Chapter 70: The Perennial Problem

Chapter 70: Chapter 70: The Perennial Problem

Having pulled the two smart units apart, Liam said to the viewers again: "Do not pay them any attention, let us carry on with the hotpot."

He went on cutting all the tomatoes and onions into wedges, now and then sneezing twice from the pungency of the onion. Normally, if he cut only a few onions, his nose would not sting. But today he was cutting enough for twenty people to eat, so his nose ran as his eyes streamed.

In the end Auntie Camila could not bear it any longer, stepping up to seize all the onions to put into the slicing machine.

[Hahaha, the first time seeing the room owner come off badly for handling vegetables with his own hands.]

[I hate onions, can the onions be left out?]

Liam lowered the face towel just in time to read this comment, answering in a nasal voice: "You can leave the onion out. Replace it with shallots grilled until fragrant, or you can put no onion in at all. It is only that the flavour will fall off a little."

"All right. This lot of tomatoes and onions has to wait until the bone stock has finished simmering later before it can be used. Let us go and deal with the other ingredients for dipping in the hotpot. For the meat we need star-beast meat with lean and fat interlaced, sea-beast meat, star-fowl meat. Because there are many portions the quantity needing slicing is large too, to avoid straining a tendon in my hand I will put it into the slicing machine."

Good-natured laughter rang out in the broadcasting room, everyone saying the Streamer was beginning to learn some sense. Once the machine was set, Liam waited for it to cut a few slices, then took the finished product out in front of the camera for everyone to see.

"Look at this, everyone, a piece of meat has to be sliced thin enough that a Robot dog could lick at it for three days without managing to lift it, like this, for it to meet the standard..."

Comments: [Hahaha!]

[My Robot dog told me, it suspects the streamer is hinting at something but it has no evidence!]

[Why do I feel that after disappearing for nearly a month, the Streamer has grown more and more relaxed?]

[He is very good like this. Before he was far too proper, I even had doubts about his age!]

Liam washed his hands clean, sitting down to deal with the vegetables together with Auntie Camila. The potatoes along with the sweet potatoes were all put into the cutting and peeling machine by Auntie Camila, once peeled they were all soaked in water as Liam had instructed. As for the rest, the vegetables used for dipping such as cabbage, sweet greens, water spinach, baby corn... the two of them did all of those by hand.

Besides the hotpot dishes there were naturally stir-fried dishes to go alongside. Liam picked up a yardlong bean that had changed to a purplish red and a climbing green bean as translucent as jade, saying to the camera:

"This red pod is a yardlong bean, this jade-green pod is a climbing green bean. Both of these have mental energy of sixty-three. These two are also only sold as finished cooked dishes, but they will be on the grade 1 menu for everyone to choose from." He pinched up a small bunch of corn silk, saying: "This is the silk of the corn ear, this thing is very fragrant, it has a diuretic effect. Dry it out then boil it to drink in place of tea, it is very good for the health. In a little while I will boil some for everyone in the house to try."

Liam picked up a few more odd-looking items to hold up for everyone to see, after that he trimmed vegetables while chatting with Auntie Camila, every so often answering a comment. About half an hour later, the sound of a utility vehicle echoed over from a distance.

Liam raised his head to see three vehicles advancing towards his house. He slowly stood up, the person in the vehicle, seeing that he had spotted him, stuck his head out, waving a hand:

"Liam, I have come to cadge dinner at your house!"

Liam gave an answering shout, then said to Auntie Camila: "My friend is here, I will go out to meet him. You stay sitting here, auntie!"

Auntie Camila gave a hum of agreement, after that she sat alone facing a whole crowd of people in the broadcasting room. She said with a smile: "He has gone to meet his friend, I know nothing about cuisine so I cannot explain things to you all. But I am a doctor, you may ask me about health matters."

So the cuisine broadcasting channel was abruptly steered off into a health consultation channel. By the time Liam brought Daniel back, Auntie Camila was advising on gland treatment for a viewer with a mild form of gland inflammation.

Liam and Daniel waited for her to finish speaking, only then did Daniel bow in greeting: "Hello, Auntie Camila, I have just heard Liam tell me about you. My name is Daniel, I am very pleased to meet you."

Auntie Camila nodded: "Hello to you. My, you really do look like your Papa, one glance was all it took for me to know at once whose child you were."

Both of Daniel’s eyes lit up, he hurriedly pulled a chair closer, after that he pulled Liam down to sit with him. He asked: "You knew my Papa as well, auntie?"

Auntie Camila nodded, saying with a bright smile: "Mm, your Papa and I were both doctors at the hospital on Capital planet back then, you were even delivered by my own hands. It is only a pity that..."

The words that came after, Auntie Camila did not say. Daniel lowered his eyes slightly, after that he was as though nothing had happened, propping up his chin to ask:

"So what sort of person was my Papa? He passed away when I was not yet a year old, I have only ever seen him through a few reels of film and photographs that Daddy kept."

At the mention of an old colleague, Auntie Camila’s eyes brimmed with nostalgia. Mrs. Hall on Capital planet sighed as well, her gaze also carrying something complicated in it. Elijah noticed the feeling in her eyes, asking curiously:

"Mother, do you know the person they are talking about too?"

Mrs. Hall nodded: "Mm. In those years the few of us studied at the Military Medical school together, different specialities yet sharing one dormitory room. There were four people in the dormitory room, besides myself, Camila and Aiden — that boy’s Papa — there was also Caroline." Mrs. Hall’s gaze at the mention of Caroline gained one more layer of distaste: "Back then Caroline relied on her family standing, always keeping up a hostile attitude towards us. I was an adopted daughter of the Royal family, she naturally did not dare pick a fight with me, so she shifted the target of her bullying onto the two commoners, Camila and Aiden."

