Chapter 1
Amid the elegantly dressed guests, the rich notes of a cello mingled with the graceful melody of a piano, flowing gently through the air.
Shen Li sat upright in a corner of the hotel lobby near the window. Gazing at the young girl across from her, who was surrounded by flowers, she gradually lost focus under the hypnotic music.
The girl looked no older than seventeen or eighteen. She wore a pale yellow off-the-shoulder evening gown, her hair swept up high to reveal a smooth forehead. She carried herself with an air of authority that commanded respect without the slightest display of anger.
Scrolling through her smart terminal, she cast Shen Li an indifferent glance. “My father already told me about your situation before I came.”
“Although you’re only a D-rank Alpha, that doesn’t mean you’re incapable of piloting a mech. I don’t understand why you chose to study aerospace engineering instead of enrolling in the Mecha Department.”
After all, ever since the Zerg appeared more than a thousand years ago and the Empire unified the entire star system through overwhelming force, its greatest enemy had been the Zerg.
Furthermore, as the Zerg continued to multiply, their advantages in individual space combat became increasingly apparent, causing the status of the Mecha Department to rise accordingly.
Nowadays, practically every imperial citizen capable of piloting a mech would fight tooth and nail for admission to the Mecha Department.
This wasn’t the first time Shen Li had been asked this question. She looked at the young girl before her and, after a moment of silence, gave a two-word answer.
“I like it.”
The girl immediately frowned and said calmly, “Transfer departments.”
“If we’re going to marry, you must transfer to the Mecha Department. I don’t want a partner who’s an ambitionless waste of space…”
The person sitting across from Shen Li was her prospective marriage partner, Liu Jianyue, the second daughter of the Rose Marquis.
Ever since Shen Li differentiated into a D-rank Alpha at sixteen, her younger maternal aunt, Prince Qingsong, had been terrified that people would look down on her. Consequently, she had desperately arranged blind dates for Shen Li with young Omegas from established noble families.
Unfortunately, these Omegas had high standards. Even out of consideration for the royal family, none of them wanted to marry Shen Li.
They wouldn’t even consider her if she married into their families.
Prince Qingsong was beside herself with anxiety. After Shen Li’s illegitimate younger sister, Shen Mo, who was only a year younger than her, differentiated into a 2S-rank Alpha, her aunt became even more distressed.
And so, she had even lowered her standards, insisting that Shen Li attend this blind date no matter what.
The Rose Marquis was a newly elevated noble who had received the title less than three years ago. The eldest daughter had graduated from the Command Department of the Second Military Academy, while the second daughter had just been admitted to the Command Department of the First Military Academy this year. Both were highly sought-after talents.
Had Prince Qingsong not acted first and promised the Rose Marquis numerous benefits, Shen Li would never have had the opportunity to appear before Liu Jianyue.
In truth, Shen Li didn’t want to go on blind dates at all.
After all, she was planning to fake her death at twenty, escape the Empire, and begin exploring the universe.
Liu Jianyue went on and on, discussing everything from their premarital arrangements to their married life. She even mentioned that she had prepared a list for Shen Li, instructing her to memorize all her likes and dislikes.
After marriage, everything would have to revolve around her… and so on and so forth. The girl just kept rambling.
Shen Li’s ears were practically developing calluses from listening. She had been forced to spend the entire day at home learning dating etiquette and hadn’t had a single drop of water. By now, she was absolutely starving. Fortunately, a waiter finally arrived with their food, and Shen Li immediately started eating without another word.
She didn’t invite Liu Jianyue to join her either. Whenever the girl spoke, she merely responded with a few perfunctory murmurs of agreement.
Liu Jianyue continued talking until she suddenly noticed that Shen Li had already eaten more than half her meal. Her eyes widened.
“You…”
How could someone be so ill-mannered?!
Unexpectedly, Shen Li raised her eyes and looked at her with an innocent expression.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
Liu Jianyue was rendered speechless. For quite some time, she couldn’t think of a response.
Just then, a soft chuckle came from nearby. Both of them instinctively turned their heads toward the area diagonally above them.
At a window-side table to their upper left sat a woman with long, smoky-purple hair pinned up elegantly. Seated in the place of honor, she watched them with a hand covering her mouth as she chuckled softly. Behind her stood a tall female Alpha bodyguard.
Shen Li recognized her immediately. It was Chu Qingyi, the only 3S-rank Omega in the Empire.
“Miss Chu…”
Liu Jianyue quickly recognized her as well and greeted her.
“Miss Chu…”
Chu Qingyi lowered her hand and smiled gently. “Hello, both of you… I didn’t mean to interrupt your dinner. I simply found what Miss Liu was saying rather… interesting…”
She was wearing a pale lavender slip dress, the exposed skin as white as snow. A pair of teardrop-shaped amethyst earrings hung from her ears, making her look all the more ethereal and otherworldly.
As the Empire’s only 3S-rank Omega, she had been raised according to the etiquette expected of an empress consort ever since her differentiation.
