Yan Jie didn't want to say anything, so naturally, Le Yao didn't probe any further. Wasn't he just looking out for his friend? It should be fine to just let it be. However, at noon, on the day of their departure to Huaxia, Yan Jie took the initiative to find him.
After the meeting taking place inside the spaceship finished, Yan Jie called out to Le Yao in a low voice just as he exited the meeting room. As a member of the project team, Le Yao's role was to guide the construction team to ensure the construction happened on the right locations, and did not infringe on certain 'special' spots. As Commander-in-charge, Xu Yao was the first to leave his seat after the meeting ended and he walked out with Le Yao. The couple were in front with Yan Jie behind them.
"What's the matter, Yan Jie?" Le Yao asked.
"Mr Xiao Le, I have something to ask about talismans. Is it convenient right now?" Yan Jie added, "I'm in a hurry." Urgency was clearly written across his face.
"…Alright." Le Yao saw Yang Hengtian approach them and smiled, "Let's go."
"Huff~" Yan Jie sighed slightly. When he turned around, he saw that Xu Yao's cold gaze was on him and he felt his scalp tingle in response.
However, being scrutinized by Xu Yao was still better than having a meal with Yang Hengtian. He really didn't want to eat with him at all!
Le Yao also figured out that Yan Jie was avoiding someone. Not wanting to tear the facade, he asked Xu Yao instead, "Should we go back to our room or eat at the canteen?"
Xu Yao glanced at Yan Jie, and answered in an inhumane manner, completely disregarding Yan Jie's begging eyes, "The canteen."
Yan Jie: "…" Brother, are you doing it on purpose?! Haven't you always been eating privately these days?
Although it's my fault for disturbing your 'world for only two of us', isn't this a special case? Just this once, couldn't you have just followed the same pattern?
Xu Yao gave Yan Jie a look of 'ponder it slowly by yourself' and led Le Yao to the canteen.
Before long, Yang Hengtian also arrived and Xu Yao called out to him, "President Yang, want to join us?"
Yang Hengtian thought for a moment before agreeing and heading over. He was wearing a white shirt with beige slacks. He rarely wore casual clothes and, in contrast to his usually less appealing outfit, this appearance made him look rather charming. He sat down opposite Xu Yao, right next to Yan Jie.
Yan Jie: "…" It would have been better to go back to my room and eat instant noodles!
From the entire reconstruction project team, the first batch consisting of 162 people were flying to Huaxia this time. Half of them were staying in the Flying Wolf Division to work while the other half conducted the preliminary investigations. There were also people who would potentially be needed to travel back and forth between Huaxia and Tarot to confirm further project details. Whether it was the first or the second group in this batch of people, they were all very important people. However, Xu Yao only called out to Yang Hengtian to join them for dinner.
Yan Jie believed that Xu Yao was being deliberate in his actions, but if he got up and walked away, his intention of avoiding the other would become quite obvious. Previously, he had used the excuse of finding Le Yao, so it would be unreasonable if he suddenly went back to eat by himself.
After sitting down, Yang Hengtian deliberately didn't talk to Yan Jie, instead speaking directly with Xu Yao, "General Xu, are the two military bases of the Flying Wolf Division using the same network system?"
"Maybe yes, maybe no," replied Xu Yao. "I don't know much about this. Let Yan Jie explain it to you."
Yan Jie: "…" Damn this sly person, can't you be more understanding of the situation?
However, Yan Jie didn't dare to talk back to Xu Yao in this way, so after cursing him twice in his heart, he said, "It's not a set, but the equipment and infrastructure on both sides are the same. They can work independently or be combined. The network system housed in the Command Center is used as the Master system because the signal transmitter consumes too much energy otherwise. The secondary system communicates with the outside world through the selected main system. President Yang, what is it you want to do?"
Yang Hengtian said, "At the moment, you are using the same equipment as three years ago. Although it can still be used, its stability, energy-saving efficiency, and operating speed are incomparable to the latest equipment. I was wondering if I could use the old equipment for the civilian network and rebuild the military network with new equipment."
Because the construction of the military network involved military secrets, many of the issues were discussed in smaller groups; Yang Hengtian had not mentioned this suggestion in the meeting that had just taken place. He had already thought of this idea early on, when the reconstruction plan was just in its beginning stages, but he wasn't sure whether it was suitable or not, so he had not brought it up prior to this moment.
"After the establishment of the civilian network, the information transmission capacity between the two planets will surely increase day by day. Are you sure that the current equipment can handle the pressure?" asked Yan Jie.
"Of course, this can only be determined after looking at the situation in reality. At this stage, even if the data transmission volume is large, it won't be much of a problem for now. The real problem should come after Huaxia is reconstructed to a certain extent, when there'll be more people traveling between the two planets. At the very least, we should have a few years to prepare for it."
Yan Jie couldn't refute him and simply closed his mouth, saying nothing. In fact, he personally agreed with Yang Hengtian's point of view. It was just that it was too uncomfortable to eat and discuss matters with this person; he always had the urge to argue against his opinions.
In order to have more people visit Huaxia, as well as to evaluate the effects of reconstruction on its environment, Emperor Kunta first advocated for the development of its tourism industry, so as to allow for an easier acceptance by Tarot's citizens. In this way, more and more tourists would be attracted and would travel to Huaxia in the future. If one day, a problem erupted in Tarot and they needed to migrate, then it wouldn't be too difficult to adapt.
