Surrounded by Adults

Hua Lian carried the flower vase around and took Doctor Xiao to the hangar.

"The nearest space station here is next door. It's at the second lagrangian point of their main planet." Mumbling under her breath, Hua Lian added, "Or should it be two blocks away? It takes the maximum space jump and it's still not there."

Hua Lian tried calculating the distance as she operated the light brain and sent the order list and payment slip to Doctor Xiao. Remembering the important question, she asked, "You can operate the mecha, right?"

Doctor Xiao already accepted his fate. "I can do the basic driving."

Basic flying and operation are fine, but if you asked him to do some maneuvers, then he can't.

"That's fine."

Our little flower shop was not in operation yet and still in the process of being built so each worker must shoulder the responsibilities of multiple positions.

What is this called? Maximizing available resources!

Not only that, with the mecha being driven within its intended purpose, there will be no damage caused by forcefully using the emergency driving system, therefore, no need to fix it! With nothing to fix, there will be no additional money involved!

Less expenses! Less bills! Perfect!

Only poor Doctor Xiao was harmed in the process.

While Hua Lian's eyes twinkle with her ideal operation of a black company, Doctor Xiao paused as he viewed the list. "Your package is a whole cargo container?"

"Uh-huh."

"And contain live alien beasts?"

Hua Lian nodded again and counted, "There's a weird looking chicken, a chunky horse..? It looks like a cow though. Also some sheep that are unicorn inspired. Anyway, the shop said they're all under the category of meat source— ehem ideal farm animals."

Doctor Xiao's functioning brain was stuck. "You know that any live specimens cannot be put inside a space button, right? And even for some specific exemptions, there's harsh requirements on how to package them, like putting them in cryosleep."

Hua Lian blinked. The conversation turned and her strong instinct to survive jumped. Her eyes shifted from left to right, looking up and then looking down, before finally staring at the handsome and youthful face. 

No matter what, the doctor doesn't look like someone ravaged by time. No, puberty might have even forgotten to slap him.

But this guy said before he's nearly a century!

Isn't that around the age group of her dearest father?

Hua Lian's eyes widened, waking up to the truth that she's surrounded by adults.

Help!

According to the stellar network, any adult can suddenly turn authoritarian when encountering an unruly child. As your ancestors said, if you don't discipline the child, others will.

"Let me get this straight. This package cannot be put in a space button, I only have a mecha, and the container cannot protect its contents from the damage caused by a space jump."

Doctor Xiao took a deep breath and asked a very simple question. "How do you expect me to return?"

Somehow, Hua Lian felt nervous and she spoke softly. "I… can't you just simply drive… back…"

"That means I have to travel for days inside a mecha." Doctor Xiao turned serious and Hua Lian fixed her posture to stand at her most obedient and behaved stance.

"Hua Lian, floating in deep space with just a mecha for a long extended period of time is extremely dangerous. The chances of a person dying increased exponentially each second."

The young girl pinched the helm of her clothes. Although she has no confidence, she still voiced her excuse. "But… your spiritual powers are at A rank."

Doctor Xiao shook his head. "Cosmic voyage is, and always will be, dangerous and a mecha isn't exactly made for interstellar travelling. What if there are stray asteroids? What if your energy core got damaged? There can be space pirates or a failure of the system and any other variable and there won't be an extra layer of protection with just a mecha. There's also the threat of cosmic radiation."

The doctor didn't raise his voice at all nor got mad but Hua Lian was surely being educated at this moment.

To the young girl's horror, she came to a realization that she brought an additional mature person that can police her!

A wolf was lured in and the culprit was me!

This handsome grown man, glowing with adulthood tolerance, sighed and patted the young girl's head, making sure his tone was gentle. "Don't listen to others romanticizing floating in space. Even spacecrafts and motherships are designed to only stand a certain number of months of constant travel before being hauled back for maintenance and rotation."

Hua Lian pouted but knew that she was the one making an unreasonable demand.

"Oh." Uncomfortable, she mumbled, "Sorry." before making a hasty retreat.

Doctor Xiao felt conflicted as he watched her stumble on the way out. He should perhaps offer other solutions rather than dissuade her entirely.

"You're the only one who follows her around to play whatever she wants so she latches on you." Eggy came out from a corner and Doctor Xiao almost screamed in fright.

Does anyone understand the fear of being caught red-handed by the child's parent after you educate their child behind their back? Well, the intense pounding of his heart made him know what kind of fear that is.

The scarier part is that the parent is a fierce illegal armed AI.

Doctor Xiao patted his chest and counter. "General Liele is the one almost inseparable from her."

"You and that useless decorative insect are different. For her, you're at the bottom of her food chain."

Even the prey knows how to bully the weaker, and the weak knows how to exploit the obedient ones.

"She doesn't have the perfect grasp on boundaries and limits of how to get along with others." Eggy shrugged at his kid's defeat. "It's fine once she has other playmates."

"Others..." Doctor Xiao's lips twitch. "You won't keep abducting people, right?"

Once again, Eggy cast a disdainful look at the moronic sea creature. "Look at this planet, do you know how many it can feed by now? As long as I want, countless people would willingly board a starship to do volunteer work here." 

That might be true but speaking with leniency, he was here with dubious consent, and wanted to talk about the importance of consent but then, he heard the unreasonable parent continue. "You're just an accident because the child wasn't knowledgeable enough and made a simple mistake." 

"..."

Let's not talk anymore. A bear child will only have a more bearish parent.

With the experience of this encounter and knowing that the child can be reasoned with, Doctor Xiao decided to take matters in hand and join the education team for the little sapling.

As a director at a sanatorium, he has a long resume of being the bearer of bad news.

In life, we must accept being told 'no' and face countless rejections. 

No matter how hard, he still has the confidence to be able to look at the lovely child while breaking her heart with realistic facts about the world.