Thinking she must not arouse suspicion, Liaison Officer Yang Tieyu deliberately avoided the building where she had once lived. By pointing and picking at random, she selected another vacant building and room to register her stay.
Her luck in picking, however, was rather poor. The room had previously housed a squad of male soldiers. The instant she opened the door, a lethal stench that had fermented in the room over a long period—thick, heavy, and suffocating—nearly blew her, a super combat power, straight backward out the door.
"Holy! Shit!"
Having lived inside sealed iron armor for so many years, Rusty Sister's sensitivity to smells was far keener than an ordinary person's. Overwhelmed by the assault, the curses she had picked up from being corrupted by that bunch in the old days slipped right out.
"Once you're registered, you can't just swap willy-nilly."
Uncle Zhang, who watched over the old barracks, had been on guard all along, trailing several meters behind her. As he spoke, he waved a hand in front of his nose, then turned with his hands behind his back and leisurely strolled away.
"Heh heh, finally got someone to help clean out these gas chambers."
The old man's sneaky, smug muttering drifted back from afar.
Stream Vanguard's attitude toward visitors from Azure had never been particularly welcoming. Liaison Officer Yang Tieyu might not know this, but Second Lieutenant Shen Yixiu knew it better than anyone. After all, the vast majority of the veteran soldiers here hailed from the City of Sin, and many among them had originally been driven to the brink by Azure before ending up there.
Only, this Uncle Zhang...
Back before he was wounded and retired—when Liaison Officer Yang was still Rusty Sister—he had been among those who loved charging alongside the iron suit the most. Wherever he had the power to protect her, he had shielded her with his very life.
"Things really do change once people move on. That's going too far, Old Zhang." "Still, fine. Just consider it me finally having my own hands and feet, coming back to do chores for you."
Pinching her nose, Liaison Officer Yang quietly opened the windows to air out the room. She then went outside and snapped off an armful of leaves, bringing them back and crushing them to use as an air freshener. After sweeping and tidying the room, she barely managed to settle in.
A few idlers came by to look in the meantime, but they merely gawked, traded a few gossipy remarks, and not a single one lifted a finger to help.
"Sigh, if only it were Rusty Sister returning, they'd definitely treat me so well, so very well."
The people of Stream Vanguard were, on the whole, neither kind nor gentle. But if there was anyone this bunch of violent thugs had ever unanimously treated with exceptional tenderness, doting on and cherishing with all their hearts, it was only that little Iron Chick who had lived stoutheartedly beneath iron armor since she was just ten years old.
She was the soft spot in the hearts of the entire legion (excluding a few particularly shameless and wicked bastards).
Thinking this, Liaison Officer Yang couldn't help feeling a tinge of regret. But then, imagining how stunned and frightened those few bastards would be before long, she felt it was all worth it.
...
Toward evening, the afterglow spilled down from the snow-capped mountains.
The newly arrived female liaison officer from Azure stepped out the door, wearing a white dress cinched with a slim brown leather belt as she strolled through the Stream Vanguard base.
The shoes on her feet were pure white as well. Her hair was still pulled back in a ponytail fastened with a hair clip, and the small gold bead bracelet on her wrist glittered brightly in the sunlight.
In truth, the Stream Vanguard base—a place admired and worshipped by all of humanity—often resembled a massive rural village. During break times, men and women gathered in clusters everywhere. Crouching or standing, they watched with utter apathy as she wandered around the base searching for the mess hall like a headless fly.
"Could she be an idiot?"
"Yeah, probably."
"Pretty handsome lookin' though, huh? Heard she's even a super."
"All flash..."
The base did not lack beautiful women on any normal day. The City of Sin had never had a shortage of fine-looking women, and Captain Milla could easily be classified into the breathtaking tier.
Moreover, their manners were more or less bold and uninhibited. Going swimming throughout the four seasons, walking there in swimsuits and walking back in swimsuits, was a common sight along the base roads that nobody batted an eye at.
"Speaking of which, how long has it been since we saw a woman wearing a dress in the base?"
"It's not 'how long'—there's never been one at all."
