Chapter 28

Wu Ying stayed crouched, her head resting on her knees and her long hair spilling around her, while Asher remained fixated on the flowers in his hands.

She watched him with keen interest, as if captivated by his reaction. She noticed his eyelashes fluttering rapidly, his lips pressing together gently, and the hand holding the flowers trembling slightly—or so she thought. The petals quivered faintly, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, again and again.

She grew curious about what Asher was thinking at that moment.

When the man abruptly looked her way, Wu Ying realized she might have just voiced her thoughts aloud.

But it didn't matter; she returned his gaze curiously.

Asher himself didn't know what he was thinking. All he could think was that Wu Ying's tactic had worked—he did feel a bit happier now.

"Your flowers are well-grown."

"Of course they are."

And she wasn't just good at growing flowers; she was also quite skilled at cheering people up.

"Ah, my foot's asleep."

Wu Ying suddenly leaned back, unable to stay squatting, and tumbled straight onto the floor. She fell rather clumsily, and Asher watched her, a hint of surprise flickering in his eyes that he quickly masked.

"Come on, give me a hand."

Asher bent down to pull her up. He didn't quite understand how one could topple over from squatting for a moment, but he silently guided her to the sofa.

It was already dark outside, and Wu Ying was not one to sit still. The atmosphere in the living room was pleasant, and she couldn't help but chatter.

Jiujiu had been sent away for modifications—Asher said he wanted to turn it into a mecha sparring robot, which seemed rather complicated. In the meantime, a new robot had arrived, one that appeared even more dim-witted than Jiujiu.

She'd named it Zhi Yangyang because it resembled the character somewhat, but she hadn't touched its programming. She liked Jiujiu, but she didn't want every robot to become a copy of it.

Right now, Zhi Yangyang was cooking, leaving only Asher and Wu Ying in the living room.

Asher wasn't much of a talker, but he was good at being quiet. He held the bouquet she'd given him, sitting peacefully beside her. Wu Ying would speak a few words, and he'd reply with one.

It was a give-and-take, after a fashion.

Jiujiu could chat with her too, but it only knew what was in its data banks. Asher was different—he was far more entertaining to tease than Jiujiu ever was.

"Every flower has its own language. Guess what these mean?" Wu Ying pointed at the bouquet in his hands, which held three kinds of flowers. Oh, she only just realized they all seemed tied to love somehow. Though that wasn't surprising—flowers were often associated with romance in most settings.

"I don't know." Asher shook his head honestly. Forget flower languages—he didn't even know the names of these flowers.

"Just guess? Giving up without even trying shows a complete lack of fighting spirit." Wu Ying put on a stern face and delivered her harsh criticism, then immediately switched to a beaming smile and continued, "Here's a hint: they're all related to you."

"Me?" His first reaction was disbelief, a rare dazed look in his eyes.

Wu Ying laughed even harder, unable to resist urging him on. "Come on, guess! Just say anything—it's not like I'll punish you."

"I can't guess." He couldn't fathom how these flowers could possibly relate to him, and he couldn't bring himself to make random guesses.

"Want to know the answer? If you do, you have to nod."

Asher nodded helplessly and continued to watch her quietly. She was unusually lively today, talking a lot, and even with her mouth closed, her eyes seemed to be constantly teasing him.

"The yellow roses represent a tiny bit of apology from me to you, the pink tulips represent my wish for your happiness, and the green daisies are a hope that you'll always renew yourself and always have strength."

She'd twisted the meanings a little, Wu Ying thought, touching her nose and deciding to gloss over those small details. After all, Asher probably wouldn't find a way to verify them.

Wow, his ears were turning red.

Wu Ying widened her eyes in amazement. If not for his ears giving him away, she'd never have been able to tell his mood. The man's expression control was flawless; he didn't move a muscle.

But leaning in closer, she could still pick up subtle changes. She noticed the muscles in his chest tightening slightly, and the lines of his thigh muscles looked especially good when tense.

"Dinner's ready." Zhi Yangyang's mechanical voice halted Wu Ying's further approach. She froze mid-motion in the air, then stood up as if nothing had happened. "Ahem, it really is time to eat."

Over the days Asher had been teaching her the mecha, Wu Ying had grown noticeably more docile. As the saying goes, "take someone's money and be lenient with them; eat someone's food and be soft-spoken." Apart from occasionally grumbling about his strictness, she spent her free time trying to please him.

It was the first time Asher had felt her gentleness so vividly. When she was being obedient, she seemed even harder to handle than when she was being unruly.

In the study of the villa, Asher was in communication with Da Li.

"Sir, the research team's progress is slow. So Ya wants to request the lady's participation in the research plan."

The moment he finished speaking, Asher's face darkened instantly. He'd told Da Li to solve the problem, and instead Da Li had brought him another one. Wu Ying was just an ordinary person; encountering the insect race this time had already left her traumatized. He didn't want Wu Ying to see those creatures again.

"Tell him to figure it out himself."

Only in the past few days had Asher learned from Wu Ying that she occasionally had nightmares, always with the insect creature chasing her.

Given her psychological tolerance, she shouldn't be dragged into this any further. If not for the fact that the insect race couldn't be eliminated for now, Asher would never let it keep living.

