Chapter 294: Imperial General He Was Again Forcibly Flirted With 22

Weite had indeed thought of seeing Alexander here; after all, his purpose for coming was him.

He also knew that Alexander had already been mixing with the Federation's ill-mannered general.

But he never expected that Alexander in the Federation would be so composed, able to stay calm and leisurely even when facing President Joyce.

This is very disadvantageous for their negotiation.

What's worse, Alexander seems to have already... recovered his original strength?

Weite's eyes, gleaming with sharp light, narrowed as he sized up Alexander without changing expression, and a thought arose in his mind.

He moved his fingers on the smartbrain, smiling as he walked toward where Joyce stood.

"President Joyce, long time no see."

"Good day, Duke Weite."

Joyce, without a smile, with a solemn expression, appeared especially cold, giving an impression of shrewdness and difficulty to deal with; after exchanging polite greetings, he turned his gaze to the Imperial diplomat Morris, and they nodded at each other.

"Please come in, everyone." Joyce's secretary gestured toward the conference hall.

From start to finish, Alexander never glanced at Weite and the Imperial entourage, let alone initiate a greeting.

When it was time to enter, he looked toward Jin Chen, who was waiting outside.

"Go ahead, I'll be waiting for you in the outer hall." Jin Chen stepped forward, brushed the stray hairs from his cheek, and spoke softly.

Since only relevant personnel could enter the negotiation, Jin Chen had nothing to do with this affair; going in would instead risk being blamed by Weite for harming Ian and others, so Joyce had him wait in the outer hall.

"Hmm."

Alexander rubbed his palm, then turned and quickly walked a few steps to catch up with Joyce.

This scene fell into the eyes of the other greeters, who expressed excitement with their glances; although they couldn't speak, many gave teasing looks toward Jin Chen, which he naturally sensed, and he gave them an annoyed glance before sitting in the outer hall's resting area to wait.

At the same time, 0731 sensibly opened the spatial monitoring screen.

Conference hall.

Joyce sat in the central seat, with the secretary responsible for recording beside him; by rights the seat to his right should be vacant, with two seats apart then the other federal officials participating in the negotiation.

But he instead called out to Alexander, letting him sit to his right.

Alexander had wanted to say it wasn't appropriate, but seeing the tolerance and affection in Joyce's eyes left him speechless, so he simply sat down.

He had followed the rules for decades; being a bit unrestrained beside his future father shouldn't be a problem.

But the more the Federation indulged Alexander's behavior, the uglier the Imperial side's expression became.

"We came here this time, and I suppose President Joyce knows that my young son is mischievous; after a few days without supervision he ran over to the Federation to play, loves pranks, and just happened to be discovered by your general."

Weite struck first, the first step being to rescue his precious son from prison.

"He has never suffered a loss since childhood on the Imperial homeworld, and his uncle Yi Shi Duo Le also likes this nephew, so upon learning of this he has constantly worried and urged me to come quickly, hoping President Joyce will be magnanimous and let me take my son back to discipline him."

After saying that, he turned to Joyce with a smile.

After a few seconds of silence, Joyce finally lifted his gaze to him, his eyes heavy with intimidation, and his whole aura suddenly shifted.

"What a coincidence, my son is also quite unruly; I really can't usually control him—why don't you, Duke, personally have Jin Chen release the prisoners?"

Weite: "……"

He suppressed himself again and again; Joyce's sentence left his prepared thoughts stuck, unable to come out, and after a long while he finally organized his wording and wanted to continue.

Who would have thought Joyce would suddenly interrupt, "Just joking, my son still knows the difference; Ian and the others are already waiting outside the hall, Duke Weite, would you like to see them?"

The Duke's words were again swallowed back by him, his face utterly grim, his fists clenched.

How could he fail to hear the sarcasm in Joyce's words, mocking Ian's lack of upbringing, but this isn't the Empire, and he still has important matters to attend to—he can't just lose face like that.

"That would be best; please trouble President Joyce to let them in."

Joyce chuckled and pressed a button on the console before his seat.

"Father!" Ian, whose cheek still bore wounds, had been standing beside Steven, looking somewhat afraid, but upon seeing Weite he couldn't hold back tears; these days of imprisonment had been sheer hell for him.

Ian disregarded who else was in the conference hall, rushed straight in, and clung to Weite, acting spoiled.

"Father! You need to give Alexander a proper lesson, and also that Federation general named Jin Chen! What right does he have to lock me up! The Federation people are truly savage!"

The people on the Imperial side took a deep breath.

"... Nonsense, what kind of talk is that!" Weite's brow twitched; he was almost frightened by his son's unrestrained remark, and hastily interjected, "You haven't even met President Joyce yet!"

Ian turned his head in surprise, only to see Joyce sitting opposite with a half-smile, the other Federation members glaring at him maliciously; only then did he realize what he had just said, biting his lip and lowering his head, his cheeks burning.

Joyce chuckled twice, "It seems the Empire still educates its offspring mainly through indulgence."

He looked at the secretary, his words dripping with sarcasm, "We should still learn the essence from the Empire on this point—look at that kid Jin Chen, who never acts spoiled toward me even when grown; he can't compare to Duke Weite, who enjoys the blessing of having his offspring swarm his knees and act spoiled."

The secretary couldn't hold back a laugh either, quickly clearing his throat twice and lowering his head, "You're right."

Alexander, who had been spacing out, hearing this couldn't help but imagine what Jin Chen acting spoiled would be like, and laughed involuntarily.

But in Ian's eyes, it was just mockery of him, and his resentment toward them grew a bit deeper.

Weite really didn't want to keep discussing this embarrassing topic of child-rearing, letting Joyce continue to mock him; he signaled with his eyes for Steven to take Ian aside first.

He still had more important things to do.

The attendants who had followed Steven and the two of them in just now handed over an item to Weite.

"We came here this time for another important matter."

Weite's voice gained confidence and suddenly rose; the Imperial staff who had lowered their heads out of embarrassment also lifted their chests in unison.

Only Morris let out a low sigh; having just interjected a few sentences to ease the atmosphere, he now fell completely silent.

"Please go on," Joyce said in a light tone.

"Regarding our Empire's general Alexander, who fled the battlefield," Weite deliberately emphasized the two characters "general," as if reminding Alexander of his current status.

"He was brought here by Federation soldiers from the battlefield, not allowed to defect; we are grateful—can we now take him away to deal with him?"