Beginning

Chapter 3

Over the next few days, Song Qinglan never saw Ji Yushi.

According to Duan Wen, these past few days Ji Yushi had been attending class with the new students in the morning and would train alone in the personal training rooms in the afternoon. His entire daily schedule would be completely filled. Chief Wang had visited him once and gave him a lot of praise.

In the eyes of the leaders, these civilian workers probably seem like they’re working very hard no matter what they do.

Chief Wang had called Song Qinglan to give him a warning, “Xiao Ji is smart and diligent. When the time comes, you should work as a team. He also has a two-star rating and would reach one star after completing this mission. Don’t think that I don’t know about your intentions to treat him as a flower vase.”

Song Qinglan pretended to not understand, “How could that be?”

The training grounds have personalised training rooms and also a team-based simulated combat system.

Two days before the mission, everyone as usual gathered for team training. After Song Qinglan gathered everyone, he noticed that Ji Yushi was missing, “Old Duan, did you notify him?”

“I thought Li Chun told him yesterday.”

“Fuck, why would I tell him? I haven’t seen him the past few days at all!”

“Alright. He probably went to class again.”

“Tang Qi, you organise the training.”

Song Qinglan decided to personally find him lest Chief Wang blames it on him again.

Leaving the training grounds, Song Qinglan went directly to the new recruitment base.

As the youngest captain, the first combat class for these new students after entering Tianqiong was taught by Song Qinglan. Song Qinglan’s close combat skills managed to beat the students from prestigious schools and those with high self-esteem directly into submission so when his face appeared outside the window, those who were slacking off immediately tensed up.

The specially appointed instructor was still teaching at the front. After a brief glance, Song Qinglan very quickly found the person he was looking for.

Ji Yushi was sitting by the window.

“Space constitutes the universe we are in and time constitutes the universe we know.”

The instructor on stage manipulated a holographic image and drew a colourful arc-shaped line. It was unknown where it started, and the end also faded into nothingness.

Some students sighed with praise.

Ji Yushi had his head down and didn’t seem to have noticed this wonderful presentation.

“Time is like a flowing thread. It allows us to have a past and also a future.”

“The past cannot be changed ——- A person cannot travel back to the past and kill their ancestor. That is the ancestor paradox. Russian scientist Novikov also suggested the principle of self-consistency. It meant that even if people can go back to the past, they cannot change the course of history. Simple put, our present is the final outcome after countless changes.”

Light flickered in the air.

The instructor continued, “So what about the future? More than twenty years ago, our team invented Tianqiong. They discovered that there was more than one timeline.”

The instructor waved their hand and the arc of light in the air changed.

That light suddenly split, bursting into countless fibres that diverged in all directions.

“The Tianqiong’s powerful computing power can calculate countless futures stemming from our present time. With its existence, humanity for the first time became aware of the existence of parallel worlds. Over the past twenty years, various countries across the world have used Tianqiong and have used the Guardians from parallel worlds in the future to successfully prevent 1771 possible terrorist attacks, 542 riots, 6 wars as well as 3 large-scale natural disasters.

…………

As this was explained, various materials played on the screen.

Song Qinglan walked up to the window: “……….”

Was this the so-called ‘smart and diligent’?

The smart and diligent Ji Yushi was concentrating in class…….playing a black and white handheld console that was popular a century ago.

Under his skilful operation, the Tetris blocks quickly changed positions and fell into position at a very fast speed. Four rows….five rows…….and then six and seven rows. The score continued to skyrocket, and each block would land with precision every time, making it seem as if the game would never end.

It was undeniable that Ji Yushi is a master of Tetris. If you searched everywhere, you wouldn’t find another person who can play better than him.

Because he had his head lowered, Ji Yushi’s spine was slightly curved and his thin shoulder blades were faintly visible.

He looked very focused and his long lashes were lowered. His clean profile, long fingers and well-kept nails made it clear that he was someone who had never experienced any hardship.

Song Qinglan thought, perhaps this person never had any intentions to come here to suffer.

*

In the afternoon before the mission, everyone gathered for a meeting.

Like every meeting in the past, a map of their destination was displayed on a giant screen along with several markings on it.

The third command centre of the Tianqiong headquarters was in charge of organising the mission this time. The conference room was filled with thirty to forty people. Except for the seventh squad, the rest were all internal staff for the mission. The mission commander stood on stage explaining the mission and even Chief Wang was sitting in the audience.

“A month ago, Tianqiong reported that the population of Xijing people had demonstrated drastic changes in Star Era 1460. During this time period, there was a fluctuation of up to 3%.”

The commander enlarged the map and pointed at a flashing red spot.

“According to the report, after excluding natural disasters, bombing and other possible causes, Tianqiong concluded that this mission is likely related to a biochemical terrorist attack. The mission level is A.”

