Evolution - Chapter 125
Chapter 125
After the major debacle of “You diligently stick to your persona, while I let my imagination run wild with misplaced pity,” He Qingzhi went into a shell.
He had never so profoundly realized that his brain and Ji Changqing’s were probably not wired to connect.
It was better for them to just focus on their respective tasks, exchange information occasionally, and refrain from making any judgments or assumptions about each other’s actions.
Whenever he felt the urge to voice a different opinion, he would silently recall the scene of the disaster—his anger, his sorrow, his pity…
It was all just him getting carried away!
And then he would instantly come to his senses.
In front of Ji Changqing, he had managed to embarrass himself all the way from the Alliance to the Empire!
But Ji Changqing, having processed the situation, saw things differently. She actually found his furious, frantic, and broken-down state much more agreeable than his previous “king of cool” act.
Especially when she realized he had concocted some strange narrative in his head and was trying to comfort her, urging her to forget the past, pull herself together, complete the mission, and turn over a new leaf. It was… just beautiful, haha.
Her impression of He Qingzhi had improved considerably.
Ever since Saiweiyala successfully differentiated into a Beta unaffected by pheromones, she had been filled with the confidence of one of the chosen.
On this point, Ji Changqing felt a certain resonance with her.
She was small and weak, yet she had survived for several years among space pirates, developing her own set of “invisibility” skills. Most people didn’t guard against her.
At her age, she would be a middle schooler in the Alliance. Here, she was seen as young, ignorant, and easily brainwashed or tamed—someone with relatively high training value.
Thus, it wasn’t long before she was plucked from the farmstead and sent away for training.
As for what she was being trained to do, that would depend on how good her acting was.
Ji Changqing had discovered that no matter what one did, it all boiled down to being a corporate drone. She often felt more like an interstellar farmer these days. Farming was her main job, with occasional short-term gigs in the city, while her work for the Alliance’s Star Hidden unit was a steady part-time position.
Stretch the timeline out long enough, and even the most thrilling and dangerous events would be washed into unremarkable ripples by the tide of mundane, trivial daily life.
Being an undercover agent or a spy involved none of the thrilling intrigue and danger one might imagine.
At most, it was a month of charging up for one hour of excitement.
The three of them were like business development or sales employees in a corporation, spending their days endlessly collecting client information, then slowly sifting through and observing the countless data points to pick out target clients.
That was only the first step.
The second step was to find ways to get close to the target clients and build relationships, in order to obtain more valuable information and gradually sketch out the chain of collusion between the Empire and the Alliance.
The final step was to use whatever means necessary to identify the key figures in this chain and steal the data in their possession—data that could prove which individuals in the Alliance were involved in sinking with the Empire.
So, regardless of their previous identities—whether a small private business owner, an elite scion of a great family, or a little brat whose claim to fame was “my uncle is Sith”—they were all now equals as corporate drones. Not only did they have to diligently perform their day jobs, but they also had to take on business development work.
A fledgling startup company was just that humble.
The three and only employees of this startup company convened for the first time at the New Year’s banquet.
After coming from Wendeli Planet, He Qingzhi had been picked up by the He family as soon as he arrived on Hading Planet and was subsequently stuffed into a bridal school on Baoling Planet. Ji Changqing and Saiweiyala, on the other hand, had been sent to farm together, but it wasn’t long before Saiweiyala and the other teenagers in their rebellious phase were taken away for vocational training.
Now, at the banquet, the three met for the first time, and the class stratification among the startup’s three employees was glaringly obvious. He Qingzhi was an Omega from a noble family, a popular guest at the party. Ji Changqing was an Alpha guard tasked with security and protection. And Saiweiyala, as a chosen one unaffected by pheromones, was a new-generation servant at an imperial noble banquet, currently being trained in loyalty and professional skills.
Just as obvious as their class differences were their moods.
