After replying, Chi Yao was in a good mood.

Jing Xi was a rigid person who liked to live within rules and hated it most when rules were broken.

The more the other person hated it, the more he wanted to do it.

How fun it was to make the old ice block angry.

Upon returning to the Imperial Star, Deputy Jiang Feng was waiting at the tarmac. As soon as he saw his Major General get off, he went to greet him.

“Major General.”

Chi Yao glanced at the familiar yet strange military tarmac and said faintly, “Call me ‘Boss’.”

Jiang Feng’s eyes lit up. “Boss!”

He could finally call him that openly!

Awooooo!

Chi Yao: “Going to the military department will ruin my mood. Let’s go home.”

Jiang Feng: “Yes!”

The matter of beating up the middle-aged Major hadn’t been dealt with yet. Jing Xi didn’t need to report for duty now and could just rest at home.

In the car, Jiang Feng reported on the recent movements of the military department.

“For this matter, General Pei wants to suppress it, but General Zhao refuses. The two of them are almost at each other’s throats.”

Chi Yao had no interest in the power struggles between those old men.

“I wonder how my daughter is doing.”

Jiang Feng, who was about to continue reporting: “…”

Was this topic change a little too big?

They returned to Jing Xi’s small villa. It was no different from the last time he came. It was still lifeless.

Everything was neatly arranged, like a display home.

It was close to dinner time. Jiang Feng wanted to make him dinner before leaving, but he was refused.

Chi Yao: “Go and check who Li Bo’s stationed troops in Cetus have had close contact with.”

Jiang Feng: “How far back should I check?”

Chi Yao: “The earlier, the better.”

Jiang Feng looked troubled. “It might be difficult to check.”

Cetus was a star system outside of the Flying Dragon’s jurisdiction. Li Bo was a Major General, and many of his actions were highly classified.

“Don’t be so rigid.” Chi Yao’s gaze was full of disdain. “Whatever method you use is fine. I just want the results.”

Jiang Feng was full of questions and didn’t understand.

Chi Yao sneered, “The programmers of the Flying Dragon even dare to hack Extreme Shadow. Can’t they handle them?”

Jiang Feng’s eyes lit up. He agreed and left in a hurry.

Back in his hovercar, he pulled up the programmers’ group chat and sent an announcement.

[Deputy Jiang: All programmers, assemble at the base. We’re doing something big tonight!]

Almost immediately, the screen was filled with replies—

[Are we preparing to attack Extreme Shadow again? We can definitely break through the second layer of the system’s defense this time!]

[Always ready!]

[Awoo! Let’s go!]

[Deputy Jiang: We’re not attacking Extreme Shadow. We’re going to break into the network of the Cetus garrison tonight.]

The replies paused for two seconds and then came even faster.

[After all these years, is the boss finally going to deal with that bastard?!]

[I remember Li’s military team uses the AI Sekhmet, right?]

[…Oh, that’s not challenging at all. Its strength is far worse than Extreme Shadow’s AI, Xiao Lang.]

Jiang Feng: “…”

What had Extreme Shadow pushed these guys into?

Chi Yao opened the door and entered. He shouted toward Youyou’s room, “Daughter, your father is back. Come out and greet me.”

The house was quiet. Not a single soul was there.

Chi Yao: “YaoYao?”

Still no sound.

He walked from the front door to the backyard and finally saw the beautiful Maine Coon cat on the lawn in the corner of the backyard, along with a Ragdoll cat that was being all lovey-dovey with it.

Where did this stray cat come from, daring to flirt with his daughter?

Chi Yao rolled up his sleeves and strode over.

Hearing the footsteps, Youyou looked up, glanced at him, and continued to pretend to be a cold and aloof lady, ignoring the Ragdoll cat but refusing to leave.

The Ragdoll rolled around it, unable to get any attention.

Chi Yao picked up the stray cat, held it in front of his eyes, and pointed at Youyou, saying seriously, “It, is mine. You, get lost.”

YaoYao raised her head demurely and saw her owner throwing the Ragdoll cat out of the iron fence like a piece of rag.

YaoYao quickly ran to the corner of the wall and looked out eagerly.

But the Ragdoll cat was scared by Chi Yao and had already run out of sight.

Youyou turned to look at Chi Yao, showing her claws. “Meow!”

Chi Yao pretended not to see and picked up his cat daughter, returning to the room. He petted her and sighed.

“Sons grow up so fast. Daughters are better. They don’t grow up—”

YaoYao seemed to understand. She used his clothes as a scratching post and gave Chi Yao a back kick before escaping his clutches.

