Chapter Three: The Tethered Helium Balloon

Returning to reality from his subconscious, Chen Zi'ang had only just opened his eyes when he realized that Tsukimiya Reina, sitting beside him, was stealing a glance at the left side of his face.

Miss Reina was dressed relatively simply today: a crisp white shirt, a beige knitted shawl draped over her shoulders, and a tie knotted at her throat.

Chen Zi'ang had never understood the appeal of women wearing ties. He himself was quite oblivious when it came to fashion, usually opting for a purely random combination of whatever shirt and trousers happened to be in his closet. But upon seeing Tsukimiya Reina, he immediately grasped the significance: it was simply to look good.

With her white shirt, tie, black trousers, and the canvas sneakers beloved by the youth, she looked for all the world like a vibrant college student. In reality, her age was likely not far off from that of a college student, anyway. As for her hairstyle, the girl changed it more often than her clothes. During her weekday lunch breaks, she would let her hair down completely, only to style it into something entirely new before the afternoon shift began.

At this moment, her hair had been lightly curled with an iron and tied into twin tails at the back of her head, falling in delicate, charming waves. This sweet and lovely look had drawn the attention of many passengers shortly after boarding; a flight attendant had even quietly approached to ask if she was an idol from some agency.

"What's wrong, Reina?" Chen Zi'ang asked, surprised. "Has someone come for your autograph again?"

"No." Caught in the act of watching her senior sleep, Tsukimiya Reina felt a subconscious pang of guilt and shyness. However, she quickly composed herself and briskly found a topic of conversation. "I just suddenly realized, Senior, you and Little Bamboo look so much alike."

"Of course," Chen Zi'ang chuckled. "We’re biological siblings, connected by blood."

"Really?" Reina teased. "Have you and Little Bamboo ever had a DNA test?"

"No, not that," Chen Zi'ang replied nonchalantly. "There's no need for that, is there? Look at how much Xiaozhu looks like me."

*Apart from a slight physical resemblance, in what way is the current Little Bamboo like you at all...* Tsukimiya Reina felt a sudden wave of sadness. In her memories, Chen Xiaozhu was a lively, cheerful girl who loved to laugh and talk. Even after discovering that Reina liked her brother, Xiaozhu hadn’t distanced herself or shown any disgust or misunderstanding; the two had always remained good friends.

But the Chen Xiaozhu of now...

Tsukimiya Reina fell silent, opting instead to put on her headphones and turn her gaze back to her tablet. Though she craved the current happiness and warmth, the despair and pain from those memories still clung to her like a maggot in the bone, surfacing from the depths of her heart from time to time.

"Reina."

"Yes, Senior?"

"You seem a bit unhappy," Chen Zi'ang said uncertainly.

"No, I'm not." Reina removed her headphones and offered a gentle smile. *Senior, as long as I can be by your side... I can endure anything.*

Chen Zi'ang didn't harbor much suspicion, as his subtle intuition had been fleeting—perhaps it was just his imagination. He turned his gaze back to the window, and the captain's announcement echoed through the plane: they were approaching Spaceport No. 6.

***

There were nine spaceports on the planet Takamagahara. Spaceport No. 6 saw the highest passenger volume because it connected directly to the Takamagahara Starport.

Located in the planet's geostationary orbit, this starport featured not only starship shipyards but also customs checkpoints for imports and exports, tax offices, and space tourism facilities. It could almost be considered a satellite colony of Takamagahara.

It was said that during the reign of the first Governor, Shi Zhiqing, there had been plans to build a massive space elevator between the starport and Spaceport No. 6. At the time, Takamagahara was designated as an imperial mining planet, and its primary duty was to constantly supply the Empire with special minerals; thus, the space elevator—despite its higher construction and maintenance costs—was considered the appropriate choice to greatly increase cargo efficiency.

After the second Governor, Shi Jintang, took office, he sought to transform Takamagahara from a mining sector into a colonial sector. He completely overturned his father's space elevator project, replacing it with a traction-based helium balloon platform instead. This device was more than sufficient for transporting people, but it could certainly not compete with a space elevator when it came to freight.

In fact, after Shi Jintang came to power, he began to gradually reduce mineral exports to the Empire, causing relations between Takamagahara and the Imperial Capital to deteriorate sharply. To this day, although Takamagahara remained nominally under the Empire's jurisdiction, the Empire no longer provided any form of support—except for verbal support.

For the people of the Far North, because Shi Zhiqing had not implemented assimilation policies like "Imperial Identity Education" during his tenure, there was little sense of belonging to the Empire. On the contrary, it was Shi Jintang who diverted the special ores that should have been tribute to the Human Empire, selling them to the Federal Star Alliance to earn foreign currency. This caused Takamagahara's national economy to soar and living standards to improve significantly. Consequently, anyone with even a slight understanding of history had no favorable impression of the Empire, feeling much like, "So, we were paying that much in taxes all along."

Chen Zi'ang held no political stance, but as he stepped off the plane and saw the massive traction-based helium balloon in the distance, Xia Qingyu’s earlier assessment surfaced in his mind: *The perpetrator.*

*Well, Qingyu is an Imperial citizen; it's natural for her not to like Shi Jintang.*

"Senior!" Tsukimiya Reina linked her left arm with his and took Chen Xiaozhu's hand with her right. "Hurry, hurry! The shuttle bus is coming!"

From the airport runway, the distant helium balloon looked about the size of a palm. But as the shuttle bus approached its destination, the balloon grew larger and larger in their view. Eventually, Chen Zi'ang realized that calling it a "helium balloon" was an understatement; it was a massive, helium-powered flight platform—the shuttle bus didn't even drop passengers off nearby, but drove directly onto it.

Around the edge of the platform was a circular viewing restaurant enclosed by floor-to-ceiling windows. As soon as they got off the bus, Tsukimiya Reina determined the direction and dragged Chen Zi'ang and Chen Xiaozhu toward the north side to grab a seat. It was said that the northern viewing restaurant offered a view of the brightly lit Far North once the platform reached a certain altitude, making it the most coveted spot among space travelers.

After finding a table and sitting down, Tsukimiya Reina bustled off to the front desk with the menu to order. Bored, Chen Zi'ang pulled out his phone and turned off flight mode. Immediately, he saw a missed call and a text message from Xia Qingyu:

"Call me the moment you see this message."

The twelve short characters made Chen Zi'ang's heart sink, and he immediately sensed the urgency of the situation. Because, within those twelve characters, there was absolutely no trace of mockery, ridicule, or sarcasm.