Chapter 1: Twin Stars

During late spring, the flowers in school had already begun to wilt.

Adrian was leaning back on the arch of the corridor's exit with one hand in
his uniform's pocket and the other swiped idly down on the floating virtual
screen of his personal holographic terminal.

“Another expansion! ‘Butterfly's' feathers will soon cover the Navi System!
In the past 90 years, within the fifty-two systems inclusive of the capital
system, the citizens from more than a hundred planets in the Federation
have been enjoying an efficient and convenient life under the guidance of
the second generation AI, ‘Butterfly'. The Supreme Council announced at a
press conference today that the Navi System, located within the most
remote corners of the Federation's star map, would finally usher in a new
dawn of civilization…”

At the words, “dawn of civilization”, Adrian snorted without any

reservation. Impatiently, he opened up the comments section:

“Hooray! The Federation is finally complete!”

“The Navi System is finally returning to Butterfly's control. I heard it's poor
and chaotic there.”

“That's the only place that's not under Butterfly's management—there's

fugitives running all over the place. Relying on human governance without
AI surveillance, that place is simply a criminal's paradise! Could it not be
chaotic?”

“What??? Am I transmigrating into the ancient Earth period? There are still
places not governed by AI??? How do they even live?”
“Stop embarrassing people if you've never experienced it! Isn't that an
exaggeration? ‘Butterfly' was implemented only ninety years ago. Didn't
people still carry on living before that even without ‘Butterfly'?”

“But there was ‘Cocoon' ninety years ago! These two generations of AIs
combined have already been managing the Federation for more than two
millennia! If you go even further, that's already the ancient period!”

“Commenter above is obviously from the capital. The last generation's

“Cocoon” did not cover the entire Federation, only the area around the
capital system.”

“This is also the first time I found out that there are regions managed by
people…then how do you work and get married?”

“They just get random jobs and get married casually, why else do you think
the Navi System is falling so far behind?”

“For the sake of boasting about their wicked little moth, the Supreme
Council has even thrown away their common sense. Can you even call
those butterfly flaps feathers?”

“Where the hell did this braindead AI anti come from? Without AI, you'd be
even less than garbage!”

Bored, Adrian continued to swipe through several pages, and sure enough,
it was filled with abuse.

The Federation of today consisted of fifty-three star systems, and the

inhabited planets within that numbered over a hundred. The capital system,
alongside several other developed systems nearby, had already been under
the management of the second generation super artificial intelligence
“Butterfly” for over ninety years, and the fifty-second system to enter
“Butterfly's" control range had already been within it for thirty seven years.
The Navi System was truly too far away, and it was also due to some
complicated historical issues that matters had been dragging on till now.

And right now, was this last system going to…fall as well?
Adrian gave the “wicked little moth” comment a like and turned off the
news.

Thanks to AI, life as a human came with practically no privacy at all; be it

in reality or on the net, all your actions were transparent. Soon, the major
media outlets will have to post a news release: From the Federation's
Supreme Institution, one Adrian Yate of the Twin Stars, liked a comment
written in criticism towards “Butterfly”.

But Adrian did not care about that. As he came close to graduation, he
became one of the most highly observed youngsters who was set to enter
society this semester. Countless people watched over his each and every
move, and he had long since gotten used to this. Though he was the eldest
son of the traditional and ancient Yate family, he had repeatedly expressed
his position of being against artificial intelligence ever since entering
college, standing on opposite sides against his own family as well as the
Supreme Council. Though the young master had yet to officially set foot in
society, his name had long since been known throughout the entire
Federation.

A class had just ended, and a group of lower grade students came out
through the arch.

Amongst them, a few girls were constantly peeking over at Adrian, grinning
secretly and laughing as they nudged each other playfully. Soon, one of
those lively girls came over and asked, “Senior Yate, are you waiting for
President Zhong?”

Adrian gave her a broad smile, “That's right.”

“Wow!”

“So romantic!”

As they continued to whisper and gossip with each other, the girls left.
Finally, Adrian's mood improved—the President Zhong that they had
mentioned was the person he was awaiting, Zhong Yan.
Another legendary figure within the Federation's Supreme Institution, a
young civilian orphan with no family background but still achieved an eye-
opening high score, bringing him into the Federation's Supreme Institution.
After entering the school, his performance was still dazzling, and he was
elected as the Student Council's President in his second year. While dealing
with the various chores from the school, he was still able to maintain his
position as the first in his major. Alongside the chief student representative
of the military division, Adrian Yate, they were given the nickname of the
Twin Stars.

Everyone was making their guesses; they were the Supreme Institution's
Twin Stars, where were these two big names of the Federation going to go
after they graduate?

“President.” His seatmate jabbed silently at Zhong Yan with the tip of his
touch screen pen. “Your Chief Yate is waiting for you outside.”

Yan Chen glanced at their unceasing professor and whispered, “How do you
know that?”

“I saw it in the school forum. Sending it over to you—”

Zhong Yan adjusted the transparency of the holographic screen in front of

him, turning on his own personal terminal secretly, and clicking into the
campus forum link his seatmate had just sent to him.

“#TwinStars Caught a Senior Yate who was waiting for President Zhong:
photo.jpg”

Zhong Yan did not read the comments. Instead, he scrutinized the photo for
a little bit.

Three years ago, when he first met Adrian, they were both only seventeen
years old. The seventeen-year-old Adrian was dressed in a brand-new
school uniform, surrounded by a few schoolmates from affluent families.
There was that smile in his eyes that looked both distant and courteous; it
was only until Zhong Yan appeared that his eyes brightened, and he
shouted, “Zhong Yan!”
Thanks to the highly developed modern network, the full body image of
that year's top scorer was spread over every corner of the Federation as soon
as the results were announced. In an instant, the public was loud with
opinion, and everyone was bustling in discussion about the orphan identity
and shocking beauty of the new champion.

In contrast, the second place of the year seemed to be left out. And so, he
paid special attention to the number two, Adrian Yate, who had been
suppressed before he had even entered school, and this was also the reason
why he recognized him at first sight.

At seventeen, Zhong Yan had none of the tact that he had today, but due to
his own innate character, he was still unperturbed. Standing under the
watchful gaze of those affluent kids, he nodded his head in greeting, “Hello,
Mr. Yate.”

“Just call me Adrian.” The earlier uppity grand young master seemed as if
he was a whole other person; he was both passionate and easygoing. “We're
from the same dorm, let me bring you there.”

Zhong Yan followed him, but not before turning to face the crowd of young
master and misses with distorted expressions and saying, “Please excuse
me.”

For a very long time, Zhong Yan had always thought that Adrian had done
this out of some unmentioned intentions, but he later found out that this was
just how the great young master Adrian was in general—if he did not like
them, or did not stand in the same footing as them, then he would not even
bother to put on a decent expression, nor would he care about whether his
actions would embarrass those people or not. In his own words: “The
coolest and most good-looking person is my roommate, why should I care
about that lot?”

Three years have passed since then. That handsome young man in the photo
had long faded away from his youth of that year. The lines and curves of his
gruff features were very majestic when he was not smiling, but he would
never not be, just like in that candid photo of his: A light smile played by
the corners of his lips, and a pink petal had fallen on his black hair.
Completely oblivious to that fact, his head was dropped down to view the
screen of his own personal terminal; his silver irises, a specialty of the Yate
Family, were hidden beneath his half-lidded gaze, and his thoughts were
unperceivable.

The photo was posted in the gossip section, and it was easy to figure out
what people would say in the comments section. Through the past three
years, the “TwinStars” tag contributed to about one-fourth of the threads in
the school forum's gossip board. Without even bothering to look at it,
Zhong Yan shut off his terminal screen.

In a hushed voice, he said to his seatmate, “Stop looking at the forum, this
professor has really sharp eyes.”

Even though he was reluctant, his seatmate shut off his screen as well, and
said, “I'm almost inclined to believe what all these girls are saying. Say, are
you two really—”

“We're not.” Zhong Yan responded.

“Sorry for making you wait!” Zhong Yan was slightly panting. “We haven't
finished going through our topic, so the professor dragged it on for a
while…”

Adrian took his bag and slipped it over his own shoulder while he rested his
other arm around his shoulder, “It's fine, you didn't have to run.”

Zhong Yan smiled at him, “I was worried I kept you waiting too long.”

Since he had ran over from class, Zhong Yan's usually fair face was now
laced with a light tinge of red. Adrian watched him; his usual appearance
that had already been quite delicate and handsome now seemed even
younger; not looking much at all like a young man at the age of twenty.
Instead, he looked like a new student who was only sixteen going on
seventeen.

“Let's head back.” Zhong Yan fixed his clothes. “The cameras are coming.”
Adrian came back to his senses and finally saw the pair of daily patrol
cameras around the area. After having identified a pair of students who
were loitering around, they descended steadily to their height and were
zooming over, one in the front and the other at the back.

Adrian struck a pose for the small spherical cameras that were heading their
way, and the two broke out in laughter. Walking side by side, they headed
back to the dorms.

“Adrian Yate!”

The sound of cheering burst out in the hall, which was enough to prove how
popular the aforementioned person was. Adrian jumped up onto the stage in
one smooth movement, and clearly this move was a little informal for the
solemn occasion.

But very quickly, nobody bothered with the issue of his etiquette any
longer. They watched as he reached the centre of the stage in a few quick
steps, and without even waiting for the huge virtual screen behind him to
announce the results, he announced in resolution, “I refuse the optimal
career proposal of the AI. As for the fine, please send me the bill, thank
you.”

The amplifying system on the stage caused his voice to resound throughout
the auditorium of the Supreme Institution, “Fellow friends! I will see you
again in Navi!”

The sounds of the crowd's reactions—cheers, whistles, and the voices of

doubts—were intertwined into a large ruckus. Adrian jumped off the stage
in high spirits, bumped shoulders and shared a hug with his classmates from
the military division, and turned back to see the very last student on stage.

The legendary Student Council President, Zhong Yan.

When Zhong Yan refuses the AI's proposal…Adrian watched that person
standing on that stage with a smile on his face: A young man who had just
turned twenty, with his black hair and black eyes, his fair skin and red lips,
a beauty as grand as a painting. Very soon now, just a few more seconds—
Zhong Yan glanced at the optimal career proposal displayed on the screen.
He looked neither below the stage, nor at anyone, and he did not even seem
to have considered quite as long as most other students.

“I accept.”

The crowd roared. Half of them were whispering and gossiping, while the
others looked towards Adrian.

Adrian's smile had been replaced with a look of astonishment. Only then
did he remember to look at the words on the virtual screen. On it displayed
the position Zhong Yan had just accepted: Capital Star, Supreme Council,
Member.

For more than two hundred years, this was the council that single-handedly
pushed forth the AI project. This was the Supreme Council, also known as
the “Butterfly Cabinet”.

In that instant, rage burned through his limbs.

“Boss…Um, about that plan, are we still moving forward?” His diehard
brother, Fayn, asked in a stutter.

Adrian glared at Fayn with utmost coldness in his eyes, and under the gazes
and chatter of the scene, he left the graduation ceremony indignantly.

He went straight to his dormitory and grabbed his luggage. Without even
waiting for the graduation ceremony to end, much less for Zhong Yan's
return, he left the school alone.

With that farewell, it had been seven long years, and they had not seen each
other since.
 Chapter 2: Reunited Where We
Once Met

Adrian sat up from his bed with a splitting headache.

He had dreamt of Zhong Yan again. Standing high on that platform, he

spoke, with that usual expression on his face, “I accept”, shattering all the
ridiculous fantasies of he who stood beneath that stage.

Adrian sat in the dark, taking a while off to recover from his emotions
before he called for his personal terminal to check the time. Several
fluorescent numbers floated above his wrist—it was only five in the
morning.

The culprit of his nightmares was scattered on the small platform above his
headboard; an opened letter—not a virtual letter, it was written on real
paper.

This sort of thing was practically extinct these days. You may be able to
find it in a museum, but the Federation's Supreme Institution had always
flaunted their “old traditions”, so this was not his first performance art
experience from them.

Such a well-crafted envelope had been violently torn open by someone

without a care in the world. Half of the words printed out in artificial ink
were revealed:

“To your Excellency, General Commander of the Navi Military Command,

Adrian Yate:
“In the blink of an eye, it has been seven years since we last met. As our
dear graduate of the 91st batch of our Supreme Institution, we hope
everything has been going smoothly for you since leaving your alma mater.

“The stars are ever-changing, and knowledge is eternal. For a century, the
name of the Supreme Institution has been kept high, and we have always
been delivering the highest talents of our institute to every corner of the
Federation. Today, the oldest and most traditional institute in the Federation
ushers in her 100th birthday. We sincerely invite you, our most valued
alumni, to return home this December to visit us and to attend the 100th
anniversary of your alma mater, as well as our 98th graduation ceremony.

“Please approach us following the detailed guide below…”

Indeed, it had been many years since Adrian had last visited his alma mater.
Frankly, his three years in the Supreme Institution could be considered the
happiest three years in all his twenty-seven years of living; but no matter
how happy those three years had been, the final full stop given to him by
Zhong Yan was the most hurtful moment of his student days.

He and Zhong Yan were practically inseparable in school. Everyone knew

this, so even the footage of their final graduation ceremony were spread
across the Federation. Since his first years of entering the Navi System,
people have constantly been trying to inquire about his relationship with
Zhong Yan. Until—everyone who had been making jokes about him and
Zhong Yan were thrown into the intensive care unit. Everyone now
understood how deep this ever-smiling young master's hatred was for this
friend he had in his student days.

Later, Adrian rose up through the ranks, and right now, nobody dared to
bring up the kryptonite of the General Commander of the Navi Military
Command in front of him any longer, for fear of not being able to withstand
the retaliation of this man who always seemed so unreserved.

The sun was rising soon. Adrian was in a bad mood and couldn't sleep
anymore, so he decided to just get up from bed.
Thinking about it, he must have piled up a lot of pending work in his
personal terminal during his nightmare. Adrian grabbed himself a
refreshing drink and connected his terminal to the large virtual screen in
front of his desk before taking a sip.

“Today's headlines: Counselor Zhong Yan's attendance to the 100th

anniversary of the Supreme Institute has been confirmed!”

“Read more: Behind the legendary Counselor Zhong Yan, the youngest of
the 12 Members of the Supreme Council: …”

Adrian stared at the exaggerated headline title, and his eyes fell on that
recurring name. He had already gone past that age where he would resort to
dealing with all his problems with his fists, and had also long been
accustomed to seeing how that person's name was frequently reported on
the news just like his own. But what was rare, was the name Zhong Yan
appearing once more with his alma mater right behind it, and he still could
not help but feel his anger rising.

Anger burst forth from the depths of his chest like repressed magma that
had been brewing for ages. Slowly but steadily, it was drowning out his
reason.

Adrian put down his cup and dialed the number of his deputy, Fayn.

Clearly, Fayn's mind was still in dreamland; he asked in an incoherent

mutter, “Who?”

“Me.”

“Boss?!” Fayn's mind cleared up in an instant, and he asked nervously,

“What happened? Did something happen at this hour?”

“Yes, there's something. Contact the school right now and tell them that I'll
be accepting their invitation. And not just me, all of us in the Navi Military
Command who have received the invitation are accepting.”
Fayn could not believe what he had just heard. Everyone knew that within
the Navi Military Command, any words relating to “Supreme Institution” or
“school” were taboo because it would inevitably be associated with him.
And just because of that, none of his old school buddies dared to even
mention the Supreme Institution's hundred year anniversary. After receiving
it, all of them pretended they never even saw it. But now, at five in the
morning, his immediate superior had called him personally, asking him to
contact the school…

“Um…” Fayn cautiously confirmed, “Which school am I contacting?”

“Which do you think?”

The voice transmitting through his terminal sounded very calm. But the
more it sounded so, the more astonishing it was for Fayn. After being
colleagues for so many years, he understood this old schoolmate of his way
too much; the calmer Adrian appeared on the outside, the more earth-
shattering the outburst would be in the end.

“Calm down, I just saw the news earlier—I don't think it's a good idea to
pick a fight with a member of the Supreme Council during the celebration.”

“This is an order, Mr. Deputy.” Adrian spoke in a chilly voice and hung up.

No, of course he's not going there to fight. He's just…

Adrian sat down, and closed the news window.

Once again, he had miscalculated the upper limits of Zhong Yan's

heartlessness. After three years of friendship, Zhong Yan could say “I
accept” in front of the whole school without any hesitation. And now, how
could he accept the invitation of his alma mater so calmly? Perhaps, in the
heart of the person, that incident had long been pushed to the back of his
mind. That was why he was so calm, so at peace, and not at all afraid of
touching back to that moment.

In that case, it was only natural that he must not show weakness.
This was an era without secrets.

The second generation AI “Butterfly” kept a thorough watch over every

aspect of human life. Patrol cameras patrolled any area with any present
signs of civilization all year round, and there was no need to mention the
virtual world; it was completely covered with Butterfly's feelers. This was
an era that was safe, convenient, efficient, and…

Boring.

Perhaps only one corner was different. In the most remote corners of space,
the primary star of the Navi System, Navi Star, is the only autonomous
human, non AI region in the civilized world today. Ten years ago, the Navi
System was synonymous with the words danger, chaos, and archaic; today,
more and more young people are calling it the last pure land left for
mankind.

And right now, the Navi System's name was also closely linked with the
name of Adrian Yate.

The entire Federation knew how the youngest member of the Yate family
graduated from the military division of the Supreme Institution with a
record-breaking high score, and his high-profile rejection of “Butterfly's”
proposal, resolutely bringing himself towards the Navi Military Command.
In addition to Adrian himself, there was more than one military graduate
who followed in his footsteps in that batch; and for a period of time, the
mainstream media outlets were criticizing Adrian for the damages caused
by his actions.

On the contrary, Zhong Yan, who had entered the Supreme council in a low-
profile manner and was loyal to “Butterfly”, became the media's darling.
With a handsome face, poise, and the background of a parentless orphan, he
was rewarded a good reputation with the people, and he was also much
loved within the Supreme Council. He went up the ranks in amazing speed;
in just seven years, he had already climbed up to the rank of one of the
twelve elected members, becoming one of the twelve most powerful people
in the Federation.
In direct proportion to his promotion speed, the winds of public trend
changed just as quickly—throughout the years, all sorts of scandals have
constantly been exposed from an anonymous account. The AI stopped
purging them, and instead called for discussion towards the conspiracy
theories about the collusion of several high-ranking humans holding rights
and power.

The concept of “anonymity” was quite inconceivable in this era, and it was
guaranteed that anyone who could achieve it would not be your average
citizen. With that, it added even more to the credibility of these rumours. In
any case, the new generation of youngsters were not as devoutly convinced
about AIs. Quite a lot amongst them wanted to focus on personal privacy
and the restoration of human autonomy. And for that, Navi System that was
not subject to the AI seemed to be the ideal place to be.

Adrian's popularity was rising, and many people who were against AI
regarded him as their idol. And with the knowledge of him and Zhong Yan's
association and falling out known through the world, it caused the fans of
both parties to be particularly sensitive whenever they met one another.
When it came to this time when both of them have already climbed their
ways up to the peak, the virtual community was growing even more
turbulent.

It was not hard to imagine how the entire Federation had boiled over with
commotion. In an instant, the topic of the school's celebration that had
originally received even less attention than the “Discovery of Wild Giant
Space Rabbits in Glory System” became the hottest topic in an instant.

After a lapse of seven years, Zhong Yan once again stood on the soils of
Institution Star.

The Supreme Institution was not only a school, it was also one of the few
artificial planets in the world. Now, this little planet could be described as
being covered in stars and resplendence, and today, in a sight that was hard
to come by, people from all walks of life gathered together in one large hall.
Before Zhong Yan had even entered through the gates of the institution, a
crowd of “senior brothers and sisters” had already gathered around him.
From those who graduated from batches later than his, only a few held
positions high enough that the school would specifically make an invitation
to them themselves. Even if there were a few outstanding juniors in the
mix…following the current trend of the public, most of such youngsters
would not even wish to make any contact with a counselor such as him.

But no matter the opinions of these young people, it was still an

indisputable fact that he played a vital role in the Capital; the group of
middle-aged people making utmost efforts to exchange pleasantries with
him was solid proof of that.

Zhong Yan averted his eyes and socialized with them uneasily. From what
the others could see, he was only holding up his identity, unwilling to speak
much; but only he knew…

It had been seven years, seven years since he made that run after the
graduation ceremony, only to return himself into an empty dormitory room;
seven years have passed.

He thought he had been able to adjust his own emotions, and would not be
affected by coming back to this place.

Suddenly, a clamour began not far away. Zhong Yan looked up and saw a
few young officers in black military uniforms lined with gold accents
coming over to him. In the middle of them stood a tall, black haired man
with silver eyes, dressed in a military uniform reserved for the one who
stood in the highest position, enhancing his looks of frosty reservation; But
he was a man who kept a smile on his lips at all times. With his head faced
towards his side, he was speaking with the officer standing to his right,
appearing to be in quite a good mood.