Now, merely sitting there, she swept a brief glance over Liu Jianyue. Her gaze turned cold, and an overwhelming pressure began to spread.
“Anyone familiar with the situation would understand that the Rose Marquis’s household is arranging a marriage alliance with the Golden Eagle clan.”
“But someone who didn’t know better… might think your Rose family was planning to tame the Golden Eagles into hunting falcons.”
Chu Qingyi had always been gentle and gracious in her dealings with others. It was rare for her to offer such a cutting assessment of someone, and Liu Jianyue’s expression changed slightly.
She looked at Chu Qingyi, then at Shen Li, appearing somewhat at a loss.
She was still a child, after all. There was no point in making a fuss over her.
Shen Li finished the last piece of steak, placed her knife and fork on her plate, and wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin.
“Miss Liu’s requests are perfectly understandable.”
“It’s just that I’m unable to manifest my spiritual form, so I genuinely can’t pilot a mech.”
“Miss Liu… I think we should forget about this.”
Apart from discussing mech repairs, Shen Li rarely spoke so many words at once.
She stood up, bowed politely to Liu Jianyue, then turned and left.
Watching her retreating figure, so carefree and unconcerned, Liu Jianyue was so furious that she kicked the leg of the table.
“You’ve got some nerve, Shen Li! I haven’t even rejected you yet, and you’re already acting like you’re the one doing the choosing!”
“What’s there to be so arrogant about? Even if you’re the heir to the Golden Eagle Marquisate, you’re still nothing more than a D-rank Alpha… Just you wait! I’ll make you regret this!”
She rose angrily and stormed off as well.
Not far away, Chu Qingyi had witnessed the entire scene. Lowering her eyes, she said to the bodyguard behind her, “The show’s over. Let’s go.”
“Yes, Young Miss.”
————————
When Chu Qingyi took the VIP passage toward the hovercar parking area on one of the middle floors, she saw a slender figure waiting there, just as expected.
The person was dressed in a jet-black women’s tailcoat, her long golden hair tied into a ponytail. She was leaning against Chu Qingyi’s extremely stylish, glossy black hovercar.
A smile curved Chu Qingyi’s lips as she walked toward her.
“I thought Young Marquis Shen was going to stand me up again today.”
Seeing the smile on her face, Shen Li felt a chill run down her spine. She rubbed her arms and spoke awkwardly.
“Thank you for helping me out earlier.”
Chu Qingyi replied indifferently, “There’s no need to thank me. I only did it for myself.”
“Otherwise, with Young Marquis Shen’s busy schedule, who knows when you’d finally be able to spare some time for me?”
Don’t even mention it.
The moment the subject came up, Shen Li’s brows drooped, and her entire being seemed to wilt.
Good heavens, who knew how many Omegas she’d been forced to meet lately? She was so sick of going on dates that she practically wanted to throw up.
Seeing her like this, Chu Qingyi raised a delicate eyebrow and approached the hovercar. The door opened, and she took the initiative to invite Shen Li inside.
“Let’s get in the car and talk.”
“Mm.”
Shen Li followed Chu Qingyi into the car, and the two sat side by side in the back seat. After they fastened their seat belts, the windows slowly rose, and the car started moving.
Shen Li had spent the entire day pretending to be a proper young noblewoman. As soon as they were inside, she quickly turned to Chu Qingyi and asked, “Do you mind if I take off my jacket?”
Chu Qingyi was momentarily stunned before shaking her head.
“Make yourself comfortable.”
As though she’d just received an official command, Shen Li immediately tugged off her bolo tie, removed her jacket, then her waistcoat… If Chu Qingyi hadn’t been there, she might have taken off her trousers too.
Finally freed from the restrictive clothing, Shen Li lowered the car window.
The night wind rushed in, bringing a refreshing coolness against her face. Shen Li gasped for air as though she were a drowning person who had finally made it back to shore.
Chu Qingyi couldn’t help finding the sight amusing.
“It was only a blind date. Was it really that…”
Shen Li turned her head and raised her voice.
“Yes! You have no idea what I’ve been through these past two weeks…”
Halfway through her sentence, she remembered that the person sitting before her was Chu Qingyi and immediately shut her mouth.
Chu Qingyi, however, was rather curious.
“What happened these past two weeks?”
Shen Li raised her eyes and glanced at her, her tone calm.
“Miss Chu, you’re so well-connected and capable. Don’t tell me you don’t already know my schedule for the past two weeks?”
Chu Qingyi was the only daughter of the Wisteria Duchess, who commanded more than half of the Empire’s military forces and was renowned throughout the Empire. Compared to a declining, old-established noble family like the Golden Eagle Marquisate, the Wisteria Duchess’s household belonged to the very pinnacle of imperial power.
With such a powerful family on her mother’s side, there had never been anything Chu Qingyi wanted that she couldn’t obtain, from childhood to adulthood.
Finding out the schedule of a mere marquisate heir would hardly pose a challenge.
