CR CH5

“Click—clack—”

Unhurried footsteps echoed in the empty prison.

Ling Kongmiao had his hair casually tied up, toying with a pair of handcuffs in his hands. In contrast, Jiang Tianji, who was following behind, didn’t dare to breathe too loudly, looking so timid and cowering that he seemed like he had actually committed a crime to get in here.

He uneasily surveyed his surroundings. It was completely empty, with no prisoners locked up.

The cold mechanical doors slowly closed. After passing through the final layer of iris recognition, Ling Kongmiao brought him to a cell.

He raised his hand and tapped a few times on the virtual screen to the side. The defensive lasers in front of the cell vanished. Ling Kongmiao knocked on the door with the handcuffs, gesturing for Jiang Tianji to enter.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Tianji walked straight up to him, his brows drooping, and reluctantly held out his hands.

Ling Kongmiao’s motion of leaning against the door paused, and he scrutinized the person in front of him with an incredulous look.

Jiang Tianji held his hands up for a long while. Seeing no reaction from the other party, he actually revealed a slightly dissatisfied expression.

Ling Kongmiao: “What’s the meaning of this?”

Jiang Tianji froze, looked at the handcuffs in his hands, and appeared completely out of the loop: “Aren’t you going to handcuff me?”

“Why would I handcuff you?”

If you aren’t going to handcuff me, then what was the point of dangling them in your hands the whole way here?

Daring to be angry but not daring to speak, Jiang Tianji explained in a small voice, “I saw you holding them the whole way.”

“They would have been used if you resisted halfway. If you feel it’s a pity, I can accompany you back to walk the path again.”

Jiang Tianji sheepishly withdrew his hands, an embarrassing blush spreading from his cheeks to his neck.

Ling Kongmiao’s tone of voice always carried a semi-mocking feeling. His words sounded like teasing, yet also like playing the rogue.

Before this, the Ling Kongmiao in Jiang Tianji’s imagination had always been cold and serious.

He looked up at the other’s half-smiling eyes, holding his breath until his face and neck turned red. Finally, he entered the cell without a word and sat down with his back to him. Then, remembering that the other party was the Chief Commander after all, he forced himself to turn back around and bowed politely.

“Sorry for the trouble today.”

The young man was very handsome, with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes—a rather eye-catching kind of handsome. If he didn’t have so many expressions, he could probably be classified as the cool and aloof type. He was tall and slender, visually around 185 cm, but his current appearance was a bit comical, with all his little thoughts written right on his face.

Ling Kongmiao sneered; this kind of naivety wasn’t a good thing in the military.

“In the military, you must address your superiors as ‘Sir’. Starting tomorrow, you will officially become a member of the Z01 basic unit. This is not school. Put away your undisciplined attitude. Towards your superiors’ orders, you only need to answer ‘Yes, Sir’, do you understand?”

Jiang Tianji subconsciously pursed his lips.

Ling Kongmiao’s eyes instantly turned cold. “Answer.”

Jiang Tianji: “…Yes, Sir.”

Ling Kongmiao didn’t say anything more. He locked the door and left the prison.

After the footsteps completely disappeared, Jiang Tianji suddenly felt a bit cold. He took off the outer coat, only then realizing he had forgotten to return the jacket.

Forget it, he’d deal with it tomorrow.

Jiang Tianji listlessly shuffled onto the bed, wrapped himself up in the blanket, and sniffled softly.

His mind was a mess, jumping from home to school, from his mom to his roommates, and finally to the school cafeteria. He had to admit, the food at the Federal Military Academy was truly beyond reproach. On the interstellar network forums, many people from other schools asked if someone could bring them a meal, offering highly negotiable prices.

Their school’s Agricultural Research Department cultivated new types of hydroponic vegetables every day—a unique deliciousness in the entire Federation.

Thinking of this, Jiang Tianji’s stomach let out a long, drawn-out growl.

“…”

He was hungry, tired, and feeling bitter inside.

Jiang Tianji hugged the blanket tighter and buried his head in it.

–

Meanwhile, at the Comprehensive Department.

Ling Kongmiao clipped the handcuffs back onto his waist. The moment he stepped into the lounge and office area, several gazes converged on him.

He walked straight to his desk without looking sideways. Just as he opened his water cup, he caught a glimpse of a few people whispering to each other out of the corner of his eye.

“Captain.”

Irene blinked her beautiful eyes and leaned in to ask, “What’s the background of that kid today? Taking care of this kind of thing should be the job of the subordinate basic units, and you usually don’t pay any attention to this stuff at all.”

The other team members seemed to be minding their own business, but in reality, their ears were already quietly perked up.

Tang Min immediately chimed in, pointing out meaningfully: “Today was also a coincidence. Boss was inspecting the basic units and just happened to glance over when the anomaly report came in. Originally it was nothing, but when he saw the specific dorm info and name identified by the system, his face suddenly changed. I’m telling you…”

Ling Kongmiao swept a faint glance over them: “Are you guys very free?”

The group instantly lowered their heads and pretended not to hear. Ling Kongmiao didn’t say anything more and walked straight toward the archives room.