The entrance to the school that had just been bustling with sound was now
dead silent—the men of the Navi Military Command have arrived.
 Chapter 3: Specimen Store

With the sound of Adrian's illustrious name, the people who had just
clamoured to be in front of Zhong Yan were now silently stepping back;
none of them wanted to be caught in the possible flames of battle. Nobody
dared to go up to them to say anything as these two were no longer the
youngsters who had just graduated from the school, they were now
heavyweights with enough authority to blot out the sun with just their
hands, so nobody would dare to incur the wrath of any of them just for a
moment of exhilaration.

Everyone was continuing their absent-minded chatter within their own

circles, but whether it was intentional or not, their gazes would still be
turned towards the two who were going nearer and nearer to each other.
Nobody wanted to miss the opportunity to see a spectacular show, so they
were all waiting for the reunion of the two after seven years. The curiosity,
tension, and gloating in the air was so thick that it was nearly materializing,
and they were all pressing down heavily on the formally-dressed Zhong
Yan.

The men of the Navi Military Command walked right past him, heading
straight towards the campus. The man at the center of them did not even
spare him a mere glance.

Zhong Yan fell into a daze for a moment; he had thought that Adrian would
mock or snide him, swear at him, or even…He would not admit that deep
down, he still had a small hope or fantasy, hopes that maybe Adrian would
come over and ask for a chat with him, and they may possibly even be
reconciled in the end.

But through all that, he never thought that Adrian would just ignore him.
It has been seven years. He has seen countless pieces of news that if his
name was so much as mentioned in the slightest in front of Adrian, that he
would definitely fly into a rage on the spot. There was also a small rumour
that since Adrian had taken the position of Chief Commander, Zhong Yan's
name had become a forbidden word within Navi Military Command.

So why was the Adrian now, who had seen the man in question, not angry?
Zhong Yan knew him well. They once lived under the same roof, and for
three years, they had been intimate friends. He once believed that he knew
Adrian better than anyone else in this world, but he could not be so sure
anymore. The Adrian he knew of was a spoiled young master who would
never wrong himself by keeping his anger in. Seven years has been far too
long, Zhong Yan could no longer guess the thoughts in this man's heart—
Has he already let go? Did he hate the idea of speaking with him? Or did he
really not see him?

Perhaps, he did not see him. Adrian Yate and Zhong Yan were once the
closest of friends, but now their positions as rivals were resounding. In any
case, they were people who should not have such meager reactions when
bumping into each other.

As if in denial, Zhong Yan started: “Ade.”

His voice was not very loud, and he thought he would never hear him, but
that man turned around.

He had clearly been smiling when speaking to others, but to him alone, that
smile was gone. His silver eyes had sealed off all his emotions with frost,
exposing only an inorganic glow.

The adjutant by his side—Zhong Yan remembered him, this was Adrian's
friend, Fayn from the same batch as them—quietly caught Adrian's arm and
whispered something in his ear.

Zhong Yan could not hear him clearly, but Adrian heard it loud and clear.
Fayn whispered to him, “Don't be rash, there are at least six airborne
cameras locked onto you, and I'm very sure more than one of them is
broadcasting live…”
Adrian broke free from his hands impatiently and said, “Counselor Zhong
Yan, you should be referring to me as ‘Commander Yate'.”

Zhong Yan's face paled as he watched him, disbelief flowing out from his
slender phoenix eyes.

A malicious thrill was surging within Adrian's heart; he had not had
enough, and thus continued, “Remember that. Don't let me catch you
calling me by that name ever again, it's disgusting.”

The very last trace of blood drained from Zhong Yan's face. He responded,
“All right.”

But Adrian did not even wait to hear his answer; after throwing out that last
sentence, he had already turned to leave without any hesitation.

After meeting with the reception staff from the school, they had a long
break before the ceremony officially began. Adrian and Fayn broke away
from the other invited guests from the army, and began to stroll through
their school that they had not seen in a long while. Due to what they've
heard about the Navi Military Command behind Adrian that was said to be
able to compete with the Capital, none of the reception attendants dared to
stop them. In addition, everyone had already passed through the strict
security check after landing on Institution Star. Patrol cameras were also
laid across the entire school, so they figured that no accidents would
happen. Thus, with one eye closed, the reception attendants decided not to
bother them.

The two were chatting idly the whole way, and seemed as if they were
unintentionally walking down a sparsely populated path. Fayn's eyes swept
towards the only camera at the end of the path. He reached out to pick a
flower on a low-hanging branch and brought it to Adrian.

“This flower looks pretty nice,” he signaled Adrian towards his hand.
“What's it called? Let's see if we can plant it back in Navi Star as well. I
wonder if it's easy to take care of.”
He positioned his back to the camera to create a dead angle, and opened up
his palm to reveal an address written down in pen.

All virtual data transmissions were monitored, so the safest way to transfer
information would only be the antiquated physical way.

Adrian looked down at it for two seconds, and the smile on his lips froze.

Fayn took his hand back and asked in curiosity, “What is it? Is something
wrong?”

“Are you sure…this is the one?”

“I'm very sure.” Fayn took another look at the position of the camera. They
were still within recording distance of it, so he could not say too much.
Instead, he could only ask, “What's not right about this one?”

Adrian responded, “Nothing. I don't like flowers, don't plant any.”

Fayn shrugged and tossed the flower away.

When they left the path, Fayn returned to meet up with someone else.
Alone, Adrian walked towards the location pinpointed by the address.

This was an address that he was familiar with. The campus was not split up
for the first years in the Supreme Institution. At that time, both he and
Zhong Yan would agree to meet up at a fixed place everyday when their
classes were over before heading back to the dorms together. The place they
chose was a vendor for fresh juice. During that one year, he would order
two cups of juice everyday and await for Zhong Yan's class to end; or
perhaps, whenever he reached the store, he would find that Zhong Yan was
already waiting for him with two cups of juice.

The shop allowed one to choose a mix of three types of different fruits, with
special seasonal fruits available each season. In that one year, they had
tasted nearly every permutation and combination possible at that store; by
the end of it, they had already gotten to know the flavors each of them
loved and hated like it was the back of their palms. Those days were the
happiest moments he had ever been through in his entire first year at the
Supreme Institution.

And now, his adjutant had just informed him that this was the address of the
largest stronghold for a civil resistance organization towards artificial
intelligence within Institutional Star.

Adrian's conjecture was verified when he arrive; that juice shop that was
opened in the corner of the commercial district was really closed down—To
be honest, that store had not been very popular during the days when he was
still in school. He and Zhong Yan were practically the only regular
customers they had—And now, it was currently a specimen store with the
sign “Realistic Specimen Viewing” hung on top.

The display cabinets that presented the colourful fruits from the different
star systems were now replaced with transparent cylinders of different sizes,
with various lifelike animals inside of them. With business to handle,
Adrian had no time to lament over the changing times. He rang the bell at
the front desk.

“Welco…Oh, it's Senior Yate!”

Quite clearly, the girl who came out from the door behind the counter was a
student worker, even the badge of the Supreme Institution could be seen
displayed in front of her chest. She recognized Adrian and a look of joyful
surprise emerged from her face. “Did you come to buy specimens?”

Adrian smiled to her. “Hello, I've booked a course for making specimens.”

The smile on the girl's face beamed with even greater sincerity. “So that's
the case. Our specimen course is very popular, may I know which particular
course you've booked?”

Adrian responded, “The insect specimen course.”

The girl nodded and operated the virtual screen on the counter for a while.
Then, she made a gesture towards the door behind her. “Your appointment
has been confirmed, please come with me. And please rest assured, we are
especially skilled in creating…insect specimens.”

Zhong Yan looked away from the words “Realistic Viewing Specimens”.
The glass storefront had not been replaced, so the animal specimens could
be faintly seen through the door, and there were a few animals that clearly
had fur.

Zhong Yan frowned. He did not enter, and instead turned to leave.

He had always loved furry animals, so he felt quite uncomfortable looking

at these specimens.

But before he could get far, someone had opened the door. The enthusiastic
voice of a girl rung out from behind him. “Goodbye Senior Yate, come visit
again whenever you're free!”

A familiar low-pitched voice of a man could then be heard with a trace of

amusement in his tone. “Alright, definitely.”

Zhong Yan turned around and saw a man dressed in a black and gold
military uniform walking out from the store. The moment he noticed him,
the smile on that man's face faded away like the tide, leaving behind only a
cold face.

That girl from the school had also recognized the one standing not far away.
She saw the complexion of Adrian's face and tried to get herself out of the
awkward picture. “Well, Senior Yate, I'll be…returning to the store now.”

“Hold on.” Adrian started slowly, “It's a rare occasion to meet Counselor
Zhong Yan here, let me present him with a gift.”

The girl stared at him with wide eyes, and her entire face was saying: Have
you gone mad?

Zhong Yan stood without saying a single word, waiting for him to continue.

“Do you have any rabbit specimens? The larger the better.”
Hearing that, the girl's face was filled with tension. Before Zhong Yan had
become a member of the House of Representatives, he had been working
hard to strengthen the laws against the hunting of giant space rabbits. And
now, Adrian wanted to give him a dead rabbit, and he said the larger the
better…She thought that Adrian had only made a deliberate jab at Zhong
Yan because he had heard of that bill, but she would never know—Only
Adrian knew how obsessed Zhong Yan was towards the creatures they call
giant space rabbits.

Only the two of them knew, and this little secret that belonged only to them
had now become the sharpest blade; its cuts would not draw any blood, but
it hurt just the same.

Zhong Yan averted his gaze. “No need, thank you for your…kind
intentions.”

He could not bear to stay any longer, and turned to leave. From behind him,
he could hear Adrian apologizing to that girl with a tone that was even
gentler than usual, and he even said, “If it's alright with you, please just call
me Adrian.”

The ceremony was about to begin and he was going to be late. Zhong Yan
thought about it with indifference; he was now one of the twelve people
who stood at the peak of human power, so he was placed amongst the most
eye-catching seat for the guests. He could not be late.

He quickened his steps and walked away from the specimen store.
 Chapter 4: News of Marriage

“Did you…and that guy…fight?”

“No.” Adrian sat down next to Fayn and frowned. “Why do you always
think that I'm going to hit him?”

While the school principal was still making his speech, Fayn covered his
mouth with the commemorative album so that he would not be caught by
the cameras, and said, “I'm not the only one who thinks that! The principal
had just started talking and that guy suddenly entered with red eyes, looking
like he's about to cry, and then you came in a few minutes later…what
happened between the two of you just now?”

Adrian snorted: “With red eyes? Your imagination is running rampant.”

Fayn rolled his eyes and said, “Everyone saw it! You can replay the
recording when we get back if you don't believe me. A few cameras
hovered over to him just as he came in, so you can watch it from any angle
you want. Let me tell you, the virtual community is like a wildfire right
now. Nobody's talking about what the principal is saying, they're all trying
to guess what the two of you were doing—Did you really not hit him? Then
what's he crying for?”

Adrian frowned and subconsciously felt the need to refute: No, of course he
wouldn't cry if I'd hit him, Zhong Yan is definitely not the type of person
who would shed tears from physical pain.

But he swallowed those words down just as they reached his lips.

“Nothing, we just bumped into each other and said a few words.”
He thought back to it for a moment; they really did just say a few words,
and Zhong Yan had only responded with a single sentence! Though, he
didn't pass his few cents directly to Zhong Yan.

Clearly, his deputy did not believe him. He snorted, “Come on, do you think
you can really make a representative counselor cry with just a few words?”

Adrian stared coldly at Fayn, and the latter was given a shock by the
complete lack of warmth in his silver eyes. Suddenly, he had a realization:
he had just violated a great taboo—mentioning Zhong Yan repeatedly.

“How is it any of my business whether he's laughing or crying? Did you

forget how he treated me right here, right at this very hour, seven years ago?
Fayn, you were sitting right beside me then just like right now! Zhong Yan,
that guy, he's…” Adrian gnashed his teeth and spat out each syllable one by
one, “Com-plete-ly heartless!”

Fayn nodded nervously. Those sitting right around them were all part of
Adrian's clique, and were all the current officers of the Navi Military
Command. Everyone had originally perked their ears with great interest, but
when they saw their commander breaking out in rage, all of them quickly
averted their eyes and ears; suddenly, they felt great interest in the
principal's speech.

His ears were finally at peace, but Adrian could not restrain himself from
mulling over what he said…Zhong Yan cried? What was he crying about?

He knew that Zhong Yan was a very sensitive person, and could become
upset over one thing for quite a long time, but he would rarely see such a
fluctuation in emotions with Zhong Yan. At the very least, he had never
seen Zhong Yen bawl, laugh out loud, nor fly into a rage in all his three
years of studying here. This black-haired and black-eyed youngster seemed
to always be composed, reserved, and decent; it was hard to believe that
such quality of nurture could come from an orphanage.

Without knowing it, Adrian was looking towards the guest table for the
School of Social Sciences.
Seated in the seat of honor was the aged patriarch of the Yate family,
Adrian's grandfather, Stalvern Yate. The Yate family was a traditional pro-
AI family, and during the past two centuries in the development of artificial
intelligence, the Yate family had left a great imprint on the project. It wasn't
until more than ninety years ago when the first generation AI “Cocoon” was
officially retired and replaced by the newer and stronger “Butterfly”, that
artificial intelligence had officially begun to take full control of human
society. The fame of this family who had consistently embraced the use of
AI had also reached its peak.

In the eyes of many, nature still had to run its due course, the popularity of
this family had already reached its end. The current patriarch, Stalvern, had
only received one proposal from “Butterfly” in his younger days to
procreate; during that time, he and his wife gave birth to a daughter, and
that was Adrian's mother.

After obeying “Butterfly's” instructions to marry and procreate, Adrian's

father who had been adopted into the Yate family disappeared. In despair,
his mother left the world early, leaving behind only a single seedling,
Adrian. However, before this seedling had time to grow, it had started to
sway towards a different path: he abandoned his grandiose family
background and excellent academic resume to head towards the self-
destructive future of the poorest region in the Federation.

But of course, nobody could have guessed at that time that any of this could
happen. In just seven years, the cry of the public had engulfed the virtual
community, and the remote and antiquated Navi System had already
become a taboo existence for the Capital.

As a result, the Yate family that was not in a good relationship with the
Supreme Commander of the Navi Military Command was put into an even
more awkward position. The patriarch, Stalvern, was one of the
predecessors of the twelve representing members of council. Three years
ago, he left the Supreme Council, which vacated a seat amongst the twelve
council members, and after more than a year of evaluation, the then twenty-
six year old Zhong Yan finally received “Butterfly's” favour, thus taking up
that position.
There was a rumour amongst the people that it was the Yate family's
patriarch that referred Zhong Yan to “Butterfly”, thus influencing
“Butterfly's” final judgement. The reason why this young council member
could be promoted at such an alarming rate was due to the great Yate
family's dredges and support that pushed him all the way to the current
results. They seemed to have decided to use this against Adrian, who stood
on the other side of the Federation and may ignite a conflict with them at
any time.

It has been nearly a decade since Adrian had last seen his grandfather. Due
to the differences in their positions, the social circle within the Capital Star
back then was afraid of him, and his family had been disappointed in him
since he entered the Supreme Institution.

His grandfather had clearly gotten old. He was currently speaking to Zhong
Yan who sat to his right, and he appeared to be speaking to him with a very
gentle attitude—he had never even shown such kindness to his own
grandchildren—Zhong Yan was also listening to him with respect. Stalvern
was also black-haired, so looking at them so suddenly now gave him the
feeling that he and Zhong Yan were a harmonious grandfather and
grandchild duo.

Adrian scoffed. Something like “leading a wolf into your own house” truly
was something only his grandfather could do. He was not even afraid of the
boat flipping over halfway through, sitting with an ungrateful wolf like
Zhong Yan. Meanwhile, Zhong Yan had clearly been listening to a whole
three years worth of his complaints towards that old bugger, but now he's
actually turned around to work with that old fogey. As expected, he was
practically born for the political life.

On that side, the two simply exchanged a few words and kept it at that.
Zhong Yan was dressed in a black formal suit, and sitting in his own seat.
Looking at him, he seemed to be listening diligently to the Principal's
speech, and his face looked just as usual, you could not find anything off
about him at all.

He really was a hypocrite; so Adrian thought.

But some people were just that good at being hypocrites. Father Time
seemed to be quite partial to this young man; he was already twenty-seven
years old, but he still had a flawless face that was alabaster like fine white
porcelain, and his eyes were still as clear and beautiful. Sitting there, he
almost looked as if he had just reached twenty years old, and was a
graduand waiting to receive “Butterfly's” career proposal.

How did Zhong Yan feel when he was sitting in this hall at that time? He
was a person who was good with planning in the long-term, and would
think carefully before he took a step. Adrian knew him too well, so he knew
that his betrayal on the last day was not a sudden impulse coming from
greed of power. So it must have been premediated. As for how long that
plan had been brewing for, Adrian could not muster any guesses.

Seven years ago, when he walked with Zhong Yan to this very hall with his
arm over his shoulders, Zhong Yan must have foreseen their falling out that
would happen in the next few hours, but no ripples could be found in his
expression at all during then. And what about before that? What about the
time he spread that three-dimensional holographic star map over the entire
dorm room, and expressed his dreams to Zhong Yan? Had he already
known then that the two of them would eventually part ways? Or perhaps
even earlier, when they huddled together in bed during the first hours of
sunrise, talking about their childhoods? Had Zhong Yan already planned to
hear more about the Yate family, so as to lay the tiles for the path ahead of
him? Or even earlier, when they had…just met?

Funny, he had given so much of his feelings, even more than that of a mere
friend, only to be given a slap on the face by the other; only then did he
realize that Zhong Yan might not have given even a little bit of himself to
him from the beginning to the end.

Perhaps the reason why his eyes were red earlier was due to the rabbit
specimen, Adrian sneered in his heart; God knows why Zhong Yan was so
obsessed with those furry creatures and even fell in love with those giant
space rabbits. In his opinion, those space-land amphibious rabbits were too
big, stupid, and lazy too. He saw no merits in them.
Adrian's mind drifted away. The graduation ceremony was long and boring.
The criticizers and supporters of AI have been fighting against each other,
and now the call for change was resounding even deeper amongst the
younger generation; even this old and traditional institution was no
exception. More than half of the graduates had refused “Butterfly's” career
proposal, and chose instead to pay the fine; this situation was nothing new
in these past two years.

A few hours into the ceremony, only the last student was left. According to
tradition, the order for the graduation ceremony should be based on the total
ranking list in descending order, and was concluded by the Student Council
President.

There was a commotion at the rear of where the students were gathered.
Many people were whispering to each other, and the noises combined were
getting louder and louder, attracting the gazes of many guests sitting in
front, all wondering what had happened amongst the students.

“What,” Adrian said with impatience, “is the Student Council President for
this batch a real piece of work as well?”

Fayn looked over and waved to the student who had just rejected
“Butterfly” earlier and expressed their wishes to request for a career in Navi
System. That student looked to his left and right; chaos was already
brewing. Everyone was busy whispering to each other, nobody cared about
any rules anymore, so he ran over to the guest area.

Before Fayn could even ask, the student told him with a strange look on his
face, “Adjutant Suster, here's what happened, one of the girls in the School
of Social Sciences found the ceremony too boring so she turned on her
terminal and was secretly looking around the virtual community. It just
happened to be ‘Butterfly's' weekly marriage proposal announcement, and
you know how many people look at that every week…”

Fayn would not have imagined ever meeting anyone to top him in
longwindedness. He cut him off, “Get to the point!”

“Counselor Zhong Yan's name appeared on the list.”

When he heard this sentence, Adrian felt a heavy blow to his heart. He
could not explain what it felt like; it was like a bee sting, but it also felt like
he took a step on thin air, falling.

Fayn: “…” As one of the few who knew the deeper insights to the case
from seven years ago, he turned subconsciously towards his friend with
worry.

“What're you looking at me for!” Adrian snapped. The deeper implications

in Fayn's eyes made him extremely annoyed, and he could no longer hold
himself back. “What's it got to do with me if some stupid c*** with eight
generations worth of misfortune has to get married to Zhong Yan?”

That student looked dumbfoundedly at Adrian, and appeared as if he

wished to speak, but could not.
 Chapter 5: Cipher

“It's you.” That student told him.

Adrian looked at him in disbelief. “What's me?”

“The um…” The student paused awkwardly. He did not have the guts to
repeat what he had just said to Adrian, so he omitted what he previously
said and went on, “The optimal marriage candidate for Counselor Zhong
Yan is…is you.”

Adrian: “…”

Fayn's eyes widened. He could no longer care about respecting the rules of
the school; he went straight to opening his terminal and began checking for
the newly-released marriage proposal list.

At least half of the people in the venue were doing the same as him.

Fayn carefully reconfirmed the Federation citizenship code right below the
name “Adrian Yate” and was speechless. “My God, are the two of you
trying to crash another graduation ceremony? With how many graduation
ceremonies you've ruined, the principal might have to bar you from coming
back.”

Adrian ignored him. He looked towards the direction of the School of

Social Sciences, and it just so happened that Zhong Yan was also looking at
him.

With expressionless faces, the two met eyes for a short moment across the
auditorium, and neither could see through the other's emotions. Then,
Zhong Yan mouthed a word silently.
If a lip reading expert was present, they would be able to interpret what he
said as “top”. In reality, the two words he said had been deciphered by the
audience watching the live broadcast in a matter of minutes, so everyone
was filled with confusion. Top? Top what?

