Chapter 3: It’s Nothing, I Just Dedicated Myself To Science

…..unexpectedly, he would still be humiliated about his ugly writing after falling apart for many years.

This was Ji Xingjue’s first thought.

Immediately after that, he reacted and put away his sloppy expression. “You’ve been monitoring me?”

Qi Qing indifferently scanned the application form, not in the least guilty at all: “So what?”

Ji Xingjue was choked by his righteous and arrogant appearance, and a cordial smile appeared: “So, Lord Marshal, why should I suddenly sign this kind of agreement with you? If you shake your head now, you may be able to hear the rushing water. No need to wait for the frozen river to thaw in the coming year.”

Qi Qing was still as immovable as a mountain, only slightly raising his eyebrows: “Eight blind dates a month, you don’t seem to hate marriage.” He showed the countdown on his terminal, “There are still thirty seconds left.”

After finishing speaking, he somewhat intentionally pointed to the application form in front of him.

Ji Xingjue felt very much unimaginable. “Do you think it’s possible for me to sign this kind of mindless thing with you for a sum of money?”

Qi Qing asked calmly: “Is it impossible?”

“I am not without a bottom line!”

Qi Qing was not in the least wavering: “I heard that the general who supported this project is currently not in the Imperial Capital.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Ten seconds.”

“…FOR SEVERAL BILLIONS OF FUNDS, THAT’S ALL!”

Ji Xingjue stared at Qi Qing. At the last second of the countdown, too late to read the contents of the agreement, he angrily left a madly cursive signature.

Completely as expected.

The corner of Qi Qing’s mouth curved, as the tip of his pen flicked as he signed and stamped the approver of the application form, his set of actions went smoothly.

It was unknown how many eyes in the entire empire, starring, waiting to see the jokes in Ji Xingjue, expecting Qi Qing to take revenge against him.

He was ready to be beheaded and killed…

Ji Xingjue shook his head: “Now explain, what do you mean by asking me to sign this?”

Qi Qing didn’t reply. He picked up the agreement, looked at Ji Xingjue’s crooked signature, and with a snap of his left fingers, a suspension car appeared on the side of the rooftop, seeming to have been lying in wait for a long time.

“Come here.” Qi Qing picked up the agreement and strode towards the car.

Ji Xingjue had no choice but to make small runs to keep up with him: “Where to go?”

Qi Qing became mute again.

Ji Xingjue rubbed the tip of his eyebrows. He had a particularly bad toothache. He couldn’t find a way to get along with Qi Qing in the past. And now this lousy bad temper was more difficult to deal with than before, which was why he could only sit down in a well-behaved manner.

Qi Qing somehow remembered something, and suddenly said lightly, “Today’s meeting was scheduled from morning to night, you came by at a bad time.”

Ji Xingjue was stunned: “What?”

Qi Qing closed his mouth and said no more.

Ji Xingjue blinked.

Was this an explanation for standing them up in the morning?

It’s amazing, Qi Qing would explain this kind of thing specially.

In less than ten minutes, the suspension car stopped outside a tall building.

Ji Xingjue looked at the big characters “Imperial Capital Civil Affairs Bureau,” and felt that Qi Qing was really crazy.

Today’s weather still had a violent blizzard and it was about time for the staff to get off work. The building was empty with no other people so there was no need to line up. The two of them, one looked icy cold while the other looked bewildered. The staff stared wide-eyed and desperately moved their eyes back and forth between the two of them, and tremblingly stretched out their hands, and held down the colleague who didn’t recognize anyone, looking worried and wanted to call the police.

In the chaos, only Qi Qing remained calm and complacent. One minute before the staff closed their doors and left work, they had to stamp more red books in their hands.

There was a line printed in the marriage certificate―You Shall Be Immersed In The Everlasting Glory Of The Empire And Witness Each Other’s Unswerving Love, Loyalty To The End.

Written as a marriage certificate but read as a deed to sell oneself into slavery.

Qi Qing didn’t care much and took the red book into his arms, glanced at the time, and walked outside without stopping.

There were two cars parked outside the Civil Affairs Bureau, and he walked to the other one. Amidst the increasingly majestic blizzard, he only left one sentence: “Move over tomorrow.”

Ji Xingjue shouted in vain, “Hey!”

The door of the suspension car closed with a click, took off with a buzzing sound, and disappeared in the wind and snow in a blink of an eye.

