Chapter 102.2
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Ning Tianya: Ning family’s head. Former Chairman.
Ning Tianxing: Ning Kongran’s father, Ning Tianya’s older brother.
Ning Kongran: Ning family current heir. Studying mecha manufacturing, unlike his family.
Bearded Teacher aka Master Shang: Qiao Zhiya’s Mecha teacher in VR. Chu Rong’s mother’s teacher. Is currently a mecha manufacturing teacher.
Long Ruifeng: the ex-President.
An Tyn: An Leen’s twin brother. The Fifth Imperial Prince, now the Emperor.
An Xei: The former Emperor’s younger brother. A Prince and a scholar.
An Mhu: Third Imperial Prince. Used to be the puppet Emperor after his father (former/old Emperor).
Feng: The Imperial High Advisor.
At this moment, Qiao Zhiya was fully asleep, but Chu Rong frowned.
It seems Qiao Zhiya slept the whole afternoon after lunch, brought back to the room for a nap by Chu Rong around 1:30 PM. If it weren’t for Qiao Zhiya’s normal vital signs, Chu Rong would almost have thought Qiao Zhiya had fainted.
After sleeping for so long in the afternoon, Chu Rong originally thought that Qiao Zhiya might not be able to sleep at night. But he guessed wrong – around before 10 PM, Qiao Zhiya showed signs of drowsiness, and before he was urged, he already climbed into the bed and rolled into the quilt, falling asleep.
–This is wrong, Qiao Zhiya shouldn’t be this sleepy.
Chu Rong grew more and more aware of the possible problem stemming from the newly-found stones. He called Zhuang Yu over to do a simple check on Qiao Zhiya. The results of the check were normal, and Qiao Zhiya really just fell asleep.
“Maybe he’s just too tired. He’s running around with you during this time, and the pressure is heavy. Now that he’s going home, he relaxed and it all crashed at once. It’s normal for him to sleep a bit longer after being relaxed.” Zhuang Yu explained softly and put away the check-up instrument.
Chu Rong thought about the busy schedule during this time. He sat on the bed and patted Qiao Zhiya. The youth’s face did look thinner lately…
The realization made Chu Rong frown.
In the early hours of the morning, the flagship landed at Chu family’s private port. Chu Rong returned home with Qiao Zhiya still asleep.
Qiao Zhiya slept so deeply that he had no idea he had been moved while he slept. When he woke up in the morning and saw the familiar bed and ceiling, he felt a bit confused, thinking he was still dreaming. It wasn’t until Chu Rong pushed the door open and entered that he snapped out of it. His eyes lit up instantly, and he threw off the covers, jumped out of bed, not even bothering to put on his shoes before rushing past Chu Rong and out the door.
Thinking that Qiao Zhiya was about to rush over for a morning hug, Chu Rong, who had already romantically extended his arms… did not get a hug.
Then, he silently retracted them, turned, and walked out the door. He froze upon hearing the surprised yet amused shouts from outside, his expression stiffening.
“Is the baby already moving?” Qiao Zhiya leaned in front of Gu Yan’an, watching her slightly swollen belly. His fingers hover over her abdomen, afraid of touching it.
Gu Yan’an looked at him with amusement, took his hand and placed it on her own abdomen, and replied, “The baby doesn’t move much yet, but in another month, the fetal movements will be more noticeable. By then, the baby can greet you.”
It’s already winter now. Although the house was heated, Gu Yan’an still wore a thin sweater for warmth. Qiao Zhiya’s hand was pressed against her belly through the sweater, his ears perked up and his eyes wide open, his body stiff and motionless, as if someone pressed the pause button.
Gu Yan’an was amused by his appearance. She let out a soft giggle, and it caused her body to shake. So, her belly seemed to move.
“It moved! Baby said hello to me!”
Qiao Zhiya quickly retracts his hand, nearly jumping with excitement. He spun in place, glancing at Gu Yan’an’s belly, wanting to reach out but hesitating. He then paced a bit, his face and ears turning red, exuding an excited energy, unsure of what to do next.
Gu Yanan couldn’t bear to tell him the truth, so she only smiled and looked at him, motioning him to sit on the sofa, not step on the ground barefoot.
