Evening starlight filtered through the blooming pink branches of the immortal peach tree on the porch of the [Galactic Flying Courtyard], casting warm, dappled shadows across the low white-jade tea table.
Outside the courtyard fence, the hundred-foot brass soup kettle atop Dad-Box Bloodline Shield Tower #1 hummed softly in the center of Old-Root Star’s village plaza. Linking with the other thirty-five outer-rim towers across eight hundred light-years in a gentle golden aurora that smelled of simmered ginger and sweet honey-dew.
Inside the courtyard fence, the dinner dishes had just been cleared away. Carried off to the scullery by captured Chief Envoy Gu Biao and Fleet Commander Gu Lie, whose frilly pink [Debtor Aprons] kept their elbows scrubbing at three hundred cycles per minute.
At the low wooden table beneath the peach tree, Gu Changsheng sat on a woven straw cushion with a fresh pot of roasted buckwheat tea. His hand still resting warmly over the cool, slender fingers of Empress Luo Qingxue.
Between them on the tabletop, [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook] flipped open on its own, its dark leather cover pulsing with a warning chime as rows of blood-red text materialized across the parchment.
“Let’s see what the original book says about advancing from the Rank 8 Star Realm (Solar Furnace) to the Rank 9 Galactic Realm (Galaxy Sovereign),” Gu Changsheng murmured, leaning in alongside his wife while the five kids, Grandpa Yao, Auntie Qin, and Grandpa Fu gathered around the table with bowls of sliced evening fruit.