The group exchanged glances, their expressions unable to hide their disappointment.

But before they could start whispering again, the door to the archives room suddenly opened. Everyone instantly focused on their noses and their hearts, each staring fixedly at their own info screens as if completely absorbed in their work.

“Do you guys,” Ling Kongmiao walked over slowly, his tone carrying a trace of hesitation, “have any snacks that can pad the stomach a little?”

“No way Captain, you actually get snack cravings?”

Tang Min immediately pulled open his drawer, which had a variety of snacks comparable to a grocery store.

Seeing that Ling Kongmiao didn’t deny it, even the reticent Ye couldn’t help but look up.

“Captain, didn’t you eat?”

“Mn.” Too lazy to explain, Ling Kongmiao gave a vague reply.

He couldn’t understand these flashy snacks, so he randomly picked two that looked like they had a decent portion size.

During this time, Zhao Hengyi had been blabbering non-stop next to him like a machine gun, talking all about jokes from training. His voice was naturally loud, yet he insisted on leaning right next to Ling Kongmiao to speak.

Ling Kongmiao was getting a headache from the noise. He grabbed the two snacks and walked out.

Zhao Hengyi, not finished speaking, sounded regretful: “Boss, you’re not eating here?”

Hearing this, Ling Kongmiao stopped and looked at him with an indescribable expression.

“Zhao Hengyi, no wonder your mom finds you annoying.”

“No, Boss, that’s too hurtful, how could you…”

After saying that, Ling Kongmiao ignored the loud shouting coming from behind him and walked straight toward the new prison.

–

The new prison had not yet been opened to the public, and only high-level officers and technicians held the master key permissions.

“Verification passed.”

The mechanical doors were activated and slowly opened.

An unidentified flying object darted over. It was a small round ball no bigger than the palm of a hand. The designer seemed to have a twisted sense of humor, adding a pair of soft pink bunny ears to its head.

“Hello, Chief Commander Ling. Xiao Tuan is at your service.”

Ling Kongmiao didn’t look sideways, casually brushing it off: “Mn, thanks.”

“How may I help you?”

“Be quiet.”

“…”

Xiao Tuan seemed to think for a moment. A mouth slowly appeared on the spherical display, and then the mouth turned into an “×”, as it quietly hovered around Ling Kongmiao.

The prison was filled only with a monotonous silver-gray metallic color. It was orderly and clean, yet it gave off a lingering sense of oppression.

Jiang Tianji’s situation was somewhat special, featuring rare delayed differentiation and pheromone recognition impairment. Furthermore, he hadn’t entered the military through the normal system and knew nothing about this place.

The data Dr. He sent showed that he was temporarily showing no abnormalities and only needed suppressants injected on time. Based on the experimental results, he was in a state of rejection towards other Alpha pheromones, but the specifics would have to wait for the research institute’s analysis results.

It was also to be expected. Ling Kongmiao raised his hand to scan his info and open the cell, only to hear sniffling sounds coming from inside again.

How pitiful.

He stopped his movements, somewhat amused. Out of humanitarian care and understanding, he raised his hand and lightly knocked twice on the door.

“Beep beep—”

Immediately after, the mechanical door recognized the officer’s info and automatically executed the open command.

Ling Kongmiao looked up and saw Jiang Tianji stumbling and scrambling down from the bed, looking utterly disheveled.

He first quickly wiped his face, then awkwardly straightened his messy clothes, lowering his eyes and calling out in a muffled voice.

“Sir.”

Ling Kongmiao tossed the snacks in his hand over. Jiang Tianji clumsily caught them, looking up in a bit of a daze.

“Tomorrow morning when you hear the assembly bell, report to Training Base Area 1. After training, the commanding officer will tell you your assigned dormitory. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can ask your squad captain.”

Ling Kongmiao grabbed Xiao Tuan, who was darting around in the air, and threw it toward Jiang Tianji.

“Adjust your mindset on your own tonight. You can ask it any basic questions first.”

Jiang Tianji looked at the AI sprite in his arms, whose electronic eyes had turned into spirals, and answered hesitantly.

“Okay.”

Ling Kongmiao nodded and was just about to turn and leave when a soft call came from behind.

“Um, Sir…”

He turned back and met Jiang Tianji’s hesitant gaze. The other party seemed to lose his courage after making eye contact, lowering his head to fiddle with the two snack wrappers, giving two dry laughs.

“It’s nothing. Take care, Sir. Sorry for the trouble today.”

Ling Kongmiao didn’t leave immediately, however. He stared at him for a long time until Jiang Tianji felt his legs start to go soft and sweat begin to bead on his forehead, only then leaving without a word.

Jiang Tianji let out a heartfelt sigh of relief and plopped down on the bed, engaging in a staring contest with Xiao Tuan, who was lying obediently in his arms.

Xiao Tuan was silent for a moment. Suddenly, two suspicious blushes appeared on its electronic screen, and its eyes changed from spirals into “winks.”

“Identification complete… Hello, Squad Member Jiang Tianji. I am the artificial intelligence, Xiao Tuan.”

Jiang Tianji: “…Hello.”