Hui Zhifeng continued, "You didn't see that when we took off, the base's Mechanical Intelligence didn't even detect it. And just now, it was all treated as conventional weaponry. You can check the combat logs in the Warplanes."
Ji Nabi hesitated, "But that bluish-purple plasma beam..."
"That's the Cruiser's own Space Ion Beam Cannon," Zhuo Hanchen said confidently. "The Mechanical Intelligence on my end has been monitoring in real-time, and they haven't noticed that we're carrying Super Miniature Ion Beam Cannons."
"Otherwise, they would have caught us long ago. Do you think Xia Chujian has a good impression of us?"
"She can't wait to find fault with us, and she's not the kind of person who would cover for us."
Chu Qingchen then said, "As long as we don't say anything, no one will know. And you guys aren't stupid enough to hand Xia Chujian a kill, right?"
Lü Luyu reluctantly "oh"ed and stopped arguing.
They weren't without doubts, but the real-time monitoring system in the Warplane, as well as the firing records, gave them confidence.
Of course, the biggest confidence came from their "disagreement" with Xia Chujian.
They were convinced that Xia Chujian would be watching them, trying to catch them doing something wrong.
If she found out, wouldn't that be terrible?! It would definitely cause an uproar! But if Xia Chujian didn't say anything, then it definitely meant she hadn't discovered anything.
...
These few Noble students remained silent, following the other students and Instructors, piloting their Warplanes and Airships, and entering the fifth-level Hold of the Falcon-class Star Cruiser in turn.
Meanwhile, Xia Chujian had already flown to the eighteenth Starship previously occupied by the Star Pirates.
"Ms. Chang, hello." Xia Chujian was still in the three-meter-tall standard Mecha mode, still wearing that mask.
And these thirty-eight women had all changed into complete sets of clothes, and their wounds had been treated.
Only Chang Shengnan among them was a doctor; the others were not.
She had managed to diagnose and treat so many people in just a few minutes, so she must be a skilled doctor.
Xia Chujian had been considering where these people should go.
She looked at them and asked, "Did you find any of the Star Pirates' stolen goods here?"
The women all shook their heads.
Chang Shengnan said with shame, "Second Lieutenant, we didn't find any of their stolen goods. However, we found some currencies from various countries in the rooms on the second floor. There's the Beichen Empire, the Southern Cross Star Kingdom, the East Tianyuan City-State, and the West Himalaya Federation. The total amount is only a little over thirty thousand Beichen Coins."
This was definitely not the total amount of wealth the Star Pirates had looted over the years; it was just their petty cash.
Chang Shengnan put the currencies from various countries that they had found, as well as some gold and silver bars, into a small box and handed it to Xia Chujian.
Of course, Xia Chujian didn't take it.
She said, "Keep it for your immediate needs. You don't need to give it to me."
Then she quietly instructed Seven Lù in her helmet to search again.
Previously, she was short on time. Although this Interstellar Spaceship was useless, it was still very large.
The entire scale was like a small town, and Seven Lù didn't have enough time to find these small things.
Now that the battle was over, she still wanted to scan the Starship thoroughly again, preferably cleaning out even the rat holes on the Starship.
After all, it was the last Starship of the Bodhi Leaf Star Pirates, and it should be handed over to the Military afterward as part of her meritorious service.
Anything else found would have nothing to do with her.
As Seven Lù activated the scanning system and officially scanned the entire massive Starship, Xia Chujian asked these women one last time, "Are you really sure you don't want to go back?"
Among these people, only two were young girls, high school students who were about to enter their senior year.
The other women were all adult women.
These two girls went to the same school as Xia Chujian.
Only one of them still had a mother; the other's mother had already closed her eyes forever.
That girl sat blankly, holding her mother's body to the side, without speaking.
And the girl who had a mother had been pulled aside by her mother to talk.
"Wen Wen, go home. You still have to take the college entrance exam next year. Your mother is different. Your mother has lived enough in this life..."
"No! Mom! You're not going back! I'm not going back either!"
The girl was covered in injuries and could barely stand, but she still clung tightly to her mother's arm, stubborn and persistent.
Her mother was in tears, holding her daughter and saying, "You go back. There's 300,000 Beichen Coins in compensation from the insurance company. Use 200,000 to treat your injuries, and the remaining 100,000 will be your capital for college and starting a career."
"You live with your grandparents, and your maternal grandparents. You take good care of them, and they will take good care of you..."
"Live on, live on for your brother too..."
The daughter cried out, "No! No! I don't want to go to college! I just want to be with Mom! If Mom doesn't go back, I won't go back either!"
Xia Chujian listened silently beside them, mentally reviewing the family's tragic situation.
The woman said her family would receive 300,000 Beichen Coins in compensation, which meant three people in her family had died.
If the woman was included, there should be two more.
Listening to her later words, she didn't mention her husband or other children among the living.
So Xia Chujian roughly deduced that the woman's husband and other children had been killed by the Star Pirates.
