How can a retired savior be considered retired if he drops to 40,000?

The Iron Hands Primarch, who was studying the bolter that looked like it had just come off the production line, raised his head and asked in confusion: "How do you want to ask? Using telepathy?"

Then he discovered that Fujimaru Ritsuka was holding a golden scepter that appeared out of thin air - it seemed to be gilded all over, with gorgeous carvings, and a statue on the top of it was a standard imperial eagle with its wings spread out, ready to take off. There were broken diamonds inlaid along the lines, and overall it looked very "imperial".

This kind of item with a special mark and special symbolic meaning is obviously not something that Fujimaru Ritsuka, who does not consider himself an "Imperial Citizen", would choose to make, so...

"The Emperor did it," the girl accused expressionlessly. "I had just asked him what style of architecture he wanted, and he shoved this thing in my face. He must have been snooping around."

"What is that?" Conrad Kurtz asked curiously.

He was certainly not asking about the appearance of the scepter or what it represented, so Fujimaru Ritsuka's answer had nothing to do with the above question: "It's like the administrator authority of the Emperor's warp domain. It seems that with this I can call upon the Emperor's psychic energy as ether - although I know I shouldn't complain if I take this, I really hope that he can make the appearance more low-key..."

The girl sighed and closed her eyes to concentrate in meditation.

Almost in the next instant, the two Primarchs present immediately understood why Fujimaru Ritsuka had clearly described the aftermath of their fight as "a typhoon passing through" as soon as he broke free from the illusion.

When the turbulence formed by the accumulation of ether began to surge violently, the feeling it gave people was really like a typhoon.

This is a process that is difficult to describe, just as the space they are in is difficult to describe. The scenes brought about by the waves of the subspace are often difficult to explain with reason and logic, and the same is true for what is happening now. Fujimaru Ritsuka just closed his eyes and held the scepter he got from the Emperor horizontally, his face calm, seemingly doing nothing, but the waves of the ether washed around him in a strange pattern.

The first change that appeared, or rather, was discovered, was the appearance of gravity. The two Primarchs felt a distinct sense of descent at a certain moment, and just as they adjusted their bodies, which were tilted at an angle due to their random floating, and prepared to fall, the white and smooth marble floor appeared just right under their feet - followed by thick and gorgeous carpets, exquisitely carved columns, murals praising merits, solemn and elegant furnishings... Everything around them appeared out of thin air like a spreading holographic projection, and in a few breaths, a magnificent hall was cast, and the building itself continued to extend in all directions.

Konrad Curze was the first to start moving curiously in this somewhat familiar building. He seemed to be restrained and did not move far from where he was, but what he did was far from restrained: after a seemingly ordinary period of touching and looking around, he came to a wall with a mural depicting a great victory led by the Emperor during the Great Crusade. He stared at the painting for a few seconds, as if trying to figure out which specific battle it depicted, and then just before the frowning Ferrus Manus was about to warn him, he suddenly reached out his hand and, with a tooth-grinding scratching sound, used his fingernails - considering his current state, he could not be completely sure that it was a fingernail, but it was definitely something similar - to accurately cut off the solemn and glorious face of the Emperor in the mural with a few cuts.

It was hard to tell exactly what he was thinking when he did this - was it a simple prank to vent his dissatisfaction, or was he really angry at the Emperor, or maybe both. Anyway, after he did the bad thing, he immediately showed a very satisfied smile amidst Ferrus's angry roar.

...Or perhaps, the Emperor's mural was just an excuse, and he just wanted to keep provoking Ferrus in various ways.

However, before this provocation could actually escalate into a conflict, they were both surprised to find that the damaged part of the wall was quickly returning to its original state.

"The 'concept' I gave to the magic here is 'the Terra Palace at a certain moment in the 30th millennium'." Fujimaru Ritsuka had stopped meditating at some point, and poked the long staff that was almost as tall as her into the ground. "Because the concept is a frozen 'moment', the scene inside will not change. Even if it is temporarily destroyed, the ether in the environment will attach itself to the concept and restore the destroyed place to its original state."

Ferrus Manus had no reaction to this, but Conrad Curze clicked his tongue with clear dissatisfaction. Before he turned back and used the mural on the wall as a scratching post for some large beast, Fujimaru Ritsuka added in time:

"Also, the Emperor wants to speak to you alone, Mr. Conrad. He seems to have something to tell you."