At the banquet, filled with cheerful chatter and clinking glasses, most people’s smiles were as sweet as double-sugared candy. He Qingzhi was the sole exception, his face dark and gloomy, even a little irritable from pent-up frustration. He looked at everyone as if they owed him a great deal of money.
Saiweiyala was much more cheerful. Like a busy little bee, she bustled around the entire venue, perceptively providing service to the guests whenever needed.
Her little face was filled with the joy of an old farmer after a bountiful harvest.
And what a bountiful harvest it was. As a technician, today’s packed venue was the perfect opportunity for her to gather information. For every guest she passed by or served, she would secretly copy the jumble of data from their personal terminals.
It was just a mechanical copy, with no attempts to crack passwords or open files, so the guests’ personal terminals remained undisturbed.
Of course, how much of the copied data would be useful, and whether she could even decrypt all the files, was another matter entirely.
Ji Changqing was like an emotionless bystander, wearing an expression of utter detachment as she lazily patrolled the area.
As people began to glide onto the dance floor and the atmosphere grew livelier, Jixin walked past her with a standard smile. As he passed, he paused for a moment, his gaze landing on her, tinged with a hint of unspoken words.
Ji Changqing lifted her eyelids to glance at him, then shifted her gaze away in boredom. Maintaining her world-weary expression, she continued to scan the room nonchalantly.
She had absolutely no interest in engaging with him.
So, Jixin casually walked back. He had learned his lesson this time and stood directly in front of Ji Changqing. The light cast his face in shadow, making him look somewhat sinister. “Care to cooperate? We can stir up some trouble together, get our own revenge.”
He said it like a deranged villain, with the distinct air of a street hawker shouting, “Everything for ten yuan! Don’t miss out!”
Ji Changqing looked up at him with amusement. Could it be that the arrogant, untamable, and vengeful persona she had so painstakingly crafted was finally starting to pay off?
She raised an eyebrow and slowly squeezed out a sound filled with immense doubt: “Hm?”
Now that the words were out, Jixin, who had been so awkward before, seemed to relax. His entire body was less tense. He dropped his pretentious attitude and looked utterly sincere. “It’s like this: I have a score to settle, too. I just don’t know if you’d dare to cooperate.”
His gaze flickered lightly in a certain direction, pausing imperceptibly on a particular spot for a moment.
That pause was very meaningful.
Ji Changqing didn’t even need to look over to confirm who was in the spot where his gaze had lingered. After all, she was on security tonight. She had been observing the room and had a clear mental map of where everyone was.
She said meaningfully, “At someone’s behest?”
Jixin pressed his lips together and shook his head.
Maybe, maybe not. He wasn’t sure.
If he hadn’t encountered that person here, he probably would have gone his whole life without ever suspecting him—his father’s trusted brother, who, after the incident, had firmly told him and his mother that he believed his father would never do such a thing, and had actively run around helping to collect evidence and submit materials to overturn the verdict…
The first time he saw that person here, he was truly shocked. In a flash, having seen his share of treacherous hearts, greed, betrayal between brothers, and backstabbing, he guessed the ugly truth behind it all.
His father had never admitted guilt, and they had never given up on appealing, until his father died mysteriously inside, followed shortly by his mother’s death. He had been left with nowhere to turn…
Years of hardship had, in fact, worn away all his spirit.
If not for meeting a space pirate who played by her own rules and always got her revenge.
At this thought, he turned his head and gave Ji Changqing a complicated look.
If it weren’t for this person, he might have just wanted to continue living in a daze. What was the point of revenge? He had wine to drink and money to spend, and his future seemed promising. Wasn’t this life good enough?
But whenever he thought of or saw this former space pirate who seemed to live so freely, the hatred he tried so hard to suppress would erupt. His enemy was living so comfortably, but what about his parents? One died unjustly, the other passed away with regret.
His life was already ruined anyway. Why couldn’t he have the satisfaction of settling his scores?
He wanted blood for blood!
Baffled by his stare, Ji Changqing touched her face and offered a friendly reminder, “Hey, watch it. Your expression is so ugly it’s offending me!”
