Guanliang stood off to the side and listened to everything from start to finish.
For example, the marshal said to Hua, "I have no requirements at all for the successor of the Xianzhou, but I do have requirements for you."
The marshal smiled in a way that looked perfectly proper and respectable.
"Hua, I want you to accept everyone's favoritism and protection with a clear conscience. I want you to be selfish and willful. I want you to live easily and happily. I want you to obtain the things you want without effort..."
"And in the end, I want everyone in the Xianzhou to remember your contributions for all eternity."
Guanliang was completely shaken for a moment.
He had originally thought that the will his superior wrote had already used up all of his emotional intelligence.
He never expected that the man would turn around and say something like this to Hua.
Hua and her superior were different.
She didn't need to exhaust herself like he did, and she certainly didn't need to erase her own achievements.
A strange sense of comfort rose in Guanliang's heart.
It was like… the illusion that a thousands-of-years-old brat had suddenly grown up.
As he was thinking this, Hua fled in panic. Guanliang and Zero watched the child leave.
Zero smiled, completely satisfied.
"Two to zero."
Guanliang, "..."
He was roaring internally.
'Grown up my ass! Isn't the boss still just as much of a menace as ever?!'
'Don't just start a competition on your own! What are you even competing over?! Breaking Hua's mental defenses? Does Hua know about this?!'
Zero turned his head and looked at the chief strategist.
Guanliang was holding his coffee, frozen in place. When he noticed his superior's gaze, he quickly came back to his senses and set the coffee down on the desk.
He couldn't help but complain, "You really went all out. You made that up on the spot? No way, right?"
Zero shook his head. "How could that be?"
Before any social engagement, he had to cram talking techniques. How could he possibly blurt out something that high-EQ on the spot?
Of course he'd prepared a draft in advance.
Zero didn't bother hiding it. He took out two sheets of stationery and handed them to Guanliang.
Guanliang took them and casually muttered, "Was there really any need to go this far?"
Zero said, "It's called preparing ahead of time."
Guanliang skimmed through it at lightning speed.
This wasn't some mushy nonsense the boss had written just to mess with Hua.
More accurately, it was a will, left for Hua.
For a long while, Guanliang didn't know what to say. In the end, he only managed to squeeze out one sentence, "…Isn't this a bit too early to be preparing this?"
The first sheet basically contained what the boss had just said earlier.
At the end, there were also a few lines he hadn't had the chance to say out loud.
[First and foremost, you are yourself. You don't need to meet anyone's expectations, including mine.]
After finishing it, Guanliang moved on to the second sheet. To his surprise, the entire page contained only one sentence, 'If anything happens, go to the "Reignbow Arbiter."'
He took that page out separately and asked his superior, "This one… you only wrote a single sentence?"
Zero patiently explained, "These are two different versions. I originally planned that if my relationship with her was good, I'd leave the first one. If it wasn't, I'd leave the second."
Zero wasn't sure whether he and his successor would get along, so he wrote different versions of his will.
At first, he'd thought that as long as they maintained a certain distance, acted like a loving father and daughter in public, and didn't delay the handover, that would be enough.
But after hearing Akivili's words, he couldn't help but hesitate.
He actually hadn't thought much about Hua's education, nor had he planned to reprimand or suppress his successor.
Now that he thought about it, why should he make his successor suffer at all?
That was completely unnecessary.
If Hua took over Zero's position and still had to work as hard as he once did…
Then wouldn't his thousands of years have been lived in vain?
Zero had read quite a few books on education, and combined with his strong ability to put himself in others' shoes, it didn't take long before he wrote the first letter.
If they were close, if he sincerely regarded Hua as his own daughter, then he would leave her the first letter.
But if their relationship was only so-so, then no matter how much he wrote, Hua might not listen anyway. In that case, on the second letter, he only wrote a single line, telling her to call on the Aeon if anything happened.
Zero felt there was nothing wrong with his thinking. His subordinate, however, felt the exact opposite.
Guanliang shook the papers in his hand and said, "Reading her your will in advance, don't you think that's crossing a line?"
If Hua were to see this will after the boss was gone... Wasn't the boss being a bit too inhuman?
Zero thought about it, and… that was true.
But could he admit he was wrong? Absolutely not.
Besides, Hua had already written him dead in her essay… so she probably didn't see him as a father anyway.
Perfect. He didn't want to raise a child either.
