Sun Hang watched vehicle after vehicle bearing the Tianshu Tower insignia speed past in the opposite lane, then turned to look farther down the sidewalk. Soldiers clad in powered armor and mechanical exoskeletons were marching in formation, and the long-neglected paving stones cracked beneath the weight of their heavy armor. Civilians packed both sides of the road to watch the spectacle—perhaps only in a city that had enjoyed peace for so long, like Chunming City, could one see such a scene. In a border city like Tianfu City, civilians would have shut their doors and windows tight and stayed indoors at the first sight of such a deployment, terrified that the aftermath of battle might reach them.
Sun Hang let out a long breath and rolled up the window.
Over the next few days, Liu Su District in the Huangdao Layer would probably become one of the busiest places in the entire city.
"Could you... not dissect me?" Xue Yue suddenly asked softly from the back seat. "I'll be good. I can help you do things too... As long as it's something I can do, I'll do whatever you ask..."
"Who said anything about dissecting you?" Sun Hang glanced at her through the rearview mirror. The girl's face was pale, and her eyes were filled with anxiety. "Didn't I already promise you that I'd give you a legal identity and let you live like a normal person?"
"Before... before, I didn't know what kind of... thing I was..." Xue Yue's voice grew even quieter. "That Lin Lun said I was his only... only successful research result... Something about fruit seeds... I don't really understand it, but I feel like I'm supposed to be something very important..."
Xue Yue's sentence structure was muddled, and her voice was barely audible, but it