Evolution - Chapter 113
Chapter 113
What the hell?
The expression on the cargo ship leader’s face froze.
Of course, the second-in-command had assumed he was subtly refusing to provide energy guns because he was siding with Zhao Qingci.
But the truth was, he was just broke!
“Looks like I’ll have to ask the third-in-command if there’s been some kind of misunderstanding. We wouldn’t want someone framing others and sowing discord.” Ji Changqing, in her guise as Zhao Qingci, thoughtfully gave everyone present a way to save face. Just as they began to relax, their expressions softening, she added a vicious threat. “After all, to the people in charge, we’re all in this together, no matter what.”
He had already offended the second-in-command. Did he really want to offend the third-in-command as well?
No, absolutely not.
Ji Changqing boarded the ship without further incident.
“The savings of these few are probably only enough to buy the brothers a round of drinks. Captain, you might as well take stock and search them. When we arrive, you can treat everyone to a drink to calm their nerves. This whole affair started because of me, after all. I’m sorry for dragging everyone into this and causing you all to worry.”
Are you the captain or am I? the captain thought. Since when are you the one giving orders? But when Ji Changqing looked his way, he nodded with a gratified expression. “This was their doing. How could we possibly blame you?”
If she wanted to use the spoils to curry favor, then so be it. It wasn’t his money, and he might even be able to skim a little off the top. As long as there was something in it for him, he didn’t care.
As for investigating the suspicious deaths of these men?
Not happening. The ones sent out on guard duty were never important figures anyway. Besides, he wouldn’t dare investigate the excuse this scourge had so graciously provided. It wasn’t like he was tired of living.
Furthermore, he was already displeased with the meddlesome second-in-command. Now, he was even more so.
No matter how incompetent he was, he was still the one in charge of this cargo ship. Just because the second-in-command’s new favorite had been beaten up, he’d gone and saddled him with this scourge he couldn’t control. Not only that, but he’d also gone over his head to incite his subordinates. The arrogance was astounding!
Yes, Zhao Qingci had been expelled from the core group, which they considered a punishment. The problem was, here on the ship, no one could keep her in check. From the captain’s perspective, it felt more like a punishment for him—he’d been saddled with a matriarch he couldn’t control, couldn’t beat, and could only treat with reverence.
Although Zhao Qingci hadn’t caused any trouble before, she also didn’t lift a finger, doing nothing but eat and drink. Her very presence had become a destabilizing factor in his management of the ship. Those idiots didn’t have her strength, but they certainly coveted her treatment, constantly creating problems for him.
Of course, he was dissatisfied with this matriarch, but that dissatisfaction was firmly suppressed by her power. He didn’t dare let it show.
“Right, I’m a bit injured and need treatment. I might need you to approve some medical supplies, Captain.”
“Well…” He wasn’t blind; he could see she was hurt. The problem was, according to the rules, injuries from private feuds and vendettas were one’s own responsibility.
“Is there a problem?”
“If you need medicine, as long as we have it on board, there’s no problem.” The captain struggled to remain composed, adopting a business-like tone. “It’s just that, you know the rules of the ship.”
“I know. I’ll pay market price plus thirty percent. Consider it a thank you to the brothers on board for looking out for me.”
The scourge was being so respectful, and the captain felt a wave of relief. When someone offered you face, you had to accept it. “I’ll let them know. Take whatever you need, as long as we have it.”
The tense, confrontational atmosphere instantly dissolved, as if the standoff had never happened.
Ji Changqing then pointed at Saiweiyala with a look of disdain. “She gave me a little help on the way back. She needs to recover for a few days, so let her stay and run some errands for me.”
The captain was taken aback. Are you a monster? Someone helps you, and your way of repaying them is to order them around. Still, he had no objections. The kid was just a freeloader anyway, and she wasn’t capable of much work to begin with.
Under the power of money, despite the four deaths, a cheerful atmosphere spread throughout the cargo ship.
Free money that everyone got a piece of—who wouldn’t be happy? The dead men weren’t good people either; they were always slacking off and taking advantage of others, and no one really liked them. There wasn’t even a shred of superficial friendship to be found.
Most importantly, the captain had announced that the scourge was highly skilled and had promised to look out for everyone in the future.
The protection of the strong was their source of confidence.
Watching Ji Changqing and the captain trade dramatic performances, Saiweiyala rolled her eyes countless times internally. When the two thespians finally parted, satisfied, she dragged Ji Changqing back to Zhao Qingci’s luxurious suite on the ship.
The door required dual fingerprint and retinal verification. Once inside, the two of them tinkered with the system to reset it.
This time, they set it to Ji Changqing’s own biometrics.
Faking the fingerprint and retina every day was just too annoying, and they might run out of raw materials.
As Saiweiyala worked, she puffed out her chest. “I’ll replace all the current access credentials with yours first. Don’t worry, if I get the chance, I’ll definitely be able to replace the backup data stored in the database too.”
The management of member data in a space pirate crew was highly secretive. However, its secrecy lay in the fact that very few people knew where it was stored, not in the system’s encryption.
If it were Alliance citizen data, Saiweiyala wouldn’t have dared to make such a bold promise.
They hadn’t dared to return the day before. While Ji Changqing and He Qingzhi were undergoing minor cosmetic surgery, Saiweiyala had been cracking Zhao Qingci’s comm-link password, bank account passwords, and so on. She had also sorted through Zhao Qingci’s usage records and unexpectedly discovered two anonymous accounts.
From their observations, aside from having high-level network and communication privileges, Zhao Qingci had virtually no authority on the ship. Her daily routine consisted of trips to the dining hall, training room, observation deck, and her room.