All in all, he hoped that someday the people would be able to treat both planets as their home. Both would be homes and not just shelters.
"By the way, General Xu, why haven't I seen Uncle Ming?" Yang Hengtian asked. Due to Yan Jie avoiding him from time to time back on Tarot, he would occasionally find himself talking to Uncle Ming instead. After all, apart from Yan Jie and Xu Yao, Uncle Ming was the person who knew the most about the Flying Wolf Division. Moreover, perhaps because Yan Jie and his younger brother were good classmates, Uncle Ming also treated him well.
Xu Yao replied, "Uncle Ming still has something to do, so he's not here with us. Do you need something from him?"
"It's nothing. I just wanted to play some chess with him to pass the time. Since he's not here, perhaps we can play next time," said Yang Hengtian, before standing up. At this time, their food had yet to be delivered.
"Mr Yang won't be eating with us?" Le Yao asked.
"No, lest someone gets indigestion." Yang Hengtian said, before shaking Yan Jie's shoulder lightly and walking to the other side of the canteen.
Yan Jie turned as stiff as a telephone pole while seated on his chair and was stared at by two pairs of eyes. He felt really uncomfortable.
"Brother Xu, Mr Xiao Le, why are you looking at me in such a way?"
"What the hell did you do to him? You always look so guilty when you see him." asked Xu Yao.
"Why can't it be that he was the one to do something to me instead?"
"With your temper, if he had done something to you which made you angry, you would have strongly disliked him from the start, but instead, you're acting just like a young woman avoiding her marriage interview. Why is that?"
Immediately afterwards, Yan Jie stood up stiffly, "Why is the intelligent chef so slow today? I'll go and see if the dishes are ready!"
Le Yao: "Pfft!"
Xu Yao shook his head and said, "He's avoiding it again."
"It seems that Yan Jie is going to be in hot water this time," said Le Yao. "But what's Uncle Ming doing? I haven't seen him since we got here."
"Uncle Ming isn't coming back with us. He is still in Xingdu. There are some things that I can't trust others to do, so I let Uncle Ming stay."
"What sort of things?" asked Le Yao.
Xu Yao evaded the question with a smile and said, "Here comes the food. Let's eat first."
Le Yao was really hungry, so he didn't ask again and instead started to think about other things. He had thought he wouldn't be involved in the project team. But then, not only was he added to the team, he was also given a very important task. His task was to help establish a Huaxia Museum. Being the person who knew the most about Chinese civilization and also being the one who was most likely to be in contact with the buried cultural relics, made him the best candidate for this task. But, in actuality, this gave Le Yao more pressure. He wasn't afraid of tiredness or hard work; he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to perform well enough.
The three little guys in his stomach also grew bigger day by day. He didn't know until when he would be able to continue helping and he also had his own worries. Many people on the Internet said that triplets were usually born prematurely, which made him a little uneasy because he couldn't figure out when the children would be born.
Seeing that Le Yao ate a little less than usual, Xu Yao asked him, "What's wrong? Suddenly, your mood dropped."
"It's alright. I want to go to the bathroom."
Xu Yao didn't ask much, carefully supporting him to stand and go to the bathroom. Because the canteen's restroom was crowded, they had to walk about 50 meters before reaching the restroom which was located further away from the canteen, but also had fewer people.
This bathroom was located at the rear end of the spaceship and had a utility room connected to it. Xu Yao wanted to take Le Yao back to the hover car hangar after solving this problem. Who would have thought that before they reached the bathroom, they would hear a familiar voice suddenly echo from the nearby utility room?
"Brother Yang, President Yang! I said, what do you want? Didn't I already apologize to you for everything I did at the party that year?" This was Yan Jie's voice.
"Yes." Yang Hengtian said slowly, "But I remember that I didn't accept your apology that time. You should have known that it was my first kiss. When you drank too much, you held my hand and threatened me by saying that if I didn't give you a kiss, you wouldn't work for the Yang Family. So I agreed and kissed you, but what about you? You didn't take responsibility after the kiss. Originally, I had mysophobia. You made me lose my first kiss, but didn't stay with the Yang Family either. Shouldn't you compensate me now?"
"You!" Yan Jie suddenly looked away awkwardly, and the thought of him pretending to be ignorant previously made him angry. "So, what are you going to do?"
"Didn't I tell you before, you kissed me, so I'll kiss you back to make things equal?"
"Impossible!" Yan Jie had a headache. The situation was already embarrassing enough as it was. If Yang Hengtian kissed him again, he would be even more embarrassed later, alright?! They would have to spend such a long amount of time with each other on this project, how will I be able to face you after you kiss me?! He had a hunch that Yang Hengtian's 'kiss' definitely would not just be a simple kiss.
"Then it seems that it can only be replaced with another form of compensation," said Yang Hengtian.
"What kind of compensation… Mmh mmh!"
Yan Jie's eyes widened before he could finish speaking. A domineering kiss fell on his lips. He was quite physically fit for a beta, but, in the end, the other side was an alpha, and a very good alpha at that, so he wasn't able to resist.
Yan Jie was left with only two words in his head: Sven scum!
…