Without changing expression, Zero took the papers back from Guanliang.
"That was my plan before. Thinking about it now… the first one isn't quite appropriate. I'll write a new one."
Guanliang thought to himself that the boss's condition was getting worse and worse.
The man didn't even realize how… cruel his actions were.
Back when he and Daiyang had followed the boss to negotiate on a cruise ship, the boss had suddenly started writing a will for no apparent reason. Luckily, he was the only one who knew about it…
Guanliang stared at his superior.
Should he go find the Alchemy Commission's chief and just drug the guy unconscious? Let him sleep properly and rest?
Zero sensed something off and frowned. "What's wrong?"
Guanliang replied calmly, "Nothing. I just think it's strange, why have you been liking coffee lately?"
Zero said, "Mm… how should I put it? Coffee is very different from tea. After drinking it, the feeling is strange, very stimulating."
Guanliang's expression was complicated. He asked, "Does your heart race?"
Zero took a sip of coffee and nodded.
Guanliang, "…Is it possible that you're allergic to caffeine?"
Zero, "..."
He slowly set the coffee cup down.
No wonder. No wonder Zandar had deliberately asked him whether he'd had coffee before…
So he was allergic to caffeine.
It was just that, since it was their first meeting, Zandar couldn't come right out and say it, and could only probe with a question.
Guanliang couldn't help but sigh.
If it were anyone else with an allergy, a little carelessness could be fatal.
But for his boss, who had survived countless life-and-death crises, it really wasn't a big deal.
Still worried, Guanliang asked, "Should I call the chief over to take a look?"
Zero fell into thought.
When he drank tea before, he hadn't shown any allergic symptoms.
"Maybe it's not a caffeine allergy. Maybe the coffee is just too strong."
Seeing his superior reject the suggestion, Guanliang didn't say anything else.
He glanced at the coffee in the cup.
Judging by the color, quite a bit of milk had been added. It probably wouldn't make the boss feel palpitations or discomfort.
If the boss didn't feel palpitations or discomfort, then he wouldn't go crazy and demand his life. No big problem.
Reassured, Guanliang focused all his attention on waiting for Hua to challenge the boss again.
Unexpectedly, after waiting two days, Hua seemed to have been scared stiff by what the boss said that day. From then on, she didn't say a single mushy word again.
Hua calmed down, but the boss refused to.
Zero was like someone who'd found a new, interesting game.
He started randomly picking lucky victims. The first to suffer was, of course, the chief strategist Guanliang.
In order to praise someone, Zero deliberately searched the star network for all kinds of lines praising subordinates, picked and chose among them, and then unloaded a barrage of praise straight at Guanliang.
Guanliang, "…I'm going to throw up."
He was so grossed out he couldn't even eat, okay?
No, he couldn't be the only one suffering.
Guanliang immediately gave his superior a hint.
There was still the "Reignbow Arbiter" in Yaoqing, you know.
Zero suddenly realized.
Right, there was Lan too.
Oh, and Zandar. No need to pick another day, today was perfect.
He sped through the remaining documents and rushed over to Lan and Zandar.
Zero wore a smile and carefully chose his words.
Very quickly, he found his angle.
Blowing up stars at the drop of a hat, wasn't that just Lan being overly enthusiastic and wanting to help others find release?
Breaking galactic law every now and then and wreaking havoc in the star sea, wasn't that just being free and unrestrained?
No one daring to oppose Lan, with countless followers of the Hunt, didn't that just mean no one said he was bad, and that he was well liked?
After lightly polishing Lan's experiences, Zero began praising the Aeon.
Lan, "..."
His brain shut down instantly.
After a while, Lan finally came back to his senses.
What was the marshal saying? Was he praising Him?
What did he mean by saying He was enthusiastic, helpful, free-spirited, and popular?
Lan couldn't help but wonder, was the universe about to end?
He stiffened and listened to the marshal finish speaking, then, without changing expression, hinted back, "That child works very hard."
'Don't just praise Me. Hua also really needs encouragement.'
Zero, "…The first person I praised was Hua."
Wasn't Lan a bit too unable to handle praise? He hadn't even said much yet.
Seeing Lan break down so quickly, Zero instantly lost interest and turned to look at Zandar.
Zandar smiled gently and spoke first.
Zero returned the smile, nodding now and then in response.
Lan was utterly confused.
