Chapter 64

"Tsk, what's with you getting so worked up over such a small thing?" Ye Wenlin said with a playful grin.

"You..." Fu Luo coughed, her eyes brimming with tears. "Were you just talking to me?"

Ye Wenlin: "Hey, is it really that surprising?"

Fu Luo thought this was just a joke. After all, the probability of Ye Wenlin saying something serious was lower than winning the lottery. She gave a stiff smile. "Bullshit, I think you're just bored out of your mind."

"It's true," Ye Wenlin raised his hand as if taking an oath. "More true than the tip of a needle."

Suddenly, Fu Luo recalled her college days that felt like a lifetime ago. Back then, she was just a teenager who only knew how to study hard. She never imagined that one day she would be standing here as a lieutenant colonel, representing Earth's remaining military forces and fighting alongside Ye Wenlin.

In the eyes of a younger Fu Luo, Ye Wenlin had always been someone she had to look up to. Even though she was determined and never wavered in her pursuit, not every step she took was as solid as stone. Often, she would secretly feel inadequate.

When Senior Brother Ye would talk freely and eloquently, she would feel inadequate about her own lack of knowledge. When she first met Xin Ran, she would again feel inadequate about her own lackluster appearance.

In her early twenties, Fu Luo always thought that between looks and talent, she should at least have one of them, right? Even if she didn't have either, she should at least have some personal charm and be tactful in dealing with people, having the advantage of "good interpersonal relationships", right?

But she was a blockhead even in this regard, not clever at all.

She wasn't belittling herself for no reason. Among her peers, she knew she was considered a top student - but always a top student among ordinary people. Compared to those dazzling, legendary figures, there was a sense of "admire from afar but don't get too close".

Therefore, that little bit of vague, indescribable girlish affection from her early years was buried deep in her memories.

Senior Brother Ye belonged to Xin Ran - she made herself calmly accept this fact, not revealing a hint of it, nor telling anyone a single word.

But Ye Wenlin making such a joke to her face was like digging up a grave, unearthing these old memories from Fu Luo's heart. Fu Luo immediately got angry, unable to tell if her pride was hurt, or if that self-conscious little girl inside her who never dared to look at herself in the mirror was acting up again.

This Scoundrel Ye, always bringing up the most sensitive topics.

"Get lost." Fu Luo said coldly. "Say one more word and I'm cutting ties with you."

Ye Wenlin lowered his head, looked at her expression, and awkwardly rubbed his nose. "Oh no, you're really mad?"

Unfortunately, Fu Luo was ultimately someone who could change the world but not her own nature. In the whole world, there was only one and a half people she could lose her temper with. One was Fu Xiaoxin, and half was Wang Yizheng. With anyone else, as long as half her brain hadn't been eaten by zombies, she would maintain at least some self-control.

She was already a blockhead herself, she didn't want to become an aggressive blockhead...

So in front of acquaintances, she could probably only be a pushover.

Fu Luo was silent for a while. Although she was sullen, she didn't say a word.

But that Scoundrel Ye Wenlin had no tact and wouldn't stop. "I have to say, although Colonel Yang is a bit vicious when it comes to big matters, he's very easy to get along with on a daily basis. Overall, I think he's a long-term blue chip stock."

"Long-term? Long-term is when we're all dead." Fu Luo mocked him.

"Tsk tsk, a child's words carry no harm." Ye Wenlin smacked her on the head. At this time, the first contact between the Second and Third Departments ended, and both sides cut off communication.

"Everyone else is dismissed, people from the General Staff stay behind." Yang Ning said. "Captain Ye, you stay too."

Yang Ning seemed to be pondering something, his gaze sweeping over, seemingly intentionally or unintentionally, before meeting Fu Luo's eyes. Perhaps influenced by that bastard Ye Wenlin, Fu Luo couldn't help but stiffen her back, feeling inexplicably awkward, almost at a loss for a moment.

"Why am I feeling awkward for no reason?" Fu Luo silently scolded herself.

Ye Wenlin: "By the way..."

Fearing he would say something inappropriate again, Fu Luo interrupted him bluntly, "Shut up."

"I was going to say, by the way, I wanted to talk about the space pirates," Ye Wenlin suddenly seemed to be possessed, his expression turning serious as he spoke in all earnestness. "Although it looks like we're in a bad situation now, we're actually at the most critical point in the mid-game. One careless move and we risk losing everything. We absolutely cannot let the enemy drag us into this stalemate. Otherwise, the game is over."

Fu Luo: "..."

He must be messing with her...

The next moment, Ye Wenlin seemed to see through her thoughts. His expression suddenly became stern. "After all this time of war, have you still not adjusted your mental state? Getting led astray at the drop of a hat... Do you know why we've fallen into this situation? It's because our psychological reactions are easily grasped by the enemies from the other star system!"

Fu Luo's slightly dazed and scattered gaze immediately retracted. She was extremely annoyed with her earlier reaction and started repenting on the spot with great fervor.

The next moment, Ye Wenlin grinned at her. "You took it seriously? It's not that bad, I was just deliberately teasing you, hehe."

Fu Luo: "..."

Is there such a thing as bullying an honest person like this?

Ye Wenlin waved his hand. "Hey, don't be so serious. Don't you think this kind of self-sparring is fun?"

Fu Luo was at a loss for words, her face blank.

