Safety First

The voyage from the star system near the Xianzhou Luofu to Punklorde had originally been planned to take only twelve system-hours.

However, they passed an Interastral Peace Corporation branch spaceport located on a desolate moon along the way.

Bai Heng contacted the branch staff and asked them to prepare some specialty pastries from the local star system as a gift for Ruan Mei.

What he had not expected was that his P40 rank within the Interastral Peace Corporation would put considerable pressure on the branch's management.

It was clearly only a temporary resupply stop, yet the spaceport management had prepared a welcoming banquet for him, along with staff specially arranged to greet him in two rows.

After Bai Heng spent some time explaining his purpose, a senior executive with a P34 rank dismissed the welcoming party and led Bai Heng to the branch's trade goods transit point.

Foods like pastries lost much of their flavor if they were not baked fresh on the spot.

Fortunately, the company branch in this star system had recruited top pastry chefs from various planets. Before long, all kinds of freshly baked pastries with local characteristics were ready, and Bai Heng selected several packages to bring aboard the starship.

Because of this minor detour, Bai Heng arrived at Punklorde a little later than expected.

Punklorde, 3:34 p.m.

The starship dock, seemingly written in symbols and code, successfully registered the data of Bai Heng's vessel.

Quite a few ships had visited this hacker planet in recent days.

Most of them had come to observe the academic exchange conference being held on Punklorde tomorrow.

The venue for the academic exchange conference was the neon city that gave the entire planet its name—Punklorde.

Bai Heng did not know how large this academic exchange conference was, but the fact that even Ruan Mei, a member of the Genius Society, had been invited offered a glimpse of its scale.

At the very least, in the eyes of such geniuses, this academic exchange conference was not some foolish game for mediocrities.

After leaving the airport, Bai Heng hailed a taxi by the roadside. Xiao Si carried the large and small bags of pastries and followed him into the car.

Some had been bought when they left the Xianzhou, while others were local specialties gifted by the Interastral Peace Corporation branch.

When they arrived on the planet, they had already noticed rain clouds gathering in the atmosphere. By the time their taxi drove onto the elevated highway, raindrops were falling alongside the skyscrapers that pierced the clouds, washing the city in a steady drizzle.

Bai Heng rested one hand against his cheek and observed Punklorde through the car window.

This was his first visit to Punklorde.

Yet he vaguely felt deeply familiar with the city, as though... he had once lived here as well.

Shrouded in rain and mist, the sky should have looked gray and gloomy, but beneath the dazzling neon lights, it continued to pulse and flicker, as if every color had turned into streams of data and merged with the city itself.

No wonder the records said that Punklorde was a planet where the boundary between day and night had long since blurred.

Through the narrow gap in the transparent window, Bai Heng felt the damp chill in the air and the city's own atmosphere.

Within this vast metropolis formed jointly by data networks and neon lights, the hard skyline vanished amid the glow. From afar, the high-rises of the business district looked like square cages woven from light, while a broad lake lay in the distance beside the elevated highway.

The rain grew heavier, and traffic surged across the overpass. Headlights merged into a river of light, while they were like fireflies trapped on that narrow, curved elevated road, able only to rush forward in search of an exit.

Bai Heng tasted the air of this planet—or perhaps the city itself—loneliness.

In Bai Heng's eyes, Punklorde resembled a lost forest.

The extreme prosperity of the data network had instead cut off communication between people. On Bai Heng's home planet, this was an old and familiar problem.

And Punklorde, the planet that gathered the finest hackers in the world, might have been the final evolution of that problem.

After leaving the elevated highway, the taxi drove directly to the Bololunzi Hotel in central Punklorde.

Scholars and notable figures from across star systems, including Ruan Mei, had all been arranged to stay at this hotel.

However, tomorrow's academic exchange conference on Punklorde would be conducted online through the interstellar internet.

Those invited did not necessarily need to come to Punklorde in person.

Therefore, Bai Heng guessed that they might have other purposes for coming here besides the academic exchange conference.

One system-hour later.

Bai Heng arrived beneath the hotel called Bololunzi.

Xiao Si held an umbrella for Bai Heng in his left hand and several bags of pastries in his right. Tilting his head up at the hotel towering into the clouds before him, he exclaimed,

"This hotel is way too huge, Brother Bai. When I went with you to Pillars of Creation last time, I don't think I saw any hotel this tall."

