’s head.
He cried out in pain.
But after the pain passed, he suddenly woke up completely and released his grip.
Tears had already fallen from his eyes.
But there was no longer pain or anger in his gaze.
Instead, there was only bewilderment.
After that bewilderment passed, his eyes gradually became clear, and his body stopped trembling.
Lun froze.
He saw the young man in front of him raise his head.
Tear marks remained on his cheeks, but his expression was incredibly calm.
The young man looked at him and said,
“I want both.”
“I won’t give up either my lover or my duty as a soldier.”
Marshal Lun’s face filled with astonishment.
Meanwhile, in the examination monitoring room beside the five classrooms, more than a dozen officers were monitoring the neural connections of the more than five hundred participants on computer screens.
Several commanders were wearing holographic helmets, their backs turned to the officers as they wandered through the simulated scenarios of various candidates to supervise their examinations.
Two of the officers were discussing the system.
“…I heard they used the latest technology. It can weaken the candidate’s real-world memories, ensuring that their emotions constantly follow the scenario so they won’t ‘break character.’ It basically feels just like dreaming, right?”
“More or less. And I heard the system will automatically adjust the candidate’s emotions, keeping them locked inside the scenario the whole time. Being subjected to this kind of ‘torture’ must be pretty painful.”
Suddenly, one of the computers emitted an alert.
An officer exclaimed, “One of the candidates has broken free of the mental lock and automatically exited the scenario!”
The other dozen or so people immediately crowded around.
Some of them didn’t understand what had happened.
“Wait. Automatically exited? Wasn’t it the system that ejected him?!”
“No. He broke free from the scenario’s control himself!”
“How could something like this happen? Is it a machine malfunction? Did his holographic equipment break?”
The officer who had first shouted murmured, “All the machines were inspected. There’s no way there could be a malfunction. Under these circumstances, the only way a candidate can break free of the mental lock and automatically log out is if they break away from their emotions and role, allowing their real-world memories to become stronger again.”
Once the assessment officially began, the moment a candidate “broke character,” they would automatically log out.
But how was that even possible?!
It was like dreaming. Just as almost no one would suddenly remember that they were dreaming while inside a dream, the system had even used machinery to ensure that this situation wouldn’t occur.
Unless—
Unless the candidate was extraordinarily calm and capable of completely separating their thoughts from their emotions.
Yet the emotions imposed on the candidates by the system were extremely intense.
His emotions were clearly exploding, yet his thoughts had entered an extreme state of calmness, allowing him to forcibly recover the memories that had been weakened by the system.
How powerful did this person’s willpower and convictions have to be?
For a moment, all the officers were stunned.
Meanwhile, in Examination Room No. 1, the three supervising officers saw someone remove his holographic helmet and stand up before walking toward them.
The three of them froze and stood up.
“Were you ejected from the scenario by the system?”
The young man looked at them somewhat dazedly, then shook his head and said hoarsely, “No.”
After saying that, he brushed past them and silently walked out of the classroom.
The three officers were completely baffled.
But at that moment, the system’s score display appeared on the holographic screen at the front of the classroom.
The first entry appeared.
Lu Qiao found the rooftop terrace on the same floor and leaned against the railing, staring blankly into the distance.
He didn’t know how much time had passed when footsteps sounded behind him.
He was pulled into an embrace.
The man asked in a low voice, “Are you okay?”
Lu Qiao stared at the scenery below and murmured, “Is this what Cheng Yi went through back then?”
The man was silent for a moment before saying, “It wasn’t exactly the same.”
But it was almost the same.
Lu Qiao lowered his eyes.
“I don’t really have the right to criticize him.”
That day, when Yan Qiu had told him in Yan Qiu’s father’s room about what had happened between Cheng Yi and his father, Lu Qiao’s first reaction had been that Cheng Yi had been too emotional and had failed to understand his responsibilities as a soldier.
But when faced with the same situation himself, although Lu Qiao could feel that his emotions had been manipulated by the system, he wasn’t sure whether he could have remained calmer without the system’s interference.
No.
He probably couldn’t have.
The pain in his heart simply couldn’t be suppressed.
Even now, just thinking about it made Lu Qiao feel unbearably miserable.
When it came to emotions, he understood Cheng Yi now.
“But you calmed down, didn’t you?” Yan Qiu frowned. “Being able to automatically break free from the system’s mental lock means you had already reached a definite conclusion.”
“Yes.”
Lu Qiao answered quietly.
After seeing the backs of his father, Uncle Gavin, and Mia, he had instantly regained clarity.
“Loss” was something that constantly happened on the battlefield.
So, would he stop being a soldier?
No.
He wanted to be one.
Would he disobey orders?
No.
He couldn’t do that.
Then how was he supposed to face a choice like this?
His lover or his duty as a soldier?
Choose one or the other?
No.
He wouldn’t choose.
“You entered my scenario and told me, didn’t you?”
Lu Qiao turned around and looked at Yan Qiu.
“You told me that you would always be with me.”
The person who had deliberately lured him away from the “subordinate” in his scenario was Yan Qiu, playing that role.
Yan Qiu gently caressed the side of his face and smiled.
“Mm.”
Whether alive or dead, Yan Qiu would always be with him.
That was the answer Yan Qiu had given him.
And it was this answer that allowed Lu Qiao to understand everything.
Even if Yan Qiu died on the battlefield, Lu Qiao would continue fighting as a soldier until he too fell in battle and lay sleeping alongside Yan Qiu among the sea of stars, beneath that brilliant universe.
Even if he died in a hospital bed, he would have someone scatter his ashes where Yan Qiu rested.
No matter how much time passed, he would eventually make his way to Yan Qiu’s side.
Only the flesh of their bodies could separate them—it could never truly separate the two of them, nor could it separate Lu Qiao from all the people he loved.
But there was an even better way.
A way for Lu Qiao to love this man while also becoming, wholeheartedly and without worry, the soldier he had dreamed of becoming.
Lu Qiao moved closer.
His gaze swept over Yan Qiu’s lips, the bridge of his nose, and his brows and eyes.
He spoke softly.
“Do you know what I was thinking at that final moment?”
“What?”
Yan Qiu looked at him too, his voice hoarse.
“It was very simple. I broke free from the influence the system had imposed on me and remembered what I was doing.”
Lu Qiao’s hand slid down Yan Qiu’s arm and clasped his hand, their fingers intertwining.
“I remembered that I had never once hesitated about becoming a soldier. And I hadn’t missed the assessment for your adjutant position either. I was already working hard for the position I wanted.”
Lu Qiao looked at Yan Qiu, his eyes firm and brilliantly bright.
“As long as I become your adjutant, I’ll never have to experience a situation like this again.”
“We’ll live together if we live, and die together if we die.”