T5 Galaxy-class Large Interstellar Industrial Base No. 1
In the long gallery, technicians one after another looked at those passing by, and as they gave their greeting, wore looks of surprise besides.
"Good day, Commander."
"Good day, Commander."
"Commander."
They were all looking toward the Commander's feet, where there was a strange little girl a meter high, with a brown rounded carapace upon her back that looked from afar like a schoolbag.
At this moment she was hauling with both hands, and with all her strength, a briefcase fully half her own height.
Her two short legs kept stepping forward, following hard upon Zhao Chen's pace.
Because her legs were short to begin with, for every step Zhao Chen took she needed two or three.
The picture of it, seen from a distance, was actually rather endearing.
They came outside an office whose door was not even shut.
From a good way off Zhao Chen could hear voices coming out of the office.
"Annie, look over this document; the department below needs it."
"Annie, see whether this production step can be cut down a little further, to save some production time."
"Annie, this is a thing the technical group below has worked out; if we produce by this, this component of the interstellar warship can save twenty percent of the raw material; verify whether it is right, and whether it will affect the interstellar warship."
"Annie……"
"Annie……"
Zhao Chen had not yet come in at the door when he saw a hand laid upon the doorframe, and thereafter a face like a ghost's appeared before him.
Annie, with a pair of black rings under her eyes, looked at Zhao Chen outside the door as though she were looking upon a savior.
Without a second word she took hold of Zhao Chen's leg outright. "Commander… I truly cannot go on with this work… boo-hoo-hoo… Nana… Nana… Nana… she is simply… simply… boo-hoo-hoo…"
Annie wore the look of one who had suffered a very great wrong.
Zhao Chen, with a face of utter confusion, looked at the aggrieved Annie, and looked again at Nana within the room.
What piece were these two sisters playing now?
"Speak, then, what is the matter?" Zhao Chen sat down in a chair and looked doubtfully at the two sisters.
"She sweats me!" Annie pointed in fury at her younger sister Nana.
Nana said blandly, "I do not."
"You say you do not? Every day I sleep less than five hours. And it has kept on for a month. Look at my black eyes! They are near becoming black holes!" Annie pointed at the rings under her eyes.
Less than five hours' sleep?
This was indeed somewhat much.
Zhao Chen's gaze went to Nana.
Nana raised a hand and displayed a report outright, and at the head of the report there was besides a little cartoon figure, which was Annie.
"Your average sleeping time over the past month has indeed been only five hours. But the time you have spent on average each day over the past month upon games, films, figurines and amusements is five hours as well."
"Then… then… then have I not worked fourteen hours besides! Commander! By our Owl Dragon's regulation, a soldier's working time may not exceed fifty hours a week! On average that is 7 hours a day! I am at near twice that already. And Nana still sweats me without let!" Annie said in her grievance.
Zhao Chen felt a little guilty; this seemed to have something to do with him as well; had it not been for the tasks he had given out, they could not have been so busy in this stretch of time.
"The Commander has given us work, and given us the ability and the chance to prove what we can do. Are we to stand here haggling over this so-called working time? Without the work the Commander has given us, there would be no such life as we have now! And besides, I own that you have some ten hours and more of working time each day. But you have not been short a single coin of your overtime pay, have you? Moreover, every work requirement I have set you, the figurines, the games, the merchandise and the amusement equipment I promised you. I have bought you every one, have I not? You have taken the things; and you will not do the business properly for me?" Nana set both hands upon her hips; at this moment she looked wholly like an elder sister scolding her younger.
Under this scolding, Annie's tongue was tied for the moment.
"You buy things for Annie out of your own salary?" Zhao Chen looked at Nana in surprise.
Nana nodded and said, as though it were nothing, "I do. The salary you give us is too much; the standard of the meals was very high to begin with, and we cannot use up so much salary at all. To spur my sister's zeal for work, I give her some rewards for her work tasks from time to time. At the beginning, my sister could finish the tasks I set within the time. But now she has begun by degrees to put them off."
A perfect employee!
To raise another employee's efficiency at her own charge, besides.
Zhao Chen felt his eyes grow somewhat hot.
And Annie at his side had nothing whatever left to say.
"Let it be; this matter shall not be pursued. Annie, you must take a little care next time as well. Amusement in due measure is well enough, but it must not crowd out too much of your rest." Zhao Chen played the peacemaker.
And so the matter was turned over.
"It falls out that it is the noon rest right now. Let us go and eat together," Zhao Chen proposed.
Nana looked with some reluctance at the documents and the work upon the desk.
But Annie shook her head without cease. "No, I am not going! I am not hungry."
Zhao Chen looked at Annie in some surprise; before this, at the mere hearing that he was standing a meal, this fellow was always the keenest of all.
How was it that this time she refused?
"Why?" Zhao Chen asked in his curiosity.
"Every time there is a meal, you are never up to any good," Annie muttered in a small voice.
Zhao Chen could not hold back a smile; he signed to the Panther-Girl behind him to bring up the briefcases, and at the same time took the briefcase from Hive Princess's hands beside him.
For the desk was too high, and this little girl would likely not be able to set it up.
Her hands empty all of a sudden, Hive Princess near enough pitched forward; but happily she steadied herself, and leaned against the wall gasping.
There was truly no knowing what was the matter with this body.
There were two consciousnesses; could there be two bodies besides?
That "Hive Princess" of before had no such poor bodily quality as this.
"Then let us not eat first. Here are three sets of T6 technology. I need you to arrange the production and building tasks as soon as may be." Zhao Chen opened the three briefcases one after another.
What was stored within them was the building data of the three T6 technologies, which Zhao Chen had edited long before.
"T6 again!" Upon hearing this, Nana's eyes gave out light.
And Annie at her side leaned aside, and propped herself helplessly against the wall.
She had not thought that, having dodged a meal with the Commander, she had yet not dodged these things.
"Among them the Hades' upgrade and refit is the first priority, and next the building work of the T6 Dyson Sphere. The choosing of the site for this is very important; we may talk it over in detail afterward……" Zhao Chen gave a brief account of it.
There was no knowing how long passed.
Zhao Chen's hem was tugged; he saw a resentful Annie.
"What is it?"
"Let us go and eat," Annie said dolefully.
"Didn't you say just now that you were not hungry and would not eat?" Zhao Chen asked back with a light laugh.
"I am hungry now, and I want to eat now!" Annie pouted.
Since there were some things that could not be dodged, then she would eat it back out of him!