Yunyang freed one hand to open the new message, then froze.
It was a notification that her military merit had increased.
Back on T01, she received messages like this several times a day. But those rewards had come from purifying the Federation’s soldiers.
The military merit she had received today, however, came from someone she never would have expected—
Chu Zhiwei.
Yunyang set down her soup dumpling and opened her chat with Chu Zhiwei, intending to ask whether she had sent it to the wrong person.
But as if they were connected telepathically, Chu Zhiwei sent her a message before she could ask.
Chu Zhiwei: Lulu said you needed military merit. I don’t need these anyway, so don’t stand on ceremony with me.
Before You Lu and Yunyang awakened their psychic powers, Chu Zhiwei had been the Federation’s only female with S-rank psychic power.
Even then, she often traveled to various Federation military bases, accumulating an unimaginable amount of military merit.
In fact, even Leo could not compare with her in that regard.
She did not have much use for the military merit, though. Her beast husbands often accompanied her to the frontier stars, and their military merit was also exceptionally high. Between them, they had more than enough to exchange for insect cores.
Thus, when Chu Zhiwei learned that Yunyang needed military merit, she casually transferred a portion of hers.
Of course, her “portion” was more than all the military merit Yunyang had received put together.
Yunyang felt too embarrassed to accept it.
She was close to Lulu, but she was not familiar with Chu Zhiwei. If she accepted Chu Zhiwei’s military merit under these circumstances, Lulu would have to repay the favor.
She reread the message she had just received, then returned every last point of military merit to Chu Zhiwei.
Lord Zhiwei, I already have enough military merit.
Chu Zhiwei made it clear that she would not listen. Not only did she transfer it back, but she sent even more than before.
Take it.
Yunyang: “…”
Where had this inexplicable overbearing-president vibe come from?
She tried to transfer it back again, only to receive a notification that the other party’s account was refusing transfers.
Yunyang did not know what to say.
Seeing her looking as though she was both amused and exasperated, all five of her beast husbands came over with concern.
“Female Lord, what’s wrong?”
“Female Lord, did something happen?”
“Lord Zhiwei transferred a huge amount of military merit to me.” Yunyang disabled the privacy screen that had activated automatically and enlarged the light screen so that all five of her beast husbands could see the chat history between her and Chu Zhiwei. “I’m not very familiar with Lord Zhiwei. In fact, I’ve never even met her. This favor will definitely end up being something Lulu has to repay.”
“That wouldn’t be appropriate.”
The five beast husbands understood their female lord’s dilemma.
Fu Shiyi adjusted his glasses and corrected her. “Female Lord, we encountered Lord Zhiwei on the airship from Central Star. She saw you too.”
“So technically, you’ve met.”
“Hm?” Yunyang looked at him blankly.
Qin Mo continued, “You were resting at the time, and Lord Zhiwei was worried about disturbing you, so she didn’t say anything.”
Yunyang finally understood.
Chu Zhiwei had probably added her as a friend because she had seen her before.
But that still didn’t change anything. Yunyang was not comfortable accepting Chu Zhiwei’s military merit.
Besides—
“Doesn’t Lord Zhiwei live on Central Star?”
To better protect females with S-rank psychic power, the Federation invited every female who awakened S-rank psychic power to live on Central Star.
The Central Star Female Protection Association had previously sent Yunyang an invitation as well.
But the original owner had lived here for so long, and her mother, Yun Conglan, lived right next door, so Yunyang had declined the invitation.
Although X92 was considered a relatively prosperous planet within the X Star Cluster, it was still inferior to Central Star.
Judging from the speed of the JF-129 airship, they should have boarded the airship back to X92 around midnight. What could possibly have brought an S-rank psychic from Central Star here in the middle of the night?
Yunyang could not figure it out.
She looked at Qin Mo and Fu Shiyi.
Fu Shiyi shook his head. “Sorry, Female Lord. I can’t answer that.”
It would be extremely rude for a male to casually investigate the whereabouts of an S-rank psychic.
Qin Mo guessed, “Perhaps something unexpected happened at the Seventh Army base, and they invited Lord Zhiwei to X92?”
The Seventh Army base was located on X92.
However, Qin Mo quickly rejected his own theory.
If the military had invited her, they should have sent a military airship to Central Star to pick up Lord Zhiwei, rather than having her travel with her beast husbands on a civilian airship.
Listening to Qin Mo’s analysis gave Yunyang a headache.
Forget it. There was no point dwelling on it.
“I’ll transfer the military merit to Lulu later and have Lulu return it to Lord Zhiwei.”
Yunyang ended the topic and picked up another soup dumpling.
On her first day back home, Yunyang did not do anything productive.
She spent the day eating, drinking, and browsing the StarNet.
And just like that, the entire day passed.
You Lu seemed to be very busy. She did not message Yunyang during the day and only sent her a message that evening to say she was safe.
Yunyang did not need to guess what You Lu had been doing all day.
She had either been catching up on sleep, or…
Yunyang did not continue that train of thought. After sending back a reaction image, she turned her attention to the five beast husbands who were serving her.
Sensing her gaze, all five of them looked up at the same time.
“Female Lord, did I use too much force?”
“Female Lord, are you thirsty?”
“Female Lord…”
One concerned question followed another, and a smile unconsciously appeared at the corners of Yunyang’s lips.
“Neither.”
The five beast husbands looked at her in confusion.
Yunyang said, “I want to go back to my room and rest.”
The five men’s eyes lit up. “Female Lord, who do you want to accompany you?”
Yunyang was just about to name someone when she suddenly thought of something.
“Wait here.”
After saying that, she stood up and hurried toward a room on the third floor.
The moment they saw her open that familiar door, all five beast husbands wordlessly took out their imitation animal ears and tails and put them on.
Morning exercises had clearly been effective. Yunyang was now much faster at going up and down the stairs than before.
By the time the five beast husbands had put on the ears and tails they had carefully selected earlier, Yunyang was already coming back down from the third floor.
She stopped short when she saw the five pairs of animal ears in different colors atop their heads.
Damn it, they were messing with her resolve again!
Yunyang walked back to the sofa with a stern expression and sat down. Then, despite her feigned indifference, she reached out and pinched each of their ears in turn.
Only after that did she take an entire box of jade plaques from her spatial button.
You Lu had given them to her before as well.
Different animals were carved into the plaques. The complete set contained nearly a hundred pieces and covered most of the beastkin races in the Federation.
Yunyang leaned back and gave an order. “Choose one for yourselves.”
All five beast husbands turned their eyes to the box of jade plaques.
The plaques were all the same size and made of the same material, with blank backs.
Only the fronts were different, each carved with a different animal.
The five men seemed to understand what she meant and began choosing one after another.
Xuan Yu was the first to finish. He held up the plaque carved with a wolf and presented it to Yunyang like a treasured offering. “Female Lord, is this one all right?”
Yunyang glanced at it and nodded.
Qin Mo chose the plaque with a tiger.
Rong Jin chose the one with a red panda.
The three beast husbands had all found plaques corresponding to their beast forms, but Fu Shiyi and Pei Wenye were left at a loss.
