Limited Ambiguity Chapter 18

Chapter 18.1

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Lu Fenghan was doing weight training in the morning when he received a call from Vincent. He immediately allowed the connection. “What’s the matter?”

Vincent tentatively asked, “Commander, am I disturbing you?”

“No.”

“Huh? Aren’t you supposed to be bonding with your closest five fingers comrades? Why do you sound out of breath?”

Lu Fenghan knew that there was nothing good to come of this. All the trash in his mind was definitely forced upon him by these subordinates.

He casually asked, “Why wouldn’t there be any other possibilities?”

“Not bonding with your five fingers?” Vincent exclaimed, “Commander, do you have a misconception about yourself? In the Expeditionary Force’s polls, you’ve been awarded the title of ‘Frontline’s Most Difficult-To-Get-Out-of-Single Status’ for five consecutive terms. We all bet that you will not be able to fire your first shot before you are 30 years old!”

Wouldn’t fire the first shot?

Lu Fenghan said lightly, “It seems like it’s time to tighten discipline. I never knew you had the leisure for such pointless polls behind the scenes.”

“Please, Commander, it’s not like there’s much excitement drifting around in the universe. Can’t we all just indulge in some entertainment? Do you really have the heart to take away our only source of fun?” Vincent regretted speaking too quickly. Perhaps he could hope that Lu Fenghan would forget about this entirely when he returned to the frontlines?

“Of course—” Lu Fenghan paused, then continued in an unhurried tone, “I have the heart.”

Lu Fenghan, not willing to entertain Vincent’s ramblings about frontline personnel’s psychological well-being, cut straight to the chase, “What’s the matter?”

Vincent’s tone turned serious. “Our patience has finally paid off after waiting for fifty or sixty days. There’s finally some activity.”

He grew somewhat excited. “I found out that the front line has finally begun official personnel reshuffling. Acting Commander Weiss, citing the heavy losses suffered by the Expeditionary Force in the frontline debacle, has requested permission from the Central Army to promote a batch of officers for better troop deployment. I’ve got the list. Fifty names in one go.”

“Is this finally their way of confirming my demise?” Leaning against the wall, hands in pockets, Lu Fenghan asked, “You’ve checked them all?”

“I have. But it seems like there aren’t any major issues with the backgrounds of these fifty individuals. Their diverse origins aside, their records are satisfactory, and their familial ties aren’t complicated. Their capabilities—”

Lu Fenghan: “Speak plainly.”

Vincent skipped the details. “There are seven individuals I find suspicious. Two of them were assigned to reconnaissance, two to logistics, and three to technology.”

Lu Fenghan’s gaze sharpened. “Three to technology?”

“That’s right. If Weiss is indeed the one colluding with the rebels, it’s evident that his first move is to target the central control system.”

The Alliance starship’s central control system had only been developed and put into operation for three years, yet its effectiveness was astonishing. Lu Fenghan, as the Commander-in-Chief, understood this deeply. Compared to this active system, the previous control systems were nothing but child’s play.

The gap was probably about the same distance as between the First Military Academy and Turan.

This was also why Y, the chief designer of the central control system, topped the blacklist three years ago—

All the hatred that Lu Fenghan accumulated while leading a swarm of starships equipped with the new central control system across the borders of the Southern Cross Region was probably reflected in this ranking.

“Even if they went to the technology department, they wouldn’t discern much. What Y has created is as intricate as ancient scriptures. Whenever those technicians encounter a minor issue, they immediately turn to the manuals Y provided and follow them blindly.”

Lu Fenghan remained unfazed, leisurely twirling his fingers. “It also indicates that the command ship still firmly belongs to Erich’s territory. Since Weiss can’t get involved, he has to settle for scattering his people around.”

Erich was his deputy. Lu Fenghan had speculated that after his “death,” Erich didn’t contend with Weiss in obtaining the interim command, likely to avoid the limelight.

Now it seemed, no matter how high Weiss jumped, Erich firmly held onto the command ship. He had not lost anything that he should have kept in his hands.

“Keep an eye on it and see what Weiss’ next move is.” Lu Fenghan recalled, “By the way, according to regulations, as long as my death isn’t confirmed, the Alliance will continue to pay my salary. But now, I can’t access my previous accounts. How’s that going?”

Vincent understood what Lu Fenghan was asking. “When you had the accident, we didn’t dare to bet on whether you’d survive. So I discussed it with a few others, and we each pooled some money to send to those families to help them through the tough times. They were all brothers who fought on the battlefield together. When they died, how could we bear to ignore their families?”

Although the Alliance would provide a one-time payment of compensation to the families of soldiers, the amount was not insignificant. However, in reality, different families have different difficulties. Those who could help always wanted to lend a hand.

Back on the front line, everyone used to joke about Lu Fenghan being the Expeditionary Force’s poorest member. But everyone knew where Lu Fenghan’s money went.

