In the bedroom of the Black Tortoise's guest room,
Athrun appeared restless even in his sleep.
His brow was tightly furrowed, his forehead covered in cold sweat. Though his eyes were closed, his eyeballs darted rapidly beneath the lids, and he murmured indistinct words under his breath.
Zhou Tianming watched him and sighed.
He must have been frightened.
After fetching a basin of water from the bathroom, Zhou Tianming used a towel to wipe the cold sweat from Athrun's forehead.
"Athrun, I'm here."
As if by magic, Athrun calmed slightly. Though his brow remained furrowed, his body grew stiller.
Zhou Tianming didn't leave. He found a chair and sat down, scrolling through his tablet.
Time passed as he reviewed combat data and worked on improvements to the pilot suit, until the sound of a door opening came from outside.
Soon after, Lacus wheeled Lenore into the room.
They looked surprised to see Zhou Tianming there.
Lenore glanced at Athrun sleeping peacefully in bed and the basin with a towel hanging over it on the floor nearby. "Thank you."
"I didn't know Tianming was so good at taking care of people," Lacus said, looking at him curiously.
Zhou Tianming shrugged. "It comes naturally."
Counting his previous life, he was practically a forty-something uncle—caring for others felt like an instinct engraved in his genes, requiring no formal training.
Lenore asked with concern, "How is Athrun?"
"He was a bit unsettled at first, but he's better now."
"Thank you." Lenore nodded. "I'll stay with him. You can go attend to your work."
Not one to refuse, Zhou Tianming stood and stretched. "I'll go stretch my legs."
With that, he left the room.
Lenore and Lacus stayed behind, keeping watch over Athrun while chatting softly.
Out in the corridor, Zhou Tianming hadn't gone far before the White Rabbit Legion blocked his path.
"What's this, a mutiny?"
"Master, reimbursement!" In the corridor, the White Rabbits' red eyes glowed as they raised a tablet. "As agreed, one thousand per rabbit."
"Fine, fine—" Zhou Tianming scoffed, taking the tablet. "As if I'd withhold such a paltry sum. Money-grubbers!"
He glanced at the screen and his face darkened. "Ten thousand units lost? Did you study math and procurement?"
The White Rabbits' red eyes flickered, and the tablet in Zhou Tianming's hands automatically flipped to display a spreadsheet.
Zhou Tianming scanned it and pointed at the final column. "You used 9,900 units to blow up the spaceship?"
He couldn't help but laugh at the mental image of 9,900 White Rabbits crammed into the small shuttle.
"You call that a detonation?" Zhou Tianming burst out laughing. "That's like stuffing a shuttle inside a pile of explosives!"
Straightening his face, he swiped across the column. "Malicious destruction of property causing significant losses. White Rabbit, you know what this means, right?"
In a flash, the White Rabbits vanished without a trace.
"Escape?" Zhou Tianming sneered, "Don't forget whose account you're using. An AI can't apply for an account."
The tablet in his hand vibrated, displaying blood-red characters: I Want Human Rights!
"Sorry, you don't have any."
A massive red hashtag appeared.
Arriving at the Bridge, Zhou Tianming adjusted the Black Tortoise's course toward Heliopolis.
Without a doubt, Caridad had likely gone there after leaving Copernicus City.
Having read the script made him this confident.
Still, he'd need to investigate Kira's exact location carefully.
Calculating the timeline, Kira probably hadn't entered Orb's industrial academy yet, and it was unclear which school he'd attended before.
Finding one person in a place as large as Heliopolis wouldn't be easy.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him.
"White Rabbit."
"Here." The voice sounded extremely reluctant.
"Are you familiar with the unmanned cars in Heliopolis?"
"No, we're competitors. They recently seized an opportunity to surpass the capital's total performance and are catching up to my revenue."
"I'm allowing you to get familiar with them."
"No!"
"There's an intelligence fee involved. I'll only give it to you—spend as much as you need, and keep the rest."
"...White Rabbit, how much is it?"
"..."
"10,000!" White Rabbit blurted eagerly, "Deal! Pay up!"
Zhou Tianming was speechless; he had been about to say 100,000.
Was that all?
How embarrassing!
He shook his head in disdain.
Misinterpreting his hesitation as reluctance to pay, White Rabbit panicked: "Can't go any lower!"
Zhou Tianming glared in frustration—though with no specific target, his eyes landed on a cleaning robot that happened to enter, bearing the brunt of his stare.
