Lu Qiao and Grandma Yan stayed in the study for twenty minutes, and his emotions went up and down like he was on a roller coaster. Even he couldn’t tell whether he had been more surprised or more frightened.
However, Grandma Yan said to him at the end, “I know you don’t have anyone left in your family. From now on, the Yan family is your family. If you have any problems, any difficulties, or need us for anything, we’ll be here.”
With those words, Lu Qiao’s emotions finally settled, leaving him filled with nothing but gratitude.
That evening, Grandma Yan took Weng Ruan out, saying they were going to have dinner at the home of the man Weng Ruan had been set up with.
Before leaving, Weng Ruan ran into Lu Qiao and gave him a look with bright, sparkling eyes that practically said, “Aren’t I awesome?”
When Lu Qiao thought about what had happened online, he felt a little embarrassed… but the fact that everyone in the entire Alliance now knew Yan Qiu already had a lover had, strangely enough, satisfied his possessiveness.
At this point, Lu Qiao also felt especially embarrassed about having treated Weng Ruan as a romantic rival before. So he deliberately chatted with her for a while, his attitude quite friendly, tinged with a little guilt and embarrassment.
Weng Ruan was especially good at showering people with compliments. Once she felt that she and Lu Qiao had become familiar, she kept saying, “Oh, you really don’t need to worry. You’re way better-looking than me. You’re even better-looking than celebrities. After Marshal Yan saw you, how could he possibly be interested in anyone else? And you’re so capable, and your personality is so good. If Marshal Yan ever fell for someone else, he’d have to be blind—”
The compliments made Lu Qiao embarrassed, but after Weng Ruan left, Yan Qiu, who had been watching from behind for a while, stepped forward and said calmly, “What she said isn’t wrong.”
Lu Qiao: “!!!”
Unable to stop the corners of his lips from curling upward, he said, “Your rose-colored glasses are way too strong.” He wasn’t nearly that great.
Yan Qiu’s voice was low and deep. “If it really is a filter, then after wearing it for so many years, it’ll never come off.”
With that, he leaned down slightly and kissed Lu Qiao on the forehead.
Wow, he was really good at this.
Touching his forehead, Lu Qiao thought that if only he could become as good at flirting as Yan Qiu someday. He wanted to be able to tease Yan Qiu until he couldn’t take it anymore, too.
After the blind date, Grandma Yan and Weng Ruan left to return to their hometown.
After resting at the estate for another two days, Lu Qiao and Yan Qiu packed their luggage and officially moved into the military headquarters.
The First Legion’s barracks were located on the eastern side of the military headquarters. There were more than fifty thousand people in total. It had the fewest soldiers among the military’s several legions, but it was also universally recognized as the most elite.
When a new recruit joined the legion, naturally, they had to train with the entire legion, going through coordination and integration. However, Yan Qiu couldn’t personally train the entire legion, so most of the time, the legion was divided into more than a hundred squads for simultaneous training.
As an adjutant, Lu Qiao was theoretically supposed to lead a squad during this kind of training. But since he himself was still a new recruit, Yan Qiu assigned him to one of the squads to undergo training for a while first.
On the way to the legion, Lu Qiao seriously laid down three rules with Yan Qiu.
“First, while we’re at the military headquarters, don’t be too… too affectionate with me. It’ll have a bad effect. Second, you have to keep work and personal matters separate. Treat me the same way you treat the other soldiers—”
Seeing Yan Qiu staring intently at him, Lu Qiao blushed and said, “For example, don’t look at me with that look!”
That kind of look—anyone who saw it would think there was something going on, right?!
Yan Qiu asked calmly, “What look?”
Lu Qiao: “The look you’re giving me right now!”
Yan Qiu: “I don’t know. I’m just looking at you normally.”
Lu Qiao: “…”
Not normal. Not normal at all!
Yan Qiu teased, “I’ve always looked at you this way. Didn’t you fail to notice anything before?”
Lu Qiao said stiffly, “Yeah, I’m slow. I’m stupid. Happy now?!”
Seeing that he was about to blow a fuse, Yan Qiu chuckled softly.
“Qiao Qiao, I can hold myself back from doing anything too excessive in front of other people, but I can’t control my eyes.”
Lu Qiao: “…Then look at me less!”
Yan Qiu sighed. “I’ll try.”