Vincent remembered Lu Fenghan once saying, “I have no family, but they do. Anyway, I’m alone, so what’s the point of saving money? Who knows, one day, I might be blown to ashes and scattered across the universe.”

At that time, he was Lu Fenghan’s adjutant, jokingly asking, “Commander, why curse yourself like that?”

Lu Fenghan, draped in a military coat, legs crossed, sat casually at the command ship’s console, casually replying, “I’m a soldier. Soldiers die. What’s so strange about that?”

When Qi Yan descended the stairs, Lu Fenghan was watching the news. He paused in his steps, deliberately checking the time displayed on the news.

He hadn’t remembered wrong.

Handing a slice of bread to Qi Yan, Lu Fenghan asked, “Another sleepless night?”

“Yeah.” Qi Yan indeed pulled an all-nighter, working on the model’s architecture. An issue with a detail emerged, causing him to scrap the night’s work and start over.

He had little appetite. “How did you know?”

“You looked pale and exhausted, propping up your chin, your eyes about to close any second. If it’s not a lack of sleep, then what?” Lu Fenghan noticed Qi Yan hadn’t touched the bread, so he fetched a tube of nutritional supplement. “If you really don’t want to eat, just drink this.”

Qi Yan took it and drank it in one gulp, feeling a sense of fullness.

“Is your hand still hurting?”

Qi Yan moved his fingers a bit. “Not anymore.”

“Hmm, then let’s go. Off to school.”

As soon as Qi Yan stepped into Turan, he felt the scrutiny from those around him. Puzzled, he asked Lu Fenghan, “Why are they looking at me?”

Lu Fenghan listened carefully to the surrounding discussions before answering Qi Yan’s question. “Yesterday, you performed an impromptu demonstration of constructing an accelerator in the office of Academic Management Department. It became a sensation in the forum of Turan’s intranet. They all think you’re impressive, hence the attention.”

Qi Yan nodded. “I see.”

Lu Fenghan raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you happy? Everyone acknowledges your ability, so I doubt you’ll encounter any unpleasant situations like yesterday in the future.”

Qi Yan: “Why should I be happy? Many people already think I’m impressive.”

What he meant was that he had already grown accustomed to it.

Seeing Qi Yan’s tense, fair face, looking at him in confusion, Lu Fenghan couldn’t help but feel an itch in his hand—tsk, he wanted to poke his cheek again.

Lu Fenghan was right. In the following days, hardly anyone mentioned academic fraud or hiring “tutors” at home. Even Laurent, upon encountering him, kept a cold demeanor and rarely spoke.

On his way to the lab, he would often encounter people standing on the side of the road lamenting loudly, “Ah, why is my GT913 Swift Dragon model so slow at mining data?”

“Sigh, I’ve been sitting next to the optical computer for three days and three nights just to run the data! If only it could be faster!”

Eventually, everyone noticed Qi Yan’s lack of interest in GT913 Swift Dragon and similar models. After that, such complaints gradually disappeared.

Pushing the door open to enter the laboratory, Qi Yan blinked and hesitated slightly upon seeing Professor Fu standing in the center of the room. “Hello, Professor Fu.”

“Another one!” Professor Fu seemed rather pleased. “Qi Yan, you’re the second person to realize within three seconds that I’m a real person, not a holographic projection. It’s quite disheartening. More than half of the research group members come in, and only you and Mondrian are the ones who notice. Ye Pei is even more unbelievable. She even poked me to see if her finger could pass through.”

Ye Pei, holding onto the back of a chair, protested, “Professor, I can only say that the Alliance’s holographic projection technology is too realistic! Besides, weren’t you in the Messier Region a couple of days ago? Who knew you’d suddenly come to Leto?”

“Of course, I have a reason for coming to Leto.” Professor Fu saw the last two members of the research group entering, and he clapped his hands. “Students, let me tell you something. Tomorrow, I’ll be visiting the space fortress floating outside the capital star, and they’ve allowed me to bring a few students. So, for those of you who don’t have any scheduled classes tomorrow during that time period, you can join me.” He singled out, “Mondrian, Ye Pei, Xu Min, Qi Yan, you will also stay there for a night tomorrow, so get ready.”

Laurent’s metal pen accidentally fell to the ground.

Everyone else was busy getting envious of Qi Yan and the others for being able to accompany Professor Fu to the space fortress, so no one noticed his momentary lapse.

Even though he was in the same class as Qi Yan and had no scheduled classes, Professor Fu chose Qi Yan and not him.

A boy beside Laurent noticed him looking down. “Hey, don’t feel discouraged. I’m in the same boat as you. Mondrian and I are in the same class, but there are limited spots, so they can’t take all of us. Next time, it’ll definitely be our turn to go together.” He sighed. “But even if they didn’t choose me, I can’t blame them. Who knows how Mondrian’s brain works.”

Seeing that Laurent’s head was still bowed, he decided not to continue pestering him.

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