In the space above Huang'e Star, the statue of the flying celestial maiden blazed with light under the star's rays, and against that radiance even the terrifying black war monster beneath her took on a trace of tragic beauty.
In the core section of the Flying Maiden escort ship, above that beautiful sea of roses, four floating carpets were gliding slowly over the flowers.
"Uncle Ye Fei, Cousin Ye Tian, every one of these roses was carefully cultivated by the finest florists of Three Seas Star. Three of the varieties are unique — they exist nowhere in the whole universe but aboard my Flying Maiden." Ye Mei truly lived up to her name; she was enchanting through and through.
Ye Tian's throat had gone dry and his eyes had gone fixed and staring. The stern, never-smiling Guard Captain of every other day had vanished completely, replaced by three parts respect, three parts humility, and even three parts self-abasement, with the last part left over as pure, naked possessiveness.
Ye Fei's face showed plain contempt for his nephew, but the boy was his own flesh and blood after all. In their branch of the Ye clan register, Ye Fei was the only one who still looked the part, and if the branch was ever going to rise, it would have to be through him.
"Your Highness, Princess, this is a top-grade crystal I prepared specially for you, as a gift for your visit to Huang'e Star." With that, Governor Ye Fei drew a fine wooden box from his side and handed it to Princess Ye Mei.
"Whoa! It's actually a nineteen-centimeter crystal! Uncle Gu Bai, look at the gift Uncle Ye Fei prepared for me. Haha, I'm going to have another escort ship soon — bigger and stronger than the Flying Maiden, I'd bet..." Thrilled, Ye Mei was like a little girl, her eyes shining.
Gu Bai, at the princess's side, was a centurion of the Imperial Guard. Battle-hardened, he had guarded her since Ye Mei was a child, and to be honest, the princess felt far closer to Gu Bai than to this uncle who was family to her only on the clan register.
Still, Ye Fei's gift truly delighted Ye Mei. For all the Flying Maiden's fearsome power, the rainbow crystal in its folded-space engine was only sixteen centimeters, and that dragged its firepower and shielding down a long way — it was far weaker than her sister's ship, the Violet.
"Oh, it's gorgeous! With this treasure I can upgrade my Flying Maiden. No — I'll build a brand-new Flying Maiden, one with thirty percent more combat power..."
Watching the excited princess, Ye Fei suddenly mustered his courage and spoke. "The most beautiful crystal, for the most beautiful princess. As long as you are happy, I will spend my whole life finding better rainbow crystals for you..."
Then he paused, his eyes fixed on Princess Ye Mei, and said with great solemnity, "Believe me, one day I will bring a fifty-centimeter crystal and present it to you in person on Three Seas Star..."
"Oh! My dear cousin, you're really too good to me." Smiling, Ye Mei suddenly extended her hand. "To thank you for your kindness, I specially permit you to kiss the back of my hand..."
Overwhelmed by the favor, Ye Tian knelt humbly on his flying carpet and let his lips graze the back of the princess's hand only lightly — how would he dare actually smear his spit on the princess's skin?
When the hand-kissing was over, Gu Bai suddenly spoke. "The princess is very pleased with your gift, but your request that she remain in space for three days is quite unreasonable. The princess has already been traveling through space for a week; her body and mind are exhausted. If she could sleep one night on a stable planet, that would be the best possible rest for her..."
As if playing along with the centurion's words, Ye Mei yawned very much on cue. And when Ye Tian saw the white teeth and the pink tongue inside those fragrant lips, it was as though he had inhaled ten vials of Phantom Mist — his whole body seemed to go drifting up into the clouds.
Princess Ye Mei of Three Seas Star was worthy of the name of greatest beauty in the Horsehead Star Ring. That title was not something bestowed by flatterers; even the people of the Orion Star Ring, the Horsehead Star Ring's enemies, acknowledged it.
Just as Ye Tian was lost in his fantasies, the portable terminal on his wrist rang at a most inopportune moment. Ye Tian opened it awkwardly, and an encrypted text message appeared on the holographic screen. Once he had skimmed through it at a glance, anger and excitement both surfaced on his face at once.
Ye Mei studied her cousin's strange expression with great curiosity. "Is something new happening? Your face is putting on quite a show."
"Your Highness, please stay aboard the Flying Maiden for three days. In three days I will bring you a twenty-two-centimeter rainbow crystal." With that, Ye Tian bowed his head in salute, steered his flying carpet around, and left.
"A twenty-two-centimeter crystal!" Ye Mei was instantly thrilled. "Does this mean I'm going to swap to a main-force warship as my flagship?"
Ye Mei truly hardly dared to imagine it. The entire Horsehead Star Ring had only twenty main-force warships, already formed into twenty fleet groups locked in a standoff with the Orion Star Ring. The urgency of the war meant the two princesses had to make do with escort ships as flagships. Yet now there was a chance she might get her hands on a crystal of main-warship grade — how could Ye Mei not be thrilled?
"Uncle Gu Bai, do you think Cousin Ye Tian is lying to me?" Ye Mei could hardly believe her own ears. In this age of great cosmic development, warships were the lifeblood of any regime. And the key materials for building warship engines — rainbow crystal, liquid mithril, folded obsidian — had become the most critical strategic resources in the human world.
