Outside the office of a top chief engineer
The angel assistant was pacing back and forth out here, very anxious.
What she was anxious about was not the Angel Race.
It was the chief engineer.
She knew all about the Angel Race's rebellion.
As for every angel within the Owl Dragon, and indeed anyone within the Owl Dragon connected with the races in revolt.
Lilith had put out a notice at once that no one would be held to account by reason of race or blood.
Others, perhaps, were still somewhat uneasy.
But this angel, wholly given over to interstellar industry, was very simple about it.
Since the Owl Dragon's highest leadership had said so,
then it must be true.
So she need only get on with her work.
But now something had her very anxious.
For half an hour ago she had received an urgent order: the Owl Dragon Emperor had made an address to the nation.
She had meant to tell Chief Engineer Annie.
Only to find that Chief Engineer Annie was in the middle of a very important piece of research, had shut herself in her office, and had set a permission lock on it besides.
Without her own permission, no one could enter the office.
Even communications were blocked.
Which left her nothing to do but go round and round at the door, frantic.
Suddenly.
The angel assistant turned and bumped straight into something.
Before she could even look, she apologized at once: "Sorry, sorry…"
But when she raised her head and saw who stood before her, she was dumbfounded.
For this was a man!
Holy crap!
I've actually seen a man in the Owl Dragon.
No!
How could there possibly be a man in the Owl Dragon!
Wait, why does this man look so familiar…
So familiar!
He looks exactly like the Owl Dragon Emperor.
The angel assistant's high-powered brain seemed to have shorted out.
"Hello, you're Chief Engineer Annie's assistant?" Zhao Chen had seen the title on the badge at the angel engineer's chest.
An assistant was not to be taken lightly.
For before this, Zhao Chen had laid down a plan for training the next generation.
He had had the three chief engineers, Annie, Nana and Spider Queen Iris, along with some other outstanding engineers, train up engineers of real ability and talent,
keeping them close at their side, ideally.
So these chief engineers' assistants were the Owl Dragon's chief engineers of the future!
Only at his question did the angel assistant come to herself.
She saluted at once: "Yes! I'm Chief Engineer Annie's first assistant, of the Angel Race; my name is Nicole. G… g… greetings, Your Majesty."
"Don't be nervous; I've only come to look in. Chief Engineer Annie is inside?" Zhao Chen pointed past Nicole.
"She is, she is. But Chief Engineer Annie is doing research, and she's set a permission lock on the office; no one from outside…" While Nicole was still speaking.
Zhao Chen had already walked around her.
The next second, the office door that had been sealed opened, just like that.
Nicole's eyes went wide.
But very soon she understood.
Who was this?
This was the Owl Dragon Emperor!
The one who held the highest permissions in all the Owl Dragon Empire.
There was no place he could not enter.
On entering the office, Zhao Chen found it dim and something of a mess.
Besides countless holographic displays there were a great many instruments and pieces of equipment, even samples of raw materials and the like.
Anyone who did not know better would have taken it for a junk shop.
"Who is it! Didn't I say that without my permission no one was to come in!"
Perhaps it was the shaft of light that suddenly shone into the dim room.
That roused the little thing lying face down on a heap of stuff.
And made it poke its head up.
The next second, the face of that head's owner froze.
And then, before either of them could speak.
The two big bright eyes in that head began to spill tears she could not hold back.
They would not stop at all.
"So excited to see me? Even crying?" Zhao Chen walked up to Annie, grinning.
He had heard how Annie had been this half year.
He looked her up and down; under her assistants' watch she had at least been kept fed, and she had not grown thin.
But her spirit was nothing like it had been.
Now, though, the air he knew so well seemed to be waking in her, little by little.
The next second.
Annie jumped straight down from her chair, sat on the floor, wrapped her arms around Zhao Chen's leg and began to wail: "Waaah… waaah… you… you… where did you run off to… Do you know… do you know… do you know how I got through this half year… Waaah… I… I… I thought you were dead… You were alive… so why didn't you come back sooner… I… I… waaah…"
Annie could not get a word out through her sobs.
