Chapter Sixteen: Falling into the Enemy’s Trap After All

All four of them were taken aback.
Grandfather?
It was actually the grandfather!

“What the hell, why did a grandfather show up this time?” Wang Xiangbing was startled and took a step back, sizing up Shang Lu from head to toe. “His combat power must be over 530,000, right?”

“Boss Ji, what kind of immortal have you summoned this time?” Li Wenxuan asked. “Comrade Shang Lu, may I ask your surname?”

Bai Shu tapped him on the shoulder. “His surname is Shang!”

“Comrade Grandfather, don’t just stand there. Come in, have a seat. In this office, you’re the most senior, so you’ll sit on the east side.”

Though the colleagues seemed strange, they were all very warm, which made Shang Lu feel somewhat flattered.

Once seated in the office, the four gathered around, each moving a stool closer. Their gazes made Shang Lu feel uneasy all over—not out of malice, but because their looks seemed to study him like a rare, endangered monkey... Shang Lu met their eyes one by one, carefully considering what to say, but they spoke first.

“Let’s welcome Comrade Shang Lu,” Wang Xiangbing applauded enthusiastically.

The others joined in the applause.

Amid the awkward clapping, Shang Lu didn’t know what to do except hold a stiff smile.

When the applause died down, Wang Xiangbing asked, “Comrade Shang Lu, did Boss Ji give you any instructions when you came over here?”

“Nothing special. He just told me to report today, to work hard, study diligently, get along well with colleagues, and lay a foundation for future work,” Shang Lu replied. “That was about it.”

The four exchanged looks, their expressions turning serious.

“Uncle, here’s another naive fool who’s been completely duped,” Li Wenxuan said, twisting his face with a mixture of seriousness and solemnity as he asked Shang Lu, “You’re the assigned technician, right? Still on probation?”

“No, I just signed the letter of intent today,” Shang Lu shook his head.

In unison, they all slapped their foreheads with a sharp “smack.”

Shang Lu was momentarily bewildered.

“What’s wrong?”

“What has Boss Ji told you since you arrived at the base?” Li Wenxuan asked.

“Uh...”

Before Shang Lu could answer, Zhang Zhong interrupted. This dark-skinned, sturdy man with a buzz cut spoke quickly, and his opening sentence stunned Shang Lu.

“Did he tell you that you’re the top talent he begged and waited a long time for? That he’s extremely satisfied with you, to the point where he’d never let you go, not even by execution? That from the moment he saw you, he knew you were a once-in-a-generation genius?”

Shang Lu looked straight at him and nodded.

“Did he also say that you’re extraordinarily talented and gifted, and that with time, you’ll become a great figure? That heroes always emerge in youth, and ambition isn’t about age? That you’ll become a key figure in Unit 151 and eventually take on the heavy responsibilities on his shoulders?” Bai Shu chimed in.

Shang Lu nodded slowly.

“Did he tell you that you’re connected to Hong Lian by blood? That looking after Hong Lian is your destined duty?”

Shang Lu was dumbfounded.

“He... he...”

“That’s right,” Wang Xiangbing nodded gravely. “He says that to everyone.”

“There are at least eight hundred relatives of Hong Lian in the Unit 110 workshop system,” Bai Shu explained. “All kinds of uncle, second uncle, seventh great-uncle, distant relatives with eight bends in the family tree. You could run into a Hong Lian fan club just going to the cafeteria.”

“Do you know what Boss Ji’s nickname is in the Unit 110 workshop system?” Zhang Zhong asked.

“Boss Ji the Pancake,” Li Wenxuan answered.

Shang Lu’s heart skipped a beat.

Life, like a fluffy little dog, suddenly bared its fangs in an instant, revealing its true nature and biting down on Shang Lu’s throat, leaving him speechless.

He vaguely felt in his heart that he had boarded a thief’s ship.

· · ·

“As the saying goes, since we’re here, we should settle in. The Operations Office is one of the better departments in the entire Unit 110 workshop system. Boss Ji takes good care of you. Compared to the Planning and the Mechanical Offices across the way, our greatest advantage is that it’s leisurely,” Wang Xiangbing introduced their department to Shang Lu. They had arranged his workstation on the east side of the left desk because he was the most senior—being Hong Lian’s grandfather.

“The Planning Office maintains the computing core’s sophisticated supercomputers and gravity gyroscopes, which is very complicated work. The Mechanical Office maintains the power core’s reactors and mechanical structures—it’s known in the workshop as dirty and exhausting work. But our Operations Office—”

“Mainly handles the control core, but the core’s main body is the pilot,” Bai Shu took over. “And the pilots are actually managed by a specialized medical team.”

“Our department’s official job is to maintain the giant machine pilot’s force feedback simulation system and neural interface system. All of us specialize in this,” Wang Xiangbing nodded. “But since the control core isn’t an independent module, the simulation system’s debugging is actually done by the Planning Office. The neural interface system is handled by the medical team. Our work basically just involves sitting in the office and monitoring parameters.”

“Is that our main job?” Shang Lu asked.

· · ·

“Mostly rehearsing the ceremony to welcome the next unlucky guy,” Wang Xiangbing said. “That’s what we spend most of our time doing.”

“What else?”

“Beyond that, you can do whatever you want. Life in the agency is like this—endless, dull, and boring,” Li Wenxuan said. “Survive for five years and then run.”

“Do we need to study Riemannian geometry and general relativity?” Shang Lu asked.

“Why bother learning that stuff?” The others furrowed their brows, puzzled by this out-of-place question.

Shang Lu said nothing, turning his head to look out the observation window at the workshop.

“Will our work involve frequent contact with the pilots?”

“Contact with pilots?” Wang Xiangbing shook his head blankly. “Probably only the medical team interacts with pilots regularly. We don’t, since our work is on two separate lines. Besides, the giant machine pilots are leaders, on the same level as the base commander, very elusive. They don’t even eat with us; the chances of meeting them are rare.”

“I’ve seen her several times,” Bai Shu said. “She’s a very pretty short-haired lady.”

Wang Xiangbing patted Shang Lu’s shoulder firmly and said, “That’s the situation in our department. It may not suit everyone, but at least the work intensity is light, and there’s no danger. If you don’t have huge ambitions or a drive to save humanity, I think this place is pretty good.”

“I just want to slack off,” Shang Lu said.

“Great minds think alike!” Wang Xiangbing gripped Shang Lu’s hand enthusiastically. “Brother, you’ve come to the right place! When it comes to slacking off, except for the Political Department’s Group Liaison Section, no one does it better than us! Congratulations on finding your team!”

Yes, all he wanted was to slack off, lying flat on the ground watching the fireworks rise.

Shang Lu told himself quietly.

This was the position and job he had dreamed of.

Yet, standing by the observation window, looking down on the entire workshop from above, a faint sorrow stirred within him. What was it that made him feel so joyless?

Between this office and the workshop beyond the window, Shang Lu could sense a thick, invisible barrier. On which side of this wall was the life he truly desired?

Never before had Shang Lu so clearly realized what made him resolute enough to stay here. But just as Wang Xiangbing said, for a long time after, he never saw Shen Jiang again.