Dinner.
Tinia returned right on time, just as expected. The warp starship parked in the clearing behind the villa, and he rushed into the living room before its engines even had time to completely cool down.
"Sister!"
The moment he entered, he threw himself at Jiang Lijin, rubbing against her affectionately a few times. It wasn't until he felt several chilly gazes from around the room that he finally let go, looking completely satisfied.
"What's that smell on you?" Jiang Lijin wrinkled her nose, though she didn't push him away.
Tinia looked down and sniffed himself. "The smell of starship fuel? We ran into a meteorite belt during the warp today and had to make an emergency trajectory change."
Jiang Lijin glanced at him and swallowed back the words, "Maybe make fewer trips," that had just reached the tip of her tongue.
Fortunately, the villa's dining table was large enough. Today featured the complete lineup for a veritable battlefield of tension.
The dishes on the table were also more than twice as lavish as usual.
Tinia sat down on Jiang Lijin's left. Placed in front of him was his order: a whole plate of hand rolls made with deep-sea shrimp meat, a specialty of Valoran, wrapped in a thin, crispy layer of seaweed.
"I had the chef make this sweet soup using my mother's recipe." He pushed a bowl of sweet soup that looked like silver ear mushroom stew in front of Jiang Lijin. "Try some, Sister."
Baal sat on her right. In front of him was a beautifully seared steak, medium-well, without any sauce poured over it. It was simple and brutish, just like the man himself. A small dish of black pepper sauce sat to the side, but he never touched it.
Chiron's seat was diagonally across from her. He had a light, seasonal vegetable salad paired with a cup of sugar-free black coffee.
Tianyan and Tianque sat directly across the dining table.
When Xiao Bai brought their food over, Jiang Lijin was momentarily stunned. The items ordered by these two new residents had a completely different vibe from the rest of the table.
Tianyan had requested a bowl of hot and sour noodles with the spice level maxed out, even adding three extra spoonfuls of chili sauce. Meanwhile, Tianque had nothing but a bowl of plain white porridge paired with two small dishes of pickled vegetables.
Tinia curiously craned his neck to glance at Tianque's bowl, his expression complicated.
"That's all you're eating?"
Tianque didn't look up as he picked up his spoon. "It's enough."
Tianyan smiled at Tinia. "Don't mind him. He's been like this since we were kids; he just doesn't know how to enjoy good food."
Placed in front of Jiang Lijin was a portion of cheese-baked lobster. Half a lobster shell was stuffed with stringy, melted cheese and tender lobster meat, accompanied by a small side dish of truffle scrambled eggs.
She took a couple of bites of the lobster, then took a sip of the silver ear soup Tinia had pushed over.
The sweetness was just right.
Seeing her drink it, Tinia's blue eyes lit up so brightly they practically reflected light.
Baal's movements paused as he cut his steak. He cast a glance at that bowl of silver ear soup, then lowered his head and continued cutting.
Chiron held his coffee cup, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the two of them, but he said nothing.
Halfway through the meal, Baal put down his knife and fork and wiped his mouth.
"The Federal Military Council held a meeting today."
Jiang Lijin didn't stop chewing. She shot him a look, gesturing for him to continue.
"The folks at the council are getting antsy and want to offer you some benefits," Baal said simply and directly. "But before that, I heard the Empire has already made a move."
He pulled out his optical computer and projected a document onto the virtual screen above the dining table.
"The Imperial Royal Family intends to confer upon you the title of a third-class baron, plus the usage rights to a barren planet designated X-1104 on the outskirts of the capital star."
On the virtual screen, the 3D model of the barren planet slowly rotated. It was a dusty gray sphere with no water sources, no vegetation, and even its atmosphere was incredibly thin.
"A barren planet?" Tinia narrowed his blue eyes. "X-1104... I've seen the mineral data for this planet. Its development value is practically zero. The royal family is just tossing out a broken rock to fool people."
"A third-class baron," Chiron added, his tone flat. "In the royal aristocratic system, a third-class baron ranks at the very bottom. No voting rights in the assembly, no jurisdictional rights over a fiefdom. You get to enter the palace for a meal during holidays, and that's it."
Jiang Lijin raised an eyebrow.
A useless broken rock and a useless broken title. Even dismissing a beggar would be more generous than this.
However, she hadn't expected to get anything substantial in the first round anyway. It was just a probe; both sides were feeling each other out.
"These are the Empire's conditions." Baal turned off the virtual screen, his golden eyes meeting Jiang Lijin's. "The Federation hasn't decided yet. The council asked me to come and ask you. What do you want?"
The dining table fell quiet for two seconds. Jiang Lijin put down her spoon and wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin.
"The Federation doesn't have any money," she said.
Baal was speechless.
"Or land," she added, twisting the knife. "The military complains about being poor every year, and frontline funding has to be carefully budgeted."
Tinia nodded vigorously, expressing his deep agreement.
