Chapter 6#
What’s the Female Lead Up To?#
“Your face—take care of it immediately!”
“It’s already been patched up in an emergency. No big deal. What, are you dating me because of my face?”
“That’s not what I meant! But… it’s your face after all!”
“A face wound is a minor problem. If Vice-General He hadn’t reacted fast just now, I would’ve taken the full impact head-on. Trading this little scratch for my life? I came out ahead!”
“Are your hands okay? It looked like you got knocked around earlier.”
“There’s auto-trigger protection. I just bumped the cabin wall—no problem.”
The drive continued until they reached their destination, the flying craft settling down smoothly. In front of him, the young couple’s chatter carried on without pause.
He Xu silently absorbed the dog food while extracting information from their conversation.
No wonder she was the female lead. In such a crisis, she could barely keep her balance without a restraint strap, yet she still found time to observe her surroundings.
But since the female lead knew he’d avoided the danger at the last second, she must have also noticed that earlier, when things were calm, he was the one who deliberately rocked the craft to make her lose her balance.
Perhaps precisely because it was calm, his little trick had been easy to pull off.
But the female lead was thanking him?
He Xu couldn’t quite figure out what was going on, only feeling more admiration for the supporting male character who, in the original novel, wasn’t revealed to be the vicious villain until the very end.
Clear goals, ruthless methods, and impressive on-the-spot adaptability and mental fortitude.
He Xu knew he couldn’t measure up.
Lost in thought, He Xu lowered his gaze to consider stepping up his training. He didn’t notice that the moment his head dipped, the female lead in front of him suddenly turned to glance back at him, a hint of curiosity flickering in her eyes.
The rescue that followed went unusually smoothly. Dormant bugs weren’t hard to deal with, and since the primary goal was extraction, after retrieving the personnel and counting everyone off, they evacuated in batches using the flying craft and a backup passenger vessel.
On the way out, learning from past mistakes, they detoured around the earlier crash site—and with no mission requirements hanging over them, He Xu, now familiar with the route, drove with ease. There was far less turbulence, and under Yin Feiyang’s urging, he pushed the craft to top speed.
“I’m taking her to the hospital.”
Yin Feiyang rushed out with that hasty line and grabbed Ruan Mian to leave, but she stopped him.
He Xu also composed himself and apologized sincerely: “That was my piloting error earlier. I didn’t pay attention and caused you to get hurt. I’ll accompany you both to the hospital—I’m truly sorry.”
Ruan Mian gave him a meaningful once-over. Before He Xu could guess what she was thinking, the female lead’s nonchalant voice reached his ears.
“It’s fine—just a small wound. I’m even thinking of keeping it as a souvenir! If Vice-General He hadn’t been piloting today, I doubt we’d have successfully rescued everyone!”
A few of General Sen’s faction members had sustained minor injuries, and the female lead’s emergency treatment was so clean that even Yin Feiyang couldn’t resist praising his girlfriend a few times.
He Xu was certain she’d noticed the tampering he’d done to the contents of the medical kit.
A faint glimmer of understanding flickered through her eyes, yet she showed no intention of calling it out at all.
He Xu truly couldn’t tell whether her words were genuine thanks or passive-aggressive sarcasm, so he could only maintain his gentle smile, agree with her statement, and leave the time to the young couple.
In the time that followed, He Xu had little chance to cross paths with the female lead, nor any way to learn how her injury was healing.
With current medical technology, her facial wound, though it looked serious, would eventually heal completely. He just couldn’t tell if her talk of keeping it as a souvenir was a joke or sincere.
The next days were so busy he barely had time to breathe, and He Xu soon shoved the male lead, female lead, and the plot to the back of his mind. First, he completed the handover with General Sen’s faction; then he found an excuse to hold a press conference explaining the incident; then he investigated the mine’s details and submitted his report to the emperor, who had arrived upon hearing the news.
The sovereign was unwilling to believe that planet was a bug breeding ground unsuitable for large-scale mining. He questioned it repeatedly and even actively demanded access rights to the planet.
But that planet happened to lie within a special route under Yin Feiyang’s faction. If access were granted, it would mean the emperor could freely enter their private passage.
Both sides knew this full well.
He couldn’t grant it, but he couldn’t outright refuse either.
He Xu nearly worried himself gray over it, running back and forth and lobbying for ages before finally dampening the emperor’s restless ambitions.
He had just finished cleaning up that mess and was about to head back to the military headquarters to deal with the mountain of paperwork when he was suddenly hit with a notice that he was on leave.
“Didn’t Vice-General He still have compensatory leave saved up? We felt bad pulling you back to help, so we put in a request to add another vacation for you! As for those petty tasks those little rascals dumped on you—they can handle it all themselves!”
The moment He Xu returned to military headquarters, he was greeted with this news. Before he could even get back to his office, he was surrounded by a crowd of enthusiastic staff.
“Brother He, I’ve got a recommended interstellar scenic spot—want to check it out?”
“Vice-General, that recipe you taught me last time was amazing. My daughter loves it, and my wife has been saying the kitchen’s all mine these days!”
“Vice-General, have you been feeling better lately? Any more stomachaches?”
He Xu answered each one in turn, finally landing on the young woman handling internal logistics for the team.
“You cut your hair?”
She froze for a moment, then her eyes lit up: “Vice-General noticed? Nobody else did!”