Qiao Zhiya couldn’t sit still at all. He catches a glimpse of Chu Rong approaching with a grim expression while holding plush slippers. Startled, he quickly skirts around the sofa, avoiding Chu Rong’s direction, and scurries back into the room.
Chu Rong：“……”
“Breakfast is almost ready.” Gu Yan’an stood up and looked at Chu Rong with a smile, said gently, “I cooked porridge for you. Your Dage did not come back for a busy night yesterday and should be home at noon.”
Chu Rong looked back at Qiao Zhiya, bent over and put the slippers aside. He then supported the youth, nodded, and asked about what’s happening in the Chu family.
Before they got home, the Empire had already submitted an application for joint trial. Chu Huai has been busy with this for the past few days.
Before lunch, Chu Huai returned home, and Chu Yan also rushed back from school.
The family gathered together and enjoyed a warm lunch. After the meal, Chu Huai went to rest, while Chu Rong took Fan Xiangnan to the military compound. With her morning sickness subsided, Gu Yan’an began to feel drowsy. Not long after lunch, she also went for a nap. So, the only ones left awake in the house were Qiao Zhiya and Chu Yan.
The two youths hadn’t seen each other for a long time. They both looked at each other in tacit agreement, then immediately walked towards the mecha battle hall.
After Qiao Zhiya logged into his mecha, he noticed that the one Chu Yan was piloting was not his usual silver-gray small-sized mecha, but a gray mecha produced by the Chu family’s military. He was surprised and asked, “Where’s your mecha?”
“I’ve put it away. I want to get used to manually-piloted mecha first,” Chu Yan’s voice came from the other side, and then the gray mecha moved, attacking at a much slower speed than before.
Qiao Zhiya ducked easily. He then counter-attacked, slamming his weapon over the gray mecha. The gray mecha easily fell down without much resistance.
“……”
“Once more!”
Chu Yan immediately got up and attacked again.
Suppressing his surprise at easily defeating Chu Yan, Qiao Zhiya counterattacked with renewed vigor. The gray mecha, unable to react in time, took a full hit and collapsed.
“……”
“Carry on!”
Qiao Zhiya couldn’t continue, so he stopped attacking and disembarked from his mecha. Looking up at the mecha Chu Yan was piloting, he tactfully said, “Xiao Yan, this mecha doesn’t suit you. Why don’t you come down first? I want to take a look at it.”
Since the battle until now, he hadn’t had the opportunity to thoroughly study the mass-produced manually-piloted mechas developed by Master Shang and Master Ren. He had seen Chu Rong’s subordinates adapt to these mechas quite well, and had secretly looked at the mecha blueprints, thinking there were no issues. He assumed that this batch of mechas was probably successful. However, judging from Chu Yan’s performance just now, the reality seemed quite different.
The gray mech moved closer, the cockpit opened, and Chu Yan jumped out of it, looking slightly discouraged.
Qiao Zhiya didn’t know how to comfort him. He just patted his shoulder lightly, then boarded the gray mech.
The cockpit structure of the gray mecha was identical to that of his “Elf,” with only some minor alterations made to the placement of the sapphire energy slot. Since he couldn’t dismantle it to take a closer look, Qiao Zhiya only glanced at it briefly before shifting his gaze away, then sat down in the pilot’s seat.
After the routine synchronization procedure, the mecha was activated. Qiao Zhiya tried to stretch his leg, and the mecha responded by doing the same about half a second later.
He frowned and finally understood why Chu Yan was so weak today.
Chu Yan’s advantage lies in speed and his versatile tactics. However, this manually-piloted mecha significantly weakens the pilot’s speed due to the nature of the mecha itself, restricting the pilot’s performance in terms of speed. This effectively countered Chu Yan’s strengths.
Afterward, he tried several maneuvers, gradually getting accustomed to the half-second delay in this slower rhythm. Ten minutes later, he signaled for Chu Yan to board his own Elf.
Hearing this, Chu Yan’s eyes lit up. He could not wait to log in to the cockpit of the Elf.
He had long been drooling over Qiao Zhiya’s “Elf”, but he had never found the courage to ask to pilot it, nor had he found the opportunity to do so.
The two of them clashed again, and Chu Yan quickly regained his composure. After becoming familiar with the basic operations of manually-piloted mechas, his attack speed increased, his movements became more fierce, and he even exuded a sense of solemnity that he hadn’t shown before.