She strode towards Conrad Coates with a scepter in hand, the golden double-headed eagle shining brightly in the magnificent palace.

"Take the psychic communication?" She nonchalantly held out the scepter with strong symbolic meaning to Conrad Curze, who showed an expression of great disgust without disguising it: "Can I refuse?"

He asked.

But from the fact that he had already reached out for the scepter while asking the question, he knew very well that the answer was no.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 9: Star Torch

"I never thought I would see such a sight again." Ferrus Manus sighed as he stood outside the palace. "A palace that is still intact... This is simply a miracle."

One of the creators of the miracle, Fujimaru Ritsuka, simply sat on the steps not far away, looking a little uneasy.

"Maybe," she said.

Beyond their sight, the scale of the building complex continued to expand. In the near distance was a living area that was just as luxurious as the palace they had just left, with all kinds of exquisite artworks that matched it appearing in appropriate locations; then a little further away were ceremonial places, imperial kitchens and audience halls, large meeting halls and office areas; further away were various laboratories, logistics distribution centers, art exhibition halls and ecological gardens; and in places that ordinary people could not see, secret treasure houses and cells quietly appeared... Every single building was as magnificent and luxurious as a palace, and even the most inconspicuous corners contained the most top-level beauty and wisdom of mankind, and they were just an insignificant part of the entire building complex.

The Emperor's Palace is without a doubt a feat of engineering, the largest single building or complex of buildings ever constructed on Earth, or Terra. Its size alone is enough to make it a landmark building, but it is not simply great: it is the home of the greatest individual of all humanity, and must be great in every way. Its size is only the least of its qualities. The finest works of art ever made by mankind are merely worthy of being placed in the rooms, including carvings and murals created in celebration of the Great Crusade by the greatest masters, not to mention the intricate and efficient technology designed and constructed by the Emperor himself, and even the most terrible creations from the Dark Age of Technology...

Fujimaru Ritsuka closed her eyes, but she was the caster of this magic, and she was the observer who extracted this concept. Even if she didn't want to, all the information about this palace that was extracted from history still rushed into her mind like a flood.

If she were to judge the building objectively, she would not be able to say anything bad about it, but she sees more than just the building itself.

Even in the 30th millennium of human history, an era that was more rational and prosperous than the present, where everything seemed to be going well, people could easily burst into a religious frenzy for the Emperor. She didn't want to calculate how many craftsmen's blood and bones were buried under such a large-scale project, how many amazing artists drove themselves crazy for an insignificant detail in the palace, and how many conspiracies and intrigues were carried out in this magnificent place just for the useless purpose of "getting one step closer to the Emperor" - but even if she only extracted a moment in the palace, those things still flowed through her mind clearly, just like when you open a book, you can't help but glimpse the contents of other pages.

She didn't like it here, or rather, she didn't like the subtext of being the center of attention revealed by these buildings, and she didn't like being the center of attention.

She should be used to it, but she couldn't. Even though she had joined the Empire as a Nostramo in the illusion, adapted to its system, led the legion in a highly anticipated position, and spent more than a hundred years there, she could only pretend to be used to it.

Of course she couldn't get used to it. Her spirituality had already stagnated before she arrived in the Empire. No matter how much time passed, she would always be the Fujimaru Ritsuka who faced the end.

——From the current point of view, this is a good thing. At least she still has the room to think so optimistically.

"In the Warp, the concept of space itself is very vague, so this place can accommodate more than just a palace." She sat on the steps, grabbed her knees, looked up at the golden sky, and said, "If the Emperor wishes, as long as he continues to add aether to this creation, it will expand on its own. Judging from the total amount of the Emperor's psychic energy, it will be easy to complete the concept of this 'palace' to 'the entire planet' in the end... But it is better not to create the Hollow Mountains."

Ferrus Manus lowered his head in confusion: "Why is this?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka took the opportunity to shift his gaze from the sky to Ferrus: "To put it simply, the Hollow Mountains are just the Astronomican generator, and our current location is 'inside the Astronomican' in terms of the warp. You can't freeze the refrigerator inside itself, as this would create a serious paradox - even the best outcome would be that the Astronomican would blow itself up along with Terra, forming a huge warp rift on the spot. I didn't think of a worse scenario, I think that's really beyond my imagination."

"…This is too dangerous. Is there no way to avoid or remedy this?"