In an era of warfare for the survival of the human race, inside a combat legion's base, this attire that people could not fathom in the slightest... was actually nothing more than the pretty clothes and hair clip that a ten-year-old girl had once lost, and then spent more than a decade alone dreaming of wearing.
Now that the day had finally come when she could go from being a tin can back to being a girl, she had been in such a hurry to put them on—to wear them for the people she cared about most to see.
"Oh, finally found it."
When Yang Tieyu pushed the door open, that bunch of guys was already gathered inside the private room, and a full table of dishes had been served.
"Take a seat, Liaison Officer Yang."
"Come on, have a taste of Stream Vanguard's culinary skills."
Even as they spoke, food was already being shoveled into her bowl. One dish, two dishes, three dishes... It seemed even Wu Xu, without uttering a word, picked up a morsel with his chopsticks and dropped it in.
Why were they suddenly being so hospitable? It had only been a few days since Rusty Sister woke up; just as in the past, she had been nourished by source energy and had not eaten a single meal yet.
And right now: "I'm home, time to eat!"
Thinking this, Rusty Sister felt both deeply touched and full of emotion. Steadying her nerves, she solemnly picked up a piece of celery and, with full ceremony, slowly placed it into her mouth, biting down...
"Hiss—!"
Why was it so spicy? Why was it so salty? Why did it taste so strange—it was downright awful?!
"What's wrong? What's the matter, does the food not taste good?"
The crowd around the table hurriedly inquired with deep concern, while simultaneously picking up their chopsticks and snatching pieces of celery to eat.
"Tastes all right to me."
"Mm, pretty good."
"So, is the seasoning or preparation of our dishes not to Major General Yang's liking?"
"No, not at all." Liaison Officer Yang waved her hands in a hurry. Pondering for a moment, she said, "It's too delicious. It's so delicious that I hissed... to mean how amazing it is."
It must be my fault, she thought. Having not eaten anything for more than ten years, my sense of taste must have become too sensitive and bizarre.
"That's good, then Major General Yang, eat more."
"Right, try this one too."
"And this one."
"This one."
"Ah, okay." I'll have to get used to it sooner or later. Once I'm used to it, it'll taste good. Liaison Officer Yang gave herself a silent pep talk and picked up her chopsticks again...
"Gag! Delicious."
"Cough, cough, cough... This one's good too."
"Pant, pant, pant. This—this one is the best."
"Just a little spicy..."
Rusty Sister ate until tears were on the verge of spilling from her eyes.
At some point, the guys around the table had laid down their chopsticks. One by one, they watched her eat with rapt attention, faint glimmers of moisture welling up unbidden in their own eyes.
"Major General Yang must be joking. None of these dishes have chili peppers in them at all," the Little Prince remarked leisurely from the side, sipping his liquor with eyes narrowed.
"Really?! This flavor isn't spicy?! Good grief, has my taste memory gotten all jumbled up?!" Liaison Officer Yang was completely bewildered.
Yet, terrified of being exposed, she didn't dare question it further.
Wait, these dishes... don't seem quite right.
Though Rusty Sister hadn't eaten in the past, she had loved sitting beside the table watching them eat the most. Consequently, she still had some impression of the color, gloss, and plating produced by the chefs of the Stream Vanguard mess hall—it couldn't possibly be this terrible.
So, was it intentional? Are these bastards bullying people from Azure again? Not even letting a young girl off the hook? I'm clearly very pretty, all right?!
In her gloom at this moment, Rusty Sister didn't know that the dishes on the table were not actually a prank to bully her, nor were they cooked by the chefs.
The people who had cooked these dishes were Han Qingyu, Wen Jifei, Wu Xu, He Tangtang, the Little Prince, Yang Qingbai...
A culinary lineup that no one else in the entire world, except for her, could ever afford to hire.
To make this meal for her, this very lineup—which had slain two Daie, pounced on the great spike Puta'er, could clash head-on with Ne, and was profoundly tied to the future fate of mankind—had begun preparations three days ago, and spent most of this afternoon turning the kitchen completely upside down in frantic chaos.
Chapter 867