After that, Lu Qiao added one more rule: after seven o’clock, the two of them would stay in their dorm room and go out as little as possible.
Only then did he stop.
And after they finished talking, all the way until they arrived at the military headquarters, Yan Qiu pinned him against the back seat and kissed him the entire way.
Lu Qiao was obviously going to share a room with Yan Qiu, so he didn’t meet the people he would be training with until the official training began the next day.
…And some of these training partners looked vaguely familiar.
Lu Qiao vaguely remembered that when he and Yan Qiu had been locked together on their second night, these people had been there too. They had even shouted, “Have a safe trip, Boss and Madam!” with an especially rowdy attitude.
Lu Qiao’s scalp went numb.
And the moment these people saw him, every single one of them wore an expression that screamed gossip.
Fortunately, Yan Qiu had probably already spoken to them beforehand. Neither the squad members nor the squad leader dragged Lu Qiao over to interrogate him, which made him breathe a sigh of relief.
The training was hell mode from the very first day.
However, over the past few years, aside from the period when he had been sick, Lu Qiao had always held himself to strict standards. So he didn’t have much trouble adapting. He simply kept his head down and followed the schedule.
During the training, Yan Qiu passed by once…
Twice…
Three times…
Near evening, Yan Qiu passed by for the fourteenth time.
A burly, dark-skinned squadmate lifted his chin and teased, “Look at the Marshal.”
The others followed his gaze, laughing furtively before giving Lu Qiao teasing looks.
Lu Qiao’s face turned red.
But after being out in the sun all day, his face was already red anyway, so it wasn’t particularly noticeable.
Every time Yan Qiu appeared, he had an indifferent expression and didn’t look in their direction even once…
But he had to pass directly in front of their squad every single time.
Wasn’t that a little too obvious?!
Lu Qiao was starting to feel embarrassed because of him!
The burly guy teased, “Lu Qiao, don’t leave our Marshal all pent-up, okay? Seeing as he’s been so well-behaved and hasn’t even glanced over here once, make sure you reward him properly tonight.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the whole group burst into giggles.
Could Lu Qiao not tell that was a dirty joke?!
He had already been enlightened!
He understood now!
So his face flushed bright red, and he glared at the burly guy.
The burly guy had only known Lu Qiao for a day, yet he especially loved teasing him. Seeing how embarrassed Lu Qiao was, he continued until he finally got on Lu Qiao’s nerves.
The two of them started fighting, while everyone around them cheered them on.
Just then, Yan Qiu, passing by for the fifteenth time, suddenly whipped his head around and looked at them expressionlessly.
Instantly, everyone returned to their positions and became quiet as chickens.
That evening, when they went to the main cafeteria for dinner, Lu Qiao noticed some strange-looking soldiers.
They had people accompanying them, both men and women. They all looked quite young and didn’t seem like family members. Rather, they looked like…
“They’re their boyfriends or girlfriends,” the burly guy explained.
Lu Qiao was surprised. “Can these people just enter the military headquarters whenever they want?”
The reason Lu Qiao had previously been able to enter the military headquarters was because he had come there to register as a new recruit. After that, it had been because he needed to teach Ye Lan and the others how to repair consciousness entities.
In theory, ordinary people simply couldn’t be allowed into the military headquarters.
Even when family members came to visit, the military headquarters would arrange a specific day and organize the visits all at once.
But in that case, there was no way there would be only these few soldiers with people accompanying them.
The burly guy paused before lowering his voice.
“They were locked together. After the world core system was invaded by the virus, didn’t the military immediately count the number of affected people? Afterward, they gathered all those affected people together. After all, given their current situation, they aren’t suitable for doing much of anything.
“But it’s also impossible to just let them leave the military headquarters and go outside on vacation. They still need to undergo their regular training during the day.
“So the military made the decision to allow these people’s boyfriends and girlfriends to temporarily stay inside the military headquarters, minimizing the impact on their daily training as much as possible.”
So that was how it was.
Lu Qiao understood.
Someone beside them sighed. “Actually, one-third of the people were injured soldiers when everything happened, and they’re still recovering. Honestly, having someone you love by your side at a time like that… it must feel pretty good.”
Lu Qiao looked at those people again.
A few of them indeed still had bandages wrapped around their arms or chests.
But with their loved ones beside them, it seemed as though those injuries didn’t matter anymore.
