Friends

That day, Qian Daofeng and Ao Yong finished dinner at six-thirty after getting off work. Normally, they would stuff themselves as full as possible, but today neither dared eat too much, worried that a full belly would bloat up and cramp during combat. After leaving the cafeteria, carrying their blades and devices, they drove straight to Boss Dao's compound. Yet no one was there—not even the old gatekeeper. "Maybe it's not time for everyone to gather yet," Ao Yong said, standing outside the empty courtyard. "Yeah. They only finished a mission this morning, so they definitely need to rest up. No rush," Qian Daofeng said. "Let's head back first. We can come over later with Ah Jing and the others." "Okay." The two drove back home. No one was home either. This time, not even Iron Chick and Doctor Zhe were around. "Did we just miss each other on the road?" Ao Yong asked, standing at their deserted doorway. "Could be. Let's go back and check." The two locked the door and drove back over to Boss Dao's place. The courtyard remained completely deserted. Ao Yong thought for a moment. "How about the two of us just wait here?" "Yeah." Qian Daofeng nodded. The two squatted by the courtyard gate. An hour slipped by... Eight o'clock. Only two hours remained until the mission. "How about this, Yong—you stay here, and I'll go back to check again," Qian Daofeng said, getting to his feet. "Okay, and I'll go around and ask around." Ao Yong stood up as well. Unease was already starting to gnaw at him. Qian Daofeng drove home for another look, but still found no one. Returning to the compound, he found the courtyard just as vacant. He began to panic completely. Twenty minutes later, Ao Yong came running back, panting for breath. His eyes were red, and the moment he reached Qian Daofeng, he raised his sleeve and wiped away tears. "What happened?!" Qian Daofeng asked, frantic with worry. Sniffling, Ao Yong said, "Boss Dao and the others... they're eating at a restaurant! They said they pulled off another zero-casualty run this morning, so they all went out to celebrate." "What? Are Ah Jing and the others there too?" "I don't know. The restaurant staff recognized me as a street sweeper and wouldn't let me upstairs. I asked around, then stood down below and heard Boss Dao's voice. They're all drinking, and it sounded like Boss Dao is already hammered..." Ao Yong paused, then said, "Brother Daofeng, do you think Ah Jing and the others forgot? Or did Boss Dao refuse to agree, and they were just too embarrassed to tell us...?" "I... I don't know." Qian Daofeng felt completely at a loss. It was almost nine o'clock. "Maybe Boss Dao wasn't willing, so Ah Jing and the others went to find someone else," Qian Daofeng suggested. Clinging to a sliver of hope, they returned home once more. Nine-twenty. The house was still utterly empty. "How about we just go on our own, Brother Daofeng?" Having searched high and low along the way, standing at the street intersection, Ao Yong drew his blade and said. Qian Daofeng touched his blade, turned to look at him... and shook his head. "Let's go. We're going home." "What about the spacecraft? We're just giving it up?!" "We have to give it up. We can't take it, don't you get it, Yong?" Gripping Ao Yong's arm tightly, Qian Daofeng dragged him back home by force. Every second from nine-twenty to ten o'clock was sheer agony. An annual welfare allocation, their only opportunity to acquire source energy blocks and dead iron... If they could get a bit more dead iron this year, Qian Daofeng and Ao Yong had wanted to replace their old blades with new ones, then save up for another two years to upgrade to a Ninth-Generation device. A Ninth-Generation device was a generational leap. Whether in terms of combat enhancement or purely its aesthetic design, it was the product of a completely different era. They had seen it on others countless times and dreamed of it just as often in their hearts. As for source energy blocks, they certainly couldn't be sold or traded away. In this hidden world, source energy blocks were everything—they were strength, they were life, they were survival itself. ...Ten o'clock passed. If no one was waiting when the craft descended, a welfare spacecraft turned wild, free for anyone to chop up. In the desert, there was never a shortage of scavengers on any given day. Ao Yong suddenly collapsed against the table, sobbing aloud. Qian Daofeng sat numbly. ...Eleven o'clock. Suddenly, footsteps approached from outside. Ah Jing walked in. He looked at the two of them and asked in confusion, "What's wrong, Yong? Were you that worried?!" Qian Daofeng: "..." Ao Yong turned around and wiped at his tears, choked up and unable to speak. "Why are you crying?" Han Qingyu asked, puzzled, though a faint smile touched his lips. Then Old Tang walked in... holding something in his hands. Qian Daofeng froze at the sight, then jerked to his feet. Ao Yong rubbed his eyes frantically. Old Tang dropped two heavy sacks onto the floor. A dull, weighty thud echoed, followed by the clanking grind of metal scraping against metal... Ah Xi walked in, carrying four sacks; Zhu Jiaming carried four. *Th-this has to be over a thousand kilograms, right?!