"So you are our elder sister?" A pair of twin girls, blinking, looked at the woman in military uniform before them, their faces full of curiosity.
Chu Xuan looked at this pair of sisters she had never once met, and for the moment did not know what to say.
But this pair of girls seemed to be at ease with her from the first, as though of themselves.
They crowded round Chu Xuan with a heap of questions.
"Sister, you are so beautiful!"
"Sister, is this a military uniform you have on? How dashing! Is it our Chu family legion's uniform?"
"Sister, are you a fleet commander now? How many interstellar warships do you command?"
"Sister, are interstellar warships very big?"
"Is it very fast, going through the sea of stars in an interstellar warship?"
"Sister, how many interstellar warships have you?"
"Sister, that handsome elder brother, is he your boyfriend?"
"Or your husband? Have you any children yet?"
"Sister, how is it you came here? Were you caught by the Machine Race too?"
"Father and Mother have said ever since we were small that our homeland is not here, that we were caught by the Machine Race and brought here."
Chu Xuan was asked into a perfect daze by this heap of questions; and among them, besides, some very odd ones seemed to have slipped in.
"That will do; you two are not to keep pestering your sister. Go and wash your hands, and make ready to eat." Chu Xuan's mother rapped a hand upon each of the two sisters' heads.
Only then did the two sisters go off obediently to wash their hands.
"These two younger sisters of yours are of a particularly boisterous temper; from small they have run wild out of doors." Chu Xuan's mother looked at her two daughters, and within her eyes were doting and a trace of apology besides.
"They are indeed very unlike me when I was small." Chu Xuan thought back upon her own childhood.
Perhaps this is where a child grown up in the age of tilling upon a planet differs from her.
They have the more of nature's own disposition.
A very ordinary home-style meal; the materials of it were in the main all grown by Chu Wenjun himself in the farmland outside.
They may not match the materials within those Edens of Zhao Chen's, yet they made Zhao Chen eat with a warmed heart.
In the course of it, Chu Xuan's mother was very much interested in Zhao Chen, and asked him of his affairs without cease.
The Chu sisters too asked Zhao Chen without cease.
When they learned that Zhao Chen is now a Commander, with more than ten fleet legions under him, above 500,000 interstellar warships, and a flagship that is a T5 interstellar warship besides.
There were little stars within the Chu sisters' eyes as they looked at Zhao Chen.
"A T5 interstellar warship? Has the outside developed so fast as that? There are T5 interstellar warships now! To think that in our day we prized a single T4 Boreas-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship past everything!" Chu Wenjun sighed it out.
"The changes outside now are very great indeed. And they have all of them to do with this young fellow." Chu Changhe cast an eye at Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen gave a "heh heh" laugh, and did not explain at any length.
After a full meal,
the two Chu sisters pestered Chu Xuan with questions of this and that, and took Chu Xuan out to the fields besides to catch insects that give off light, and were wonderfully happy.
"What do you mean to do hereafter? The Machine Race has already handed over to our Owl Dragon the whole of this stretch of star systems where intelligent lives are settled. Hereafter we will arrange for people to make contact with those upon these planets; if they wish to return to their own homelands, we will arrange starships to send them back. If they wish to go on living here, we will keep the peace of this place too, and all shall be as before. Do you mean to go on living here with Sisi and Jiajia, or to return to the Chu house?" Zhao Chen inquired of Chu Wenjun and his wife as to their plans for the future.
Chu Changhe's eyes came over as well.
This question, that seems so simple, brought a difficulty into the faces of Chu Wenjun and his wife.
"How is this? You do not wish to go home?" Chu Changhe looked at his son and his son's wife in surprise.
Chu Xuan's mother looked at Chu Changhe with some apology. "Father, I too should like to go back and see my own father and mother. But… we have grown used to the life here…"
"Father, in the old days I longed for the sea of stars, to command interstellar warships upon far voyages, and go to war. But since living some years upon this planet, and since having Sisi and Jiajia, I feel… I like this kind of life better. I like this little courtyard; I like the farmland outside." Chu Wenjun looked with mingled feelings at the farmland far off, where the figures of the three Chu sisters could be seen running and darting this way and that.
Even Chu Xuan had taken off her uniform coat, and was playing very happily with this pair of younger sisters.
Chu Changhe, for his part, did not rebuke the couple. "You two do know how to enjoy the delights of family. Well, let it be. In any case there is nothing to do at present upon the Starlight Empire's side, nor in the Chu house. And if there is anything, there is this young fellow to back us. I find this little courtyard of yours very fine; have you a spare room?"
Zhao Chen, beside them, wore a wry smile: how is it this old gentleman seems to have fastened himself upon me as well.
"There is, there is, of course there is!" Chu Wenjun caught the meaning within his father's words, and was naturally willing to keep his father here for his old age.
"Only that Sisi and Jiajia are sixteen now, just at the age of being curious about everything outside. Before this there were limits set, and no help for it. But now, everything is restored to what it should be. If they wish to go out and look about them, I hope too that you two will not hold them back." Chu Changhe said it gravely.
The eyes of Chu Wenjun and his wife grew somewhat downcast.
Chu Xuan's mother squeezed out a smile. "That is only natural; when we were young, didn't we likewise long for the sea of stars? We have no right to stop them. If they wish to go out and see, then let them go out and see."
"Ma'am, be at ease. Outside, there will be myself and Chu Xuan to look after them. And if you wish to see them, I will have them come back to visit you at once," Zhao Chen said from beside them.
Chu Xuan's mother looked at Zhao Chen with the very eyes with which one looks at one's own son, and was exceedingly satisfied.
And thereafter, when the two Chu sisters had been asked their minds.
Sure enough, both sisters wished to go out and see.
They wish to learn more of interstellar knowledge, to pilot interstellar warships, nay to be like their eldest sister Chu Xuan and command a fleet at war across the sea of stars.
Looking at the two sisters as they were,
Chu Changhe and Chu Wenjun and his wife all looked at one another and smiled: perhaps this is the thing poured into the blood of their house of Chu.
And Zhao Chen and Chu Xuan made their arrangements for them besides.
They should go first to a Goddess Academy-class ship for further study, and decide their own futures by their own abilities and likings.
Early the next morning, Zhao Chen boarded the shuttle and made ready to leave.
He looked at Sisi and Jiajia, each with a bundle upon her back.
"In truth you might stay here longer and keep your grandfather company. As for the academy, you may go there at any time," Zhao Chen said, looking at the two sisters.
"Heh heh, we should like to get out and see a little sooner, too." Sisi put out her tongue.
At this age, one naturally can hardly wait to get out and see the world.
"Let them go. Cooped up sixteen years in this one small patch of ground, it is time they went and saw the world outside. But I warn you two. Out there, you must do as your sister and this elder brother say! If ever I learn that you have stirred up trouble, I shall fetch you straight back!" Chu Wenjun glared at this pair of daughters of his.
Sisi and Jiajia stood up straight and saluted, for all the world like soldiers. "Set your mind at rest, Father. We will assuredly do as our sister and our brother-in-law arrange, and stir up no trouble whatever!"
Chu Xuan's face went red in an instant, and she clapped her hands straight over these two sisters' mouths!