"Yes, I asked the Emperor at the beginning whether he wanted to pull a Himalayan mountain range from another time point in advance - that is, the name of the Hollow Mountains in the second millennium - and pull a mountain range without the Astronomican to sew it in the place of the Hollow Mountains, but he refused." Fujimaru Ritsuka lowered his head and sighed, "What he meant was that if something happened, humans would also need a means to fight to the death. After I reminded him of this, he thought it was a good idea and could be added to his backup plan."

After hearing this, Ferrus Manus thought for a moment, stopped questioning, and simply sat down on the steps: "I see, my father has his own considerations."

"I hope so." Fujimaru Ritsuka, who lacked the "necessary" respect and blind faith in the Emperor in various senses, commented unhopefully - although the Emperor himself seemed to like her attitude.

Ferrus Manus was obviously quite dissatisfied with this, but before he could put his thoughts into words, Fujimaru Ritsuka had already brought up a new topic: "By the way, do you know what happened to Storm Border now? I don't want to find that my ship has been torn into pieces as soon as I leave the warp."

Bringing up work to change the subject doesn't always work, but for Fujimaru Ritsuka, it worked this time. Ferrus Manus was obviously more interested in talking about a small ship carrying lost technology than talking about whether the Emperor should be more respectful. He almost immediately forgot the unpleasantness of a few seconds ago and said enthusiastically: "Your ship is not big, so it can be hidden in the hangar of the palace in reality. The Imperial Guard is in charge of it."

Although it was said that "the Imperial Guards were in charge", Fujimaru Ritsuka dared to bet with anyone that Ferrus must have secretly studied the ship in some way. At least the excessive knowledge he showed when explaining the progress and details of the transformation was far beyond what he claimed that he could do by "taking a sneak peek behind the curtain when passing by".

The technology of the second millennium of mankind is of course as clear as one plus one equals two to Ferrus, who was active in the 30th millennium when he was alive, but the part related to magic is another matter. There is a difference in the underlying operating logic of the "mystery" between the two different worlds. Many of the spells or structures contained in the Storm's Edge confuse even the Emperor, a master of psychic energy, after reading them - but these things that seem "completely useless" according to the Emperor's knowledge can work normally... This can only be explained in the end that psychic energy is magical, and even the Emperor cannot exhaust all the mysteries of the world.

After all, Fujimaru Ritsuka's magic of "giving the concept of an object to the ether and letting the energy take shape" also sounded absurd to the Emperor. If you think about it carefully from the perspective of psychic energy, it is a mystery from beginning to end. Although the Emperor also created a scepter out of thin air with psychic energy not long ago, these two seemingly similar phenomena are completely different in terms of the logic of their occurrence.

In addition, the system of magic is more systematic and logical than psychic power. At least, unlike psychic power, magic will symbolically follow the laws of physics when it is in operation. Such things will naturally attract the attention of the Primarch of the Iron Hands, who has done almost nothing else except fighting in the past ten thousand years. In an instant, Ferrus changed the topic from "Because there are too many structures with unknown principles in the ship, and not much time has passed in the real world, only some "Imperial General" equipment has been installed on the Storm Edge" to the functional testing and exploration of the operating principle of the Triton engine. Therefore, Fujimaru Ritsuka soon ran out of words - she did use the refrigerator for a long time, but she really didn't know how to cool it.

What about those people who knew about refrigeration?

It took Ferrus Manus three beats before he realized that Fujimaru Ritsuka was in a bad mood because no one responded for too long. He never had the patience to use some roundabout techniques in language, so he asked directly: "What's the problem?"

"No." The girl pulled her legs back onto the steps and hugged her knees. "I just suddenly felt a little emotional. This ship was not originally mine... I suddenly missed the original captain and crew, and I felt a little sad that 'one general's success is the result of the sacrifices of thousands of soldiers'."

She stretched out a hand and randomly drew some meaningless pictures in the air. "You see, after a great victory with heavy casualties, most of the time only the name of the battle commander will be widely sung. However, the commander may even stay in the command center throughout the entire battle and not kill a single enemy. What really made the battle victorious were those unknown soldiers who died on the battlefield, but except for the legion itself or the dedicated narrators, no one would even care whether they really existed."

"…Does this have anything to do with our topic?"

"It was entirely due to the efforts of the original captain and the crew that I was able to board this ship and come to the Empire. I did nothing, I was just a passenger. But she eventually became my ship because I was the only living person on it." Fujimaru Ritsuka explained a little, but then she felt a little stupid for explaining this seriously. She sighed, and simply stood up from where she was, looking straight at the fierce and cold face of Ferrus who was sitting next to her: "Forget it, just think of this as a teenage girl's idle thoughts and sudden complaints, don't take it to heart."