Waiting next to the other car was a man with chestnut short hair color in military uniform who had just driven them over. The other party snapped a salute to Ji Xingjue and smiled: “Hello, Ma’am, I am the Marshal’s adjutant, Damel. Following up I will escort Ma’am home.”

Ji Xingjue: “…”

He didn’t think that Qi Qing had sent someone to “escort*” him. It might be more in line with the original intention of Lord Marshal to replace the escort with “under escort**”.

[T/N: *: to accompany.
**: transport a detainee]

It seemed that the frontline was indeed very dangerous.

After seven years of dealing with the vicious Star Pirate leaders and the hypocritical Alliance, Qi Qing successfully evolved into a neurosis.

Ji Xingjue got in the suspension car without saying a word; he wasn’t in the mood to speak.

Damel politely asked for Ji Xingjue’s address, typed in the driver’s seat, and quietly took a peek at Ji Xingjue.

From the perspective of a soldier, the wife of the newly promoted Marshal didn’t seem to meet the standard required.

He was thin, weak and frail like a woman. His complexion was pale due to without being exposed to sunlight for a long time, and there was a small red tear mole under his left eye, which gave birth to a delicate and fragile face. However, that looked ordinary and dull like every noble beauty in the Imperial City, handsome exterior but hollow inside.

He was a little disappointed in his heart, and was about to withdraw his gaze, but Ji Xingjue seemed to notice his gaze and suddenly opened his eyes.

He tilted his head to look over, the thin lines of his neck gained a sense of strength, and his dark eyes met his gaze. His eyes were clear and bright, and there was a faint sharpness like a knife in them. His face was so vivid that it made people dare not look directly.

Unexpectedly, Ji Xingjue was so sharp, Damel was surprised.

Ji Xingjue looked at him thoughtfully, lowering his shoulders, he returned to his lazy and sloppy attitude: “Right.”

“Do you have any instructions, Ma’am?” Contrary to his relaxation, Damel’s body subconsciously tensed.

“Where is my car?”

“Ah?”

++++

The Imperial Capital was centered on the Imperial Palace, dividend to inner and outer ring. From the inside the ring, there were strategic locations of important government, royal relatives, and residences of high-ranking officials. The outer ring was the residence of ordinary people, with distinct classes, and was often criticized as “Corrupted and Fallen Behind” by the connotation of the Liberty Alliance.

People on the Ankara star always took pride in living in the inner ring and close to the palace.

Ji Xingjue couldn’t agree with this, at least after moving to the most remote outer ring, his sleep had improved a lot.

After taking some time getting home, Ji Xingjue first glanced at the small broken car parked downstairs, thanked the adjutant with satisfaction, swiped the code, and walked into the house.

Qi Qing’s actions were too magical, leaving him completely lost his ability to think. After taking a shower mechanically, he personally cooked a bowl of weird dishes with unknown ingredients. He sat at the table and finished it under the red warning from the household robot. Then he calmly said, “Thank you for your worry, I will not be poisoned.”

In the midst of everything that happened today, Ji Xingjue had a foreboding that he would suffer from insomnia. He found familiar sleeping pills and swallowed them with warm water.

He then lay down on the bed and voiced the terminal: “Turn on the Do Not Disturb mode, and then turn on the work mode at seven tomorrow morning. I have to sleep well.”

He hoped that after waking up, he would find that he was only dreaming.

The effect of the medicine began to play, Ji Xingjue’s thought became dim as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Because of this, after closing his eyes half a minute later, he missed the message from his good friend Cecilie―

“Internal news, Qi Qing will come to Ankara University tomorrow morning! Are you ready to dedicate yourself to science?”

Ji Xingjue had a long dream.

The endless light rain in the dream made him extremely tired when he slept. When he was awakened from the muddy dream by the terminal on his wrist, the fishy smell of rain still lingered on the tip of his nose.

Obviously the first alarm clock failed to wake him up. After glancing at the time, he hurriedly cleaned up, and drove back to Ankara University in his small broken car.

As soon as he arrived at the school gate, he was caught by Cecilie in an ambush.

“Why are you here so late? And here I thought you had already escaped from the Imperial Capital last night. Just stop the car here, you won’t be able to drive in further anymore. Today is under emergency measures.”

Ji Xingjue, who hadn’t fully read the information on his personal terminal, and just came in a hurry, was at a loss as he exclaimed “Ah”.

“Hurry up, take advantage of the fact that there are not many people, so quickly solve it now; even if you lose face later, it shouldn’t be something big.” Cecilie energetically pulled Ji Xingjue, stepped on her high-heeled boots, and stepped onto the school bus in a few steps.


