Chapter 196: No Way to Communicate

Phantom rushed to poke fun at Xia Fei. “Congratulations.”

“For what?”

“You finally managed to drag Old Porter on board as well; isn’t that worth celebrating?”

Xia Fei smiled. Although dragging the old mechanic on board was not the best way to describe things, it was certain that Porter would be of great help to Xia Fei.

Ever since Xia Fei decided to establish Quantum Holdings, Old Porter was probably the person in the highest weight class among its talented recruits. Previously, Xia Fei managed to get the likes of Boateng and Sarah into his company, but their usefulness could not hold a candle to Old Porter.

Xia Fei knew well that Old Porter had amazing knowledge of machines and maintenance even compared to the rest of the Alliance. It was almost unthinkable to recruit such an incredible master of machines into his small company.

As long as Uncle Porter gave the word, countless top companies in the Alliance would beg him to join them with crates of cash, and this was something he absolutely had the power to do.

The more he spent adventuring, the more Xia Fei realized the importance of strength. Strength did not just refer to the cultivation of physical abilities, the life in space was full of unexpected and complicated things, and connections, as well as financial power, were also just as important.

At the beginning, Xia Fei had to overcome many different obstacles to get the Black Mamba 130 engine. Without that top-tier engine, Xia Fei and Porter might have been lost among the stars; evidently, that engine played quite a big role.

Without proper strength and connections, it would be near impossible to get the proper top-of-the-shelf items, be it a warp engine, medicines used for cultivation, or equipment.

Since he had chosen to go on the path of strength, there was no reason for Xia Fei not to go all out to increase his strength, so it was important for Quantum Holdings to join the stage of the Pan-Human Alliance as soon as it could.

…

Old Porter went to Planet DLC-113 to look for Windchime, whereas Xia Fei stayed in the Scarlet Volcano Military Base to fix Vampire.

This time, the fat supervisor of the logistics department, Piker, did not try to give Xia Fei a hard time. Commander Yawei had given him a strict order: “Give Xia Fei anything he needs immediately. If we don’t have it, take it off another ship or borrow it from someone else. I don’t care how you do it, but fix his ship as soon as possible.”

As a result, Piker was now deathly afraid of Xia Fei making a ridiculous request. There was no questioning the commander’s authority; if he could not complete the task, not only might he lose his position in logistics, he might even be thrown into some dark, cold corner.

Ever since Xia Fei entered the logistics department, the greedy fat man had been treating him like his own father, perhaps even a bit too friendly, such that it made Xia Fei feel uncomfortable.

The Scarlet Volcano Military Base was not wealthy by any means; hence, Xia Fei tried his best to take as few parts as possible, and most of what he did take were necessary, such as additional energy, propulsion, weapons; as for the other non-essential ones, Xia Fei decided to make do with what he had for now, only dealing with them once he returned to the Alliance.

The fat man Piker happily sent Xia Fei away and immediately had people work on Vampire. Piker stayed up awake for over the next three days, remaining in his post and watching as others worked on the ship.

In theory, there was nothing wrong with Piker watching over somebody else do work, but this fat man always liked giving unsolicited advice despite not knowing anything about maintenance. The engineers from the logistics department resented this and would grit their teeth each time.

Obviously, the fat Piker did not care about any of that as Yawei gave him a strict order. He had to guarantee the progress and quality of the work even if he got on the bad side of everyone in the military. As a ‘smart guy’, Piker obviously knew the relative importance of his subordinates or the commander.

As per usual, Xia Fei worked with everyone else, doing the repairs, eating the same food, performing the same tasks, perhaps even working harder than the others.

Thanks to Xia Fei’s big rewards and leading demonstration, the repairs of Vampire were done fast, finishing in just three days’ time.

Vampire was a top-tier combat frigate that had higher requirements than normal warships. Its parts were also more complicated, making the repairs and maintenance more difficult; hence, completing it in three days’ time was shocking to say the least.

On the evening of the fourth day, Old Porter returned to the military base without Windchime by his side.

Something seemed to have happened on Planet DLC-113. Xia Fei did not know why Windchime was unwilling to move to Earth with Uncle Porter, but it was not difficult to tell from Porter’s bitter face that the lady had broken his heart.

Relationships did not get easier as people grew older, and nuances of women’s thoughts remained ever difficult to understand. Xia Fei had seen Windchime, and she appeared to be an independent and capable woman; women like her could not be understood using the thought process of the average girl.

Uncle Porter was unwilling to talk about his romance, pretending that nothing had happened, nor did Xia Fei have a reason to pry any deeper. Vampire slowly lifted into the air; onboard with him were Uncle Porter and Harris, who had lost precious research data regarding the Endaro Star Region.

…

A journey of over a month was not considered short. The day Vampire returned to the core of the Alliance territory was when the connection to the interplanetary internet was restored; Xia Fei immediately called Qin Mang.

