Even if anyone were gnashing their teeth inside, they would not take it this personally. Yet she just had to take it personally... Anyway, taking it personally did not cost points.
Anyone who heard that tone and saw that expression would ask: What's wrong with you?
But none of the three people in the car asked.
The flying car sped across the Yangtze River, drawing ever closer to Lin Xiaosu's hometown...
Suddenly, the interior of the flying car lit up faintly. A document seemed to arrive from the starry sky.
At the top of the document were the words "Lin Xiaosu's Application for Full Membership."
Below was a red annotation.
A large red X, followed by a line of red text: Upon review, this reservist does not meet the requirements for full membership.
A vivid red seal: Qianlong Review Committee.
Lin Xiaosu froze.
Number 88's expression darkened sharply.
Chang Ye's face also changed drastically. "Rejected? On what grounds?"
Her finger flicked lightly, tapping an attachment...
The attachment opened, revealing a criminal judgment...
Lin Yaojun had been sentenced to twelve years in prison for homicide on July 3, 2098, of the Great Xia calendar.
Lin Xiaosu was Lin Yaojun's grandson. According to Article 177 of the Qianlong Regulations, direct blood relatives within three generations of serious offenders could not be admitted into Qianlong.
Chang Ye spoke slowly. "When we brought him into 101, this record had already been checked eight times. No one had objected then, yet now it suddenly surfaces and cuts off his path just like that?"
Number 88's face was incomparably grim. "The term 'serious offender' in Article 177 generally refers to treason or espionage. It has never included negligent homicide!"
"I know about this too!" Xinyue sprang to her feet. "His grandfather was actually acting bravely for a just cause. Causing someone's death by mistake was purely an accident. His grandfather died because of it too, and this Lin Xiaose had not even been born when he died. Why should he be barred from joining Qianlong?... No, we have to appeal! We must appeal!"
Chang Ye pointed lightly at the screen ahead. "That is the problem. A red X represents a final ruling. No appeals are accepted!"
"I'll screw his eight fathers!" Xinyue slapped her forehead, then stared at Lin Xiaosu and let out a soft breath. "Lin Xiaose, you're even more wronged than I am."
The cabin was silent, a suffocating silence.
One minute, two minutes...
Lin Xiaosu slowly withdrew his gaze from the notice.
Before him were the faces of his three comrades.
Some furious, some sorrowful...
Lin Xiaosu smiled faintly...
His smile remained calm and gentle.
For a moment, the three comrades did not know what to say.
A dazzling genius, a Qianlong hero who had rendered outstanding service during the operation, receiving such a ruling just as he returned in triumph.
No one could accept it.
But they were Qianlong members. It was their duty, their discipline; they could not question their superiors! They did not even know how to comfort him.
Lin Xiaosu said softly, "I'm home. Could you let me off? Let me go home?"
The flying car abruptly came to a stop in midair.
Below it was the summit of Tower Mountain.
No one spoke inside the flying car.
Number 88's finger rested on the hover button, its tip trembling faintly.
He was home. He was going home...
And this time, he would officially leave Qianlong...
From this moment onward, this extraordinarily gifted comrade would no longer be their comrade.
Perhaps only those who had truly experienced comradeship could understand that feeling. It was absolutely not a pleasant one...
The flying car slowly descended. At last, it dropped below the treetops and came to a stop on a cliff.
The car door opened. Lin Xiaosu pressed his fingers to his waist. With a soft click, his Qianlong uniform came off. He placed it on the seat, rose, and stepped out of the flying car.
Chang Ye followed him all the way, walking along the mountain path.
This mountain path lay on the northern side of Tower Mountain. Through the treetops, the county town could vaguely be seen.
A mountain breeze blew over them, bringing a chill that seeped through their bodies.
"I'm sorry," Chang Ye's soft voice came.
"Sorry for what? For taking me to see the scenery of that forbidden realm?" Lin Xiaosu's voice was calm. Yes, after that notice appeared, he had remained calm throughout, unlike someone who had just undergone such wild ups and downs.
Chang Ye exhaled softly. "Subjectively, I never wanted this to happen. But objectively, I delayed your civil service exam. I turned your path upside down."
Lin Xiaosu smiled. "You're worried that I won't survive in this mundane world?"
"I'm absolutely not worried about that."
"Exactly. You should believe that, no matter when, I can live better than most people. So don't apologize. You have never wronged me."
"It's just that this matter..."
Lin Xiaosu lifted a hand lightly, stopping her. "Chang Ye, some things can only be done, not spoken of!"
Chang Ye drew a deep breath and stopped walking.
Lin Xiaosu stopped as well, standing at the cliff's edge.
Before them, mountain flowers bloomed in riotous splendor. It was as if they had walked side by side on a spring outing, but now the road was gone, and a sheer cliff lay ahead.
"Qianlong has its own standards for handling matters. If you were a Qianlong member, this operation would simply have been a mission, and you would have been awarded points. But now that you are not a Qianlong member, you should receive financial compensation." Chang Ye smiled faintly. "Three hundred thousand yuan has been transferred to your account!"
A soft chime sounded. Lin Xiaosu took out his phone, which displayed a transfer of 300,000 yuan.
Lin Xiaosu stared at the long string of zeros. "This is Qianlong's reward?"
"Of course it is!"
Lin Xiaosu smiled faintly. "Don't forget that I spent half a month in 101 too. I know that even if there is a reward, it has to go through a lengthy approval process. It could never come this quickly! This matter... shouldn't have reached the point of you paying out of your own pocket."
His finger lightly tapped the "Refund" button.
The 300,000 yuan was returned through the same channel.
He was still so sharp, so perceptive, so uncannily prescient.
Chang Ye sighed softly. "You should know that, as someone in Qianlong, I don't actually need money. But you do!"