Faced with this, Zhao Chen had no idea for the moment what to do.
Zhao Chen looked somewhat awkwardly at the crowd of engineers gathered to watch at the door.
Why does this look like the scene when a scoundrel who abandoned his wife and child comes home?
"Um… um… could you stop crying for a moment?" Zhao Chen tried to pull Annie up off his leg.
But Annie now was like a sloth; however Zhao Chen tugged, he could not pull her off.
And she would not listen to a thing Zhao Chen said, only went on crying and crying.
And there was no telling how pitiful that crying was.
In the end, seeing that there was truly no calming her.
Zhao Chen thought of a way, and said: "Stop crying, and I'll take you out for something good to eat."
The crying stopped dead.
Annie raised her head and fixed him with her big bright eyes: "Then I want the best there is, the most expensive!"
"Fine, fine, order whatever you like." Zhao Chen did not know whether to laugh or cry.
This girl is exactly the same as ever.
"I have one more condition!" Something suddenly occurred to Annie, and she fixed Zhao Chen with a look as though he were some class enemy.
"What?"
"All the overtime I worked this half year, and the leave I gave up. You have to make it all up to me!" said Annie.
Zhao Chen could not help laughing, and rubbed at his chin. "But somebody, as I recall, worked that overtime of her own free will. And gave up that leave of her own free will too."
At that, Annie all at once looked terribly wronged, and little pearls began to roll down her cheeks one after another.
Zhao Chen did not tease the girl any further.
"All right, all right. You really have worked hard this while; I'll approve a few days' leave for you next, so you can have a good rest. Though making up the whole half year of leave might be a bit tricky. You know how much we have on right now."
Hearing him say this, Annie looked happy and let down at the same time.
"But that leave, and that overtime, can be turned into some other reward. For instance, once you retire, how about I give you a T6 Purple-Gold Eden-class Starship?" Zhao Chen said with a smile.
A Purple-Gold Eden-class Starship!
Annie's eyes seemed to blaze with golden light on the instant.
The T6 Purple-Gold Eden-class Starship was the most advanced Eden-type starship in the Owl Dragon Empire.
And the food it produced was all of the highest grade.
There were even some ingredients of very, very high value that went beyond the special grade, top-tier ingredients.
On the interstellar markets outside, they were delicacies gourmets fought each other for.
Someone at the top of the Owl Dragon like Annie could, to be sure, eat them a few times a month.
But to truly own such a paradise of food, where she could eat to her heart's content, that was Annie's real dream!
The Silver Eden and Golden Eden of the old days, Annie had long since stopped caring about.
"It's a deal!" Annie said, holding out one hand with the little finger crooked. "Pinky swear!"
Apart from building starships, this girl really is just like a little child in everything else.
"All right, pinky swear." Zhao Chen held out his hand and hooked little fingers with Annie.
"Pinky swear, hang if you break it, and never change as long as you live."
Just as Zhao Chen was about to let go, Annie held on tight, and the arm still wrapped around his leg gripped tighter still.
"You have to promise Annie one more thing. You're not allowed! You're not allowed to go and die, just like that!"
Zhao Chen was taken aback, and a warmth came into his eyes.
With his free hand he stroked Annie's head: "Silly child, how could I die? I'm this strong!"
"Promise me!" Annie looked at him stubbornly.
"All right, all right, I promise. Let's pinky swear." Zhao Chen hooked little fingers with Annie once more.
And this time Zhao Chen could feel how deadly serious Annie was.
Just as they finished the pinky swear, Chief Engineer Nana and Chief Engineer Spider Queen Iris arrived, having been sent word.
When Chief Engineer Nana saw her sister clinging to the Emperor's trouser leg, her face went black at once.
She stepped up and took her sister by the ear straight away: "What a spectacle! Sister, look at the state of you."
Seeing this familiar scene,
Zhao Chen felt warm inside.
"All right, all right. Since everyone's here, let's find somewhere and hold a meeting. We'll go over the Owl Dragon's industry; it's been more than half a year, after all, and there's a lot I need to catch up on." Zhao Chen looked at the three chief engineers.