In the broadcasting room, Auntie Camila was also telling Daniel about his Papa. She did not say the names of her fellow students, using only "your Papa" when speaking of Aiden and "Liam’s mother" when speaking of Mrs. Hall. As for Caroline, Auntie Camila called her only, blandly, "the rich girl".

Isabella’s group finished measuring the mental energy readings in the new produce and finished helping Daniel’s people pack it up, coming out just in time to meet the scene of old stories being told. They stood listening for a while, the more they listened the more gripped they became, so they simply picked a clean spot by the veranda to sit right down on, listening attentively.

The story listeners outside and the viewers in the broadcasting room all listened in rapt absorption. Every time Camila came out with a few amusing details, they all laughed until they doubled over. Every time she told of the scenes where the two of them were bullied by "the rich girl", one locked in the library all night, the other drenched with water then shut in the lavatory in the middle of the freezing winter, every single person was outraged.

Then came the scene of the insectoid race attacking, final-year students like them being dispatched to the front line. "The rich girl", thanks to her family standing, did not have to go and lay down her life. Everyone listening to this point felt something flutter uneasily inside them.

[My older brother studied at the Capital Military Academy, in his final year he went out to the battlefield to kill the insectoid race. My brother risked his life killing the enemy, in the end the war merit flowed into the pocket of some rich young master. To this day my brother is still only a lowly grade-A soldier in the 3rd Legion.]

[A few years ago my older sister was a specially selected student of the Orionis Military Medical Academy, two months after enrolling my sister suddenly demanded to quit. The whole family pressed her for a reason without result, in the end we had no choice but to transfer her to a grade-C medical school near home. Now my sister has become a specialist doctor in genetic defects, but my sister still suffers from a fear of heights, before that she was not in the least afraid of heights!]

...

Line after line of the viewers’ confiding comments flew across the screen, Liam happened to catch sight of them. He knitted his brows, quietly opening up Light of Time, telling it to record every accusation made in the livestream and send them to Mr. Hall.

Mr. Hall, hiding in his private office watching the broadcast, had naturally already noticed these comments, before Liam sent the message he had already ordered his own smart unit to save them. After receiving his son’s message, his sharp gaze softened, he messaged back: [Father knows already, set your mind at rest.]

The viewers in the broadcasting room had only wanted somewhere to pour out what was on their minds, they had no idea at all that these outpourings would be noticed by someone who would truly win justice back for them along with their loved ones.

And they certainly would never have imagined that, thanks to these seemingly careless confidences, a whole series of scandals inside the political apparatus of the Lumina Galaxy would be dragged out along with them.

That was a matter for later, while at present, Camila glanced at the ring of people that had swelled to close on twenty, feeling a little helpless. Benjamin’s group, having come back from picking melons, had joined the story-listening gathering as well, without a shred of a military man’s bearing left. Auntie Camila shook her head with a laugh, going on with the tale of the bond of fate between Mr. Mason and Aiden:

"Your Daddy, well, in those days he hung the sign "rich kid" on himself too. Your Daddy’s attitude towards commoners like us, no matter whether Alpha, Beta or Omega, was just like looking at a few low-grade bugs.

The first day he met your Papa, your Daddy showed his contempt openly. Your Daddy had an extremely vicious tongue, your Papa was gentle, he did not dare argue back. But when a gentle person turns vicious, a vicious person could steer a battleship after them without catching up."

"At that time your Daddy was quite badly wounded, his arm and his stomach pierced right through. And the medical pods in those days were not as advanced as they are now, long treatment was still needed. Your Papa was put in charge of looking after him.

Every time your Daddy swore at your Papa, your Papa would drop his painkillers altogether, bandaging him raw on the spot. Your Daddy would hurt until he could not draw breath, wanting to swear he could not get a word out. Or else your Papa would deliberately use a heavy hand when changing the dressings, making your Daddy hurt until his jaw joint went crooked.

I have never understood how on earth they came to like each other. All I know is that after one trip out to the battlefield and back, the two of them were stuck to each other like glue. Everyone in the platoon along with me was deeply shocked, I can tell you."

"Later on, your Daddy went against the clan’s orders, insisting on marrying your Papa no matter what it took. I remember that day your Daddy was beaten half to death by your grandfather, his whole body beaten until flesh and blood were a ruin. Your Papa had to beg our teacher to step in, only then was your Daddy’s life gathered back up."

Reaching this point, Auntie Camila let out a sigh: "Your Daddy is a capable man as well. He endured for two years, after two years he suddenly rose up to take hold of power in the clan, forcing your grandfather to give way, succeeding in marrying your Papa home."

She set the last stalk of vegetable in her hand down, saying: "All right, the old stories end here. If you want to know more clearly, go home and ask your Daddy. I have heard that super-pressure cooker signalling nearly ten times now, are you children not planning to eat dinner any more?"

Everyone scattered with regret, the viewers in the broadcasting room also kept crying out that they had not heard enough.

Elijah set his smart watch down so the three adults in the room could go on watching, he himself returned to his own room, lying down in the VR network connection pod manufactured by the Interstellar Connection platform.

Elijah’s virtual image appeared in his room inside the virtual world. He turned the system screen in front of him into a desktop typing computer from the ancient era, line after line of text swiftly appearing.

[Title of work: The Love Song on the Rooftop

Genre: School life, horror, revenge and retribution.]