Chapter 256: Li Wei’s Surrender
Chou Manman was still immersed in the shock of “My friend is the rare unique seedling among scarce species” when her personal terminal light screen suddenly popped up a message box. After Chou Manman glanced at it briefly, her expression suddenly changed dramatically.
“Xiang Chuan, you continue chatting with this one. I’ll head over for a bit first.”
After tossing out these words, she hastily said goodbye to Xiang Chuan and Li Wei, then ran off in another direction.
Xiang Chuan looked in the direction Chou Manman had left, and ahead she saw several familiar club members from the drama club gathered together. It seemed there was probably some sudden situation on the club side.
She bit her straw and glanced at Li Wei, whose brows were furrowed so tightly they could almost wring out a towel, thinking that modern officers sure had a lot on their minds.
“Military officer, can I sit on the other side?” Xiang Chuan pointed to the other end of the bench.
“Ah? Yeah, sit.” Li Wei watched her with a complicated mood as she lightly walked to the other end of the bench and sat down, then said: “By the way, this way you call me and Captain Kenny—is it a habit from the Third Fleet, or did you learn it from ancient culture?”
“Of course I learned it. I really like this way of addressing, so it was perfect to use it during this visit. I’m pretty happy about it.”
The first half of the sentence was Xiang Chuan’s sincere words. Besides, in modern times, she couldn’t exactly call the officers around her “comrade.” If she called them that too much, people would think she was plotting some new party or new ideological trend. Explaining it would be troublesome too—she couldn’t just tell them it was related to some ancient ideology and some ism, making modern people who weren’t prepared to accept the impact of various ancient ideological trends look at these things. It might lead to party splits by the next decade.
To avoid her casual remark leading to some dangerous situation, Xiang Chuan had stubbornly called everyone “military officer” inside and out ever since seeing the instructor in the military district today.
Li Wei didn’t know these inside stories. He sighed: “How to put it… Some cultural habits of ancient people are pretty peculiar.”
“Of course. Although the history of the Common Era isn’t as long as the Tianyuan Era now, the cultural evolution and civilization changes in it are very interesting.”
Xiang Chuan recalled the pleasant memories of listening raptly to the teacher tell stories during high school history class. Although after so many years of working, she had almost forgotten the detailed contents of the textbook knowledge and the stories the teacher told, the joyful feeling from listening to various little historical stories in history class was still firmly remembered by her.
“Next time there’s a chance, I’ll have my sister release some historical documentaries for everyone to watch. These might be more interesting to you than TV series.” Xiang Chuan smiled.
Li Wei swallowed. That was indeed very attractive. Restraining the excitement in his heart, he said: “However, are you really okay with just sharing the records from the information turbulence with the Third Fleet without any reservations?”
“Of course I’m releasing them according to a plan. If I dumped everything like ‘Five Thousand Years of China,’ ‘The Four Books and Five Classics,’ ‘Records of the Grand Historian’ all at once, dry-frying the entire fleet’s brains, wouldn’t I become an eternal sinner?” Xiang Chuan joked with a laugh. “Besides, right now I’m only thinking about eating well and binge-watching dramas properly. If the government has no demand for other things, I’m not in a hurry to release them. Just a few books and two dramas are enough to keep them busy for a long time.”
Thinking of the rumor she’d heard before about the Historical Research Institute seriously researching historical details with “Empresses in the Palace” and “My Own Swordsman,” Xiang Chuan had involuntarily broken out in cold sweat on her forehead at the time.
These two dramas—one was unofficial history, the other pure fiction. What historical content could they research? Researching the 21st century TV series costuming, makeup, sets level and TV drama script arrangement would be about right.
“Rather, you, military officer,” Xiang Chuan turned her head to look at Li Wei, “seem not too keen on me releasing these things.”
As soon as these words came out, Xiang Chuan saw Li Wei’s entire sitting posture stiffen. She couldn’t help but sigh inwardly: New recruits need more worldly wisdom.
Li Wei didn’t know how to respond at this point. He hadn’t expected Xiang Chuan to see through his intentions, and now that she’d pointed it out herself, he was dumbfounded.
As for Xiang Chuan, she was now carefully sizing up Li Wei. She had to admit that an adult male in military uniform looked more mature than he appeared. At lunch, Kenny had said Li Wei was only twenty, and this set of blue military uniform worn properly on Li Wei made him look more like a mature youth of twenty-five or twenty-six.
This made Xiang Chuan somewhat understand why the boys in her class in her previous life aspired so much to become soldiers. Once you put on the military uniform, not only did your temperament become more mature, it also made you look more spirited and handsome. Which hot-blooded youth wouldn’t be dazzled?
Moreover, Li Wei’s appearance was very good-looking. His hair was black with great texture, short to near the ears—not like those traffic actors she often saw in 21st century short videos and domestic idol dramas, with disheveled hair still playing soldiers. Li Wei’s features were more akin to Asians, the only difference being his eyes had distinctly brown pupils, showing he had some mixed heritage.
But now there was no 21st century concept of nations anymore, so calling it mixed blood was just racial mixing, right? Xiang Chuan thought.
——
The silence lasted ten minutes.
Xiang Chuan looked at Li Wei’s stiff movements that had persisted for a while and couldn’t help laughing: “Military officer, I was just saying it casually. You don’t need to overthink it. After all, you’re not the one making the final decision on handling these ancient cultural products, right?”
“It’s exactly because I’m not the one deciding that it’s giving me a headache.”
Li Wei rubbed his forehead, leaned back against the bench’s backrest, and slightly turned his head to look at Xiang Chuan, meeting her gaze exactly. Sixteen-year-old Xiang Chuan still had some childishness in her appearance, but both her demeanor and behavior made Li Wei subconsciously treat her as an adult woman.
Are high school students nowadays all this precocious? Or is it because this girl has accessed the information turbulence that she’s so precocious? Li Wei pondered.
Hearing Li Wei’s words that seemed baffling at first glance, Xiang Chuan raised an eyebrow: “So what, are you going to arrest me and take me back?”
“…”
Li Wei opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing.
As a soldier of the Eleventh Fleet, he had the duty to act to uphold the Eleventh Fleet’s laws and regulations, among which was the “Ancient Technology Circulation Management Regulations.” So both emotionally and rationally, he should take Xiang Chuan to the Eleventh Fleet as a qualified soldier.
But looking at the girl before him who was merely sixteen, Li Wei thought of the tangled overt and covert struggles between the various fleets, and the nano robots now lurking in his body and those of his other exploration force teammates. His initial idea of taking Xiang Chuan away was gradually thoroughly suppressed by the tangled reality.
“…This isn’t something that the current me, or our troop, can decide.” Li Wei sighed.
This wasn’t some Tai Chi rhetoric; it was stating objective facts. He had the duty to take Xiang Chuan away, but he also had to face the difficulties very likely to arise before and after taking that action—consequences that really weren’t something their small troop could bear.
So Li Wei gave up thinking.
