As Wen Jifei walked toward the military tent, he happened to cross paths with Shen Yixiu as she was coming out. Seeing that Rusty Sister seemed to be in rough shape, he quickly asked with concern, "What's wrong, Rusty Sister?! Did they give you a hard time?! Or... Don't worry, don't feel wronged. Just wait for your Brother Plague Chicken to go avenge you."
Shen Yixiu looked up at him, shook her head with a guilty conscience, and whispered, "No, it's just... I might get beaten up when I go back."
Han Qingyu, born strikingly beautiful.
Han Qingwa, his twin brother.
Rusty Sister felt she was probably done for. Qingzi would genuinely beat her, or give her the cold shoulder and ignore her entirely. Most of the time, that guy never treated her like a girl anyway.
"Second Lieutenant Wen, please." The escorting soldier behind him urged him forward.
Wen Jifei turned and entered the military tent. He saluted, offered greetings, shook hands, and sat down obediently in the middle of the tent on a single wooden plank left behind from a shattered chair...
Then came the hour hand, the minute hand, the second hand.
The focus of everyone in the tent checking their watches gradually shifted, until even the second hand seemed to crawl.
Two and a half hours had already passed.
"Um, Second Lieutenant Wen, did you say a message in a dream just now? Does conveying a message in a dream mean the same thing as dreaming?!" The young female translator wiped the sweat from her forehead, diligently fulfilling her duty.
She had lost count of how many completely contradictory lines of reasoning and explanations Second Lieutenant Wen had offered by now.
Even less did she know how many more he had prepared.
Oh, and right—he had even found time earlier to give her a Chinese name: Xiufen, Ma Xiufen. In fact, he had planned to give names to Howard and Arthur as well, but they had refused. Jackson had accepted, adopting General Liu Yiwu's surname, and was now called Liu Tiegen.
"That's not the same. Appearing in a dream... is equivalent to a spirit manifesting. It's when a deceased person uses a dream to tell you the truth about certain matters, or when they have an unfulfilled wish they hope you can carry out for them."
As a wounded soldier, Wen Jifei was currently lying flat on the ground—perfectly justified in doing so—and used a snake-like hand gesture above his body to mimic slithering inside. With a mysterious and solemn tone, he said, "The truth this time is that Denis Alphonse and those other two didn't actually die. The very instant the aircraft exploded, they... swapped people."
"..." The young translator stammered through the translation of this statement, then turned back to ask, "Then who appeared in your dream to tell you this truth?!"
"The pilot! He died such an unjust death! He could have lived—no one wanted to kill him! Yet he was abruptly blown to pieces by the very people he had risked his life to serve..." Wearing a look of sorrow and burning with righteous indignation, Wen Jifei said, "Couldn't they have given him a heads-up so he could jump with them?! Couldn't they have reminded him to activate his device and protect himself?!"
The young woman thought about it and said from the bottom of her heart, "They could have."
"Right? So tell me, do you think he bears a grudge?!"
"He does!"
"That's why he appeared in my dream." Wen Jifei sighed mournfully and said, "Hey, Xiufen, are you starting to dislike the Alphonse family a bit too now? As the saying goes, like son, like father, like grandfather, like ancestors..."
The translator replied, "Mm, more than just a bit."
During their exchange, Xiufen didn't translate a single word, yet Howard and Arthur beside her uncharacteristically refrained from hurrying her along.
Because by this point, they didn't want to hear another word. If Second Lieutenant Wen Jifei hadn't insisted on continuing to talk, they would have wanted to immediately end this interrogation, which was ten times more agonizing than the three before him combined.
They were already on the verge of losing their minds, their thoughts drifting into all sorts of random, chaotic messes.
Earlier, they had even taken the initiative twice to propose ending the interrogation, but unfortunately, Second Lieutenant Wen Jifei had rejected both attempts.
"Translate!" It was Wen Jifei who urged Xiufen to get on with it.
Then he added, "Remember to match my phrasing. Next, I'll tell you about those death-sworn soldiers who blocked the road back then—why they went from fighting desperately to halting in their tracks at the end. Because their hearts went cold too..."
"Cough, cough, cough! I'm sorry, Second Lieutenant Wen, it's too much. My notes are already a mess... Also, can I go pour some water to drink first?"