“Biochemical terrorist attack?”

“Haven’t we dealt with it once before?!”

“Easy as a pie!”

“I would like to make a request.” Song Qinglan sat in the corner of the room, the red spot on the map reflecting in his dark eyes, “After successfully completing this A-level mission, I would like to apply for a S-level mission.”

As soon as he said this, the conference room fell into discussion.

As everyone knew, one S-level mission is worth five A-level missions.

Having completed twelve A-level missions successfully, the seventh squad which have only formed two years ago rushed to the top of the charts like a dark horse. However, because they have not completed a S-level mission, they couldn’t squeeze into the top three and could only forever remain under them.

As such, the seventh squad have always been eager to complete a S-level mission.

Ji Yushi had heard about this.

Sitting with his teammates, he could clearly see Song Qinglan’s appearance. Arrogance, conceitedness and desire for victory was clearly expressed in Song Qinglan’s tone.

“Request accepted.” The commander paused and said to Song Qinglan, “After this mission, the command centre will re-evaluate based on your performance. Please be prepared to accept a S-level mission at any time.”

This was something Song Qinglan had heard many times.

He coldly sat there; his face expressionless.

It made people can’t help but suspect that this unruly new star would explode sooner or later after being forced to wait time and time again.

At the end of the meeting, there was still a small strategic meeting to be held. Song Qinglan then had a separate talk with Chief Wang and the other leaders for another two hours.

When he came out, his teammates had all changed into civilian clothes and were waiting for him.

“Call the newcomer.” Song Qinglan said offhandedly.

The whole squad was going to have hot pot the night before the mission. This was a custom of theirs to ensure that they ‘eat well before setting off’.

“Called him. Advisor Ji said he won’t go.”

“He’s still in the training room.”

Song Qinglan thought of the scene of that person playing Tetris in class and found it a little amusing.

He instructed everyone to head off first.

There were hundreds of private training rooms in the training ground and the seventh squad have their own fixed rooms. With Song Qinglan’s authority, it didn’t take much effort for him to find the person he was looking for.

Ji Yushi had really just finished his training.

He had just got off the simulator and he was still covered in sweat, even the neckline of his grey T-shirt was soaked. Two robotic arms came over, one handing him a towel and the other a bottle of water.

Ji Yushi received the water and was surprised to see Song Qinglan there, “Cap Song?”

Song Qinglan stood at the door for a while with his arms crossed as if waiting for a reasonable explanation.

“Why aren’t you going to the dinner party?”

Ji Yushi took a sip of water. His beautiful features still carried small beads of sweat.

They were clearly all men but Song Qinglan suddenly felt a little strange. It was as if……..appearing in this teammates training room was something on par to overstepping his boundaries.

Ji Yushi replied, “Sorry, I had a prior appointment for a call tonight.”

Song Qinglan, “You can’t take the call later?”

Ji Yushi picked up the towel to wipe off his sweat, “Too clingy. Will get angry.”

Those words had pointed something out, reminding Song Qinglan of a crucial point.

He raised his brow, “There’s someone at home?”

The robotic arm had already cleverly collected the towel and retracted away.

Another drop of sweat however began to roll down from Ji Yushi’s forehead. He subconsciously grabbed the hem of his shirt and use it to wipe off the sweat.

A firm waist and abdomen belonging to a young man was exposed. It was different from those of the Tianqiong’s Guardians: That waist was thin and soft, and the skin was dazzling white. As he moved, a round belly button would reveal itself every now and then by the waist of his pants.

Song Qinglan looked away.

“Cap Song, do you mind?” Ji Yushi clearly understood why he was feeling conflicted, but his words and actions were very natural, “Does the training room I have been in need to be disinfected?”

Regarding the severity of Song Qinglan’s homophobia, Ji Yushi had also heard about it.

It is said that he had been publicly pursued by someone of the same sex and because of this, even the offices where a gay have entered needed to be disinfected.

Song Qinglan didn’t react to the provocation.

Song Qinglan’s then spoke about his real purpose for coming to the training room. It however wasn’t spoken as harshly as how he had originally intended, “I just wanted to tell you that there are many people who want to easily clear an A-level mission by mixing into our squad and they soon realise that they had overestimated themselves because A-level missions are much more dangerous than they had imagined. If Advisor Ji still cares about the people around you, it’s not too late to back out now. I can arrange for your return to Ning City.”

Ji Yushi however acted like he didn’t hear the sarcasm in his words, “But for me, it’s too late to back out now.”

The atmosphere was tense.

Song Qinglan smiled, “Alright, then I only have one request.”

Ji Yushi looked very calm and only met Song Qinglan’s gaze.

Song Qinglan threw out a few words, “Obey the orders, lie down and win.” (KKnotes: Lie down and win basically means do nothing and profit off them without dragging them down)