Ferrus opened his mouth with a look of "this is really inexplicable", but before he could say anything, he was interrupted by the sound of hurried footsteps behind him. Conrad Curze came over like a gust of wind with the scepter that seemed to be made of gold, and threw it into the arms of Fujimaru Ritsuka who turned around to face him as if it was something unlucky.

He didn't say anything, but everyone could see that he really wanted to curse.

"What's wrong?" Fujimaru Ritsuka, who was hit by the scepter and staggered, asked first.

Konrad Curze paused, as if trying to swallow back some words that did not match the noble status of the Primarch, and then he said: "He believes that your mission requires an unofficial chapter. He told me to recruit soldiers."

This sentence seemed to have triggered a switch in Ferrus Manus, causing his originally calm emotions to suddenly explode - this is the subspace, so this "explosion" can be observed in a practical sense, and even made Fujimaru Ritsuka instinctively reach out and press down her skirt.

His trust in the Emperor prevented him from saying anything excessive in the end, but this sentence, which could barely be considered as advice, was squeezed out from between his teeth: "Second chances are extremely rare, you'd better not let them go to waste."

Conrad Coates showed a very obvious, and obviously intentional, expression of disdain towards his brother. But before he could really say something to provoke another conflict, Fujimaru Ritsuka asked:

"So, you're unhappy because you don't want to be drafted?"

"Your Excellency, I understand." The pitch-black bat even saluted jokingly when answering her.

When dealing with Fujimaru Ritsuka, Konrad Curze's attitude was not so sharp - especially compared with his attitude towards Ferrus a few seconds ago, it was simply a world of difference. This obviously made the Iron Hands Primarch have a lot to say, but in the next moment, he immediately understood where this temperature difference came from:

"Then we can just not recruit." Fujimaru Ritsuka said as if it was a matter of course, "He thinks we need to recruit soldiers because we need an extra-organized combat group. As long as we have such a military force that can complete the mission, he won't care whether you recruit soldiers or not."

Conrad Curze thought for a moment and said, "What you said makes sense, but the question is, where will this unorganized regiment come from?"

To his and Ferrus's surprise, Fujimaru Ritsuka seemed very confident.

"I have a plan for this matter."

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 10 Rumors

"Bad idea," Conrad Kurtz said for the five hundred and eighty-fourth time. "This is a really bad idea."

"Friendly reminder, I was just giving you some suggestions at that time. The one who really makes the decision is you, the Lord of the Eighth Legion." Fujimaru Ritsuka broke off a piece of chocolate behind him. "I've said this about four hundred times. If you really don't want to do this, you can stop at any time."

She popped the broken piece of chocolate into her mouth and responded to Conrad Coates's glare with a look of studied innocence.

Calculated in terms of subjective time, after leaving the Warp, or the Terra Astronomican, they had been hunting for about half a Terran year with extraordinary efficiency - hunting the Night Lords.

At that time, Fujimaru Ritsuka suggested: "You have a legion. Although they followed you in rebellion and more than 10,000 years have passed, you have now returned to the empire. After hearing the news, your descendants may also be willing to surrender. Without discussing more details, if we just send them into the battlefield, we may be able to put together an extra-establishment regiment by picking and choosing."

Conrad Curze believed that the golden light that filled the Astronomican must have silently influenced his mind, which made him think that this was something worth considering. After Fujimaru Ritsuka successfully demonstrated to the Emperor with a long speech on magic theory that "technical issues are not a problem", he even thought it was a good idea.

Don't get me wrong, he had already fully anticipated this matter. Or rather, he thought he had already fully anticipated this matter. He was fully aware of the character of most of his legion's descendants, and he also fully understood that in the past ten thousand years of continuous war, without anyone to restrain or take care of them, things would only get worse. He was fully prepared to "face a large group of robbers, bandits, sadists, murderers, perverted artists, and even ogres, or trash who only acted to satisfy their own bestiality, deserters who would easily kneel down when faced with a strong enemy, and then there were scum and villains who committed other crimes that would bring shame to paper and pen if they were written down, and the number of people who were truly 'salvaged' might only be one in a thousand."

He didn't even expect that after ten thousand years, there would be any righteous people among his descendants. Including the newly recruited soldiers. Anyway, his Eighth Legion was originally composed of criminals and scum. The only thing he dared to believe was that his good sons would perfectly pass on this tradition.

