The Song Dynasty was badass

Gao Jian had thought Song Yaozu had only been delivering takeout for the past couple of weeks. When he asked what he had done before that, Yaozu answered:

"Sorting packages at Qian Logistics."

For a moment, Gao Jian was speechless.

Logistics work... how did that joke go again? Even Ultraman would start flashing his red warning light if he worked there.

Working during the day, then staying up all night at Qian Logistics. That was one hell of a life.

"How long did you do that?"

"Two years. I started before I joined the Space Administration." Song Yaozu sighed. "But I'm useless. After just two years, my back started giving out. Later, it hurt so badly I couldn't take it anymore, so I quit. Then I saw some videos about delivering takeout online and thought of giving it a try. I'd already bought the bike frame-six hundred yuan-and rented a battery. My monthly costs are twelve hundred, but I can still make quite a bit after expenses..."

As he spoke, Yaozu's eyes sparkled.

A faint gleam flashed in Gao Jian's eyes. He swept his gaze over Yaozu's slender waist, then withdrew his divine sense, feeling it was rather rude. But he had already seen everything clearly.

The wear on his lumbar discs was pretty severe.

"Did you work every night?"

"Not quite. I went home for the Lunar New Year."

Gao Jian fell silent.

When Director Dan Zhongde had introduced Song Yaozu to him, he had specifically emphasized that the boy was a little slow, but could handle hard work.

But this was taking hard work to an absurd extreme.

"What were your hours?"

"I got off work at six, went back to the dorm and slept until ten thirty, then started at eleven at night and finished at seven in the morning. Only about seven hours, I guess. Most of the time, I stood at the conveyor belt sorting packages. Occasionally, I helped unload shipments. When the forklifts couldn't keep up, I helped them out."

Helped the forklifts?

Gao Jian's expression turned strange.

Song Yaozu rubbed his lower back. "That was pretty much it. Three hundred and twenty yuan a night, over nine thousand a month. Add my salary from the administration, and I was making twenty thousand a month too, about the same as you. It was just my poor old back that couldn't take it. Ow."

Song Yaozu rubbed the small of his back through his delivery uniform, feeling a tingling numbness. He let out a long sigh. "Ah, I can't do it anymore. I actually quite liked working part-time in logistics... I'll focus on delivering takeout from now on. That's pretty comfortable too. Flexible hours, and I can sit down. Three thousand in half a month means six thousand a month. Once I know the routes and dare to take five orders at once, making ten thousand a month won't be a problem either. Most importantly, the new job is easier on my back."

Song Yaozu looked at Gao Jian with heavy dark circles around his eyes. "Wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, yes, absolutely."

Gao Jian thought for a moment, then said, "I'll suggest that the administration raise salaries sometime... A little over ten thousand a month really isn't much in the capital."

"Aw, it's plenty. You can't earn anywhere near that in my hometown's county seat." Whenever Song Yaozu got flustered, his words grew muddled, his Henan accent mixing with Mandarin.

"For someone with a master's from Tsinghua University, that really is a bit low."

"But I'm in an entry-level R&D position. Even someone as capable as you only gets twenty thousand," Song Yaozu said sheepishly. "Once I work my way up to team leader, I'll get twenty thousand too. Besides, we have plenty of benefits: six types of insurance, two funds, a secure public-sector position, and even housing subsidies... It's much better than those private companies."

That was true. The national Space Administration was a proper public-sector institution, and its benefits ranked among the best in the country's public sector, even better than those of the Tobacco Administration.

"It's fine. I'll just mention it in passing."

"I feel bad making you do that... Sorry for the trouble, Engineer Gao." Sitting in his chair, Song Yaozu dipped his head sharply toward Gao Jian, bowing with just his head.

Gao Jian waved a hand. "Go get some sleep on the sofa. I'll wake you at eight."

"Would that really be okay?" Song Yaozu was overwhelmed by the kindness.

"Go sleep. It'll be almost six by the time you get back to the dorm. You won't get much rest there."

"Okay. Thank you, Engineer Gao." Song Yaozu cleared the takeout containers off the table and carried them to the trash can by the door. Then he carefully removed his Kangaroo Helmet, undid his Kangaroo Work Uniform, folded them together, and set them aside. Only after making sure his clean white shirt wouldn't dirty the sofa did he cautiously sit down.

Oh, it's soft.

"I asked Director Dan for half a day off for you, so sleep a little longer..."

Gao Jian's voice cut off abruptly.

The young delivery worker before him was already fast asleep, sitting quietly on the sofa. His posture was almost ridiculously upright, like a cultivator meditating, and even his slight frame barely leaned against the backrest.

Gao Jian shook his head and pointed casually. An invisible current of air laid him flat on the sofa, and the blanket in the corner flew over him on its own.

The Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Bamboo Sword suddenly flew out and hovered near the sofa, examining the young female human before it from head to toe.

"Sword master, who is that...?"

