After the Princess's royal household guard fleet departed, Zhao Chen said his farewells to Instructor Qin, Su Lan, and Xue Xiaoxiao; the three of them would return to Northstar Academy with the academy's fleet. Zhao Chen himself went back to the ship's bridge.
As he stepped onto the bridge, several gazes fell upon him. Among them, Zhao Wan'er stood with her arms folded, eyeing Zhao Chen through narrowed lids, then glancing at the faintly blushing Chu Xuan. "Big brother — do tell. Since when did I get myself a sister-in-law? And you've gone and become the Chu family's grandson-in-law besides? Not bad at all."
"Wan'er, I've told you! There must be some misunderstanding here!" Chu Xuan stamped her feet in agitation; just now she didn't even dare meet Zhao Chen's eyes. What on earth was that old man of hers trying to do?
"Governor Chu's arrangement caught me off guard too. But this relationship between Chu Xuan and me is most likely just a gimmick — something set up for the moment to guarantee my safety," Zhao Chen explained.
Zhao Wan'er looked at Zhao Chen, then at Chu Xuan, and for the time being accepted the explanation. "That's fair. As if the Chu family would ever want you for a grandson-in-law, big brother."
Chu Xuan, meanwhile, kept firing off comm requests to her grandfather — every one refused. Instead, having only just pulled clear of the starport and drawn near the Chu family fleet, the T3 Blizzard's bridge received a text message from the T4 Boreas-class Heavy Interstellar Battleship, signed off by Chu Changhe.
The content: Chu Changhe wished to pay a little visit to Zhao Chen's T3 Blizzard.
Governor Chu wanted to come aboard his T3 Blizzard? The arrangement rather caught Zhao Chen off guard. He hardly knew whether to say the old man had nerve enough — actually daring to board another man's ship — or whether it meant he'd already, utterly and completely, come to trust him.
Chu Xuan and Zhao Wan'er saw the message too, but the salutation it opened with — the way it addressed Zhao Chen — made Chu Xuan's cheeks redder still.
"Precious grandson-in-law"?
In her shame and fury, Chu Xuan could have gone right then and there and plucked that old fellow's beard clean out!
"Let's go and receive him," Zhao Chen said. The man was, after all, an Imperial Duke and a Star Region Governor, and willing to set risk aside to come aboard Zhao Chen's ship; going to receive him was only proper.
"Mm-hm." Zhao Wan'er nodded. Startled as she was by Zhao Chen's and Chu Xuan's stations, she was quite curious too about this fabled Marshal.
"Charlotte, have the ship keep pace with the Chu family fleet at a steady speed," Zhao Chen instructed.
Zhao Chen's T3 Blizzard and the Chu family fleet were, just then, both cruising at a steady pace toward the Lantian Star System's starport.
"Yes." Charlotte took the order.
Zhao Chen and the others then went to the ship's hangar to await Governor Chu's shuttle. Along the way, Zhao Wan'er asked about the royal fleet, and learned that her big brother had actually been raised to Imperial Viscount. But considering the matter of Zhao Chen rescuing the two academies' people, the honor was reasonable enough.
Soon a shuttle settled into the hangar. When its hatch opened, down came only an old man and a single officer serving as his bodyguard.
A full-fledged Five-Star Marshal, bringing only one guard? That was rather too self-assured.
"Grandson-in-law, here's a little meeting-gift I've brought you. All local specialties of the Chu River Star Region!" Governor Chu, the very picture of kindliness, carried a gift box; and he wore not a uniform of any kind but loose, casual clothes. At a glance, it truly gave off the air of one set of in-laws dropping in on another.
"M-meeting-gift my foot!" In her shame and fury, Chu Xuan charged straight up to her grandfather. "You… you explain this to me properly — what on earth is going on! This whole grand— grand-son-in-law business — what sort of trick are you playing at!"
"Aiya, my granddaughter's gone all bashful. Ever since you got to know my grandson-in-law, haven't you brought him up in front of me constantly — how fine he is this way, how fine that way? After you first met him, you went and hunted him down clear at the Arctic Fox starport. And after I hauled you back to the family, you insisted on going to Northstar Academy to find young Zhao — and when I wouldn't let you, you wept, then threw a fit, then threatened to hang yourself. Haah… a grown daughter can't be kept at home. And who'd have thought you'd go and sneak aboard the man's ship in secret! If not for young Zhao's great skill, do you realize that this trip of yours into the hive-race's deadly straits might well have left you feeding the bugs?" Wearing a stern face, Governor Chu rapped his knuckles on Chu Xuan's head.
At these words, Zhao Wan'er fixed Chu Xuan with a rather subtle look.
Chu Xuan — the tough girl who feared no bug on the battlefield — was, at this moment, blushing so hard she looked fit to bleed.
"You… what nonsense are you talking!" Chu Xuan stamped her feet in a fluster.
Governor Chu narrowed his eyes and said with a smile, "Are you telling me that what I just said isn't all true?"
Chu Xuan froze. What her grandfather had just said was indeed all true — but the trouble was, those things hadn't happened like that at all. Why did it turn utterly sour the moment it came out of her grandfather's mouth? And besides — her going to Northstar Academy was because he'd told her to make contact with Zhao Chen in the first place! How had it now become her throwing herself at Zhao Chen? Yet this was something Chu Xuan couldn't very well lay out in the open. It left her feeling like a mute who'd eaten goldthread[1] — the bitterness there, but no way to voice it.
"All right, all right. I'll explain the matter to you properly in a bit." Governor Chu patted his granddaughter's shoulder and murmured in her ear, "Would Grandpa ever do you harm?"
Shamed and furious as she was at her grandfather's behavior, Chu Xuan knew this much: her grandfather would absolutely never do anything to hurt her.
"If you don't have a reasonable explanation later, see if I don't pluck your beard clean out!" Chu Xuan said, putting on a ferocious air.
"Grand— young Zhao, might you show me around this legendary ship?" Governor Chu walked over to Zhao Chen with a smile. He'd been about to say "grandson-in-law" again, but at the sight of Chu Xuan's hand poised and ready, Governor Chu — for the sake of his precious beard — did the rare thing and backed down.
"This way, please." Zhao Chen invited Governor Chu along.
Governor Chu glanced with a smile at Zhao Wan'er and the others beside Zhao Chen. Zhao Chen understood the meaning at once. "Wan'er, why don't you all head up to the bridge first and take a look at what fine things the Princess gave me? If you like any of them, just take them and divide them up among yourselves." They couldn't be sold anyway; if the girls liked them, they were theirs.
"All right." Zhao Wan'er could see her brother meant to speak privately with this Governor Chu of Chu River, and tactfully withdrew.
"Xuan'er, take these Chu River local specialties I've brought and share them out among the children." Governor Chu handed the gift box in his hand to Chu Xuan.
Chu Xuan was no fool. She threw her grandfather a roll of the eyes. "I'll be waiting on that explanation of yours. And if I'm not satisfied… hmph, you and I aren't done!"
Once the group had left, only the bodyguard officer who'd come with Governor Chu remained beside Zhao Chen and the Governor. And that officer, most tactfully, kept a distance of several meters behind the two, leaving them ample private space.
"I'd like to ask: those things you did during the rescue of the two academies' people — were they done on purpose? And to what end?" Hands clasped behind his back, Governor Chu asked as they walked.
Zhao Chen didn't answer directly. Instead he asked in return, "And why did Governor Chu declare me your grandson-in-law? I wonder what purpose of yours lies behind that."