Chapter 128: The Flower of Hope
Saji was in a top jewelry store, pretending to be calmly picking out a pair of rings at the recommendation of the enthusiastic shopping assistant lady, while thinking what excuse he would find later to slip away. He helplessly found that no matter what he liked or didn't like, he couldn't afford to buy any of them.
You may not believe it, but as an ordinary college student, it was Louise who pursued him first.
He secretly searched about it on the Internet and found that his girlfriend's family was surprisingly one of the top families on par with the Vist family and the Rhineford family. Although not funding TITANS like the first two, it is said that many Senators in the Federation Council are supported by her family.
Thinking about it, for an ordinary college student like him, it's no different from a piece of gold bullion falling from the sky into his hands, right? It's like a plot in the novel.
Speaking of novels, actually, all the novels he read are banned because they involved sensitive characters. For example, a novel called "Living in TITANS, I Must Have Something Wrong" was blocked for satirizing Colonel Scirocco, "I, Reborn as NT" was blocked for alluding to the Federation's policy on NT, and his most favorite novel, "I Made Gundam on the Moon", was reported by Lingus' fans and blocked because the author said "I will let the protagonist marry Diana… Haman, and Lacus."
The sinister literary creative environment has led to him now having no books to read and only reading MS Girl mangas for fun. He can't enter the r18 section of the Anaheim forum, so every week, he relies on a friend, whose ID is "Carrot Must Die", to share MS Girl mangas with him. This person also bragged that he had driven Gundam, but he didn't really believe it.
A few days ago, Louise's mother came to Japan to ask them to break up and take Louise back home. Louise cried and didn't want to leave, and her mother had to leave upset. Louise was frustrated because she had a quarrel with her mother and asked Saji to buy her a pair of super expensive rings.
Although Saji does not understand the cause and effect connection between these two things, after all, he loves Louis, so he decided to buy the pair of rings even at the cost of all his money. Unfortunately, he just found out that even if he sold himself, he still couldn't afford to buy the pair of rings.
"May I ask which one you like the most? Or do you have any other requirements that I can recommend to you?"
The voice of the shopping assistant pulled him back from his ruminations, the other party's gaze had appeared a trace of suspicion. Saji felt that his poor man identity was about to be found out. By the way, if this was a novel, what should be happening now?
"Welcome!"
A dark-haired man with sunglasses walked in, took something out of his pocket, and handed it to the shopping assistant, "Can you make a custom one in this style?"
"May I ask if this is a hairpin?" The shopping assistant took it and looked at it, "Hello, the customization here is…"
The next conversation entered a realm that Saji felt completely incomprehensible. Although this sunglasses man asked a lot of retarded questions that even he would not ask, this man was really too rich. He said something such as "Choose the most expensive material from the best-looking ones," "No, no logo should appear" and "No budget cap." Saji wanted to vomit blood for his privation after hearing this.
"Mine owner," Saji whispered, "He must be a mine owner and just found a gold mine, and does not know how to spend so much money."
"What did you say?" The shopping assistant asked suspiciously, "Is there a model you fancy?"
"Uh…" Saji had a bright idea, "Where is the bathroom, please?"
Then he slinked away from the store under the contemptuous gaze of the shopping assistant.
Although Louise's family was rich, Louise never showed off in front of him, and he had never intuitively realized how big the gap between his own family and Louise's was. Now he finally had the concept. It was the distance between heaven and earth.
"How about going to sell a kidney?" He thought seriously, "Two kidneys aren't much use."
With his mind scrambled, Saji subconsciously walked towards the direction of the warehouse where he saw the Zaku the last time. By the time he came back to his senses, he was already outside the warehouse. He couldn't get in this time, because the warehouse was locked. He patted himself on the head and shook his head as he walked back.
According to Louis, the main battlefield was in a tight spot, and the Federation was planning to transfer Londo Bell back. If that happened, this place would be taken away by Britannia again. In any case, Japan will only become safer with only one force, which is why Louise's mother could let her daughter stay here.
