The red pot on the small table beside the floor-to-ceiling glass is still rolling. The thin and smooth pieces of meat and the green fresh vegetables are mixed with red oil, and together with a few random side dishes, it is the best drink for drinking. It didn't take long for a bottle of high-grade liquor to be swallowed by Zhong Shouhu and Xu Le. The two of them didn't drink with arrogance, and they didn't have the majesty of a long whale swallowing the sea, but they sipped slowly one cup after another, and kept turning their wrists and dumping, but the speed was extremely fast.
Before he was in a hurry, the heat surged up, Zhong Shouhu picked up the wet towel and wiped the sweat from his face and neck vigorously, and unbuttoned three buttons of the ordinary white shirt, but he still seemed to feel a little stuffy in the air, and his eyebrows were slightly raised. He glanced at the colonel officer beside him, then glanced at the floor-to-ceiling glass window by the table and the shade of green trees on the street outside the window, and said, "I want to breathe."
The colonel saluted with a snap, waved to summon a few soldiers, walked out of the restaurant, took out all kinds of tools, and without hesitation, removed the whole piece of floor-to-ceiling glass cleanly.
The evening wind blew lightly around the fireplace, slightly wet on his face, Xu Le, who was taking off his military uniform, froze his fingers, feeling the cool breath pouring in. Looking at this scene, he couldn't help but be speechless. The arrogant back when I got off halfway at Shanglin Mid-Levels on the Shougang High Speed Rail a few years ago.
"It's much more comfortable." Zhong Shouhu sighed softly, picked up the collar of his shirt and fanned the night wind that kept coming beside him, seeing Xu Le's eyebrows that had not been deliberately concealed, the corners of his lips were slightly raised, mocking He said, "I've eaten in this restaurant for decades, and naturally I won't let the boss lose money. Little guy, do you want to show your lovely sense of justice even in such a small matter?"
Xu Le drank the wine in his glass, grinned slightly, and then shrugged to express no comment. Over the years, he has seen too many privileges appearing in the Federation, and he is not numb yet, but he is not surprised. .
"In the eyes of many people in the federation, I am the darkest and arrogant warlord, the emperor of Xilintu who actually divided the federation and damaged the majesty of the government."
Zhong Shouhu looked at him blankly, and said, "My Zhong family has held the Western Frontier for thousands of years for the Federation, but in the end, I will be infamous for thousands of years. Since I have to bear the infamy, why don't I enjoy the pleasure of power?"
"If the Federation wants to send officials, it must be approved by me. The Ministry of National Defense has to formulate a combat plan, and it must be discussed with me. I am the emperor of this star field, and I... the savior of the people of Xilin."
Xu Le didn't understand why the mature big man across the table would say in front of himself that these are more than arrogant, almost arrogant and stupid self-evaluations. Yu Guangli noticed everyone in the hotel, including those professional soldiers in Xilin who were protecting each other. They have all retreated, and only the two of them are left here.
Based on the firm three-view concept of more than 20 years, he subconsciously quickly retorted: "There has never been a savior, nor an immortal emperor."
"That's right, the Federation has been out of the monarchy for tens of thousands of years." Zhong Shouhu looked at him with a slightly emotional expression, and said with a slight mockery: "However, everyone knows that the emperor never disappeared, they just changed a few clothes. ."
"George Carlin, a transcript of the conversation after a tea party in the early autumn."
Xu Le raised his head and said the source of this famous saying, a strange feeling arose in his heart. He always felt that Commander Zhong was not referring to himself, but referring to something else.
"I heard that you were a squatting soldier in Donglin back then?" Zhong Shouhu looked at him and said with a smile: "So, you and our Zhong family do have some fate."
The real bigwigs in the Federation seem to be very good at this way of controlling the atmosphere of the venue by suddenly changing the focus of the conversation. Xu Le and the lady Mochou Houshan had a few conversations, and they had a deep understanding of it. This kind of headache communication method, so there is not much discomfort, and calmly replied: "Two years of mine maintenance. What is the fate?"
"Donglin... Is the replica of that vintage clock still hanging on Bell Tower Street?"
Zhong Shouhu drank another glass of wine. The liquid, which was as strong as fire and pure as water, entered his body, and at this moment it turned into some kind of reminiscence and an extremely long-standing heaviness.
Hearing the three words Bell Tower Street, Xu Le's heart shrank slightly, staring at each other for a moment, and found that the middle-aged man was just reminiscing with emotion, and he didn't seem to have grasped his most secret past, so he responded somewhat indifferently. : "I heard that it was put into a museum."
"Well, after so many years, it really can only be turned into garbage piled up in dark corners in museums. How many people in this Federation remember what happened back then?"
Zhong Shouhu lowered his eyes slightly and said, "The fourth military region was sent to Donglin to develop the mine star, and the command ship fell into the main star of Donglin, and the sky was full of fireworks, but the retro-style bell carried by the commander of the fourth military region at that time was not destroyed. "
When Xu Le heard these words, he remembered the clock on the square in front of Zhong's old house, No. 36, Wei 2nd District. Thinking of the ancient story of Zhonglou Street where he lived since he was a child, his body stiffened and he remembered something. , I understood something, and I couldn't help feeling that the world was really too unpredictable.
Zhong Shouhu raised his eyebrows slightly, drank another cup, and said leisurely with a cold breath: "This is a big joke in the history of the federal government, because according to the later investigation of the federal government... Oh, the federal government at that time seemed to be called a shit company. All the nations, there is also a shitty management committee... They say the battleship crashed to the ground because of a simple gravity calculation error."
He stared into Xu Le's eyes with awe-inspiring eyes: "Do you think my ancestors would make such a mentally handicapped and heartbreaking mistake?"