Ye Wenlin said with a smile, "For example, if you think to yourself 'I'm so brilliant and mighty today', you have to seize the moment and quickly give yourself a big slap, making sure to draw a stream of nosebleed, then say to yourself 'Brilliant my ass, you idiot'. After a while, if you think 'I'm so weak, there's no way I can do this', then you have to slap yourself again, making the nosebleed from both nostrils symmetrical, while telling yourself 'What's the damn point of thinking so much, you idiot'. By the time you've beaten yourself until your face is in full bloom..."

Fu Luo felt she vaguely heard something in Ye Wenlin's tone. Holding on to the last bit of hope she had for Ye Wenlin's character, Fu Luo continued, "You'll become a perfect person?"

Ye Wenlin looked at her deeply, "No, you've just become a deranged fool."

Yang Ning's voice came from not far away, "Fu Luo, Captain Ye, sit over here."

"Let's go." Ye Wenlin pushed on Fu Luo's shoulder and said in a whisper, "That deranged fool is calling you."

... So, does this "nickname" represent Captain Ye's high evaluation of Colonel Yang?

Everyone quickly sat down. Yang Ning's expression didn't look too happy. He stared at a corner of the conference table, then said in a somewhat low voice, "I just got in contact with the person in charge of our military's Space Combat Third Department - Major General Cao Kun, and learned that the Third Department's recent situation is not good."

Everyone fell silent.

Yang Ning continued, "Currently, they only have three giant ships left. Excluding the flagship serving as the command center, another giant ship is more than half damaged. Over a hundred large, medium, and small escort ships have been completely wiped out. Right now, what they can deploy in total are just four Class A large ships, 15 Class B medium-sized ships, and the rest are a bunch of small warships like defeated soldiers. Supplies are severely lacking, and even the daily rations for personnel have been cut in half."

His words were like a year-end speech by a national leader, delivered one word at a time. Perhaps it was because there was too much information, or Fu Luo had become more astute, but she heard the implication in Yang Ning's words - Cao Kun's military rank was the highest among the drifting Chinese space forces.

No... it's probably not just that.

Fu Luo's internship before graduation happened to be completed in the Third Department. At that time, Cao Kun even gave her a good score, although Fu Luo suspected he was just going through the motions and didn't really remember who she was. But she had heard about Major General Cao's exceptionally deep background.

Cao Kun was in his fifties, in the prime of his life. Although he was considered mature in the marriage market, he was still an absolute young talent in the high-level military and political circles. One can imagine that regardless of whether he had real ability or not, reaching this position at this age was very unlikely for someone who started from nothing as a poor boy. There were rumors that his family had great influence in the high levels of the political party.

And now, with the military scattered and generals fallen, he obviously carried more weight than Yang Ning who came from a pure military family background.

If the Third Department was as strong as the Second Department, then in order to share risks, the country would likely have them temporarily separate and act independently before the situation was determined.

But now that the Third Department had been reduced to this sorry state, letting them continue to drift in the universe like beggars while constantly facing the danger of being wiped out seemed strategically unsound.

In other words, at this pace, the merger of the Second and Third Departments had already been put on the agenda and was only a matter of time.

"I can't make arbitrary decisions on how to handle this matter going forward. I plan to report to the ground in the near future." Yang Ning hesitated for a moment. "I will draft an outline first. Fu Luo, later write a report for me based on my main points. Do it in the next couple of days, don't delay it."

Fu Luo: "Yes."

If Colonel Yang really had any "special regard" for her, it was probably that he was especially willing to have her write reports.

She suspected Yang Ning might be doing it on purpose. Anyway, every time Fu Luo returned from battling pirates outside for a period of time, full of murderous intent, Yang Ning would more or less find her some clerical work.

Who knows if he really treated her as an all-purpose little secretary who could fight and write reports, or if he was deliberately using some trivial things to grind down her patience.

When the meeting dispersed that day, everyone was lost in thought. On one hand, there was a sense of an uncertain future. On the other hand, they didn't know to what extent the enemy's strength had reached, and how they had the time to take care of the Third Department while chasing the Dagger carrying a large amount of precious information.

Fu Luo returned to her quarters and lay on the bed, recalling the chaos of the day. Just as she was about to fall asleep, suddenly, an emergency assembly notification came through the built-in communicator in her ear. Fu Luo's eyes snapped open and she sprang up from the bed, quickly tidying herself up and running to the conference room.

The huge light screen flickered with a blood-red distress signal, casting people's faces alternately red and white.

Yang Ning strode in, "The Third Department just sent an emergency distress message to both the ground and our department, saying they are surrounded by a group of space pirates."

"No, wait, space pirates? What's the scale of their fleet?" Fu Luo, who had been fighting on the front lines against space pirates during long-term cruises, was the first to raise a question.

The only time the space pirate groups united in a full-scale action was when they surrounded the fortress. Since then, they had been divided and fighting amongst themselves. Their actions were illogical, like a group of mad dogs that didn't distinguish between friend and foe, burning, killing, and looting, biting whoever they caught. They were known for their speed and ferocity, but large-scale actions involving more than 50 small ships were very rare among pirates.

"Even if the Third Department is very fragile now, they still have two giant ships including the flagship and several large ships," Fu Luo said. "Based on the usual pattern of space pirate groups, they must have gathered a fleet of at least 200 warships before they would attack..."

Yang Ning raised his hand and made a slight downward pressing gesture towards her, stopping her words.

"That's not the issue," he said in a low voice. "The number of ships in the pirate fleet is not the key problem."