And later, the woman told her daughter to live on for her brother as well, Xia Chujian figured that the woman's other children who were killed should be a son, that is, the girl's brother.
This family was truly tragic.
And she could also hear that the girl didn't want to go back alone, not because she didn't want to go to college, but because she knew that if she went back alone, her mother would definitely commit suicide.
Chujian sympathized with the girl and knew that she wanted her mother to have hope to live on. She was worried that if she left, her mother would really not live.
So she clung to her mother, as long as she was by her mother's side, her mother would not commit suicide.
And of the thirty-eight survivors, only two were unmarried high school students.
The other women also started crying.
They told Xia Chujian that their husbands and sons, who had come on the same Starship, had been killed by the "money-grabbing" Bodhi Leaf Star Pirates at the first opportunity, and hadn't even been taken to this Starship.
At this time, for them, apart from economic considerations, being lovelorn was also a real situation.
But Xia Chujian still felt that being able to live after such an encounter, shouldn't they cherish their lives even more?
She glanced at the women who already had thoughts of dying, and still said in that gentle electronic synthesized voice, "You are living for yourselves."
"Your lives don't only belong to your husbands, sons, daughters, and parents. You also have the value of your own lives."
"Haven't you had anything you wanted to do since you were little? Not for making a living, not for supporting a family, purely out of interest, something you wanted to do?"
"Maybe this time, it's a good opportunity for you to be a completely new person."
"The ancients said, 'After great hardship comes great fortune,' and also, 'Even ants cling to life,' isn't it good to live? Isn't it good to live for yourself?"
"Why must you die? Yes, if you go back, it's indeed not economically worthwhile, then why not think of another way, to both live and get the insurance money?"
Xia Chujian habitually looked for loopholes, and at this time, she also started to use her brain, trying her best to persuade these people.
It must be said that her persuasiveness was quite strong.
Especially when she asked, haven't you had anything you wanted to do since you were little? This sentence touched some people's hearts.
Especially for those who wanted to die, giving them new goals could allow them to find the meaning of living.
Chang Shengnan looked at everyone and immediately said, "Then I will say a word on behalf of everyone, we really don't want to go back. If this Second Lieutenant lady can let us go to a place where no one knows us to fend for ourselves, we won't be picky, and we don't want any identity or household registration."
They were planning to become illegal residents.
Xia Chujian understood the trauma they had suffered, which was difficult to make up for in a short time.
Unless someone took action...
Xia Chujian thought for a while and said, "Even if you don't want to go back to your own homes, you must first leave this Asteroid Belt. We are now returning, so you stay here. When we leave the Asteroid Belt, I will contact the person in charge there."
After a pause, Xia Chujian still said frankly, "I think the relevant government departments must know about your situation. I will find a department that will not leak secrets to help you deal with the follow-up problems."
"I will find a way to let you both live and your families get the insurance money."
Xia Chujian couldn't study the insurance terms that came with the Interstellar Spaceship ticket, but she knew a legal expert.
If possible, asking that expert for help, she wondered if there would be a turning point.
Xia Chujian didn't think so much about it. She simply felt that the insurance terms were wrong. Why should death be the only condition for receiving such compensation? Weren't these women's experiences worse than death? The other party should give them double compensation! Also, the Star Pirates themselves had said that if there were Nobles passengers on the Interstellar Spaceship, the Starship company would send more escort Cruisers, and even the Star Pirates wouldn't dare to target them.
What did this mean? This meant that the Starship company was fully capable of avoiding the risk of being hijacked by Star Pirates! But they didn't do so. They discriminated against people, and their inaction led to these ordinary civilian passengers suffering such a devastating blow! Shouldn't the Interstellar Spaceship not only compensate the passengers for their losses but also be responsible for their subsequent medical expenses? Xia Chujian even had a plan. After returning, she would contact Quan Yuxun to see if she could ask the lawyers from his law firm to represent these women and sue the insurance company and the holding company of the Interstellar Spaceship!
What was 100,000 Beichen Coins in insurance money?!
She wanted those people to compensate each passenger one million!
Of course, Xia Chujian was just pondering these considerations to herself.
She hadn't spoken to Quan Yuxun yet and didn't dare to make promises or give these poor people false hope.
She could only do what she could to prevent them from thinking about dying and instead encourage them to live.
And Chang Shengnan and the others, who were not even afraid of death, were now just grateful to Xia Chujian for giving them a choice.
Although most of them had already lost all hope in life.
They were only listening to her because they didn't want to make things difficult for the Second Lieutenant.
Xia Chujian looked at Chang Shengnan and said, "Then I'll leave them to you. Believe me, I can really help you find a proper resettlement method."
Unable to refuse her kindness, everyone agreed to Xia Chujian that they would definitely leave the Asteroid Belt alive.
This is the first update. The second update will be at 1 p.m.
Everyone, remember to cast your Recommendation Tickets!
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