"That's because you haven't seen enough. One of the shareholders on the company board at Pillars of Creation once bought an uninhabited planet just to make his daughter happy and built the grandest complex of buildings in the entire universe on it. He even recreated the Tower of the Sky from a fairy tale at a one-to-one scale. If that tower hadn't collapsed, it would probably be the tallest building today." Bai Heng casually educated him as he patted his shoulder, signaling for him to stop standing there.

"Oh, oh." Xiao Si nodded blankly as he stepped forward, muttering, "There are really people that extravagantly wasteful?"

The two entered the hotel lobby. Bai Heng showed the electronic keycard Ruan Mei had given him on his phone and registered at the front desk.

After the front desk checked and verified Bai Heng's identity, a waiter came forward and led him by elevator to the sixty-seventh floor where Ruan Mei was staying.

After stepping out of the elevator, Bai Heng said to the waiter,

"No need to see us any farther."

"Yes, sir." The waiter bowed respectfully, then stood elegantly inside the elevator.

Only after Bai Heng and Xiao Si had walked some distance away did he slowly close the elevator doors.

The corridors of the Bololunzi Hotel were exceptionally spacious, wide enough for four waiters pushing dining carts to walk side by side.

Bai Heng looked at the electronic keycard in his hand and walked forward for nearly a hundred meters.

At last, he found Ruan Mei's room.

"Give me the pastries." Bai Heng said to Xiao Si beside him.

"Oh, okay."

Xiao Si handed the still-warm bags of pastries to Bai Heng, scratched his head, and said,

"Then, Brother Bai, I'll head down first and find an inn outside while it's still early."

"No rush. Say hello to your sister-in-law first." Bai Heng pressed the doorbell.

"Sister-in-law?" Bai Heng had not explained why they had come to Punklorde, so Xiao Si had assumed that Bai Heng was here to handle official business as well. "Brother Bai, is it... the one from Herta's Space Station last time?"

"Yes."

After the doorbell rang three times.

Gentle footsteps approached from inside the room.

Then the door opened, and a graceful figure appeared before Bai Heng.

Punklorde was in early spring, and winter's chill had yet to fade. It had rained today as well, so Ruan Mei wore a woolen snow coat.

Yet perhaps because, as a researcher in the field of life sciences, she could overcome the cold through other means, the woolen snow coat had an off-the-shoulder cutout design, revealing her snowy, delicate skin. Though the long coat covered her lower body, a section of her fair calf was still exposed, giving her a fresh and lovely air.

She raised her head and looked at Bai Heng with gentle, pale green eyes like still water, softly saying,

"You're here."

"Yes. I stopped to buy a few things on the way, so I was delayed." Bai Heng lifted the bags of pastries in his hand, then pointed at Xiao Si beside him as he introduced him. "This is my subordinate, the Astral Society's ace starship pilot."

Xiao Si grinned broadly and greeted her as Bai Heng had instructed,

"Hello, Sister-in-law!"

"Sister-in-law?" Ruan Mei looked at the red-haired youth beside her, but after only a moment, she accepted the form of address and said, "Hello. I'm Ruan Mei. May I ask how I should address you?"

Xiao Si scratched his head and said with a cheerful smile,

"You can just call me Xiao Si, Sister-in-law. Since we've already said hello, I'll be going now. I won't disturb you and Brother Bai."

With that, Xiao Si bade Bai Heng farewell as well, leaving them alone together.

"Be careful," Bai Heng reminded him.

"Okay, Brother Bai. You be careful too," Xiao Si replied as he looked back.

"What do I need to be caref—damn..." Bai Heng suddenly found himself speechless.

But after Xiao Si left, Bai Heng had nothing to avoid. He reached out and gently poked Ruan Mei's exposed, snow-white shoulder with a finger, asking,

"Aren't you cold?"

Ruan Mei seemed entirely unconcerned by the intimate gesture. She shook her head and said,

"No. Qing Tu prepared this outfit for me before I came. What do you think?"

"It suits you very well. If possible, I'd actually like a matching couple's version so we could wear them out together."

After hearing Bai Heng's words, a gentle smile appeared on Ruan Mei's usually cool face.

"Mhm. I'll contact Qing Tu when I get back. But before that, I need to perform a routine physical examination on you."