Chapter 67

Wu Ying pressed down on his wandering hand, listening to his breath against her ear, her thoughts in a jumble. She wished she could punch him. She had finally cleared her mind of distractions and was ready to focus on her career, but he had to show up again, clinging to her for a hug the moment he arrived.

"Asher, calm down."

"Can't calm down. Wu Ying, give it to me." He cradled her face, his breath hot against her lips, then lowered his head to capture her mouth, sucking and nibbling in a lingering kiss.

It wasn't that her willpower was weak—it was that the temptation was just too great. Wu Ying thought, the goddess of career surely wouldn't begrudge her this small indulgence. A successful woman deserved a reward.

Night fell, and the bright lights inside were glaring. Wu Ying asked for the lights to be turned off, leaving only the floor lamp on. Asher pressed down on her, afraid she'd slip away from his side.

From downstairs to upstairs, Wu Ying finally lay in bed, drowsy.

"What time is it?"

Asher grabbed her hand as it poked out from under the covers and checked the time himself. "Eleven-thirty. Time to sleep."

As if she were the one who didn't want to sleep! Wu Ying punched him, then remembered something and started fumbling around for her Light Brain. "I haven't told my roommates I'm not coming back tonight. Where's my Light Brain?"

Jiujiu wasn't there either. She'd left in such a hurry today that she'd left Jiujiu in the dorm.

"Where did you put my Light Brain?"

"It's downstairs. Use mine."

How could she use his? Su Yi's and the others' terminal numbers weren't saved on Asher's Light Brain.

"Who says they're not? Here." Asher fetched his Light Brain from the bedside and opened a note—and they actually were there.

"Lazybones. You saved them, so shouldn't you have brought it up?"

"I'll get it for you first thing in the morning. Let's sleep now." Asher held her, his hand resting on the dip of her waist, like a clingy wolfdog claiming its territory and refusing to budge.

Back in the dorm, Cynthia was still sending Wu Ying message after message. Huo Lin's Light Brain pinged. "Oh, who's this? Wu Ying's got a message—she's staying at an outside place and says not to worry."

Su Yi frowned as she walked over and spoke to the person on the other end of the line. "No need to check anymore."

"Let me see. Why isn't she replying to me? I've sent over a hundred messages." Cynthia ran over and tugged at Huo Lin until she disabled her privacy settings to see the messages.

"Who is this? Huh? Asher·Siser, Asher? The Commander?"

"Yeah, right. Wu Ying's husband."

"Could this be someone impersonating him? Did someone kidnap Wu Ying?"

"Do you think it's that easy to impersonate a Commander's account? Have Su Yi send someone to check the villa outside school."

Su Yi nodded. That was a good idea.

When Wu Ying returned the next day, the three of them stood with arms crossed, looking stern. Wu Ying set her things down and obediently sat on a chair to face the inquisition.

"He's already left. I left in a hurry yesterday and didn't tell you. Then I accidentally dropped my Light Brain and couldn't find it, so I borrowed his for the time being. Any other questions?"

Cynthia cut to the chase. "You accidentally dropped your Light Brain—elaborate on that. How did you drop it? It's on your wrist—how do you 'drop' something that's on your wrist?"

Wu Ying gasped, her face turning red before she could speak. How did she notice such details?

"That's not the point. The important thing is, did you guys come up with a plan yesterday? What are we doing about our lab class?"

"Hmph. Changing the subject."

Huo Lin couldn't be bothered to keep up the act and turned to flop onto a sofa. "Do you have time today to brainstorm with us?"

"Of course. That's the top priority."

Back to business. Life moved on; little detours were just detours.

Jiujiu was connected to the villa's smart terminal, so all entry and exit records were logged in its system. The moment Asher left today, Jiujiu received the alert. Based on past data, it assumed the master's mood would be affected.

"Master, would you like to adjust today's schedule? Perhaps a nap or some music?" it suggested earnestly, its recommendation modeled on her reactions after past arguments with Asher, hoping it would help.

"Thanks, Jiujiu, but no. Sync the experimental data to my terminal."

A question mark slowly blinked on Jiujiu's mechanical head. "Master, aren't you angry today?"

Hearing that, Wu Ying tilted her head with a wry smile. So she really had been dramatic before—enough that Jiujiu had built a whole data system to analyze her behavior.

"Little robot, your master isn't angry. And you know why? A woman focused on her career doesn't change her pace for a moment of pleasure—got it?" Most importantly, Asher had come to her on his own this time, so she was just making a little room in her schedule.

Thinking back to last night, she didn't feel heavy about it. He came quickly and left quickly, too. This morning she'd woken to his kisses, and as soon as she opened her eyes, he said he had to go. He seemed a bit wary, afraid she'd get angry and scold him.

He said he'd brought her Light Brain up and set an alarm so she could sleep in and still make it to her first class. Wu Ying had patted his face and rolled over to go back to sleep.

