The events that followed were not much different from Fang Zheng’s memories. Darth Vader attempted to use a freezing device to capture Luke, using Han Solo as a test subject, and then handed the frozen Han Solo over to the bounty hunter.
As for the others... Darth Vader entrusted them to Fang Zheng for safekeeping.
In the film, originally Darth Vader handed these people over to Lando, but he clearly didn’t trust this teammate-selling traitor much, so instead he handed them to Fang Zheng, while he waited alone for Luke’s arrival. Fang Zheng, on the other hand, went straight to find a room, sat on the sofa with a bottle of gamer soda and a chicken drumstick, ready to watch the live broadcast.
Is this the man?
Staring at Fang Zheng sitting on the sofa drinking gamer soda, Princess Lia was also serious. She was a member of the Rebel Army, as well as a member of the Imperial Parliament, so she knew quite a bit about the Imperial situation. Ever since the Dead Star was destroyed and Takin Administrator died, Darth Vader had become the second most important figure in the Galactic Empire, one person beneath only the Emperor. Yet, this kind of person appeared to regard this young man, who seemed only slightly older than herself, so highly, even faintly suppressed by him!
To Lia, this was simply unimaginable!
Thinking of this, Princess Lia finally could not hold back.
"Why?"
"Hmm?"
Looking at the image on his personal terminal, Fang Zheng took a bite of his chicken drumstick and lifted his head to look at Lia.
"What?"
"Why are you collaborating with the Empire?"
"That’s fresh... "
Facing Lia’s inquiry, Fang Zheng rolled his eyes helplessly.
"We’re guests, of course, we have to speak to the owner of the house... Maybe your diplomatic rules are different?"
"Uh... "
Lia was at a loss for words faced with Fang Zheng’s retort. Indeed, from a formal diplomatic channel, foreign forces would definitely deal with the legitimate government, but...
"But, but that Emperor is not a good person himself, you don’t know how insidious, cruel and evil the Galactic Empire is under his leadership... "
Princess Lia tried her best to persuade Fang Zheng, but Fang Zheng just shrugged.
"Sorry, the Heavenly Dao Palace’s principle is not to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, whatever system you adopt and governance methods are for you to decide, we’re not going to interfere unless it’s a humanitarian disaster."
"But aren’t you interfering in our internal affairs right now? Why are you here?"
"Because your Emperor sought our help through diplomatic channels, and we reached an agreement with him for me to provide technical support for your government’s suppression operations... That’s diplomatic cooperation, not interfering in internal affairs."
Speaking to this point, Fang Zheng drank the last of his gamer soda and looked at Princess Lia with suspicion.
"Young Lady, do you not understand politics? Or is the political level of this star system generally low?"
"But you are assisting the enemy, you have no idea what the Empire has done!"
"Whatever the Empire has done seems unrelated to us. If you want me to take a stance, then I would say that if you all were willing to compromise, the Heavenly Dao Palace would be willing to mediate the conflict between both parties, have you sit down and talk properly with the Emperor for a peace agreement to end the rebellion... "
"Impossible!"
However, before Fang Zheng finished speaking, Princess Lia interrupted him.
"The Emperor will not spare us! Even if we sign an agreement, it would be meaningless."
"Indeed, judging by your situation, it seems like you don’t have the strength to fend for yourselves, otherwise you wouldn’t be running everywhere avoiding the Imperial Army."
Fang Zheng crossed his legs as he opened another bottle of gamer soda with a "click". Hearing this, Lia gritted her teeth even harder.
"If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t have ended up in this situation!"
The Rebel Army has always found themselves in a miserable state against the Empire, but the battle on Planet Six was their most devastating loss ever. Previously, whenever they couldn’t beat the Empire, they would retreat, taking their most important personnel and resources with them. But Fang Zheng overloaded, directly turning these guys into sitting ducks, caught completely.
The war on Planet Six was a significant blow to the Rebel Army as many key members were captured, and after being interrogated, they divulged more...
