Chapter 57

Fu Luo's hair was thoroughly tidied up. The short hair looked neat and natural, with the ends slightly curled inwards. However, given that the messy mop of hair was personally grown by her, Fu Luo could tell at a glance that it was definitely the result of a perm.

The slightly gloomy bangs that had started to cover her eyes were trimmed into a slanted fringe by the quartermaster, revealing a small part of her forehead. The ends of her hair curled slightly to one side, hanging below her eyebrows, instantly softening her gaze - even though she was still wearing that cold uniform.

The quartermaster had even groomed her eyebrows.

In an instant, her entire face looked unfamiliar. Fu Luo felt like she didn't even look like the person her mother gave birth to anymore!

She awkwardly raised her hand, seemingly not knowing where to place it. After hovering in the air for a while, she sheepishly put it down. "This... that..."

The quartermaster asked with a smile, "Not good-looking?"

Fu Luo had no choice but to curve her eyes and give Dong Jialing a slightly helpless smile. "...It looks good. Thank you, Sister Jialing."

Not to mention that perming hair was against regulations, even if Colonel Yang was not a stickler for details, there was still that bastard Yesi who wouldn't let go of any opportunity to make fun of her.

He would definitely laugh at her like a madman for at least half a year.

Fu Luo was thinking that she might as well just wear a hat every day from now on.

Dong Jialing saw her out and admired her own handiwork from behind.

The naturalness was completely undetectable; the quartermaster was quite satisfied with herself. The only unnatural thing was Fu Luo's neck, stiff like a zombie's, tilting to one side, even making her walk with both arms and legs in sync, like a half-paralyzed puppet moving with heavy steps.

Dong Jialing suddenly called out to her, "Hey, Little Luo."

Fu Luo turned her head with a creak.

"My daughter is almost eight years old," Dong Jialing said out of the blue.

Fu Luo's unfortunate left foot tripped over her right foot. Fortunately, she managed to grab the wall in time, otherwise she would have almost face-planted on the spot.

What could be more cruel than the fact that "the fairy sister has a child, and the fairy sister's child has already finished learning pinyin"?

This unreasonable news would definitely devastate the Second Department.

"I think, if someone rudely ordered her around all day and called her 'boy', I would definitely blow that guy's head off with a gun," the fairy sister who had just dropped a shocking bombshell said sweetly in a soft voice.

A chill ran down Fu Luo's spine as she silently lit a candle for Yesi's life.

Dong Jialing: "If one must believe that beautiful things are fragile, and that only being sloppy, rough, and even unkempt like a stinky man is a show of strength, then it only proves that they are all cowardly enough to put on a false front with appearances."

These words almost stunned Fu Luo.

Sister Jialing leaned against the doorframe, lightly twirling a lock of hair by her temple, unhurriedly saying, "The entire civilization we are fighting for is one that pursues beauty. Do you understand, little girl? Come be a little beauty, don't you think this damn universe is just too monotonous and cold?"

Because of the goddess's words, Fu Luo finally didn't wear a hat the next day after all.

So when she got up early to attend the General Staff Office's regular meeting, she unsurprisingly collected dropped jaws all the way.

Those who were more reserved would watch her back all the way, expressing with any of their five senses things like - "Who is this person?" "Where did this girl come from?" "Wait, although I'm not creepily trying to hit on her, I really want to know, why does this girl look a bit familiar to me?"

...And so on.

Those who were not reserved... like when she unfortunately ran into Yesi.

Yesi was humming, "The little girl picking mushrooms, carrying a... ah!"

He suddenly let out a ghostly scream, as if he had been greatly frightened, and took a step back. As he gradually got a clearer look at Fu Luo, he gradually twisted his face into a "you've got a terminal illness" look of heartbreaking shock, and asked loudly in a hoarse voice, "What happened to your head?!"

In response to such a malicious inquiry, Fu Luo nodded expressionlessly in greeting and replied, "My head is fine."

With that, she walked past the blond old bastard with the poise of a runway model, her lips moving silently as she muttered to herself - one day I'll blow your head off.

...If her neck wasn't so obviously stiff, she might have looked a bit more domineering.

Fu Luo knocked on the door of the General Staff Office. It was always in a state of high alert, mostly serious and tense, rarely lively. When Fu Luo entered, Yang Ning was looking down at something, while the others at the conference table instantly turned into giraffes, raising their heads to watch.

Fu Luo: "...Reporting."

"Please..." Yang Ning looked up and was stunned for a moment.

But as a commander, one had to have some grace. He didn't blatantly stare like the others. Yang Ning blinked, quickly coming back to his senses, and continued his words without changing his expression, "Come in."

Colonel Yang was a very graceful person. As long as he wasn't facing an enemy or killing someone, he could always maintain his refined elegance. Seeing Fu Luo's slightly stiff appearance, Yang Ning immediately averted his gaze as if nothing had happened, tapping the table with his reader. "Everyone, sit down."