No need to overthink. Her main quest was her studies. She needed to get her diploma and license as soon as possible. Her dream was to open a flower shop on some planet one day. Everything else—she didn't need to dwell on it.

She chose not to think about Asher's quick comings and goings, and by extension, not about what Asher might be going through.

"You're not going home?"

At the end of the sophomore year, Cynthia eyed Wu Ying, who still hadn't packed to leave, and shook her head. "You're even more of a grind than Su Yi."

"No, I just have fewer credits than Su Yi."

Wu Ying corrected her. She needed to graduate by junior year, and if she didn't earn enough credits before the graduation assessment, she'd miss this batch. So she had to sacrifice her holidays.

"Looks like your husband will have to keep pining from afar."

"Like he's sacrificing that much. He's only visited three or four times total. You remember better than I do—guess your Commander has a lot of fans."

Cynthia quickly waved her hands. "I'm on your side. I was just thinking, the border has been so unsettled lately."

True. This war had been longer and more intense than any before it. Rumor had it the council had tried several times to send inspectors to the border, but Asher's father had stepped in and suppressed the requests.

She'd heard this from Huo Lin. The intricate causes and shifting dynamics were beyond her ability to calculate, and Asher never told her. She'd told him not to come see her, and he'd agreed, but he hadn't exactly kept his word.

"So, with him this busy, it doesn't matter where I am, right?"

Over the break, she piled on every credit she could earn, turned her lab observation reports into papers, and submitted them. They were original enough to get published, which earned her extra points. It wasn't wasted effort.

When junior year started, she and Su Yi signed up for this year's graduation assessment. From now on, they'd have to prepare their theses while attending required courses.

Luckily, she already had a clear idea for her thesis. The professor assigned to review it said he'd read her previous papers and that her experimental data were highly original—perfect for a graduation project.

That was good news. Studying flowers was the thing she was best at.

But that meant she'd need to find time to go back to Beta Star. The flower room on Pilan Star was too small; she was afraid it wouldn't provide enough data to complete her thesis experiments.

That was even more of a hassle. Thinking about the strict and tedious entry and exit procedures on Beta Star gave her a headache. If she wanted to bring out so many flower seeds, who knows what kind of approvals she'd need.

"Didn't you already set your thesis topic?"

Su Yi strolled past Wu Ying with a cup of coffee, looking relaxed, and found her scratching her head.

"I did. But the lab conditions aren't sufficient. My advisor suggested I move the flower room from Beta Star here, saying the sample size there is enough to support a thesis. Pilan Star has too little data."

Su Yi didn't quite get why that was a problem. Beta Star did have strict entry and exit rules, but wasn't Wu Ying the Commander's wife? Surely that would make things easier? "If it's a hassle, just bring more people. You can move the whole flower room, no matter how big."

"We'll see, we'll see. No rush anyway."

She'd put it off as long as she could. She really didn't want to go back.

They had to balance thesis prep with classes, and two field-lab courses were graded by instructors that couldn't be completed early.

The school chartered a spaceship, packed the entire class aboard, and dropped them on some random planet for the field experiments. Just thinking about it made Wu Ying and Cynthia's scalps tingle. Those high-radiation, high-intensity, extremely dangerous alien plants—no matter how many times she saw them, all she wanted was to stay far away. What was the difference between these and the twisted vines she'd encountered on that desolate planet before? Did she think a pair of gloves and a syringe would change that?

No!

"I have a feeling that us two teaming up wasn't the smartest idea."

"I agree."

Cynthia glanced awkwardly at Wu Ying, who was clinging to her without letting go, and said with disdain, "I can understand me being scared, but you? You've done so many experiments. Was that all fake?"

"But the experiments I did weren't terrifying field labs like this." The credits she could earn early didn't require a specific type of experiment; she could mostly satisfy them with flower seed research. As for pure field work, this was honestly her first time.

"Can you two at least show some spine?"

Huo Lin stood up ahead, legs wide, glancing back at the two clinging together. "We haven't even reached the lab base yet and you're already backing out. When it's time to get to work, are you going to cry?"

"Don't be so smug. Can you even do experiments? With that big mouth, you've got nothing on Wu Ying."

At that, Huo Lin fell silent. She spread her hands. "Need protection?"

"Get lost."

The field lab base here was massive, cordoning off half the planet and trapping students and alien plants together.

All for credits!

Everything for credits!

Group experiments meant having to deal with social dynamics, though there was an upside to working with strangers—it was all business, no need for emotional investment.

Everyone wore thick protective suits. Field work wasn't like regular classes; it was dangerous.

Wu Ying had just fertilized her experimental alien plant when she pulled off her heavy protective goggles and found red marks around her eyes.

The experiment wasn't going well, and the more she thought about it, the more frustrated she became.

After working so hard for so long, having to stop suddenly felt strange. And it wasn't a voluntary pause—not because she'd achieved a goal and decided to rest, but because she was forced to halt.