Evolution - Chapter 94
Chapter 94
The men were drinking, while The First chattered away with Ji Changqing.
Zhong Lan and Lin Huang had been admitted to Alliance universities two years after them, but their schools were on planets a bit far from the Capital Star. Last year, they had all gathered on the Capital Star to celebrate the New Year together.
Xue Hong and Qian Jing had also been accepted last year, but Qian Jing’s girlfriend hadn’t made it in yet.
There was good news, however: Qian Jing’s girlfriend was pregnant.
The announcement had stunned the group for a moment. Although they had all completed their differentiation and Qian Jing and her girlfriend had registered their marriage immediately, they were still new to all this and hadn’t quite wrapped their heads around it—the idea that their own friend could get her girlfriend pregnant.
When they heard the news, they all stared blankly for a good while before remembering to say “Congratulations,” instead of asking the soul-searching question of whether she’d been cheated on.
The pack of singletons expressed their envy, a front to hide the faint bewilderment deep inside. After being outliers for so long, they suddenly found they weren’t outliers anymore. Their orientation was no longer an issue; even if they only loved women, they were now on a path that could, at any moment, lead to a family life with a little money-shredder and gold-devouring beast. The thought was a bit daunting.
They were then mercilessly mocked by Qian Jing and her partner. Orientation issues or not, weren’t they all still single? This was hardly a problem they needed to worry about!
Xue Hong even asked a particularly lewd, soul-searching question: “Aren’t Betas supposed to have a low conception rate? Just how hard have you two been trying?!”
She was mercilessly beaten for it.
But since an expectant mother was the highest authority in the universe, the Alliance’s related subsidies arrived quickly after the pregnancy was confirmed. Qian Jing decided to take her partner with her to university.
They weren’t attending a military academy, and figuring they could look after each other, the group of friends ended up gathering on the same planet.
This year, with Ji Changqing participating in the Military Academy League, and The First, Pencil, and the others all busy, the girls decided not to go anywhere and just celebrate the New Year together where they were.
As for showing up to support their longtime frenemy, Ji Changqing?
Not a chance.
With Blue Star taking great strides into the interstellar era, their own leap from Blue Star into the Alliance had instantly transformed them from middle-class citizens into people who were broke as a joke.
Forced to choose between money and a frenemy, they would, of course, choose to save money!
Even if Ji Changqing had suddenly struck it rich and offered to pay, her friends couldn’t be bothered.
The Alliance’s technology was so advanced, and watching the livestream on the star-net was so cool. Why go through all the trouble of traveling there?
The exorbitant travel costs made a poor soul’s heart bleed. Even if it wasn’t their own money, it was still painful!
While Ji Changqing and her group were having a carefree, happy time, on Chuqing Planet, Xue Hong was staring at the person on the stage as if she’d seen a ghost, her mind filled with a single thought: What the fuck!
She was just taking advantage of the holiday to attend a professional lecture supposedly given by someone from the Academy of Sciences. Why was she running into President Yu? Shouldn’t this kind of encounter be reserved for that pest, Ji Changqing?!
Her reaction was so strong that Yu Zhiyao, on stage, naturally glanced over. She pressed her lips together almost imperceptibly and began her lecture as if completely unaffected.
Xue Hong was in a daze for a moment but quickly snapped out of it.
Yu Zhiyao had been in scientific research before, but after she returned to take over the family business, everyone had habitually forgotten that she was once a widely acclaimed researcher.
The subject Xue Hong was studying was, in fact, one of the branches of Yu Zhiyao’s own research.
A thought spun wildly in her head: We all had the same nine years of schooling, so how did you get to be so brilliant?
Realizing what she was thinking, she quickly spat a few times in her mind, despising herself. She must have been infected by that scoundrel Ji Changqing; her first instinct was now to snark.
But she was truly, incredibly curious. The First and Ji Changqing were also in the first batch of students to pass the exams, and those two were still slogging through their miserable student lives. How had President Yu already ascended? She was already an official member of the Academy of Sciences and the main speaker at a professional lecture!
After a long and agonizing ninety-minute lecture, as people crowded around the stage to ask questions, Xue Hong, her soul for gossip burning brightly, squeezed her way through. She winked at Yu Zhiyao and took the opportunity to slip a small piece of paper with her communication number into Yu Zhiyao’s hand.
Yu Zhiyao glanced at it; it was an invitation to dinner that evening. Without a change in expression, she tucked the note into her files and continued answering questions.
Half an hour later, Yu Zhiyao left. Soon after, Xue Hong received a message from an unknown number: “Dinner tonight won’t work. How about a drink after ten?”
Xue Hong grinned.
She frantically @-mentioned the others in their group chat.
Red Scarf: Bitches, guess who I ran into today?!
Red Scarf: With your pathetic imaginations, you’ll never guess!
Red Scarf: With your IQs, you definitely won’t figure it out!
Red Scarf: It scared the hell out of me! Holy shit!
…
He Shi Bi: Seeing how excited you are, and how you keep stressing it’s impossible, I’ll take a wild guess. President Yu!
Red Scarf: …
He Shi Bi: Whoa, no way? It’s really President Yu?!
Red Scarf: …
Old Cadre: It’s really President Yu?!
RMB: It’s really President Yu?!
Xue Hong wiped her face. She always underestimated these bitches!
Red Scarf: How did you guess?
He Shi Bi: Wow, so it really is President Yu. Qing-qing probably wants to kill you.
Old Cadre: Hahaha! Her Majesty must be heartbroken!
RMB: Xiao Hong, look at this group. Think about why we secretly created this little group and abandoned Her Majesty back in the day.
He Shi Bi: Yeah, this group was originally created because of Her Majesty and President Yu! You built it up so much, saying it couldn’t possibly be Qing-qing, so who else could it be but the other leading lady?