Chu Qingyi wasn’t offended in the slightest. Instead, she replied as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
“I need you to do something for me, so of course I had to find out your schedule. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be exhausting to keep showing up only to find you unavailable?”
Shen Li couldn’t be bothered arguing with her. She extended a hand.
“Would you mind handing me your smart terminal? I’ll take a look at the extent of the mech’s damage first…”
Chu Qingyi removed the smart terminal from her wrist and handed it over. Shen Li asked her to unlock it, then began browsing through the information.
Before arriving in this world, Shen Li had been an aerospace engineer whose greatest dream was to travel the world.
Although she had once again chosen to study aerospace engineering in this life, she had also been secretly learning about mechs from her mother, Tian Zhi Zi, ever since she was three years old.
As she grew older, her mech repair skills improved steadily. Eventually, she bought an abandoned factory in the repair district of the Underground City and started repairing and assembling mechs for other people.
Most of her customers were ordinary civilians working in aerospace transportation. Their connections were extensive, stretching across the entire imperial star system, and sometimes she could even hear rumors about extraterrestrials from them.
Using these connections, Shen Li quietly and tirelessly worked behind the scenes, gradually putting together her grand plan to wander the universe.
Unfortunately, something unexpected happened along the way, and Chu Qingyi caught her red-handed.
A month ago, a post had appeared on a mech repair website, offering a substantial reward to anyone capable of repairing a first-generation mech.
As a mech enthusiast, Shen Li had been so delighted upon seeing the post that she nearly cheered aloud. She immediately contacted the poster and offered to handle all the repairs free of charge, provided they supplied the necessary materials.
It was a first-generation mech, after all. Its significance was extraordinary.
If she could decipher the workings of a first-generation mech, she could practically unravel the operating principles behind every mech in existence.
Unfortunately, the other party insisted on meeting in person and refused to hand over any information beforehand.
Gritting her teeth, Shen Li put on an optical mask and went to the appointed meeting.
The two groups met in front of the factory. But the moment they came face-to-face, Shen Li recognized Chu Qingyi from her pheromones.
As soon as she realized it was Chu Qingyi, she threw all thoughts of first-generation mechs and their operating principles out of her mind.
Only one word remained in Shen Li’s head.
Run!
Without the slightest hesitation, she rejected the offer, declared that she was unable to help, and headed back toward the factory.
Not long after she turned around, the residential building in front of the factory suddenly exploded with a deafening roar. Flames shot into the sky, their glow reflected in Shen Li’s eyes.
“My mechs!” Shen Li cried.
Heartbroken, she rushed into the residential building in tears to rescue the people trapped inside.
She charged into the burning building again and again, making seven trips in and out of the flames. On her final trip, she emerged carrying a child, utterly exhausted. A steel reinforcing bar nearly pierced straight through her chest, forcing her to condense her spiritual form and materialize it just in time to barely block the blow.
Under ordinary circumstances, it wouldn’t have been a problem. She could have used the firelight to conceal the golden eagle’s glow.
But unfortunately, Chu Qingyi happened to be there that night.
After the rescue operation ended, Shen Li sat on the ground in her tattered clothes, her golden hair scorched, her face covered in soot, and sweat pouring down her forehead as she gasped for breath.
Just then, a pair of crystal high heels tapped lightly against the ground, their footsteps cutting through the surrounding chaos as they approached her.
Amid the wailing of children and the anguished cries of the impoverished residents, ambulances sped past, their sirens mingling with the mournful blare of fire engines…
The entire world had descended into chaos, yet the sound of those high heels remained astonishingly clear.
Shen Li lowered her eyes, her unfocused gaze falling on the exquisite pair of heels. Slowly, her gaze traveled upward until it settled on the other woman’s snow-white ankles.
She stared for a while, her breathing faint.
Perhaps thinking Shen Li had gone completely stupid, the owner of those feet grew a little impatient. She raised one foot and lightly kicked Shen Li’s trouser leg.
Once…
Twice…
And again…
Like a hook, each little nudge drew Shen Li’s gaze toward her.
At last, Shen Li tilted her head back and looked up at the woman beside her.
Amid the sparks dancing through the sky, Chu Qingyi lifted away her bronze optical mask, revealing a face of breathtaking, almost overwhelming beauty.
She wore an elegant off-the-shoulder mermaid gown in a soft, understated shade. Her long, smoky-purple hair cascaded over her shoulders, with the strands at her temples tucked behind her ears. The jade-colored earrings thus revealed looked particularly vivid in the firelight.
Their eyes met. Chu Qingyi gazed down at her, her expression full of amused interest.
“Unable to manifest your spiritual form?”
“Your talent is so poor that you had no choice but to enter the Aerospace Department?”
“Awkward and incapable of understanding other people’s feelings?”
“Or perhaps…”
The woman folded her arms and leaned forward, bringing her face closer to Shen Li’s. A faint smile curved her lips.
“You’ve been pretending to be harmless while hiding your true strength all along, haven’t you?”
“Young~ Marquis~ Shen~”
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