An Lei watched Tian Xing Jian gaze at the photo of her father on the grave with his tears dripping down. These two men were the most important men in her life, yet they had parted for far too long. The next time they had met, it was actually in this form, with the heavens separating the two forever.
She took out a letter that had already started turning yellow before placing it beside Tian Xing Jian. This had been the letter written by Father An for him. Looking at Tian Xing Jian, who was crying and sniffing in front of her father’s departed spirit, she felt relieved of a burden; it was as if her father was alive once again and the image of the two were merging together right before An Lei’s eyes.
Wiping her tears, An Lei silently walked towards the flying car. She did not want to disturb the two of them. Her elegant figure began leaving further and further, and her footsteps became lighter and lighter. She knew that he had found the answer in front of the departed spirit.
Tian Xing Jian tore open the letter:
“Little Jian [1], we have never blamed you for that matter. An Lei wasn’t hurt at all, but do forgive Father An’s harsh treatment to you. Life is as such. Everyone must experience difficulties before they can find an answer that belongs to them.
I’m truly happy that you could finally read this letter. I trust that you know what it means to be brave as a man. Do remember to never forget the responsibility you hold eternally.
Perhaps your personality might not make you a hero, but I believe that my child will still be an ordinary warrior.
Right now, I’ll pass to you the first responsibility you should have in your life—that is to take good care of Mother An and An Lei. This was originally my responsibility, but the heavens had taken away the rights for me to do this.
I am very sorry.”
The letter was short; Tian Xing Jian read the letter again and again with his blurry eyes before those tears finally made the paper so wet that the words on it had started to smudge.
Father An, I know what I should do. In front of the grave, a fatty was bawling out on his knees.
Only after quite some time did Tian Xing Jian finally calm down. Sitting by the grave, he spoke and paused while retelling all his life experiences in the past two years to Father An.
After so many years, that knot in his heart had finally been untied. Fatty felt truly free for once; shaking his body, it was as if he had lost 50 kilograms of weight.
Suddenly, he thought of Russell’s letter. Fatty took it out as he wanted to know what this chap wanted to tell him.
On the letter, there was beautiful penmanship. Just like Father An’s letter, this made Tian Xing Jian feel comfortable as personally writing a letter represented his respect for him.
The letter wrote:
“First Lieutenant Tian, you are the teenager who has the greatest military talent among all those I’ve met. From your eyes, I could see that you are truly confused about war and that you have some innate resistance against the career of a soldier who treats killing as the main aspect of the job. This point is something I’ve experienced similarly in the past.
Let’s cut to the chase. I only wanted to tell you this—war isn’t decided by the people’s willpower. Since people can not decide when a war would start, then as a soldier, we are destined to make a decision as to when it would end.
The good and bad outcome of wars would affect all your loved ones, your friends, and your nation. This might sound cliché, but this is a fact. Look at Miracolo Planet. If your loved ones are on this planet, then would you be willing to see the scene of them crying amidst their heavily damaged home?
Regardless of whether one is a soldier or not, everyone has to shoulder the responsibility of protecting their loved ones and their home. This responsibility is something we can not escape from. You could always be an ostrich that buries its head in the sand, but the moment you bring your head up, you will only discover that all your loved ones have fallen by your side as your country is being destroyed by the fires of war.
War represents death. Soldiers are the tools causing these deaths. This logic is irrefutable. But do remember this—being merciful to your enemy means being cruel to yourself. Your responsibility now is to protect your own hometown and not sigh with sorrow about how precious life is when facing the enemy’s sword.
You have the talents and the capabilities, and as such, you must uphold the responsibility of learning how to protect your comrades, your loved ones, and your nation during war.
Do remember that only the victors have peace, and do remember what your responsibility is.
The enemies have their own responsibilities, and you have yours!”
After reading this letter, Tian Xing Jian pondered for a really long. Maybe the logic behind Russell’s words was something he understood, or maybe the word “responsibility” had given Tian Xing Jian a spark, but he decided to become Russell’s student.
Tian Xing Jian finally returned to the An’s home. Mother An had cried. The three of them meeting could be considered as a family reunion. This one month of leave passed really fast. During this month, Fatty had completely become the “househusband” of the family. Everyday, he would go out and buy food before cooking them happily, spending his days chatting with Mother An and hearing her nag about all sorts of things. An Lei had decided to just return and stay back at her original home; however, she had thrown away all those spying equipment, causing Fatty to feel a heartache.
An Lei thought that throwing those things away would mean that she would be safe, yet she hadn’t realized what Fatty was now—he was someone from the special forces with a machinery engineer background! Would fiddling with things to create a spying equipment be that hard?
Just that after Fatty saw those things, he had hurt himself in the end, as he could not sleep for a few days—those white darlings remained in front of his eyes, and he was perpetually having a nosebleed and almost died from loss of blood.