While the war undoubtedly forever marked him, it also greatly enhanced Chu Yan’s strength.
Qiao Zhiya could barely fight for one minute before being beaten down, and then he got up and motioned for Chu Yan to continue.
The two of them fought for the entire afternoon. In the end, Qiao Zhiya returned with the “corpse” of the gray mecha, as Chu Yan accidentally unleashed too much force during his attacks, causing the gray mecha to be completely destroyed, relying on the excellent performance of the “Elf.”
“Sorry.” Chu Yan was very embarrassed.
Qiao Zhiya’s ears fluttered as he appeased him, “The bad thing is your mecha, no need to apologize to me.”
Chu Yan looked at him with his usual considerate demeanor, paused for a moment, then suddenly flashed a brilliant smile. He reached out and put his arm around his shoulder, and the two of them, like old friends, said, “Qiao, you seem to have some free time now. Um, I don’t know when you might… you know.”
Qiao Zhiya liked to see Chu Yan’s long-lost mischievous liveliness. He gave him a return smile, then nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll make a mecha for you.”
Chu Yan was waiting for this sentence. He patted Qiao Zhiya’s shoulder to express his gratitude.
That night, when Chu Rong returned, Qiao Zhiya said that he wanted to help Master Ren, and on the way, design a custom mecha for Chu Yan.
After the war, when his powers had just upgraded, Chu Rong was worried about any issues with the vine pattern on his wrist and forbade him from worrying about anything else.
At that time, the fake Zerg Queen had already been captured, and the war situation was no longer so urgent. His attention was fully focused on Gu Yan’an and the Ning family’s conspiracy, so he obediently didn’t touch the mecha. Now, before he knew it, more than two months have passed, and his powers have remained stable. It’s time for him to attend to the things he should be busy with, and Master Ren’s side must be getting anxious as well.
After hearing his plans, Chu Rong rubbed the vine pattern on his wrist, but did not stop the youth. He agreed to his request.
The next day, Qiao Zhiya, accompanied by Chu Yan, went to Master Ren’s personal laboratory with a large batch of materials and jade that Chu Rong had stuffed over.
During this period, Master Ren had been cursing Chu Rong every day in the laboratory, accusing him of disregarding the overall situation and being too biased, scolding him for restricting Qiao Zhiya’s freedom. He was so angry that he smashed several sets of tools. Now that he finally had Qiao Zhiya here, he hurriedly contacted Master Shang and then presented Qiao Zhiya with the artificially cultivated beast tendons and substitute cores, pulling him and refusing to let him leave.
After seeing the artificial beast tendons, Qiao Zhiya could no longer turn his attention away and didn’t want to leave.
Chu Yan was left on the sidelines, glancing at the group of research maniacs gathered together. He scratched his face, walked to the side, found a place to sit down, took out a textbook on command studies, and waited for Qiao Zhiya to “get off work” so they could go home together.
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Ning Tianya: Ning family’s head. Former Chairman.
Ning Tianxing: Ning Kongran’s father, Ning Tianya’s older brother.
Ning Kongran: Ning family current heir. Studying mecha manufacturing, unlike his family.
Bearded Teacher aka Master Shang: Qiao Zhiya’s Mecha teacher in VR. Chu Rong’s mother’s teacher. Is currently a mecha manufacturing teacher.
Long Ruifeng: the ex-President.
An Tyn: An Leen’s twin brother. The Fifth Imperial Prince, now the Emperor.
An Xei: The former Emperor’s younger brother. A Prince and a scholar.
An Mhu: Third Imperial Prince. Used to be the puppet Emperor after his father (former/old Emperor).
Feng: The Imperial High Advisor.
At this moment, Qiao Zhiya was fully asleep, but Chu Rong frowned.
It seems Qiao Zhiya slept the whole afternoon after lunch, brought back to the room for a nap by Chu Rong around 1:30 PM. If it weren’t for Qiao Zhiya’s normal vital signs, Chu Rong would almost have thought Qiao Zhiya had fainted.