Many years later, a saying popped up that gained the agreement of the
majority of the virtual community. Everyone agreed that Zhong Yan knew
that Adrian had learned lip reading, so he wanted to use that as a means to
transmit his message that he wanted to be the one on top. But of course, this
all came later.

The school had already begun their efforts to restore order, and the chaos
gradually subsided.

As for how the graduation ceremony came to an end, Adrian had no

recollection of it at all; in fact, most of the people who were present in the
ceremony were absent-minded. They were still trying to digest the shocking
news they had just received, and wanted for nothing more than the speedy
end of that ceremony. Then, the two who were involved could free up their
hands and deal with that instead.

Adrian did not let them down. After the principal announced the end of the
graduation ceremony, the first thing he did was to login to the marriage
system on his terminal and chose to refuse before even leaving the
auditorium.

“Back to Navi,” said Adrian with a calm face.

He did not get angry, but everyone in the military spacecraft could see that
his mood was terrible. Everyone tactfully separated, and went to do their
own things.

The liaison officer walked over with the gloom of death looming over his
face. He did not graduate from the Supreme Institution, so he had stayed in
the spacecraft and did not participate in their school activities.

“Commander…we cannot leave for now.”

“Why?”

His voice was clearly calm, but it sent chills down the liaison officer's
spine. He whispered misfortune to himself for being thrown in front of the
gun, and carefully explained, “I haven't gotten the list yet…the specimen
store contacted me earlier and told me that a small problem had cropped up;
it will take a few hours.”

“When can we get it?”

“The earliest would still be after midnight—midnight local time.”

Adrian looked at the time; it would be a wait of at least three hours.

“Specimen” was an underground anti-AI intelligence organization. It had

risen up in recent years, and had penetrated a number of different major
organizations to varying degrees. They have been in contact with the Navi
Military Command and cooperated with them several times, so the
impression they had of each other was not bad.

This time, Adrian came to their Supreme Institution branch to obtain a list
—a name list denoting the people within the faculty and staff of the
Supreme Institution that was on the same side as them. They have always
been cautious when passing information, so they would only pass them
through a single network. Adrian wanted the liaison officer to stay, while he
himself would leave first; but unfortunately, the liaison officer was not a
graduate of the Supreme Institution, and had registered on landing as an
accompanying member. It would bring too much attention if he were to stay
here alone.

“Inform the whole crew, our return is postponed.” Adrian continued

irritably, “I'm going out for a walk, don't follow me.”

……

Midnight was coming soon.

Zhong Yan raised his head a bit stiffly to look at the stars above him. He
was still wearing a suit that did little to protect him against the wind, but he
had already been standing on the rooftop for three hours.

This was one of the corners of the School of Arts' West Wing Tower
rooftop, and it was one of the rare places within the night time patrol's
blindspot; it was also the “top” he had hinted to Adrian about.

He and Adrian had shared a book of ciphers.

During their second year in the school, the School of Military Affairs had a
sudden unprovoked closure of training for a month. They were not allowed
to visit the training center during the training closure period, and the
unrelated students could not go in to visit either. Secretly, they took the time
at midnight when nobody was around to head towards the blindspot for a
meeting. Since there were constantly people and cameras around them, it
was not convenient to say any names, so they could only create a cipher
book.

“When it begins, I'll wait for you on top.”—This meant that at midnight,
they would meet at the rooftop of the West Wing Tower of the School of
Arts.

“Two and a half hours after the beginning, I'll meet you below.”—2:30 in
the morning, below the School of Mechanical Engineering, warehouse
no.208.

“I'll be going outside an hour before the beginning, remember to prepare the
control group for lab.”—At 11 o'clock in the evening, scale the wall on the
east side and head to the antique pavilion on the right; remember to bring
some fresh juice from the store, the flavor I like.

He remembered all the ciphers, all of them, but perhaps…Adrian did not
remember them any more. But since Adrian's memory was not that bad, it
was even more likely that he would remember where “top” was, but was
just no longer willing to show up to these appointments.
It was useless no matter how clearly he remembered them, some ciphers
would never work anymore. Like the “laboratory”—that juice shop was
already gone.

Zhong Yan tried in vain to warm himself by rubbing his arms, hoping to
give his body just a little bit of warmth. Today, Adrian had seen him twice
and had already clearly expressed his stance towards him—Adrian hates
him, so much so that he was unwilling to even hear his name spoken from
his lips, so much so that he would even use the secrets between them as
weapons against him in front of an outsider.

They've hit rock bottom.

He should not be having any fantasies. Zhong Yan covered one side of his
face with his hand, and for just a few seconds, revealed an expression of
utmost pain; but in the next instant, that flawless face returned to its usual
indifference.

He put his hand down. He fixed his unruffled collar, and headed towards the
stairs.

A man was currently walking up the stairwell, and they met on a narrow
path.

Adrian had already changed back to his casual dress, so it was clear to see
that he had already made a trip back to Navi's warship. He put his hand in
his pocket and raised his head to look up at Zhong Yan who stood a few
steps above him. The look within his silver eyes were indistinct, but they
were definitely not smiling.

An awkward silence fell over the dark, narrow stairwell.

After a long time, Adrian said, “I've already refused it.”

“Oh.”

“I came to talk to you about the fines.”

The marriage system was a special one because it involved the will of two
people. If both of them agreed, then naturally, they would immediately be
declared legal partners by “Butterfly”; under the circumstances where one
person refuses, that person would be required to shell out five times the
price of the fine; if both of them refused, then both of them would have to
pay a fine. In addition, if an optimal marriage candidate wanted a divorce
after marriage, they would also be considered unfavourable to society and
fined.

The amount one was fined varied from person to person. Since adhering to
the optimal arrangements were considered to be a beneficial choice to
society, “Butterfly” would assess the matter based on the identity of the
rejector, the scale of the rejected matter, and etcetera. The greater the
adverse impacts it would evoke unto society, the higher the fine.

“I just got the assessment results, the fine is about eighty-one thousand.”

Zhong Yan was a little confused, but he still responded, “Oh, it's quite
high.”

Frankly, it was indeed quite high. The fines for ordinary citizens in tier
three planets were generally around five thousand federation dollars, it
would rarely go above ten thousand; any number above even five thousand
was an extremely rare number.

Adrian spoke, “I've checked the rules, we can't pay them separately, it has
to come from one account. Just transfer forty thousand to my account and
I'll deal with the rest. My account is still the same.”

Zhong Yan looked at him in confusion, it was almost as if he could not

understand what he was saying at all.

“What?” Seeing that he was not getting a response, Adrian made a snide
remark, “Has my account already been deleted because Mr. Counselor's
transaction address book has gotten too full?”

“A…” Something clicked. Zhong Yan suddenly remembered what Adrian

had said to him during the day, and swallowed the rest of the syllables back
down his throat. “You seem to be misunderstanding something.”

“Misunderstanding what?”

“Only under the joint refusal of marriage would the two jointly pay a fine;
otherwise, the refuser has to pay five times the amount.”

“Thank you for your reminder, I know the rules.”

“So why would you think we would be paying the fines the former way, and
not the latter?”

“Because you'd refuse, of course!”

Zhong Yan revealed a look of incredulity and said, “Of course I wouldn't.”

Adrian was also looking at him in disbelief, “Are you mad?!”

“You're mad.” Zhong Yan slowly began, “I am a member of the Supreme

Council, a direct subordinate to “Butterfly”. What benefits would I gain to
refuse an order from my direct superior? I should be taking the lead in
advocating “Butterfly's” judgement. What would everyone in the Federation
think of me if I refuse?”

Adrian was so angry that he spat out a laugh. “Oh, sorry, I've forgotten, of
course you wouldn't refuse any of “Butterfly's” proposals. You're ready to
pay—let's see here, eighty thousand times five is four hundred thousand,
and that minus forty thousand equals three hundred and sixty thousand.
Hah, after crunching the numbers, it does seem like a rather good deal; with
just three hundred and sixty thousand, you can save your political career.”

Zhong Yan shook his head, and a single tuft of his impeccable hairdo fell
out of place, hanging softly down by his brow, instantly softening his overly
cool demeanor.

That's right…Adrian stared at that tuft of hair, and suddenly thought, in this
inappropriate moment, about how he had nearly forgotten how soft Zhong
Yan's hair had always been.
This overly warm memory was shattered by the person before him in the
very next second.

“I don't know what you're calculating about, but perhaps I did not make
myself clear. Let me reiterate myself: I will not refuse the marriage
proposal, nor will I be paying out a single cent. After all, aren't you the
rejecter of this proposal?”

“So you told me to come over so you could tell me, that not only do you
want to preserve your reputation, you're not willing to pay either? That's
equivalent to asking me to shell out four hundred thousand to preserve your
reputation. Is that what you're trying to tell me?”

Adrian scoffed, “A wonderful idea, but do you really think that's possible?
Do you think that we're still stuck seven years in the past?”

He was unsure if it was due to their conflict, but Zhong Yan started to feel
short of breath. After working around the clock for a full day, he still had to
stand in the cold winter winds for three hours; he felt that he was reaching
the bottom of his physical strength. He supported himself on the handrails
so as not to show any weakness, and said, “If it suits you. I'm leaving now.”

Saying that, he was just about to walk past Adrian; but the instant their
shoulders brushed against each other, the sky seemed to have turned around
—that angry man caught his wrist, and pushed him to the wall.
 Chapter 6: Argument

Adrian took a step forward. He was born with a tall stature and handsome
features, so even while angry, his appearance was astonishing and gave off
a feeling of oppression. The two were sticking very closely together, and
even their breaths were tangled.

“We haven't settled anything yet, what are you rushing to go back for?”
Adrian interrogated him fiercely, “You're the one who called me here, and
you're just going to walk off? We haven't even spoken more than a few
words, what're you being impatient about?”

Zhong Yan gushed with anger, “Let go!”

He had always stood within the circle of councilmen, where everyone was
decent in speech and dress, always playing the game of intrigue to get what
they wanted; he had never been trapped so violently by anyone before, so
he could not fight back in time. But it was quite pitiful; not only was he a
half-head shorter than Adrian, his opponent was also the highest scorer in
the ranking list of the Supreme Institution's School of Military Affairs. The
huge disparity in power made him unable to break free, and instead, his
struggle served only to exhaust the last bit of his physical strength.

“Listen, I will not spend a single cent on you, so you will either choose to
refuse, and transfer forty thousand to me, or you're going to transfer three
hundred and sixty thousand to my account.” Adrian looked menacingly
down at him from above, and his silver eyes were gleaming dimly with the
fire of his wrath in the dimly lit stairwell. “—I don't care about your
reputation, so don't even think about having me pay for you.”

“Let go…” said Zhong Yan through a burst of dizziness as a trace of

absurdity rose up from his heart.
They have walked through this stairwell more than a dozen times in the
past. During their teen years, when they were eighteen going on nineteen,
they would break into the system, scout the fields, plan routes, and even
create ciphers just so they could secretly meet each other in the middle of
the night. They finally succeeded in evading the school's surveillance
system, so they were able to meet up during the hours past their curfew.
They did not actually have anything important to say to each other, their
rendezvous and their little whispers in the night were merely their daily
routines. One of the professors seem to be having an affair with the director;
there's a new product from the dessert shop at the School of Social
Sciences' main campus building, I'll bring you some next time; my idiot
classmate got caught looking at the forums in class by the professor
today…In short, they were just enjoying the exhilaration of breaking the
school's rules, but it felt to them as if they have achieved a thrilling feat,
filling them with excitement, and they would never get sick of it.

They were young then, and they never would have thought that the next
time they evaded everyone to get to their secret base would be such an
awkward situation.

“Let's talk somewhere else.” Zhong Yan dropped his head and spoke in a
low voice, “Some other time…I'll arrange for us to talk somewhere else
some other time.”

“And you think I'm just going to agree? I'm very busy, Mr. Counselor. I
have no time to shoot this sh*t with you over and over again. What's more
—I don't even want to see you again.”

Zhong Yan raised his head abruptly, and broke out, “How could you be like
this?!”

They were so close, and even if the light was dim, it was enough for Adrian
to take a clear look—Zhong Yan's eyes were red.

How could he be like that? Adrian was dumbfounded. Why does Zhong
Yan look as if he was going to cry?
“We're at ‘top' right now! Can't you say this elsewhere? How could you do
this—even at ‘laboratory' you were…” Zhong Yan's chest was heaving
violently. He immediately realized his own moment of discomposure. He
closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down before continuing, “It's
nothing, sorry. What I'm trying to say is, can you let go? It hurts.”

What does he mean say it elsewhere? Wasn't Zhong Yan the one who asked
to see him here? Adrian felt that he was simply being unreasonable.
“Laboratory”…? That's right, he made a joke that he wanted to send Zhong
Yan a rabbit specimen at the doorway to “laboratory” whose signs had been
switched out. And as a result of that, he was informed that Zhong Yan
looked to have been crying when he entered the ceremony.

But he didn't mention anything about rabbits? Why was he crying now???

He let him go without any clue as to what he had done. But contrary to his
expectations, Zhong Yan suddenly fell over as soon as he was free from his
hold. Adrian was shocked, and subconsciously reached out to help him.
“What's wro—”

Only then did he realize the morbid paleness of the other's complexion;
there was also an unhealthy red blush covering his cheeks.

Zhong Yan stepped back and broke free from Adrian's arms, supporting
himself against the wall instead.

“Next time,” he spoke between gasps, “I…I have something to do right

now.”

Adrian pursed his lips. He was holding Zhong Yan's waist earlier, and even
if it was only for a few seconds, it was enough to feel through the thin shirt
how terrifyingly hot the other man was—Zhong Yan was having a fever. No
wonder his speech was so disorderly earlier, he was also not as calm as he
usually was.

But he did not intend to accommodate him.

“No, if you want to talk, then we're making things clear right now, I don't
want to see you after today. You're not prepared to pay, nor are you willing
to defy “Butterfly”; does it not matter to you at all that you have to marry
someone you don't like? Getting married is such a sacred thing, and you're
just being this casual about it? …What're you laughing about?”

While he was speaking, Zhong Yan could not help but let out a soft chuckle,
but hearing that, he stopped. He shook his head. “I'm laughing at you,
you're still so naive even after so many years have passed. Getting married
is so sacred that you have to defend it even if it means losing your job and
all your savings, is that how it is? And for the sake of your grand ideals, it's
worth it to abandon everything, to run towards that goal without a care for a
single thing in your life, is that how it is?”

He did not raise his voice, but slowly, without any hint of taunting, Adrian
looked coldly at him and made a resolute answer. “Yes, of course it is!”

“That's what you think. Not everyone's the same as you, being born in a
prominent family, squandering money as you please. I was abandoned by
my parents as soon as I came into this world, I have nothing. Do you know
what life was like in the orphanage of an underdeveloped little planet? Do
you know what it's like to go through different adoptive families, playing by
their tune, and standing ready for their beck and call?! All the verbal abuse,
the bullying, do you know how it feels when nobody cares about you? Do
you?

“You don't, do you? You've always been at the center of everyone's focus,
anything you wanted, you would be given. I gritted my teeth and struggled
through everything alone just so I could get to where I am today! For
twenty whole years! And at the final moment, you want me to give up the
opportunity I was given to change my life just because a good friend asked
me to?”

Zhong Yan became more agitated the more he spoke, and he had almost
never been this brusque with someone in his life. After he stopped, he took
a breath and looked into Adrian's eyes, saying, “I'm sorry, even if that friend
is you, I can't do it.”
Adrian stared fiercely in his eyes and questioned him, “That's the reason
you betrayed me?”

“You call this betrayal? The situation then, when we graduated, and the
situation now is different, most of the people accepted ‘Butterfly's'
arrangements then. And as far as I know, you were in good relations with
several of them, but I'm the only one whose telecommunication account you
blocked.

“There was Feng Weiran, your friend from the military division, and he
went to the Glory Star System according to ‘Butterfly's' proposals. As far as
I know, his wife's merchant ship entered the Navi Star System many times
last year, and she even has your special permission. They also ‘betrayed'
you, so why don't you blacklist them instead? Why don't you hate them?
Why…why am I the only one who's hated by you!”

Zhong Yan spoke very quickly as if he had been repressing the words in his
heart for a very long time, and could finally spit it all out at once today.

“He was only—Hold on,” Adrian narrowed his eyes dangerously, “You're
monitoring my network.”

Zhong Yan could barely stand anymore, his whole body was soft and his
head was dizzy. “Yes. I'm abusing my power for my own gain. This is one
of the many conveniences brought to me by my power. How many council
members do you think have clean hands? Haven't you always been going
off about this?”

To think he would admit it so quickly, and even chucked his words right
back at him; Adrian was stunned, and for a moment, he could not find any
words to continue his criticism. He quickly latched onto the previous topic.
“Feng Weiran was born in the Glory Star, he had always thought of going
back, so all he did was accept the most ideal position for him, and you call
that betrayal?”

“I also just accepted my ideal position!”

“Your ideal position is to become ‘Butterfly's' subordinate? Then why was I
never told about this when I was talking to you about the necessity for
human autonomy?! For three years you led me by the nose with your
deliberate silence!”

“Tell you what? You want me to tell you when you're fueled with moral
indignation, talking to me about the drawbacks of AI and criticized
‘Butterfly' as nothing, that if I were ever judged suitable for the Supreme
Council, I would go? What would be the point of bringing up such an
unrealistic hypothesis at that time?”

“Of course there's a point. If you told me early on that you were this kind of
a person—” Adrian enunciated each word, “I would never have been
friends with you at all.”

Those words almost seemed to have destroyed the pillar that had been
holding Zhong Yan up. He collapsed and hit his arm on the stairs, causing it
to throb with pain.

This time, Adrian did not reach out to him.

“I still have things to do.” Zhong Yan could not stand up at all, layer after
layer of darkness was seeping down into his eyes. He tried to keep the last
thread of his dignity in front of this man; he could no longer maintain a
steady voice, but he kept his tone firm, “Leave, we're done here. Move
away.”

“Suit yourself,” said Adrian with coldness emanating from his entire
person. Without any hesitation, he left him and went.

Adrian went out of the tower, and ran into one of the hovering cameras.

Since he had once used the tower's rooftop as a secret meeting place in the
past, he was very familiar with all the monitoring operations within the
vicinity. For example, he knew that the camera that was now floating ahead
of him would fly into the tower from the terrace on the second floor, then
slowly patrol along the entire stairwell before flying out from the top
window; but it would not fly up to the roof.
Cameras used in such remote corners of the campus were not very
intelligent, and would not adjust its flight route according to the detected
conditions in real time, it would only patrol according to the fixed route as
it was set. It was also not equipped with any intelligent real-time analysis
systems, and had only a single function. So, its size was especially small; it
was only one-half the size of a person's fist.

But it could detect ambient temperature.

The mainframe of the school's monitoring system would filter through these
reports every hour, which was to say—Adrian lifted up the terminal on his
wrist to look at the time—in forty minutes, the intelligent analysis system
would find out that a man whose body temperature was clearly above the
normal ratings was present within the West Wing Tower of the School of
Arts. A fever was not a life-threatening emergency, so a warning would not
be sent to the school's medical institution; however, a man who appeared in
the middle of the night without any student identification in such a remote
corner would trigger a low-level alert from the security department, even if
no weapon was detected. The nearest patrolling security guard will come
over to check on the situation, which would take about ten minutes.

So to say, in less than an hour, someone would find that Council Member
Zhong Yan was currently going through a high fever.

Of course, Zhong Yan could contact his own personal assistant, who had
accompanied him, to inform them about his current physical condition.
Then, it would take only ten minutes, less than an hour, to obtain effective
support.

But Zhong Yan would not do it. Zhong Yan had always hated being seen as
weak by anyone, so he would try to keep up his image at all times. God
knows why a person who was clearly born within the bowels of society had
such an arrogant personality. Just like earlier, he was clearly in such a bad
state that he was struggling to stand, and couldn't even hold a proper
conversation, but he still refused to show any weakness. He insisted that he
had “something to do” and drove him away.
Seven years ago, Adrian had sent him to the school's treatment ward many
times. He was so angry that he was fuming when he heard him tell the
doctor that he was “fine”. He understood Zhong Yan too well, there was no
way he would take the initiative to contact his assistant.

Adrian looked up and saw that the patrol camera was already starting to rise
up. Very soon, it would reach the open terrace on the second floor, and will
then do its due diligence in a dozen seconds or so, capturing Zhong Yan's
image with its lenses.

Adrian closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

Then, he suddenly turned around and ran. He stretched his body and
jumped up, grabbing the small camera that was hovering in the air, and
backflipped in the air, landing steadily back on the ground.

Adrian crushed the camera with one hand, and stuffed the wreckage into his
coat pocket before walking with a gloomy face back to the stairwell.

He had only reached the third floor when he suddenly heard the faint
sounds of a whimper. It was clearly the sound of someone crying, but that
voice held no restraints, and…was also very familiar.
 Chapter 7: Carried Back

From an early age, Zhong Yan knew the importance of power.

