CR CH36

Chapter 36: Words of Comfort

Inside the reception room.

The top floor of the commanding officer’s office building offered a panoramic view of the entire Z01 layout. The floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides were spotless and crystal clear, allowing the sunlight to stream indoors and cast a dazzling glow against the sleek, silver-white walls.

Ling Kongmiao narrowed his eyes slightly, tapped the wall to call up a floating interface, and activated the sunshade system on the opposite side.

“Sorry to disturb you, Captain Ling.”

Sitting on the sofa was a mature, older woman. Her short hair curled slightly at the ends, and her dark eyes were narrow and sharp. She wore a high-ranking officer’s uniform jacket draped over her shoulders. At this moment, her legs were crossed and she leaned forward slightly, propping her chin on her hand as she gazed out the side window.

“You are too polite, Commander Jiang,” Ling Kongmiao replied as he poured a cup of hot water, bending down to hand it to her. “Please.”

Jiang Yan accepted it. “Thank you.”

Ling Kongmiao followed her gaze out the window. The visitation day rest area was packed to the brim with people. From this angle, they looked as small as ants.

“You’ve been working hard lately, Captain Ling. Although a special deployment order was issued for you to temporarily step back from rescue missions, I’m afraid your current workload is even heavier than it was at the Special Rescue Headquarters.” Jiang Yan took a sip of the hot water and set the cup down.

“The conference is approaching. The proposal for open-ranking missions was submitted three times. The first two times, the Star Council maintained a rigid stance.”

“The leak of the Blood Project video clips caused a lot of negative backlash. Combined with the frequent occurrence of ranking-shift missions, the proposal had to be temporarily shelved. But this time, we are halfway through the process, and it’s basically a done deal.”

“I heard that that person used the ranking-shift missions to conduct a thorough internal sweep of the Star Council. Didn’t that include Chief Boris’s mentor?”

Ling Kongmiao sat across from her. “A new official taking office is always different. His arrogance burns far brighter than old Elder Dou’s ever did.”

“The Federation is not what it was decades ago. Nowadays, the internal factions and the various major clans are tightly intertwined. Plus, with Senator Lin clearly stating his support for Dou Wenhong this time, they are determined to pass this proposal.”

Jiang Yan looked up. “You are very smart, Captain Ling. At that conference a few years ago, everyone thought you would enter the inner circle of the Star Council. Instead, you accepted an arrangement that seemed like a demotion, while proposing a condition that no one at the time could refuse—the Special Rescue unit retains the choice of whether or not to participate in voting.”

“Back then, that condition seemed like a constraint for the Special Rescue unit. But now, Special Rescue has become the only combat unit in the Federation completely detached from the entanglements of the Star Council.”

“I was young and ignorant back then,” Ling Kongmiao smiled faintly. “The Star Council’s rules had no room for me.”

“Chief Boris wasn’t wrong,” he continued. “A high-risk combat unit like Special Rescue is a perfect fit for someone like me, who has too much energy and hates being managed.”

“You’ve matured a lot over the past few years, Captain Ling. I actually miss the younger Captain Ling who flipped the table during that conference.” Jiang Yan could tell he didn’t want to elaborate. A look of deep meaning flashed in her eyes as she naturally shifted the topic.

“A 22-year-old Commander-in-Chief… it really is the era of the youth. He’s only two years older than my own child, yet the gap between them is immense. When General Lu and I chat, we occasionally bring you all up. It seems every parent has their own share of worries.”

“As for my own child, I don’t demand much from him. I only hope he can do what he loves.”

“With his talent, it would be easy for him to catch up if he wanted to.” Ling Kongmiao looked out the window. “Tonight’s training session will be delayed. You can go see him.”

“My own master worries a lot too,” he added. “Even now, he frequently calls to remind me to eat on time. No matter how much a child grows up, they probably remain a child in the eyes of their elders.”

“Captain Ling,” Jiang Yan said as she opened a pocket watch she carried with her, revealing a photo of a young boy smiling radiantly in the sun. “You are even more exceptional than I imagined.”

Ling Kongmiao’s movements paused slightly. Before he could speak, Jiang Yan continued.

“Perhaps after you take over as Chief of Special Rescue, you’ll be able to understand me a bit. I’m busy every day, and opportunities to sit down and chat like this are rare.”

“I’ve never encountered an unsolvable problem in my life, until Tianji came along. Only then did I realize that this little thing was much harder to raise than I expected. I was too busy. By the time I snapped out of it, he had already grown up.”

Jiang Yan fell into a memory. A sudden smile graced her face as she recalled something.

“When he was a child studying at Shuxing Hanyu, he used to come home, scowl, and sit on the steps for long periods, lost in thought.”

“Then one day, he suddenly came bouncing back. He pushed open the study door and told me with absolute seriousness that he had found an incredibly beautiful wife at the academy. After relentless efforts, his proposal had finally succeeded, and he insisted that I make time to go meet her.”

Ling Kongmiao lowered his head and picked up his water glass, intending to take a drink, only to find it empty. He had no choice but to stand up and pour himself another cup.

“…Is that so? Your son certainly knew how to look after his own marriage from such a young age. That must have saved you a lot of worry.”

“Unfortunately,” Jiang Yan sighed softly. Her narrow eyes arched slightly as she fixed her gaze on Ling Kongmiao, who was leaning against the desk.

