Villain? No, I'll catch up with the protagonist after passing the civil service exam.

The hall was so quiet that only the faint crackling of the cooling wreckage could be heard.

The white tissue, stained with oil and tears, was crumpled into a ball by Lu Jingyan. He casually tossed it, and the crumpled tissue landed precisely in a recycling bin ten meters away.

Su Xiaoxiao stood frozen in place.

Her mind was filled with the phrase "completely voluntary." Her ears burned like sweet potatoes straight from the oven, and she dared not breathe too hard.

An ambiguous atmosphere filled the director's office. This iron tree, regarded as a living Yama by criminals across the universe, finally showed signs of blooming at this moment.

Lu Jingyan didn't look at her again.

He turned around, his military boots crunching on the broken glass on the ground, and took two steps forward. His tall frame suddenly bent over.

Su Xiaoxiao was stunned for a moment, then followed his gaze.

Those were the jianbing guozi (Chinese savory crepe) that rolled out of the burlap sack when she fell. The outer transparent plastic bag was squeezed out of shape, and the dark brown sweet bean sauce had leaked all over her hand.

In the spaceport where the underfloor heating was insufficient, this stuff had long since cooled down, and the dough had hardened.

Lu Jingyan reached out and pinched the edge of the plastic bag with his slender fingers.

"Hey! Don't take that!" Su Xiaoxiao suddenly snapped out of her daze and awkwardly took a step forward.

She waved her hands frantically, and the joints of her spacesuit made a dull rubbing sound.

"That's inedible. It's been flattened into a pancake, and... and it's been sitting there for almost eight hours, it's completely cold!"

Lu Jingyan ignored her. He straightened up, held the bottom of the bag with his left hand, and deftly peeled off the oil-stained plastic film with his right.

A smell mingled with scallions, pickled vegetables, and cold fried dough sticks wafted through the ozone-laden air.

The man lowered his head and took a bite of the squashed, cold pancake without any hesitation.

"Click."

The thin, crispy filling inside was a bit soft, but it still made a slight crackling sound.

Su Xiaoxiao was dumbfounded. She stared blankly at the man who usually frowned even at a loose thread on his uniform, who was chewing on his cold roadside food without batting an eye.

Lu Jingyan chewed very slowly. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed the food.

"Double the ham?" He looked down at her, his tone as flat as if he were checking a case statement.

"Huh? Oh, oh... they added it." Su Xiaoxiao stammered, her fingers fidgeting with the safety straps of her spacesuit. "I also had them add an extra spoonful of hot sauce. But it's really cold now, so don't eat it, it'll give you a stomachache."

She was about to snatch it when she said that.

Lu Jingyan turned slightly to the side, avoiding her hand. He took another bite, the oil glistening on his lips, which he wiped away with the back of his hand without a care.

"The taste hasn't changed. It's the same as what the old man pushing a tricycle makes in front of the Jinghai Municipal Bureau."

He looked up, his gaze passing over the mess on the floor and landing on the huge panoramic floor-to-ceiling window at the far end of the hall.

Outside the window, the Milky Way slowly rotated. Millions of stars emitted a cold, dazzling light, casting his profile in shifting shadows.

"Come here." He took a bite of his pancake and gestured with his chin toward the French windows.

Su Xiaoxiao dragged her heavy steps over. The heavy spacesuit was really stuffy; her T-shirt was already soaked with sweat and stuck to her back, making her very uncomfortable.

Lu Jingyan finished the remaining half of the pancake in a few bites, then crumpled the plastic bag into a ball with one hand.

He walked to the window and looked at the patrolling star destroyers outside.

"Can you take this off?" he suddenly asked, turning his head to the side.

"It's stuck." Su Xiaoxiao blushed and tugged at the metal clasp on her chest. "The clasp got bent when I fell."

Lu Jingyan turned to the side and stretched out his hands.

With a faint scent of scallions, his slender fingers precisely gripped the metal connecting shaft at her collarbone. He pressed down hard with his thumb and twisted his wrist sharply.

With a muffled "crack," he forcefully pried open the deformed metal buckle.

The heavy spacesuit shell instantly lost its grip and broke in two, crashing to the ground.

Su Xiaoxiao was only wearing a thin white short-sleeved shirt. When the air conditioner blew, she couldn't help but shiver.

A black interstellar combat suit jacket, still warm from her body, was draped over her shoulders with an undeniable force.

The coat was oversized, covering her thighs completely. The man's cool, clean, slushy scent still lingered in the clothes.

"Wear it. The spaceport's temperature control system was just damaged by that spaceship." Lu Jingyan was only wearing a black tactical shirt, revealing the strong muscle lines on his arms.

Su Xiaoxiao gripped the edge of her coat tightly and buried her face in the collar.

Standing in front of the dazzling floor-to-ceiling windows of the spaceport, the two reminisced about their first time fighting side-by-side in Gotham City.

"The way you tumbled in with that pile of junk just now," Lu Jingyan said, looking out the window, his voice low and calm. "It suddenly reminded me of our first day in Gotham City."

Su Xiaoxiao burst out laughing, her tension dissipating considerably.

"How could I not remember? It was pouring rain in Gotham. Batman was crouching on the roof of the car, ready to show off, and you just went up and did an over-the-shoulder throw, pinning him down in the mud."

She leaned against the cold glass, tilting her head to look at him.

"Back then, you seconded me from the cyber police unit. I was so scared my legs went weak; I thought you were going to drag me into a hand-to-hand combat with a clown."

Lu Jingyan clasped his hands in front of his chest, a barely perceptible smile curving his lips.

"As a result, I put you in charge of Skynet and investigated the Joker's tax evasion records."

"Yeah! Back then, Brother Tiezhu was holding a Gatling gun and laughing like a villain. Batman's expression... I bet he'd never suffered such an injustice in his life."

Su Xiaoxiao recalled the scene and smiled so much that her eyes curved into crescent moons.

"Back then, you asked me to throw him the entire English version of the civil service exam syllabus. Looking at your cold face, I thought to myself, this officer is not human, he's just a machine that can only recite legal statutes."

She lowered her head, her toes lightly tapping the edge of her combat boots.

"And then?" Lu Jingyan turned his head to look at her.

"Later..." Su Xiaoxiao took a deep breath, her fingers gripping the oversized coat slightly tighter, "Later I discovered that machines can also have human feelings. It's just that you hide your gentleness in those rigid rules."

She looked up, her eyes sparkling as she stared directly at him.

"You punished Thanos by making him farm, and you confiscated the aliens' technology. Everyone is afraid of you and thinks you're a tyrant. But I know that you just want to draw a line in the sand for this chaotic universe so that ordinary people can live in peace."

Lu Jingyan did not respond.

He looked at the girl in his oversized coat reflected in the glass. Her cheeks were still flushed, but her eyes were brighter than the burning stars outside.

He slowly pulled a wet wipe from his pants pocket.

I tore open the packaging. A strong smell of medical alcohol filled the air.

He meticulously wiped each of his fingers, which had just handled the pancake. He wiped them very carefully, not even missing the crevices under his fingernails.

After wiping his hands, he threw away the wet wipe.

The air seemed to grow heavy at that moment. Even the sound of the wind in the ventilation ducts seemed to have stopped.

Lu Jingyan put down the half-eaten jianbing guozi (Chinese crepe), took out a silver ring made from the core of the Sirius main ship from his inner pocket, and calmly looked at Su Xiaoxiao.