After sleeping for so long in the afternoon, Chu Rong originally thought that Qiao Zhiya might not be able to sleep at night. But he guessed wrong – around before 10 PM, Qiao Zhiya showed signs of drowsiness, and before he was urged, he already climbed into the bed and rolled into the quilt, falling asleep.
–This is wrong, Qiao Zhiya shouldn’t be this sleepy.
Chu Rong grew more and more aware of the possible problem stemming from the newly-found stones. He called Zhuang Yu over to do a simple check on Qiao Zhiya. The results of the check were normal, and Qiao Zhiya really just fell asleep.
“Maybe he’s just too tired. He’s running around with you during this time, and the pressure is heavy. Now that he’s going home, he relaxed and it all crashed at once. It’s normal for him to sleep a bit longer after being relaxed.” Zhuang Yu explained softly and put away the check-up instrument.
Chu Rong thought about the busy schedule during this time. He sat on the bed and patted Qiao Zhiya. The youth’s face did look thinner lately…
The realization made Chu Rong frown.
In the early hours of the morning, the flagship landed at Chu family’s private port. Chu Rong returned home with Qiao Zhiya still asleep.
Qiao Zhiya slept so deeply that he had no idea he had been moved while he slept. When he woke up in the morning and saw the familiar bed and ceiling, he felt a bit confused, thinking he was still dreaming. It wasn’t until Chu Rong pushed the door open and entered that he snapped out of it. His eyes lit up instantly, and he threw off the covers, jumped out of bed, not even bothering to put on his shoes before rushing past Chu Rong and out the door.
Thinking that Qiao Zhiya was about to rush over for a morning hug, Chu Rong, who had already romantically extended his arms… did not get a hug.
Then, he silently retracted them, turned, and walked out the door. He froze upon hearing the surprised yet amused shouts from outside, his expression stiffening.
“Is the baby already moving?” Qiao Zhiya leaned in front of Gu Yan’an, watching her slightly swollen belly. His fingers hover over her abdomen, afraid of touching it.
Gu Yan’an looked at him with amusement, took his hand and placed it on her own abdomen, and replied, “The baby doesn’t move much yet, but in another month, the fetal movements will be more noticeable. By then, the baby can greet you.”
It’s already winter now. Although the house was heated, Gu Yan’an still wore a thin sweater for warmth. Qiao Zhiya’s hand was pressed against her belly through the sweater, his ears perked up and his eyes wide open, his body stiff and motionless, as if someone pressed the pause button.
Gu Yan’an was amused by his appearance. She let out a soft giggle, and it caused her body to shake. So, her belly seemed to move.
“It moved! Baby said hello to me!”
Qiao Zhiya quickly retracts his hand, nearly jumping with excitement. He spun in place, glancing at Gu Yan’an’s belly, wanting to reach out but hesitating. He then paced a bit, his face and ears turning red, exuding an excited energy, unsure of what to do next.
Gu Yanan couldn’t bear to tell him the truth, so she only smiled and looked at him, motioning him to sit on the sofa, not step on the ground barefoot.
Qiao Zhiya couldn’t sit still at all. He catches a glimpse of Chu Rong approaching with a grim expression while holding plush slippers. Startled, he quickly skirts around the sofa, avoiding Chu Rong’s direction, and scurries back into the room.
Chu Rong：“……”
“Breakfast is almost ready.” Gu Yan’an stood up and looked at Chu Rong with a smile, said gently, “I cooked porridge for you. Your Dage did not come back for a busy night yesterday and should be home at noon.”
Chu Rong looked back at Qiao Zhiya, bent over and put the slippers aside. He then supported the youth, nodded, and asked about what’s happening in the Chu family.
Before they got home, the Empire had already submitted an application for joint trial. Chu Huai has been busy with this for the past few days.
Before lunch, Chu Huai returned home, and Chu Yan also rushed back from school.
The family gathered together and enjoyed a warm lunch. After the meal, Chu Huai went to rest, while Chu Rong took Fan Xiangnan to the military compound. With her morning sickness subsided, Gu Yan’an began to feel drowsy. Not long after lunch, she also went for a nap. So, the only ones left awake in the house were Qiao Zhiya and Chu Yan.
The two youths hadn’t seen each other for a long time. They both looked at each other in tacit agreement, then immediately walked towards the mecha battle hall.
