CH 16

Freshman Song Chao came to Planet Vega just for Admiral Arthur’s lectures. For this reason, he gave up his scholarship admission to one of the top three mecha universities.

He was just fifteen years old and has been known as a mecha genius in his neighborhood since he was a child. Unfortunately he wasn’t born at the right time. The war ended before he was old enough to join the army. Otherwise, many thought given the chance and time he had the ability to surpass Arthur.

Song Chao has a strong competitive spirit.

He knew that there would be many people in the class with the same purpose as him, so even though it was just the beginning of the school year, he already began to pay attention to the new students around him.

Soon he found a freshman standing out from the rest.

This man’s appearance was clean and outstanding, with black hair, black eyes and tall posture. He looked slightly older than the others. Although he still looked to be in his early twenties, there was no trace of youthfulness on his body.

He was very quiet, like a quiet lake at midnight.

Yet the thing that made Song Chao pay the most attention to him was his standing posture – Song Chao felt that those foolish students might not notice, but he was different since he was a military fan.

This man stood, sat and walked in line with military standards. Even when walking he would have his hand pressed to the side of his waist, his posture ready to draw a gun.

‘Was he a spy? Trying to blend in and assassinate Admiral Arthur?’ Song Chao thought.

Therefore, he paid extra attention to this student.

He also deliberately followed this person and spied on his information.

[Name: Yan Xueshan]

[Gender: male/beta]

[Enrollment Institute: College of Agriculture】

Song Chao thought it was outrageous when he saw it. 32 years old? And he just now enrolled into his first year of college? Who are you kidding? If it wasn’t some kind of conspiracy, he would shave his hair off!

But if he was really a spy, why not simply make a false identity and make himself 18 years old, rather than pretending to be someone older? He looked at most 25 years old. Could it be some kind of mistake?

He was also enrolled in an agricultural college? Why?

Later, Song Chao asked around.

He finally understood.

Their school’s agricultural department was a particularly good college to get into. You don’t even need to take an entrance exam, pay enrollment fee or have a farm on the nearby planet as long as you get recommended.

Due to that, the water becomes muddy, unlike the mecha department he studied in, where he still needed to take an exam to get in.

Yan Xueshan was already enrolled.

He used the recommendation quota for farm owners, since the local government of Vega strongly supports agriculture. As long as you sign a contract that guarantees at least three years of land cultivation after graduation you would be given a tuition fee reduction!

It was really good!!

It’s not that Yan Xueshan didn’t notice a lot of eyes squinting at him, but he didn’t mind.

It was reasonable.

He was a man in his thirties. Compared to these teenage boys he was already an uncle.

It’s really strange for an uncle to enroll as a college freshman, so it was no surprise that he was noticed.

The opening ceremony was tomorrow.

He went to find his dormitory room.

A thrifty young man like him would definitely not bear spending money to rent a room outside since the dormitory was cheap. You could live there for a year for just 200 star coins.

However, when Yan Xueshan found the school men’s dormitory, the lazy housekeeper, seeing his ID, suddenly became energetic, like a completely different person. “Mr. Yan, you are finally here. You don’t need to live in the student dormitory. Please follow me.”

Yan Xueshan: “If I won’t live here, where would I live?”

The housekeeper said flatteringly, “You are a family member of Professor Arthur, so he applied for a house for you to live alone.”

Yan Xueshan: “Ah? Is it expensive?”

The housekeeper was so excited that he raised his voice, “Of course it’s free! You can also eat at our school for free!”

Yan Xueshan: “Oh.”

Yan Xueshan followed him to his residence.

At first he just thought it would be a private room, but after turning left and right and walking for some time, the neighborhood turned into a forest. Not a true wild forest; it was probably artificially planted since all the trees had flowers and were in full bloom.

After turning another corner and lifting willow branches and vines, a two-story villa with a courtyard appeared, with a purple violet tree planted at the entrance, its branches flourishing with flowers. It looked several years old.

The housekeeper led him in and showed him how to enter his personal information in the intelligent housekeeping system. He could use his fingerprint, retinal scan, or voice to control the house’s intelligence system.

The house was fully equipped with all the facilities, comfortably furnished with low-key luxury.

The housekeeper said, “There are three housekeeping robots, two for cleaning and one for cooking. If you need anything else, you can contact us directly through a robot. Just call for us and we will come.”

Yan Xueshan said, “Enough.”

This was too much.

For him, it was enough to have a bed.

Arthur was overly thoughtful in his preparation.

The soft furnishings in the house even matched the color scheme he liked, Artemis’ colors, which made him feel comfortable when he looked at it.

He didn’t know why, but some memories involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

When he first came to his adoptive father’s house with only a family photo of his biological parents in his hand, the first thing his adoptive father did was to show him his room.

His adoptive father was a poor man, renting an old and cramped small bungalow. Even so, he still provided him with his own room, which was so small it could only accommodate a bed and a desk.

Yan Xueshan asked, “This is my room?”

His father grinned. “Yes, this is your own room. I made the bed and the desk for you myself! Do you like it?”

Yan Xueshan nodded. “Yes, I like it.”

