Chapter 25 2/2

The planet is far away, not even located on the interstellar map. Initially, he personally delivered it, knowing the route.

“After collecting the information elements, we’ll go,” Cen Lang said half-truthfully. “Will this delay your return to Tianchen Laboratory? Or should we set off for the next base now?”

Jiang Li: “You didn’t sleep last night. Rest first.”

Cen Lang: “Skipping a night is fine.”

Jiang Li believed that skipping two days and nights wouldn’t be a problem for him but couldn’t express it directly. He hypocritically expressed concern: “You’re piloting the battleship, and I can’t help. Take care of yourself.”

“Okay.”

Cen Lang lay on the bed Jiang Li prepared, feeling it was softer than before, and slept more comfortably. Seeing that he was asleep, Jiang Li planned to start his day with exercise. After a while of marching in place, Jiang Li always felt something behind him, afraid that Cen Lang would correct his posture at any moment.

“We need to pull a curtain in the middle.” Jiang Li touched his arm and used a bedsheet instead of a curtain because he couldn’t find a rope. He simply punched a few small holes on one side of the sheet, threaded it through with a cloth strip, and hung it on the ceiling hook.

Those hooks weren’t meant for hanging bed curtains, so the curtain ended up crooked, but it could definitely block the view from the opposite bed.

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However, this person was Jiang Li, and he couldn’t be bothered.

After a good rest, Cen Lang opened his eyes and was shocked by something new on the battleship.

Who decorated his White Flame battleship to look like a slum where you could just pull a curtain and sleep? It was Dr. Jiang, and that explained it.

Is it really okay? The curtain made from a modified bedsheet was deep military green and completely opaque, and he couldn’t see what Jiang Li was doing on the other side.

Cen Lang frowned, looking at the obtrusive bedsheet like a pitiful Alpha suddenly banished to sleep on the couch.

This was the first time Jiang Li arranged their battleship, and he deserved praise.

Cen Lang said insincerely, “Sorry, I didn’t consider your privacy needs. Hanging a curtain like this is perfect.” Jiang Li actually felt a bit uneasy, and if Cen Lang didn’t like it, he would remove it immediately. After listening to Cen Lang, he took the initiative to demonstrate, “During meals, just tie it up.”

A pair of fair and slender fingers gathered the bed curtain and tied it into a bundle. Jiang Li’s delicate face swayed like a silver moon in the lake. Cen Lang looked at the knot and thought, I should change the electric curtains at home; manually rolled ones look better. I can’t rely too much on technology.

“I’ve rested enough. Let’s go to the next base.” Cen Lang withdrew his gaze from the curtain and hurried into the cockpit, initiating the preparation procedure. “Don’t you need to say goodbye to them?”

Cen Lang: “No.” He didn’t want to see the scene of queuing up to shake hands and bid farewell. The battleship rose abruptly from the base, the base gradually became a small dot, and the view turned into the starry universe.

After flying continuously for seven hours, it was night again according to Earth time. But outside was brilliantly lit, the brilliance of the stars enveloping the battleship as if there were never darkness.

Cen Lang reminded Jiang Li to go to sleep, and Jiang Li responded with a yes. When he could set the autopilot, Jiang Li had already fallen asleep.

Pulling the curtain, judging by the sound of breathing.

Cen Lang suddenly felt that something was missing.

In the previous two nights, he and Jiang were less than a meter apart with two beds, sometimes sleeping face-to-face. He had never thought about observing how Jiang Li slept.

Once out of sight, curiosity arose. “Don’t peep at indecency,” Cen Lang warned himself. “But it’s okay to see if Jiang Li kicks the blanket.”

Cen Lang opened the curtain, and what he saw was still the neatly sleeping Jiang Li. He chuckled, squatting down and looking closely at Jiang Li’s face.

Does he have a bit more flesh on his face?

It’s hard to tell.

The battleship’s alarm sounded, and the automatic voice broadcasted: “Beidou Station detected a sudden meteor shower!”

Encountering a sudden meteor shower during interstellar travel is as rare and tricky as encountering a landslide on a mountain road. “Wake up,” Cen Lang’s face changed, immediately picking up the dazed Jiang Li lying in the cockpit and firmly strapping him into the co-pilot seat.

In terms of the battleship’s design, the cockpit is the safest place.

Jiang Li forced himself to wake up, calmly looking at the dashboard full of red dots. Cen Lang asked, “Have you undergone three-dimensional rotation training?”

Three-dimensional rotation training builds a pilot’s resistance to vertigo by subjecting them to overloads in various dimensions, simulating real battleship flight conditions.

Jiang Li replied, “No.”

Medical students had long been excluded from this training.

In the past few days, the battleship had been flying too steadily, and Jiang Li almost forgot that the battleship wasn’t a manned spacecraft. Speed descent, pull-ups, and continuous 980-degree flips to evade and pursue—these were its combat missions.

Which one of those thrilling battle scenes was easy?

Cen Lang’s brows furrowed tightly. If the battleship couldn’t make a large flip to evade, it would be difficult to avoid the meteor shower with its side wings. Jiang Li said, “Safety of the battleship comes first.” As soon as he spoke, the battleship evaded a wave of meteors, causing a violent jolt. Jiang Li instantly pinched his thigh.

Morning sickness chose the worst time to strike!

He couldn’t react too strongly now; it would distract Cen Lang.

Just as Jiang Li endured a bout of nausea with his eyes closed, two semi-oval metal compartments rose on both sides of the co-pilot seat, closing and enveloping Jiang Li entirely.

“Don’t be afraid.” Cen Lang’s steady voice, with reassurance, entered Jiang Li’s mind. Then he couldn’t hear or see anything, only feeling the turbulence.

Jiang Li’s breathing eased a bit; he knew the purpose of this feature in the co-pilot’s seat. When the battleship was about to disintegrate, the sleep pod in the co-pilot’s seat would be ejected away from the potentially exploding battleship, floating in space, waiting for post-war cleanup personnel to salvage it.

If there was no one in the co-pilot seat, the pilot would use it at the critical moment. If someone was in the co-pilot seat, then facing life and death with their own battleship was the pilot’s only choice.

The sleep pod wasn’t placed in the pilot’s seat because many pilots preferred to fight until the last moment, even if they drove a burning battleship toward the enemy and left the chance of survival to their comrades.

After some time, the sleep pod significantly reduced the sense of turbulence, but Jiang Li could still feel the tilt of the battleship. After the last jolt, a long and stable flight often made Jiang Li doubt whether he had separated from the main battleship. Regardless, he preferred to stay with Cen Lang.