Even after being banished here for nearly half a year, she had managed to maintain a detached attitude, keeping the people on the cargo ship at arm’s length. The captain’s assessment of her as a matriarch wasn’t wrong. Her mind had been entirely focused on how to restore her left hand to normal; she never once saw herself as a member of this crew.
Her personal fortune was substantial. So substantial, in fact, that even after she had pulled strings to acquire a batch of high-quality goods before boarding, the remaining balance was more than enough for Ji Changqing to use the power of money to smooth things over with the captain.
“The power of money truly is the most useful power in the world.”
After the ship’s crew cheerfully delivered the items on her list and Ji Changqing swiped her card to pay, she collapsed onto the sofa and sighed with contentment. “It’s great to be rich.”
It had been a long time since she’d experienced the thrill of spending money! Especially spending someone else’s money—that felt even better!
Saiweiyala, who was sitting on the floor playing an offline game, looked up at her and said, enunciating each word, “Three people will burn through it quickly.”
She placed special emphasis on the “three people.”
Ji Changqing raised an eyebrow. “Alright, alright. Go lie down in the medical pod.”
She had sustained injuries while taking down Zhao Qingci, but they were mostly superficial. They looked frightening but weren’t serious.
Saiweiyala, on the other hand, had been taking growth-delaying drugs for a long time, which had caused significant harm to her body. After discussing it, they decided they had to prioritize solving Saiweiyala’s health problems.
They didn’t know when they would be able to complete their mission and return. Saiweiyala couldn’t delay her growth indefinitely. With the Klopp family and the space pirate crew in disarray and temporarily distracted, now was the best time for Saiweiyala to go through her differentiation period.
If they started now, they would still have time to find ways to conceal or disguise her gender if she differentiated into one that was disadvantageous for their future plans. If they waited any longer and she was forced into differentiation at an inconvenient time, it would be a total disaster.
A significant portion of the medicine and the medical pod on the list were actually for Saiweiyala.
“Can’t I just keep using the growth-delaying drugs?” Saiweiyala was resistant to clearing the damage caused by the drugs. She had been reluctant all along, but the two adults had overruled her.
She was afraid that if the treatment restored her normal growth rate, she would quickly enter her differentiation period. In the shadow of her sister’s tragic fate, differentiating into an Omega would be a catastrophe for her.
Ji Changqing understood her fears and encouraged her gently. “Don’t be afraid. Don’t forget, I’m lecherous, cruel, and bloodthirsty. Who would be tired enough of living to try and take you from me?”
Saiweiyala was not comforted in the slightest. She hesitated. “What if I differentiate into an Omega?”
In the Empire, Omegas attracted a lot of attention no matter what they did, which wouldn’t be helpful for their mission.
“Think of it this way: those idiots in the Empire all think Omegas can’t do anything. The more they underestimate you, the easier it is to find loopholes and pull off something big.” Ji Changqing was mostly focused on wiping off her “makeup”—the fake wounds—but she didn’t hesitate to deliver a psychological blow to Saiweiyala. “Besides, don’t get your hopes up. It’s not that easy to differentiate into an Omega. With your rotten luck, do you really think you’ll hit a less than five percent chance?”
The theory of probability greatly comforted Saiweiyala.
Her luck wasn’t that good, but it probably wasn’t that bad either, right?
“What gender you differentiate into doesn’t matter; your brain is what’s key. You have me for muscle and him for mischief. You just be the tech geek. What does gender have to do with any of that?”
Saiweiyala couldn’t help but smile. She slowly lay down in the medical pod, letting the medicinal fluid gently envelop her.
Perhaps it was because she had companions again, but she felt a rare sense of relaxation. She no longer had to sleep with her nerves on edge, waking at the slightest disturbance, living in constant fear.
After each session in the medical pod, Saiweiyala would record her physical data, which Ji Changqing would use to adjust the dosage for the next treatment. Then, she would completely erase all usage records from the pod.
He Qingzhi created a nutritional plan for Saiweiyala, explaining, “This is what I’ve been eating since I was twelve.”
This statement sent a new wave of fear through Saiweiyala—he was an Omega.
She immediately and very enthusiastically demanded that Ji Changqing hand over her pre-differentiation diet plan.
Saiweiyala was acting completely obsessed. Her state reminded Ji Changqing of pregnant women from families on Blue Star that favored boys over girls—they were superstitious about what to eat and do to ensure a male child, eagerly embracing anything even remotely related to boys while shunning anything that might be associated with girls as a terrible taboo.
It was not a pleasant memory at all. It was downright dreadful.
While Saiweiyala was growing stronger, her “pregnant” mood swings were causing chaos and leaving Ji Changqing and He Qingzhi utterly exhausted.
Their group, which had made an emergency landing on the desolate planet, finally received orders to depart. They were to fly directly to the Empire’s Wendeli Planet.
Among the Empire’s upper echelons, Wendeli Planet had another name: the starting point of the pilgrimage.
The planet was populated entirely by non-Imperial citizens who had defected to the Empire.
It also had another name, one that circulated throughout the Empire, the Alliance, among space pirates, wanted criminals, mercenaries, and various non-human intelligent species—the undefended planet.
On this planet, there was a military garrison but no government. No matter who you were or where you came from, you could land freely and apply for Imperial citizenship upon arrival.
The only requirement was that you had to stay on this lawless planet for six months, and you could only stay for six months.
After half a year, as long as you were still alive, the chip implanted upon landing would automatically broadcast your location. The garrison would send someone to pick you up and put you on a ship bound for other planets in the Empire.
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