Chapter 65

"Xunxun, it's not a big deal. Pull yourself together."

Ji Xun said, "What do I have to pull myself together for?"

The little cheetah walked over to Ji Xun's feet, rubbed its head against him, and then hopped onto the sofa.

Ji Xun stroked its head, then simply picked it up onto his lap to pet it, giving in to a willful bout of apathy: "No training today. I don't feel like training."

Zhao Zhanlei said, "Alright, no training for now."

Seeing Zhao Zhanlei agree so readily, Ji Xun became dissatisfied instead. He glanced sideways at him and asked, "Did you know about this all along?"

"I've been wronged!" Zhao Zhanlei cried out in grievance. "Little Xun, I do have a criminal record, but you can't always suspect me! I've already recognized my mistake and am firmly turning over a new leaf. From the start of the holiday until now, I've only met with Brother Xing a total of two times, both of which you were present for, and I spoke even less than the two of you did. Besides, my communicator has been in your hands the whole time. How could I have 'known in advance'?"

Seeing how genuine Zhao Zhanlei looked, Ji Xun reluctantly believed him for now, withdrew his gaze, and went back to petting the little leopard.

Jason lay on his back with his belly up, his head being massaged by the little guide's cool, slender fingers. He squinted comfortably, his handsome and cool tear marks twitching, and even wagged his long tail.

That little look was both smug and utterly punchable.

He completely disregarded the fact that his master was currently under suspicion.

Seeing a spiritual beast that received completely different treatment from his own, Zhao Zhanlei's feelings were! Extremely! Complicated!

Ji Xun asked, "Did he go to the East District Military Academy?"

Zhao Zhanlei replied, "That's what our instructor said."

"The East District is in the far east..." Ji Xun muttered.

"Yes, two light-years away. The spacecraft has to make two short space-time jumps."

"How long does it take to get there?"

"About six hours."

Ji Xun sat up straight in shock. "That fast?! It takes us four hours just to get to District 10!"

"That's our private flyer; they use a spacecraft. Are those the same thing?" Zhao Zhanlei looked at Ji Xun's wide-open eyes, remembering that the other had never ridden a spacecraft from childhood to the present, and said, "Next time there's a chance, big brother will take you for a ride."

Ji Xun asked, "Are spacecraft very big?"

Zhao Zhanlei answered, "There are big and small ones. The smallest can seat at least two to three hundred people."

Ji Xun exclaimed, "Wow!!"

Seeing that Ji Xun was interested, Zhao Zhanlei stopped dwelling on Brother Xing going to the military academy and continued along the topic—"Spacecraft are actually considered small; they are the smallest spacecraft capable of space-time jumps. Nowadays, medium-sized spacecraft are more commonly used, which can seat five or six hundred people..."

Zhao Zhanlei chatted with Ji Xun about spacecraft and fighter jets, then moved on to starships, and finally discussed the large-scale battles from previous years, detailing how impressive the commanders of the federal fleets were.

Because both of Ji Xun's parents were in politics, and he had awakened as a guide, he knew very little about this kind of knowledge. Of course, it was also because he hadn't had the inclination or interest to learn about it before.

So now, with every sentence Zhao Zhanlei spoke, he felt like a new world was being opened up to him!

Entering his bedroom that night, Ji Xun caught sight of the gift box on the table at a single glance.

He walked over and shoved the box under the bed.

His good mood was instantly halved.

After learning from Zhao Zhanlei at noon that Fu Shuxing had left for the military academy alone without saying goodbye, Ji Xun immediately used Zhao Zhanlei's communicator to send Fu Shuxing a message asking about it, but until evening, Fu Shuxing had not replied.

It must be because the military academy had strict discipline and confiscated the communication devices of new recruits.

Ji Xun lay on the bed.

Sigh...

Ji Xun thought: So Fu Shuxing didn't leave ten years of precious memories for me and walk away empty-handed; rather, he threw away useless baggage to pursue his future and his dreams. Fu Shuxing's future is a sea of stars...