Chief Engineer Nana and Chief Engineer Spider Queen Iris had no objection.
Chief Engineer Annie put her hand straight up: "Then I'll choose where we meet."
……
Chief Engineer Nana looked at the steaming split hot pot before her, then, black-faced, at her sister beside her, who had already begun ordering like mad: "You're holding the meeting here?"
Annie nodded and pointed all around: "Look how good this place is for a meeting. There's a big table. There's lots of room, it's a private room, and robots do all the serving. There's a ventilation system too, so there's no smell at all. And besides that, there's clear broth, mushroom broth, pickled-cabbage broth and beef-tallow broth. And besides hot pot you can order all sorts of things here; they even have ice cream."
Seeing Chief Engineer Nana's face grow darker and darker,
Zhao Chen had no doubt at all that if Annie went on like this much longer, Chief Engineer Nana would dunk Annie herself in the pot.
"This will do too. None of you has had a proper rest in a long while. Consider it my treat for all of you; order whatever you want." Zhao Chen stepped in at just the right moment to smooth things over.
And at that, two small hands were held out before Zhao Chen, with Annie's fawning smile behind them.
Zhao Chen understood perfectly well what the girl meant.
He took out his identity card.
"Thank you, boss. Boss is so generous." Annie's sweet voice rang out, and the next second, without the least ceremony, she paid the enormous bill for everything she had ordered.
Then, most reluctantly, she handed the identity card back to Zhao Chen.
All the while, every brain cell in Annie's head was at work: was there some way she could copy the salary account on the boss's identity card?
Then, whenever I go out shopping or eating, I could charge it to the boss's account.
Hee hee hee…
But a thing so risky, Annie only dared to daydream about.
"You two, is there anything you'd like to order?" Zhao Chen looked at Chief Engineer Nana and Spider Queen Iris.
Spider Queen Iris shook her head.
Chief Engineer Nana glanced at Annie, who was already rubbing her hands together like a warrior about to charge into battle.
She laughed helplessly: "Do you think there's any need for us to order?"
That was quite true.
Whenever you ate with Annie, there was really no need to order anything at all.
Very soon the smell of every kind of hot-pot ingredient filled the private room.
And through the steam, 'flashing blades' could be seen.
But there was only one wielder.
Annie, chopsticks in her right hand, spoon in her left, a straw in her mouth for her drink.
She did not waste a second.
Seeing this, Chief Engineer Nana could not help turning her face away.
As though to say: I am not related to that person by blood in the slightest.
So as not to let Annie get to her,
chief Engineer Nana decided to change the subject.
She took a few deep breaths and looked at Zhao Chen: "Your Majesty, on my side… mmph mmph…"
As Nana was speaking, a beef ball was stuffed into her mouth.
"Nana, eat this ball, quick. This ball is so good! It's made from the meat of just one fist-sized spot on the biggest cow in the whole universe! It's really delicious. I treated Sister Bull to it before."
Nana's words were stopped in her mouth; and it had to be said the beef ball did taste good.
But Nana glared crossly at her sister: "I can feed myself!"
Which at last made Annie, who was about to stuff a mutton ball into Nana's mouth next, stop what she was doing, and say plaintively: "I only wanted to look after you a bit, little sister. Papa and Mama said that with the two of us sisters out in the world, I should look after you."
Zhao Chen noticed that the veins on Chief Engineer Nana's arm were already standing out.
Zhao Chen had no doubt that Annie and Nana's parents had said something of the kind, but it was certainly not to Annie they had said it.
"All right. Annie, you go ahead and eat; the rest of us will talk about a few other things first," said Zhao Chen.
Annie pouted, a little let down, and muttered: "Talking about work in front of good food is an insult to good food!"
Nana and Zhao Chen naturally paid her no mind.
Nana began to tell Zhao Chen, one thing after another, how every kind of industry in the Owl Dragon Empire now stood, with Spider Queen Iris adding a word or two now and then.
So that Zhao Chen could see clearly, in the half year he had been gone,
to what point the Owl Dragon Empire's industry had come.