Upon learning of her grandfather's return, Chu Xuan immediately returned to the Chu family mansion after handling some affairs in the Chuhe Star Region.

Unexpectedly, she sensed something was wrong as soon as she reached the door.

A special squad of soldiers was standing at the entrance of the Chu family's residence.

Chu Xuan knew the identities of these soldiers, who looked ordinary, at first glance.

The Chu family's secret guards.

The presence of the Chu family's secret guards at the Chu family residence indicates that something very significant is taking place there.

"Where is my grandfather?" Chu Xuan asked the Chu family's secret guards.

Someone spoke up: "The Marshal is in the training ground."

A training ground?

Chu Xuan frowned and quickly walked into the Chu family's gate.

The training ground is a very old term; it is a place for training physical fitness and combat skills.

In this era where people rely on mechs or injections of enhancement drugs, very few people improve their physical fitness through exercise alone.

But the Chu family has retained this custom.

Furthermore, the Chu family has a rule that direct descendants of the Chu family are not allowed to be injected with those gene-enhancing drugs.

As for the reason behind it, no one knows.

Chu Xuan walked into the training ground and was surprised to find five people kneeling there.

She knew all five of them.

She was particularly familiar with one of them.

“Xiao Song...” Chu Xuan looked at Xiao Song kneeling on the ground in surprise. He was originally her bodyguard, a brigadier general.

Because of his outstanding performance in several combat missions, he has now been promoted to two-star major general. He is not even thirty years old and has already become a two-star major general, which is extremely rare in the Chu family army.

Brigadier General Song... no, he should now be called Major General Song. He looked up at Chu Xuan, then lowered his head in guilt.

Chu Xuan then looked at the other four people.

One is a three-star lieutenant general, and besides Xiao Song, there is a two-star major general, and the remaining three are all one-star brigadier generals.

Their ages range from thirty to sixty or seventy.

One of the three-star lieutenant generals was a middle-aged man in his fifties or sixties.

"Uncle Guan." Chu Xuan looked at the uncle who had watched her grow up with surprise.

“Miss, Uncle Guan may not have the chance to see you in your wedding dress,” the three-star lieutenant general, referred to as Uncle Guan, said with shame. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Chu Xuan seemed to have foreseen something, and she quickly walked up the steps.

In front of the training ground was a stone pavilion. Inside the pavilion, Chu Changhe was playing chess with an old man of similar age, whose temples were already gray compared to Chu Changhe's.

The hand that was placing the piece was already trembling.

"Grandpa Song..." Chu Xuan's voice trembled, her eyes filled with astonishment.

"Xiao Xuan is here. Our Xiao Xuan is getting more and more beautiful." Grandpa Song looked at Chu Xuan with a kind and gentle expression.

He was wearing a faded military uniform, but the four stars on it were polished to a bright shine, along with the golden character "Chu".

Song Shoucheng.

Chu Changhe's confidant, or even childhood friend, studied together at the Northern Starship Military Academy and then joined the Border Army Group.

Chu Changhe served as the captain, and he served as the deputy captain.

Chu Changhe served as the fleet commander, and he served as the fleet deputy commander.

"Alright, alright, I'm done playing. After all these years, I still can't beat you." Song Shoucheng put down the Go stones in his hand and waved his hand.

Chu Changhe also put down the black pieces in his hand. He looked at Song Shoucheng opposite him and said, "Shoucheng, since we met, you have saved me six times, right? There was one assassination attempt, and the assassin used an old-fashioned projectile gun."

You even stepped forward to take seven bullets for me; you were almost killed instantly.

“You’ve saved me five times too. In this life, it’s been a cycle of you saving me and me saving you. We’re evenly matched.” Song Shoucheng chuckled and shook his head.

Chu Changhe stood up, put his hands behind his back, and looked at the five people kneeling on the training ground.

"We've known each other for over sixty years."

"Sixty-nine years. When the Northern Starship Military Academy opens next year, it will be seventy years since we met," Song Shoucheng said.

