"What did you just call yourself? Older sister?!" The Han-style iron armor strode forward, throwing an arm around her neck from behind in a chokehold. "Since when did you become the older sister?"
Shen Yixiu raised an arm to block, parried him away, and spun around. Facing him, her iron neck snapped upward with a mechanical click as she said earnestly, "Of course I am! How long have I been an iron person? And how long have you?"
"..." The Han-style armor paused blankly. It actually sounded somewhat reasonable.
"Come on, call me Sister, Little Bucket," the Shen-style iron armor demanded, clasping both arms behind her back.
"Piss off."
...Suddenly, it felt like watching a robot cartoon. Lao Jian clicked his tongue twice. "You see that? Just like two robots falling in love. Have you ever seen Qingzi fool around with someone like this before?"
Obviously not. Wen Jifei was watching. Just as Captain Lao said, Han Qingyu had never been someone to engage in such childish banter—never.
At least back when Wen Jifei first got to know him, he was already a bit twisted. That was an age when everyone else was still folding origami cranes and passing secret notes in class... while he, with a deadpan face, silently pulled a snake out of a flower bed and hauled it off to the street to sell.
*Something's not right. Qingzi seems to have gotten gentle lately,* Wen Jifei thought as he watched. When that realization popped into his head, it gave him an eerie shudder.
Yet the facts truly seemed to bear it out.
Over the past few days, the clumsy warmth of this "abnormal Han Green Snake" had been directed not just at Rusty Sister and Milla, but even at Wu Xu... If Caixin hadn't returned to the Switzerland Front, Qingzi would probably be treating her the same way.
Moreover, he quietly accepted being used as a cigarette lighter, and even that last time when he claimed he was going to kill He Tangtang, he had actually roasted the lamb chops for him first.
"No, dating my ass," Wen Jifei broke off his train of thought. Guiding Captain Lao closer, he said, "You only see it like this because of Qingzi's current condition—he has to be handled with kid gloves. Otherwise, the two of them would've started pounding each other ages ago."
"Really?" Having reached them, Lao Jian tilted his head slightly, staring up at the Western knight-style iron armor for a dozen seconds or so. "Is that really you inside?"
"Yeah." The iron armor nodded with a click.
"So you really need to be handled with kid gloves right now?" Lao Jian asked.
"I even wear a seatbelt when riding in a car," Han Qingyu said.
Captain Lao's expression immediately soured, and he barked, "Then why the hell did you come?!"
"I... came to take a look," Han Qingyu said calmly. "Don't worry, Captain Lao. I've thought it through. As long as I can avoid fighting this time, I'll try my best not to..."
"If you know you can't fight, you shouldn't have come..." Lao Jian's eyes were full of worry. Glancing at the bloody battlefield before them, he instinctively plucked a cigarette from behind his ear and popped it into his mouth.
"Don't judge me by how I look, though. Truth is, right now is my peak combat strength," Han Qingyu finished.
"What?" Handled with kid gloves on one hand, yet at peak combat strength on the other? Captain Lao was completely bewildered. Dazed and astonished, he turned back and asked, "What did you just say?"
"Peak combat strength. In fact, just how strong my upper limit is, even I don't know." Han Qingyu stood there, smiling faintly beneath the armor—before realizing no one could see his smile anyway.
"What is all this nonsense?" Lao Jian racked his brain, instinctively taking a puff from the cigarette in his mouth. *Puff...* Wait, did I even light it yet?!
"What... what is this now?!" Captain Lao was utterly at a loss. After a moment's thought, he asked, "So what do you actually plan to do?"
"I don't know yet either. Can I just stick with you guys for now?" Han Qingyu asked.
"That's fine, but let's get one thing straight beforehand: this isn't protection duty. You're just tagging along."
Han Qingyu nodded. "Understood."
Afterward, when Captain Lao finally gave up on pondering and interrogating and headed back to rally his squad, Wen Jifei stood beside Han Qingyu, out of earshot from the others, and suddenly whispered, "Are you planning to hack Daie?"
"...Yeah. Since the old man isn't in good shape and there's really no other way, I plan to give it a shot." Nothing ever seemed to escape Plague Chicken. Han Qingyu admitted it, adding, "Right now, I truly feel I might be extremely strong."
"Oh." Giving a subdued reply, Wen Jifei finally understood why Qingzi had been acting so strange these past few days. The risk was twofold.
First, no matter how much Qingzi insisted he was strong right now, he was still very likely no match for Daie. Second, there were the hidden physical dangers Zhe Qiuhong had mentioned.
If he truly had to go up against Daie...
That battlefield seemed to be one where no one could stand beside him. Wen Jifei wrestled with the thought for a while before finally asking, "If you can't beat it, you know to run, right?"
"Naturally." Han Qingyu laughed beneath the iron armor.
Realizing Wen Jifei couldn't see his face, he had no choice but to add out loud, "Hahahahaha."
"Psycho."
...
For three hours, Stream Vanguard and the three Azure squads waited in place, yet not a single Great Spike craft appeared.
This was abnormal. On the current Oceania battlefield, the Great Spikes held absolute dominance; once stymied in one area, subsequent swarms would multiply until total destruction was achieved.
Because of this, Azure forces had always had to hit and run, hit and run...
"What's going on?" the captain of Squad 1426 asked, looking up at the sky. "How about we just head back first?" He glanced toward Stream Vanguard and added in a low voice, "We'll bring them along, too."
The 3rd Battalion had already begun moving ahead with the civilians. Because their group had been delayed, they were granted permission to operate independently, and by now they were drifting farther and farther from the main battalion.
"Sounds good." Lao Jian nodded and picked up the communicator, about to call the battalion to ask for their heading, when an external transmission came through first.
After listening to the Rejecters' bulletin, Lao Jian immediately understood why no Great Spike ships had come their way. Calling Wen Jifei over, he unfolded a map on the ground and pointed to a location on it.
"Here, Hughenden. General Bochen of the Mitli Front has assembled fifty thousand soldiers and is prepared to pull off something huge here. The Rejecters sent word instructing all units engaged in nearby combat to draw their Great Spikes over."
"Fighting has probably already broken out over there..."
They had neither civilians nor Great Spikes here and did not require assistance. Lao Jian looked up at Wen Jifei. "Are we going?"
"Of course we are. It'd be a damn shame to miss a spectacle like that," Wen Jifei replied bluntly.
"All right, then." Lao Jian stood resolutely and looked toward the other two captains. Under the present circumstances, everyone knew what kind of battlefield it would become once the Great Spikes were deliberately drawn in for a decisive confrontation.
"One condition, though: once we get there, you make sure to stay behind us," Wen Jifei said, suddenly smiling at them.
"..." Lao Jian wanted to protest, but he couldn't even muster a "By what right?"
"Fine," he muttered.
Soon, the convoy departed the scene.
They set out toward a decisive battleground of the Zenith War—Hughenden.
Chapter 673