After Qiao Zhiya logged into his mecha, he noticed that the one Chu Yan was piloting was not his usual silver-gray small-sized mecha, but a gray mecha produced by the Chu family’s military. He was surprised and asked, “Where’s your mecha?”
“I’ve put it away. I want to get used to manually-piloted mecha first,” Chu Yan’s voice came from the other side, and then the gray mecha moved, attacking at a much slower speed than before.
Qiao Zhiya ducked easily. He then counter-attacked, slamming his weapon over the gray mecha. The gray mecha easily fell down without much resistance.
“……”
“Once more!”
Chu Yan immediately got up and attacked again.
Suppressing his surprise at easily defeating Chu Yan, Qiao Zhiya counterattacked with renewed vigor. The gray mecha, unable to react in time, took a full hit and collapsed.
“……”
“Carry on!”
Qiao Zhiya couldn’t continue, so he stopped attacking and disembarked from his mecha. Looking up at the mecha Chu Yan was piloting, he tactfully said, “Xiao Yan, this mecha doesn’t suit you. Why don’t you come down first? I want to take a look at it.”
Since the battle until now, he hadn’t had the opportunity to thoroughly study the mass-produced manually-piloted mechas developed by Master Shang and Master Ren. He had seen Chu Rong’s subordinates adapt to these mechas quite well, and had secretly looked at the mecha blueprints, thinking there were no issues. He assumed that this batch of mechas was probably successful. However, judging from Chu Yan’s performance just now, the reality seemed quite different.
The gray mech moved closer, the cockpit opened, and Chu Yan jumped out of it, looking slightly discouraged.
Qiao Zhiya didn’t know how to comfort him. He just patted his shoulder lightly, then boarded the gray mech.
The cockpit structure of the gray mecha was identical to that of his “Elf,” with only some minor alterations made to the placement of the sapphire energy slot. Since he couldn’t dismantle it to take a closer look, Qiao Zhiya only glanced at it briefly before shifting his gaze away, then sat down in the pilot’s seat.
After the routine synchronization procedure, the mecha was activated. Qiao Zhiya tried to stretch his leg, and the mecha responded by doing the same about half a second later.
He frowned and finally understood why Chu Yan was so weak today.
Chu Yan’s advantage lies in speed and his versatile tactics. However, this manually-piloted mecha significantly weakens the pilot’s speed due to the nature of the mecha itself, restricting the pilot’s performance in terms of speed. This effectively countered Chu Yan’s strengths.
Afterward, he tried several maneuvers, gradually getting accustomed to the half-second delay in this slower rhythm. Ten minutes later, he signaled for Chu Yan to board his own Elf.
Hearing this, Chu Yan’s eyes lit up. He could not wait to log in to the cockpit of the Elf.
He had long been drooling over Qiao Zhiya’s “Elf”, but he had never found the courage to ask to pilot it, nor had he found the opportunity to do so.
The two of them clashed again, and Chu Yan quickly regained his composure. After becoming familiar with the basic operations of manually-piloted mechas, his attack speed increased, his movements became more fierce, and he even exuded a sense of solemnity that he hadn’t shown before.
While the war undoubtedly forever marked him, it also greatly enhanced Chu Yan’s strength.
Qiao Zhiya could barely fight for one minute before being beaten down, and then he got up and motioned for Chu Yan to continue.
The two of them fought for the entire afternoon. In the end, Qiao Zhiya returned with the “corpse” of the gray mecha, as Chu Yan accidentally unleashed too much force during his attacks, causing the gray mecha to be completely destroyed, relying on the excellent performance of the “Elf.”
“Sorry.” Chu Yan was very embarrassed.
Qiao Zhiya’s ears fluttered as he appeased him, “The bad thing is your mecha, no need to apologize to me.”
Chu Yan looked at him with his usual considerate demeanor, paused for a moment, then suddenly flashed a brilliant smile. He reached out and put his arm around his shoulder, and the two of them, like old friends, said, “Qiao, you seem to have some free time now. Um, I don’t know when you might… you know.”
Qiao Zhiya liked to see Chu Yan’s long-lost mischievous liveliness. He gave him a return smile, then nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll make a mecha for you.”
Chu Yan was waiting for this sentence. He patted Qiao Zhiya’s shoulder to express his gratitude.