The young translator's lips were parched, her voice hoarse, and tears were practically welling in her eyes.
"Sure, go drink. I'll chat with Commander Liu for a bit. Don't worry about translating this part—don't forget we're on the same side."
"Mm." The young woman stood up and went over to the side to pour water.
"Hey, Uncle Liu, Uncle Liu..." Wen Jifei sat up and suddenly shouted, "Uncle Liu!"
"Huh?!" Liu Yiwu gave a violent start, bouncing up from the desk.
He glanced left and right. "It's over? Good, then I'm going back to sleep."
With that, he braced against the table to stand up.
"Not yet, Uncle Liu." As their eyes met, Wen Jifei gave a sheepish smile and said, "We're nowhere near done. It's fine, I just wanted to ask you about something. Once we're done, you can go back to sleep and I'll keep chatting with them."
"I am so bloody grateful to you." Liu Yiwu shot him a resentful glare. "What is it? Speak."
"It's about that Howard guy. What's the deal with his status as a council member? Is he a big official?" Wen Jifei asked earnestly.
"Why are you asking about that?!"
"Just curious, looking to get a feel for things."
"Big. A member of the Council—in theory, it's quite significant, but in reality, it doesn't mean much." Liu Yiwu looked straight at Howard and said, "Because at Azure Headquarters, there are eight hundred of them just like him."
Azure's Council system had begun during the era of the three founding scientists, when they were the only three members.
Five years later, the three felt their own mindsets had undergone some changes and proactively proposed expanding it to seven members to establish an opposition mechanism.
Then came nine, then eleven.
After they passed away, that number exploded wildly—50, 100, 300... 800.
Liu Yiwu gestured with both hands. "In other words, unless the speakers and military commanders of the major theater commands unanimously invoke their special authority, whenever anyone puts forward a proposal and wants it approved, they have to go around explaining it and secure the backing of at least four hundred members."
This seemed like a good thing on the surface—democratic centralism.
Yet Azure was facing war, a war where survival hung in the balance from moment to moment. The Council's administrative efficiency was easy to imagine. Liu Yiwu gave a helpless, bitter smile as he spoke, glancing at Wen Jifei.
Wen Jifei nodded, his eyes pensive.
"Actually, that's not even the worst of it," Liu Yiwu continued on his own. "I won't deny that there are many outstanding individuals in the Azure Council, but there's one thing..."
His gaze remained pointed directly and candidly at Howard as Liu Yiwu said, "Some of them have never once seen a Great Spike with their own eyes."
"Yet they are the ones deliberating research projects and strategic directions, judging whether devices require generational upgrades... They even audit front-line personnel allocations and source energy distribution."
As if seizing a rare chance to pour his heart out, or perhaps simply exhausted from fatigue, Liu Yiwu laid bare the helplessness deep in his chest to Wen Jifei—a minor second lieutenant with whom he ordinarily wouldn't have shared such things.
From beginning to end, Wen Jifei offered no opinion.
Off to the side, the young translator set down her cup. She parted her lips, looked at Liu Yiwu, looked at Wen Jifei, and then closed her mouth again.
"It's fine, go ahead. We're done talking," Liu Yiwu signaled.
"Mm." The translator nodded, then turned toward Wen Jifei, her eyes filled with desperate pleading. "Mr. Howard and the others said the interrogation is over... Please, let it end."
"'Please' was their word too, though they didn't ask me to translate that—they told me to plead in my own name."
Their eyes met.
"...Could you?" The young woman's eyes glistened with unshed tears, heavily bloodshot.
Wen Jifei chuckled. "All right, then. For your sake, Xiufen." He stood up, walked over, and said with a smile, "Help me translate just a few last sentences. From here on, whatever I say, you say. No matter how terrifying you find the words, don't hesitate, all right?"
His tone was very gentle.
Little Xiufen nodded.
"Uncle Liu, give me another cigarette." Having received permission, Wen Jifei put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it, then passed another over and lit it for Liu Yiwu.
Taking advantage of the moment, he picked up the cigarette pack, walked over, and tossed a cigarette before Jackson, Howard, and Arthur respectively.
Tossed.
And as he tossed them, his aura, expression, and gaze transformed completely. Looking down on them, he said, "Actually, none of you are leaving tonight."
Chapter 364