* Qian Daofeng and Ao Yong thought in shock. *Clack, thud!* Iron Chick hopped through the doorway, looking cheerful, though her hands were empty. Finally, Brother Ji strolled in. Coming up to the two, he placed a small bag he was carrying onto the table, tilted his head, and asked, "What's going on?!" "Hey, don't cry! Come on, you two," he said with a laugh. "If you're going to cry, look at this first, then let it all out and bawl your eyes out!" As he spoke, he gripped the bottom of the sack and dumped it out. *Clatter!* A blue crystal source energy block rolled out, tumbling across the tabletop. Then a second block, a third... "Thirty-two blocks in total, minus the twenty percent refining fee, right?" Wen Jifei said. Ao Yong and Qian Daofeng looked at each other and shook their heads vigorously... then, realizing that wasn't right, switched to nodding frantically. *So... they went with someone else, they just didn't bring us along...* *They knew how weak we are, huh?!* A twinge of sorrow washed over them, but this was still far better than coming away empty-handed. The two conscientiously reached out and took one block each—the base welfare share... Then Qian Daofeng asked, "The rest... aren't you going to split them tonight?" "Nope. Not splitting them tonight, nor tomorrow." "Huh?" "It's all yours—both the source energy blocks and the dead iron. All of it," Han Qingyu said, pouring himself a cup of water with his back turned to them. "What?!" Qian Daofeng and Ao Yong gasped in unison, followed by a startled hiccup. "We don't charge our friends when we fight for them," Han Qingyu said casually, turning back with a smile. "Then what about the others...?" The word *friends* moved Ao Yong deeply, but what about the rest of the crew? Before he could even offer courtesies, the question slipped out. Qian Daofeng grabbed his arm, cutting him off before he could finish. When Ao Yong looked over, Qian Daofeng gave him a meaningful, intense look. He had finally understood, or realized... *There was no one else. This spacecraft was taken down by Ah Jing and his crew alone.* *Just them.* The moment that realization solidified, the two began to tremble—a mixture of excitement, tension, and an indescribable, uncontrollable shaking. This meant that Ah Jing and the others, who had been living alongside them all this time, likely hailed from an elite Huaxia squad—the kind of team where five or six people alone could take down an entire spacecraft. While fighters of that caliber might not sit at the very pinnacle of the pyramid in the City of Iniquity, they were guaranteed to be powerful and extraordinarily wealthy! "By the way, where's Doctor Zhe?" Wen Jifei asked offhandedly as he took the cup of water Han Qingyu handed him. Qian Daofeng and Ao Yong shook their heads blankly. "What, you didn't see her? Didn't she tell you that we'd gone?!" In truth, Han Qingyu and the other four hadn't intended to spring any surprise on them. Zhe Qiuhong had stayed behind at the house, and they had instructed her to let the two know. As for why they hadn't brought the two along, the reason was simple: Rusty Sister had wanted to try taking on a craft solo! The rest of them had merely gone along to keep watch... If Qian Daofeng and Ao Yong had witnessed that, it would have been far too outrageous—countless times more shocking than the current scene. Ever since getting her new armor, she hadn't participated in a single battle. Han Qingyu and the others at least took on missions with the band, but they couldn't bring her along either, and Iron Chick had been bored out of her mind. "We didn't see her," Ao Yong said. By now, he had pieced together what had happened; embarrassed, he wiped away his tears and tried to act as though there hadn't been any misunderstanding. "Doctor Zhe! Doctor Zhe!..." A bit anxious, Wen Jifei called out loudly several times. Finally, a soft "Hmm?" came in response. A door opened, and Zhe Qiuhong stepped out from the rearmost room. She was wearing a white lab coat and a surgical mask, holding a pair of shears in her left hand and a lizard in her right. It was a black lizard, but it had green legs grafted onto it. The others turned their heads to look at Wu Xu. "You can actually tolerate this, Xu'er?" Wen Jifei whispered. "I sure as hell couldn't!" He Tangtang piped up. "Torturing your relatives day in and day out like this..."