"It's a family called something-Jiang. They also say they're from the Owl Dragon System," the captain added.
"The Jiang family?" The woman-soldier pilot seemed to recall the matter; she gave a cold snort and said, "The Jiang family? Heh — that woman was indeed once our lord's fiancée. But a year ago, when our Owl Dragon domain met with crisis, she and her family upped and left the Owl Dragon System, the whole clan of them. And now she dares call herself our lord's fiancée? Has she any shame at all."
Hearing the woman-soldier pilot's words, the captain had a sudden flash of understanding, and looked at these so-called Jiang family people with all the more disdain.
"I know how to handle it now; sorry to have troubled you." The captain cut the comm, gave a cold snort, and looked at these Jiang family people. "Your faces are thick enough, and no mistake. When your lord was in dire straits, off you scampered, happy as you pleased. And now that he's come to save your very lives, you remember you're a family of the Owl Dragon System? And you, woman — you remember you're that lord's fiancée? Shameless enough, truly. What I despise most of all is your wishy-washy sort — the kind that always sides with whoever's winning! Pah."
The captain's words were like so many knives stabbing into Jiang Shasha's chest; in her shame and mortification she wished for nothing so much as a crack in the ground to crawl into.
"I'll say it one last time: everyone, whatever your standing — if you want to go in, then do as I said just now!" the captain said without the least ceremony. And at the last he murmured besides, "If it weren't for your lord's magnanimity, had it been me, I'd long since have left this pack of white-eyed wolves to live or die as they might on this planet."
Facing this cold scorn and sarcasm, the Jiang family just now, though furious within their hearts, could only swallow it.
"Take off all the equipment; everyone, off the vehicles." Jiang Xiong, the family head, could only, with no choice, make ready to give up a part of the property. For at a time like this, saving one's life was, after all, what mattered most!
The Jiang family disembarked from the vehicles one by one, and after a round of inspection, walked into this evacuation point. One could plainly feel that, having learned of the Jiang family's "special identity," these soldiers assisting with the evacuation held a very poor attitude toward them.
"The lord must truly have been blind back then, to have fancied a fiancée like you."
"Just as well the engagement was broken off — it spares our lord the harm of a person like this."
Some of the women-soldiers pointed and jabbed at Jiang Shasha, not covering their words in the least.
Jiang Shasha shamefully draped a layer of black cloth over herself, covering her face, and quickened her steps. And so it was that the Jiang family entered the evacuation point.
This was a place resembling a large open-air stadium, and just now, inside it, a dark, dense mass of several hundred thousand people had already gathered. This was, perhaps, the reason too why no one was permitted to carry weapons or excess equipment in. With so many people, once anyone carried a weapon and a conflict erupted, the consequences would be too dreadful to contemplate. And were people to carry in other belongings besides, this place genuinely might not be able to hold this many.
The Jiang family at last came to an empty corner; after registering their biological information, they began to receive their numbers.
"Are we to draw an evacuation slot in the name of a family group?" Jiang Xiong, the family head, looked to his clansmen.
But these clansmen just now had eyes that dodged and evaded.
"That… I think we'd best draw one by one."
"Just so — didn't they say that with more people, the probability of being drawn is lower?"
"Let's group ourselves a few at a time."
The collateral branches of the Jiang family seemed deliberately to be drawing a line between themselves and Jiang Xiong and the rest. For who was to say whether that lord, on learning of the affair of Jiang Xiong, Jiang Shasha, and the rest being here, might trip them up, put them in tight shoes? And so, at a time like this, it was best to draw a clear line between themselves and that one family.
Jiang Xiong, the family head, said not a word more; he knew what this pack of people were thinking. In the end, he merely took his wife, his children, and his household as a single family unit, and obtained a number. Just now, all they could do was wait.
15 hours later, the planet-wide broadcast sounded.
"The first batch of evacuees, begin your preparations; the number of personnel to evacuate this time totals 5 million. The drawing of numbers begins; those whose numbers are drawn, please raise a hand high at the evacuation point to signify your identity."
This broadcast repeated without cease.
And at this moment, nearly everyone was staring at their own handheld terminal. In this era, basically everyone had a handheld terminal — it was merely a question of whether it was an advanced one or not. In a span of nearly a single minute, one after another, people received the evacuation message.
"Number KTY20371, you have been selected as one of the first batch of evacuees; please, within 10 minutes, make ready to evacuate according to the staff's instructions."
A man not far from the Jiang family raised his hand in excitement. "Me! It's me! I've been drawn!"
Within this evacuation point, several hundred people were selected one after another. And the staff had already, well in advance, been operating a hovering car, hovering above everyone's heads; having verified the identities of those lucky ones who'd been drawn, they began making ready to take them up to an interstellar transport that had arrived overhead — no one knew quite when.
In this situation, little by little, some people began to lose control of their emotions.
"Why isn't it me!"
"I won't accept this! I'm of noble standing — I ought to evacuate first!"
"I don't want to stay in this cursed place — I beg you, take me away!"
Facing these people who'd lost control of their emotions, the captain in charge of this evacuation point at once raised the laser pistol in his hand, aimed at the sky, and fired several shots; at the same time, the soldiers in charge of security took aim at those making the disturbance.
"Warning! If anyone riots and makes an uproar again, they will be expelled from the evacuation point at once. No entry permitted for three days!"
Faced with the warning, the vast majority began to quiet down. But there were also some madmen, some who even made ready to seize the weapons from the hands of the soldiers beside them. But the very next second, their bodies were pierced through by laser fire.
"A last reminder: make no threatening move whatsoever, or bear the consequences yourselves!" the captain said coldly.
Before long, this batch of evacuees smoothly reached the interstellar transport overhead. The Jiang family watched, with envy, those who left.
Jiang Ziwen, just now, was huddled in a corner, biting at his own finger, and said in terror, "Only 5 million people evacuated in one trip — and even under hive-race attack, this planet still has 1 billion and more. This… this simply can't be finished! Once the hive-race fleet attacks on a large scale, the people who remain will be abandoned outright!"
Jiang Xiong, the clan head, heaved a sigh; he'd seen this state of things too. To evacuate the whole planet's people was, basically, an impossible thing.
"Jiang Shasha! It's all your fault — if you hadn't humiliated Zhao Chen back then and gone and wrecked your relationship, then I'd be his brother-in-law now! Why would I still be here waiting bitterly on this whatever-it-is lottery!" Jiang Ziwen, his two eyes shot through with blood, glared at Jiang Shasha.
Jiang Shasha looked at her younger brother in astonishment.
Jiang Ziwen walked up to Jiang Shasha and said, in a demented frenzy, "Go beg Zhao Chen right now — kneel down before him, use every one of your means, and plead for his forgiveness! Tell him that so long as he's willing to get us out of here, you're willing to be his concubine — willing to be a bitch-dog, even, if it comes to it!"
Slap.
Jiang Shasha, in shame and fury, dealt her younger brother a slap. Just now her heart was near to collapsing; before, at the Northstar Academy, whatever any outsider said of her, she could bear it. But now, even her own family spoke of her so? And more than that — as her younger brother spoke these words, in the eyes of the father she revered there had, of all things, appeared a look of wavering!
Just now, she was disappointed, to the very depths, in her clan and her family.
……
At the same time, in some system, a fleet of noble interstellar transports evacuating in leisurely fashion was intercepted by three T3 Blizzards.
"Your interstellar transports have been requisitioned by our Owl Dragon Fleet; you have no right to protest. And should you resist, we will take the necessary means of force to bring your ships under control!"