Hua silently searched their chat history for the word "precedent" and found another conversation.
Back then, the guardian had wanted to give Jingliu thirty-one rings. Hua tried to dissuade him but failed. The other party gave a similar reply, saying: ("So does that mean I'm setting a precedent?")
Hua stared at their chat history for a long time, speechless.
She tried to put herself in Jingliu's shoes and spoke up to stop him.
[You're going to put pressure on her like this]
[Zero: It's fine, I've told her that no matter how much jewelry I buy for her, my balance won't lose a single zero]
Hua: "..."
'Do you think saying something like that will make Jingliu accept mansion? Obviously it'll only put even more pressure on her, okay?!'
Her mood was incredibly complicated.
Hua had never imagined the guardian could actually say something so blatantly flaunting his wealth.
Before this, he either invested his money into scientific research projects or donated it to other planets to build roads and schools.
So much so that when the guardian traveled together with Akivili, his life was extremely difficult.
Even describing it as total chaos would be an understatement.
An unreliable Aeon leading a group of Nameless, constantly getting detained by local inhabitants and forced to work.
There were only two reasons: either they damaged facilities and equipment on other planets, or they spent all the funds they brought with them.
The guardian had no choice but to shoulder the responsibility of making money. Even when he took annual leave, he still had to work overtime to earn overtime pay.
As for Hua herself, she also felt powerless… the guardian was already so poor he was practically broke, where would she get money to subsidize him?
Even if she had money, the guardian definitely wouldn't use it anyway.
One time, Akivili spent half an Amber Era's worth of the train's budget in one go, buying hundreds of pets and keeping them in the bathroom. Then, because the pets' reproductive ability was too strong, sewage ended up backing up into the train cars.
The guardian didn't have many demands when it came to food, clothing, housing, or transportation, but he had an extremely severe case of cleanliness obsession.
He couldn't stand staying in train cars soaked through with sewage. In a fit of rage, he worked overtime for a long time and replaced all the facilities and equipment in those cars.
In the guardian's own words, an eight-hour workday already counted as resting for him.
Most of the time, he only handled part of the paperwork himself and left the rest to Hua.
There was only one exception. Once, the guardian worked through the entire night, silently handling all the documents by himself, and only left Hua a single message on the office software.
[The train was blown up by Aha]
Hua immediately sensed something was wrong. She didn't message the guardian, but instead instructed the Galaxy Rangers near the train to investigate. Only then did she learn that he had been seriously injured.
Fortunately, the guardian had taken Shuhu with him before leaving. With Shuhu's power, his physical condition quickly recovered to normal.
It wasn't that Hua hadn't tried to persuade him to stop overworking, but the guardian had his own rigorous, airtight logic that left no room for rebuttal. Hua simply couldn't convince him.
And now, finally, the guardian was able to spend a bit more money.
In his past life, he spent it on other people. In this life, although he still wasn't spending it on himself… at least it was progress.
This actually gave rise to a strange sense of relief in Hua's heart.
Since he was willing to spend money for Jingliu, then rounding things up a bit, if Hua tried persuading him a few more times… was there some chance of changing the guardian's mind?
Hua tried to dissuade him again.
[Hua: Think about it again. There's a very high chance she'll get angry]
Zero looked at the message and decided to selectively take Hua's advice.
After all, Hua and Jingliu were the same gender. Their ways of thinking might have some similarities?
If Jingliu got angry… what should he do?
Zero couldn't come up with an answer. Just then, Daiyang sent a message saying that the two undercover agents Zero had previously turned, together with the Cloud Knights, had eliminated all the "Abundance" believers on the Luofu.
Now, the group that had tried to set a trap for Zero had already been arrested and thrown into the Ten-Lords Commission.
[Daiyang: Marshal, Zhenzhen and I are working at the Ten-Lords Commission right now.]
Zero knew very well that Daiyang said this because she was afraid he might misunderstand and think she was abusing her authority.
He always acted according to the rules. Whether marshal or general, no one could make exceptions.
Zero didn't mind the two of them taking it upon themselves to look for company executives, but if they messed around in official matters… he really would get angry.
Of course, he wouldn't scold his subordinates over such trivial matters.
Besides, Daiyang had been the Luofu's general for over a thousand years. If she said she didn't have any people or connections on the Luofu…
Zero really wouldn't believe it.
Given his subordinates' abilities, even if they replaced Tengxiao's position, he wouldn't be surprised.
Zero praised her as usual, then asked for Daiyang's opinion.
[Zero: If it were you, how would you accept someone giving you a mansion?]
[Daiyang: What? You're getting married? That fast? But… we've only prepared the clothes, not the venue yet!]
[Zero: ...]
He was clearly talking about giving a mansion as a gift. How did the topic jump straight to marriage?
[Zero: Just a normal gift]
[Daiyang: What? Not preparing to get married? So disappointing qwq]
Daiyang sent several messages in a row urging Zero to get married, and only then finally addressed the question.
When she learned that the marshal was planning to give away a mansion, she was overjoyed, thinking that the relationship between the marshal and the empress was finally going to take another step forward.
Very soon, the marshal's reply left her deeply disappointed. But after thinking it over, she felt it actually made sense.
She was among the earliest batch of subordinates to follow the marshal and had countless assets under her name.
A mere piece of a mansion was nothing more than a third-prize reward at the Xianzhou annual meeting. How could it possibly be used as a proposal gift for the empress?
After much thought, Daiyang gave her advice.
[Daiyang: If it's a mansion, you can just take the empress to see it directly]
[Daiyang: Then when the empress moves into the new place, invite three to five close friends to get together as witnesses. That's very meaningful too]
Zero selectively took Daiyang's advice.
He stared at the "three to five friends" and fell into deep thought.
Zero felt that his thinking had no problem at all.
He believed Jingliu had no reason to be angry.
Hua, who was the same gender as Jingliu, held a completely opposite view and said that Jingliu was very likely to get angry.
It was known that when Jingliu stayed together with her friends, she would be very happy.
Then wouldn't it be fine if he just invited Dan Feng and all the others over?
Taking a step back, even if Hua was right, when the time came, adding one and subtracting one would just cancel out, conservation of energy, no problem.
That way, Jingliu definitely wouldn't be angry.
Zero quickly sorted out his thoughts.
First, he praised Daiyang for providing him with ideas. Then he took screenshots of several designers' renovation plans and sent them to Jingliu, using the excuse that he was preparing to renovate a residence and asking for her opinion.
Zero flipped through ancient books while waiting for Jingliu's reply.
At this moment, two colleagues near his workstation started chatting.
"Speaking of which, the current General Tengxiao… he's probably the longest-serving general on our Luofu, right?"
"Yeah, not easy at all."
Hearing this, Zero slowly turned his head and looked at the two colleagues expressionlessly.
'Shouldn't the longest-serving general on the Luofu be Daiyang?'