"Oh, give it a rest. You don't need money? You gave me ten thousand yuan in case expenses, yet you were still hoping my mom would send you a one-in-ten-thousand red envelope..."
At that, Chang Ye burst out laughing.
The atmosphere shifted directly from tense and gloomy to relaxed.
"I'll go say goodbye to 88." Lin Xiaosu walked toward the other side of the cliff.
Number 88 stood at the cliff's edge, gazing at the sky. His expression was incomparably stern and grim, grimmer even than at any point during the operation.
"If you were still my instructor, I probably couldn't act so presumptuously before you. But now I can." Lin Xiaosu smiled faintly. "Tell me, handshake or hug?"
Number 88 slowly opened his arms, storms churning across his face.
After a light embrace, Lin Xiaosu strode away. A petite, delicate beauty stood at the roadside, looking somewhat lost...
"Hey, Xinyue. Congratulations!"
Xinyue stared at him with utter disbelief. "Congratulations for what?"
"If getting into Qianlong before the other were a competition between you and me, then you won without suspense. Isn't that worth congratulating?"
"What kind of bullshit is that? I do want to beat you, but I want to beat you with real skill! Not compete with you over... whose backstabber was more ruthless!" Xinyue sprang up. "I hate this kind of crooked practice most of all. I have a whole list of names in my little notebook, and now I'm adding another one: the person who conspired to drive you out of Qianlong. I'll carry their heads to your grave and pay my respects... Oh, no, burn incense..."
Lin Xiaosu made a tooth-aching expression. Visiting a grave and burning incense, were those not basically the same thing? She was charging full speed down the road of cursing him to death, without taking a single turn.
Xinyue seemed to realize her slip of the tongue as well. She hurriedly changed the subject, raising a hand. A green leaf appeared in her palm. Her fingernail scratched across it haphazardly, leaving behind a smiling face.
She handed it to Lin Xiaosu.
"Here!"
"What does this mean?"
"A smiley face! Can't you see it means encouragement?" Xinyue glared at him.
Lin Xiaosu looked at the leaf. "This is a Green Orchid leaf."
"Mm."
"You suddenly give me this leaf, and why do I get the same feeling as when you served me tea that day?"
"What do you mean?" Xinyue jumped again.
Serving him tea had meant poisoning him!
That had been true, but was she poisoning him today?
She, Xinyue, specialized in treating people who got carried away. How could she possibly kick someone while they were down?
"Green Orchid is a rare protected plant, right? If someone searched my house one day and found this thing, would I violate protection regulations and get hauled away by a bunch of officers to sew uniforms in prison?"
She was speechless!
He had actually found a reason, even if that reason was absurd beyond belief...
Xinyue rolled her eyes. "Relax. If anyone really gives you trouble, don't you still have me, a Qianlong Gold Medal? I'll abuse my power and let you go!"
Lin Xiaosu sighed in admiration. "No wonder you couldn't become a full member. Your sense of principle is pure rubber..."
"I'll screw your eight fathers! Will you die if you don't mention full membership? Always poking at the sore spot! Fight me before you leave!" Xinyue sprang up, and Lin Xiaosu fled in panic...
Before leaving, he still took the Green Orchid leaf Xinyue had given him...
"Did you notice?" Number 88's voice drifted into Chang Ye's ear. "He was deliberately creating a relaxed atmosphere."
"We could all see that," Chang Ye said. "But do you know? He... he also saw something!"
"What did he see?"
Chang Ye said, "He saw that there was a problem behind that notice!"
"Oh?" Number 88's brows snapped together.
Chang Ye said, "He said something: some things can only be done, not spoken of! When he said it, there was deeper meaning behind it..."
Lin Xiaosu had already descended from the mountaintop. Leaving the forest behind, he reached the winding mountain road. Following it downhill would take him directly to Qingyuan Temple.
The mountain breeze swept past, carrying the faint fragrance of orchids to his nose.
Above the drifting clouds, the flying car pierced deep into the clouds in a manner ordinary people would never see, marking the true end of his journey.
Yet Lin Xiaosu sat down in a pavilion on the mountain, a trace of gravity on his face.
Just as Number 88 had said, he had deliberately created a relaxed atmosphere. For those who had never served as soldiers, it was hard to understand what the word "comrade" truly meant. He had never been a soldier, but this operation had been the kind best suited to experiencing comradeship. By the end of the journey, he had gained three comrades.
Comrades parting, their paths diverging forever, feelings stirring in their hearts with nowhere to go.
Only a relaxed atmosphere could put them all at ease.
That was what Number 88 had seen.
And just as Chang Ye had said, Lin Xiaosu himself had seen certain things too.
For instance, this notice!
Or perhaps it should be called a ruling...
It ruled that he could not enter Qianlong because his grandfather's old case had triggered a prohibitive threshold in the Qianlong Regulations.
He knew about his grandfather's case.
It was true that his grandfather had accidentally injured someone and caused that person's death. Although that person had been a village tyrant who had committed every kind of evil, his grandfather had not controlled his strength when beating him and had killed him. That was indeed against the law, and a twelve-year sentence had been entirely legal.
There was nothing unjust about it.
In fact, in their village, it was not even considered particularly shameful. The villagers had even sighed in regret for his grandfather.
When Chang Ye had identified him as a seed candidate and reported him upward, he had gone through a full month of investigation and review. They had probably dug through the records of eight generations of his ancestors.
This case had clearly already passed review.
Everyone had believed that the crime of "negligently causing death" committed by his grandfather, who had died before Lin Xiaosu was even born, had no inevitable connection to whether Lin Xiaosu could fight for the country. That was why he had passed the review and been admitted into 101.
But now, because of this case that had already been reviewed, he had been denied entry into Qianlong.
Why?
Before you continue