Chapter 6: CH 5

A few days later.

Uncle Qiao from the farm next door baked apple pies and came to give two to Yan Xueshan. He was surprised to find a strange young man working hard.

The young man looked solid and strong. His hair was the color of autumn wheat and gold. When he looked up from the field, his cheeks were tinted a healthy pink, while his eyes were particularly bright, like stars. Even in dirty denim braces and boots, he couldn’t hide his sunny and simple temperament.

Just like a native farm laborer.

He also warmly greeted him. “Hello, hello.”

What a nice young man! He made people like him at first glance! He also worked hard and skillfully! You could tell that his family has been farming for generations!

Uncle Qiao praised him, “This Arthur is a good hire. Not only do you farm well but you also hire skillful people. How lucky! In which agency did you find him?”

“You might not know but all the farm hands I hired last year were lazy…”

“Look at his agricultural mecha, my God…I’ve never been able to use the function of manual rice planting so well, but he uses it so cleanly. It’s almost like the mecha turned into a living person.”

Arthur was very happy to be praised, like an elementary school student who got a hundred percent on his first exam. “Thank you, thank you.”

Yan Xueshan was speechless.

That guy was the number one Melee Mecha Master Sergeant in the Federation still in active service!

There was a time when his lightsaber was damaged at the beginning of battle, but he didn’t just sit still. Using his alloy dagger, he engaged in more close combat and dismembered the opponent’s mecha.

Arthur’s mecha fighting skills could be described as being at his fingertips and at his whim.

So, when this guy begged to stay and help, Yan Xueshan thought about it and said, “It’s not impossible. I’ll give you a task and if you can complete it, I’ll allow you to stay.”

“In one week help me finish planting rice on this piece of land. But you have to turn on the manual mode and if you break 200 seedlings, you fail.”

At the start, Arthur thought it wouldn’t be difficult.

The army’s mech training camp has micro-manipulation training which was generally regarded as a game. The operator has to drive the mech to avoid the dense laser’s red line, making the requirements for the details of operations very strict. Arthur was the best record holder in this training so far.

However, when he started transplanting rice seedlings with machine armor, he found that it wasn’t that simple.

The mecha was created to destroy so even though he was able to pick up seedlings, it was very difficult to exert the proper force. Even a small mistake caused them to break.

Even with all of his concentration, he damaged more than 100 seedlings on the first day.

This was even scarier than consciousness training.

Still, the point was, if he failed he would need to leave.

Since he had promised, he wouldn’t go back on his word.

The relationship between the two of them had always been like this.

Yan Xueshan called his code of conduct the Principle of Manageability. That meant whatever he does, if he could determine a standard or rule, whether it could be achieved or not it was manageable. It was also not without reason or principle.

Arthur didn’t sleep that night and continued to practice grasping with small glass in the barn.

On the second day, he reduced the number of damaged seedlings to 50, on the third day it was within 10, and on the fourth day there was no damaged seedling at all. He finally became a skillful farm worker. He finished the work required by Yan Xueshan half a day ahead of schedule.

Arthur happily went to Yan Xueshan to ask for the key to the guest bedroom.

Yan Xueshan readily gave the key. “Well, sleep for one night and I will send you to the port tomorrow since your leave is about to be over anyway.”

Arthur was struck by lightning. He responded in a depressed manner, “If only I could’ve finished my work earlier.”

Yan Xueshan: “You are still a soldier, how can you go AWOL for a long time?”

Yan Xueshan asked, “What about the future, what do you plan to do? Have you already found a new partner after my retirement? Or did you switch to a command post altogether?”

Arthur looked at him, his gaze slightly burning as he spoke. “I’m not looking for a new partner, I just want to partner with you, Master.”

Yan Xueshan was eating apple pie. He licked the sugar from his finger, then looked at Arthur licking the back of his hand with the tip of his tongue and said, “I have already retired. Even my mecha was handed back. There is no way I can partner with you again.”

Close Combat Master Sergeants and Distant Combat Master Sergeant partners needed long-term training with the mecha, as well as have a spiritual fit match at least 50% to officially partner.