The guy’s ferocious expression made it look like she owed him a ton of money!
Jixin switched expressions in a second, demonstrating his skill at changing faces as quickly as flipping through a book. The previous look of gritted teeth and hateful eyes instantly became gentle and refined. He clapped Ji Changqing hard on the shoulder. “I’ll find you for a spar when I have time.”
Ji Changqing stumbled and slapped away Jixin’s offending hand. She looked at him sinisterly and said, “Anytime!”
Their eyes met, clashing fiercely for a moment until Jixin shrugged in defeat and walked away. Only then did Ji Changqing turn away with a displeased look, appearing thoroughly annoyed. She shoved her hands in her pockets and continued to nonchalantly “watch” the room.
Inwardly, however, her mind was racing, calculating the credibility of this proposed cooperation and figuring out how to smoothly shift the blame if he was acting on orders to test her.
While she and Jixin were still sounding each other out, occasionally offering bits of information to show their sincerity, she suddenly received a message from He Qingzhi. Someone had approached him about cooperating, too.
Ji Changqing’s eyes turned cold.
Unlike Jixin, the person who had furtively approached He Qingzhi was an Alpha from a branch of the Klopp family.
This Alpha had only differentiated a few years ago. He was obsessed with art and had no interest in fighting. This wouldn’t be a big deal in the Alliance, but in the Empire, it was a serious problem. As an Alpha, he was supposed to be brave and fearless. How could he like such soft things that only Omegas were supposed to enjoy?
He couldn’t accept the prevailing view in the Empire that an Alpha should join the military or politics and vie for power and profit. The delusional teenager wanted to run back to the Alliance but didn’t dare tell anyone. After much thought, he set his sights on He Qingzhi. He figured that an Omega who had been determined to attend a military academy surely couldn’t stand the suffocating life in the Empire, where Omegas were kept like pets with no freedom of choice.
He even resorted to the ridiculously childish threat of, “If you don’t agree to take me back, I’ll tell my family I want to be with you and mark you,” to force He Qingzhi to cooperate.
He Qingzhi scoffed at this. He was particularly sharp-tongued with the teenager, coldly informing him that they were both traitors now. If they returned to the Alliance, the most likely outcome would be a lifetime of monitored existence on a designated planet, barred from all military, political, and technological sectors.
Of course, he also sarcastically told the boy that if he really had a way back to the Alliance, he would be willing to go, since no one liked being treated as someone else’s property, to be completely controlled. At the same time, he hinted that if they wanted a better life back in the Alliance, they would need to atone for their crimes by performing meritorious service.
This scared the teenager so much that he turned pale and fled, covering his face.
Soon after, however, He Qingzhi was reprimanded by the He family. But because his conversation had consisted mainly of mockery and sarcasm, deeply painting the picture of someone who was unwilling but resigned to his fate, the He family only warned him to behave himself, or there would be consequences.
He Qingzhi didn’t believe a single hair on the teenager’s head. He told Ji Changqing with a cold smile, “A guy like that? Give him a couple of years to get used to his Alpha privileges, and he wouldn’t go back even if you forced him.”
He didn’t care whether the teenager’s words that night were sincere. People’s hearts were fickle, and besides, what use was someone who could only whine and rely on others?
Because of this incident, Ji Changqing was almost certain that Jixin had also been sent to test her. But unexpectedly, she soon received a great gift from him.
Thanks to his father’s experience of being wrongly accused without sufficient evidence, Jixin was particularly careful about keeping records of everything. The great gift he sent Ji Changqing was just that: detailed and clear records of the tasks he had been assigned, the routes he had taken, the people who had met him, and so on.
After delivering this gift, Jixin humbly posed a question: If he had this data, plus a personal confession from his enemy, would the Alliance clear his father’s name and allow him to become an Alliance citizen again?
Ji Changqing accepted the gift and went through it carefully, estimating how many people Star Hidden could unearth with this information. She answered him silently in her heart:
You bet it would, buddy!
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