The Great King Egg nudged Ji Xun, twisting and turning beneath its flexible shell as if trying to cheer him up.

Previously, the Great King Egg had always maintained a round, pristine white appearance.

After falling gravely ill and getting "wrinkled," it completely lost any idols' burden, let go of its obsession with a pretty image, and no longer maintained a jade-like elongated oval shape all the time.

Being wrinkled made movement much easier!

Ji Xun finally laughed, swept away the gloom in his heart, stroked the Great King Egg, picked it up, and went to turn on the computer to surf the internet.

Ji Xun looked up spacecraft, looked up warships.

Then he looked up the East District Military Academy.

***

The days were long and boring, yet they passed in a flash.

When he came to his senses, the Sanctuary welcomed the first weekend break of the semester.

"No training tomorrow, Xun-xun," Zhao Zhanlei called Ji Xun on the communicator in the evening, saying, "Instructor Luode is taking a few of us to District 11 to participate in a sentinel team collaboration competition. It'll probably take a whole day to go and come back. I'll be back the day after tomorrow, and we'll resume then."

Ji Xun said, "Alright, do your best!"

Ji Xun hung up the communicator and continued watching videos.

Ji Xun had recently been addicted to watching videos. The videos he watched were varied, so the trending videos pushed to him by the big data were also mixed.

There were military cadets flying fighter jets to execute bombing exercises, sentinels engaged in close-combat fighting, guides cooperating seamlessly with their spiritual beasts to complete high-difficulty assessments, and the feelings of newly awakened individuals riding a spacecraft for the first time, among others.

After finishing each video, Ji Xun would briefly project himself into the scenario.

He felt tremendously thrilled!

However, when he lay in bed at night, Ji Xun would feel an empty sense of self-loathing: I've wasted another evening. What was the point of getting all thrilled over nothing? Those weren't him!

The first day of the weekend break.

Ji Xun didn't want to browse videos, nor did he want to get out of bed.

He lay lazily in bed.

The bedroom was very quiet with just him alone.

Until the morning light gradually spilled into the room.

The sunlight shone on two hard fruit candies on the table, and through the pretty candy wrappers, rainbow-colored light fell upon the books.

Suddenly, a strong feeling of being "left behind" washed over him!

The moment that emotion arose, Ji Xun immediately got out of bed to wash up!

He ran out of his bedroom.

Ji Xun's father still had to go to work on the weekend.

Ji Xun's mother wasn't working overtime and was sitting on the sofa knitting a scarf.

In a wicker half-basket to the side, a brown lop-eared rabbit stretched its body, amusing itself by stepping on the front and back edges, rocking back and forth like a cradle.

"Mom!"

"Hey." Ji Xun's mother paused her movements, looked up at her son with a smile, and said, "Awake? You're up so early even though there's no school today. Breakfast is warming in the pot. Do you want red bean buns or meat buns?"

"I want something sweet."

Ji Xun's mother put down her scarf and knitting needles. "How about two red bean buns and one meat bun?"

"Okay~!" Ji Xun asked, "Mom, do you want me to help you with anything?"

"After you finish eating, go water the front yard. A couple of days ago, I had your dad turn the soil and plant some vegetable seeds."

"Okay!"

After watering the vegetable patch, Ji Xun ran two laps outside to warm up, and then began physical training all by himself, including shuttle runs and wall-climbing.

Once his training was done, he returned to his bedroom to read.

Ji Xun read for the entire morning.

In the afternoon, he went to the study to find a new book to read.

Ji Xun acted as if nothing was wrong.

As though that eerie, terrifying emotion from the morning had vanished in a flash, never to return.

However, as the sun set.

As the pages of the book in his hand turned one by one, Ji Xun, sitting on the bed, looked up at the bedroom opposite with its tightly shut windows, and a sharp sourness suddenly rushed up into his nose!

Ji Xun put down his book and couldn't help but bury his face in his arms.

He still felt like he had been left behind.