"A colleague."

"Really?" The Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Bamboo Sword didn't believe him.

"You're just a big fat freeloader of a fish. Stop inventing drama for yourself."

After Gao Jian's retort, the spirit sword fell silent for a while, then flew back into the Storage Bag.

Gao Jian paid it no mind. It was just an Artificial Intelligence Large Model installed in a sword. He knew perfectly well that every response from the spirit sword resulted from learning the patterns of human language. Essentially, it just combined the context and generated the response that best fit.

Quite the drama queen, though.

At seven thirty that morning.

"We're screwed!" Director Dan slapped his thigh.

"What's wrong?" Deputy Director Bian asked in confusion beside him.

"See for yourself." Dan Zhongde held up his phone to show Bian Xia the WeChat conversation.

[Gao Jian: Director Dan, Researcher Song from R&D is here with me. He stayed up all night working his part-time job and will probably need to rest all morning. I'd like to request leave on his behalf.]

"What's going on? Didn't it fall through? How did they end up together anyway?" Deputy Director Bian asked hurriedly, astonished.

"How should I know?"

Bian Xia looked at Dan Zhongde seriously. "Dan, this is your responsibility. You played matchmaker. You need to answer for it."

"Even if they stripped me of this uniform, I couldn't shoulder that responsibility." Director Dan looked deeply apprehensive. "If I'd known, I never would have introduced them. The one you introduced would've been better. What was her name again?"

"You mean Shanshan? A year ago, the girl confessed to Gao Jian and got rejected. In a fit of anger, she quit her public-sector job and went to a private company. We lost touch ages ago... I'm telling you, Dan Zhongde, if nothing comes of these two, fine. But if they get together, you're done for. As far as I know, the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty don't get along."

"That's because the one you introduced didn't stick it out. Why did she have to leave? If she and Gao had gotten together, none of this would've happened!"

"A private company poached her with a high salary. How is that my fault? What can anyone do with the little we pay here? In the end, isn't it because you, the director, can't bring in corporate sponsorship?"

The two kept arguing.

Old Li was taking a stroll around the compound after breakfast. Seeing them argue, he immediately came over.

"What's going on? Why are two senior leaders arguing?"

Director Dan wasted no words and simply showed Old Li the chat log.

After learning what had happened, Old Li slapped his thigh. "Look at the mess you two have made! Those two factions have been fighting for years, tearing into each other at the general assembly, and you want to help arrange a marriage alliance? I might as well introduce my granddaughter to Gao!"

Oh, right. The old man had tried to set Gao up with his own granddaughter back then.

Setting aside the fact that Old Li's granddaughter was still in high school, it wasn't entirely out of the question.

Director Liu of the Foreign Affairs Department had also finished breakfast and was strolling leisurely over. Noticing the three men arguing, he immediately joined them.

"What's going on here?"

After hearing their explanation, Director Liu found their reactions utterly baffling.

"Look, it's not like I don't know about Gao Jian. Isn't his grandfather just a deputy provincial governor? Do you really need to shamelessly scramble to cozy up to him?"

"You don't know shit." Director Dan snorted, then lowered his voice.

"His grandfather is indeed only a deputy provincial governor... But he has another identity: the Junior Grand Secretary, the leader of the Ming Dynasty. Didn't you know?"

Director Liu's pupils contracted. He immediately caught on and clamped his mouth shut. Only after looking around did he ask in an extremely quiet voice, "Holy shit, is that true?"

"Think carefully. What's the Junior Grand Secretary's surname?"

"Holy..."

The Junior Grand Secretary's existence was hardly a secret to these leaders within the administration. In fact, as one of the leaders of the civil-service bloc, the Junior Grand Secretary had always wielded tremendous influence both within and outside the government, no less than the deputy secretary-general who had previously visited CNSA in person for an inspection. He was true political royalty.

But even Director Dan knew little of the specifics. After all, it wasn't an official position.

Still, they knew one thing clearly: Song Yaozu's parents were core members of the Song Dynasty faction. They had come out on the losing side of the fierce struggle between Song and Ming and were now essentially sitting idle at home, but their foundations remained intact.

Once Director Liu understood the whole story, he demanded, "Director Dan, didn't you run a background check before introducing them?"

Director Dan was filled with regret. "I thought Yaozu was just an ordinary kid. How could I have known it would turn out like this?"

Director Liu considered it. "If necessary, why don't we transfer Yaozu from R&D to our Foreign Affairs Department?"

"He's technical personnel. Your Foreign Affairs Department is all clerical personnel. It wouldn't work, it wouldn't work." Old Li shook his head. "Let's stop putting the poor youngster through all this. I'll assign Gao Jian more work from now on, keep him busy, and reduce the chances of those two meeting."

"That's all we can do for now." Director Dan sighed.

"Director Liu, why are you making a phone call?"

"My daughter just graduated this year..."

"Get lost, get lost, get lost."