The old man and the young made a full circuit of the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser, chatting a good deal along the way — half of it about technical questions concerning the T3 Flame Dragon-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer.
Zhao Chen could see Governor Chu's aim. Those technical questions were all highly professional; he was testing whether Zhao Chen was truly the developer of this ship technology. But to a man like Zhao Chen, gifted with the talent of a top-tier starship engineer, such questions were child's play.
What surprised Zhao Chen, though, was that Governor Chu asked little about this T3 Blizzard. He'd assumed the man would demand the technology for this T3 warship as well, yet he merely inquired about its build cost and a few simple matters.
Just as the two were about to reach the bridge, Zhao Chen put the question to him.
"You mean this T3 Blizzard? It is indeed very fine — but you said earlier its build cost is 13 million star coins, yes? That doesn't suit my interstellar fleet. And this old man knows a person mustn't be too greedy; that T3 Flame Dragon is quite enough," Governor Chu explained as they walked.
Zhao Chen soon grasped the reasoning. The T3 Blizzard's combat power was indeed astonishing, but its finest quality was still its high-intensity maneuverability. Governor Chu, however, commanded on the grand battlefield; his chief fighting was frontal, legion-grade set battles, and for now defense-oriented at that. By comparison, the T3 Flame Dragon — inferior in combat power to the T3 Blizzard, yet costing only 5 million star coins to build — actually suited the battlefield better! Another reason was that even the Chu family couldn't build T3 warships without limit. Those were resources by the shining ton! Better to mass-produce the T3 Flame Dragon and get it into the fleet first. As for the T3 Blizzard — Zhao Chen was already lashed to the Chu family's war-chariot, so what was there to worry about?
Walking onto the bridge, they found Chu Xuan, Lilith, and the others admiring the gifts the Princess had bestowed.
"Grandfather." Seeing her grandfather appear, Chu Xuan came over.
"We've talked about all there is to talk about, and we're nearly at the Star Gate. Xuan'er, it's time we went home," Governor Chu said.
"Ah… going back…" Chu Xuan looked rather crestfallen. She felt that staying by Zhao Chen's side was actually quite thrilling — she got to experience all manner of battles, even better than serving in the Imperial military!
"Young Zhao has given us the blueprints for a T3 warship. Don't you want to be the first to test-sail this T3 warship?" Governor Chu's words instantly kindled Chu Xuan's curiosity. The old man saw right through his granddaughter's little heart.
"Then let me see the two of you off." Zhao Chen once more escorted Governor Chu to the hangar where the shuttle was docked.
On the way, Zhao Chen took the idle moment to ask a question: how had Governor Chu's fleet come to the Azure Star Region without alerting the Azure Governor?
Governor Chu gave a mysterious little smile. "The Empire is especially fond of sending certain people down to serve under me to rack up military merit. There are spineless sorts like Huang Zhixiong among them, and some fine seedlings too. I don't mind cultivating the fine seedlings — and once they've been tempered a while in my fleet, naturally they can't be posted permanently to the frontier; they all go home and pull strings to arrange their own paths. In the Azure Star Region there's a student I once had under my discipline, and his fief happens to lie in a system adjacent to the Lantian Star System. My fleet first sailed to the Star Gate of his system, then relied on warp travel to hasten to the Lantian Star System. Because they're all T3 warships, the journey was much easier — less than a day. I reckoned the timing, and here we are, right on cue."
"But won't your student, having exposed his connection to you, be taken revenge on by the Azure Governor?" Zhao Chen asked.
Governor Chu gave a cold snort. "In the past, if he'd ferreted it out himself, he'd have made life difficult for the man. But now that my student stands openly and squarely on my side, that Blue Fatty won't make any move at all. There's no need for him to offend me over one minor lord. What's more — the truth is, a great many interstellar powers have you-within-me and me-within-you. Even in my own Chu River Star Region, there are eyes planted by Blue Fatty, by the royal house, and other powers."
Zhao Chen understood: this was an unspoken rule all these high-level players tacitly accepted.
"All right, this is far enough to see us off. I'll be waiting on that 'gift' you're preparing for me." Governor Chu laid a hand on Zhao Chen's shoulder, and without a sound bore down on him with a wave of oppressive force. Anyone else would likely have buckled on the instant. But Zhao Chen, reforged by three courses of super-soldier serum, of course feared nothing of the sort — he didn't so much as sway.
"Good, good." Governor Chu laughed heartily and rapped his fist against Zhao Chen's chest, more pleased with the boy than ever.
After their farewells, Chu Xuan boarded the shuttle with Governor Chu to return to the Chu family fleet.
Aboard the shuttle.
"Grandfather, are you going to give me a proper explanation now of what this whole grandson-in-law business is about?" Chu Xuan fixed her eyes on Governor Chu's beard.
"Cough, cough, cough…" Governor Chu at once shielded his beard. In all the world, Chu Xuan was likely the only one who could make him feel fear.
Governor Chu hid nothing, telling Chu Xuan the whole of his arrangement with Zhao Chen from start to finish — including the three-year pact for a T4 warship.
"He actually has the ability to develop a T4 warship? How could that be!" Chu Xuan was stunned speechless. That man, a few years younger than herself, had already reached into the domain of T4 warships.
"I didn't believe it at first either. But when I handed that T3 Flame Dragon to the three starship research institutes under me — what did those handsomely paid starship engineers, scientists, and researchers tell me? That the technical mastery of this T3 Flame Dragon utterly surpassed their own — that in all the Starlight Empire, there were scarcely a handful of people with such capability. They even asked me which master this was, which top-tier starship research institute's achievement. I didn't mention Zhao Chen." Governor Chu looked at Chu Xuan. "Xuan'er, now you understand why I arranged this grandson-in-law identity for him. I gave him three reasons — but in truth there's another. He has enormous potential, and I'm well pleased with the boy. Besides, you're no longer so young; your parents passed early, and I owe them a debt — I swore I would look after you well. When those princelings of the royal house wanted to marry you, I refused without a second word. That lot aren't worthy — and once you entered that circle, you could forget ever getting out again this life. I won't have you touching that darkness of mutual deceit and treachery. By comparison, the self-made Zhao Chen is far easier to keep in hand. Once this stretch of limelight has passed, you go find Zhao Chen again; and if the two of you truly suit each other, I could genuinely acknowledge him as my grandson-in-law! Use the Chu family's resources to cultivate him — make the false come true!"
"Grandfather, what are you saying!" Chu Xuan glared at her grandfather in shame and fury — but this time she made no threat to pluck his beard. From the look of it, she'd tacitly accepted the whole affair.
Chu Xuan consoled herself: this was only to protect Zhao Chen — after all, she owed him a few favors herself. It was just an identity; it wasn't as if she'd lose a piece of flesh over it.