Chi Yao looked at the fiery red marks on the back of his hand. “…”

She was just a little fierce.

The next afternoon, Jiang Feng brought some intelligence and new recruit application forms.

Jiang Feng walked out of the kitchen in an apron and put the cooked lunch on the table.

“The higher-ups have notified the military team that you have to go to the military department for an investigation tomorrow. Have you received the notice?”

Chi Yao was holding the cat, sitting at the table with sleepy eyes, and replied lazily, “Yes.”

Jing Xi’s routine and his almost didn’t overlap.

The time Jing Xi went to bed was when his mind was most active.

When he was about to fall asleep, Jing Xi would be getting up in less than two hours.

After waking up on time in the morning, he went back to sleep by listening to children’s stories.

He didn’t know where his rival bought this bed, but it was especially comfortable to sleep in.

Chi Yao ate his sandwich, seriously thinking about the possibility of taking Jing Xi’s bed with him next time he switched back.

Seeing the boss looking at the new recruit application forms, Jiang Feng stood respectfully at the table.

“The number of new recruits who filled out the Flying Dragon as their first choice this year is more than double that of last year. We’re ranked first among all military teams.”

Chi Yao: “You can handle these small matters yourself.”

Jiang Feng: “In previous years, you would personally review them, so I brought them to you.”

Chi Yao lost interest after looking at a few pages.

They all said grand things about themselves in the introductions and then added some praises for the country. They were all from the same template.

Very fake.

He quickly skimmed through two pages, considering the task complete.

Just as he was about to close it, he suddenly saw a different one.

[I think star pirates are very cute and should not be suppressed blindly.]

Seeing this sentence, Chi Yao raised his eyebrows and became a little interested.

[As soldiers, we should understand the situation this group faces and truly help them return to normal life instead of blindly suppressing them, which leads to their living environment being repeatedly compressed, causing them to do more extreme things… I highly agree with Major General Jing’s philosophy and want to join the Flying Dragon to see the day when star pirates completely reform.]

Chi Yao: “…”

It was impossible for them to reform.

He raised his eyes and glanced at the information of the new recruit on this application form.

Cygnus, Chu Xiao.

It was that honest kid with decent sniping skills.

“This one is hired. You can decide on the rest.” Chi Yao’s long finger swiped, and Chu Xiao’s application form was sent to Jiang Feng’s terminal.

Who was so lucky to be chosen by the boss at a glance?

Jiang Feng was very curious. He couldn’t help but swipe it open. When he saw the lengthy introduction about how good star pirates were, he: “…”

This was probably an idiot. Sending in an application like this was asking to be sent back to his hometown as a resident soldier, right?

The boss actually accepted him?

There were already a lot of blunt people in the military team, and now another one who wasn’t very smart.

“Meow!”

Halfway through his meal, the cat in his arms started to struggle again.

Chi Yao raised his chin. “Get another chew toy.”

Jiang Feng immediately handed it over.

YaoYao gnawed on the chew toy, and her ferocious expression calmed down again.

“I wish your owner was this easy to coax,” Chi Yao scoffed and continued to eat.

Jiang Feng, who unintentionally heard this: “…”

Why would the boss need to coax himself?

New recruit camp.

Chu Xiao and a group of his fellow recruits finished their drills and sat down in a corner of the big training ground to rest.

“I heard that Major General Jing was set up,” a Beta with a hooked nose said.

Chu Xiao’s hand holding the water bottle paused. “He’s a Major General. Who can set him up?”

The hooked-nosed Beta leaned in and pointed to the sky. “He has a bunch of people above him.”

Another Alpha with slanting eyes said, “I also heard from a fellow villager. The day we came back, didn’t Major General Jing beat up a middle-aged Major at the tarmac? Now he’s been suspended pending investigation.”

“Why did he beat him?” someone asked.

Chu Xiao: “How are you all so well-informed? Have they figured it out yet?”

The hooked-nosed Beta who spoke first shook his head, his eyes scanning the surroundings. He said in a low voice, “But I heard from people in the camp next door that that Major is not a good person. He would grope them during new recruit training, and some people were even called to his tent several times in the middle of the night.”

“Damn it!” The slanting-eyed Alpha cursed. “A person like him is worthy of being an instructor?! We came here to be soldiers, not to be sold!”

Chu Xiao’s face was grim. “It’s people like him who are corrupting the military. Not even star pirates would do something so low-class.”

