My Partner was Assigned to me by the Country

In the latter half of the night, heavy clouds appeared in the sky over the Ice grassland, covering the crimson moon. Light rain fell, turning into frozen small particles in mid-air. In less than half an hour, the ground was covered with a layer of hailstones the size of soybeans, making a crisp sound as they hit the ground, hardly stopping. Just after four o’clock in the morning, the wind picked up, howling through the cattle herd. The cattle huddled together tightly, seeking shelter from the wind and resisting the cold. The deep voice of the sturdy bulls, the anxious calls of the cows, and the naive mooing of the calves all merged together, becoming the main melody of the early morning.

“We need to adjust the plan,” Derrick, who was the most capable leader of the team, said in a low voice, looking out into the dark world outside their shelter.

The others pondered and briefly exchanged a few words.

The small round hailstones jumped into this cold haven, and Ryan caught a few with his hand, gently shaking them and looking at them absentmindedly as they rolled in his palm.

“Ryan, we’ve said so much, and you’re not responding? Hey, hey, hey, come back to us,” Harriet waved her hand in front of Ryan.

Ryan came to his senses and smiled apologetically, “Sorry, I was distracted. This hailstorm won’t last too long. I estimate it will stop by five o’clock, and we can depart one hour later without conflicting with our previous plan.”

Sitting on the outside, Jack looked out and saw impenetrable darkness with only the sound of the wind whistling. It was impossible to discern the coming weather changes. If the weather continues to be bad, the competition might even be canceled. Unless the command center assessed the difficulty of the mission and intervened manually.

“My home is near the planet of Newnes1T/N: the name of a planet. It is mentioned in Chapter 1 in the hurricane Starfield. The winter in Newnes is long, and during the more than ten years I spent studying there, I experienced many storms and heavy snow. Living there for a long time, I can tell the weather changes just by smelling the air.” Ryan threw away the hailstones in his palm and looked at everyone, saying, “Everyone, Get ready, we will leave in an hour.”

“Cool!” Harriet gave Ryan a thumbs-up.

“Let’s wait until it actually stops. I think the wind is getting stronger,” Jack said with a frown. Experience counts a lot in these situations. He knew that some seasoned farmers could predict the weather without relying on technology. They had developed this skill over several decades and it had become like second nature to them. Jack couldn’t help but think of those old farmers and how old they were, compared to Ryan.

The only thing to do now is to wait until the hailstorm has really passed.. Derrick and Harriet closed their eyes to rest, while Jack’s eyes kept glancing back and forth between Ryan and the people around him, with constantly changing expressions on his face. Sitting next to Jack, Fan Lanting was fiddling with his personal terminal, the cold white light of the screen illuminating his face, and the corners of his mouth slowly turned up, revealing a weird smile.

Jack: “…”

He moved aside.

Soon, his attention was drawn to Ryan’s movements. He saw Ryan taking out a knife and poking at the fire pit. The four potato roots that had been brought back should be ready to eat, after being baked under the dry cow dung for a night. Ryan used the knife to pull out the potato roots and pressed his finger on them, feeling the soft texture inside, imagining the soft and sweet taste when he eats them.

Ryan asked: “The potato roots are ready to eat, do you want to try them?”

“Sure, I’ll have one,” Harriet was the most active, who had great confidence in Ryan’s cooking skills.

““It’s fine for me and Harriet to share one together,” said Derrick with his eyes closed.

“What? What is it?” asked Fan Lanting hastily, who was lost in another world.

Jack sneered, he wouldn’t eat anything made from cow dung, even if he was dying. Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, he saw the General typing a message on his personal terminal with a slight frown. The adverse weather probably affected the competition, and the leaders were making adjustments, right? In the case of signal interference, only the leaders who connected to a higher-level band could use their personal terminals.

“Potato roots,” Ryan answered Fan Lanting’s question while handing a round and chubby one to the eager Harriet, and reminded her “It’s quite hot, be careful when you eat it.”

“Uh-huh,” Harriet took it with one hand, and it was so hot that her other hand also came up to help. After a while, her hands adjusted to the warmth on the surface of the potato roots. She split open the two ends of the potato roots, revealing the soft and snow-white flesh inside. It was really different from sweet potatoes. The curling heat and the unique fragrance of the potato roots entered everyone’s nostrils. Harriet took a bite, and it was so hot that she laughed, “It’s really hot, hoo-hoo, but it’s delicious. Eating roasted sweet potatoes in the middle of winter is the best.”

‘Wow, give me half,’ Fan Lanting demanded his share.

“Ryan handed it over, and Fan Lanting opened the potato roots and ate them without any psychological barriers. While eating, he said, “Mmm, the taste is really great. Ryan is amazing. He can find food everywhere.”