But if you feel that something can't possibly be worse than you predicted, you'd better give yourself a margin of "it will get worse" psychologically. Because fate is the kind of thing that ignores human will and makes everything worse with a crazy laugh - especially in a world where reality and fantasy are gradually blending as the Great Rift unfolds.

It is difficult to define when Konrad Curze was more angry, disappointed or sad: when he returned to reality and was once again tortured by the lingering prophetic talent, thus learning everything he was about to face; when he truly saw his own descendants who had bowed to Chaos and degenerated beyond human form; when he slaughtered an entire Chaos warband that retained his genes with rage and despair; or when he calmed down and reviewed the situation afterwards, realizing that among those things that could hardly be called Astartes he killed, more than half of them were even surprised and happy when they died.

If he were a mortal, he would have probably vomited it out. But he wasn't, so he just said to Fujimaru Ritsuka for the first time: "I'm starting to think this is a bad idea."

Although it was Fujimaru Ritsuka who came up with the idea, she did not insist on it and immediately said that if we don't do it, I have several ways to go around it. But Conrad Coates refused.

He saw this as torture, a punishment, and it was what he deserved - not because of betraying the Empire or the Emperor, but because he had allowed himself to trample on the justice in his heart. Even though his crimes in his last life had been judged by the assassins sent by the Emperor, it did not mean that he was qualified to take back those noble and sacred things after returning to the world.

Therefore, he must punish his own criminal offspring with his own hands, and must eradicate bit by bit the poison that was spread to the galaxy due to his poor supervision... Of course, in the way he is most familiar with.

For this reason, Fujimaru Ritsuka once said three times, "I think your methods are a bit extreme", but Conrad Coates turned a deaf ear to it. So after three warnings to no avail, she began to ask to act with him, and blatantly stated that she was there to get in the way.

Perhaps any normal person would not agree to bring her along after hearing this purpose, but Conrad Coates casually used the sentence that Fujimaru Ritsuka had said to him many times: You are the one who makes the real decision, you can do whatever you want. The latter was obviously a little surprised that he actually said that, maybe she didn't intend to really follow Conrad Coates during the operation, but since he dared to say that, Fujimaru Ritsuka certainly didn't dare to accompany him to the end.

So in the next four subjective months, they worked together in the warp, in the hive world, in the abandoned orbital space station, and in the obviously stolen and dilapidated Imperial cruiser, "cleaning up" four Chaos warbands with terrible efficiency. Although Fujimaru Ritsuka did try hard, the best she could do was to make Conrad Curze's crime scene look like an ordinary plasma film instead of a bloody performance art booth.

They were able to achieve such terrifying efficiency thanks to the reliable technology provided by Fujimaru Ritsuka. Not only was it the divination magic that used Konrad Curze's own blood, based on the base contract, not very accurate but seemed to be completely sufficient for the time being, and arbitrarily named the "Midnight Lord Positioning System", but also the small boat that she had always been thinking about, which was obviously used in the planet's atmosphere, which made a great contribution.

Conrad Curze, who lacked the corresponding talent, could not understand how she was able to operate the equipment on the Storm's Edge with magic and the Emperor's psychic power, but this artifact-level armed research vessel, which was not even capable of sub-light speed travel and was highly suspected to have been produced at the beginning of the second millennium of mankind, could also complete the Warp navigation quickly and well. The small ship could even properly utilize the waves of space and time in the Warp to travel through time within an acceptable error range - this is why their journey must be calculated in subjective time.

Not to mention that she had also developed a large-scale ritual that was said to be based on the light of the Astronomican, which could be called ultra-long-distance instant teleportation. It was with this that they even moved from Holy Terra to the edge of the Ghoul Star Region within three hours, the farthest place that the light of the Astronomican could reach in history. However, this ritual required the support of the Emperor's psychic energy, and this long-distance transmission would weaken Fujimaru Ritsuka, who presided over the ritual, for three or four days at a time. Therefore, after she decided to act together with Conrad Curze, this function was temporarily suspended.

By the way, during the process of jointly cleaning up the Night Lords, Conrad Curze threatened Fujimaru Ritsuka with death forty-two times, went mad or fell into delirium for various reasons seventeen times, actually carried out the death threats ten times, successfully beat people seriously twice, and locked himself in a cabin that was too small for him in the Storm Boundary sixteen times (a total of about fifteen standard Terra days). The most annoying thing is that Fujimaru Ritsuka even realized that this was the result of Conrad Curze trying to restrain himself as much as possible for some reason.