The housekeeper asked him, “Are you satisfied?”

Yan Xueshan nodded and said, “I’m satisfied.”

He was alone, with only a suitcase of old clothes.

When he went to the bedroom he found there was no wardrobe,  but there was a closet. This closet wasn’t empty and filled with clothes arranged according to the season, with sets that matched each other.

There was also a shoe cabinet filled with all kinds of men’s shoes.

Yan Xueshan didn’t like to wear things that looked too fancy. He looked through the clothes, and found that they were all relatively simple styles. Among them, there were many shoes and work clothes that were convenient for working in the fields. The shoes were mostly boots, but there were also other kinds of clothes. The clothes picked by Arthur for him were better than the ones he bought himself.

Yan Xueshan didn’t intend to look at them any more, just a glance was enough, but just as he withdrew his hand, he caught a glimpse of a familiar-looking piece of clothing in the innermost corner of the closet.

He dug out the clothes from the back of the closet.

Sure enough—

It was the latest mecha battle suit that he had before he retired from the military.

The tight-fitting one-piece battle suit had an aesthetically pleasing color scheme of blue and black. It was soft to the touch and very light. Under the light, the metallic colored streams would flash across the surface.

It was said that a technological battle suit for the Master Sergeant was ordered from the National Academy of Sciences, so the cost of materials for this suit alone would cost nearly one million star coins.

After boarding the Artemis, he wore this suit for six whole years.

Because it was tailor-made for him, it was impossible to give it to another Mecha Sergeant after he retired. The army didn’t give this suit to him and he didn’t think to ask for it.

He never thought he would see it here.

Arthur must have deliberately put it here.

Yan Xueshan looked down and stroked the suit for five minutes, then hung it back up.

He wouldn’t have another chance to pilot Artemis, nor would he have a chance to wear this suit again.

Tic, tic.

“You have received a call invitation.”

Yan Xueshan tapped on the light screen to accept the call.

Arthur appeared. He was sitting in front of the desk with his hands on the table. His hair and eyes were shining gold. The mere appearance of him seemed to make the brightness of the screen two points higher. He smiled and asked, “Master, I see you have moved in, do you like the house I prepared for you?”

Yan Xueshan nodded his head. “I like it.”

Arthur said, “I  can’t get away to see you today, but I plan to go to the Vega Comprehensive University tomorrow to give the speech for the beginning of the semester. We can meet then.”

Yan Xueshan thought for a while, and asked, “Why do I feel like you have too much free time? You come to me every now and then, is the army really so free now?”

Arthur immediately tensed up. He clasped his hands together, fingers twisted as he spoke solemnly, “I don’t delay my work. Really, you can come to the army base for inspection at any time.”

Yan Xueshan replied, “I’m not a soldier anymore. Why should I visit the army base when I am free? Even if I was still in the army, I was just a Major, so doing an inspection wasn’t part of my duties.”

Arthur still looked righteous as he spoke. “That’s true, according to regulations. But you can inspect me, I belong to you, so you can check me as you like.”

Yan Xueshan didn’t realize it immediately.

After half a minute, he asked bluntly, “Ah, you’re talking to me, aren’t you? How should I answer?”

Arthur laughed. “It’s okay, just say what you think, Master. You’re cute no matter what you do.”

Yan Xueshan: “?”

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door of Arthur’s office. “Reporting to the Admiral!”

Arthur just restrained his smile and said, “I’ve got work to do, Master. I will see you tomorrow.”

Yan Xueshan: “Hmm. See you tomorrow.”

Then he hung up the communication.

The next day, Yan Xueshan went to attend the opening ceremony for new students.

He originally thought that the Agricultural College wouldn’t pay attention to the mecha department, but he didn’t expect that all the freshmen of the Agricultural College around him would be enthusiastically discussing “Professor Arthur”.

“Is Arthur really coming here?”

“I heard that he’s already in the Principal’s office.”

“Has anyone seen him in person? Does he look as handsome as in the news?”

“Shit, is this even in doubt? It’s not like he hasn’t been on the television.”

“A while ago, there was a poll on the Internet, [The Most Wanted Alpha in the Federation], and Admiral Arthur was number one!”

“He’s not only handsome but also an S-class Melee Master Sergeant, so even I voted for him.”

After hearing this, even Yan Xueshan gave a sideways glance – what the heck? This kind of voting still exists?

Unexpectedly, one of the students said mysteriously, “Actually I also heard something about Admiral Arthur.”

“On the battlefield, weren’t all melee fighters always partnered with long-range fighters? But even though Arthur started appearing on the news, we have never seen his partner. He also hasn’t flown his Zhulong mecha since the end of the war, and Artemis hasn’t been activated again.”

“I heard that the sniper ‘Blue Reaper’ was actually sacrificed.”

One student couldn’t help but cover his mouth and sigh. “Huh? Wouldn’t Admiral Arthur be like a widower then?”

The man waved his hand and said, “Yeah, so Admiral Arthur came to teach at our school this time, most likely because he wanted to train another long-range master division sergeant who could partner with him!”

The deceased Yan Xueshan himself: “…”