He Xu nodded reflexively: “Cut to the earlobe—short hair suits you. Very pretty. Oh, right, thanks for the bread earlier. I’ve been eating properly during my recent time off, and my stomach’s much better.”
In truth, he never had any stomach problems. The so-called stomach pain was just system warnings he’d received while obsessing over mech practice.
The original supporting character had been a desk-bound officer anyway—on the battlefield, he only served as a strategist.
He Xu was different. After transmigrating into the novel, his greatest passion was mechs. When he wasn’t working, he’d lock himself in the practice room and train like crazy. Sometimes he’d bring official documents in with him, and when his brain got tired, he’d hop into a mech to build physical stamina. Venting that way always made him feel much better.
But this affected the male lead’s standing in the original plot, so he got plenty of stomach-pain warnings for it.
Fortunately, Yin Feiyang, as the male lead, was ambitious enough. Seeing his good brother putting in such serious effort, he increased his own training volume as well—otherwise, He Xu might have been erased on the spot by the system.
He Xu’s verdict on that was: stomach pain is fine, erasure is fine—but transmigrating someone into an interstellar era and not letting them touch a mech? Absolutely not!
“That’s good to hear!”
A delighted voice came from the young woman. After asking her question, she quickly returned to her workstation, blushing as she whispered with the colleague beside her.
Judging by how the two girls kept glancing at him, He Xu figured they were probably talking about him. Out of politeness, he offered them a smile.
When they quickly averted their gazes, he turned to accept the guidebooks, travel brochures, souvenir catalogs, and other things others handed him…
He Xu: “Thank you all for your concern.”
“There’s a new mech simulation game out recently—want to give it a try, Vice-General?”
A colleague elbowed him and whispered: “What are you thinking? He’s on vacation and you’re suggesting more mech piloting? Weren’t we supposed to come up with the perfect vacation plan for the Vice-General?”
“Ah, sorry, sorry—I just figured the Vice-General really likes mechs.”
“That’s just him being serious about his work!”
Amid everyone’s enthusiastic chatter, He Xu never found a chance to return to his office. When he was pushed out of the military headquarters, he was loaded down with bags and packages of all sorts.
People from different departments all greeted him with warm smiles and good wishes.
They said the workaholic had finally come around and decided to go home and rest.
Only He Xu, who knew the plot inside out, understood that none of this appeared in the original novel. His behavior aboard the flying craft probably hadn’t been as discreet as the original character’s persona would have been, and Yin Feiyang had caught onto it as well.
For this so-called “rest”—a suspension disguised as a vacation—he was perfectly clear-eyed about it, though his expression stayed composed.
In the coming period, the other three factions would seize the opportunity to stir up trouble, and Yin Feiyang and Ruan Mian would soon find themselves in danger, leaving them no choice but to turn to him, their trusted vice-general, for help.
He might as well take this chance to actually go home and rest for a while.
A mech game? Sounded pretty good.
He Xu, who’d been too busy to buy a full-dive gaming pod until now, was itching to try it—but his gaze landed on a distant figure.
Unlike him, Song Yaya was in the busiest period of her work right now. Why would she be here?
Frowning, He Xu approached and asked, “Waiting for the general?”
He’d always had a decent relationship with Song Yaya. Years of working together meant they could occasionally joke around and speak honestly with each other.
But today was different.
The young woman was clearly dressed with great care. Her hair had been specially styled—fluffier and silkier than usual, not a single strand out of place. The hairstyle looked the same, but it had obviously taken considerable effort.
Her military uniform was the same as always, but it had clearly been ironed, every crease meticulously smoothed.
Today she wore only light makeup, yet unlike usual, she’d carefully dusted a touch of soft pink on the tip of her nose—and even her earlobes hadn’t been neglected.
Before transmigrating, He Xu had an older sister who always dragged him over for opinions whenever she practiced her makeup, so he was especially attuned to these little efforts girls made to look beautiful.
Clearly, today was a special day for Song Yaya.
But why?
Was there some plot point he’d missed?
He Xu decided to fish for information.
In the past, given their relationship, they could at least exchange a few pleasantries, but today, when He Xu asked, she gave no reaction at all.
Not only that—Song Yaya’s cheeks suddenly flushed crimson. The word “general” seemed to trigger some hidden switch, making her go rigid with nervousness.
He Xu caught her tucking something behind her back. Seeing her like this, he didn’t press further. He tactfully fell silent, though his gaze lingered lightly on the space behind her.
“The general isn’t at headquarters today. He’s still in talks with General Sen’s faction about earlier matters. The general asked me to tell you that the list you compiled was very useful—it helped a lot.”
At the mention of official business, Song Yaya visibly relaxed. Her hands were still behind her back, but her eyes finally met He Xu’s: “The general would never think to praise me—it must be Vice-General He passing along fake orders to comfort me! At the end of the day, it’s my fault for not relaying the message in time.”
He Xu smiled: “The problem wasn’t you this time. You handled it well. He doesn’t say it, but I’m sure that’s how he feels.”
Song Yaya pursed her lips and let it go, and with her mood lightened, she honestly brought out what she’d been hiding behind her back.
He Xu saw an envelope, its seal stamped with a heart in wax.
Song Yaya: “It’s nothing really. I just wanted to give him something in person.”
He Xu: “…”
I really shouldn’t have asked. Truly.