He was once adopted by a couple who had tried but failed to produce a
child even after a long time. The husband of the couple was the boss of a
big local business, and they were considered to be a very wealthy family in
the area. He still remembered how jealous all his peers at the orphanage
were when he was being adopted.

But, before even a year had passed, his foster mother was pregnant. They
paid their fines and gave birth to another child before returning Zhong Yan.
It was not until he returned to the orphanage that he found out that his
adoptive parents had told them that he had stolen their family belongings,
but his adoptive father was a generous man and did not wish to stain the
child's credit record and ruin his life, so they did not report it. Then, an
annulment of his adoption was signed with the orphanage.

Somehow or another, word of it had leaked out, and the orphan children
were all discussing it. That Zhong Yan who looked the best was a thief, that
was why he was returned!

“I did not steal!” At only seven, Zhong Yan's face was flushed red as he
said in agitation, “How could he say that? Let him report it, let ‘Butterfly'
investigate it! I didn't do it!”

But they all ignored him. The staff grabbed his arm and sent him back to the
dormitory. It did not require a very wise mind to understand the situation;
they had their own child and chose to abandon their adopted son, but they
did not want to be punished, so they could only push the blame onto this
parentless child.
Ten years later, Zhong Yan was admitted to the Supreme Institution. The
first thing he did when he got away from that little planet was to make a
report that the director of the orphanage had received a bribe.

He was the newly promoted champion of the Federation, the most

honourable representative of the Supreme Institution's new students. The
speed in which the Capital Star accepted his report was very fast, and in just
the second week of school, he received news that the orphanage was seized,
and several local giants were also led along.

It was so easy! The mountain he could never push even after exerting all his
strength, he was able to topple it with just the swipe of his fingers.

This was his first taste of power in life, and he could not help but share the
good news with his roommate. His roommate told him that he should not
take what happened in the orphanage as an example, their so-called
surveillance system of today was just a way to monitor the civilians. The
higher up you were, the more ways you would have to evade it—they could
even use the so called “ubiquitous” artificial intelligence for their own
gains.

His roommate was not a supporter of AI. Zhong Yan did not mind this very
much, and to be honest, don't even mention artificial intelligence, even if
the one ruling over humans was a gigantic space rabbit, whether the human
race was still alive or dead after a hundred years was none of his business as
long as he could live a good life.

You could call him heartless or immoral, but he had never been cared for by
anyone since he was born, so he would care for no one as well.

But there was no need to tell his new roommate this—even though his
roommate came from a big family from the Capital Star, he did not put on
airs like all the other pompous young masters, and he was treating him very
well instead, even taking him as his good friend.

Nobody had ever been this nice to him, this was the very first friend he had
in his life.
But Adrian told him he would no longer be his friend.

Zhong Yan was prostrated dizzily over the stairs, covering his face with his
hands as crystalline droplets of liquid seeped through the cracks of his
fingers, leaking drop by drop down onto the ground.

In the middle of the night, the sudden sound of footsteps disrupted the
silence of the stairwells.

Zhong Yan had an abrupt start, and quickly wiped his face with his sleeves
in a hurry before raising his voice to ask: “Who?!”

Those footsteps were completely unaffected by his question, and was

headed steadily towards him. Zhong Yan felt the subconscious need to hide
his sorry cut of a figure, but he had no strength left in his body, so he could
only watch with eyes wide as that person slowly appeared in his sights—

……

It was true that Adrian had never seen this side of Zhong Yan. He was
crumbled down onto the ground powerlessly, his complexion sickly, and his
beautiful phoenix eyes were glazed with tears as its surroundings were
circled with red.

Adrian spoke with a little unease, “I haven't even started crying yet, so what
are you crying about?”

“I'm not crying,” Zhong Yan denied.

Adrian glared at him, and for a moment, he could not find what to say.
After a long while, he started again, “Are your assistants dead or what? Tell
them to pick you up.”

“I'm fine, I'll return after I sit for a while.”

Calm down, calm down, don't get angry, Adrian tried to urge himself; it's
not as if you don't know what this guy's virtues are like.
“Are you not going to contact your men?” He asked again after suppressing
his temper.

Zhong Yan's entire body was feeling chilly, and it was so cold that he was
nearly on the verge of shaking. He could wish for nothing more than for
Adrian to leave quickly, so that he would not have to see this side of him.
He insisted, “I'm fine.”

“Fine, I'm contacting my men.”

“Wha…” Before Zhong Yan could finish, Adrian had violently covered him
with his coat, and he was suddenly lifted up. He was so shocked that he
subconsciously reached out and wrapped his arms around his neck—he was
being carried like a princess.

……

Fayn has had a very mentally exhausting day today.

He knew that explosions would light up as soon as Adrian and Zhong Yan
were to meet, but he still underestimated the ability of the two in causing
trouble. He never would have expected them to create so much news in just
a short half day. The virtual community was like a carnival right now, and
just thinking about people from different time zones waking up to it, the
heat would definitely be here to stay for a while…

Well, they can say whatever they want, this thrilling day was finally over.

But this was not all bad; with everyone's attention was focused on the pair
of enemies, the true purpose of their ensignment to the Institutional Star
would be concealed.

While Fayn was still trying to comfort himself in these trying times, an
image suddenly popped up from his terminal—Adrian was requesting a
voice call.

“Commander, that was a mighty long walk you've had, are you ready to
return?”
“Yeah, I'm on the way.”

“Alright, I'll tell the crew to prepare for…”

“Hold on, don't return for now. Go inform the medical officer…Stop
moving!”

Fayn asked in confusion, “What? But I'm not moving?”

“I'm not talking about you!” A spark of rage could be heard in Adrian's
voice. “There's a camera just ten meters away, if you move again I'm
throwing you over there, wanna give it a go?”

Fayn's drowsiness flew away in an instant, and he probed with excitement.

“Wow! And here I was wondering what you're doing out there in the middle
of the night. Who are you with? A junior sister? I thought we were friends,
why didn't you invite me as well?”

“Scram. Tell the medical officer to prepare a bed, empty the office, and
remove all the video and audio surveillance equipment.”

“What? And you're bringing her back too?” Fayn was shocked. “And you
want to use the bed in the clinic? So exciting?”

Adrian howled, “What kind of rubbish are you thinking about! Tell the
medical officer to stand by in the clinic!”

Saying that, he hung up.

Fayn pondered on his own for a moment. From his tone, Adrian sounded
very angry, and not hurt; most likely, the one who's hurt must be his
opponent. But it's the middle of the night, how hurt could he be?

Adrian had also specifically emphasized the removal of internal

surveillance equipment from the warship's clinical ward…

Fayn felt that he had a complete understanding of his superior's words now,
so he quickly rushed off to shake the medical officer from his bed.
“You're finally back, the medical officer has been waiting for a long…
time…” Before Fayn could finish, his eyes widened in astonishment.

Adrian walked in from the security door, and there was a man in his arms—
but that was not the main point. He knew the inside story of what happened
in the past, so Fayn was not at all surprised by this. What surprised him
though was the fact that even though the head and upper body of this person
was covered by Adrian's coat, what it could cover was still limited; this man
was clearly wearing a black suit.

He was no student.

“Uh,” Fayn hesitated, “Is…is this a professor or…one of the guests today?”

The body of that mysterious man shrank a little, and he held onto Adrian's
neck with an even greater force. Only then did Fayn notice that the other
man's wrist was fair and thin, with long slender fingers; from that alone, he
seemed quite young.

With such a youthful pair of hands, it was probably not a professor. There
were many guests who were wearing black today, but the ones at this age,
with such a figure, and with skin so fair…Fayn's eyes were getting wider
and wider. He suddenly felt as if these hands seemed just a little bit familiar.

Adrian glared at him. “What's with all your nonsense today? Get back to
your job.” Saying that, he carried the man to the clinic, leaving behind his
adjutant who was still having difficulties digesting this piece of news.

Wei Lan opened the door for Adrian and glanced over to the man in his
arms. “A man? Then he won't be able to lay down, put him down on his
side.”

Adrian was confused. “Why should I put him on his side if he has a fever?
And what do you mean he's a man?”

Wei Lan who was preparing the tools suddenly paused, and raised his gaze
to question. “Fever? But the adjutant said…”
“Said what?”

“…Nothing. Do you know what caused the fever?”

“Being out in the cold for a long time? It could be something more, take a
look at him.” As he said that, Adrian set the man down on the bed. The man
who was being covered with the coat was strangely quiet.

Wei Lan put away all the equipment silently and took out the routine
inspection equipment.

He was just about to pull the coat away from that person when Adrian
suddenly caught his hands.

“Have all the surveillance equipment in the room been removed?”

Wei Lan nodded. “I took out all we can, I told the others to block out the
signal for those we can't remove.”

“You heard him, this place is not being monitored.” Saying that, Adrian
peeled his coat away from him.

After being tossed around for such a long time, the blush on Zhong Yan's
cheeks had already spread throughout his entire face. It was unknown
whether it was from his fever, or from anger, but it might also be due to the
lack of oxygen from all his struggling on the way; or even all of the above.
He raged, “You're so unreasonable! You're…you're…”

“Abducting a council member? Kidnapping the top rank of the Supreme

Council?” Adrian shot him a challenging grin. “Go ahead, sue me.”

Wei Lan listened silently as the two exchanged insults at each other until
Adrian finally turned his attention towards him again. Then he asked,
“Commander, are you sure you're conscious right now? This is Counselor
Zhong Yan.”

The greatest merit Wei Lan had was his calmness. Once, in a time of
danger, he pulled Fayn back from death's grasp during a wipe out operation.
It happened around the time when Adrian had just been promoted, and was
vigorously developing his own troops. So he was promoted and eventually
became Chief Medical Officer of the Navi Military Command.

But his his calmness was also his greatest downside. Besides being totally
unfazed by death, he would always say ridiculous things with a completely
calm demeanor. More than once, someone would try to act out against
Adrian when their tolerance peaked, and every time they visited the clinic,
where they would then feel the need to beat up the medical officer.

The veins on Adrian's forehead were popping, and he felt he could finally
empathize with them. With impatience he said, “Do you want me to give
you my security code for verification? I know who this is! Now deal with
him quickly, and throw him out when you're done!”

“I'm not sick!” Zhong Yan was still putting up a stiff resistance. But
unfortunately, it clearly took a lot of effort for him to even speak these
words, so it was not at all convincing.

Somebody knocked on the door to the ward.

Adrian switched on the terminal screen to look, then turned to Wei Lan.
“I've got business, I'll be back in a bit.”

Fayn was pacing anxiously at the door, and when he saw that Adrian had
finally come out, he quickly asked, “How was it? Can he be saved?”

Adrian:”…Save what? Didn't you have a report for me?”

Fayn waved his hand, “Gosh, we can talk about the reports next time, this is
more important. What kind of friends are we? Do you still have to hide
anything from me? You've even gone so far as to carry him back—did you
break his legs?”
 Chapter 8: Hiding

Adrian grunted with impatience. “Let me tell you one last time, I never
thought of hitting him!”

“What? Come on, if we round up all the people you've beat up, we could
circle them around the main building of the military headquarters three
times! Aren't you the fight now, talk later type?” Fayn said in exaggeration,
“Even the two of us have fought!”

“That's cause you deserved being hit.” Adrian could not even bother to
continue this conversation with him. He raised his hand to stop him before
he could rebut, “Did you get the name list from 'Specimen'?”

Fayn looked as if he wanted to keep on going, but since Adrian was

bringing up business, he could only put away the curiosity within him for
now.

“It arrived not long ago, the liaison officer returned just a few minutes
before you did. Here it is.”

Adrian took over the stack of paper from him. Practically all instruments
used to hold information were virtual screens. In days like these where
physical screens were rare, ordinary citizens had practically little to no
contact with such ancient means of holding information. This was a real
piece of paper. “Specimen” has always been cautious in their activities, and
firmly adhered to the principle of one-to-one physical message
transmission; short messages were passed down by word of mouth, or
written with pen—retro mechanical pens, not the touchscreen type—on the
palms of their hands. For messages that were too long, such as the list of
confirmed anti-AI faculty members within the Supreme Institution, they
could only be written on paper.
The Supreme Institution had a very special status within the Federation. A
century ago, after several generations of incessant trials from the human
race and countless failures, they finally created a small, artificial, but
mature planet that could operate independently. It took a huge amount of
funding to maintain the normal operations of a man-made planet, causing a
huge riot within the entire Federation for what was to be done on it. Some
supported the use of it for the relocation of the Academy of Sciences, some
called for the creation of an ecological landscape planet, and there were also
those who requested it to be developed into high-level settlements. Finally,
the first generation AI present at the time, “Cocoon”, suggested to turn it
into a school.

Schools were a sacred existence, so the many voices of dissatisfaction that

disagreed with each other subsided. Thus, the Supreme Institution settled
down on it, and now most of the planet was occupied by the school, with
the rest being the living areas of the faculty and staff. This was how the first
artificial planet made by humans became a planet purely for education. The
planet was also named after the school, it was called Institution Star.

……

Less than three years after the completion of the Federation's Highest
Institution, the first generation AI “Cocoon” announced its retirement, and
humanity entered a new era of security, efficiency, and thorough
optimization.

From the very first batch of students received by the Supreme Institution,
they have admitted only the best from the Federation, and the graduation of
these students that came in three years, were the first graduates of the
Federation since the ushering in of the new AI, “Butterfly”.

You could say that the Supreme Institution was born because of AI, and the
hundred years of glory they received after that were also closely connected
to “Butterfly”. For most of the first half-century past, this institution had
repaid “Butterfly” with their unbridled loyalty. Their students have set an
example for all the students in the world for their support and obeisance
towards “Butterfly's” proposals. After a hundred years have passed, most of
the students of this school have come out to hold important positions, and
thrived in them to give birth to dozens of new aristocratic families. Together
with the old family powers, they were intertwined to form a complex upper
society network within the Capital.

It was not until the recent thirty years that students from the Supreme
Institution began to openly reject “Butterfly's” arrangements at the
graduation ceremony. Until a decade ago, when a radical voice of anti-AI
appeared for the first time on this planet, nobody would have ever thought
that the wheels of history would turn this way. To think that the Federation's
Supreme Institution would actually reach a rejection rate of 46% during its
100th anniversary—this number was the highest amongst the top schools,
and even broke their record high of 41% last year.

To have such a high proportion of non-supporters among the students, the

same definitely could be said with the faculty and staff; just that some have
expressed their positions, some presented themselves ambiguously, and the
rest remained silent. To get to the bottom of this, one would always have to
test out the waters before they could take action, and this was why Adrian
had contacted the Institution Star's branch of “Specimen” to negotiate for
information sharing with the other party.

Adian flipped over the pages and mused, “Some of their positions…can be
used.”

Fayn nodded in agreement, clearly having studied the list beforehand. He

said, “The liaison officer has applied for a one-on-one meeting with you
tomorrow. The people at “Specimen” have briefed him about their next
plans on the Institution Star.”

“Alright, I'll speak with him,” he responded. Adrian raised his head and
stretched out his muscles while asking, “How did the netizens react today?”

Fayn's eyes glittered in an instant; he thought that Adrian was finally

prepared to talk to him about Zhong Yan, so he gushed out at once, “How
else could it be! The entire Federation is buzzing! God, you didn't see it, but
they were saying everything. They said you were a big bully and even
brought your own gang to bully that guy; some were even trying to guess
what you said to him when you bumped into each other during the
afternoon; some people said that guy was trying to take over the nest, and
was trying to take over the seat of the Yate family's young master. But most
of them were definitely talking about the marriage proposal. The supporters
of you two have gone mad and are attacking each other with conspiracy
theories—oh right, what does ‘top' mean? I saw some people decipher what
that guy mouthed.”

Adrian looked at him with his head throbbing. “I was asking…how did
everyone react to the 46% rejection rate of the Supreme Institution?”

“Oh, that.” Fayn shrugged, “Not many people paid attention to that, but isn't
that normal? It just raised by 5%, hardly as dramatic as the increase from
last year.”

During the middle of last year, a serious case of AI misjudgement erupted

in the Capital Star: a young girl who could be considered rather popular in
several forums was wrongly convicted in a civil dispute. The entire
situation continued to ferment for several months, and the Supreme Council
had to apologize and admit the mistake of the wrongful conviction.

Even though the Supreme Council had repeatedly stated that this was only
one amongst a very small possibility of mistakes due to “Butterfly's”
routine program updates, and was only a technical issue, and it had nothing
to do with any other factors. However, the frenzy of the public has not
stopped, information continued to be leaked in these recent years, whether
they were actually true or not, causing the devotion of the people to come to
an end as they begin to question: could the Supreme Council manipulate
“Butterfly's” judgement to some extent? Has “Butterfly” lost the
impartiality that it had always upheld? Has artificial intelligence produced
the awareness to suppress dissidents towards itself?

No matter what it could be, any possibilities could easily be enough to

evoke a sense of crisis in people. By the end of the year, when the major
institutions conducted some investigations of the people, they found that the
support rate for restoring human autonomy had already broken through the
30 percent mark.
“There were some big issues last year that riled up the people after all, such
a steady increase is already quite impressive for such a smooth year.”
Adrian continued, “At the end of it, what they did last year was not optimal.
Only when the citizens can think for themselves, and recognize the
problem, will they…”

Fayn interrupted him, “What do you mean? I think it's quite good. In the
end, it's that evil little moth who harmed someone by making a
misjudgement, only then did ‘Specimen' latch onto the opportunity to push
things further and stir up the people's emotions. It was just a process to
speed things up. Some people are just blindly devoted to that damn moth,
they'll never wake up from it if nothing big ever happens. But then again,”
Fayn waved the name list in his hands, “where does this organization come
from? Were they behind all the big scandal reveals that's been coming out
these past few years? It's incredible how much you can do with a few
sources, like that misjudgement case last year; it's amazing to think they
actually got the files from the Capital Star Central Hospital. And also this
faculty name list…some positions are really high up, how did they get in
contact with them? Should we investigate?”

Adrian rapped his knuckles on the table, and slowly spoke. “It doesn't
matter, cautiousness is the way to survival for these underground
organizations. They would be dead sooner than you can even start if it's that
easy to investigate. As long as they don't reach into Navi, we can let them
be.”

Right as they were talking, Adrian received a message from Wei Lan
reporting the progress of Zhong Yan's treatment.

……

Zhong Yan was laying on the bed with a quiet and relaxed expression. The
drug had worked its magic in his body and he was already feeling much
better. But he felt very exhausted, and a little sleepy.

The room was kept at a consistent, reasonably warm temperature, but the
temperature of his body was still gradually falling. Suddenly, he felt a little
chill and wanted to cover up with something. Zhong Yan looked around
him; besides the coat left behind by the bed, there really was nothing else to
cover himself with.

He gave up his search and covered himself with the coat again when
suddenly, he was hit by a hard object. Confused, Zhong Yan felt around the
area, and pulled out a camera that was no longer in its original shape.

Adrian opened the door and entered just in time to see Zhong Yan sitting on
the bed, fiddling with the wreckage of the camera in boredom.

“What's this?” When he saw him enter, Zhong Yan raised the item in
question and asked him, “Is this the patrol camera from the school?”

Adrian pulled a chair for himself and sat at the furthest corner of the room,
“Yes.”

Zhong Yan was confused. “What did you destroy it for?”

“Nothing, just didn't like the look of it.”

For some inexplicable reason, the question made Adrian unhappy—he did
not say it, but Zhong Yan could hear it in his voice. As a tactful person, he
did not continue to question him, and instead switched to a different topic.

“I want to speak with my assistant. Is the signal blocked in this room? Can I
go out and contact them?”

“No. Did you think I'd let you out and give you the opportunity to spy on
the structure of my warship?”

Zhong Yan's mind was in a much sober state than before, and he always
remained composed when his mind was clear. He spoke to him calmly,
“Your warship is a highly-equipped standard small Federation warship.”

“It's been modified. There are secret weapons hidden everywhere beyond
this door, do you not see me coming over personally to watch over you? It's
the middle of the night, are you not done messing around?” Adrian said
with impatience, “I let you sleep on my bed, so before I change my mind,
you better get to sleep.”
Zhong Yan was at a loss as to how he was to react to how unreasonable the
other man was being, but it was indeed quite late. After all, this was the
Institution Star where the graduation ceremony had been held just the day
before. Many people were still gathered here, so it would not be appropriate
to go out again at this time…He silently accepted the other's suggestion,
and prepared to leave tomorrow.

Only…he was actually getting a little thirsty.

Zhong Yan opened his mouth, but closed it again. Adrian had told him not
to call him by his name, but he was afraid that asking for water without
even a prefix would make him even angrier. For a moment, Zhong Yan
could not think of what to call him. Of course, he could choose to accept
Adrian's request and call him “Commander Yate”—just like the hundreds of
millions of people in the Federation who had no inkling of a relationship
with Adrian.

Adrian's focus was completely off him right now, and he was working on
his own virtual terminal; probably dealing with military documents.

Zhong Yan pondered about it, but finally decided to try. “…Fellow Student,
can you help me get a glass of water?”
 Chapter 9: Sleepless Night

At the age of twenty-seven this year, Adrian who had mixed with both the
good and bad, crawling and beating his way up that disorderly mess of a
star system, was suddenly referred to as “Fellow Student”.