"Why?" Chu Changhe suddenly asked.

Song Shoucheng sighed, "What's the point of asking that?"

"I just want to know why, it's been sixty-nine years."

I thought you had long forgotten your identity, but... I never expected that you would still carry out the task assigned to you by the royal family.

You even made Xiao Song cooperate with you.

"If it weren't for Luo, you wouldn't have been able to switch my dagger without anyone noticing." Chu Changhe looked at Song Shoucheng.

Song Shoucheng's eyes dimmed, and he said, "I owe the Qin family a life, and I must do something for them."

Sixty-nine years have passed, and I had even forgotten about this matter myself, still considering myself a member of the Chu family.

Until... a year ago, someone contacted me...

I'm sorry, Brother Chu.

"Then how did you convince Xiao Song? Xiao Song was born and raised in the Chuhe Star Region. I don't believe he would betray the Chu family for the sake of what you, his grandfather, say," Chu Changhe said.

"In a word, 'love.' He fell in love with a woman he shouldn't have loved," Song Shoucheng said with a bitter smile.

Chu Xuan, who was standing to the side, suddenly remembered that since half a year ago, there had been rumors of Xiao Song being in a relationship. The girl was a female student at a college. The two met by chance and then started dating.

As for what happened next, one can imagine.

This proves the saying true: even heroes can't resist the charms of a beautiful woman.

"Don't you have anything else to say?" Chu Changhe asked, staring at Song Shoucheng.

Song Shoucheng shook his head and said with a wry smile, "Betrayal is betrayal. Why bother to whitewash it?"

"What about your grandson? He's your only family member in the world right now. Aren't you going to plead with me for his sake?" Chu Changhe stared intently at Song Shoucheng.

Song Shoucheng looked at Xiao Song on the training ground: "His temperament is like mine. If I die..."

He won't avenge me, but he won't live on in this world either.

Chu Changhe clenched his fist: "Good! Good! Good! One Song Shoucheng."

"Guards, take them away and execute them all!"

A team of Chu family guards appeared, preparing to escort the five people on the training ground, as well as Song Shoucheng, away.

But these six men, facing Chu Changhe, gave a military salute.

"Marshal, take care!"

If there is an afterlife, I hope I can truly serve as your soldier!

Although these six people were born into the Chu family, they had been with the Chu family for many years and had long since absorbed the spirit of the Chu family.

Finally, all six were taken away.

"Grandpa, are you really going to kill Grandpa Song?" Chu Xuan looked at Chu Changhe with a pained expression.

Chu Changhe sat in the chair and said in recollection, "Xuan'er, there's something you might not know."

When you were just born, someone tried to assassinate you.

At that time, the people who were in charge of taking care of you were Song's parents, Song Shoucheng's son and daughter-in-law.

Actually, Xiao Song has a younger sister.

To protect you, Xiao Song's parents fled with Xiao Song's younger sister. The assassin mistook Xiao Song's sister for you and chased after them, killing all three of them.

From then on, only the grandfather and grandson remained.

Chu Xuan looked astonished. She trembled and took several steps back. She shook her head and said in confusion, "I...I don't understand...why?"

Since Grandpa Song is a member of the royal family, why would his children save me?

I don't understand... I don't understand!

Chu Changhe took a deep breath: "This is the foolish stubbornness of people like us."

Even if our Chu family is betrayed by the Starry Royal Family, we cannot allow our troops to enter our territory.

Song Shoucheng owed the royal family a life and a request, and he kept his promise; he did it.

Apart from this incident, Song Shoucheng was the most loyal soldier of the Chu family!

I saved his life five times, and he saved my life six times.

This time, consider it my way of repaying him.

After Chu Changhe finished speaking, he looked at the black and white chessboard in front of him.

It appears that the black pieces have surrounded and killed the white pieces, but in reality, the black pieces have left a sliver of hope for the white pieces.

If Song Shoucheng had placed his white piece there, the game could have continued.

Chu Changhe picked up the white piece and slowly placed it down...