Who told him to make the cards!

Is this really my uncle?

She really came from the mining area; was she her father's colleague?

Zhou Keke deliberately used a technique of praising by first criticizing.

She paused for two seconds, then suddenly burst out laughing.

Even though her heart was beating faster than before, she became more poised and confident.

“What just happened doesn’t count,” she said.

"Ok?"

What do you mean?

Chen Zhi didn't understand.

The girl released his hand, took two steps back, and bowed to him solemnly once again.

I misunderstood you before, I'm sorry.

Then, revealing two small dimples, she smiled and said, "Let me reintroduce myself."

"My name is Zhou Keke, Old Zhou's daughter."

"Hello, Brother Chen Zhi."

……

Chapter 27 Card Games

In the blink of an eye, Chen Zhi's generation dropped by one generation.

He went from being an uncle to an older brother.

Lin Yu was taken aback for a moment, then put on a stern face and said, "Keke, you're not allowed to be disrespectful."

"He was your father's comrade-in-arms."

The word "comrade-in-arms" might seem a bit exaggerated to Chen Zhi, but it is actually the correct term.

After the situation on the continent of Loya stabilized, the three major kingdoms of the Holy Order Empire, the Nacaldo regime, and the Tianshui Islands each occupied their own territory, living in peace and rarely engaging in warfare.

Humanity's main enemy has slowly shifted from itself to "mining disasters".

Mining can cause the geological strata to become loose and broken, leading to disasters.

When legal principles become disordered to a certain extent, they will "activate," thus giving birth to "disaster beasts."

This is a legal life form with an imaginative form and structure, extremely destructive, and whenever it appears, the workers digging the mines are always the first to be affected.

The passageways inside the mine are often intricate and complex, with many layers, making escape difficult; one can only fight to the death against the monstrous beasts.

It's like fighting against nature.

Therefore, miners can be considered the most basic vanguard unit of the empire.

“It’s okay.” Zhou Keke blinked twice and said, “A comrade is a comrade. Mom, you can call him Xiao Chen like Dad, and I’ll call him brother. We can each call him our own way, there’s no conflict.”

Lin Yu: "?"

Isn't this a conflict?

The generations are all messed up!

"It's nothing," Chen Zhi said with a smile. "It's just a form of address, don't take it too seriously."

My uncle is more mature.

My brother is energetic.

It's all good.

It's fine to switch between them.

Lin Yu sighed softly, "Don't spoil her like Lao Zhou does."

Girls do need to be pampered, but not too much.

Otherwise, they will become like Zhou Keke, speaking recklessly and without respect for elders.

Chen Zhi smiled but didn't reply.

He thought it was great.

Having lived in the Blackstone mining area for so many years, although he chatted and joked with the miners every day, talking about all sorts of random things, it couldn't hide one fact:

The sense of human presence in the mining area is very weak.

The miners bear the dual pressures of work and survival, and their food, clothing, and daily necessities are poor. Most of the time, their laughter is a bittersweet experience.

Coupled with the perennial haze, it's hard not to feel lifeless living in such an environment.

Zhou Keke, on the other hand, is quite the opposite.

She is emotional and quirky.

One second he was apologizing with his face down, the next he was lively again.

The girl's appearance gave Chen Zhi a feeling, as if a ray of sunlight had suddenly pierced through a sky that was always full of dark clouds, making him feel that he had come back to life.

He likes this girl.

……

After dinner.

Zhou Keke offered to take Chen Zhi around Tianhengjing.

Chen Zhi readily agreed.

That's exactly what he wanted to do.

There's only one train a week from the Blackstone mining area to the city. He arrived in a hurry, and being unfamiliar with the place, he didn't dare wander around. He took the rail bus directly to the old town, preoccupied with figuring out how to settle down there, without even having time to look at the scenery.

Now that he's out with Zhou Keke, Chen Zhi finally has a chance to take in the city and can't help but sigh:

"As expected of the capital city."

The architecture in the old town is not much different from that on Earth.

It's nothing more than the ubiquitous shops that have been transformed into places to reissue and sell credit cards.

But once you step outside, it's like entering a completely different world.

There is no clear boundary between the old town and the new town, but it is noticeably brighter now.

Chen Zhi looked up, just like most travelers who have just arrived in a new place.

The approaching night painted the sky a deep blue.

Between the clouds, nearly transparent, arc-shaped sky trails crisscross, enveloping the entire city like star rings.

They rise from the ground unseen, and then plummet from the same unseen place.

The silver shuttle-like train sped across the sky rails, like a stream of light traversing the clouds, cutting out more than a dozen pieces of the sky.

Moving your gaze slightly downwards, you'll see a constant stream of aerial shuttles trailing blue flames.

And the floating boats that drift by from time to time.

Chen Zhi had only ever seen this futuristic night sky in science fiction movies.

But Yu Guang told him not to rush.

There's something even cooler.

As Chen Zhi looked around, he noticed some faint outlines on the horizon.

The lines are distinctly straight and curved, and the light and shadow are soft.

Chen Zhi's pupils contracted slightly: "That is..."

“A floating airport,” Zhou Keke said.

Chen Zhi: "Awesome!"

They even have things like floating airports.

This truly shows that the gap between people is greater than the gap between people and dogs.

There are people in the sky.

There are people underground.

The above-ground architecture of Tianhengjing is equally breathtaking.

Twenty miles west of the floating port lies Hengxin Island, where the royal family usually resides.

Tianhengjing is located at the confluence of the Henghe and Xihe rivers.

Two rivers converge in the center of the city to form a huge natural lake called Hengxi Lake, which contains an island where the earliest buildings were constructed.

It was only through urban expansion that it gradually developed into its present form.

The white spire of Tianheng Cathedral stands out like a crane among chickens among the surrounding buildings, reaching straight into the clouds.