If this person had been one of his old professors, he might even feel touched
to hear that; but unfortunately, this was Zhong Yan who was also twenty-
seven this year. Adrian felt a strange chill and had a suspicion that this man
was trying to disgust him on purpose, thus he shot back with an insult. “Is
something wrong with you?”

Zhong Yan was back to himself now, so he countered him effortlessly, “Yes,
that's right, I've just taken my medicine and I'm getting better now. Thank
you for your humanitarian aid. Can you get me a glass of water please? Or I
could go and get it myself, if that works for you.”

Many years ago, Adrian had gone to watch several of the in-school debate
competitions that Zhong Yan had participated in when he had no classes.
Zhong Yan had his own distinct style and was also a strong argumenter
whose every word carried tons of weight. He was always put in charge as
the second or third speaker, and the speakers of these positions mainly
participated in the opposition segments.

At that time, he watched as Zhong Yan sat in his seat like an immovable
mountain; even when his opponent was vehement and red-faced, his
expression still remained the same; always like the stagnant surface of a
lake without any ripples. When he opened his mouth to speak, even though
the speed in which he gave his speech was quick, it still felt to everyone
present that he was completely calm and steady.
This may be strange to say, but Zhong Yan was more lively and much
warmer when they were in the privacy of their shared dormitory. But when
he saw how he spoke word after word, each as sharp and accurate as a
dagger, against his opponent with that calm face of his, Adrian found
himself unable to look away.

He was so fascinated by this man during those years, but now he felt like he
was the biggest fool in the world.

Adrian had a mind to order one of his subordinates to follow that guy
around, but unfortunately he did not bring many people with him to begin
with, and most of them had already gone to sleep. Standing up, he walked
out of the room with an unkindly expression.

Adrian returned the now filled glass to the stand right beside the bed and
turned towards Zhong Yan. “I just thought about the time when you were in
your second year. There was a debate on the pros and cons of artificial
intelligence. You invited me to go see it.”

Zhong Yan did not know why that was suddenly brought up, so he nodded.
“Yes. I was the third speaker of the opposition for that debate, and the
opposition won; I remember it, why?”

Adrian asked with a menacing tone, “Have you been planning to mislead
me since then?”

Only then did Zhong Yan understand. He did not know how Adrian had
come up with this idea, but he was convinced that this had all been an ill-
intended, well-planned deception.

“The supporting and opposition parties of the school debates are decided by
lots only half an hour before it begins. I've invited you to every competition
I participated in, but since you were always busy with building up a clique
of your own, you've only been to several of them and happened to come on
a day where that was the chosen topic; can I really be blamed for that as
well?”
“Weren't you very thorough that day on that stage about how bad artificial
intelligence was? Even I couldn't muster as many words as you did. How is
it that your words and actions are in complete conflict of each other?”

“That was a debate competition,” Zhong Yan frowned, “If I had been
chosen to be on the supporting side, I would also have led my team to
victory just the same. Could you be a little less naive? The competition is
one that looks at a debater's ability in language expression, and the ability to
respond on the spot; it does not mean that the debater really agrees with the
points they have brought up. I performed well, and that only proves that the
level of my ability to debate is high. It has no other meaning.”

Adrian sneered coldly. “I am rather naive. I only knew that you were
performing on stage, but I never suspected that what happened below that
stage could be a performance as well.”

Zhong Yan's expression was turning colder. “I wasn't acting.”

“Is that so?”

It was useless to deny anything. Most likely, he was seen as nothing more
than a swindler now in Adrian's heart; to him, he was a person who could
do anything for the sake of obtaining power.

But it did not matter. Zhong Yan's hands tightened around the glass. It
doesn't matter, he can think whatever he wants, this is how he had always
been.

When Adrian saw him about to take his drink, he snapped coldly. “That
glass of water costs three hundred thousand. For old time's sake, I'll give
you a discount, only 120%, you owe me three hundred and sixty thousand.
Remember to pay up after you drink.”

As if he did not hear him, Zhong Yan took a slow few sips and raised his
glass to look at the contents. “I've got no money, just charge me forty
thousand for these two sips.”
“What use is it if you only pay forty thousand?” Adrian broke out in rage,
“Just choose to refuse!”

“Not possible, I don't have three hundred and sixty thousand.”

“You're so poor that you can't even shell out three hundred and sixty
thousand?” Adrian sneered. “The damned annual salary of a council
representative is no less than four hundred thousand, let alone the various
benefits you're given. Moreover, I'm sure most of your money is coming
from grey areas—and don't tell me you don't have any. I don't believe that
someone with clean hands and feet can climb up as quickly as you did.
Besides, you said it yourself, are there any members in the council with
clean hands?”

It was very late now and Zhong Yan was feeling rather sleepy. Since there
was no surveillance here, he had a rare chance of finally being able to relax,
and was also too lazy to maintain his image. He drained the glass of water
that was said to be worth more than three hundred thousand, and simply
responded, “Got no money. I'm going to sleep.”

Saying that, he pulled the coat over his head, forcing the topic to an end.

Adrian left the clinic after watching him settle down into his slumber, and
locked the door from the outside. He laid on the bed in his own room, and
his emotions were tumbling within his chest. No matter how hard he tried,
he could not sleep—probably only someone as heartless as Zhong Yan
could sleep so peacefully after so many things have happened.

He looked at the news on his terminal for a while, and realized that he
really could not blame Fayn; almost all the discussions about the graduation
ceremony were taken up by news of him and Zhong Yan. He could only
spend some effort to look for the articles published by the major media
outlets that were discussing the Supreme Institution's internal flow, but they
were simply too few, and it did not take him long to finish reading all of
them.

……
He decided simply to get up once more, and enter the surveillance room by
himself.

Since he had came out with only a few officers, nobody was on night duty
in the surveillance room. Adrian manually turned on the surveillance of a
certain room using the highest authority.

He did not know what he was trying to do either, but fortunately, nobody
was around so he did not have to explain himself to anyone.

He couldn't sleep anyways. That was what he said to appease himself. What
if Zhong Yan was only pretending to sleep, and was planning to do
something fishy? After all, he brought the “enemy” into his own warship,
he should be taking the responsibility of watching over him…

The surveillance screen was restored, and the idle expression on Adrian's
face froze.

As expected, Zhong Yan was only pretending to sleep. The chair that had
originally been left at the corner was brought by Zhong Yan to next to the
bed, and he was sitting there now. From the looks of it, he seemed to be
daydreaming.

What was he trying to do in the middle of the night? Adrian watched the
image closely. Could it be, Zhong Yan had brought a small eavesdropping
device on him, and was going to install it somewhere? But he had brought
him over forcefully, he did not think that Zhong Yan could have expected
this situation.

Then, was he going to modify the camera's wreckage to be used as a

wiretapping device? But Zhong Yan's profession was miles away from the
electronics and machinery section. He did not believe that Zhong Yan had
the ability to recover equipment that had been crushed by him.

After a while, Zhong Yan finally moved. Adrian watched him seriously, and
watched as Zhong Yan began to…fold clothes.

He was folding Adrian's coat.

The way he folded the coat looked very dilatory. A little tug here, a little pat
there; an ordinary coat took him a full two minutes to fold, and the finished
product was left with no edges at all; it looked soft and feeble. If he was
inspecting the new recruits while they were folding their clothes, and they
did it in this way, he would have beaten them until their faces were swollen.

But clearly, Zhong Yan did not find anything unacceptable about that folded
coat. He put it down on the bed and picked up the wrecked camera beside
the bed, turning it around and looking over it. A look of confusion appeared
on his face, clearly not having found the reason behind it being reduced to
such a state. So, he put it back into the clothes, leaving it to rest in peace.

After doing these mysterious things, he went to the bathroom. When he

came out again, Adrian figured that he should be going to sleep now.

But he did not.

Instead, he sat back down on the chair and stared at the folded coat,
entering into that trance-like state again. After a while, he took off his
slippers and slowly curled up on the chair, holding his legs with both hands
with his head buried within, shrivelling up into one small figure.

This was Zhong Yan who cared about keeping up appearances more than
anything else in this world. Unbeknownst to him, he revealed for the first
time, within the locked doors of the clinic which he thought was completely
isolated to Adrian, a side of him he had never seen—a side of him that was
fragile, dispirited, and vulnerable.

Adrian stared at the huddled man for a very long time. With a complicated
look on his face, he continued to watch him from the surveillance room for
the entire night.

“Co…Commander?”

Early the next morning, the second lieutenant of the munitions department
was stunned in place by the presence of the man seated within.”How come
you're here? Did something happen on the ship?”
His rank was not high so he had not been invited by the school, but he was
also a graduate of the Supreme Institution. Three years ago, he followed in
Adrian's footsteps and announced to everyone that he wanted to give the
Navi Military Command his support, and he had also caused a small
sensation back then. Right now, he had become one of Adrian's trusted men,
and was brought along by him to be part of his crew.

Everyone else within the crew had higher ranks than him, so he was
temporarily in charge of monitoring the ship.

“You're here?” When he saw him, Adrian gave him a very normal greeting.

“Oh, yes…is there anything wrong?” he asked with his heart beating in fear.
He looked over to the screens; besides the clinic's surveillance that he had
been asked to turn off still being off, there were no abnormalities to be
found.

But the commander was absolutely not normal. If this was the usual, there
would definitely be a smile at his lips when he spoke; but right now, his
face was cold.

“Nothing, I just woke up a little early. You can get to work—there's no need
to turn on the surveillance for the clinic.”

With that, Adrian gave him a wave and left the surveillance room.

“Holy f*ck—what's the matter with you?” Fayn had yet to wake up and was
stumbling to pull his blanket up to cover his chest. Pretending to be
terrified, he asked, “Are you going to rape me?”

Adrian pulled his blanket off. “I wouldn't do it even if you paid me. Get the
hell up.”

Fayn got up while mumbling a complaint. Adrian said to him, “Send Zhong
Yan back to his ship by car later, and if anyone asks, just say I'm the one in
the car and was going over to negotiate with him about the refusal fines.”
Fayn was rinsing his mouth when he heard that, and nearly choked to death.
Through his coughs he said, “Me? Send him back?! You're better off
choosing someone else, I've been an eyesore to him since we were still in
school! What if he disappears me?”

“The only two people who know he's here is you and the medical officer.
The medical officer doesn't know him, and he's not as strong as you are
when it comes to self-defence, who else is going to send him but you?”

“Just the two of us?” Fayn pointed out angrily, “Are you not a person?”

Instead of dragging out the sh*t talking session, Adrian gave him a clear
and concise order, “Get on it.”

But Fayn still tried to struggle. “I think it's better if you cover his head and
carry him back again, right? He's one of the Supreme Council's boys, what
if he spies on the internal structure of our warship?”

Adrian responded to him coldly. “This is a highly-equipped standard small-

scale federation warship, what's there to spy about?”

Fayn was very angry. He had mentioned about seven or eight years ago to
Adrian that Zhong Yan seemed to bear much hostility towards him. They
ate together a few times, and things were still fine when Adrian was around;
but when he wasn't—such as when he went to the bathroom or whatnot—
Zhong Yan would usually ignore him if he tried to speak to him. If he
continued his futile attempts, he would even shoot him a cold glance, which
made Fayn very confused.

At that time, Adrian told him that he was just being overly sensitive, Zhong
Yan was only a bit colder to people he was unfamiliar with.

…He should really drag Adrian over so he could see the situation!

……

With a bellyful of complaints, he operated the driver's console while Zhong

Yan sat silently at the back. He was currently contacting someone; most
likely his assistant. He had invited him to take the shotgun passenger seat
within the vehicle, but as if he had not heard him at all, Zhong Yan opened
the door to the back of the vehicle.

Even though the other person was not paying any attention to him, Fayn
still felt that it was necessary to explain the situation to him. Pretentiously,
he coughed and spoke to himself, “Uh, Adrian asked me to send you. You
know, after all, I was his best friend in school, and am more familiar with
the situation, the medical officer isn't…”

“Sorry.” Zhong Yan interrupted.

Fayn was stunned. This was the first time since picking him up from the
clinic that Zhong Yan spoke to him. He only heard as Zhong Yan spoke
calmly to him, “The entire federation recognizes me as best friend to the
General Commander of the Navi Military Command during his student
days, how has it become you?”
 Chapter 10: Love and Hate

Fayn knew that the identity of the other person had changed, and perhaps,
the only people left in the Federation who could stand on the same footing
as him right now numbered no more than twenty; when it came to his peers,
Adrian was the only one left that could rival him. But still, he could not
resist taking a jab at him. “So you still remember that he's your best friend,
huh? Then why didn't you think about that when you stabbed him in the
back?”

“That's something between me and him, not something…” Zhong Yan

raised his head to shoot him a glance, “an outsider should be sticking their
nose into.”

“Yes, I am an outsider.” Fayn said, “And even if it's between the two of
you, you still didn't tell him beforehand. If you could've come out with the
fact that you didn't agree with human autonomy at all, and maybe brought it
up when you were in your first or second year, and even if it was your third
year, he…”

“Would have switched rooms immediately, and have nothing more to do

with me. I don't need you to tell me this, I know him better than you do.”
Zhong Yan still remained calm, “Also, I have never personally expressed
my position as a supporter of that so-called ‘human autonomy' or otherwise,
be it before or after our graduation, so I don't know where you've
misunderstood me.”

“You still should've told Adrian that at the very least, you could've told him
that if ‘Butterfly' were ever to bring you over to do her bidding, that you'd
never even hesitate to agree!”
Completely unaffected, Zhong Yan responded to him as coolly as before,
“That was an event with a very small possibility of happening, I fail to see
what use it would be for me to bring it up.”

Fayn really had to admit, the possibility was in fact rather small. There were
only a handful of posts in this world that were closely related to “Butterfly”,
and within that percentage was the minority: the pyramid-shaped existence
they call Supreme Council. There were no more than fifty formal members
of the council, even assistants and candidate members were less than a
hundred combined.

In the current era where the life expectancy of a person was over the
hundred-year mark, the years a person spends working had also been
extended. It was normal for a person to be retired by “Butterfly” only when
they reached their seventies or eighties, and there were never any vacancies
in the Supreme Council; it was quite common not to see any new members
in the council even after many years have passed. Even if a new person
joins the council, most of them would be other promoted in from other sub-
councils below. For a student to be judged directly by “Butterfly” to enter
the Supreme Council at graduation, this was a rare scenario that was hard to
come by even for the top talents produced by the top universities through
the decades.

On the day before his graduation, Zhong Yan had never thought about this
possibility; on the contrary, he was practically mulling over it every night as
soon as his eyes were closed during the busy later half of his graduation
year. He knew that with the quality of his resume, that the position he
would be offered would definitely not be low. Most likely, he would not be
given any ordinary position your average joe would be thrown into. In
which case, Adrian was not the extremist type that would force people to
express their personal opinions before giving up. He may be a bit
disappointed that his friend does not fully support his ideals, but he could
apologize afterwards and slowly work things out; it should not have been a
big problem.

But unfortunately, the dart managed to land on the smallest fraction of the
turntable…
Fayn rebuked, “No matter how small the possibility, it still happened. You
are the sole reason this has all happened, and if you could've prepared him
for it, things would not have turned this bad. At the very most, he would've
just put some distance between the two of you.”

“And you think that's ‘not as bad'?”

No, that ending is terrible; for Adrian to no longer pay him any attention
was a hundred times worse than what they had between them now.

When he first saw Adrian yesterday, he was suddenly ignored, and Adrian
passed straight by him; that was the one moment in his life where he felt the
most afraid. Compared to those years where he tried like a madman to get
in contact with Adrian, and found himself blacklisted through all their
communication methods, he felt even more afraid—he was so afraid that
after seven years, Adrian had already let go, and put away the enmity they
had. But thankfully, he later found out that he had just been acting
indifferent; Adrian still hated him, and he hated him so much it was spilling
over his gritted teeth.

With that thought, Zhong Yan almost wanted to feel thankful for how he
had handled it during that year. At the very least—

“At the very least, he still hates me right now,” he muttered under his
breath.

Since the dart had already landed on the bull's eye, there was no longer any
hope for reconciliation. In that case, he can just hate him. Adrian is the very
first person in his life, and the one and only person in this world who had
truly cared for him. Even if they could not be friends, it was good enough
for him to become his enemy. No matter what, he could not bear to lose the
attention Adrian paid him.

……

Zhong Yan contacted one of his men to open the door, and Fayn drove the
car directly into the parking lot of his spaceship.
A young man already standing in wait.

Even though he was wearing a suit, he looked like a mere student who was
here to attend a presentation. With a fluffy head of short brown hair and a
pair of black-rimmed glasses, his face presented a warm scholarly look.

The instant Fayn's eyes focused on that man's face, his hands slipped on the
driver's control screen, causing them to almost craah into the car ahead.

He could feel Zhong Yan moving his gaze away from his personal terminal
to look right at him.

“What kind of shitty design do you have in your parking lot?” Fayn
complained, “That reflective mirror is rearview! I mean—the rearview
mirror is reflective!”

Zhong Yan swept his eyes around the parking lot, and his gaze landed on
the other person besides them—his personal assistant—and looked at him
for a few seconds, asking, “What're you so nervous about?”

“We nearly hit that car! Didn't you see it? I say, can you be any more calm
than this? If something were to happen to you in my car, the headlines of
the news in ten minutes would be ‘Senior Officer of the Navi Military
Command Murdering a Member of Council', do you think I could remain
calm like that?!”

Seeing that the car had come to a stop, Zhong Yan's personal assistant came
over to open the door for him. He nodded to Fayn in greeting and said to
him in a business-like tone, “Adjutant Suster, thank you for coming all the
way here, and please convey our gratitude to Commander Yate. We very
much appreciate the kind assistance he offered when he bumped into the
Counselor last night.”

Fayn burst out in laughter and waved his hand, “It's nothing…but I'm just
curious, do you council people not get tired of keeping up formalities all the
time?” He met eyes with the assistant for a few seconds. Then, the both of
them quietly looked away. Fayn turned his gaze towards Zhong Yan and
asked, “Say, Zhong Yan, is this the son of one of your council's staff? Is he
of age yet?”

The young man could not keep up the business smile on his face anymore.
Without waiting for Zhong Yan to respond, he spoke with a tone laced with
dissatisfaction, “I am already twenty-four this year. I have been of age for
four years, Adjutant Suster.”

He looked as if he had more to say, but Zhong Yan cut him off plainly,
“Intron.”

Intron bowed his head respectfully.

Zhong Yan said to Fayn in a perfunctory manner, “See you again.”

“No. Please, let's not,” Fayn responded to him in a disgruntled tone. After
booting up his car's controls, he drove off.

“Why is it you?” As they were on the way back to the office area, he asked,
“Where's Bayer?”

Since the event they were attending this time was hosted by the Supreme
Institution, the nature of it was considered special; many invited guests had
also brought the schoolmates amongst their friends groups who were also
graduates of the Supreme Institution as a means to offer them a ‘favor',
allowing the people who were similarly as outstanding at them, but still not
qualified enough to be invited, a chance to attend. Zhong Yan was no
exception. He brought his two direct subordinates who had come from the
Supreme Institution, Bayer and Intron.

Bayer was here to join as he was Zhong Yan's first-in-command, but Intron
had just been invited because he was a little luckier than the rest. He had
actually entered the Supreme Council by coincidence last year, and was
assigned to work under one of the council's representative members. Even
though he was only doing marginal work under the newly appointed
member, who didn't have to climb up from similar beginnings? The height
of this starting point was already enough to attract the glares of his peers to
his back.
“Senior Bayer is feeling a little unwell,” Intron answered him respectfully,
“his stomach seems to be acting up, so I've come to receive you instead.
Also…news came from the Capital Star this morning, he told me to report
the situation to you in his place.”

Zhong Yan pulled out the chair at his desk and sat down before turning on
the virtual screen on the table that he used for work. “Got it, call the doctor
who came with us to take a look at him after this, and tell him to get more
rest. Now, begin.”

Intron spoke, “Here's the situation: we're about to reach the end of the year
—but for the whole of this year, we have received no, um, no news at all
about the Navi System's sub-council or Navi Military Headquarters. And
well, the year is coming to an end soon…”

He may be sounding as if he was beating around the bush, but in truth, all
the reports from the Navi System had been perfunctory just last year; not
only were the routine monthly notifications clearly made up of forged data.
Year-end reports from other star systems numbered about fifty pages on the
short side, and about a hundred pages on the longer side. It was reasonable
to say that Navi, as the only non “Butterfly” controlled region, should have
even more detailed reports; but in the end, the report they sent in was only
eight pages long—and out of those eight pages, two were content
directories, and one of them was the list of authors.

During this year, however, the entirety of the Navi System had gone silent.
In the first half of the year, the Capital Star had sent out numerous letters of
inquiry, with each worded even stricter than the last, but they all ended up
like sunken rocks in the sea. During the middle of the year, the Supreme
Council had once sent a special commissioner over to investigate the
situation. As a result, the commissioner failed to even get into the Navi
System, much less reaching the main planet, Navi Star, to see the head of
the sub-council—but everyone knew that the Navi System was now under
the control of the Navi Military Command's headquarters, the sub-council
may not even exist anymore.