"Oh, whatever, it doesn’t matter to me."
Fang Zheng truly didn’t care. He shrugged and continued to look at the screen in front of him.
"From the perspective of the Heavenly Dao Palace, assisting a legitimate government in fighting rebels is normal, furthermore, we’re only providing technical support, not sending troops into the Empire Star Domain, I don’t see an issue. Oh, it’s starting."
Just as he finished speaking, Fang Zheng saw Luke appear on the screen, and seeing Luke’s appearance, Lia immediately cried out.
"Luke! Luke!"
"He can’t hear you, Miss, spectators should maintain their standards, please don’t shout while watching the movie."
Fang Zheng enlarged the screen onto the opposite wall and pulled a box of popcorn from his personal space, starting to enjoy the scene in front of him.
On the screen, Darth Vader and Luke were at odds, exchanging some brief words before starting to fight.
Of course, from the scene, Darth Vader clearly had the upper hand against Luke. Luke was merely a half-trained Jedi Knight, and hardly even a proper Jedi Knight; Darth Vader crushing Luke was like a king of diamonds overwhelming a bronze three, he could kill him effortlessly.
If Darth Vader wanted, he could defeat Luke in a minute.
Provided Darth Vader wanted to, that is.
But he didn’t want to!
Watching Darth Vader toy with Luke like a cat playing with a mouse, Fang Zheng felt quite unimpressed. He could understand Darth Vader’s thinking. He wanted Luke to feel his power, to be fearful, angry, to fall to the dark side of the Primordial Force, and then father and son would return home together.
But why do it now? What’s wrong with later?
Okay, perhaps now works too.
The other reason why Darth Vader didn’t want to act was likely out of love for his precious son.
Fang Zheng also had seen extra Star Wars narratives, he had a certain understanding of Darth Vader—or rather, Anakin Skywalker’s past. Fang Zheng thought Anakin falling into darkness was entirely caused by the Jedi Elders’ brainlessness at that time.
If you ask Fang Zheng, the Jedi Elders in Star Wars were somewhat like the Shaolin Temple from martial arts novels, always chattering about breaking free from the material world and abiding by rules, while not doing anything humane.
Take Anakin, for example. He encountered a heap of troubles when he joined the Jedi order; that could be overlooked, but later, Anakin faced an event that changed his life forever—he dreamt his beloved woman would die in childbirth. This terrified Anakin, as he previously dreamt of his mother’s death in the same way, and ultimately she died in his arms just like the dream. So, Anakin was very worried his lover would face a similar fate.
Thus Anakin thought long and hard, and finally went to seek counsel from Master Yoda, hoping he could provide enlightenment.
However, this little green fellow might have been eating vegetarian food in the Jedi Elders for so long that his brain turned into chlorophyll. When Anakin told him about dreaming of a beloved person’s painful, agonizing death and wanting to prevent it, Yoda actually responded with:
"Death is a natural part of life. When those around you transform into Primordial Force, you should rejoice..."
Listen to this, is this even something a human would say?!
Anakin didn’t flip the table right there and then, which can only mean he truly had a good temper. Frankly, if it were Fang Zheng, anyone who dared say that to him would get their whole family burned down without another word.
You’re supposed to feel joyous, right? Laugh for me! Laugh with happiness! Laugh loudly, louder!
Damn, what kind of nonsense is this.
In the end, Anakin couldn’t hold back anymore and directly asked, "What should I do, Master Yoda?"
Then Yoda responded with some nonsense.
"Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose..."
Oh, so what it means is if you kill everyone you love, you’ll become invincible, right? Jedi Knights really are terrifying indeed, respect, respect.
This proves why the Jedi Temple deserved to be burned to ashes in the end, all Jedi Knights wiped out. That’s what you get for feeding people toxic chicken soup, poisoned them, and then got sick, huh!
So this incident tells us that there are consequences to feeding people chicken soup; one wrong move and even your family’s ashes will be scattered.