He felt just like that box of expired gifts under the bed, with the only difference being that he could breathe.

"Ahhhhh!"

If only one could go straight to the military academy!!

***

Ji Xun went crazy, rolling back and forth on the bed with "Ahhhhh..." noises.

Thinking he was playing, the Great King Egg also rolled back and forth energetically beside him.

During the exchange class at the end of the month, Ji Xun's class was matched with Sentinel Class A.

A few female guides gossiped as they walked down the stairs—

"I heard Class C got matched with Sentinel Class A?"

"Wow!"

"Pity, Fu Shuxing has already gone to the military academy..."

"I've never understood it. When the military academy came to select people before, the whole Sanctuary was buzzing with gossip. Didn't Fu Shuxing explicitly refuse back then? Why did he go quietly alone now? Could it be that he suffered from emotional trauma?"

"Didn't he skip the final exams last semester? Ji Xun skipped them too. Could it be that the two of them..."

"Stop shipping them blindly; he and Ji Xun are impossible, their mental powers are worlds apart."

"Mind your business! Shipping everything just keeps my nutrition balanced!"

"Exactly! I'm also shipping Ji Xun and Zhao Zhanlei!"

Ji Xun walked past them.

The few girls talking saw him and immediately stopped speaking in unison.

After he walked past.

The girls quietly continued their conversation in low voices.

It had been a month.

It was nearly a month since Fu Shuxing left for the military academy, yet his name could still be heard frequently around the Sanctuary.

Ji Xun sat cross-legged on the lawn.

The teammate assigned to Ji Xun was not Zhao Zhanlei, but a sentinel who liked to smile a lot. However, that sentinel was very perceptive; seeing Zhao Zhanlei walk over, he stood up and tactfully suggested they swap guide partners.

Zhao Zhanlei was, of course, more than willing and agreed immediately!

Later, Fan Yunhai and two other sentinels also brought their partner guides over to chat.

The sentinels chatted among themselves, and the guides chatted among themselves.

Ji Xun propped his chin on his hand, aimlessly stroking Jason who was lying on the lawn, listening to the small guides in his class talk for a while, and then looking over to see what Stone and the others were discussing.

Slowly, the spiritual beasts of several sentinels gathered around Ji Xun.

Yunxiao couldn't stand the little cheetah hogging all the affection and secretly pecked it several times. Unable to bear it any longer, Jason turned around and lunged to bite, prompting Yunxiao to immediately flap its wings and fly far away! The remaining two spiritual beast cubs seized the opportunity to come to Ji Xun's side: one was a small jackal, and the other was a small lynx that looked very much like a cat.

Discovering that while the snipe and clam clutched each other, the fisherman profited, an irritated Jason lunged back!

Clearly, Jason was as tyrannical as Yunxiao and used to getting its way; the moment it approached, the small jackal and small lynx immediately stood up to yield their spot.

Jason settled down beside the little guide once more.

Fan Yunhai and Zhao Zhanlei were talking about the previous league matches.

After two weeks, there was only one round left of the league.

Afterwards, the top five ranked Star Navigation students selected from the competition would go to District 1 of Juhong for the elimination matches.

Juhong was twenty billion kilometers away from Star Navigation, and a spacecraft took ten hours to fly there. This team league was on a grand scale, involving the entire interstellar federation. If they could secure a good ranking, they would definitely gain the favor of various district military academies, and perhaps even secure early admission.

Hearing this, Ji Xun chimed in to ask, "Can guides participate in this competition?"

Fan Yunhai looked at him and said, "Of course not, little cutie. The competition is too dangerous; it's all sentinels."

Ji Xun curled his lip. "Why is it all competitions for you sentinels?"

"Because you guys are precious and cannot afford any mishaps," another sentinel replied. "A guide can provide mental counseling to ten or a hundred sentinels. If a sentinel and a guide both fell into the water, out of a hundred people, all a hundred would choose to save the guide."

What was said was true; guides were precious.

Guides were the guarantee for sentinels risking their lives on the battlefield.