JFWCM Chapter 25

The morning reading was interrupted by an interstellar express delivery notification. A holographic pickup code popped up on Jiang Wan’yuan’s desk. Upon opening it, she found a miniature version of a “Guardian of the Universe” award, cast from β Star fluid by Yi Shang. The base was engraved with: [Heartbeat Resonance Duration: 1314 Hours].

Yi Shang’s human right hand was suddenly stuck with strawberry-flavored glue – last night, while helping Jiang Wan’yuan with her homework, her mechanical left hand secretly slipped a marriage proposal into the layers of the workbook. The holographic blackboard suddenly went blue, displaying an emergency announcement from the Interstellar Court: [Due to resonance wave No. 0927 causing an overload of the entire universe’s wedding system, Jiang Wan’yuan & Yi Shang are hereby granted the position of “Galaxy Wedding Directors”].

A boy in the back row’s popcorn machine, modified with a neural enhancer, suddenly malfunctioned. A waterfall of cream, along with Zhang Yao’s remaining mechanical dragonfly followers, rushed into the classroom. Yi Shang’s β Star fluid solidified into a bug-catching net, but the mesh was heart-shaped. Jiang Wan’yuan seized the opportunity to stuff an encrypted voice message into the mechanical dragonfly’s mouth: “Remember to bring a congratulatory gift next time you take candid photos.”

The homeroom teacher’s mechanical tendrils, along with new school rules, crashed into the classroom: [The use of military-grade romantic weaponry is prohibited on campus]. Before the words had finished, Yi Shang’s mechanical heart automatically detached from her chest, floating to pin a belated School Badge on Jiang Wan’yuan – it was a ring blank made from meteorite fragments recovered during their first mission.

When the morning reading bell rang again, Jiang Wan’yuan found a yellowed “Marriage Application” tucked into her textbook. Beside the mechanical signature in the guardian section, there was a line of childish human handwriting that appeared sometime without notice: [I want to be the bride on every spring outing from now on]. The quantum cherry blossoms outside the window suddenly bloomed en masse, each petal reflecting the kiss they shared on the β Star ruins, while the Interstellar Court’s apology letter was being folded into a paper boat, drifting along the β Star fluid flowing through the gaps in the desks towards the childhood laboratory that always shone with warm light.

As the morning reading bell tore through the pink mist of the quantum cherry blossoms, Jiang Wan’yuan pushed the “Marriage Application” back into Yi Shang’s palm. The resonance frequency of the mechanical heart plummeted by 0.7 hertz, and the β Star fluid solidified into thorny roses in the gaps of the desks, piercing her fingertips and causing strawberry-flavored tranquilizer to seep out.

“Article Three of the Guardianship Agreement,” she bit down on a nerve-blocking sugar, and the holographic textbook automatically flipped to “Emotional Ethics in Interstellar Law,” “The use of mission data to fabricate romantic scenarios is prohibited.” The mechanical dragonflies in the back row suddenly exploded into fireworks, revealing Zhang Yao’s candid photo hidden in the chip – the moment last night when Yi Shang used nanobots to tamper with the spring outing memories.

Yi Shang’s mechanical left hand froze in mid-air, the Star Weaver’s blue light in her human pupils flickering erratically. The β Star fluid suddenly flowed back into her chest, reconstructing the heart fragments into a lie detector only found in the Tribunal: “You accessed the destruction program for Mother’s laboratory.”

Jiang Wan’yuan’s neural armor popped up a defensive stance, but it abruptly failed when she saw the new wound below Yi Shang’s collarbone – the shape of the mechanical heart she had personally carved out last night in order to implant the key to reversing space-time. The holographic blackboard suddenly played Mother’s last image, the β Star crystal on the experimental platform reflecting two overlapping figures: six-year-old Jiang Wan’yuan tugging on the seven-year-old mechanical body 0927, drawing a crooked wedding cake on the radiation suit.

“They said you were a war machine,” she tore off the monitoring wires from Yi Shang’s chest, and the scent of strawberries mixed with the smell of burning metal exploded in the classroom, “but I remember the strawberry candy you secretly stuffed into my hand, wrapped in fragments of the Interstellar Court’s wanted warrant.” Amid the alarm bells, Jiang Wan’yuan pressed the application onto the lie detector, and the ink suddenly flowed into a β Star map, with cherry blossoms blooming on all the coordinates of the killings – the spring outing fund that Yi Shang had exchanged for her with spoils of war after each mission.

Yi Shang’s mechanical heart burst out with blue light, and the flow of time in the entire teaching building suddenly froze. She held up Jiang Wan’yuan’s hand, allowing the neural interface to connect with her core chip: [04:37 The strawberry scent is not a calculated value, it is an illicit spice that I exchanged for with seventeen smuggling opportunities] [12:15 The temperature anomaly is because, the human manual says to kiss her when her heartbeat accelerates]

The instant the morning reading bell restarted, Jiang Wan’yuan bit through the energy core of the lie detector, allowing the strawberry-colored data stream to envelop them both. As they fell through the gap of quantum collapse, Yi Shang finally touched the old scar on the back of her neck – the mark left by the Interstellar Court’s laser when she protected the mechanical body 0927 back then.