As Miracolo Planet had already turned into a gigantic forward command base for the Federation Army, many military departments would have to set up a branch over there, and this included the Intelligence Department too. An Lei had been assigned over to Jialipalan as someone responsible for some intelligence reporting job, thus when his holiday ended, Tian Xing Jian decided to bring Mother An and An Lei together to Jialipalan. After all, nobody would be taking care of Mother An if she stayed in the capital alone.
After finding a place to settle down, Fatty became worried. Now that An Lei was living in Jialipalan, what if she met Milan? His future days would be really hard to live through. He would most certainly be burned as an offering in front of the grave of Father An.
However, Milan was truly innocent. Ever since the past, he was quite the hooligan. And there were also Mei Duo and Ni Ya who would still call him from time to time. Damn, everything was calculated perfectly as a chance encounter, but he regretted not meeting any one of them earlier. Most likely, he would turn into a eunuch in the future.
Father An, you should tell me, how should I shoulder this responsibility!? Fatty’s head was turning white.
Matters which he could not resolve in his mind would be left forgotten. The house was really big, and even after the An Family’s mother and daughter stayed there, there was still some space left. Fatty decided to just agree to Mother An’s request of staying with them. Firstly, it would be easier to take care of Mother An. Secondly… losing blood sometimes would be good and strengthen his body and heart.
After returning to the academy, Tian Xing Jian had thought that he entered the wrong place.
Jialipalan’s military academy’s new academic year was already planned. These days were just nice, as they were the days for registrations. The entrance to the academy where the registrations booths were at was filled with noise and was bustling with activity.
Fatty put on a silly expression as he entered the crowd, rubbing and touching others. He was in bliss, yet in his heart, he also felt regret; he should have just continued living in the academy’s dormitory, especially when there was a dream heaven of Fatty here—the female’s living quarters.
[1] A form of endearment meaning—Xiao refers to Little and Jian is his name. So in other words, Little Jian.
Feeling reluctant to part with the group of female students, Fatty realized that several of the more beautiful female students had look of disgust in their eyes, making him decisively forget the idea of coming back and forth as he squeezed his way through. In the end, he slipped away to his dormitory to collect his stuff.
A single person living by himself did not have many things; just a single leather suitcase was enough to fit all his things. It was only the virtual cabin that gave him a headache, but in the end, he decided to move it to Milan’s laboratory, as he wanted to use the gravity room over there to continue his training.
The virtual cabin was collapsible and was manufactured with an ultra-light material, enabling him to carry it with just one hand. Fatty carried the suitcase with one hand, and the virtual cabin with the other. Just as he went down the dormitory building, he saw groups of female students pulling their luggage into the opposite dormitory entrance.
Seeing those waves of surging white rabbits jumping ahead of him and those waves swaying gently behind him…
Fatty beat his chest as he felt truly regretful. For the sake of peeping on one person bathe, he gave up on the chance of peeping on a whole group of them bathing together. This was such a loss on his end of the transaction.
Group after group of female students, with a look of grievance, watched this wretched fatty gazing at them, causing them to be so frightened that they jumped. Some of them glared back at him, some were discussing amongst themselves, some were pulling their friends to run away, and some were sniggering. Although Fatty was totally unaware of it, but with his mouth, he was continuously mumbling:
“33, 36, 35, this is quite a formidable 39. Wah, 42. Truly unbelievable…”
Once a female student strenuously supported her chest while carrying a heavy luggage walk past this wretched person, “ka chi”, he immediately started bleeding from not just his nose but all seven orifices.
“Friend, your ‘this’ should be a 50, right?”
“...I’ve never measured it before, but this luggage is quite heavy indeed.”
Fatty was glad that he did not ask the wrong question and had avoided everything. Otherwise, he would be beaten to his death by everyone present on the scene.
Katherine was currently chatting and laughing with her friends while walking along to her dormitory. This was the first time this beautiful and clever miss left her home. To her, the outside world was truly too novel and free; she felt like a bird that had just been let out of the cage. Thinking back to the reactions of her parents after hearing that she had passed the admission test into a military academy, Katherine wanted to laugh.
Living a life of wealth and pamper did not provide a good frame of mind for Katherine. Various dances and other supposed high-class sons of nobility and misses made her feel truly tired. Only now on this planet, where the ashes left behind by the conflagration of war was still warm, would this future female officer of a fleet in her imagination feel truly happy.
Just as she passed by Tian Xing Jian, who was staring at the chests of everyone, she did not really care about that so much. It was only now when he had walked to her did she finally see this person’s wretched eyes that was not even raised past that of her neck and was below that of her bosom. She finally realized that this deceitful fatty had been squeezing himself within the group of female students for 20 over rounds just now during registration!
She felt truly angry—how could there be such a shameless person in this world!? Katherine decided to give this wretched fatty a good beating.
In the end, this girl, who was crowned champion as a modern female fighter, went towards Fatty, but she had yet to even do anything when Fatty just slipped away.
This was still the first time Katherine had seen such a cowardly person. Looking at her female acquaintances in dismay, all of them could not help but laugh.
