[Host, why did you say it was inconvenient? Weren't you going to give him a chance to expose himself? If you shut him out, how is this show supposed to go on?] Xiao Yi fired off three questions in her mind.
Jiang Lijin replied to it coolly in her mind: [What do you know? Kieran is naturally suspicious and deeply calculating. If I went along with it and said it was convenient, he would instead suspect it was a trap. The more I refuse, the more he'll think I'm hiding something, and the more desperate he'll be to confirm Baal's true condition.]
Just as she finished speaking, two very light, rhythmic knocks suddenly sounded from outside the door.
"Who is it?" Jiang Lijin raised an eyebrow, her tone laced with just the right amount of vigilance and weakness.
It was quiet outside for a moment, followed by a deep yet extremely unsettling voice.
"It's me."
Jiang Lijin's hand, which was holding a biscuit, paused.
That voice belonged to Kieran.
She looked down at the time on her optical computer. Less than half a minute had passed since she sent the message "inconvenient."
That meant when this bastard sent "is it convenient," he was already on his way over. He never intended to ask for her permission at all!
Outside the door, Kieran pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose, patiently waiting for a response from inside. He was certain she wouldn't refuse him.
However, through the heavy metal door, the woman's blunt voice rang out.
"Who are you?"
The man outside had not expected to receive such an answer.
The air in the corridor stagnated for half a second. Kieran wasn't annoyed; even his tone didn't change.
"I am Kieran."
Jiang Lijin sat on the edge of the bed with no intention of moving. She unhurriedly stuffed the last half of her meat floss biscuit into her mouth, chewing very slowly.
Leaving him hanging was good for this high-and-mighty ex-husband.
A full five minutes passed before Jiang Lijin clapped her hands together and slowly stood up. She walked to the door, and as her finger pressed the unlock button, she leaned limply against the metal doorframe.
The door slid open to both sides.
Kieran stood outside, his military uniform crisp and neat. He was very tall, and as the cold light from the corridor ceiling hit him, his shadow almost completely enveloped Jiang Lijin.
"Is there something you need?" Jiang Lijin's eyelids half-drooped, her voice weak and listless. "Major General Kieran."
She enunciated those four words very lightly, yet they accurately drew a clear line between them.
Kieran's gaze bypassed her and quickly swept around the room. There was nothing unusual, no one else, only an open incubator and scattered biscuit wrappers on the table. He withdrew his gaze and let it fall back onto Jiang Lijin's pale face.
"I heard you just got back from the Commander-in-Chief's place," Kieran spoke, his tone flawless. "Taking on such high-intensity purification work right after arriving at the base, can your body handle it?"
This question was asked very skillfully. He completely avoided mentioning Baal's life or death, only caring about her physical condition. If it had been the original owner of this body, she would have been moved to tears long ago and then spilled everything that had just happened in the isolation room.
Unfortunately, Jiang Lijin only found it amusing.
"It's fine," she replied perfunctorily, too lazy to offer even a single extra word.
Kieran didn't mind her coldness. He took a half-step forward, closing the distance between them.
He looked down at her, lowering his voice even further, revealing a touch of perfectly measured concern. "The frontline is nothing like the capital star; the environment here is too harsh. You are now a key protection target, you shouldn't have taken such a huge risk to come to a place like this."
Jiang Lijin raised a hand to rub her temples, pretending to have a splitting headache. "I'm already here, is there any point in saying this? If the Major General has nothing else, I'd like to rest."
"Jiang Lijin," Kieran called her name, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness.
He looked at the woman in front of him. Her features clearly hadn't changed, but the aura she exuded was completely different.
The former Jiang Lijin used to look at him with shining eyes, wishing she could dig out her entire heart and offer it to him. If he merely frowned, she would panic and reflect on what she had done wrong.
But now, leaning against the doorframe, the way she looked at him was like looking at an insignificant stranger, even carrying a bit of impatience.
"You've changed." Kieran's tone revealed neither joy nor anger.
"Have I?" Jiang Lijin scoffed, shifting her posture as she leaned back with her arms crossed. "People always change. If one day, Major General Kieran finds out that he has also become a 3S rank, you would change too."
These words dropped lightly yet heavily, causing Kieran's breathing to pause briefly.
3S rank.
This term was too lethal for him, someone who dreamed of climbing higher. He wanted a higher military rank, greater power, and to sit in the position Baal currently held, becoming the highest authority in the entire Federation military.
Jiang Lijin's words accurately stepped on his deepest, most hidden desires. If he possessed 3S-rank mental power, he wouldn't need to play games with a female here; he would have trampled Baal underfoot long ago.
The corridor fell into a momentary silence. Behind his glasses, Kieran's pupils contracted slightly, already lost in his own thoughts.
In her mind, Xiao Yi began explaining the book's plot to Jiang Lijin.
[In the original work, this Major General Kieran is quite the ruthless character. The drug he gave Baal not only triggered a rampage but also destroyed the barriers of Baal's spiritual domain. Ultimately, to save the base, the other military brass used a mecha to transport Baal into space, letting him explode on his own. After Baal died, the military was left leaderless and panicked. And right at this time, the Zerg from the Sirius galaxy launched a massive invasion.]
Xiao Yi paused, its tone turning serious: [The interesting part is that the timing of this Zerg invasion was too perfect, so perfect it was as if someone had sent intelligence to the Zerg in advance. Kieran used this chaos to step up and take charge. He designed an extremely risky plan to lure the enemy in deep, sacrificing a third of the frontline forces to annihilate the main Zerg army.]
Jiang Lijin sneered in her heart. Stepping on the corpses of his comrades to rise to power—that was indeed something Kieran would do.
[After that battle, Kieran's prestige skyrocketed, and he was promoted directly to General. But that wasn't the end of it.] Xiao Yi continued its explanation, [The Commander-in-Chief at the time, Gary, had always been brooding over Baal's death. While investigating the mole, he inexplicably died in a starship explosion. With Gary dead, Kieran completely cleared his obstacles and successfully took power, becoming the first S-rank Commander-in-Chief in the history of the Interstellar Federation.]
Jiang Lijin clicked her tongue in her mind.
What a calculating and ambitious schemer. Baal, Gary—they all became stepping stones for his climb to the top.
In the corridor, Kieran finally recovered from his brief lapse of composure.
He pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, and the gaze behind the lenses became gentle again, even carrying a hint of deep affection.
"Ali, whether you believe it or not, actually..." He paused, weighing his words, his tone turning incredibly sincere. "In the past, I truly liked you."