Xu Le thought that when he was a child, he seemed to often laugh at the protagonist of this story with his orphan friends - the commander who left a famous quote about fireworks and left with his tail tucked in, and his lips and tongues could not help feeling a little tight.
"But the government thinks this way, the media thinks this way, and the stupid people who just broke away from imperial politics and jumped at the words of democracy and freedom with joy also think this way."
Zhong Shouhu said with a blank face: "So the Federal Management Committee took the opportunity to launch a rectification movement within the military, and the Fourth Military Region was forcibly transferred from the Donglin Region where countless crystal mines had been discovered, and came to this West Forest, which was still wild at the time.
Xu Le lowered his head, and the chopsticks in his hand were a little stiff and awkward. He guessed what the big man wanted to explain, but he couldn't accept it for a while in his heart. He knew the name of the street in his hometown since he was a child. The origin turned out to be just the fruit of the dark politics of the Federation.
"What's wrong with the gravity calculation? It's just a conspiracy involving countless people." Zhong Shouhu said without the slightest emotion, which finally proved his guess.
History appeared in front of Xu Le in a way of telling the descendants of the parties in person, with another completely opposite face. It turned out that the first army stationed in Donglin's hometown was the fourth military region of the Zhong family. After the accident, the Zhong family was forced to come to the western edge of the federation, and then they got the name of the Xilin Zhong family.
It turned out that this accident was just a conspiracy of the federal government. It turned out that the sky was not really blue, and the clouds were not always white. The group of democratic sages who peacefully overthrew the monarchy and enjoyed great fame in history were not very clean. Inferring like this, is it possible that George Carlin is really an uncle, and that Lipif is a woman? Is Schiller really the vest of someone in the group of five? Are the two moons above S1 really the failed products of alien experiments
Xu Le thought so, he was silent for a long time, drank three glasses of wine, and then asked a question that he felt stupid.
"why?"
Perhaps this generation of Zhong Shouhu, the owner of the Zhong family, has not had the opportunity for many years to tell the stories that happened countless years ago, about the humiliation and conspiracy that the family regarded as a warlord by the federal people once suffered, so after hearing this stupid question, Commander Zhong’s The answer was calm: "Because the elected government that has just won the election and successfully forced His Majesty to step down, urgently needs an opportunity to weaken the Seven Great Families. The most important thing is that the government needs to gain the support of the previous royal family."
"The Federal Crystal Mining Consortium is the price of this support."
The Federation Crystal Mine Consortium controls the most basic lifeline of interstellar travel, and is the core and most critical giant enterprise in the entire Federation. Xu Le lives in the Donglin mining area. In other words, his ancestors have been working for this giant enterprise for generations. However, Until a few years ago, he was still like the people of Donglin, thinking that he was working for the Federation, until he met a distinguished friend.
"It's from the Tai family." He replied in a deep voice.
"The federal government can make the Tai family peacefully hand over the power in its hands. I never believe that there is no insider trading. The crystal mines on Donglin Mine that are more precious than gold are undoubtedly part of the transaction. ."
Zhong Shouhu said with an expressionless face: "At that time, Donglin had not yet been fully developed, and my Zhong family was the first to settle in, and naturally became the object that had to be sacrificed."
Xu Le had never had a favorable opinion of the political circle, but as an orphan from the bottom of the Federation, he always habitually stood on the side of the elected government, and did not have much favor with the seven Qianshi families hidden behind history.
After a moment of silence, he said unnaturally: "But a privileged class like the Zhong family is not a good thing for the Federation."
"Don't those gangs only know compromise and exchange of interests, only waving their arms and giving speeches, inciting the stupid people with beautiful but illusory words, slapping the table and scolding us, but charging our money behind them and playing with what we gave them. A woman's pig-headed politician is good for this federation?"
This is a problem with the lack of system and supervision, but the system itself is always much better than the political system of the Seven Kingdoms or more distant dynasties, even if the stupid people make choices that are inherently retarded, and even the objects they choose are pathetic... It's just that they are allowed to choose, but after all, they have some right to choose.
Xu Le wanted to refute the other party in this way, but when he thought about what happened after he escaped to the capital star circle, and the inexplicable stories that the uncle experienced, there was still no official answer, but he lost the will to refute the other party.
"Now you are the supreme commander of the federal front line, and President Pabble has always given you the most selfless support, bearing strong pressure from the parliament and the political circle. As far as I know, the Ministry of Defense has never made any details of your command. interference."
"That's history," he said.
"Forgetting history means betrayal, not to mention history is now."
"The dynasty is over, the federal government and the seven families share the interests equally, only my Zhong family was kicked out of the wealthy capital star circle and stationed in Donglin, where birds don't shit. When they found that Donglin has treasures, we were treated by such inferior and disgusting people again. Conspiracy to drive out Donglin and come to Xilin where birds can't poop."
"Now that the empire is going to be attacked, Xilin will be the most important local region of the federation. Where is the federation going to drive our Zhong family to?"
"I named the girl Zhong Fireworks so that she could remember what this newborn federation did to the Zhong family many years ago. Children, be alert, this federation will continue to do this to us in the future. "
Xu Le thought of the cute little watermelon, the weight she might carry on her thin shoulders in the future, and the origin of her name, and she couldn't help but say the sigh of the ancestors of the Zhong family after the warship crashed in her hometown.
"My mood at this time is even more lonely than fireworks."
"The Federation wants to destroy the Zhong family, and they are trying to destroy the Zhong family, just like the warship that exploded into fireworks."
Zhong Shouhu raised his eyebrows slightly and said calmly, "I'm looking forward to it."