“Over at Yiyi Lake, Fan Lanting hid in the dark and watched Ryan catching and grilling fish, then watching them eat the fish. The taste of the delicious grilled fish entered his nostrils, making him extremely tormented.

“Here, eat it while it’s hot.”

Fan Lanting almost pushed the potato root onto Jack’s nose. Jack reluctantly took it and held it in his hand, unsure whether to eat it or not. He felt even more repulsed thinking about the cow dung he had carried all the way here.

Seeing Jack hesitate to eat, Ryan smiled and said, “Go ahead, it’s clean inside.”

“Yeah, it’s clean and delicious. Eating something warm on a cold day is so comforting,” Fan Lanting wiped his mouth and looked greedily at the half potato root in Jack’s hand. “If you’re not going to eat it, give it to me.”

Jack was actually thinking the same thing, but he suddenly caught the gaze of the general looking his way, and the words he was about to say got stuck in his throat. He stiffly said, “Who said I’m not going to eat it? I’ll eat it.”

He took a tragic bite and stopped.

Fan Lanting looked at him closely, “How is it?”

“Okay,” Jack replied sullenly.

His hand movements were no longer hesitant, and he ate the potato roots bite by bite. The soft flesh was slightly cool and sweet, stimulating his salivary glands to secrete saliva. Once he took a bite, he couldn’t stop. There was absolutely no peculiar smell, making him suspect that it wasn’t stuffed in cow dung at all.

It’s delicious.

I want to eat the whole thing…

Jack thought in his heart.

His eyes drifted uncontrollably towards Ryan along with his nose, while he and the general were each eating a small one. As one of the best soldiers in the Mecha Combat Squad who had been following General Auston on missions for years, Jack couldn’t possibly mistake his own leader. He knew it the moment he saw him, but he just didn’t want to admit it emotionally.

Looking at how intimate the two were, Ryan was definitely the wife that the country had adapted for the general. The general had personally announced in front of the leaders of the Mecha engineering department that he was already married, although the news had not spread widely, many people knew about it.

He scrutinized Ryan carefully, but found nothing to pick on… In terms of appearance, Ryan was no less than anyone else; in terms of ability, one could glimpse the whole picture just from her record-breaking assembly time for diodes; in terms of family background, he had heard from Su Ming that Ryan’s family owned a small planting star, making him a rich second generation; in terms of domestic ability, not many people could cook as well as him; in terms of martial arts, Ryan kicked himself over… Let’s not talk about the past, it’s heartbreaking.

Ryan left him and Auston only a small potato root, about half the size of a palm, with pointed ends and thin and small, but the amount was equivalent to half of what others would eat. He tore off the skin, revealing the soft and white flesh inside. Ryan was focused on making it, as if serving Auston was more important than winning the competition.

Auston didn’t just wait for Ryan to serve him. He picked up another potato root and imitated Ryan’s movements and clumsily tore open the slightly burnt skin. His attitude towards the potato root was even more cautious than towards the latest type of mecha. After finishing it, he even showed a relieved and joyful smile as he removed his face mask.

Jack’s emotions, like the wind outside, came and went, smashing against a pile of hailstones with a clattering sound. 

Next to him, Fan Lanting was engrossed in reading a novel, occasionally emitting a “hehe” laughter.

Jack: “…”

Jack’s tone was cool as he said to Fan Lanting, “Look up for a moment.” He couldn’t be in a bad mood alone and shifted his gaze to Derrick and Harriet, who both had calm expressions, indicating that they were aware of the situation.

Fan Lanting quickly looked up outside for a moment, but Jack was sure he didn’t really see anything.

“I saw it,” Fan Lanting said.

Jack, “…….He-he2T/N: Sarcastic laugh.”

Fan Lanting, “You are being weird. Is this how all the members of the Mecha Combat Team are?” He also included Kage, the pilot of the Hornet.

“Don’t make unfounded assumptions.”

“Sorry, my bad.” Fan Lanting had a very good attitude in apologizing.

His apology was so quick that Jack’s anger dissipated before he could even muster it.

“What are you looking at, so absorbed?”

“I’m reading the latest serialized novel by my beloved author Connor called ‘Song of Beacon.’ It’s based on the story of Qin Feng Anderson, the Emperor from seven hundred years ago, in the Weildeng Starfield3T/N: maybe, a fictional place in the space. I don’t know much about it. So, I leave it like this. and his battle against the Zerg race. It’s so exciting and so good.” Fan Lanting excitedly shared his love for the author and the novel.

Connor’s fame was very widespread, and various fans had coined nicknames for him, which were also popular  internet buzzwords. Jack also knew this popular novelist on Star network. “Isn’t he the one who writes romance novels? All kinds of lovey-dovey stories.”