After payment was transferred, White Rabbit immediately set off to contact Heliopolis' unmanned cars.
Zhou Tianming nodded in satisfaction. "If East Asia can use this method, so can I. But I need insurance, or my entire operation could be exposed." He began coding defensive software.
"White Rabbit, hold off on the search for now. Wait until I install a firewall for you."
"Understood."
Time slipped away unnoticed until Zhou Tianming, absorbed in his work, was startled by the door opening.
Turning, he saw Lacus entering while holding a white rabbit.
"Shouldn't you be taking care of Sister Lenore?"
"Athrun woke up," Lacus smiled. "He was shouting and drove me out."
Zhou Tianming chuckled inwardly. Being seen by a girl while vulnerable must be torture—poor kid should've pretended to be asleep.
Amused, he shook his head. "What brings you here?"
"Can't I visit without a reason?"
"Suit yourself."
"I'm hungry!"
Checking the time—5:23 PM.
"It's already this late?" Zhou Tianming moved his keyboard aside and stood up. "Let's go to the cafeteria. What do you want to eat?"
Lacus smiled sweetly. "The Imperial Feast!"
Zhou Tianming choked.
Truly a wolf in sheep's clothing—she was waiting for this.
"Not available!"
Stare~
Zhou Tianming pointed two fingers at his own eyes. "Even if lasers shot from your eyes, it wouldn't help."
"Hmph!" Lacus stomped away with clip-clopping footsteps.
At the cafeteria, the group gathered as Zhou Tianming showcased his cooking skills.
Lenore maintained composure until Athrun's comment—"Even better than Mom's cooking"—sank her battleship.
Poor Athrun remained oblivious to what had happened.
But from Lenore's icy glare, Zhou Tianming understood his future meals might become... more "flavorful."
With her hands incapacitated, Lenore had to rely on others for assistance. Since Zhou Tianming wasn't available, the task fell upon the two youngsters.
Athrun was the natural first choice, but before Lenore could react, he blushed crimson, his trembling hand spilling food all over her with an unsteady spoon. That left Lacus. This time, Lacus didn't cause any trouble, but Lenore felt embarrassed instead—being fed by someone else's daughter in front of her son felt like some kind of punishment game!
Zhou Tianming watched the scene with amusement, calling it a "feeding play."
He was met with simultaneous glares and raised his hands in surrender.
"Just leave the bowls in the sink. White Rabbit will wash them. I'm heading to the Bridge first."
His voice still tinged with laughter, Athrun couldn't help but rush over, flushed: "Zhou Tianming!"
The door shut, and he smacked right into it.
Clutching his forehead and nose, Athrun opened the door and chased after him.
Zhou Tianming was leaning against the wall just outside, not having left. Seeing Athrun emerge, he teased, "Finally catching on this time?"
Athrun glared at him, "I'm not stupid."
"If you're not stupid, why didn't you pretend to be asleep earlier?"
"You—!"
"Come on, let's see if we can find Kira."
Athrun's protests sank without a trace as he obediently followed.
Arriving at the Bridge, they could already see Heliopolis in the distance. Athrun asked, "Is Kira there?"
"Should be." Zhou Tianming returned to the captain's seat and resumed work.
Athrun pouted, "Coming here is worse than going to PLANT."
"He's hiding here precisely to avoid getting dragged into the war between PLANT and Earth."
After a moment's hesitation, Athrun looked troubled, "Do we really have to fight? Can't we talk it out?"
"We fight precisely because talking didn't work."
"What's there that can't be settled through discussion?"
Zhou Tianming glanced at him, "Too naive. Go read more books."
"I do read! Military strategy, combat, command, mechanics, operations..." Athrun listed off a slew of subjects on his fingers.
Hearing they were all combat and command-related, Zhou Tianming rolled his eyes.
No wonder he kept getting manipulated in the original story—failing politics.
With a flick of his hand, a reading list appeared on the screen, "Go study these."
Taking a look, Athrun complained, "Do I really need to read 'Elementary Political Overview'? I'm in middle school already."
Zhou Tianming scoffed, "Your political knowledge is at kindergarten level at best. Don't look down on elementary material."
Athrun fumed.
Zhou Tianming hit Enter, "White Rabbit, load the program. Have the unmanned cars start searching for Kira's location."
Athrun brightened.