As for the ordinary metals that made up a hull, they were everywhere in space and worth next to nothing now. Even gold had become an ordinary metal, only a hair rarer than iron and copper.
Gu Bai smiled. "If Ye Tian can get his hands on a rainbow crystal, I don't imagine His Majesty will stand in the way of the princess building her own flagship."
"Wonderful!" Ye Mei was utterly thrilled. Of the three strategic materials, rainbow crystal was the most finicky of all: its output was the highest of the three, and yet nobody could get hold of a long one. And the power of an engine was directly tied to the length of the crystal.
As for mithril and obsidian, they were expensive, but expensive was all they were; with a habit of careful saving, one could still collect a good deal of them.
I can't wait. I'll go incognito — I'm going to Huang'e myself. With that thought, Ye Mei rose, steered her flying carpet away, and paid no heed at all to the two men trying to talk her out of it.
By this time Ye Tian had boarded a landing craft and begun his descent back to the surface. He knew Wuchang's threat was real, and Wuchang's information was real too. Judging by how much the man valued his friends, there was no way he would use false information to trick him.
"Stop the interrogation at once, and have those people's injuries treated," Ye Tian sent word to the surface immediately. "Contact Mad Dog and have him find a way to pass on my word: I agree to the trade, but once it's done, Wuchang and his people must leave Huang'e Star and never leave it for the rest of their lives..."
Once everything was arranged, Ye Tian looked out the window at the yellow planet and said with a cold smile, "You dare threaten me? I've got a hundred ways to make sure you die out in space."
Brother Mad Dog of course had Wuchang's emergency contact. On the call he voiced his worry. "If you really do have a twenty-two-centimeter crystal, then the value of a twenty-two-centimeter crystal really could buy the lives of your whole bunch. But do you honestly dare trust Ye Tian's character? Don't forget, he just finished butchering tens of thousands of miners."
Unfortunately, Wuchang had no choice. He could only beg Brother Mad Dog and Boss Jiang to be a bit more reliable, and hope they could get everyone safely off this sickening planet.
It was not until the next morning that Wuchang got word from Boss Jiang. "Three days from now a transport ship will be passing through outer space. That's the earliest departure possible. You have only three days to get your people out. But I'd better warn you: don't hand over the crystal too early. If it gets into Ye Tian's hands, there's a good chance he'll go back on the deal."
Wuchang was no fool. The crystal that guaranteed their lives absolutely could not be handed over in advance; best of all would be to finish the trade and leave the planet at once. Which made three days from now a very suitable time for the trade.
While Wuchang waited anxiously, inside the underground military base, Lane and the others had already learned everything that was happening outside — because Boss Pan had run into an acquaintance.
The interrogation had stopped as of yesterday noon, and the military doctors had even come to give everyone emergency treatment. But just then, Smith Pan actually spotted a familiar face: a schoolmate from his university days, two years below him.
"My God, Smith? What are you doing here? We haven't seen each other since graduation, and I never got the chance to thank you for standing as my guarantor."
"Oh, aren't you Little Song? Little Song, two years below me — the one who studied medicine? The one who could never find a guarantor for his financial-aid application?"
Meeting an old friend in a foreign land is worth a sigh or two — but now was not the time; the two of them truly had no leisure for old times' sake. Boss Pan hastily laid out for Dr. Song everything that had happened to him, hoping he could get word to Wuchang.
"Getting in touch is no problem, but I'm a doctor. I can't come to the fire prison unless there's a medical reason. How am I supposed to pass outside information to you?"
Boss Pan thought it over and had to agree: a doctor had no business here unless he was treating someone. At that thought, Smith Pan gritted his teeth, made up his mind, and shoved his left arm through the bars of the cage.
"Ah — what are you doing?" Amid everyone's bewildered questions, Boss Pan put his strength into it and actually wrenched his own left arm until it snapped.
"Ngh!" Sweating all over from the pain, Boss Pan stared at his old schoolmate. "A broken bone — does that count as a serious injury? Is it enough to get you coming and going here for three days?"
Dr. Song had never imagined that the gentle, refined aristocratic senior from his college days could turn into such a ruthless character. He nodded hurriedly. "Don't worry, Brother, I'll come report to you every single day..."
Once Dr. Song had left the cell, Boss Pan, still drenched in sweat from the pain, looked at his dumbstruck companions. "Don't worry, all of you. Back then, when Little Song applied for the hardship fund, not a single person was willing to stand as guarantor. In the end it was my guarantee that got him out of that fix."
"Heh. I'm an aristocrat, after all. The moment my signet ring stamped that paper, it guaranteed that Little Song would get the highest tier of financial aid..."
Before Boss Pan could finish, the room filled with the sound of sobbing. Eileen and the children were the first to lose their grip, clinging to one another and crying out their grievance; beside them, Gopher Pike could no longer bear the pressure either, and he leapt up wailing.
"I want out of here! Out of this dungeon, out of Huang'e City, off this planet..."
His howling earned them a blast from a high-pressure water cannon. "Fuck, what are you screaming about? We've stopped beating you and we're even feeding you, and now you've found yourselves new complaints? Every damn one of you, settle down..."