'Zandar, what are you saying? Are you even speaking Xianzhou language?'
When you say the marshal is a good person, He won't say anything.
But when you say the marshal is warm and kind, Lan doesn't understand at all.
'Warm and kind in the sense of helping blow up stars, right?'
'When you say the marshal steps up when others face difficulties… you mean sending out fleets, right?'
'Zandar, isn't this polishing a bit too much?'
How is this any different from picking up a rope and getting sentenced, because the rope had a cow tied to it?
How is this different from moving a car while drunk and ending up in prison, because you moved it five kilometers?
You go to a lake to blast fish, end up in jail, then complain on the star network. An investigation shows divers floating up with the fish, but you don't mention them at all.
Lan was completely shaken.
He truly couldn't understand humans these days anymore.
Then Lan thought about it again, Zandar was in Yaoqing.
Wasn't it only natural for him to speak well of the marshal?
Lan thought, this was probably what "human social etiquette" was.
Even the most renowned scholar in the star sea had to yield when facing the marshal.
Lan listened from the side. After Zandar finished, it was the marshal's turn again.
Zero spoke in a gentle tone, bringing up two of Zandar's well-known achievements. The two praised each other back and forth for quite some time. Eventually, Zero took the initiative to stand up and leave.
He thought, one to one. A tie.
Zandar really was something, no wonder he was older than the Aeon of Erudition.
This wouldn't do. He'd have to continue tomorrow.
After Zero left, Zandar smiled and took out his communication device, tapped the screen a few times, and said, "Recorded."
Lan, "???"
Zandar put the device away and said meaningfully, "Don't you think it's interesting? It's like a diary from childhood. When you look back at it after growing up, you'll definitely want to tear it to shreds."
Lan thought for a moment, then suddenly understood.
If the marshal knew about this… he'd probably be very angry. But even if he were angry, he wouldn't say anything.
Just like those fanatical subordinates who secretly keep the marshal's photos, even if the marshal knew, he wouldn't get angry.
As for the recording… these were words the marshal said himself. They merely recorded them. The marshal could only smile and swallow this silent loss.
Frankly speaking, for top-tier scholars, a recording could be used for many things.
But Lan had no doubts about Zandar's intentions.
If the marshal allowed this person to come into contact with Hua, with the next successor of the Xianzhou Alliance, then there couldn't be any problem.
The people the marshal trusted, Lan would also trust.
If Zandar truly had malicious intent, he wouldn't have told Lan the truth in the first place.
This recording felt more like a harmless prank.
Lan said sincerely, "I've learned something."
Next time, He would record too.
In the following days, the marshal was uncharacteristically well-behaved and only targeted Zandar.
———
One day, Zero came before Lan and Zandar again.
Zandar took the initiative to bring up the "Rectification Core," saying that an important research project required it.
Zero quickly recalled the Rectification Core, it could greatly increase the efficiency of constructing robots and massive structures.
This hint was obvious. It was pointing to the aether phase-shift engine capable of ascension.
How could an engine not count as a massive structure?
Zero said nothing.
He didn't think Zandar had the financial power or resources to build an engine.
He was more inclined to believe that Zandar was consolidating experimental data, simply using the Rectification Core as an excuse to meet him and give a hint.
Zandar continued talking about his research, saying that he now had enough experimental data, and that this time was the closest he'd ever been to success.
Zero understood.
This time, it was the most likely to succeed.
But Zandar wanted him to wait, so how long was he supposed to wait? Should he trust him?
Smiling, Zero extended an olive branch, offering the most generous terms.
Zandar shook his head and refused.
With equal sincerity, he said that in exchange for the Rectification Core, he was willing to make his academic results public to Zero.
Lan, standing to the side, was surprised by Zandar's words.
The marshal looked at Zandar and asked with a smile, "I'm very curious, why are you so persistent about this research? Why can't you come to the Xianzhou?"
Faced with the question, Zandar said two seemingly disjointed sentences, "It's for a promise."
"As a teacher, I can't go back on my word."
The marshal said nothing more. Perhaps Zandar's sincerity moved him, or perhaps he felt there was no need to forcibly keep a genius who couldn't be kept. He decisively let him go and lent out the Rectification Core.
As they were about to part, Zandar said a blessing to Zero, one that no one had ever said to him before.
"May the eternal ruler of the star sea live easily and happily..."
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