After the special commissioner reported the situation, the Supreme Council
was roaring with fury. They mobilized their troops to enter the Navi System
forcibly, and this incident made its way to the round table of the
representative members of council. It was a pity that it happened during the
first anniversary of the “AI suspected of malicious misjudgement incident”,
because the waves of public opinion within the virtual community had been
riled up again. Much of their energy had been diverted to this issue, and, at
the same time, they also had many deep concerns and fears—No matter
what the cause, the first to move is always the first to lose. What's more, the
Navi System was now basking under the limelight of the people, and the
rate of support for AI and the Supreme Council had been dropping year by
year. If they were to enter into a conflict now, it would definitely cause a
strong rebound from the entire Federation. Besides, how many forces could
you mobilize for it to still remain appropriate? To what extent has the Navi
Military Command developed? That remote star system was as concealed
as a steel drum these days, both men and information goes in, but never out,
nobody knows how the situation really is in there right now.

And things have dragged on till today.

“We need to come up with a solution by this year.” Zhong Yan said.

He laced his fingers on the table and his face remained calm, nobody could
tell what he was thinking. After a moment of thought, he gave his order.
“Inform the cockpit, return immediately. As for the news from the Capita,
tell them that I am proposing to start up the deadlocked ‘Butterfly' break
through inception project from seven years ago. I strongly recommend that
we start before the end of this year. We have to get rid of the deadlock and
enter the Navi System. Tell everyone to wait for my return to the council's
round table before we discuss further. Send the message.”

Intron seemed to be stunned, “That…sir, is that all right? About the Navi
System, you…don't you want to avoid suspicion?”

Zhong Yan raised his eyes to look at him and asked, “Avoid suspicion? Is it
because I am at odds with the Supreme Commander of the Navi Military
Command that they're worried about me possibly using this as a chance for
revenge, or do you think they're worried about me seeking personal gains
for being his optimal marriage candidate?”
Intron felt a little awkward. With some hesitation, he said, “I did hear some
gossip from some of my other colleagues, and I'm afraid…it's the latter.
After all, it's hard to refuse in your position, the council…”

“Is overthinking it.” Zhong Yan moved his gaze away. “That man from
Navi hates me to the end of his life, he will definitely prefer to pay five
times the fines over being tied to me. This marriage will not come to
fruition, and there is no suspicion to avoid, just repeat to them what I told
you earlier.”

Fayn was practically scrambling to get in contact with Adrian as soon as he

left the surveillance range of the spaceship.

The call was cut off. While driving, Fayn did not waste a single second
before redialling, and finally entered in conversation with him on the third
try.

Adrian's voice emerged, “You better have some important business. I'm
currently with the liaison officer…”

“Leave the liaison officer be for now! My business is definitely more

important than his!” Fayn was shouting out in a quick speed, “Do you know
who I just saw in Zhong Yan's private ship? The one who met with me
yesterday in the school, that guy from ‘Specimen'!”
 Chapter 11: Smart Man

The Capital, Supreme Council.

Zhong Yan walked into the office and found that somebody had actually
arrived even earlier than he did today.

Intron had already arrived, and was at his desk with the virtual screen on;
from the looks of it, he was already getting started with work. When he saw
Zhong Yan coming in, he stood up and bowed his head respectfully. “Good
morning, Sir Zhong.”

“Morning,” Zhong Yan greeted in response, “Tell Bayer to see me when he

arrives.”

“Yes, sir. But there's still some time before work starts…I mean, if it's
nothing too important, I could help you with it instead.”

Zhong Yan was about to open the door to his office but he stopped and
turned to face Intron instead. His eyes were clear and calm, but for some
inexplicable reason, Intron felt his heart skip a beat. Before he could speak,
he heard Zhong Yan say, “That will work. Come in, help me sort out the
meeting reports during my absence from the council.”

Intron hurriedly gave his response of affirmation and followed him in.

The surveillance system installed within the offices of the representative

members were of the highest authority. This meant that “Butterfly” was the
only existence capable of viewing it; there would be no humans whatsoever
that could ever spy on the representative members' offices.

Intron was standing in wait for Zhong Yan to turn on his virtual screen so he
could transfer the meeting's documents to him, when he suddenly said, “Sir,
I was asked by Sir Bayer about your and Commander Yate's discussion
about the refusal fines, and how it went.”

“Is that so?” Zhong Yan asked, seemingly not very bothered about the
question, “And how did you answer him?”

“I told him I didn't know the details.”

“Even though you were the one who came to pick me up when I contacted
the ship, you said it yourself, you were only taking over for Bayer
temporarily. I seem to have given mention that externally, we should be
telling people that it was A…the men from Navi who came to discuss
matters with me. Intron, is Bayer an outsider?”

Failure or success depended on his answer now. Intron bowed his head and
answered, “Sir Bayer used to be Sir Yate's first-in-command assistant. After
you took over as an elected member, he became your first-in-command
under Sir Yate's referral. Of course, Sir Bayer is not an outsider. Just…he
would definitely be worried to know that you are in poor health. Sir Bayer
is getting old, I thought that since you've already recovered, I'd take it upon
myself to avoid giving him a shock.”

Zhong Yan showed no reaction to his words. As usual, his face was calm
and steady as an ancient well with no ripples, and his mood was difficult to
distinguish. A prompt for a successful file transfer popped up on the virtual
screen, but he did not ask for Intron's dismissal.

“You're smart. Everyone likes smart men, I am no exception,” Zhong Yan

spoke without looking at him, “but you were too impulsive. I can see you've
been very tense since the day you entered my team. You're so young, I don't
know what's there for you to be so anxious about. When we're on a ship…
it's not a very good idea. You know what I'm trying to say. I hope this
doesn't happen a second time.”

A sliver of sweat slid down Intron's forehead. “So…Sorry…”

“It's fine, I'm not trying to accuse you or anything, just giving you a
warning,” Zhong Yan cut him off, “If you want to continue working hard
here, then you'll have to learn to calm yourself down a little more.”

Intron raised his head abruptly. “You mean…”

“From tomorrow morning onwards, report to my office. What you said is

right, Bayer is getting old, it's time for someone to take some work off his
hands.”

When Bayer arrived at the area around Zhong Yan's private office, a
message appeared.

“Sir Yate wants to see me?” Zhong Yan asked, “Now? I'm still at work.”

“The Navi meeting is going to begin a little past noon, and Sir Yate hopes to
see you before then,” Bayer passed along the notice to him.

Everyone knew that this first-in-command had been assistant to Stalvern

Yate of the Council of Representatives for several decades. He was a few
years younger than Stalvern, and you could almost say he had reached his
position with due thanks to him, so their relationship could not be any
closer.

Later, when Stalvern received his retirement proposal, he was still working.
Thus, he became the first-in-command of the newly elected representative
member, and this was practically the thing that set the rumors of “Yate
family patriarch helping Zhong Yan into his current position” to stone.

Zhong Yan's speech when he was talking to this old assistant was very
respectful, but he did not continue to question him. Instead, he said, “All
right, I will tie up the loose ends here and be there immediately.”

The Yate family residence was not too far from the Supreme Council. In the
Capital where every inch of soil was worth its weight in gold, this ancient
and well-respected family occupied a stunning area of land.

Zhong Yan walked along the corridor that was covered with expensive
carpets. On both sides of this grand and spacious corridor were portraits of
the successive masters of the estate. They were neither holographic images
nor virtual screens, but rather real physical portraits that were framed with
finely-carved gold, hanging on both sides to highlight the family's glory.

This was what Adrian had once described to him as “the gloomy corridor
lined with pictures of the dead". At that time, neither of them would ever
have imagined that Zhong Yan would visit this “coffin house” from
Adrian's words so frequently in the future.

Without looking around, he followed behind the butler unhurriedly. Every

time he stepped into the Yate family residence, an idea would always circle
around in his mind: This was the place where Adrian grew up. Adrian must
have stepped on these very carpets beneath him countless times before he
turned seventeen; and those steps in front of that door was the place Adrian
had mentioned tripping over; there was a scratch on the corner of the
portrait of the second last patriarch, and it was Adrian who had accidentally
caused it when he was playing around with his friend…This place was so
far away from Adrian, but it felt so close.

Zhong Yan did not know to what extent these thoughts have influenced his
decisions, but it was not a difficult decision for him to accept the olive
branch thrown to him by the current patriarch of the Yate family. At that
time, he had already officially climbed up to the highest position of the
Supreme Council, but he was still young and not yet well-versed in the
ways of this world; he seemed to have already reached his peak in this
world that was led by those with experience.

Meanwhile, this family had strong financial resources and a wide network
of contacts, whilst their only heir had ran off to Navi. They could barely see
any hopes of him returning. All the forces were eyeing them, and the other
members of their family were eager to make their move. And the best part
was, they had an incumbent patriarch who was about to retire.

“Please,” the butler opened the door to the living room and bowed to him.

Zhong Yan returned a slight bow in response before stepping in.

Stalvern took a sip of his tea before turning to him, “Sit.”

From his cold demeanor, Zhong Yan could tell what he was thinking. He
thanked him and sat down, waiting for the other party to open his mouth.

“I've heard about the plan you suggested, about rebooting the project of
installing ‘Butterfly' within the Navi System.” Stalvern put his cup down.
He was already in his eighties but he was still in great spirits, and when he
kept a straight face, it still had the power to suppress those beneath him.

But of course, there were no other times where he did not keep a straight
face.

“Yes,” Zhong Yan responded.

“Hmph!” Stalvern put down his cup, “Impetuous! Have you read the
council records in these recent years? When that impulsive idiot mentioned
this seven years ago, he wrote the plan without even investigating it! And
the media wrote him out to be a mess, causing the project to get stuck in
discussion for months, and it ended up not passing anyways. The council
was questioned and ridiculed by the public for this, have you forgotten
about that?! What kind of place do you think the Navi System is? A safe
haven for fugitives! A criminal's paradise! All the people there are
desperate men with nothing to lose! Are you going to take responsibility if
anything happens?”

“Sir Yate, those things happened many years ago. Right now…I heard
they've already reorganized the place, it's not the same as before.”

“Not the same?!” Stalvern was getting even more furious. He knocked his
cane heavily on the ground. “From heaven for murderers to a haven of anti-
AI antagonists? What's different about them! The latter are even more
wicked, and their sins are even heavier! What's more, you said you heard
about the change, but from whom? Nobody can say for sure what Navi has
truly become!”

“Actually, about the investigations…there are many residents from the Navi
System who have taken photos to broadcast their own lives.”
“Those are all fake! What have you been doing in the council all these
years? Can you really believe in that nonsense in the virtual community that
comes from a place with no AI supervision?”

“What you say is true,” Zhong Yan answered respectfully. “And that is
where the difficulty lies. Since we can't grasp the true situation of the
opponent, I've thought of an idea. We will lead ‘Butterfly' into Navi as a
pretense.”

“A pretense?”

The current…the current military forces over there have taken full control
over the Navi region. We need a strong enough reason to send our men into
the Navi System to shake the upper-levels of the opponent. And I believe
that this is a big enough reason that could shake their upper hierarchy.”

Stalvern's face eased up considerably. “Tell me about your thoughts in

detail.”

……

Navi Military Command Headquarters, Intelligence Department

“Twenty-four years old, a man with either the name or surname of Intron.
We have indeed found one in the Supreme Institution. Intron Gines, here is
the image.”

The head of the intelligence department turned the virtual screen to Fayn
and Adrian. With just one glance, Fayn immediately answered, “No doubt
about it, it's him.”

“This Mr. Gines scored highly when he studied in the Supreme Institution
and performed well, but there has been no clear information about which
side he stands on. The professors he is usually close to all stand on neutral
sides. During his graduation ceremony, he accepted ‘Butterfly's' proposal
and entered the Capital's Inspection Bureau. A year later, he entered the
sub-council of one of the planets surrounding the Capital to work. From
there, he gained great achievements, and later the Supreme Council…Um,”
The person in charge had an awkward pause. He looked at the
expressionless Adrian and changed his wording. “The Supreme Council's
newest elected member, um…he, he was a little on the younger side, so
when it came time to form his team, he picked up a few of the young people
from the common councils—perhaps due to the fact that it may be awkward
for those older than him to be working under him. In short, there is one Mr.
Gines in the council, and he is in general, a very lucky man.”

“About the professors he was close to during his time in the Supreme
Institution,” Adrian mused, “do you have a list?”

“Yes. I understand what you mean and have already made the comparisons;
these seemingly neutral professors are all on the list we've just received
from the Institution Star.”

“So that's how it is, then that makes sense!” Fayn suddenly struck his palm
with his fist “This man is quite likely to be someone from the Institution's
branch of ‘Specimen' since his school days—Oh, upon calculation, the time
seems to coincide with the time before the organization started to grow,
then there's a good possibility that he has also personally participated in the
construction of the Institution Star's branch of ‘Specimen'. He even
contacted some of the professors, and they may have likely sorted out that
list long ago. For him to enter the Supreme Council so coincidentally, I
don't believe that it's luck at all, he must have a powerful backer!
Commander, say…” He approached Adrian and whispered, “He's the one
who personally picked him to join the Supreme Council, and he was also
one of the men he brought to the school's celebration, do you think…”

“Not possible,” said Adrian matter-of-factly, “His backer must have helped
him get close to Zhong Yan only because Zhong Yan's position is high
enough, and he is also young. Those old codgers won't recruit such a young
person to their team, so the only way to avoid attention is to place him by
Zhong Yan's side.”

To think that there was actually someone from “Specimen” within the
Supreme Council, and that person even occupied such a security-sensitive
position. When the head of the intelligence department heard this, he
quickly followed on with Adrian's words, “Then Counselor Zhong Yan
is…” Just as he brought this up, he could see Fayn desperately shaking his
head and waving in great panic behind Adrian.

It was too late.

The person responsible had not even reacted to what had just happened
when the ceramic cup in Adrian's hands zoomed right past his ear. With a
“crash”, it turned to dust on the wall right behind him.

“Don't f*cking mention his name in front of me! How many times have I
said it?! Do any of you have any brains?!”
 Chapter 12: Federation Wide
Prohibition

"Co…Commander…" The second lieutenant who came to send a message

had just arrived at the door when he ran into the thunderous scene of
Adrian's rage. When he listened carefully to its content, he realized that
someone had actually stepped on the Commander's "minefield", and
suddenly he could feel the strong urge to turn around and leave in case he
got dragged into it.

The entire Navi Military Command—ah no, every single person within the
Navi System knew that their commander was not a harsh boss; in fact, he
usually did not put on airs when he was with ordinary soldiers nor even
with ordinary citizens due to his young age. He had a prestigious reputation
in Navi, and he would rarely get angry or make things hard for his
subordinates; even if he did get angry, it would pass very quickly. However,
there was a single spot in the "minefield" that you must absolutely never
step on.

And it was that person from the very far end of the Federation, the one who
stayed in the bustling Capital.

Some say that when the Commander had just arrived at Navi, he was only
holding a nominal title with no real power to speak of. His position was
very low, and the entire Federation was still gossiping about the fallout of
the Twin Stars at the time; even the remote Navi was no exception. There
would always be people asking Adrian questions about that person. After
Adrian showed his position on the matter and made it clear for others not to
bring him up in front of him ever, most people were tactful and stopped
asking.
But during that time, there was a young captain who, due to having a fierce
fighting style, made quite an impact in that region. He had no care for a
young man who had just come out of school at the age of twenty. To him,
this great young master was just someone who came from a good family,
and most of the people from that school had also gotten there by paying
themselves in. So, since he had already fallen apart with his family, there
was nothing worth being worried about.

Finally, after asking him in front of the public, "Have you slept with Zhong
Yan?", Adrian slammed the table and shouted in the quiet canteen. "I slept
with 18 generations of your ancestors so they could give birth to a stupid
c*nt like you!"

There were many different combat ranking lists in the Federation's Supreme
Institution's School of Military Affairs, and one of them was a
comprehensive ranking called the solo combat ranking list. It combines all
their data and ranks each person based on their combined battle prowess.
The list was updated in real-time, and Adrian remained at the top of the list
for the entire year, setting the record for the longest time at the top in this
half of the century; and this was also why the School of Military affairs
granted him the honorary title of Chief.

As for how much weight the ranking held, the remote Navi System had no
idea. But since that day, they felt it; they felt it with their own bodies.

In the chaotic region of the Navi System, the toughness of your fist was true
power. When there was a fight to see, it would be beheld by everyone in
jovial spirits, and they would spontaneously be buried within a flesh circle,
granting them a temporary stage.

Fayn wanted to rush in to break up the fight, but he was stopped by the
spectating crowd. Everyone was pulling him back in cheerful spirits, asking
him not to spoil the fun.

"Spoil my ass! If you're not going to stop it, then just prepare a funeral for
that idiot!" Just two hands were not enough for Fayn to fight his way over
to them, and since he could not get near, he could only shout, "Boss! Go
easy on him! Don't kill him!"
At first, everyone thought it was a joke; but before five minutes could even
pass, the crowd was getting anxious; every inch of the young captain was
covered in blood, and his complexion was getting pale. He could hardly
breathe, but he was still panting heavily; from the looks of it, he was nearly
gone, but nobody went in to stop them—there were two subordinates from
the captain's team that tried to get in when they saw that things were turning
out very badly, but their arms were broken in just a few hits, leaving them
to yell in pain as they writhed on the ground. One of them was kicked out
and landed on a wall—Even to this day, he was still unable to get up.

Nobody would have thought that this young master who came from one of
the most affluent families in the Capital would be so fierce in a fight.
Fortunately, he still seemed to retain his rationality. He had no intention of
taking his life, so when the Captain was beaten to the point where he could
no longer even move, he turned to the crowd.

"I said don't mention that name in front of me, did all of you get that?"

Blood was still streaked across his face and the aura seeping from his body
was suffocating. Nobody dared to meet his eyes, and the crowd that was
watching the show with loud enthusiasm was now quiet enough that you
could hear a pin drop.

"Get this trash to a hospital, I'll settle the medical bill." He kicked the man
on the ground and turned to Fayn, "Let's go."

The Captain had to stay in the intensive care unit for several days before
they managed to get him out alive. Adrian had been punished for that
incident, but he had also made a name for himself with just one fight and
was soon transferred to the combat division. He made many contributions
as soon as he began, and his promotions brought him higher and higher.

After that, there were several cases where others had also committed this
taboo, be it accidentally or intentionally. Without exception, all of them had
a tragic end. By the time Adrian ascended to the highest position within the
military, this had become a rule of survival within the Navi System, and
nobody dared to commit that sin ever again.
“Come in.” With his sharp eyes, Fayn managed to catch that little second
lieutenant, and quickly stop him, “What do you need?”

Adrian barely managed to suppress his fury and turned his attention towards
the newcomer.

The second lieutenant was trembling with fear. “The meeting…the meeting
room upstairs asked me to come for the commander.”

“I'll be heading up first,” Adrian calmed his emotions and said, “You two
continue.”

After he left, the person in charge of the intelligence department had

completely melted on his chair. Still in shock, he said, “Oh mother, I
thought I'd die there!”

Fayn said to him, “He's still giving face to civilians like you, if you were
any other guy from the army, he would've been sent to the hospital by now.
Ah, the last time someone got signed into the hospital by him was only
three years ago, it's still quite a recent event, when are you ever going to
learn?”

“I just went with the flow!” The person in charge wanted to cry, “He said it
himself so many times! I thought their relationship finally eased up after
they bumped into each other again!”

“It hasn't eased up, and from what I can see, it's gotten worse,” Fayn
grumbled, “And to think you're doing intelligence work.”

“Speaking of which, Adjutant Suster…” The person in charge suddenly

lowered his voice and asked, “Didn't our commander go to the other party's
ship to talk about the fines before you left the Institution Star? So, did it fall
through?”

Fayn peered over at him. “How did you know?”

“The entire Federation knows! The names of both of them are still
displayed together in the marriage matching system! There's at least one
person out there eyeing the marriage system at every moment to check
whether their names have been removed or not.”

“Oh, the signal was quite bad during the flight these last two days, so I
didn't really look at it. What're they saying in the comments now?”

“They're all guessing how high the penalty fine is for the Commander to
actually have to discuss it with the other party. And also, since there were
no results even after the discussion, could it be that both of them can't
afford to pay it even with their buying power combined?”

Even though Zhong Yan was the one in the car that was heading towards
Zhong Yan's personal spacecraft and not Adrian, Fayn knew that the two of
them had met privately before that, so they must have been discussing about
it. When he heard that hypothesis, even he himself started to speculate, “It
can't be…right? How high could the penalties in the divorce category be?
At most, a single fine would be around a hundred thousand? Or a hundred
and fifty? Impossible, just thirty years ago there was a council member who
refused to marry a noble lady from the Capital, and the base fine was only
ninety thousand, which was already the highest number recorded so far.
Even if only one of them refuses and has to pay five times the amount, it
still shouldn't be an amount that would bother either of them, right?”

The person in charge responded anxiously, “Could ‘Butterfly' have raised

the fines to make things hard for the Commander on purpose? If the base
fine really was at something like two hundred million or so…we could
crowdfund it for him.”