Fatty only felt that a pair of 36D big white rabbits had suddenly gathered in front of his eyes, staring at him resolutely. Realizing that he was discovered, he did not even dare to look up at her face and could only run off.
Hanging his head dispiritedly as he went back to the newly rented apartment, after unpacking his things, Fatty suddenly had felt the feeling of having a home.
An Lei was a staff officer over at the civilian side of the Intelligence Department and did not have to work elsewhere for long periods of time. Usually, she would always stay at home to accompany her mother and would make meals by hand.
This represented that not only would he have a chance for his mouth to enjoy living in ease and comfort in the future, but also, whenever An Lei bathed, there would be a pleasant sight for his eyes too. Living such a life made Fatty’s body tremble the moment he thought of it, causing his mood to be good again.
Overjoyed, he went back to the 6th Research Unit to end his leave and also to place the virtual cabin in the research lab. The moment Boswell saw Fatty, he immediately threw a class timetable over at him, saying, “In a few days time, the academy will be starting its military training. The entire semester is three months long. The academy arranged for you to be a machinery engineer instructor at the rookie training camp. These rookies are all new students in the academy and are students undertaking the course for Battle Mecha design and manufacturing. Don’t cause me to lose my reputation.”
Fatty cursed in his heart, ‘Damn old man, isn’t this driving a duck up the perch?’ Thinking carefully, if it was any other subject, then he could not do it, but since machinery maintenance was his old profession, fooling with several new rookies should be fine for him.
Afraid that this old man would assign more work for him, Fatty immediately slipped away.
He tunnelled into Milan’s research lab. Milan had not seen him for a month and was naturally delighted beyond words. She buried her head in the embrace of Fatty and said some words of love to him, but not a single word had entered the mind of Fatty, as he was just enjoying the softness of that chest pressing on him. He felt his soul flying to the heaven.
The fiery lust of a virgin was the easiest to be started. Fatty had merely started being affectionate with MIlan, and yet, this burning fire had long started pouring through his body and mind. Finally, he bit his tongue and gave an excuse to lay down the flags and still the drums [1] before running out crestfallen. He bawled in his heart. This was totally wanting his life! The entire Miracolo Planet is filled with big rabbits!
Seeing the bustling campus, it seemed as if everyone were busy with their own things. Now that he had nothing to do, Tian Xing Jian decided to go and find Russell.
Ever since he read that letter from Russell, Fatty had given another look at this future teacher of his. He could not help but agree that when it came to anything related to war—any logic or whatsoever—Russell would certainly understand them clearer than he did.
Tian Xing Jian was never a person who wasted time on an insignificant problem, and his personality was not one of a bigot. What Russell said was right; he had his own responsibility. Ever since he had straightened his thinking, Fatty felt that he ought to find Russell and give him an apology for his childishness.
When Tian Xing Jian saw Russell, Russell’s back was currently facing him, as Russell was looking at a virtual map.
Seeing Fatty, Russell waved his hand and blocked Fatty from speaking those words he wanted to say, “Let’s not speak about any other matters. Come and look at this deduction.”
Tian Xing Jian gave the map a look. This was a deduced map which he had never seen before. The disparity in the numbers between the two sides were huge, with the red side having the offensive initiative and the blue side having the defensive initiative. In the end, it was the defense of the blue side that was flourishing more than the attacking red side in view of their huge numbers.
This was a surface battle. Watching the map, there did not seem to be any location which the red side could attack from. The defense of the blue side was extremely strict with their defensive positions, which spread out through the entire shore. Regardless of whether it was their weapons or their equipment, both sides were fundamentally similar.
Russell gave Tian Xing Jian a look: “Can you find the gap in the blue side? If you are currently the commander of the red side, how would you prepare to attack this base?”
Tian Xing Jian looked at the base of the blue side. There seemed to be a small gap faintly in his mind. Within the space of two of the high grounds, there was a location that was quite high up and was not defended. If they could occupy this location and get rid of the two blue bases by the sides of this location, then they would be able to cut the defense of the blue side into two. As long as they continued maintaining this location for two hours, the red side would be able to bring large amounts of their troops to occupy the entire front part of the shore, gaining a firm footing in this place.
However, Tian Xing Jian soon gave up on this idea. This was a battle where there were no Battle Mecha forces shown on both the data and on the map. If both sides of that location had some hidden artillery, then the infantry would just be sending themselves to their death. This was a specially crafted trap that could allow several commanding officers to feel that there was enough benefits for them to take the risk.
Scrutinizing it seriously for quite some time, Fatty finally shook his head: “There is no way!” Russell’s expression was truly complex. He felt gratified and disappointed at the same time.
“However!” Tian Xing Jian looked at Russell: “If you tell me that this battle will concern the entire outcome of the war and that the red army would be annihilated if we don’t bring down this shore, I think I’ll forcibly attack this location.”
The location Tian Xing Jian was pointing to was still that same location which could soon lead one to be unable to predict the future.
Russell laughed, “Let’s start your lessons tomorrow.”
[1] To give up.
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