That night, when Chu Rong returned, Qiao Zhiya said that he wanted to help Master Ren, and on the way, design a custom mecha for Chu Yan.
After the war, when his powers had just upgraded, Chu Rong was worried about any issues with the vine pattern on his wrist and forbade him from worrying about anything else.
At that time, the fake Zerg Queen had already been captured, and the war situation was no longer so urgent. His attention was fully focused on Gu Yan’an and the Ning family’s conspiracy, so he obediently didn’t touch the mecha. Now, before he knew it, more than two months have passed, and his powers have remained stable. It’s time for him to attend to the things he should be busy with, and Master Ren’s side must be getting anxious as well.
After hearing his plans, Chu Rong rubbed the vine pattern on his wrist, but did not stop the youth. He agreed to his request.
The next day, Qiao Zhiya, accompanied by Chu Yan, went to Master Ren’s personal laboratory with a large batch of materials and jade that Chu Rong had stuffed over.
During this period, Master Ren had been cursing Chu Rong every day in the laboratory, accusing him of disregarding the overall situation and being too biased, scolding him for restricting Qiao Zhiya’s freedom. He was so angry that he smashed several sets of tools. Now that he finally had Qiao Zhiya here, he hurriedly contacted Master Shang and then presented Qiao Zhiya with the artificially cultivated beast tendons and substitute cores, pulling him and refusing to let him leave.
After seeing the artificial beast tendons, Qiao Zhiya could no longer turn his attention away and didn’t want to leave.
Chu Yan was left on the sidelines, glancing at the group of research maniacs gathered together. He scratched his face, walked to the side, found a place to sit down, took out a textbook on command studies, and waited for Qiao Zhiya to “get off work” so they could go home together.
Ning Tianya: Ning family's head. Former Chairman.Ning Tianxing: Ning Kongran's father, Ning Tianya's older brother.Ning Kongran: Ning family current heir. Studying mecha manufacturing, unlike his family.Bearded Teacher aka Master Shang: Qiao Zhiya's Mecha teacher in VR. Chu Rong's mother's teacher. Is currently a mecha manufacturing teacher.Long Ruifeng: the ex-President.An Tyn: An Leen's twin brother. The Fifth Imperial Prince, now the Emperor.An Xei: The former Emperor's younger brother. A Prince and a scholar.An Mhu: Third Imperial Prince. Used to be the puppet Emperor after his father former/old Emperor.Feng: The Imperial High Advisor.At this moment, Qiao Zhiya was fully asleep, but Chu Rong frowned.It seems Qiao Zhiya slept the whole afternoon after lunch, brought back to the room for a nap by Chu Rong around 1:30 PM. If it weren't for Qiao Zhiya's normal vital signs, Chu Rong would almost have thought Qiao Zhiya had fainted.After sleeping for so long in the afternoon, Chu Rong originally thought that Qiao Zhiya might not be able to sleep at night. But he guessed wrong around before 10 PM, Qiao Zhiya showed signs of drowsiness, and before he was urged, he already climbed into the bed and rolled into the quilt, falling asleep.This is wrong, Qiao Zhiya shouldn't be this sleepy.Chu Rong grew more and more aware of the possible problem stemming from the newly-found stones. He called Zhuang Yu over to do a simple check on Qiao Zhiya. The results of the check were normal, and Qiao Zhiya really just fell asleep.Maybe he's just too tired. He's running around with you during this time, and the pressure is heavy. Now that he's going home, he relaxed and it all crashed at once. It's normal for him to sleep a bit longer after being relaxed. Zhuang Yu explained softly and put away the check-up instrument.Chu Rong thought about the busy schedule during this time. He sat on the bed and patted Qiao Zhiya. The youth's face did look thinner latelyThe realization made Chu Rong frown.In the early hours of the morning, the flagship landed at Chu family's private port. Chu Rong returned home with Qiao Zhiya still asleep.Qiao Zhiya slept so deeply that he had no idea he had been moved while he slept. When he woke up in the morning and saw the familiar bed and ceiling, he felt a bit confused, thinking he was still dreaming. It wasn't until Chu Rong pushed the door open and entered that he snapped out of it. His eyes lit up instantly, and he threw off the covers, jumped out of bed, not even bothering to put on his shoes before rushing past Chu Rong and out the door.Thinking that Qiao Zhiya was about to rush over for a morning hug, Chu Rong, who