When he first met Arthur, they only had a 63% fit, not high but barely enough. Through the years, their fit gradually improved. Two years ago it was at 99.9%. It remained there, no longer increasing.

A good divisional partner was very difficult to find.

To put it crudely, many Masters would tell their lovers that they were their soulmates and say other sweet words, but would change lovers not long after. A divisional partner was different from a fleeting lover. On the battlefield, the tacit understanding between you and your partner can change the flow of battle. If you lose one you might never find a second one in your life.

Yan Xueshan has seen partners who had a very bad relationship in private, virtually incompatible, but on the battlefield it was a totally different matter. No matter how bad their personal relationship was they would never break up.

As his long-time partner, Yan Xueshan more or less understands Arthur’s mentality of “no one except Xueshan is good enough”. For him, Arthur was also the perfect melee partner and he would never be able to find a better one. Even if he could, there wasn’t another six years for them to grow with each other.

He also enjoyed fighting side by side with Arthur.

Thinking about it, Yan Xueshan suddenly figured it out.

He was enlightened!

Arthur must want him to go back and continue as his melee partner! So that’s why he came!

Yan Xueshan coughed lightly and said, “Maybe you can try partnering with someone else? Didn’t I also have several partners before I partnered with you? At that time I was just about the same age as you are now, twenty-five or twenty-six years old. It’s the perfect time to start from scratch with a newcomer.”

Arthur got angry. “No! I don’t want to! I just want you! I don’t want anyone else!”

Yan Xueshan said indifferently, “Then you can transfer to a commanding post. You have already accumulated enough front-line war merit and as the President’s son you will certainly be promoted to Marshal in a matter of days.”

He had already retired, there was no way he would go back to the army. The green vegetables he planted had just sprouted!

Arthur lowered his head and didn’t speak, but he didn’t seem too happy. After a while, he said, “Master, don’t talk about the army. Let’s talk about your business.”

Yan Xueshan was puzzled. “What about me??”

Arthur twirled the spoon with his fingers, and said, “About your marriage. I’ve been here for a few days but I still haven’t seen the girl. Are you hiding her on purpose and not letting me see her?”

Yan Xueshan said, “It’s not a girl. It’s a gentleman.”

As his words fell, Yan Xueshan saw Arthur become stunned. For a moment, his body was like a volcanic eruption, bursting out with terrible anger.

He quickly suppressed his emotions and tried to make the atmosphere lighter by smiling. Instead, he looked grim as he spoke, gritting his teeth. “Oh, oh, it’s a gentleman. Ah…I didn’t even know that you could…with men.”

He had to gasp a few breaths between every few words he said.

Yan Xueshan was confused.

His original plan was to matchmake with females, but what could be done about it? The ladies weren’t even interested in seeing him. The matchmaking company’s matching system selected only male alphas that were willing to go out with him. He nodded and said, “That’s right. It just happened like this, so I accepted it.”

“Click.”

Arthur’s fingers snapped the steel spoon with pure force.

Yan Xueshan froze. He looked at Arthur, and was about to speak, but Arthur sullenly spoke first. “I know, I know, I’ll pay for it.”

That made Yan Xueshan a little embarrassed, so he said, “Uh, no, you’ve done so much work these days, a spoon is nothing.”

After eating, the household robot came over to clean up the dishes.

Arthur couldn’t hold it in any longer. He stepped on the “landmine” and exploded, saying, “But, Master, we have already done the deed. How can you marry someone else as if nothing had happened at all?”

“Maybe…maybe, Master, you already have our child in your womb.”

Yan Xueshan couldn’t hold back anymore.

He coldly replied, “Are you sober? I am a male beta. I can’t get pregnant.”

“I agreed to do it with you at that time because of the years of comradeship between us and the special situation that you thought you might die in the final battle. You didn’t want to die a virgin and there was no other suitable person.”

Yan Xueshan continued, “You don’t have to have any extra psychological burden just because you gave me your virginity.”