“Not at all!” Fan Lanting’s love for his idol burned fiercely, and he raised his eyes, ready to bite him if Jack dared to say anything negative about Connor.  He said angrily, “Our Connor is an all-rounder, he can write anything. ‘The Song of Beacon’ is about military life, the grandeur and tragedy of war, the pain and helplessness of separation and death. It has already been updated to 180 chapters, and the love story of Emperor Qin Feng has only just appeared. His deputy had been admiring him for a long time, and the emperor also secretly liked him. They supported each other and advanced and retreated together in that famous battle. What kind of heavenly love is this? They are still in free love, and genetic adaptation in that era is only in its infancy!”

Jack: “……” It’s just a change of background, so isn’t it a romance novel?

“Pftt, cough, cough, cough.” Ryan coughed, covering his mouth. In a hoarse voice, he said to Auston, who was concerned about him, “It’s okay, I ate too fast and choked. I’ll be okay in a bit, cough, cough.”

“I’m sorry, I’ve made it too crumbly,” Auston said apologetically. He had never done this before and his hands were clumsy and unsure of how to handle the delicate potato roots, so he had peeled them in a haphazard way, leaving many bumps and holes, and there was not much left that could be eaten. “I’ll eat the rest, you give me…”

Ryan stuffed it into his mouth, “It’s delicious, very sweet.”

“Ryan, you don’t have to do this.”

“I’m enjoying it immensely.”

Everyone: “…”

Fan Lanting: “…” still immersed in the novel and unable to extricate himself.

Ryan wiped his mouth and wanted to facepalm. His cousin’s drive was truly formidable. He had just finished writing and publishing a book, yet didn’t give himself any rest time and immediately opened a new pit, a model author.

The potato roots, which had been peeled by Ryan, remained intact and clean, and were even more delicious and fragrant. Auston ate slowly, and then received a message on his personal terminal. His gentle expression disappeared, replaced by a stern and cold one that was intimidating.

Vice-Captain: [Sierra and Kage’s locations have disappeared. I’m currently dispatching rescue satellites to search for them.]

The positioning system on each badge was activated from the moment it was worn, sending real-time reports on the situation of the combatants to the command headquarters to ensure everyone’s safety. Of course, such a large-scale competition, casualties were unavoidable, but that didn’t need to be mentioned at this moment.

Sierra is a specialist in mecha and is particularly skilled in simple mechanical operations. It didn’t surprise Auston that their position was lost.

The information continued to be transmitted.

Vice-captain: [The feedback from the weather monitoring shows that the hail stopped after 5 am and the strong wind will also stop. Do we need to launch a weather intervention satellite to stop the severe weather in advance? According to feedback, more than 300 soldiers have chosen to give up in the past half hour.]

Not every soldier has been through rigorous and difficult training, such as those in the command department or the mecha engineering department. It is a wise decision to give up when one cannot cope with the situation. Auston did not blame these soldiers for giving up halfway.

He sent a message: [No need to launch, waiting for weather to change is also a test.]

The Vice-captain replied quickly: [Yes, Captain. Do we need to warn those soldiers who were incited by Sierra?]

Auston glanced at Ryan, who seemed unfazed by the difficulties and dangers, and his lips curved slightly: “No need. After the competition, everyone involved will have three points deducted from their cruise assessment, and all personnel on board will need to review military theory.]

After each cruise, department leaders must assess their subordinates, with a score out of twenty, which affects performance evaluations, promotions and retention.

He did this not only to vent his anger on behalf of Ryan, but also because he was infuriated that the soldiers on the Xingtian ship were being swayed by Sierra for the sake of an auxiliary combat mecha. Weak will, unstable stance, being swayed by others…all of these behaviors prove that their military theory courses are inadequate, and as leaders, they have a responsibility to ensure that everyone undergoes a re-study!”

The vice captain at the ground command center twisted his face and sent a message through gritted teeth: [Yes.]

Two small soldiers hiding on the side whispered to each other.

“The vice captain‘s face is so ugly.”

“He’s so twisted up, I feel like if he doesn’t recover soon, he’ll have facial spasms.”

“Terrifying, I don’t want to know what happened.”

“I miss the captain so much.”

“Me too.”

At 5:00 in the morning, Jack, who was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, suddenly opened his eyes and looked outside, murmuring, “It stopped.”

The hail stopped, the wind speed weakened, the clouds dispersed slightly, and the sky over the B612 Ice Grassland became a little brighter, allowing the environment outside the shelter to be seen vaguely.

Translator has something to say:

 Jack is the only poor guy in the team, tormenting himself to educate Fan Lanting