The war on Meteorite Star had completely entered a white-hot stage.
Jiang Ye issued multiple orders, drawing two hundred thousand troops from Jiang Ye Star, Bi Rong Star, and Exile Star, with over eighty percent being mecha soldiers, to densely enter Meteorite Star and eradicate thousands of Thousand-Eyed Garlic plants.
The remaining Thousand-Eyed Garlic plants were fiercely resisting, the beast tide was more intense, and the battles were extremely difficult.
In the first month, over seventy large-scale battles involving more than ten thousand people took place. The corpses of slain beasts carpeted the battlefield, their vast expanse clearly visible even from space. Near the battlefield, a lingering blood mist often appeared, resembling purgatory.
The previously equipped ice weapons were no longer sufficient for the high-intensity combat. Jiang Ye urgently ordered a batch of lightning guns, capable of firing spherical lightning and area-of-effect lightning, to directly electrocute the beast tide. The only thing to be careful about was not to discard batteries carelessly, as pollution would be extremely severe.
In the second month, the intensity of the fighting decreased, primarily because most of the beasts had been exterminated.
In March, April, and May, the thousands of Thousand-Eyed Garlic plants were gradually dug out, and most areas of Meteorite Star were brought back under human control.
The sixth month was the mop-up phase.
This involved checking for any remaining Single-Eyed Garlic and clearing the mountains of animal corpses piled up on the battlefield.
This was a colossal undertaking; the corpses were practically boundless. Killing a giant beast required only a single shot, but clearing its corpse took several hours.
Jiang Ye, traveling by train, inspected the entire planet. Witnessing the bloody and brutal scenes, his eyelids twitched. He recalled a description he had once read in a historical magazine.
In medieval Europe, there was often a phenomenon where an entire city emitted a staggering stench, making it impossible to pass within several kilometers. Simultaneously, crows and flies would swarm in and out like a black whirlwind. This scene was a typical characteristic of a massacre; after a city was completely slaughtered, the piled-up corpses would take many years to finish decaying. During this time, no one could return to clean up, and the vicinity would become a complete no-man's-land.
At the time, Jiang Ye had been somewhat skeptical of this description.
Now he knew that it was by no means the fabrication of a magazine editor. Many battlefields on Meteorite Star had passed for several months, and despite the sun and rain and the growth of fungi, they still stank more than ten times worse than public restrooms. This stench was unimaginable to those who had not experienced it; the wind seemed to carry specks of feces across the plains.
As Jiang Ye's special train passed through the battlefield areas, the air freshener function of the air conditioning was automatically turned up to one hundred percent, and the windows all closed automatically to prevent the people inside from being overcome by the stench.
Certain fungi grew rampantly on the piles of corpses, not as shallow, thin clusters, but as massive fungal colonies of different colors, like wild grass. Many corpse piles had almost become grasslands – white grasslands, yellowish grasslands, moldy green grasslands, fuzzy grasslands – a beautiful yet eerie sight.
White Xiaobai's factory even accepted these furry corpses, even selling them at a higher price. Some aliens had a peculiar taste for this, and Jiang Ye found it difficult to comprehend alien palates; perhaps they smelled foul but tasted good?
The war on Meteorite Star had concluded.
On the outskirts of the capital city, a brand-new Governor's Mansion rose from the ground.
The new Governor's Mansion was larger, with more luxurious interior decoration, four floors above ground, two floors underground, and a nuclear fallout shelter.
Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng soon moved in, but they kept the doors and windows tightly shut all day because the stench of corpses still lingered in the wind.
Meteorite Star was not their primary focus. The couple intended to use this place as a vacation and leisure spot, staying for a few weeks each year.
Once the stench of corpses dissipated, it would be a pristine, natural, and ecological planet. Outside the Governor's Mansion would be vast green plains with dew-kissed grass. A half-hour drive east would lead to the sunlit sea, where the white sand by the shore was as fine as flour, and countless shells were piled up in the shallow waters. For decades, no one had left a footprint there.
Furthermore, there were the characteristic scenic meteorite craters. Meteorite Star had a very large number of craters on its surface, which had not yet been filled in by natural forces. Cen Yemeng found the pitted landscape strange, but Jiang Ye was fascinated. To him, Meteorite Star was like the surface of the moon covered in grass. And Cen Yemeng had never seen the moon that Li Bai had described in her life.
...
Weekend, evening.
Jiang Ye was diligently studying in his study, taking notes with a pen. A large stack of textbooks for governors and planetary leaders lay on his desk. His studies had progressed to the advanced difficulty level, and the problems in the books were incredibly challenging. Jiang Ye maintained a pained expression.
Cen Yemeng also sat by the window, reading a book with intense focus. Her hair cascaded down, and she exuded an air of academic elegance, constantly radiating the confidence of a top student, which put immense, unspoken pressure on Jiang Ye.
The phone on the desk suddenly rang.
Jiang Ye picked it up. It was Shao Wan.
"Hello?" Jiang Ye said.
"Forest is supposed to be released today," Shao Wan said.
"Oh!" Jiang Ye slapped his forehead. "Arrange a special ship to send him over."
"Understood," Shao Wan replied.
Jiang Ye hung up the phone and looked up at his wife.
"Our son is out of prison?" Cen Yemeng asked. "What do you plan to have him do next?"
"Let him decide for himself," Jiang Ye said with a smile. "School or work, two paths."
Two days later, a small spacecraft landed on the grassy area of the Governor's Mansion.
Jiang Senlin jumped out of the spacecraft, still wearing his blue prison uniform, number "6666." After all, he was the child of a governor and a former planetary leader; even his prison number was a lucky streak.
After not seeing him for several months, Jiang Senlin had actually gained a lot of weight, becoming a wrinkled, chubby little fellow, or rather, a rosy-cheeked, benevolent old man.
Cen Yemeng tried to pick him up but found him surprisingly heavy, almost too heavy to lift.
Jiang Ye, still robust, easily lifted both his wife and son, one in each arm, carrying them into the house as if they were two infants.
During dinner, a formal and serious conversation began.
"You have a choice," Jiang Ye said, looking at his son. "You can study abroad, or you can go to work. Your mother and I have discussed it; we want you to interact with more people, live a completely different life, and mature quickly."
"I want to become young," Jiang Senlin said instead.
Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng were stunned.
Jiang Senlin looked at his parents and continued, "I don't want to be an old man anymore; I want to be a young person."
Cen Yemeng's eyes immediately welled up. She instantly understood her son's feelings as an anomaly.
Jiang Ye also fell silent for a long time. He suddenly felt his dereliction of duty as a father.
"I heard there are such surgeries. They can change a person's age. When I was young, I couldn't have the surgery because my brain was still developing, and doing it forcefully would cause memory loss. But now my age is suitable," Jiang Senlin continued. "If I can become a young person, I can go anywhere, hide my origins, and live like an ordinary person. This is the life you want me to experience, right?"
Jiang Ye reached out and stroked Jiang Senlin's head.
"I apologize to you; this should have been done sooner," Jiang Ye said. "Wait a couple of days. I'll contact which planet does this surgery well and take you there. How old do you want your body to be?"
"Eighteen," Jiang Senlin said.
"Why eighteen?" Jiang Ye was slightly taken aback.
"I read a book in prison. In the book, someone said he was willing to give up all his possessions to return from seventy to eighteen," Jiang Senlin replied. "But he found that all his possessions were not enough to pay for the surgery. I'm different; my parents have money."