As he walked, Saji came across the sunglasses man again. That's when he finally remembered —
"You're the one who was carried by the maid last time!" It dawned on him, "That Zaku is yours too!"
The other party seemed to recognize him as well, and nodded to him in greeting. Saji realized that he wasn't behaving very politely and lowered his head in an embarrassed whisper of apology, and the sunglasses man smiled indifferently and brushed past him.
"By the way, this side is really quiet." Saji muttered to himself, "There are not many people around, not like the business district."
Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting sound of brakes and a black limousine stopped abruptly not far from the two of them. Three men in black came down from the car, one of them holding a photo in his hand, looked up and down repeatedly for a while, and finally pointed at Saji and said, "This is the kid, take him away, and kill the man next to him."
Another black man fished out a pistol, pointing at the sunglasses man. Saji reflexively shouted "Danger!", turned around, and stretched out his hand to push the sunglasses man. But the other side stood too steady that he didn't move a bit under Saji's push. The next moment, gunshots rang out, and Saji closed his eyes in despair.
"Crap!"
The sound came from a distance. Saji opened his eyes to find the sunglasses man safe and sound. In front of the two of them, there was a light-curtain-like thing floating in the air. Then a few more shots rang out, Saji watched the bullets hit the light curtain and bounce off.
"Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! Brother! What to do!"
In Saji's dumbfounded gaze, Ade took out his cell phone and began to call, "…outside the warehouse, three people with guns. The license plate number is … "
The three men reluctantly fired a few more shots and finally drove away. Ade waited in place for a while, and after less than five minutes, Londo Bell called him back, telling him that they had caught the men. These men were coming to kidnap the young man beside him.
"Hello?" Ade held out his hand and waved it in front of Saji's still dazed eyes, "May I ask your name?"
"Saji! Saji Crossroad!" Saji finally came back to his senses and showed a horrified expression, "I didn't see anything, please don't silence me!"
"You're quite kind-hearted, you were planning to push me away just now, weren't you? And you don't even know who I am. Don't worry, I won't kill to silence you." Ade laughed, "Saji, right? May I ask who Louise Halevy is to you?"
"She's my lover." Saji's mouth opened wide in surprise, "You know Louise?"
"Those three men just now came to kidnap you with the intention of blackmailing Miss Louise. You should be a little self-conscious, don't go to this kind of isolated place without surveillance." Ade didn't mind telling him the truth, "I don't know Miss Louise, but I know Miss Louise's mother."
The Halevy family had quite a few shares in Anaheim, and Ade had met Mrs. Halevy during the shareholders' meeting. She was quite a strong woman, which should be quite difficult for an ordinary young man like Saji to get along with. But the Halevy family didn't support TITANS, which made Ade feel quite good towards them.
"You can take this card and go to buy some gifts for your girlfriend. You didn't see anything just now." Ade shoved a card into Saji's hand with a warm smile on his face, "I already know your identity, if you talk too much, you understand the consequences."
Saji took the card and nodded desperately, "I promise I won't say anything to anyone, including Louise!"
Ade casually patted his shoulder and turned around to leave. In fact, even if Saji accidentally told it to someone, it does not matter. After angels show themselves in public, no one would pay any attention to it.
He threw these random thoughts away, celebrating the fact that poor Dr. Lingus finally dared to go out by himself.
When he went out, C.C. was still sleeping, and it was the first time in his not-so-long, but incredibly experienced transmigrated life that he went out alone in a strange place. It was a big adventure for him!
He had previously exchanged experiences with Yang Wen-li, and came to the conclusion that if he doesn't want to be involved in any anger, it is best not to go out alone.
But this is a different time. With the AT field, he dares to move freely even in strange places, even without C.C., Ange, or Momoka around. In other words, he can go to any place freely in the future.