In the end, after some thought, Asher sent So Ya some characteristics of Wu Ying's mental power. If he still couldn't find a breakthrough with that, Asher figured, it was time to find a new research team.

"Your first instinct when falling should be to protect your head. What are you doing?" Asher stared expressionlessly at Wu Ying as she tripped over her own feet and went down in a daze. She should be grateful the mecha's sensors filtered out the pain, or she'd have knocked herself silly by now.

She couldn't afford to get any dumber. After several days of training, Asher had come to a profound understanding of this person's potential—it was about as much as a dewdrop under the blazing summer sun.

Meaning: absolutely none.

"You've been so grumpy lately, Asher. Your teaching attitude is problematic. You should fix it soon."

"Fix your running posture first."

No doubt about it—she swore she heard the heavy sarcasm in his voice. Determined to prove herself, she tucked in her limbs that had been splayed out like a starfish and struggled to pull herself together.

Fortunately, the torment didn't last long. Before a week was up, Asher was called away by a phone call, and Wu Ying finally got a long-awaited break.

Before leaving, he left her a lengthy schedule. Wu Ying studied it carefully for a long time, then decided to postpone it by a day.

God knows how hard she'd been working lately—she could now drive a mecha around a map. She absolutely deserved to reward herself with a day off. Wu Ying immediately opened her dorm group chat.

Thanks to the military training, she finally had real classmates, and her roommates had become close. Everyone was chatting in the group, and she was the only one stuck in training. By the time she was free, everyone else had scattered.

Su Yi was surprised to see her online. "You're free at this hour?"

Wu Ying paused for a moment, then replied that her warden wasn't around today. Several "tsk tsk tsk" messages popped up immediately, and the other two also chimed in.

They joked around for a while, and Wu Ying was contentedly closing her Light Brain when Jiujiu came to inspect the greenhouse. She just needed to lie there quietly—bliss!

It was a rainy day on Beta Star. The fine, drizzling rain landed merrily on the floor, windowsills, leaves, and glass. She didn't need to go out, and could even leave the window open without guilt. The cool breeze blew in, lifting the curtains, and perhaps a few raindrops drifted inside as well—Wu Ying could see faint glitters on the floor.

She nestled comfortably on the sofa. On the side table sat a vase with fresh camellias from the greenhouse, which seemed to have mutated slightly, with a ring of pale blue around the edges of the petals. Everywhere Wu Ying looked, she saw things she loved.

The rain outside blurred the city in a misty haze, while she admired the rain and the flowers, hugging a soft pillow. Everything seemed no different from how it was in her memories.

Except there was one rather tactless person on her Light Brain—Asher was asking about her training progress. Wu Ying wondered if he really didn't know she'd be slacking off.

Why ask at all! Wu Ying frowned, steeled her heart, and with swift fingers blocked him again. Out of sight, out of mind.

The goodwill she'd felt toward him over the past few days seemed to dissolve with his departure. Wu Ying thought now that maybe they'd divorce someday anyway, so why bother being so nice?

Carpe diem, you know? She hadn't forgotten the promise she'd made to herself—this was all a trap, lowering his guard first, then blowing him up when the time was right.

"So comfy... I'm about to fall asleep."

The living room was quiet, and Wu Ying's even breathing filled the air. Zhi Yangyang silently shut the window, switched on sleep mode, and the room's lighting softened while the floor radiated a faint warmth, dispelling the chill brought by the rain.

On the other end, Asher, who hadn't received a reply, frowned slightly. There was no way she was so immersed in training that she hadn't seen the message—he remembered how just days ago, she'd beg him for a break whenever his Light Brain lit up, saying it might be a school notice.

According to the schedule, it should be her training time right now. Wu Ying clearly wasn't following the plan, and Asher felt a little displeased.

He initially thought of having Zhi Yangyang check what she was doing, but then realized knowing wouldn't change anything. In the end, he couldn't control her from here anyway. Asher let out a noncommittal hum.

Da Li immediately looked at him, thinking Asher had an order.

Asher then said he'd go check on the research team—just remembered Wu Ying, might as well speed up their progress.

So Ya flinched at the sight of Asher, then strode over quickly. "You've come at the right time. We've roughly found a direction. Combining the lady's mental power characteristics and her identity, we brought in some test subjects... ahem, and indeed found a difference. This type of insect race is very sensitive to mental power and has a hunting instinct, but the more contact a person has with plants, the more they attract its attention. We speculate that long-term contact with plants has an effect on mental power."

This was a historic breakthrough—not just for curbing the insect race's differentiation, but also a major supplement to mental power research.

So Ya's face was almost fanatical as he gesticulated excitedly. For a long time, the Federation's division of mental power had been crude and simplistic, and research literature had been confined to improving mental power and dealing with war. But this time was different—the insect race's new differentiation specificity just happened to correspond to distinctions in mental power. This research might spark a new wave of interest.

And he would be the one to lead it.

Asher, too, was lost in thought. He understood Wu Ying's mental power even better than she did. As So Ya rambled on about various points, Asher felt he could sense it—Wu Ying's mental power exuded a warmth of life, ineffable yet unmistakable. His first impression of it was a growing tree, tranquil and profound.