had already romantically extended his arms did not get a hug.Then, he silently retracted them, turned, and walked out the door. He froze upon hearing the surprised yet amused shouts from outside, his expression stiffening.Is the baby already moving? Qiao Zhiya leaned in front of Gu Yan'an, watching her slightly swollen belly. His fingers hover over her abdomen, afraid of touching it.Gu Yan'an looked at him with amusement, took his hand and placed it on her own abdomen, and replied, The baby doesn't move much yet, but in another month, the fetal movements will be more noticeable. By then, the baby can greet you.It's already winter now. Although the house was heated, Gu Yan'an still wore a thin sweater for warmth. Qiao Zhiya's hand was pressed against her belly through the sweater, his ears perked up and his eyes wide open, his body stiff and motionless, as if someone pressed the pause button.Gu Yan'an was amused by his appearance. She let out a soft giggle, and it caused her body to shake. So, her belly seemed to move.It moved! Baby said hello to me!Qiao Zhiya quickly retracts his hand, nearly jumping with excitement. He spun in place, glancing at Gu Yan'an's belly, wanting to reach out but hesitating. He then paced a bit, his face and ears turning red, exuding an excited energy, unsure of what to do next.Gu Yanan couldn't bear to tell him the truth, so she only smiled and looked at him, motioning him to sit on the sofa, not step on the ground barefoot.Qiao Zhiya couldn't sit still at all. He catches a glimpse of Chu Rong approaching with a grim expression while holding plush slippers. Startled, he quickly skirts around the sofa, avoiding Chu Rong's direction, and scurries back into the room.Chu RongBreakfast is almost ready. Gu Yan'an stood up and looked at Chu Rong with a smile, said gently, I cooked porridge for you. Your Dage did not come back for a busy night yesterday and should be home at noon.Chu Rong looked back at Qiao Zhiya, bent over and put the slippers aside. He then supported the youth, nodded, and asked about what's happening in the Chu family.Before they got home, the Empire had already submitted an application for joint trial. Chu Huai has been busy with this for the past few days.Before lunch, Chu Huai returned home, and Chu Yan also rushed back from school.The family gathered together and enjoyed a warm lunch. After the meal, Chu Huai went to rest, while Chu Rong took Fan Xiangnan to the military compound. With her morning sickness subsided, Gu Yan'an began to feel drowsy. Not long after lunch, she also went for a nap. So, the only ones left awake in the house were Qiao Zhiya and Chu Yan.The two youths hadn't seen each other for a long time. They both looked at each other in tacit agreement, then immediately walked towards the mecha battle hall.After Qiao Zhiya logged into his mecha, he noticed that the one Chu Yan was piloting was not his usual silver-gray small-sized mecha, but a gray mecha produced by the Chu family's military. He was surprised and asked, Where's your mecha?I've put it away. I want to get used to manually-piloted mecha first, Chu Yan's voice came from the other side, and then the gray mecha moved, attacking at a much slower speed than before.Qiao Zhiya ducked easily. He then counter-attacked, slamming his weapon over the gray mecha. The gray mecha easily fell down without much resistance.Once more!Chu Yan immediately got up and attacked again.Suppressing his surprise at easily defeating Chu Yan, Qiao Zhiya counterattacked with renewed vigor. The gray mecha, unable to react in time, took a full hit and collapsed.Carry on!Qiao Zhiya couldn't continue, so he stopped attacking and disembarked from his mecha. Looking up at the mecha Chu Yan was piloting, he tactfully said, Xiao Yan, this mecha doesn't suit you. Why don't you come down first? I want to take a look at it.Since the battle until now, he hadn't had the opportunity to thoroughly study the mass-produced manually-piloted mechas developed by Master Shang and Master Ren. He had seen Chu Rong's subordinates adapt to these mechas quite well, and had secretly looked at the mecha blueprints, thinking there were no issues. He assumed that this batch of mechas was probably successful. However, judging from Chu Yan's performance just now, the reality seemed quite different.The gray mech moved closer, the cockpit opened, and Chu Yan jumped out of it, looking slightly discouraged.Qiao Zhiya didn't know how to comfort him. He just patted his shoulder lightly, then boarded the gray mech.The cockpit structure of the gray mecha was