This communication station was named "Dawn No. 2", no longer the temporary, easy to track and vulnerable signal that Fu Luo and Yesi had set up.

Yang Ning briefly showcased the technical department's results.

"The good news is, we have established contact with the ground forces of our military," Yang Ning said. "Following Mr. Yesi's idea, with the assistance of our Earth comrades, we have constructed a virtual signal station. I won't go into the technical details. But if we can complete the construction of this ground-to-air virtual signal system, it should have quite a wide coverage and can also effectively prevent interception and tracking techniques from enemy forces in the other star system."

"However, the signal system is not very stable at the moment. I understand everyone's urgent desire to know the news of their relatives and friends. Please be patient and prioritize military use first." Yang Ning's voice paused slightly, and then his tone became even more gentle, "Of course, we can't be so heartless. I see the Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon, right? On that day, we'll open up private signal use for 24 hours, how about that?"

Even in the General Staff Office, a burst of not-so-steady cheers erupted at this time.

Earth has always been the spiritual Garden of Eden for all mankind.

Yang Ning considerately did not disturb his subordinates' unprofessional reactions. He lowered his eyes. It was unclear what he was thinking for a moment, and nobody could tell how much of his half-smiling expression was genuine and how much was perfunctory.

He picked up the cup, took a sip of water, and turned to Fu Luo amidst everyone's jubilation, slightly raising his cup: "The new image is quite good, you can keep it."

Fu Luo was stunned for a moment, and suddenly felt her ears turn hot. For a while, she only felt that her neck was even more stiff.

In the following period of time, countless people on the warship set up a countdown card for the Mid-Autumn Festival on their watch faces.

Indeed, in the world of mortals, where is the heart not like an arrow?

However, what they waited for first was not the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a message.

Although the Space Forces is nominally one of the four major services, it is actually a separate system from the ground forces. Since its establishment, it has followed the principle of non-interference. The scope of their operations is quite different, and it is not very convenient for them to point fingers at each other.

But even so, after the collapse of space communications, all the scattered troops' first thought was to find ways to contact the ground by any means possible.

At this time, the ground-to-air signal system had not been fully repaired, and the ground forces took on the role of an information relay station for the fleet.

Fu Luo learned from reading reports later that the person in charge on the Earth side who established the first virtual signal station and connected with them was her teacher, Wang Yansheng. On the 14th day of the 8th lunar month, a message from Wang Yansheng that had been encrypted through layers quickly spread throughout the General Staff Office. Fu Luo stared at the plaintext on the reader, feeling the corners of her eyes twitching wildly.

The content was: "Which hero will come to save our lives, the brothers will dedicate themselves to you!"

"This message was transmitted through the enemy's frequency band, but the encryption method was ours." Yang Ning said, "According to Director Wang's speculation, it is very likely from our special forces ordered to reinforce Jupiter."

Director Wang Yansheng was very reliable. According to Fu Luo's own speculation, this blunt message was also very likely from someone with the Ye surname.

Fu Luo's eyes felt hot and she quickly lowered her head to hide it, her heart pounded heavily a few times, as if she had suddenly won five million.

The rumors in the martial world said that "leaving a scourge for a thousand years" was the ancestral motto of the Ye family. The ancestors really didn't let their descendants down.

"Although we don't intend to really let this brother dedicate himself to us," Yang Ning said with a smile, "but I personally think we've had enough of this turtle-like hiding. At present, our fleet is located near the Saturn system, and with the accumulation over this period of time, we have completely gained the strength to rebuild a small-scale fortress. It's time to speed up."

The projection system in the center of the conference room flickered on and off, and a detailed fortress defense map appeared in front of everyone.

Yang Ning's eyes still had red blood streaks from staying up late for a long time, but his expression showed no trace of fatigue: "The Changjiang, Loulan, and Liaoning will each send out a small fleet, with medium-sized B-class ships at the center, mainly small warships and small reconnaissance ships, carrying long-range monitoring equipment, departing in three routes, deploying along the way. We will start to establish our own defense control map and, by the way... bring those few brothers back."

As his words fell, the virtual monitoring network on the screen expanded and unfolded, with the lit-up lines and nodes interconnecting with each other, like a huge spider web. And they were like a spider on this new web, busily moving back and forth. Perhaps they would be swept away by the night wind in the treacherous universe and all their previous efforts would be in vain.

But so what? When you hear the crickets chirping, do you stop planting rice?

Fu Luo raised her hand: "Commander, the mission level?"

Yang Ning curled up the corner of his mouth and smiled: "XS."

There was no such thing as an "XS level" in the space force, only in clothing stores. Everyone understood this cold joke and laughed obligingly.

Someone asked, "Colonel, how many people should the General Staff Office send to lead the team for XS?"

Yang Ning raised his eyebrows: "How about I lead the team?"