There were many students on the bus. When they saw the two of them, they all smiled and greeted: “Professor Ji, Professor Cecilie, good morning.”

Ji Xingjue dragged his dark circles under his eyes, messy hair, dying look to greet them: “Morning, classmates.”


A group of young people came up and chatted with each other. Ji Xingjue’s class had always been loved by the students, but since he focused on project research this semester, he didn’t schedule many classes.

While talking and laughing, there was a humming sound from the front row: “Professor Ji seems to be out of spirit recently.”

When Ji Xingjue got in the car, he saw the people in the front row and just didn’t bother to pay attention. After hearing the voice, he still greeted in a friendly way: “Associate (Assistant) Professor Ai Li.”

The person in the front row turned his head sullenly, his eyelids twitched again when he heard the word “Assistant”, but noticing Ji Xingjue’s slightly tired and haggard face, he raised the corners of his mouth again: “After all, Qi Qing has returned, and has become the leader of the military. If I was you, I wouldn’t be able to eat and sleep well.”

Ji Xingjue guessed that he might have misunderstood something, but it would be very troublesome to explain. The other party would think that he was deliberately covering up, so he just smiled and didn’t say much.

Ai Li thought that he had stepped on the sore spot. Seeing some students’ dazed expressions, the heart of popular science promptly welled up, as he opened his mouth, immensely pleased with himself: “If you want me to say, as the first university in the capital, Ankara University should not be tainted by some lowly blood. Those nobles probably don’t want their own children being taught by a lowly and inferior servant, one who has betrayed his master…Aw!”

Cecilie smiled as her thin high heels ran on the soles of Ai Li’s feet. She covered her red lips, pretending to be surprised: “Oh, sorry, I thought I stepped on a pile of mud, which is disgusting.”

Ai Li’s face was distorted, and he gave her an angry look.

The students in the back row shrank their heads like a quail, eyes full of gossip.

Ji Xingjue was not angry. Seeing that the school bus had stopped, he and Cecilie, who wanted to “accidentally” kick Ai Li’s lifeblood, got out of the car.

“This sour chicken,” Cecilie flipped and rolled her eyes in a not so graceful way, “He has no ability, but really loves to compare himself.

Ji Xingjue does not intend to continue this topic: “Where are you taking me?”

“You didn’t read the news?” Cecilie opened her mouth, and looked at the queue not far away from the corner of her eyes; her eyes lit up, “Quick, Qi Qing is over there!”

Ji Xingjue subconsciously followed her gaze and looked over.

Not far away, Qi Qing was surrounded by several officials and school leaders.

He was tall, dressed in a sturdy military uniform with long military boots, his pace was fast and steady, and he was extremely eye-catching in the crowd; a moon twinkled around by all the stars.

A few officials had big bellies, they couldn’t breathe just to keep up with him, and he didn’t mean to wait for a moment either.

He’d made progress.

Ji Xingjue looked at this scene and thought, before the change, Qi Qing would just directly pull a long face and leave. He had never liked dealing with people with fake smiles on their faces.

Now he even knew how to walk around with people.

“When he goes to the auditorium to give a speech, it will be even harder to ask him to sign it. If the general is still in the imperial capital, it will be great,” Cecilie muttered, “Let’s go, for our research funding!”

Ji Xingjue just remembered that everything that happened yesterday was too off track. He forgot to tell everyone that the funding approval had been done.

Seeing that Qi Qing was keenly tilting his head toward this side, Ji Xingjue quickly pulled Cecilie to hide behind the pillar, took out the application form from his arms, and shook it in front of her.

Cecilie was stunned, carefully accepted the application form, read it attentively, and after confirming that it was correct, her eyes were filled with shock, confusion, and disbelief: “God! What did you do?”

Ji Xingjue waved his hand calmly, and said as light breeze blowing, “It’s nothing, I just dedicated myself to science.”

“Really?” A cold voice sounded from behind, “Professor Ji’s words are not very appropriate.”

He had been found out.

Ji Xingjue sighed slightly, turned around, and asked humbly: “Is there something wrong?”

Qi Qing left the pile of noisy “stars” around him, and looked at Ji Xingjue condescendingly, his light-colored eyes half-squinted: “Of course it’s not right, you haven’t offered it yet.”

The author has something to say:

Ji Xingjue: Though I don’t understand, I seem to have received a shock.

T/N: Dedicate your brain to science, offer yourself to Qi Qing.