“This time, let me change the agreement.” Jiang Wan’yuan folded the application into a paper boat and placed it in the tributary of the β Star fluid, “Guardian object: Yi Shang, who never has to be a war machine.” The cherry blossoms outside the classroom suddenly grew backward into towering trees, each leaf projecting the parallel timelines they had never experienced – in some universe, the seven-year-old mechanical body and the human girl were walking hand in hand through the spring outing crowd, and what fell out of their backpacks was not a weapon, but a tin box filled with star candies.

The interstellar express once again crashed through the window, this time delivering Zhang Yao’s truce agreement. When Jiang Wan’yuan opened it, a melted strawberry candy fell out – on the wrapper was Yi Shang’s childish handwriting: [If she doesn’t agree, stuff the candy in her mouth]. Amidst the morning reading, Yi Shang’s mechanical left hand quietly hooked Jiang Wan’yuan’s little finger, and the “Interstellar Law” entries on the holographic blackboard were being automatically rewritten. At the position of Article 0927, two intertwining lines of text gradually emerged: [Heartbeat resonance is legal] [Elopement takes precedence over trial].

When the morning reading bell rang for the third time, the interstellar school bus’s quantum engine was already roaring on the playground. Jiang Wan’yuan stuffed the strawberry-flavored tranquilizer into the gaps between Yi Shang’s mechanical left hand fingers, only to find a cherry blossom ticket formed from β Star fluid lying in the other’s palm – the seat number was the coordinates of the abandoned starship they had accidentally stumbled upon during their first mission.

“The carrying of any military equipment is prohibited on this spring outing.” The homeroom teacher’s mechanical tendrils swept the whole class with a security scanner, but stopped at Yi Shang’s chest – hidden there was a miniature version of the mechanical body 0927, hugging a stolen anti-matter cotton candy. With quick eyes and hands, Jiang Wan’yuan used the neural armor’s magnetic field to suck away the “contraband.” The cotton candy exploded into pink smoke in mid-air, revealing a marriage proposal ring box hidden inside.

As the school bus passed through the wormhole, a boy in the back row suddenly pointed at the porthole and exclaimed in surprise. Zhang Yao’s mechanical body was hanging on the quantum cherry blossom branches, its cannon drooping and dangling a banner: [Wishing No. 0927 a happy spring outing – P.S. The congratulatory gift from the last wedding]. Yi Shang’s β Star fluid solidified into vines to drag it into the carriage, but the moment they made contact, it was sprayed in the face with strawberry-flavored streamers – this war machine had somehow been converted into a mobile celebration device.

The landing point of the β Star ruins was filled with the aroma of caramel. Jiang Wan’yuan kicked open a safety railing marked “Danger,” revealing an old turret underneath that had been converted into a dessert station. Yi Shang’s mechanical heart automatically overclocked, driving nanobots to knead the ruins’ debris into a carousel, each metal horse’s eyes reflecting Jiang Wan’yuan’s pupil reflections collected over the years.

“Attention, everyone!” The class monitor’s mechanical eye suddenly popped up a mission interface, “The Interstellar Court has detected abnormal energy fluctuations…” Before he could finish speaking, Jiang Wan’yuan stuffed a warp cake into his mouth. When the class monitor, with cream smeared all over his face, looked down, he discovered a yellowed “Spring Outing Release Agreement” hidden in the cake, with Yi Shang’s mechanical claw print and Jiang Wan’yuan’s strawberry juice fingerprint overlapping in the guardian signature column.

In the afternoon cherry blossom rain, a holographic stage built by the students using neural enhancers suddenly malfunctioned. Yi Shang’s β Star fluid supported the collapsing set in time, but the moment it came into contact with Jiang Wan’yuan’s neural interface, it projected the memories of the two onto the entire ruin – the seven-year-old mechanical body clumsily pinning wildflowers on the human girl, the seventeen-year-old warrior building a protective wall for the bride with the wreckage of a warship, and at this moment, Yi Shang was kneeling on one knee, using nanobots to spell out in the sand: [This spring outing, are you willing to be just my tourist?]

As twilight soaked the ruins, Jiang Wan’yuan placed the mechanical body 0927 in her palm. The little robot opened its chest, and what popped out was not a weapon but an old projector – playing spring outing footage secretly recorded by Mother before her death. In the picture, the young scientist smiled and stuffed a β Star crystal into Yi Shang’s palm: “This is a gift for Xiao Yuan’s future bride.”

At the bonfire party before the return trip, Zhang Yao’s mechanical body suddenly started tap dancing as if malfunctioning. For the first time, Yi Shang’s human right arm proactively wrapped around Jiang Wan’yuan’s waist, spinning beside the sparking anti-matter bonfire. The energy core of the neural armor and the mechanical heart resonated with a pink halo, stretching the shadows of the whole class into giant Star Weaver birds with intertwined necks.

The instant the school bus drove into the wormhole, Jiang Wan’yuan noticed a new engraving on the back of Yi Shang’s mechanical left hand – coordinates arranged with cherry blossom petals. “That is…” Yi Shang’s human cheeks flushed with a rare crimson, “Next spring outing, I want to take you to a planet where it rains strawberries.”

Amidst the morning reading, all the students’ neural enhancers simultaneously received a new notification: [Special approval from the Interstellar Court: Spring outing route No. 0927 is permanently reserved, allowing the carrying of ‘Guardian’ as necessary equipment]. Jiang Wan’yuan rested her head on Yi Shang’s mechanical shoulder, clutching a half-melted strawberry candy in her palm, while the quantum cherry blossoms outside the window were growing along the wormhole trajectory, weaving a spring Routes only for them in the depths of the universe.