Shi Lang had just finished filing his daily work log and was making his way out of the staff room when his communicator rang. He looked up to see who was calling and a faint smile emerged on his face. He accepted the connection and asked, “Have you arrived?”
Amelia replied from the other side, “Yes, we have. Where are you?”
Shi Lang said, “Just got out of the building, give me ten minutes.”
Amelia approved and the call was disconnected. Yuu happened to be walking behind Shi Lang and asked, “Hmmm, going out on a date?”
Shi Lang looked at her and said, “Sort of.”
His smile was shallow, but the glee reflected in his eyes was simply too shining for anyone to not notice. Yuu was intrigued and leaned closer as she said in a hushed voice, “Is Amelia expecting?”
Shi Lang was surprised and then he sighed as he said, “If only that was the case, however, you better hold the horses of your imagination. It is nothing like you are thinking.”
Yuu asked, “What is it then? Why are you mystifying the scenario?”
Shi Lang sighed and said, “I am not doing anything, a few days ago, I took my family to wave mountain for an outing. There I found an abandoned child. I bought her a home and then took care of her. I located her mother, she turned out to be a psycho, so we decided to adopt the child and raise her.”
Yuu was surprised but not that much, she knew Shi Lang was a compassionate person. She nodded and said, “Very good, I am proud to say that you were once my student. You did a good thing.”
Shi Lang smiled and the two arrived at the school gates. After seeing him off, Yuu went back to the building to deal with a few pending matters. While Amelia drove the car to the authority office. Shi Lang happened to be wearing a light pink shirt as well. It looked like the three of them were a family.
Tao was confused at first but then she smiled as if she liked the matching outfits. The car arrived at the authority doorstep and the three got off. A lot of people were still present even with the closing hours nearing.
All the people were here for different things, some came to get marriage certificates, while same came to part ways. Every city had one such office with all different departments in different buildings. Shi Lang held Tao in his arms and Amelia followed him to the child welfare department. This was the only authority that could allow one to adopt a child.
Shi Lang had done complete research about this process. This building had a relatively smaller queue, most of the people were divided in two groups, one group was here for the interview to see if they pass the criteria necessary to adopt a child. While the other was here to finalize the documentation.
A huge number of the people in the terran civilization were open to adopting. Shi Lang had confidently came over to do both these things in one go. He had told Amelia about this, after all, the authorities won’t allow them half-assing things even if they were on the high pedestal.
After half an hour, it was Shi Lang and Amelia’s turn, the couple was guided inside the hall. Only one party was allowed inside the building hall at a time, this was to maintain the secrecy of the procedure as much as possible and to suppress the public opinion, and also to maintain the privacy of the people visiting.
Yes, there were a lot of other methods to do this efficiently but Federation decided to focus on matters more complicated than the process of getting certificates. This system was upgraded throughout the times but it was still missing the technological touch. The procedure was handled by humans and humans only. After all, it would be too rash to hand over a child based on what an AI responds to.
Shi Lang had no problem with this, on the contrary, just this once he supported this workology. Well, only for today. The couple walked in and a staff member greeted them with a subtle smile. It was a middle-aged man, wearing a white shirt and black pants, with the logo of the authority office embroidered on his left chest pocket.
The man smiled and said, “Hello, sir, madam. My name is Richard, I will be your guide here.”
Shi Lang nodded and replied, “Hello, Mister Richard. My name is Shi Lang, and this is my wife, Amelia Knight.”
Richard nodded as he usually would and then asked, “Can I please check yoruc redentials?”
The couple nodded and they quickly showed their credentials to the man, who froze in his spot for a moment. The credentials were not divided in two identities, one when you are on a mission, which displayed your code name and designation during the mission. While the other was for civilian use and admitted all over the federation when off duty.
Shi Lang’s identity credential said, ‘Fleet General Shi Lang’ and then it mentioned the awards he holds. This was enough for Richard to know who this person was. He did not even look at Amelia’s card properly. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and asked, “General Shi, please follow me to the interview room. There you will be evaluated by the panel of high ranking officers in the department. We ask for your patience and cooperation.”
This last sentence was added exclusively for the young man. His rank has scared the shit out of Richard. The pressure was invisible, but tangible. Richard walked slowly, making sure that he does not fall and embarrass himself in front of the power couple.
Amelia wanted to chuckle but Shi Lang signaled her not to, the man in front of them was a civilian who was just doing his job. Tao walked between the two, looking at the surroundings and asked, “Lang, why empty?”
Shi Lang said, “It is my first time here as well, I will ask and tell you later, okay?”
Tao nodded sensibly, and they arrived at the interview room. Richard said, “Sir, the child is not allowed inside, she can play here with the bots while you go through the procedure. Is that alright?”
Shi Lang nodded and said to Tao, “Play here with the bots, we will be back in a bit.”
Tao was flustered all of a sudden, this was a place she did not know about. She was worried if Shi Lang would leave her. Her eyes turned misty at this point. Shi Lang crouched down and said gently, “Do not worry, I am not leaving you. How about I get you something to wear so that you do not hear what the elders talk about and then come inside?”
Tao grabbed the corner of his sleeve and nodded. Shi Lang controlled the nanobots in his communicator and cast a noise cancellation ear cover for her. He looked at Richard and asked, “Can we bring her inside? You must be aware of her history, she is still very sensitive about it.”
Richard thought for a bit and said, “I will ask them first, please wait.”
Shi Lang nodded and Richard entered the room when Amelia asked, “Could we not have done this with a stamp from the president?”
Shi Lang sighed and said, “I just wanted to do it normally so that their is not problem in the future.”
Amelia pinched his shoulder and said, “Being too modest is troublesome, Lang. You need to get this, if you can have someone deal with such things for you, then what is the harm?”
Shi Lang nodded and Richard came out of the room. He received the permission from the interviewers and the three people went inside the room. They sat across five people, all of them were old and had a calm facial expression. The man in the middle said, “It is an honor to have you here for such a noble deed. I am Kahn-Shir, greetings, General Shi, Colonel Knight.”
The two nodded and exchanged greetings. They were asked a few questions regarding their ideas and reasons. How they will look after the child and stuff. In the end, Kahn-Shir asked, “The final question, imagine that the two of you have children of your own in the future, can you guarantee that your love for Tao will not change even one bit?”
Shi Lang and Amelia exchanged a smile and the man said, “We can.”
…
Half an hour later, Shi Lang and Amelia walked out hold Tao’s hand and came to their car with big smiles. Tao asked, “Lang why smile? Amy too?”
Amelia chuckled, she turned around to look at the doll in the back seat and said, “Form today onward, Tao will be our family, and her name will be Shi Tao. Do you like that?”
Tao was confused at first and then she mumbled, “Shi Tao, nice.”