The burly guy suddenly asked, “Doesn’t it feel pretty healing?”
Lu Qiao turned to look at him.
The burly guy smiled.
“Sometimes I wonder… Didn’t they say the world core system consciously draws information streams from parallel worlds? If the world really has consciousness, then it must be working hard to make this world a better place.”
Lu Qiao froze.
Before seven o’clock, Lu Qiao arrived at Yan Qiu’s room.
The man was sitting at the desk reading reports. When he saw Lu Qiao enter, he gave him a look before lowering his eyes and continuing to read the documents.
Lu Qiao glanced at him, then went over to straighten his clothes.
The man remained silent, his expression indifferent.
After Lu Qiao finished tidying himself up, he checked the time. There was still half an hour until seven.
He said, “Then I’m going to take a shower first.”
The man said calmly, “Together.”
Lu Qiao immediately burst out laughing.
“You ignored me just now, but the second you heard I was going to take a shower, you spoke up?”
Yan Qiu paused at that.
Then he rubbed the area around his eyes, closed the holographic screen, and looked somewhat helpless.
Thinking about what the burly guy had said—that this guy had behaved himself all day and had actually managed not to look at him much—Lu Qiao suddenly felt like he might have been a little unfair to this man.
He had even managed to make this man sulk.
So he walked over and hugged him from behind, his voice soft.
“You did a great job today. I’ll reward you!”
He gave him a quick kiss.
Yan Qiu froze.
Then he turned around to look at him, frowning.
“Does your face hurt?”
Lu Qiao’s face was still red even now.
“No, it doesn’t hurt. I have tough skin and bones. I’m fine.”
Yan Qiu gave him a sidelong glance, clearly not agreeing.
“Really. I used to be like this at school too.”
Lu Qiao touched his own face.
Yan Qiu turned sideways, held his chin, and kissed him.
After kissing him for a while, his lips moved to Lu Qiao’s cheek, gently pecking at it.
Lu Qiao quite enjoyed the man’s affection. Before long, Yan Qiu had pulled him onto his lap.
By the time Yan Qiu had kissed every part of his face, the two of them realized that, without noticing it, they had already been locked together.
Lu Qiao comfortably nestled into Yan Qiu’s arms and suddenly said, “If the world has consciousness, would its way of thinking be the same as ours?”
Yan Qiu looked down at him.
“What’s wrong?”
Lu Qiao shook his head.
“They were talking about it while we were eating, and it got me thinking.”
Ten thousand years ago, whenever people were in a bad mood, flowers would float into existence around them.
Four thousand years ago, some men would be transformed into women. According to the records, all of these men harbored malicious thoughts toward women. Only after those malicious thoughts disappeared would they return to their male forms.
Every change had never been “malicious.”
Ignoring the accidents caused by individual people being unable to adapt to the changes, looking at things as a whole, it seemed that every change in the rules governing the world really was moving in the direction of making the world a better place.
But no matter how one looked at it, this way of doing things was rather silly. It seemed a little clumsy.
Lu Qiao muttered to himself, “If the world had consciousness like humans do, then it must be really cute.”
A little dumb, but kind.
The more he thought about it, the more interesting he found it.
Yan Qiu suddenly asked, “Do you want to go see what the world core system looks like?”
Lu Qiao looked up in surprise.
“…I can go see it?”
“The C1 Star Region Administration has military forces from every star nation in the Alliance stationed there. Each star nation has two generals responsible for it. His Majesty intends to have me take responsibility for this area, so I was already planning to go there once in a week. As my adjutant, naturally, you can go too.”
Lu Qiao immediately became excited.
“Sure, sure! Then I’ll go with you!”
Ordinary people had only ever seen what the world core system looked like on television. But being able to see it with his own eyes would definitely feel different.
Yan Qiu smiled.
Then he said, “Your birthday is next Saturday, right?”
It had been a long time since anyone had taken the initiative to mention his birthday.
Lu Qiao froze for a moment.
“…Yeah.”
Yan Qiu thought for a moment before saying, “Sunday is a day off. On Saturday, you and I will go to the C1 Star Region Administration. We won’t come back that night.”
Lu Qiao asked, “Are… are you preparing something for me too?”
Yan Qiu rubbed his head.
“I’ll take you out to have some fun.”
Lu Qiao’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
He lowered his head and rubbed himself against Yan Qiu’s chest.
“Okay!”