“I was actually quite interested in the matter and finally cleared my schedule one day to go take a look. In the end, Little Tian came running back in tears, saying his wife had run away.”

“That is indeed a pity,” Ling Kongmiao said, choosing to selectively ignore the teasing look in Jiang Yan’s eyes as he spoke with an unblinking, straight face.

“What a reckless child,” he added. “How could she just leave without saying a word?”

“Indeed,” Jiang Yan smiled warmly. “Looking at it now, time truly flies. Regardless, I’ve managed to meet her in the end.”

“Little Tian has excellent taste. From the inside out, she can truly be described as beautiful and outstanding.”

“…”

The usually silver-tongued Captain Ling was thoroughly silenced, unable to find a single word to counter.

Jiang Yan let out a low laugh and didn’t linger any further. As she walked past him, she patted his arm gently.

“See you around, Captain Ling.”

Ling Kongmiao froze in place, his tall shadow stretching like a straight line. Under the bright lights of the room, a flush of red bloomed visibly against his pale skin.

Only after a long while did he raise a hand to rub his ear, letting out a soft, exasperated click of his tongue.

The Rest Area

The four friends bantered back and forth. Even eating couldn’t keep their mouths shut, but despite their lively chatter, they couldn’t hold back the setting sun bleeding across the horizon.

When it was time to leave, Jiang Tianji stood at the base gates with his roommates, staring blankly at the brilliant glow of the evening clouds not far away.

The fading sunlight lacked the crisp freshness of the morning, nor did it possess the stillness of the night. Its existence was brief, yet it had the unique ability to slow everything down.

“I think we met around this exact time of day too,” Jiang Jun suddenly spoke up. “I met Luo Yang first. With just one look, I knew he was someone I could talk to.”

“It really was fate. That day, everyone was rushing forward—some hurrying to catch the train, others busy picking up their kids from school. I was spinning in circles, completely lost in a strange place, when I turned around and saw him.”

“He was standing by the roadside just like me, having no clue which way to go.”

Luo Yang chimed in, “Yeah! Then the two of us stood there with our luggage, subtly testing each other out. I started inching toward him bit by bit, only to realize he was inching toward me too. I burst out laughing on the spot.”

“I said, ‘Brother, are you lost too?’ He gave a slightly awkward laugh and nodded repeatedly. Neither of us knew the way, but finding someone else in the exact same predicament instantly took away the panic.”

“And then we squatted there together to figure something out,” Jiang Jun said. “Right then, I looked up again and saw a melancholic youth carrying a backpack, radiating an aura as if he had been abandoned by the entire world.”

“Without even making eye contact, I knew he wasn’t like us. He was handsome, tall, carrying a backpack from a prestigious academy, and perfectly put together. One look and you could tell he came from a privileged background.”

Jiang Tianji smiled. “How was I any diff—ouch.”

Before he could finish his sentence, Jiang Jun punched him lightly on the shoulder.

“Actually, you’re just like anyone else. You can adapt to any environment. At first glance, you seemed hard to approach. You had no expression and looked incredibly aloof, you know? But the truth is, the two of us shamelessly followed you around, and you didn’t say a single word to push us away. Later, when the inn was fully booked, you came out and just said, ‘Follow me.’ The three of us ended up squeezing onto one bed, and you slept like a baby.”

“Yeah. I even told Jiang Jun back then that it felt like you weren’t the same kind of person as us,” Luo Yang said. “But later, I thought about it. Maybe in your eyes, there’s no such thing as ‘types’ of people. They are all just different individuals you can get along with.”

“To you, Alphas, Betas, and Omegas aren’t any different either, right? Actually, we can all feel it—you just have a hurdle in your heart that you haven’t crossed yet.”

Liang Shaoqun squeezed his way over. “But seriously, my friend, every time we see you sleeping through class without reviewing and still precisely hitting the passing line, we grind our teeth behind your back.”

“Before, it was obvious you truly wanted to slack off—the kind where no one could talk you out of it. But this time, it seems like there’s a turning point.” Jiang Jun’s tone carried a hint of gentle reproach. “Even with us, you won’t be completely transparent.”

“Bottling it up all by yourself day after day… you belong to our shared friendship property. If you break, you have to compensate us, you know?”

Luo Yang expressed his agreement. “We also know that making a change is very hard.”

“Just like how every time I tell myself I can’t fail my finals and promise to read a book after returning to the dorm tonight, the moment I pick up my device, I still choose to lie back down on the bed and begin searching for metaphysical methods to miraculously save my grades.”

“Only when it comes down to the absolute final day will I completely drop the device and cry while memorizing text.”

“That’s how it is. Even though being sentimental up to this point feels a bit like swallowing a toad, we still want to tell you this.” Liang Chong draped an arm around his shoulder, looking out at the vast sky.

“When you want to fly, go fly. When you’re tired, just slack off. No matter what choice you make, the next time you have a sudden whim to travel to a remote planet, you won’t be alone.”

Hearing those words, Jiang Tianji, who had remained silent the entire time, felt his long eyelashes tremble slightly.

After a long pause, he let out a soft exhale, extending his long arms to drape them over the shoulders of the two friends beside him.

“Even so, that meal is strictly not allowed to exceed 1,000 Star Coins.”

“Get lost! If you don’t pay up when the time comes, you can stay behind and wash the dishes yourself!”

_

Author’s Note:

Captain Ling appears calm on the surface, but in reality, he has completely run out of moves.