Chapter 794 - 750 Spring of Braga

"Lin Ju, Lin Ju!"

Lin Ju heard someone calling his name. Just as he was about to sit up from the sofa, he felt his neck stiff as an iron board, a slight movement brought sharp pain.

It took quite an effort to sit upright only to see Zhong Cheng’s brilliant smile, which made him inevitably feel a hint of puzzlement.

"What time is it now? Did you guys have breakfast?"

He remembered that it was just a little past 6 o’clock when he couldn’t hold back his sleepiness and decided to sleep for an hour or two, asking others to wake him up.

Now, waking up to find only Zhong Cheng, Shen Zuozhou and Ye Changsi were nowhere in sight.

Hearing Lin Ju’s question, Zhong Cheng smiled even more radiantly but didn’t answer, instead, he gently patted Lin Ju’s shoulder:

"The sofa isn’t comfortable, right? Remember this feeling, and try to sleep in a bed in the future."

"Go away."

Lin Ju’s mind was all about the news, having no time for jokes. Seeing this, Zhong Cheng wasn’t surprised and cleared his throat before speaking:

"It’s already two twenty in the afternoon, it’s all over!"

"What! Over?!"

Lin Ju, who had just been stretching his limbs, sprang up, dashed to the floor-to-ceiling window, and drew back the curtain, indeed seeing the dazzling sun.

He had actually slept for eight straight hours!

Lin Ju became anxious all at once and even a bit irate:

"Why didn’t you wake me? I said two hours at most!"

Faced with the questioning, Zhong Cheng remained calm and even pulled out his phone, waving it:

"We did call, but you just wouldn’t wake up. Here’s the video as proof, the video as proof. Later, Ye Changsi suggested to give you a shake or throw cold water on you, but Manman stopped him, saying you deserved it for staying up late."

"Ah!"

Lin Ju didn’t doubt his words much and could only annoyedly punch his leg.

The critical eight hours, wasn’t the whole point of staying up all night to react after dawn!

Without time for regret, he asked urgently:

"What’s the situation now, what exactly is happening?"

"What’s the situation? Let me show you something."

Zhong Cheng squatted down, and it was then that Lin Ju noticed a paper bag placed beside the coffee table, from which Zhong Cheng grabbed something and put it on the table.

A fresh pineapple that was still exuding fragrance.

Under the sunlight streaming in from the floor-to-ceiling windows, it shone calmly and luminously on the glass coffee table.

Zhong Cheng: "It was air-shipped by C810, from picking to now it’s been less than fifty minutes. It was hand-picked by the pilot of B4143, specially for you, the big boss.

Want to try it? I’ve never enjoyed such a luxury item before. Today I’m lucky because of you. There’s also a durian and some mango in there. Eat them while they’re fresh, they’re authentic."

Lin Ju stared at the pineapple, tentatively touching its still damp leaves.

Indeed quite fresh. Of course, having this commonplace pineapple air-shipped by a C810 supersonic jet wasn’t for the enjoyment of the fruit itself, but a proof, a proof with significant meaning.

If the fruit could have been preserved for longer, Lin Ju even felt he should encase it in a glass dome as a memento.

While caressing the pineapple’s rough scales on the surface, Lin Ju also asked somewhat nervously:

"No major losses, I hope?"

"Don’t worry, your planes and pilots are all in good shape, and they’ll definitely all return without a single one missing. Speaking of which, that young guy from B4143 was amazing, with his short-distance forced landing—such skill... Ahem, we’ll need to borrow them a little longer, as we have more demand for transport capacity these days and need a favor from you all."

"It’s all minor stuff..."

Lin Ju didn’t think much of it; he waved his hand and agreed immediately.

"And America? Is Lu still in Victoria, or has he been recalled? What about the sea..."

Zhong Cheng: "Don’t worry, I can tell you that this morning, the hotline has hardly stopped ringing, and we’ve been in constant communication with NACA.

The date is set, October 19th, the NACA delegation will depart without delay!

"Additionally, the negotiations with the Space Force are proceeding smoothly and the atmosphere is very harmonious," he said, emphasizing the last two words before continuing.

"As for the sea, of course we didn’t lose, and it’s been a long time since we’ve had a fight like this. It’s unlikely we’ll have another opportunity, so there’s no regret."

Zhong Cheng’s words revealed a lot of information, but the most important thing was that both sides had reached a resolution.

There was no choice, the alien crisis was indeed greater than anything on Earth, and the unity was much stronger than any alliance system from the last century. Ultimately, this contest turned into a trade-off of interests, and at least our side is quite satisfied.

After this incident, the joint space defense system will definitely be established overtime. Otherwise, if there are a few more such misunderstandings, even fake ones might become real, and no one wants to risk walking the tightrope again.

Last night was definitely the most serious global crisis since ’56, but due to the different environment and participants involved, the process and outcome were very different.

The real confrontation lasted only about 10 hours, and the vast majority of the world didn’t even know what had happened before it was over.

But there’s no doubt about its danger; this time it wasn’t a threat, it was a true intention to unleash the Sword of Damocles.

Most of the details of what happened in those 10 hours cannot be seen through public channels. The scale of involvement and the specific details have been tacitly covered up by the participants, becoming a mystery that lasted for years.

The purpose of this is mainly to ease world tensions. For ordinary people, it will soon be forgotten, but there was one thing that made a deep impression on them.

On a certain military forum, a thread titled "Woke up and got verified!" posted by a user years ago was dug up, becoming a new internet catchphrase.

Meanwhile, the internet went wild with videos of several An-1250s making low-altitude, forced landings. As the planes had barely stopped, the tail bay doors opened, and spirited soldiers sitting on military vehicles leaped right onto the runway, then quickly dispersed, becoming as iconic as the Gulf Operation.

Not to mention incidents like the falling Granate V into a residential area, the Marine Corps distributing instant noodles and tea eggs to disaster victims, a sixty-year-old veteran finding his roots on the spot, soldiers wolfing down pineapples (fake), and so on.

But the biggest news right now, of course, is the chaos among the high ranks who boarded fake "Black Hawks," ending up turning right around on the spot, with some even capturing photos and turning them into memes.

...

"Li Guangwei, who is Li Guangwei?"

"Me, me!"

Wei pushed through the crowd trying to cut in line and hurried to the front of the officer with a goofy grin, then handed over his original ID.

After a brief check, the officer received it and then nodded his head to signal the start of the procedure.

Wei quickly went to the photo area next to him, sat down on the chair in front of the white backdrop, and was instructed by the photographer to adjust his posture and smile as much as possible.

"Click"

"Next!"

After the flash, the next person hurriedly sat down. Wei glanced over, hmm, still in camouflage, but with a white towel tied over the shoulder.

Wei moved to the next queue point and it was only after a dozen minutes that it was his turn.

What he got was a simple plastic card, his photo just taken on the front, and on the back, apart from the emblem, there was a large "TEMPORARY" print.