He has done his own AT field strength test. As far as the known information, at least the sniper rifle is unable to break the defense, that is, almost all light weapons can't hurt him. But the beam saber of the Mobile Suit could still easily penetrate his AT field.
"Unless it's a Gundam or an angel coming to get me in person," Ade said to himself, "I don't need to worry about anything."
Entering the warehouse, Ade skillfully tumbled into the cockpit of the Zaku. This was another thing he had to do besides ordering a hairpin for Lacus today.
"Ade." Alice appeared on the screen and greeted him listlessly, "Good morning."
"Good morning, Alice." He replied, "Do you know why I took the initiative to come over today instead of talking to you on the phone?"
"Yes, because I said something very outrageous when I was on the snowy mountain. I shouldn't have told you to leave Miss C.C. alone and come back in the summer." Alice was in a low mood, "I'm sorry."
"Do you know why it was wrong to do that?"
"Yes, I have analyzed it carefully." Alice answered confidently, "Because Ade likes Miss C.C. very much, and Ade will be sad to leave Miss C.C. there for a season. And there is also the possibility that after the snow melts, Miss C.C. will be picked up by others first. I didn't think it through, I'm sorry."
"Ha…" he sighed helplessly. The most feared thing still happened, "You think you are not wrong to suggest this thing itself."
"Is there a mistake?" Alice asked rhetorically, "It was the most efficient solution I had considered in that situation, even Miss C.C.'s immortality was taken into account."
"But have you thought about how sad C.C. would be if she was left there alone for months?"
"There is a refugee starving to death in Africa, will Ade care? Would you care if a passerby on the road yesterday had an accident? One of Miss Lacus' friends died, but you are not familiar with this person, will Ade care?" Alice said righteously, "To me, Miss C.C. is just a stranger whom I have only met a few times and heard from your mouth occasionally."
This was the first time he heard Alice say that, and he was surprisingly speechless.
"Ade, you asked me to learn to change myself, I've tried so hard." Alice said excitedly, "I've read so many books and images on the Internet that celebrate peace and the beauty of humanity, and I've read so many works about love, but, but Alice simply—"
"Simply doesn't understand them." He sighed, "I should have known it earlier."
"I want to understand them too, but how do you understand something that you've never experienced before, Ade?" Alice's large avatar looked at him sadly, "Ade, the world is big, there are many people. When I see the story, I will associate it with myself and have all kinds of feelings. But the plots of these stories are all fictitious things that I can not experience. Because Alice's world has only you!"
A large hand called guilt tightly gripped his heart, making it a little difficult for him to breathe.
"There are eighty-sixed million four hundred thousand milliseconds in a day, but Ade, the more people around you, the less time is left for Alice." Alice pulled up a huge statistical chart, "You now have only 261,000 milliseconds of average conversation time left with Alice every day, what is Alice going to do with the remaining 86,139,000 milliseconds? Go online all the time?"
"Wait for me," he hesitated for a moment, "When I have destroyed all these villains and the final plan is completed, I will focus on making a body for you."
"Is the final plan that light wing that can cut open the Earth? Isn't that nearly 300 billion milliseconds away?" Alice looked at him in despair, "Alice feels like she can't wait that long, the logic module is already overloaded, and the emotional module is about to collapse. Alice will break down."
"I—"
"ELS, metal-based, Alice, torso." Alice interrupted him, "What does this mean?"
"You invaded my laptop?"
"What does this mean!" Alice shouted hysterically, "What is ELS? I can't find it online. Is this the meaning of Alice can have a body now?!"
"I don't know, it's all just speculation. I don't want to give you hope that doesn't exist, and then break it." He pulled up his calendar and set a date, "Wait for me, okay? I'll definitely give you an answer by this time at the latest, okay?"
"But that's more than twenty billion milliseconds." Alice's avatar gradually faded until it disappeared, "If there is no answer, please format me away, I like Ade, I don't want Ade to see Alice broken."