"So the only thing the Federation can offer—" Jiang Lijin looked up at Baal, "is power, right?"
After she said this, the dining table went completely silent.
Tianyan's movement of picking up his noodles paused. He held it in for two seconds before he couldn't help but laugh out loud.
His laughter drew everyone's attention. Tianyan didn't say anything; he simply lowered his head to eat his noodles again, suppressing the curve of his lips.
Tinia rested his chin in his hand and looked at Jiang Lijin. He wasn't surprised at all. He had long known that his sister was a force to be reckoned with.
Tianque continued drinking his white porridge, completely unruffled.
Chiron lowered his head to drink his coffee. The rim of the cup hid most of his face, revealing only a pair of smiling eyes.
Baal leaned back in his chair, his golden eyes staring unblinkingly at Jiang Lijin.
Such ambition—if it had come from anyone else, Baal would have thought they were overestimating themselves. But coming from her mouth, he actually felt it was perfectly justified.
Because she truly had the qualifications for it.
The only 3S-grade female in the entire star system, an existence that both sides were fighting tooth and nail to claim.
"Alright." It was simple and crisp, with no follow-up questions and no hesitation.
"I'll go talk to the council."
Jiang Lijin was briefly stunned. She had originally prepared a whole speech to analyze the pros and cons and explain her logic, but she ended up not needing a single word of it.
"You're not going to ask what kind of power I want?"
"Just tell me what you want, and I'll go get it."
"You are my wife. Whatever you want, it's my responsibility to take it for you." The words were spoken simply and brutally, without the slightest bit of pretension.
Beside her, Tinia curled his lip and muttered softly, "What a show-off..."
Baal's golden eyes shot a glare over, and Tinia turned his head away, refusing to look at him.
Jiang Lijin lowered her head and continued eating her lobster, not letting anyone see the slight curve of her lips.
As dinner was nearing its end, Jiang Lijin's optical computer chimed.
She opened it to find an official email from the Imperial Palace. The signature at the bottom read Greven Alduin.
The wording of the email was very polite. The general gist was that the royal family had long heard of Ms. Jiang Lijin's deeds and was hereby inviting her to the palace as a guest to show their respect. The time was set for three days later, at which point the Second Prince would personally host her.
Jiang Lijin projected the email from her optical computer into the middle of the dining table as well.
Chiron's gaze swept over the email, and he spoke up. "The old Emperor of the Empire has been sick for many years and basically ignores political affairs. The one actually running the show now is this Second Prince, Greven."
He looked at Jiang Lijin. "He was most likely the one who finalized the matter regarding the third-class baron title. Giving you so little the first time was to test your reaction. Now, his spies planted in the Federation probably heard about the council's movements, and afraid that you might lean toward the Federation, he personally sent an email to invite you over."
"Both the Empire and the Federation have made their offers." Jiang Lijin closed the email. "How will we know who is more sincere if we don't go and see?"
She turned her head and glanced at Baal. "After all, one has to shop around."
She said this lightly, but everyone present could hear the underlying implication.
Baal had finished his steak. He wiped his hands with a napkin, pushed his chair back, and stood up.
"Three days is enough." He got up and strode toward the door.
"You're going now?" Jiang Lijin called out from behind him. "It's the middle of the night. Don't those old men in the parliament sleep?"
"Let them try to sleep," Baal said without looking back, his voice drifting over from the entryway.
The front door slammed shut, and the dining table fell quiet once again.
Chiron placed his empty coffee cup back on the table, his gaze falling on Jiang Lijin.
"I will accompany you to the palace when the time comes."
Jiang Lijin nodded. On the Imperial Royal Family's turf, having Chiron from the Imperial Academy of Sciences to lead the way would indeed make things much more convenient.
Tianyan put down his bowl, his gaze sweeping past the side of Jiang Lijin's face before quickly shifting away.
"How lively," Tianyan remarked, his smile carrying a profound meaning.
Night fell.
Jiang Lijin curled up on the sofa, flipping through the public records on the Empire's aristocratic hierarchy on her optical computer. Above a third-class lord was a second-class viscount, a first-class earl, a marquis, a duke... The higher the rank, the more impossible it was to obtain, but she needed to be at least two or three tiers higher than a third-class lord. Otherwise, she wouldn't even be able to touch the fringes of the core circle.
Xiao Yi popped up in her mind: [Host! Baal rushed out in the middle of the night to negotiate terms for you. Aren't you touched at all?]
Jiang Lijin turned a page of the documents: [If he doesn't go, should I? Right now, it's the Federation begging me.]
[...True. But I think Baal has made some progress in terms of emotional intelligence. Compared to his previous dense guy behavior, at least now he knows the principle of 'I will go get whatever you want.']
Jiang Lijin didn't reply to it, but the corners of her lips curled up slightly for a brief moment.
She pulled up the email from the Empire to read it again, her fingertip gently tapping on the name of the Second Prince.
