The Company: Sitting on the sidelines feels pretty good

Jingxing crawled out of the tent and was met by a gust of cold wind that made him shiver.

Glenn glanced back at him. "Follow me."

"Got it." Jingxing picked up his suitcase and hurried after him.

As he followed Glenn, his "occupational habit" kicked in, and he began taking in his surroundings.

The camp was even larger than it had looked from the hillside. Rows of tents spread along the mountain's contours, with paths wide enough for two people to walk abreast between them. Wooden poles stood on either side of the paths, with simple numbered signs tied to them. Someone had clearly planned the layout.

The air carried a complicated mix of smells—coal smoke, earth, disinfectant, and food.

The mixture was unpleasant, and Jingxing's heart tightened. There hadn't been a war in his homeland, the Klimt Constitutional Republic, for a long time, and this was his first time at a battlefield.

Unable to hold back as he looked at the scenes around him, Jingxing asked, "How long have you been here?"

Glenn didn't look back. "A little over two months."

"Have you been here the whole time?"

"Yeah."

Jingxing tried another question. "Why did Miss Robin come here? Is Interastral Peace Entertainment planning to help the refugees here?"

Glenn paused. Several seconds passed before he answered quietly, "Because Miss Robin saw a report about this place. She'd just finished the promotional appearances for her new album, so she decided to come help the refugees here."

Jingxing was taken aback. "That's it?"

Glenn finally looked back at him. "For her, that's it."

Jingxing didn't know what to make of a superstar spending her vacation helping refugees on a planet in the middle of a civil war instead of taking time to rest.

"'The strong aid the weak, and the dying protect the living'?" he murmured to himself. "She really is a Halovian from the Family."

Although Yaoguang had warned him to stay away from Pathstriders of Harmony, the impression Jingxing had gotten from Robin was positive. He didn't quite understand why Yaoguang wanted him to stay away from someone like her.

The two continued on, passing a medical tent with more than a dozen people lined up outside.

Some clutched their arms, some had gauze wrapped around their foreheads, and an old man leaned against a wooden post, coughing nonstop.

A doctor's lowered voice came from inside—

"Next." "We're out of anti-inflammatory medicine." "Clean the wound, and then bear with it."

Jingxing instinctively looked inside. There were only two medical workers in the tent, one treating injuries and the other taking someone's temperature.

The medicine cabinet in the back was completely empty, a bleak sight.

Glenn followed his gaze and looked over, then curled his lip. "A lot fewer people in line today. Looks like they've accepted their fate."

Jingxing looked away. "Fewer? Accepted their fate?"

"There were dozens of people lined up here yesterday," Glenn said calmly. "Half of them died before they could make it through the night."

Jingxing turned his head away and bit his lip.

This wasn't the first time he had witnessed death, but seeing these innocent refugees die for lack of resources still made him feel awful.

What can I do for them? he asked himself.

After walking for a few more minutes, Glenn stopped in front of a dark blue tent. "You'll stay here."

He lifted the entrance flap. Inside, there were less than four square meters of space, with a moisture-proof sheet covering the ground and a wooden plank bed on top. Other than that, there was nothing.

But after witnessing the plight of the refugee camp, Jingxing was already quite satisfied with the accommodations. At least he wouldn't have to sleep in a forest with minefields tonight, right?

He had just started to unpack when Glenn gave him another instruction. "Someone will bring you water purification tablets and a kerosene lamp later. Use them sparingly."

"Thank you."

Glenn waved a hand. "Don't thank me. It was Miss Robin's decision. If it were up to me, I definitely wouldn't let you stay here."

Jingxing gave an awkward smile.

Glenn turned to leave, but after two steps, he stopped again. "Oh, right. One more thing."

His gaze swept over Jingxing's face before settling on the suitcase.

"If you're planning to send a message out later, I'd advise you to just let people know you're safe."

Jingxing put down the sleeping bag in his hands and straightened up. "What do you mean?"

"The less the outside world knows about the state of this planet, the better," Glenn said in a low voice. "If you spread word of the war here..."

He paused and jerked his thumb toward a tent somewhere behind him.

"There's an empty tent over there. It has an iron lock, and meals aren't included."

"Can I take that as a threat?" Jingxing asked in return.

Glenn thought the young man before him was more composed than he had expected, and his tone softened slightly. "You can take it as a friendly warning."

"Why doesn't the Company want news from here getting out?" Jingxing pressed. "Was it the Company that started the war?"

But he immediately dismissed his own theory. "But doesn't this place do business with the Company?"

Given the way the Company operated, it had no reason at all to stir up a civil war.

Glenn shrugged. "Do you know how this civil war started?"

"A conflict of interests?"

"That's the surface reason." Glenn leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms. "After this place was brought within the Company's trade network, the Company signed a long-term mineral procurement agreement with the planet's stable, legitimate government."

Jingxing's eyelid twitched. "So..."

"The two sides in the civil war are fighting over who gets to represent this planet in signing an agreement with the Company." The mockery in Glenn's smile was plain to see. "To put it bluntly, they're really fighting over who gets to be the Company's dog."

"Either way, whoever wins will end up signing a contract with the Company."

"So even if the Company chooses to sit on the sidelines, it won't let news from here leak out?" Jingxing understood everything. "That really is..."

Like being a whore and building a monument to chastity.

Even though he was the orphaned child of Company employees, with a large sum of insurance money from back then still sitting in his bank account, Jingxing still didn't like the way the Company did things.

"That's right. The Company doesn't intend to get involved. But there are different ways of 'not getting involved.'" Glenn lowered his voice. "The Company can brush off the outside world by saying the situation here is complicated and that we're assessing all sides. But if your drawings or writing spread news of what's happening here, the Company won't have any room left to maneuver. When that happens, they'll definitely step in and intervene in the civil war to salvage their reputation."

"And you, are you confident you can face being held accountable by the Company?" With that, Glenn gave Jingxing a meaningful pat on the shoulder. "So for your own good, and to keep from making things difficult for us, all right?"

Jingxing lowered his head and looked at the corner of a sketchbook sticking out of his suitcase. Charcoal marks showed through at the edges of its pages.

"I understand."

He could understand Glenn's good intentions, even if he didn't agree. But circumstances were stronger than he was, and without the ability to break the deadlock, he would behave himself for now.

"Good. Anyway, if you can do that, we'll have no trouble with each other. If you can't..." Glenn paused again. "That's all I have to say."

After leaving that final warning, Glenn turned and left. His footsteps gradually faded, blending into the evening clamor of the camp.