"Which general…?" Fatty felt helpless. The self-esteem of Russell might be too high, right? Only a general could see through your plan and not a first lieutenant staff officer?
Towards this enemy, Fatty did not have any good words and could not care less about him. Waving his hand as if chasing away a housefly, he said, "This question is something which you should ask General Bernadotte yourself when you meet him."
Russell had met a nail; he nodded his head and left while feeling strange in his heart: 'Just a first lieutenant from the special forces of the Leray Federation is already so bullish… He was meeting an Empire's general who could possibly become a general of the Federation, and yet, he did not even show any reverence. These Federation soldiers are all seemingly indifferent to such things.'
Two days of time passed very quickly. On the dawn of the third day, Tian Xing Jian had not even gotten up from his bed before the fleet inviting Russell had come over to the Restaurant Si Mai and waited for him outside.
For the sake of coordinating with the propaganda, the Federation government placed a great deal of effort on this ceremony, and even Federation President Hamilton had personally come to Jialipalan for this invitation. Towards an opponent of war, this standard was enough to show respect to Russell, and at the same time, it was fiercely slapping the face of Gyaca Woods Empire on the international stage.
During these two days, the reported news on television regarding this matter had been really verbose, and furthermore, there was an uproar going on in the international scene as the inner circle of the Gyaca Woods Empire descended into chaos. Fatty had never thought of how important this person, who had been kicked and beaten by him along the way here, was; this famous general, who did not even rank amongst the top few most famous military experts internationally, could actually create such a chain of domino effects.
The Gyaca Woods Imperial Army on the surface of Miracolo Planet had completely crumbled, and all of its Imperial fleets had retreated from the Newton Galaxy. The Federation went ahead to reoccupy the entire main Miracolo planet. Coupled with the complete triumph on Miracolo No.2 Planet and the occupation of the entire outer space region of the Newton Galaxy, this led to the wavering of the inner circle of the Empire and a rise in the morale of the Federation population. These had been results of the betrayal of a general from the Empire.
And the Federation connected the matters regarding the special position of Russell, the victory at Newton Galaxy, as well as the prisoners-of-war incident to bring about a chain of propaganda warfare, lowering the Gyaca Woods Empire royal family's reputation to its lowest, causing them to find themselves utterly isolated in the international stage.
At this moment, this was no longer related to Tian Xing Jian. Having enjoyed his beauty sleep, he woke up naturally and changed into his uniform before walking out of the restaurant and boarding an extravagant flying car that was arranged for him at the restaurant. Fatty decided to have a look over at Jialipalan City. Ever since the start of the war, he had almost forgotten what this kind of life felt like.
Jialipalan was the center of the entire Miracolo's governance, economy, and culture. The density of the population was the highest among all of its cities, with over ten famous universities which had long histories behind them located here.
The human population that migrated from outer space had already transformed this planet of about the same size as earth and deeply imprinted it with the culture of humans.
Those of the Federation were free, brave, and hard-working, and the local residents of Miracolo Planet also had these characteristics, albeit on a much higher level.
Walking along the streets of Jialipalan, the coming and going of those flying ships whistled past, and the pedestrians would gather at the mouth of the streets before splitting off to their respective destinations. Everyone was full of smiles and was in high spirits; the entire city was clearly full of life.
Several shops were under preparation for the re-opening of their businesses as the technicians were currently there repairing. As for the advertisement posters by the side of the roads, they were currently showing some famous singer who would be coming over to hold a concert. Several students stood underneath the posters, chatting and giggling non-stop excitedly. An old man was standing by the display window in a shopping mall, watching the employee provide a model simulation of the latest fashion trends. Seeing how those employees were staring at him, the perverted old man showed an embarrassed smile before placing his hands behind his back and looking around as if nothing had happened and went off. Several young and pretty girls who had put on makeup and wore the latest trending clothings excitedly came out from the huge entrance of the shopping mall. In their hands were the big and small bags of their spoils of war as they chatted while walking and releasing peals of melodious laughter.
The human race was usually good at licking their wounds quickly, recovering from their injuries and pain, before adapting with a new mindset that could not be explained with words as they headed into a new life. Those bygones were merely bygones, as their lives had to go on.
The continuous line of enormous trucks which were filled with all sorts of machinery and materials went past Tian Xing Jian. Several pulled over by the site where new construction would take place as the workers rushed here and there busily. The recovering capability of this city was truly powerful. War had merely temporarily left two days ago and she was already like a bamboo shoot after a rainy storm, trying her best to recover and live on.
Fatty stood at the mouth of the street in a daze. Seeing the throngs of people moving here and there, he truly loved this kind of life and wanted to be one of those amongst these people—having a job, a wife, a home, a car, and a son and daughter. After the war, Fatty suddenly discovered that he was truly incompatible with those cannon fires.
Seeing it with his own eyes of how he wanted this life yet could not partake in it was indubitably a pain to him, yet Fatty did not feel that pain, as instead, he felt this was good; he was content with just watching silently.
An Lei stood behind Tian Xing Jian, watching him silently for quite some time.
She had merely passed this place, yet with a single glance, she had seen Tian Xing Jian amongst the crowd. He stood by the mouth of the streets with some silly and lonely look on his face. An Lei could not help but ask the driver to stop the car, and after that, she silently stood behind this childhood sweetheart of hers. Watching him, she attempted to link together that person in her memories with this silly-looking chap.
Soon, her memories coincided with reality—he had not changed; he was, by nature, this type of person and could never be compatible with war.
For such a person, once he was forcibly drawn into the cruel war, what kind of situation would he be embroiled in? That was something An Lei did not dare to think about. But right now, she knew that the reason why this person would explode with such powerful strength was merely because he wanted to struggle and break away.
These few days were the longest days in An Lei's life. She had heard news after news about Tian Xing Jian without tire from the recountings by those from the forward command that she was familiar with. The more she listened, the more she wanted to listen to more of his stories, and the more she wanted to listen, the more she desired to meet him.
Now, this boy that had merely stood at just a dozen of steps of distance away had made An Lei feel panic. She suspected if she truly knew what she wanted. What would she talk with him about? It felt as if they could merely chat…
An Lei did not know if that person buried deep in her heart was this heroic man with a halo of light in front of her, or that distant and lonely boy who looked at her unmoving and made her feel heartaches, or was it that cunning fatty who thought like a heavenly steed, soaring across the skies, wretched and shameless, and someone who would become lecherous the moment he saw a beauty?
The two of them stood there silently, with one in front of the other, in this busy street.
An Lei sighed and turned around. She wanted to leave silently as she had not thought of what she should do when facing Tian Xing Jian; she wanted to hide in her room to think over this.
She turned back to give that silly fatty figure a look. Just this one look had made her so angry that the anger had seeped into her heart, as that wretched fatty was using a perverted look as he stared at the twin lofty peaks of a beauty in front of him with saliva dripping. His neck had, at the same time, turned a 180 degrees around following that line of sight.
That was when Fatty saw An Lei, who had been behind him, and that was also when a coquettish sound came from somewhere, "Darling Tian [1]! What are you doing…!?"
[1] 田蜜蜜 (Tian Mi Mi) - is actually a play of word 甜蜜蜜 here, meaning very sweet, so I Translated it as darling tian to suit the 'sweetness and all', but there's a slight difference in the meaning behind it.