Red Scarf: Hmph, I’ve asked President Yu out for drinks tonight. Come with!
Old Cadre: You dare to secretly ask President Yu out? Aren’t you afraid Her Majesty will beat you to death?
He Shi Bi: I just want to know, does President Yu know you’re inviting us too?
Red Scarf: Haha, poses with hands on hips, of course she doesn’t. I’ll tell her in a bit.
RMB: I have to take care of little Su tonight, so I can’t make it.
Red Scarf: …Don’t tell me none of you are coming?
He Shi Bi: I’ll come. Can’t just stand by and watch you get beaten to death by Her Majesty.
Old Cadre: I’ll come. Can’t just stand by and watch you get beaten to death by Her Majesty.
Red Scarf: …
RMB: Qing-qing wouldn’t. President Yu is completely out of your league.
Red Scarf: …
Old Cadre: Hahaha!
He Shi Bi: Qian-qian has a point.
Despite all the teasing and joking, when Yu Zhiyao arrived at the bar, she was met by three people sitting primly and properly.
“Zhong Lan, Lin Huang, Xue Hong.” Yu Zhiyao smiled and greeted the three of them. “Long time no see.”
“Long time no see.” The three of them smiled with extreme restraint, terrified of accidentally revealing their gossipy natures.
Compared to their nervous tension, Yu Zhiyao was much more relaxed. “How did you all end up together? This is nice.”
After a few drinks, everyone gradually loosened up.
The awkwardness of sitting with their frenemy’s ex-girlfriend was slowly washed away by the joy of seeing a familiar face in a new place.
To be fair, when Yu Zhiyao and Ji Changqing were together, they had seen each other often and gotten along well enough. It was only after the two broke up that they had, out of duty, sided with Ji Changqing and essentially cut off contact with Yu Zhiyao.
But this time, it wasn’t Xue Hong who brought up Ji Changqing first, but Lin Huang. Among them, Xue Hong was the same age as Ji Changqing, Yu Zhiyao was half a year older, and Lin Huang was four years their senior.
Having eaten a few more years’ worth of rice, Lin Huang had always felt that Yu Zhiyao’s attitude toward Ji Changqing was subtle, something she had at least witnessed in the game instance. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have bet on them getting back together.
“Did you watch her competition?”
Zhong Lan and Xue Hong both stared at Yu Zhiyao, not wanting to miss a single expression.
Yu Zhiyao swirled the drink in her glass and answered with perfect composure, “Of course I did.”
She smiled at the three of them. “She was so handsome, didn’t you watch?”
The three of them felt like they’d just been force-fed a mouthful of dog food.
Since they had already done the most awkward thing—bringing up an ex—the three of them completely let themselves go and started chatting freely.
Many years later, the three of them would still remember that moment of uninhibited conversation. They had just asked Yu Zhiyao, now that everything had changed and Blue Star had entered the great interstellar era, since beauty was in the eye of the beholder and she found Ji Changqing so handsome, why did she brutally eliminate Her Majesty in the instance, send over half a dozen shirts, and then pull a hit-and-run? Are you two getting together or not? We’re getting anxious watching you…
Yu Zhiyao listened to their rambling with good humor, occasionally offering a reply. But when she heard that question, she fell silent for a long time—so long that they all thought they had messed up and began to fidget uncomfortably.
Only then did she say slowly, “After my differentiation failure, I tried to experience what she felt back then, living under all sorts of scrutiny. I just felt it was missing something.”
Now it was the three of them who were silent.
Not because they were moved by Yu Zhiyao’s profound intentions, but because they felt President Yu’s thought process was truly beyond the comprehension of mere mortals like them.
What was that typical domineering CEO move of just throwing money at a problem? Trying to put yourself in the other person’s shoes to experience their past emotional journey—that was true class.
The problem was, Ji Changqing came from the grassroots. To be precise, aside from her gender, calling her a “phoenix man” would have been perfectly fitting.
You, someone who has had a smooth-sailing life in a high position for over forty years and then ascended directly to the Academy of Sciences after your differentiation failure—what kind of emotional journey could you possibly experience?
The world’s joys and sorrows are never truly shared. You’ve never been ground into the dust, so how could you understand the pain of someone who grew up in hardship, struggling to pull themselves out of the mud?
In the silence, they heard someone shout, “Holy shit, the top contender for the military academy league championship is involved in a bar brawl and accidentally killed someone? All in a fit of rage for a beauty?”
“The top contender… isn’t that, what’s-her-name, Ji Changqing?!”
Hearing the familiar name, the four of them snapped out of their silence and turned to look at the bar’s broadcast screen.
The midnight news was on, and it was showing a close-up shot of Ji Changqing being led into a police vehicle in handcuffs.
Xue Hong subconsciously turned to look at Yu Zhiyao.
In the dim, flickering lights of the bar, the usually composed woman’s face was deathly pale, her eyes filled with disbelief.
Her hand was trembling, the drink in her glass sloshing constantly.
“Impossible!” Yu Zhiyao closed her eyes for a second, then set her glass down hard on the table. Her years of experience finally kicked in. In that brief moment, perhaps not even half a minute, her momentary loss of composure vanished, replaced by her usual calm. “She hasn’t been sentenced or convicted. Why would they broadcast a high-definition close-up shot?”
The three friends, who had been panicking at seeing their longtime friend on the social news headlines, were once again stunned by Yu Zhiyao.
They stared blankly as she stood up and methodically summoned a waiter to pay the bill. A single question arose in all their minds:
President Yu, you’re at the Academy of Sciences, not a law school, so why are you an expert on Alliance law? Also, why is your focus always so refreshingly unconventional?
Comments
Post a Comment