The old man did not have a microcomputer on his wrist like Xia Fei did. He usually communicated with the world outside using the large AI computer in the library, so it was the only method Xia Fei knew to contact the old man. The call was never answered; evidently, old man Qin Mang was not at the library.

With some calculations, Xia Fei figured that it was noon on planet Hek. He then hailed Battalion Combat Ye Jingshan for a video-call.

“Battalion Commander Ye,” said Xia Fei respectfully. “I’d like to speak to old man Qin Mang, but I wasn’t able to reach him. Do you know how he’s doing?”

Ye Jingshan was standing in a long hallway. By the looks of it, he was not inside the training camp but in a hospital, instead. The walls were plain white with projected screens that advised the rehabilitation of patients.

“He’s not doing too well. Mas—Qin Mang caught a weird disease when he was younger, causing his temperature to fluctuate. He recovered from it before, but it reemerged a month or so prior. It seems that it’s much worse this time, and the doctor said that he may not have long to live,” told Ye Jingshan in a deep voice.

He was quite sad from the sound of his voice. Xia Fei did not know what relationship Ye Jingshan and Qin Mang had, and this was why he found it a bit weird.

“Is the old man there? I’d like to speak to him,” said Xia Fei.

“He has just been sedated and is now asleep.”

“Oh, I’ll call him in a bit.”

Ye Jingshan shook his head. “He hopes that you can return sooner rather than later to see him. He’s surviving solely on that hope, so if you can, just prioritize returning immediately and avoid all communications with him.”

Xia Fei nodded. It was not uncommon for someone to survive on sheer will moments before their death, but once they exhausted that, who knew what could happen? Ye Jingshan’s request of not revealing himself did make a bit of sense.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” said Xia Fei with knitted eyebrows.

Turning off the projected screen, Xia Fei lit a cigarette as he entered into deep thoughts. Old Porter, who was next to him, asked, “Xia Fei, your relationship is quite something with that old man. The person he wants to see before his death is you? Doesn’t he have children?”

Normally, people wanted to see those whom they were closest to moments before their death. Although Xia Fei had a good relationship with Qin Mang, it was not one of a close kin. It was not completely out of line for Old Porter to think that this was a bit weird.

“As far as I know, the old man doesn’t have any relatives,” replied Xia Fei.

“Is that so…”

Porter thought in silence for a bit. “You should head back as soon as you can. He must have something to tell you seeing how tightly he’s been holding on till now.”

Xia Fei nodded. The elderly mechanic patted him on the shoulder before leaving the command deck of the ship.

Old Porter was not much younger than Qin Mang. The latter was going through something that he might go through not long after. Life and death were natural laws of mankind. Unless it was a master of the world who had managed to cultivate to the point of immortality, nobody could escape the shadows of death.

Moreover, as Porter had a broken heart from losing Windchime, he went back to his room to sulk.

“Something isn’t quite right with Ye Jingshan,” muttered Xia Fei as he looked up at the ceiling.

Phantom quietly emerged from the Moore Stone on Xia Fei’s neck and stood next to him. “It does seem that way. I feel that he’s hiding something from you.”

Xia Fei smiled. “You noticed it, too. That doesn’t happen often.”

Phantom gave Xia Fei a hard look. As a famous killer, his analysis and judgement often lagged behind the nineteen-year-old Xia Fei. This had left the assassin with plenty of pent-up anger over Xia Fei.

Xia Fei said after a sigh, “When Ye Jingshan spoke about the old man, he had tears in his eyes. Obviously, he cares a lot about Qin Mang’s death. Tears are the hardest part to act out, unless he’s an incredible actor, so there’s no way that it’s faked.

“But when I told him that I want to speak with the old man, his pupils dilated by 0.3 times. This meant that he had lost his focus but covered soon enough, blinking then moving his gaze to the ground. If I hadn’t been paying more attention because of my worry for the old man’s condition, I might’ve been sold by his act.

“Unfortunately for Ye Jingshan, his next words thoroughly exposed him. His voice was slightly trembling. That only happens in two scenarios: either the person is too emotional or they are lying, yet both were in Ye Jingshan’s voice, so that’s a bit unexpected,” Xia Fei casually explained.

Phantom was stunned. “Could it be that he doesn’t want you to see Qin Mang?”

Xia Fei nodded with a fierce look in his eyes. “Yes.”

“But it doesn’t make sense? Why would Ye Jingshan not want you to see Qin Mang moments before the latter’s death?” questioned Phantom.

Xia Fei did not say anything as he was clueless about it, either.

“How about we call the hospital to get Qin Mang around Ye Jingshan?” suggested Phantom.

“That won’t work. Ye Jingshan is the battalion commander of the Heaven Execution Training Camp. He has more than one way to prevent me from speaking to the old man.”

Gnashing his teeth, Xia Fie said in a deep voice, “Guess we’ll just have to meet him in person.”