Zhao Chen and Annie walked out of the tea-restaurant, Annie following gingerly behind Zhao Chen.
Annie harbored no thought of fleeing; setting aside what would become of her if she did run, the slave-collar about her neck alone let its holder find her at any moment — and there was a shock-switch inside it besides.
Zhao Chen didn't dare walk too fast, for the moment he went at any normal pace, Annie behind him had to break into a trot, and the sight of her panting so left Zhao Chen truly afraid she'd faint and collapse from the strain.
"Can't the price come down a bit more? We bought a full hundred energy blocks — knock a little off!"
Zhao Chen heard a familiar voice; he turned his head to look.
There was Shen Bing, with a crewwoman, haggling with a merchant at a weapons-and-ammunition sales point in the port.
What she was buying was starship energy fuel — energy blocks.
For the sake of a few dozen star coins, Shen Bing was flatly wrangling with the man for a good long while.
Hard to believe that this girl haggling herself ragged with someone was the cold, aloof monitor of before.
"Miss, this is the price for energy blocks. It's this price across all of No. 3 System — take it or leave it." The merchant, badgered past patience, let his face go dark.
Shen Bing's expression was a touch complicated; she bit lightly at her lip, and in the end still drew out her imperial card and paid for the energy blocks.
"Xiao Li, wait here a moment. I'll go see about the ammunition the other ships need." Shen Bing walked off toward another set of crates.
Leaving that crewwoman in place to wait for the energy blocks to be handed over.
"You're Liu Lili of Class 9, if I recall."
The sudden voice behind her gave Liu Lili a start.
She looked around, tense and wary — and was surprised to find the one who'd come was, of all people, Zhao Chen. "Cadet Zhao Chen, how are you here?"
"I took the same escort task as you," Zhao Chen explained.
"Oh, that's wonderful! Then we can look out for one another; I'd been worried some mishap would befall us on this task," Liu Lili said happily.
The students at the academy had all thought poorly of Zhao Chen before, but because Zhao Chen had, at the end of last year, beaten Zhang Haoran—
—everyone's view of this once good-for-nothing baron had shifted enormously.
Strength was always a person's finest calling card.
"You're all buying military supplies?" Zhao Chen looked at the distant Shen Bing, off haggling with a merchant, wholly absorbed in it.
"That's right." Liu Lili nodded; she noticed the timid little girl behind Zhao Chen, but asked nothing further.
Nobles had their peculiar tastes.
"Why did you all take on this task?" Zhao Chen asked, curious.
Liu Lili hesitated, unsure whether she should say.
Zhao Chen at once flicked her five star coins. "It's rare to meet a classmate out here; call it my treating you to a drink."
Five star coins!
That was no mere drink — it was a month's food budget.
Liu Lili thought it over, decided it was no great secret, and simply fell to chatting with Zhao Chen.
And so Zhao Chen came to understand why Shen Bing was here.
The aim was, in a word: money!
Shen Bing's grandmother had had an old illness flare up before the new year; by now every organ had failed, and only her brain remained in a frozen state — but if she wasn't treated within half a year, death was certain.
And Shen Bing's grandmother's illness had to be treated with a top-grade medical pod, the cost as high as 100,000 star coins!
"If not for the academy rule that a ship redeemed with academy credits can't be sold, Shen Bing would likely have sold off her ships outright!" Liu Lili heaved a sigh. "And ordinary tasks simply can't amass so great a sum in a short time. So she had no choice but a military task. And on learning Shen Bing meant to take a military task this time, half her crew disagreed and chose to leave. Now our T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer is crewed at only half the standard posts; everyone's doing two or three jobs at once. The rest of us — either we pity Shen Bing, or we've been helped by Shen Bing or her parents before, and so we were willing to come along on this task."
"Shen Bing's grandmother is gravely ill — do Shen Bing's parents not see to it?" Zhao Chen asked.
"Shen Bing's parents passed long ago. Both were imperial-navy soldiers, and fell in a certain battle. But that battle… for some reason, the empire never issued any pension. It left only Shen Bing, her younger sister, and their aged grandmother. In their lifetime, Shen Bing's parents often helped others; my own family was once helped by theirs, and so… that's why I came along this time. And I take these five star coins not as selling Shen Bing out either… it's no great secret, after all, and with five star coins one can buy a great many portions of artificial synthetic food. Over this stretch, to save on expenses, Shen Bing has been eating just one meal a day — all to spare those pitiful few coins," Liu Lili said, pained.
So Shen Bing had a story like that behind her.
"Then why has she never once spoken of it before?" Zhao Chen said.
Liu Lili said, "That girl Shen Bing is a proud sort; she never shows her soft side before outsiders, shoulders everything herself. To be honest, I truly worry that one day she won't be able to shoulder it anymore."
Zhao Chen fell to thinking.
"Ah… I'll get these things back to the ship first. When the escort task comes, I'll trouble you to look out for us, Cadet Zhao Chen." Liu Lili seized the chance to draw the tie closer.
Having taken his leave of Liu Lili, Zhao Chen cast a glance at the class beauty, still locked in a war of words with a merchant over a few thousand rounds of close-in-gun ammunition.
He silently led Annie back to the T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship.
Walking into so great a ship, Annie shrank into herself at once, following gingerly behind Zhao Chen.
Lilith was waiting early at the hatch.
Seeing the alluring woman before her, Annie ducked her head lower still in self-abasement, and, not paying attention, walked straight into the halted Zhao Chen.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I… I didn't mean to." Annie hurried to apologize, tears already welling in her eyes.
"Lilith, take her to bathe first, then to the canteen to eat; let her get familiar with the ship's environment for now." Zhao Chen had Lilith settle Annie.
Both women, and of not-dissimilar origins — they should communicate easily enough.
"Understood." Lilith looked at the little girl before her and said with a smile, "I'll take you to bathe first, and change into clean clothes."
Grrrr, grrrr, grrrr.
Annie's belly growled again just then; Annie flushed red and hung her head.
Lilith looked at Annie with sympathy; it was for all the world as though she were seeing again her own people, who had once wandered everywhere at her side. "Then I'll take you to eat first, and we'll bathe after."
This time Annie nodded of her own accord — because there was food…
"I have some business to see to; she's in your hands." Zhao Chen handed Annie over to Lilith.
Lilith led Annie off toward the ship canteen.
When Annie walked into the ship canteen, she caught, to her surprise, a very, very fragrant smell — a smell finer than any she'd ever smelled.
"What would you like to eat?" Lilith asked, looking at Annie.
"I… anything's fine for me…" Annie didn't dare lift her head, still less look at the food and menu on the counter.
"Then I'll order what I like best." Lilith ordered two portions of fried rice, and led Annie to a clean seat to sit.
When Lilith sat, she found that Annie had, of all things, sat straight down on the floor beside the chair, arms wrapped around her knees, curled into a ball, her eyes never once leaving her own hole-worn shoes.
An ache rose in Lilith's heart; she picked Annie up outright and set her in the chair.
"Annie… Annie's body is dirty… it'll dirty… the chair…" Annie said in a fluster, trying to get down from the chair.
But Lilith looked her straight in the eye and said in earnest, "Annie, remember: here, you may sit in a chair! You needn't sit on the floor anymore, and no one will beat you or bully you! From this day on, this place is your home!"