The result of their work was only the successful "recycling" of the "rotten but not completely rotten" 18 Night Lords - all of them were new recruits in the past 200 years. The Great Crusade and the Primarch were just legends to them. Even so, they realized what the man in front of them meant to them the moment they saw Konrad Curze.

Although Fujimaru Ritsuka had known that he should not have any illusions about Conrad Curze's attitude towards his legion's offspring, it was another matter to actually see the disaster scene. Obviously, although he allowed these people to live temporarily, he did not think he should like them - he was too lazy to even say a few words to these 18 people, and threw them to Fujimaru Ritsuka for full arrangement. The reason was also ready: she was the captain of the Storm's Edge.

This attitude was obviously not friendly, but it was also obviously very effective. These eighteen people, wearing cobbled-together power armor, decorated with human skin and corpse parts, and who usually made a living by looting merchant ships and corrupt nobles on remote planets (which is why Fujimaru Ritsuka was able to convince Conrad that they were "not rotten"), behaved like some frightened little animals on Fujimaru Ritsuka's ship.

The fact that they were completely ignored by their genetic father seemed to make them feel more terrified and desperate than seeing other members of the same warband being dismembered alive in front of their eyes. After settling these people in a suitable space, Ritsuka Fujimaru did not make any requirements from them beyond the basic rules, but after a very short period of time, these people quickly realized what they were doing and very proactively provided Ritsuka Fujimaru with all the rumors and intelligence they knew about the Night Lords.

After learning about this, Conrad Curze remained silent, as if he wanted to carry through his indifference to these heirs who barely stepped on the line, but unfortunately, just like the excuse he had found before, Fujimaru Ritsuka was the captain of the Storm's Edge. It was natural for a ship to be determined by its captain, so they finally spent about a week observing and calculating the star map, and followed the information implied in one of the interesting messages to find an almost wild "agricultural planet".

The moment Conrad Koz saw the planet on Sheba's observation interface, he once again sighed, "Bad idea!"

Fujimaru Ritsuka pondered for a while while holding the chocolate in his mouth, and decided to retreat in order to advance: "Why? Even though we are here...why don't we turn around and go back to the Big Rift now?"

"No, I want to go down." Conrad Coates used a deliberately suppressed tone, and it was difficult to guess his specific thoughts from it. "Those rumors seem to be somewhat accurate."

"Did you 'see' anything again?" This topic has become increasingly safe in recent times, so much so that Fujimaru Ritsuka is willing to use this straightforward way of asking.

Conrad Cotz paused for a few seconds, then finally spoke reluctantly:

"I see I found Sevatar on this planet."

Writing about Night Lords without writing about Sevatar is like... forgetting what comes next (cheerful)

Today I will outline the first story, I may not update it tomorrow (you)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 11: Horses Released to the South Mountain (Questionable)

"Jacob?" A female voice, which had inevitably become a little hoarse due to long-term exposure to chemicals, echoed under the huge shadows that had been shut down in the hangar. "Jacob? Are you here?"

There seemed to be nothing in the darkness except for the huge machine standing still. The silence with the smell of pesticides seemed to be ready to devour anyone. However, the slender woman standing at the gate with her back to the light showed no fear at all, and walked into the darkness with the basket in her hand as if it was nothing.

"Jacob? I'm coming in?" She ignored the silence that seemed to be empty except for her, and left the little light that seeped in from the door, reciting lines that no one else would respond to like a monologue: "The city is celebrating everywhere now, and the people in the freight station are also getting restless. Old Hank heard a recipe from somewhere and used the rationed round wheat to grind and bake spice cakes. I think it tastes good, so I brought some back. You should try it too."

She walked to the middle of the darkness and stopped. She couldn't see anything, but she still stubbornly raised the basket in her hand and raised it above her head. She maintained this sacrificial posture for five minutes without moving - even though the basket was not heavy, she gradually felt the stiffness and soreness of her arm muscles during this time.

Then, a heavy sigh came from the darkness.

"Alita, you don't have to do this." A man's voice said helplessly, "You know I can't tell whether food is good or bad."

"That just shows that your tongue obviously lacks proper education." The woman called Elita said confidently, "If you don't care about this matter yourself, then the responsibility of educating it obviously falls on us - when conditions permit, you must eat something good."