And the Elder Council’s stupidity doesn’t stop there. Later, Anakin joined the Elder Council, only to be told he was allowed to join but wouldn’t receive the title of Master, which left Anakin dumbfounded. Are you kidding me? You let me join the Elder Council but don’t give me a title, so why join the Council at all? To serve you tea and water?
Either don’t offer it or give me the full set. What does giving me an empty position mean?
Then the Elder Council sent Obi-Wan to tell Anakin to monitor every move of Palpatine.
Anakin wasn’t foolish; he immediately understood.
Oh, I see now. You need me to monitor Palpatine, so you agree to let me join the Elder Council, but you are using me as a pawn, hence no Master title......
Consumables don’t need titles, right.
Although Anakin’s path to darkening was indeed guided by Palpatine from behind the scenes, even if the Elder Council were even slightly reasonable and not this foolish, it wouldn’t have come to this—ultimately, they brought it upon themselves.
Feeding toxic chicken soup while being double-standard, do they really think other people are blind?
Just as Fang Zheng was contemplating, the battle on the screen reached a critical moment, with Darth Vader brandishing his lightsaber, pressing Luke onto a platform on the central passage, and upon seeing this, Fang Zheng also perked up.
Here it comes, the iconic scene is arriving!
Looking at the scene before him, Fang Zheng excitedly widened his eyes.
With uncontrollable anger, Darth Vader grabbed the lightsaber and slashed forward, Yang Guo... no, Luke, seeing the sword coming, in desperation raised his right hand. However Guo Fu—no, Darth Vader in his fury exerted tremendous force, and with the lightsaber also being incredibly sharp, the sword blade came down, and Luke’s right wrist was silently detached!
That cut was executed thoroughly, yet Darth Vader was dumbfounded, realizing he had caused irreparable disaster. Seeing Luke’s wrist from where blood gushed like a fountain, unsure what to do, after a while suddenly covered his face and burst into tears, rushing out of the door......
Oh, no, Fang Zheng thought he got distracted there.
I’m clearly watching Star Wars, why has it switched to The Return of the Condor Heroes?
"No———Luke!!"
At this moment, Princess Lia saw Yang Guo—no, Luke’s hand severed, and immediately screamed. Beside her, the Long-Haired Monster was also gesturing frantically in agitation, but the two were tightly bound, unable to move. They could only watch the screen anxiously, helpless to prevent, only able to watch with their eyes wide open as Darth Vader, holding the lightsaber, slowly advanced towards Luke.
"There’s no way out of here, don’t force me to kill you."
Darth Vader coldly looked at Luke and said in a low voice, while Luke, clutching the railing on the cliff’s edge, gawking at him intently. At the same time, Darth Vader reached out to Luke.
"Luke, you don’t yet know your importance, you’re just beginning to understand your power. Join me, I will complete your training, and together we can end all this conflict and destruction! Bring order to the galaxy!"
"I won’t join you!"
Luke shouted angrily as he retreated.
"You will, if only you knew the Dark Force. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father, did he."
"He told me many things!"
While shouting, Luke continued to retreat.
"He told me you killed him!"
However, facing Luke, Darth Vader simply gazed at him.
"No."
"I am your father!"
"......"
At this moment, Luke was completely stunned. Not only him, Princess Lia and the Long-Haired Monster in front of the screen were also stupefied, only Fang Zheng busy operating the camera, capturing this moment in full 360 degrees.
"No, no, no......"
Luke was completely unaware that someone was filming him at that moment and began yelling.
"That’s not true! It’s impossible!!"
"Ask your feelings, you will know it’s true. Come with me, it’s your only way."
While speaking, Darth Vader reached out to Luke. However, Luke merely glanced at him, then decisively took the leap, jumping off the high tower.
"All right, the act is over, time to take action."
While speaking, Fang Zheng snapped his fingers.
Next, time stopped flowing.

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