The hooked-nosed Beta glanced at him. “Then you’re underestimating star pirates. They do all sorts of evil things. What can’t they do? The internet says they often have orgies.”

“Bullshit! Those are all rumors spread by people who have never seen a star pirate!” Chu Xiao tightened the bottle cap with force and said angrily, “They are all decent people! And their combat skills are especially strong. We might not be able to compare to them even in a few years.”

The slanting-eyed Alpha: “Oh yeah, you went up against Extreme Shadow during new recruit training. Are they really that powerful?”

Although he was talking about star pirates, Chu Xiao was inexplicably proud.

“Really! We even ran into the Ghost Brigade. If Major General Jing hadn’t led the team, we would have thought we were going to die.”

When he talked about Extreme Shadow, Chu Xiao went on and on.

After hearing him, a group of new recruits suddenly wanted to see Extreme Shadow, which was very decent but had especially strong combat power.

Chi Yao, who didn’t even know that he was very decent, was curled up on the sofa in the small villa, looking at some data.

The various forces in Cetus were intertwined and all had dealings with Li Bo’s military team. It was too much trouble to investigate from the outside.

It wasn’t until his stomach growled that Chi Yao came back to his senses, rubbing his sore eyes.

It was already dark outside.

From his angle, he could see the backyard through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Two kittens were strolling on the lawn in the backyard.

The Ragdoll that was thrown out had the cheek to come back and try to talk to YaoYao, only to be slapped away by her.

Chi Yao watched for a moment with interest and smiled lightly.

“She just won’t admit that she likes him—”

He lowered the camera, floated outside, and took a small video to send to Jing Xi.

[Your cat is about to be stolen away.]

Two minutes later, the other side replied.

[I don’t agree.]

The three short words made Chi Yao laugh.

Jing Xi’s serious face flashed before his eyes. His wrinkled brows and cold eyes were clearly visible.

Chi Yao replied.

[It’s just a cat. Why do you get to agree or not? Get ten boxes of cat food and get ready to marry off your daughter.]

Jing Xi quickly replied.

[I don’t have money. I can’t afford to marry her off.]

Chi Yao: “…”

On the other end.

When Chu Xiao returned to the dormitory, his terminal vibrated. He swiped it open, and his eyes suddenly widened.

“Holy crap! I’ve been accepted by the Flying Dragon!!”

A group of people immediately gathered around. When they saw that the message was from the official account of the Flying Dragon, they were all envious.

“You’re so lucky to have received a notice in just two days.”

“I also want to go to the Flying Dragon. I heard that more than 6,000 people applied, but only about a hundred were accepted. It feels like there’s little hope.”

“No, I’m too jealous. Come here and get hit!”

Chu Xiao read it over a dozen times before putting it away, feeling lightheaded.

Being able to join his favorite military team was the best start!

As he stepped into the dormitory, a thought flashed in his mind.

Since he was accepted, he was now a member of the Flying Dragon.

He couldn’t just sit by and do nothing about Major General Jing’s situation.

He turned around, hooked his arm around the hooked-nosed Beta’s shoulder, and walked out.

“Don’t you have someone in the camp next door? Let’s go and ask around.”

“Ask about what?” The hooked-nosed Beta was confused.

Chu Xiao: “Didn’t you say someone was harassed by that Major? You come with me to ask, and I’ll treat you to a meal later.”

The hooked-nosed Beta: “You don’t have to treat me. Just tell me how you wrote your application.”

Chu Xiao: “Deal!”

The next day, Chi Yao was woken up by Jiang Feng’s series of desperate calls.

As soon as he answered, he heard Jiang Feng’s anxious voice.

“Boss, you have to go to the military department for a report this morning. There are only thirty minutes left. Are you up yet?”

Chi Yao: “…”

He wasn’t not up. He had just fallen asleep.

With his morning grumpiness, Chi Yao walked into the reporting hall with a grim face.

The investigators were all there.

Chi Yao saw Chen Bingfeng sitting in the middle at a glance.

Chen Bingfeng looked at the time and said with a cold face, “You’re a full three minutes late. Where’s the military discipline?!”

Chi Yao raised his eyelids to look at him. His hands, which were hanging at his sides, clenched, and his knuckles cracked.

“You’re not worthy of talking to me about discipline. Wasn’t the last lesson enough?”

Meeting Jing Xi’s eyes, Chen Bingfeng subconsciously flinched.

Noticing this, his face turned ugly.

It didn’t make sense.

He had been in the military for more than twenty years. How could he be afraid of a kid in his twenties?