identical to that of his Elf, with only some minor alterations made to the placement of the sapphire energy slot. Since he couldn't dismantle it to take a closer look, Qiao Zhiya only glanced at it briefly before shifting his gaze away, then sat down in the pilot's seat.After the routine synchronization procedure, the mecha was activated. Qiao Zhiya tried to stretch his leg, and the mecha responded by doing the same about half a second later.He frowned and finally understood why Chu Yan was so weak today.Chu Yan's advantage lies in speed and his versatile tactics. However, this manually-piloted mecha significantly weakens the pilot's speed due to the nature of the mecha itself, restricting the pilot's performance in terms of speed. This effectively countered Chu Yan's strengths.Afterward, he tried several maneuvers, gradually getting accustomed to the half-second delay in this slower rhythm. Ten minutes later, he signaled for Chu Yan to board his own Elf.Hearing this, Chu Yan's eyes lit up. He could not wait to log in to the cockpit of the Elf.He had long been drooling over Qiao Zhiya's Elf, but he had never found the courage to ask to pilot it, nor had he found the opportunity to do so.The two of them clashed again, and Chu Yan quickly regained his composure. After becoming familiar with the basic operations of manually-piloted mechas, his attack speed increased, his movements became more fierce, and he even exuded a sense of solemnity that he hadn't shown before.While the war undoubtedly forever marked him, it also greatly enhanced Chu Yan's strength.Qiao Zhiya could barely fight for one minute before being beaten down, and then he got up and motioned for Chu Yan to continue.The two of them fought for the entire afternoon. In the end, Qiao Zhiya returned with the corpse of the gray mecha, as Chu Yan accidentally unleashed too much force during his attacks, causing the gray mecha to be completely destroyed, relying on the excellent performance of the Elf.Sorry. Chu Yan was very embarrassed.Qiao Zhiya's ears fluttered as he appeased him, The bad thing is your mecha, no need to apologize to me.Chu Yan looked at him with his usual considerate demeanor, paused for a moment, then suddenly flashed a brilliant smile. He reached out and put his arm around his shoulder, and the two of them, like old friends, said, Qiao, you seem to have some free time now. Um, I don't know when you might you know.Qiao Zhiya liked to see Chu Yan's long-lost mischievous liveliness. He gave him a return smile, then nodded and said, Okay, I'll make a mecha for you.Chu Yan was waiting for this sentence. He patted Qiao Zhiya's shoulder to express his gratitude.That night, when Chu Rong returned, Qiao Zhiya said that he wanted to help Master Ren, and on the way, design a custom mecha for Chu Yan.After the war, when his powers had just upgraded, Chu Rong was worried about any issues with the vine pattern on his wrist and forbade him from worrying about anything else.At that time, the fake Zerg Queen had already been captured, and the war situation was no longer so urgent. His attention was fully focused on Gu Yan'an and the Ning family's conspiracy, so he obediently didn't touch the mecha. Now, before he knew it, more than two months have passed, and his powers have remained stable. It's time for him to attend to the things he should be busy with, and Master Ren's side must be getting anxious as well.After hearing his plans, Chu Rong rubbed the vine pattern on his wrist, but did not stop the youth. He agreed to his request.The next day, Qiao Zhiya, accompanied by Chu Yan, went to Master Ren's personal laboratory with a large batch of materials and jade that Chu Rong had stuffed over.During this period, Master Ren had been cursing Chu Rong every day in the laboratory, accusing him of disregarding the overall situation and being too biased, scolding him for restricting Qiao Zhiya's freedom. He was so angry that he smashed several sets of tools. Now that he finally had Qiao Zhiya here, he hurriedly contacted Master Shang and then presented Qiao Zhiya with the artificially cultivated beast tendons and substitute cores, pulling him and refusing to let him leave.After seeing the artificial beast tendons, Qiao Zhiya could no longer turn his attention away and didn't want to leave.Chu Yan was left on the sidelines, glancing at the group of research maniacs gathered together. He scratched his face, walked to the side, found a place to sit down, took out a textbook on command studies, and waited for Qiao Zhiya to get off work so they could go home together.