Fayn rolled his eyes. “If it really is that high we won't even have time to
celebrate, we can just put out an announcement and the uproar of the public
itself would be enough to drown ‘Butterfly' to death. What's more, do you
really think they can't afford a hundred or two hundred millions? Do you
think we haven't been rob—cough, I mean, knocking down enough
criminals these years?!”

The Navi Military Command was in no way short of money, and as one of
the people in charge, he knew it full well. However, this only made things
more confusing.
“Alright, gossip time is over.” Fayn stood up, ready to leave. He patted him
on the shoulder. “Stop worrying about it, the penalty has a limit of one
month, we'll know the results by then.”

……

The Capital, Yate Family Residence. Another conversation coming to an

end.

“…Yes, just say it like that during the afternoon meeting,” Stalvern
concluded.

Zhong Yan lowered his gaze. “Yes.”

The expression on Stalvern's face finally eased up.

As always, Zhong Yan was ready to hear and accept him, which helped
dispel his dissatisfaction with Zhong Yan's recent behavior of taking action
without telling him first. After talking about business, the atmosphere
softened considerably. Stalvern changed the topic. “I heard that there's a kid
called…Intron in your office? And that you've been quite fond of him, have
you?”

Even for such personal matters within the personal office of a counselor, he
had received news in just a short while. Not only that, he was even letting
Zhong Yan know without any intention of hiding it.

“Intron?” Zhong Yan repeated the name, confused. After a while, he

suddenly had an epiphany. “He came early today and I had some records
that I urgently needed, so I had him do it.”

“That's not all, is it? Did he not replace Bayer for a while in the Institution
Star? If it was Bayer, he would not have left you to give the Capital a
response in such a hurry.”

“Yes, it is true that he is too young, and is lacking in terms of

thoughtfulness,” Zhong Yan echoed his thoughts, and went on, “but I do
have the intention to nurture him. Compared to the others, he is quite well-
versed in his work and he also happens to be an underclassman of mine
from the same school. From what I've heard from him, he is quite an
ambitious one.”

“So that's how it is.” Stalvern picked up his own cup and took a sip of water
at his own leisure. For Zhong Yan to take the initiative to tell him his
thoughts made him feel rather reassured, so he was not angry with him.
Unhurriedly, he asked, “Zhong Yan…are you starting to find Bayer to be a
hindrance?”

“How could I?” Zhong Yan smiled. “What gave you that thought? Without
Sir Bayer's help, I would not be able to say a single word in the council. My
respect for him is second only to you. Only, the disparity of age within my
team is truly too large, and Mr. Bayer's body seems to not be in the best
condition lately. I'm worried that he would receive his retirement proposal
one day, then for a while after that…I can't help it, even if they're unfit, we
still have to pick the most qualified among them, don't you think so?”

The choice of words he picked was “we”, which made Stalvern feel very
much at ease to hear. He had originally been prepared to reprimand Zhong
Yan before he came, but it became a fairly mild warning instead. “You
called him too young, but so are you! That brat has also noticed this
problem of yours, so he's caught onto the opportunity to climb up.
Moreover, did you think that Bayer's absence due to illness was a
coincidence?”

Zhong Yan's eyes widened slightly, and his body drooped forward. Due to
his surprise, he even interrupted Stalvern with disregard. “That was not a
coincidence? Could he be…”

Stalvern tolerated his gaffe and confirmed it. “Of course not. Hmph, it's an
old trick in the council. You'll be able to hear about some of these tricks if
you stay just a few years longer in there. Do you think everyone's like you?
To be able to walk up the ranks so smoothly? Bayer was only caught by that
brat's tricks because he wasn't prepared! He's ambitious, and tricky as well.
He's not much younger than you, but you should still keep an eye out and
protect yourself!”
Zhong Yan nodded in enlightenment. He had just wanted to add on a few
more words when the terminal on his wrist gave a prompt to receive a
message.

Stalvern was displeased. “Do you not have the decency to mute your
terminal when you're speaking with me?!”

A small crack emerged on Zhong Yan's mask for a short moment, but he
tried his best to suppress it and apologized obediently. “I'm sorry, I've
forgotten to mute it today.”

Saying that, he reached out to one of the shortcuts on the side of his
terminal. What Stalvern did not see, however, was that he had pressed it
twice, and his hands were slightly shaking.

He had always been cautious towards Stalvern, so how could he have

forgotten to mute it! He opened it, but the notification still rang.

There was only one message, and it was set to ignore mute within his
terminal's settings.

This was something that happened eight years ago in that dormitory. When
they were laughing and messing about, Adrian grabbed his terminal and
turned on the setting himself.
 Chapter 13: Old Times

Your hometown status has always been set to the Capital, ‘Butterfly' has the
right to modify your marital status which is a very dangerous situation for
you,” the old minister of the Navi Military Region Headquarters' legal
department trailed behind Adrian and babbled on endlessly, “Once you are
married, your spouse will automatically receive a range of rights, including,
but not limited to, debt sharing, common property processing, arranging the
inheritance order—Commander! Are you listening? This is a very important
—”

“I'm listening, I'm listening. Getting married is very scary, I can't get
married, I got it, I won't get married.” Adrian stopped helplessly in front of
his office. “And compared to that, I have some very important work to deal
with right now, Minister Winter. Let's continue our law class next time,
alright?”

The old minister was very dissatisfied with his perfunctory attitude, so with
a glare and a huff, he said to him, “Commander, it's not scary to get
married! What's scary is marrying the wrong person at the wrong time! We
are at an important juncture, we can't have any mishaps now! If you have to
pay a fine, then you should just pay it now. It is no big deal to surrender
temporarily to the AI. Sometimes, you need to compromise to…”

Seeing that he was going to start another long speech, Adrian quickly
interrupted him. “Yes, yes, I will definitely pay the fine as soon as I can, so
I will be going now, take care, goodbye.”

Without even giving the other man a chance to respond, he slipped straight
back into his office in a flash and shut the door.

The world was finally quiet.

……

Countless people were making speculations; was he dawdling on paying the

fine because he was unwilling to send money “Butterfly's” way? This
saying was spread throughout the Navi Military Command, and after a
high-level meeting, many people have tried vaguely to hint to him that
things can be settled with a moment of tolerance and that he should not let
money influence his emotions. For the sake of obtaining greater benefits, he
should be willing to show temporary tolerance towards any person in the
Federation, including “Butterfly”—if AI could also be considered human.

But not Zhong Yan.

He could endure having to pay several hundreds of thousands to “Butterfly”

just to nullify the marriage contract, but he was unwilling to pay even a
single penny for Zhong Yan. He used to spend a lot of time, money, energy,
and care on Zhong Yan…but he would never do something stupid like that
ever again.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Adrian turned on the
virtual screen of his terminal and dug Zhong Yan's account out from his
blacklist. With quick fingers, he typed out a line of words on the virtual
keys.

“There are 27 days left to pay the fine. I'm warning you, if I don't receive
the money within the time limit, this will not end at a mere three hundred
and sixty thousand.”

Anyways, it probably won't be sent out; Zhong Yan must have blacklisted
his contact information as well. Adrian casually clicked on 'send', and
waited for the “Your message has failed to send” prompt to appear.

But that error did not appear. After being stunned for several seconds,
Adrian finally realized what just happened.

The message actually sent out normally; he was not on Zhong Yan's
blacklist.
In just a few minutes, he received a response. “You may handle it however
you wish. I have no money. I have a meeting to attend, it might take a
while.”

Adrian stared at the reply with gloom looming over his face.

In the past, whenever Zhong Yan was unable to give him an immediate
response, he would always tell him in advance what he was going to do and
how long it was going to take, in case his response never comes.

Until today, he still retained that habit; even if that “a while” may be related
to having a discussion on how to deal with him, he had done it so naturally
that for a moment, Adrian could feel a jab of pain from it.

This is how he always was; as if nothing was wrong, he could accept the
invitation to participate in the school's celebration, return to that juice shop
to take a look, and also mouth to him the ciphers they shared in the past; it
was as if…nothing ever happened between them. That was how heartless he
was.

I'm really making things hard for myself, Adrian thought. Once again, he
returned that account to his blacklist.

The main building of the Supreme Council had a total of nine floors, and
the eighth floor was the round table meeting room for those at the very top.

Zhong Yan had reached the eighth floor early. There were two parts to the
room outside of the round table meeting room at the center, and the part
closest to the conference room was a waiting area for the twelve council
members to use before the conference begins. Here, they could participate
in idle chatter, or make their final preparations. The outer part was the
walking area, and all the assistants of the council members will be here.

Zhong Yan was walking on the eighth floor with Bayer right behind him.
Two pairs of leather shoes stepped across the smooth marble floor, and the
sound echoed in the silent space.
They stopped right before entering the waiting area. Bayer spoke, “Please
check through the information again after you enter. You are proposing in
this round table meeting, you must not be careless. Have you muted your
terminal?”

Zhong Yan hesitated for a moment, and said, “One second.”

He opened his inbox to check; no new messages. The final message within
was still the message he sent, which said, “I have a meeting to attend to, it
might take a while.”

In the past, Adrian would never allow him to be the one to end a
conversation, but that was all in the past. Zhong Yan pursed his lips and
enlarged Adrian's portrait. He cannot take any risks, what if a message
suddenly comes from Adrian during the meeting?

It's fine to just turn off that setting. When he comes out of the meeting, he
can turn it on again.

Bayer watched as Zhong Yan's fingers hovered over the terminal. His face
was expressionless, and for a few seconds, he did not make a single move.
Then the terminal was set to opaque, so nobody behind the screen could see
the contents. Bayer could not tell what he was doing, but he could not help
himself from asking in dissatisfaction, “Sir Zhong, what are you doing? The
eighth floor is not a place for daydreaming!”

A trace of displeasure emerged in Zhong Yan's eyes. He was just about to

shut off the screen when he heard a collection of footsteps coming from not
far away.

Two people emerged from around the bend. The one walking in front
looked to be about the age of sixty or so, but his pace was steady, and his
suit was well-fitting; clearly he was a man who put effort into maintaining
his body. He had a broad jawline with dense brows, a look that exudes an
air of righteousness. Even though he had already reached the end of his
middle ages, and inevitably, signs of aging had also crawled its way onto
his appearance, a faint shadow of youthfulness could still be vaguely seen.
Behind him was his first-in-command: a younger middle-aged man.
“Counselor Zhong.”

“Counselor Cayman.”

Vahl Cayman greeted Zhong Yan and spoke to him in a polite tone. “I see
the both of us are early. There's still quite a long wait to go, so let's go for a
smoke.”

Bayer was just about to refuse him, but Zhong Yan agreed to his invitation.

Bayer's face turned sour in an instant.

Zhong Yan tagged along behind Vahl and entered the smoking room. He
shut the door behind him and plainly remarked, “I don't smoke.”

“I know, me neither,” said Vahl. He sat down on the soft and comfortable
sofa before calling out to Zhong Yan, “Don't just stand, come sit.”

“No need, please speak.”

“That's no good, you are my equal. It is not proper for me to sit if you do
not,” Vahl joked, “Please give an aging old man some consideration, hm?”

Zhong Yan took a seat on the sofa opposite him. He was not sure what Vahl
wanted to talk to him about, but after some hesitation, he still said, “Sir
Cayman, there is actually not much difference be it here or outside.”

It seemed to be only the two of them within the smoking room, but they
knew that it was just the same as the outside; this area was also under strict
surveillance.

His words were laced with ambiguity, but Vahl understood him. He
responded, “It's fine, I just didn't want that old codger outside to hear. I
guarantee you, it will reach his master's ears in less than five minutes. It's
distasteful.”

Vahl was also born within a noble family, and both the Cayman and Yate
families were quite close originally, but Vahl Cayman had an old grudge
with Stalvern. Ever since they rose up as their family's patriarchs, the two
families have completely broken off.

“It's not that bad,” said Zhong Yan. After some hesitation, he continued,
“From my observations, he seems to make his reports once every half
hour.”

“Hahahaha, no kidding?” Vahl shook his head as he laughed, “That old

man…Zhong Yan, I should have given you this advice a long time ago, but
that old man has already reached an obsessive level in his megalomania,
you should stay away from him.”

Zhong Yan did not respond, but Vahl did not plan to continue this topic here
either. He did not care, and continued on himself, “Well, I'm stepping over
my boundaries here. Zhong Yan, I asked you here today to ask about
something…You've met up with Adrian, correct?”

Zhong Yan kept silent and looked at him quietly.

“I know you don't like him, nor do you like being asked about matters
between the two of you.” Vahl leaned forward and spoke in a sincere tone,
“I won't ask too much about the rest, but is he doing well?”

Zhong Yan had known of this council member before graduating, and they
had also met once then.

It was during the time when they were going onto their second year and
were moved to separate campuses. Vahl had come to visit Adrian with bags
of snacks and daily necessities. Adrian had refused him several times, but
finally, Vahl had given a bitter smile. “I know you've grown up. You have
your own way of thinking, and you don't take kindly to my work. But
Adrian, just take it as…my apologies, treat it as a gift from your family.”

Only then did Adrian accept his gifts. Later, when they were sharing the
snacks together, Adrian told him about the story of the legendary counselor.

Before Zhong Yan, the record of the youngest representative member of

council was set by Vahl Cayman. He had reached that position at the mere
age of thirty; but unlike Zhong Yan, he had the natural support of his
family. He grew up within the Capital Star and had many contacts. For
some time, he held unparalleled glory, but in less than half a year since he
became an elected member of council, he refused “Butterfly's” optimal
marriage partner proposal on the reason that he had a lover, setting the
highest divorce penalty in history: a base fine of more than ninety thousand.

In the unaccepting social environment of the time, and as a representative

member of council, this act caused a great uproar. You could tell how much
of a sensation it caused at the time just by looking at the price of the fines
alone. But time proved that this move also caused the decline of the
Cayman family. Currently, Vahl was one of the longest-standing members
in the House of Representatives, but his right to voice his opinions was also
considerably limited.

The lover of Vahl at the time was his childhood sweetheart: the only direct
descendant of the Yate family, Kelly Yate.

The story behind it was very tragic. Kelly was deeply in love with Vahl as
well, but it was pitiful that she had a weak character, and feared her own
father very much. After receiving the marriage proposal in the next year,
with tears flowing down her eyes, she was forced to marry a stranger under
her father's threats. This man also did not wish to wed her, but he was
quickly given “Butterfly's” suggestion to bear a child. Stalvern made the
two of them copulate their marriage, which had completely strengthened the
man's resolution to escape. When Kelly was pregnant, the man knocked out
the servants in the residence, and fled with their personal spacecraft, fleeing
to the Navi System.

Perhaps, Stalvern was the only person who looked forward to Adrian's
birth. In Adrian's memories, his mother was not close to him. Every day, her
tears would wash down her face, and just a few years later, she ended her
own life with a knife in her chest.

Vahl later refused another marriage proposal and remained single even till
now.
 Chapter 14: False God

Zhong Yan was stunned.

It was such a simple question, but he could not find the answer. Was Adrian
doing well? He wished he could ask about it from someone in the past as
well, but there was nobody he could ask; he could only look up all the news
he could of the Navi System behind his back, and try to find out everything
about him from all those news and images he collected. Then, when
Adrian's position rose higher and higher, and could no longer avoid being
tied to all the news related to Navi, the news that emerged from the Navi
System became less and less.

By the time they finally met, he was so caught up with dealing with
Adrian's fury, so caught up with their argument about the refusal fines—that
he forgot to ask that question.

“I don't know,” Zhong Yan heard himself say. “Sorry.”

Vahl appeared to be a little disappointed but he still said, “It's fine, my

question was too abrupt.”

An awkward silence surrounded the two for a moment.

Vahl had been paying close attention to this young man since his
graduation, not only because he was fresh blood in the Supreme Council,
but also because of the relationship he shared with Adrian. Unfortunately,
he quickly discovered with everyone else that this young man who was
always so sleek with work could only respond the same, single way when
faced with any questions concerning Adrian: with his silence.

Vahl had seen Zhong Yan several times in private, but he had no idea why
Zhong Yan was so much more amiable to him compared to the rest of the
public. However, he would still never bring up what happened after his
graduation.

Later, when Zhong Yan got tangled up with the Yate family, Vahl no longer
sought him out. But from what he could see today, Zhong Yan had no
respect to speak of in regards to the Yate family.

This helped Vahl regain some confidence in him, and he could not help
adding on, “Indeed, refusing ‘Butterfly's' proposals during your upswing in
work will affect the stability of your career.”

Zhong Yan looked at him.

“But your case is special. After all, Adrian is…It would be understandable
for you to refuse, you won't end up like I did.”

Zhong Yan knew very well that Vahl had not told him this just for his sake;
it was mostly for Adrian's. He had no descendants, so he had always taken
Adrian as his own child.

“Thank you.” Zhong Yan spoke in a soft murmur, “I'll consider it.”

Vahl nodded. “Time is almost up. We should head back.”

Zhong Yan returned to the outer circle of the eighth floor and saw Bayer
waiting for him with an unkindly expression.

The round table meeting in which Zhong Yan would be proposing his bill
was about to begin. Bayer had no time to nag him about his self-assertive
behavior, and could only stand by with a sour look on his face.

Zhong Yan had no care for whether he was happy or not. He reopened his
terminal's settings and his finger stopped on the cancel button.

He could set it again after turning it off, but…then it would not be set by
Adrian himself anymore.

Zhong Yan took the terminal off his wrist and handed it to Bayer. “Hold
onto this for me, I won't be bringing it in.”
It was true that there were some council members who did not have the
habit of bringing their terminals into major meetings, excluding themselves
from the influence of all external factors. Zhong Yan did not have this habit,
but this was also his first time attending a discussion as the proposer. He
could have just been nervous, so Bayer did not think too much about it and
held it for him. “Come on, it's time to head in.”

Within the center of the eighth floor was a rotunda with an open center
round table placed right at the center. Twelve high-back velvet chairs were
placed evenly on the outer ring.

The table was very large and the distance between each person was also
very large, so it was not convenient for one-to-one communication. Even
though half of the people had already arrived, it was still very quiet in the
conference room.

Zhong Yan sat down in his seat. Even though there were no regulations to
it, everyone had agreed upon a certain seating position. For example, Vahl
sat to Zhong Yan's right, and diagonally opposite to him was Bard Pearson.
A few years back, they had the power of the now-retired council member
Yate to rival his within the twelve member circle; but now that Stalvern has
retired, he was the true 'man' among men in the entire Federation.

It was quite ironic to speak about it, but this round table had been passed
down from ancient times. The core spiritual values of the round table
meeting originally reflected that all attendees were equal, and should not be
separated into different speaking positions and so on; but what ended up
happening was that a large hole had opened up at the center of this “round
table” for the sake of…

“Everyone's here.” Bard started to speak, “Everyone, please stand up.”

Everyone stood up. Within the vast Federation, the twelve who stood at the
very peak of human power was now standing respectfully towards the same
direction.

A translucent cylinder was illuminated through the center of the ring that
went up to the circle on the ceiling, and gorgeous colors flowed through the
cylinder slowly, creating a sacred image.

This was the image projected down from the ninth floor, and they were the
feelers that came from ‘Butterfly'.

According to the records, when the development of the first generation of

artificial intelligence was already near its completion more than two
hundred years ago, the scientists considered giving it a specific image, but
they eventually gave up on that idea. That was because the first generation's
artificial intelligence was not yet mature, and its personality was not
perfect. Thus, when the codename of “Cocoon” was put into use, it had
only received technology, data, objective facts, and so on.

More than a hundred years of development later, with the help of the
constant efforts of the AI's own self-updating system itself, they made a
breakthrough in AI research, and the second generation AI's personality was
completed and perfected.

It was always tolerant, mournful, fair, pure, and incapable of hate; it was
both mighty and wise.

Instead of calling it artificial intelligence, it would be better to say that the

humans, for their own sakes, had created…a god.

Only, were humans really capable of creating gods?

After a brief greeting, everyone took their seats, but Zhong Yan remained
standing.

“My fellow colleagues, everyone's time is precious so I will skip the

opening remarks.” He continued, “We have been in a deadlock on the Navi
Star System issue for two years, and I believe everyone has seen my
proposal. Before we start to discuss the possibilities of the project, let me
just add one thing—I believe that the one most suited to be sent to Navi is I,
myself.”

Intron was somewhat absent-minded. But fortunately, he was not the only
one, so he did not stand out.
A meeting was held within the rarely used eighth floor of the building, and
the personnel working around Zhong Yan's office were worrying over
whether it would be successful or not; that was because this was the first
time their superior had proposed a bill since being elected as a
representative member.

Compared to the thought of whether their superior could give an awe-

inspiring speech, thus maintaining his stable position to bring up his and his
subordinates' reputations, Intron cared more about the results of their
discussion.

Therefore, when Zhong Yan and Bayer had returned to the office, everyone
was nervous. However, Bayer maintained a straight deadpan expression the
whole day, while Zhong Yan was a conservative man when it came to his
emotions; nothing could be picked out from the two.

“Everyone, leave your work aside for a moment.” Zhong Yan started to
speak.

There was actually no need for such words, as everyone had already
stopped doing their work the second he came in.

“The bill has been passed. In a week, I will be departing to the NaviSystem
as a special commissioner.”

