"Cen Zi, you know more about this than I do, but have you figured out the biggest hidden message in this legend?" Jiang Ye's expression turned serious.
"The biggest hidden message?" Cen Zi's eyes fixed, as if realizing something.
"This story your sister just told, if it were on another planet, it definitely wouldn't hold up, but on Wheeler, it does," Jiang Ye said.
"Brother-in-law means... the grand background of the story?" Cen Zi reacted.
"Yes, in many places on Wheeler, over many generations, the dark events in the story have been repeatedly replayed," Jiang Ye said. "According to incomplete statistics, in the ten years before I took over Wheeler, a full 140 divisions of soldiers on this planet perished in fierce battles, and civilians who died prematurely due to war numbered at least in the eight figures."
"Li Gui and Cui Lian, the couple, could stumble upon skeletons just by walking by the river. Today, Wheeler has 418 large rivers and over five thousand small rivers, and along the banks of these rivers, one can still easily step on skeletons. In the past ten years, there have been nineteen million missing persons reports on this planet, and this is only the reported number of missing people."
"Besides that, Wheeler still has at least forty-three million unexploded landmines scattered in the wilderness. Some landmines are rusted with age and quietly disintegrate into the soil, but a considerable proportion of landmines still explode, just waiting for unlucky civilians or animals to pass by. A few days ago, my sapper units and construction companies joined forces to build several high-speed railways. During the construction, the landmines cleared along the route were enough to fill two trains."
"Wheeler also has thirty million people who are victims of biological weapons, bearing scars and latent illnesses from bacterial bombs. I mobilized a medical team of one thousand people from various planets to provide free consultations in different regions. A week after the medical team arrived on Wheeler, they reported to me that they needed fifty thousand artificial hearts, two hundred and eighty thousand artificial lungs, one hundred and seventy thousand artificial kidneys, and sixty thousand artificial livers. The chief physician warned me at the end of the report that if these items could not be delivered within half a year, then over two hundred thousand victims of biological warfare would die from organ failure."
"Wheeler has eight internet companies, but it has one thousand four hundred submachine gun factories. There are five pet companies, but five hundred factories that produce aerial bombs weighing over one ton. This planet releases an average of 36 new songs annually, but consumes five million tons of ammunition. There are only two children's education bases, but eight thousand four hundred and thirteen military bases."
"Cen Zi, you've been messaging me and your sister constantly, hoping we can provide aid to your Salu Star. We are certainly willing to help you, but we have a bigger quagmire to resolve here. In terms of urgency, your Salu Star has achieved a phased victory in the insectoid war, but Wheeler is still in the abyss of war. If I abandon the hundreds of millions of Wheeler citizens, how could I sleep at night?"
Cen Zi's face turned pale.
A moment later, she nodded helplessly, "I understand the difficulties of my sister and brother-in-law. Then I wish my sister and brother-in-law an early unification of Wheeler. After Wheeler is pacified, Salu Star still hopes for your help."
"That's for sure," Cen Yemeng immediately nodded.
With the conversation reaching this point, it was basically settled. Cen Zi knew she wouldn't gain anything from this trip, and Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng breathed a sigh of relief, feeling the satisfaction of a wealthy person showing a poor relative their debt statement and preventing them from asking for money.
In the next few hours of conversation, both sides were more relaxed and began to chat about topics that didn't touch sensitive nerves.
For example, they talked about Jiang Senlin. Cen Zi was not married and had no children, so she was very curious about her sister's son, especially after hearing that Jiang Senlin was a painting prodigy whose works often sold for eight figures. She was even more curious and chatted for over forty minutes.
They also discussed planetary leader training. Jiang Ye and Cen Yemeng attended a proper old-fashioned training class with rigorous courses and devilish assessments, producing graduates with outstanding qualities. However, Cen Zi could only attend the new-style training class, the one where Jiang Ye was the teacher, with its messy curriculum and significant differences.
Then they talked about family gossip. The Cen family was, after all, a vast and wealthy clan. With relatives numerous enough to form a division, there were all sorts of strange and peculiar incidents. Many things Jiang Ye hadn't even heard from his wife, so he listened with amazement, experiencing the thrill of old ladies gossiping at the village entrance.
Cen Zi did not leave that day, but stayed over.
Jiang Ye worked in his office at night, poring over memorials.
Busy until 1:30 AM, the office door opened.
Cen Yemeng, wearing a face mask, entered wearing only her undergarments. She stood beside Jiang Ye, deliberately brushing against his elbow.
Jiang Ye habitually reached out and touched her waist.
"Brother-in-law?" a娇滴滴 (sweet and soft) voice came from beneath the mask.
Jiang Ye flinched in shock, then breathed a sigh of relief, still shaken. "Wife, don't joke around. We can't make this kind of joke."
"Meng Jie is asleep."
"Don't joke, don't joke. We're an old couple, how could I not recognize you?" Jiang Ye shook his head and chuckled. "This kind of joke is not good, it's quite perverse."
Cen Yemeng couldn't help but giggle. The mask on her face then fell onto the desk. "You recognized me. If you hadn't, would you have hugged me?"
Jiang Ye turned his chair, pulling Cen Yemeng into his arms. "Don't say such strange things. If Cen Zi came over like this, I would be so scared I'd call the police immediately."
"Oh, darling, you speak so nicely," Cen Yemeng pouted.
"You should go to sleep, my jealous wife. This work machine still has a lot to do," Jiang Ye said.
Cen Yemeng playfully reached out, messed up her husband's hair, and then got up to leave.
Cen Zi had originally planned to stay for a week, treating it as a vacation.
But three days later, the situation on Wheeler deteriorated rapidly, and Cen Zi wisely left, not wanting to cause trouble.
Jiang Ye, who had enjoyed a few days of peace, plunged back into a state of frantic busyness.
The deterioration began in the rear.
A group of "unknown identity" bandits suddenly appeared, roaming the territories of different warlord factions, carrying out terrorist attacks, engaging in combat with local garrisons, infiltrating cities, and bombing public places, causing multiple heinous incidents.
If they were normal bandits, there wouldn't be much to worry about. In a place like Wheeler, rife with internal strife, it would be strange not to have bandits, just as there couldn't be no cockroaches in a garbage heap.
But the intelligence transmitted by Jiang Ye's agents embedded in Wheeler revealed that these so-called bandits were actually daredevil squads organized by warlord forces, with direct support from warlord leaders in terms of funding, personnel, intelligence, and weaponry.
The reason the warlords supported these daredevil squads was simple: since direct warfare between regular troops was prohibited, they resorted to clandestine tactics.