Intron was cheering with his colleagues, celebrating the passing of Zhong
Yan's second bill since joining the Supreme Council—the first one being
the giant space rabbit hunting ban—however, his heart was sinking.

Zhong Yan continued, “Everyone, I've made you wait for a long time. It's
not early anymore, so you should all return home.”

Those in the office happily tidied up their stuff, while Bayer had also said
his goodbyes to Zhong Yan. Intron was reluctantly cheering with his
colleagues when he heard Zhong Yan say, “I believe my coffee cup from
this morning has yet to be washed, one of you…Intron, help me wash it
before you leave, I still need it tomorrow.”
His colleagues looked at him sympathetically, but they still sped up their
tidying and left.

Did he really come from civilian origins? Does he really need to ask
someone to wash his cup?

Giving in to his fate, Intron left his half-tidied table aside and left
begrudgingly for the coffee room; but he was stunned after seeing the cup
rack in the room.

With the time it took him to go to and fro from the office, everyone had
already cleared out by the time he returned. At the other end, the door to
Zhong Yan's private office opened, and his boss walked out.

When he saw Intron he asked, “Done so soon?”

“Sir Zhong, your cup was already cleaned…”

“Really?” He responded in a nonchalant tone. “I must have forgotten.”

Isn't this bullying? Intron rolled his eyes in his mind.

Zhong Yan looked towards the empty table of his first-in-command and
frowned. “Has Bayer already left?”

“Yes, he must have left with everyone just now.”

Zhong Yan continued on, “I've just finished writing the report, and I thought
I'd have him organize them before he left. I guess it'll have to wait.”

Intron's heart sped up. After steadying himself, he said, “Sir, it's better to
file the records today…I can help you with them.”

Intron had never felt so impatient at a bottleneck before.

To be honest, he could not care about the consequences of going against the
bottleneck, but he was worried that Zhong Yan would realize something off
about him. As soon as he filed the records, he rushed home in his car.
Even if he had superior memory, it was still a bit difficult to memorize the
records of such a long meeting in such a short time. Fortunately, the
contents were logical and easy to absorb, so he won't be forgetting it too
soon.

When he reached his home, he quickly grabbed a pen and paper before
locking himself in the bathroom without even taking off his shoes.

……

After dinner, somebody rung Intron's doorbell.

“Hello, sir! May I have two minutes of your time?” Two girls with sweet
smiles were standing outside the door. One of them had a few books in her
hand made of real paper, while the other was holding a box filled with a
stack of colorfully printed brochures.

“We are volunteers in the promotion of paper-based books,” The brochure

girl handed one of the brochures to him. It was actually made of real paper
as well. “The purpose of our organization is to promote the beauty of
physical reading, and to let everyone…”

Intron grumbled impatiently. “What's this? What kind of organization is

this? Is it registered? Are you done yet? What era do you think we're in?
Who does door-to-door sales anymore?! One of your rabble came last week.
Now shoo, don't interrupt my gaming time.”

Then, he was about to close the door when the girl quickly blocked him.
“Come on, sir, you don't have to be in such a hurry. We're a nonprofit
organization! Did you accept the book we offered last week? Do you want
to take a look at our brochure…”

“Damn your brochure, they stuffed one on me last time!” Intron cut her off
before grabbing the thin booklet at his shoe rack. The cover was exactly the
same as the one the girl was holding. “Just take it and keep it for yourself!”

He threw the brochure into the girl's box and closed the door.
The girl shook her head and turned to her companion. “Such a bad temper.
Come on, let's go to the next house.”

They visited a lot of homes this evening, and most of them were
uninterested, but it was not unproductive. One of the boys from the
specimen shop had left them a brochure, and hinted for them to read it.

The contents of what Intron had written down on those pages had become
data encrypted layers upon layers and was then decrypted and copied before
being sent off through physical transmission. Later, it was electronically re-
encrypted and went through a few more hoops before finally, three days
later, it appeared in the distant Navi System without a single letter missing,
atop the table of the highest-ranking commander of the military.
 Chapter 15: Accident

“Since we don't really plan to push for ‘Butterfly's' envelopment of Navi,

we don't need to pay any attention to the special commissioner.”

Another officer added, “Yes, the meeting record shows that they are quite
eager to obtain reliable information about the situation here. Both the
spacecraft and the special commissioner will be carrying a lot of hidden
video recording devices, but we can simply forbid them from entering.
They can just take their videos at the border.”

“That's not appropriate, ” a young military officer voiced his objections,

“Let's not talk about the authenticity of the meeting records for now, but
even if it is authentic, how would the tides of the public change? ‘Butterfly'
is about to enter Navi and we're choosing to remain silent and refusing to
communicate. We know that it's just a pretense, that it's fake, but the masses
don't know that. What's more, I still have my doubts on the authenticity of
this information. Is it really possible to obtain such a detailed meeting
record from the round table? There isn't a traitor within the twelve
representative members, is there?”

The other officer interjected, “Come on now, that's no traitor, that's a man of
insight!”

“So you're gonna fight me no matter what, huh?”

Adrian rapped the table. “Enough! Have you two ever not bickered during a
meeting? Why don't the two of you fight it out outside?”

The two officers quickly shut their mouths.

The liaison officer by Adrian's left spoke, “About this…from the

unexpected information we had somehow gathered a few days ago…” As
he spoke, he shot a glance towards Fayn who was seated right opposite of
him. “Even though I'm not sure what the specifics of the operation is, but it
is indeed possible for the record to be leaked.”

Fayn nodded in agreement.

Quiet sounds of bickering and whispered discussion filled the room.

Another officer suggested, “Then, what about meeting outside of the Navi
System?”

“The other party is a special commissioner sent over to investigate whether

the capital star of the Navi System is suitable for establishing a base signal
station. I'm afraid they may not agree to meeting outside of it.”

“But as long as they enter Navi, isn't it our call on where they go? Can they
even make a forceful landing in the capital?”

“The problem isn't whether or not they're going to enter Navi! The
recording devices they mentioned in their meeting that would be installed in
the spacecraft will be able to detect any laser weapons present within an
area that is almost half that of the planet. And which of our planets aren't
equipped with any laser weapons?”

Adrian suddenly spoke, “White Aegis Star.”

There aren't any laser weapons in White Aegis! Don't even mention laser or
quantum weapons, there aren't many weapons there in the first place. They
can investigate that planet however much they please.”

The White Aegis was a very controversial planet; it was located on the
border between Navi and its neighbouring star system. Strictly speaking, it
belonged to the Labor System right beside Navi. Three years ago, a large
number of rare ores were discovered beneath the soils of this little planet.
“Butterfly” made its judgement and transformed it from a residential planet
to a resource planet. Migration proposals were then issued to the small
number of residents on the planet.
This was not a very wealthy planet, and transportation was very
inconvenient, but the customs of the people were simple, and the residents
felt a strong sense of belonging; they were unwilling to have their homes
demolished in order to transform the entire planet into a cold mining
facility. The sub-council within the Labor Star Division had made countless
appeals to the capital to request the retention of their residency status on
White Aegis, suggesting to turn the planet into a half-and-half of both, but
they were all rejected.

A year later, when a contracting company had been selected, the mining
plan drafted, and the original inhabitants about to be forcefully evicted,
White Aegis turned to the Navi System for help. In less than a week, the
White Aegis' planetary region's sub-council announced its separation from
the Labor System to merge with the Navi System instead. The Labor
System feigned ignorance and allowed it, claiming that they were being
threatened by the military force of Navi's troops and that it was only for
security reasons that they will silently allow the separation of White Aegis.
By the time the people from the capital had arrived, the planet had long
been under Navi System's control, and they were stopped by the newly-
expanded boundaries.

The capital did not recognize this private agreement, so the planet was still
classified within the Labor System in their officially released star map. But
in reality, it had already become one of the outermost planets in the Navi
System.

“Don't wait for them to enter Navi. What they talked about in the meeting is
clear. The special commissioner's ship will not be taking the fixed route;
they are prepared to avoid the public eye by taking a detour to the south of
the Labor System. In other words, they will be entering from the southern
borders directly opposite of us. We will intercept them directly near the
Labor System, and force them to change their route, making them land on
White Aegis,” said Adrian in a firm and steady tone.

They remembered very well the particulars of this plan that they had heard
of in the records where Zhong Yan described in detail the route he was
going to take. He was even ridiculed by Bard, saying that he could “tell it to
your own men instead, there is no need to tell us this”.
The officers present were all a little surprised. With some hesitation, Fayn
spoke. “Commander, do we intercept them with direct force? Those are the
people from the Supreme Council, should we not at least show them a little
courtesy…?”

“No,” Adrian firmly refused. “If he wants to come to my territory, he will

play by my rules.”

……

“Commander! Boss, boss! Hold on!” Fayn rushed to catch up with Adrian,
following him into his office. “Don't walk so fast. Come on, tell me, how do
you feel about that special commissioner?”

“What do you mean?” Adrian was straightforward. “No comments

whatsoever.”

Fayn pushed on. “What do you mean 'no comments'? It's not up to us to say
what happens when he enters Navi. You have to tell us whether you want
your order braised or fried after we catch him! What if we do something
you're not satisfied with?”

Adrian's voice was deep. “Don't touch him!”

As soon as he spoke, both of them were stunned. Adrian added on uneasily,

“Zhong Yan is a civilian, he's never fought in his entire life. On the other
hand, you lot are people I've personally brought up as soldiers. Even if you
don't feel ashamed to be raising a hand against someone like that, I would…
what's that look on your face?”

“You're hopeless. Do you still like him?”

“Shut up.”

“Don't be so jumpy about the topic.”一Despite having a good temper, even

Fayn was starting to feel a little disgruntled. “When you first came to Navi,
that sullen look on your face was pitiful! You said later that you got over it,
but I'm not blind. When we were on the Institution Star…You've never once
forgotten him. Listen, if you can't get over him after all these years, then I'm
afraid you'll be cursed with it for life. And since you can't let him go, then
don't pay those damn fines. Get married to him, find some reason to settle
him down in Navi, and shut him into a dark room. What do you think?”

Adrian hissed coldly, “Are you mad? That's illegal imprisonment.”

“Ille…what? No, but you've already illegally taken over an entire star
system…”

“Fayn, I will not see him.” After some hesitation, Adrian still decided to
add on, “He will interfere with my judgment.”

Fayn probed, “What judgment?”

“Can't you see? I could barely control myself when I saw him. What's
more…” Adrian remembered the look of Zhong Yan's red eyes and tear
covered face. Then, he remembered the scene in that surveillance room
where he saw how he had curled up on that chair. Recalling back to what
Fayn said about shutting him in a dark room…he gulped unconsciously. He
closed his eyes and said, “Anyway, he's going to bother me, so I'll just leave
this to you and the liaison officer. I'm not seeing him.”

……

“Xiao Yan,” Adrian circled his arms around Zhong Yan from behind and
buried his face between the nook of his shoulder. “I'm so hungry, how much
longer do I have to wait…”

“Almost done!” With quick hands, Zhong Yan added a spoonful of

seasoning into the pot. Adrian was much taller compared to him, and he
was practically covered by the man's embrace, making it quite inconvenient
for him to stir the pot. But he did not ask the other man to release him and
instead continued to cook in such a difficult position.

“Are you really very hungry? Why don't I get you a small bowl to start
with? Sorry, my class ended a little late today.” He continued on a little
uneasily, “I'll be quicker next time, then I'll definitely have food waiting for
you when you come back…”

There was only half a year to go before they graduated, and the unease he
felt was growing stronger by the day. Adrian had put forward his idea of
heading to Navi, and starting from scratch; Adrian had even told him that
Fayn would be going with him.

Fayn Suster, Adrian's good friend and classmate since their campuses were
separated. On the first day of their second year, Adrian had told Zhong Yan
about it when he returned, telling him that he had met a like-minded friend
that he had easily hit it off with.

Adrian was the only friend that Zhong Yan had, but Adrian had many
besides him. Amongst them, Fayn was declared a good brother that he
could confide in. He had even discussed with Zhong Yan once about
whether he could invite Fayn to their dorm to hang out.

Their dorm room was a place for only the two of them, how could anyone
else be let inside! Zhong Yan knew that he came from a simple background,
and he was worried that if he did anything wrong to incur Adrian's dislike,
that he could not be close with him anymore, so he rarely refused Adrian
and had always satisfied all his requests, whether it was big or small, as
much as possible. However, he was very determined to refuse him that one
time.

The military division's campus was located far away from their dorm, and
Adrian did not know how to cook, so Zhong Yan had taken up the
responsibility of preparing dinner every night. Later, Adrian complained
that the food in the canteen of the military division was too awful, so Zhong
Yan decided simply to just buy a lunch box, and prepared his breakfast and
lunch as well.

Fortunately, his results were already dazzling enough. Not only were his
tuition fees paid by scholarship, he even received ample pocket money,
which was more than enough to cover the burden of feeding two mouths.
“Adrian,” During dinner that day, Zhong Yan tried to ask, “if…somebody
had different ideals, and goals from you, but for the sake of their own goals,
had to do the same as you…would you work with a person like that?”

Adrian responded very simply, “No. Naturally, I would look for like-
minded people to work with, why would I have to bother with people who
held different ideals? What's wrong? Is it one of your debate topics again?”

“Uh…yeah.” Zhong Yan lowered his head and pushed the plate of sweet
and sour pork ribs in front of him. “This is your favorite, but I'm using a
new brand of vinegar today. Give it a try, tell me what you think.”

Just lie to him. Say that you are indirectly trying to save your nation, so you
wish to collaborate with him. He can work towards the goal from the
outside, and you can work on it from within. A small voice emerged within
Zhong Yan's heart: What we wish to do is the same anyway, and since he
trusts you so much, he won't be able to tell!

But that was not true. Zhong Yan tossed and turned in the middle of the
night. That's not it, I know I'm not trying to save anybody. I'm not doing it
so I can help him, I'm just doing this for myself. You could try to fool
anybody, but that was Adrian…How could he lie to him?

……

“…Sir! Sir Zhong! Sir Zhong!!”

The sound of banging could be heard coming from his door. Zhong Yan had
been woken up from the noise, and it pulled him out from his dreams of
seven years ago back to reality—He was now on a spacecraft heading
towards the Navi System, and this was the fourth day of their travel. They
were only one small region away from Navi.

As he hurried to change his clothes, he shouted to Bayer behind the door,

“What is it?”

“Somebody has stopped our ship!”

This was quite in line with Adrian's style, so Zhong Yan was not very
surprised. He opened the door and asked as he walked side by side with
Bayer, “What are their demands? Are they asking to discuss outside of the
Navi Star System? I said it was impossible…”

“Sir Zhong, it is not the people from the Navi System who stopped us.”
Bayer's face distorted bitterly as he cut him off. “They're space pirates, and
they're demanding money.”
 Chapter 16: Unwilling

Those that wandered the universe consisted not only of the giant space
rabbits, but also space pirates.

The space piracy problem had been plaguing the Federation for hundreds of
years. Ever since AI had been popularized throughout the universe, the
problem had been solved to some degree. But, in the more remote areas,
“Butterfly's” hold on some star systems were not strong enough, thus the
problem persisted till today. After all, the vast universe was unlike land,
neither humans nor AI could control everything.

Two years ago, the Navi System had gradually closed its borders, but it also
made the public security around the area much better. For some time, the
space pirates seemed to have gone extinct.

Nobody would have expected to bump into space pirates here. What's
more…Zhong Yan looked out at the spaceships floating outside from the
porthole. The group of space pirates they had encountered this time did not
seem to be small.

“Sir Zhong!” When the chief of security saw Zhong Yan, it was as if he had
found his savior. He quickly said to him, “There are too many people on the
opponent's side, and their ships are heavily equipped. Our firepower is not
comparable to them at all, but Bayer insists that we resist them. We…”

Zhong Yan answered decisively, “Give up the resistance, do not allow any
casualties on our end.”

Bayer was quick to cut in. “Sir Zhong! How could we give up?! It's their
job to keep us safe!”
Everyone ignored him. The chief of security had received his order and
immediately turned to convey the message. Zhong Yan fixed his clothes and
turned towards his accompanying staff who were all pale from fear. “Bring
me the stock list for the ship. You, destroy all the data related to the
Supreme Council in the systems. Go.”

This time, they were pretending to be mere caravan travelers. The signal in
such a remote part of the universe was not very good, and the Navi System
had already blocked out the outside world for a very long time. Since this
troop of space pirates were outside of the Navi System, then they must not
have landed anywhere for the past year and a half or so. They might not be
able to recognize them, so they could try to go with the flow.

He pointed to a few more of his men and ordered them off. Everyone had
been huddling together in fear, and compared to Bayer who could only bark
at the security team for them to face the enemy, Zhong Yan's calm
demeanor almost gave them a temporary glimmer of peace. Everyone
responded in acknowledgment of his orders and went to do their work.

Bayer tried several times to put in a suggestion, but he never would have
expected that Zhong Yan who would usually treat him with respect would
actually turn a deaf ear to him today. He was so furious that his face was
turning red. He howled, “How could you allow them to send a distress
signal to the Navi System?! We should be asking the Capital for help! If
word gets out, we might as well just be dead!”

Zhong Yan turned coldly to him. “It would be too late to wait for help to
come from the capital. The closest large-scale military force available to us
is the Navi Military Command. You may fight honorably with the space
pirates, but do not drag those who wish to live down with you.”

This was the first time Zhong Yan had ever shot back at him in such a way
to his face, and it was both shocking and anger-inducing for Bayer.
Different shades of red passed through his face; in his eyes, this youngster
was nothing more than a mere puppet, and he was only there in Stalvern's
place after his retirement. To think that this puppet would actually dare to
crawl over him like this!
Since they had completely abandoned any idea of resistance, there was
practically no conflict on both sides, and a small team soon boarded the
ship.

The one in the lead was a dirty and rugged man wearing a bandana. As soon
as he entered through the security doors, he immediately pointed his gun
towards a few of the security guards. “Take out all your weapons and throw
them aside!”

The security team looked at Zhong Yan, and they received his calm
response. “Toss them away.”

“Oh, are you their leader? You've got tact, not bad.” The one leading the
group turned his eyes to Zhong Yan and felt a sense of doubt rise up. “Hey,
you look familiar now that I look at you…”

One of his underlings standing behind him observed Zhong Yan. “He looks
pretty, must be some celebrity!”

Zhong Yan responded, “I know that you are only seeking wealth, you can
take this batch of goods we have on board, but please let us leave safely.”

Their leader retorted, “Then we'll have to see if your goods are worthy
enough to pay for that. Search it!”

In just a short while, the dozen or so boxes full of goods they brought as
props were taken over. Even the staff throughout the entire ship was pushed
over and gathered. The leader looked on in dissatisfaction. “Just this? What
sort of company is this? Why are you so poor?”

Zhong Yan remained unperturbed. “Most of it was sold off in Labor Star.
This is all we have left.”

The leader's gaze shifted through the group of staff, and suddenly sneered.
“Oh, that's fine, you have two ladies here who look pretty good. Hand over
these two ladies and the goods, and you can go.”
The two female staff were so scared that they were trembling, blood
draining from their faces. Zhong Yan frowned. “Not possible.”

At the same time, Bayer had quickly cut in. “Yes!”

The space pirate looked between the two of them, and asked, “So is this a
yes or a no? Which one of you is in charge?”

“I am.” Zhong Yan presented himself. “You can take the ship and the goods,
but it's not possible for me to hand you any of my men.”

“You can save everyone by sacrificing two women!” Bayer was furious.
“Are you trying to get us all killed?!”

Zhong Yan mocked him, “So you suddenly feel like living now?”

The leader looked at them with impatience and raised the gun in his hand.
“So you're not agreeing, huh?!”

Zhong Yan quickly weighed the pros and cons of revealing his identity at
this moment, but in the end still decided to ensure the safety of his people
and to discuss with them after he managed to get everyone out.

“I'll replace them,” he said.

The pirate leader had been prepared to tell him that they wanted women;
what was a man like him trying to cut in for! But as he observed Zhong
Yan's face, he started to swallow down his words. His underlings at the
back whispered to him, “Boss, this guy looks much better than those
women! It's not a bad deal!”

“Alright!” The leader waved them away. “The rest of you can get in the
escape shuttle.”

Zhong Yan watched as all the staff and security guards entered the shuttle.
Silently, he was pulled away by the pirates into their shuttle.

This style of ship was considerably old at this point in time, and it could be
seen that it had gone through several transformations to achieve this current
solid and mean appearance.

The leader seemed to have ordered one of his men to do something, and he
pushed Zhong Yan into a simple cell before locking it, leaving a single
person behind to watch over him.

Not long after he left, the pirate who was left behind asked, “Hey pretty
boy, are you an actor? I keep getting the feeling I've seen you in a movie or
something.”

Zhong Yan responded calmly to him, “You're mistaken, it was the political
news.”

Unfortunately, the space pirate had no reaction at all to what he had just
said. After being away from land so long and floating away in space, the
only thing in their lives now was sex, money, and violence. It was quite rare
for them to receive any signals from the universe, and they did not care
much about the news from the Federation either. Every so often, they would
drift to a place with signal, but they would only rush to keep up with
entertainment, porn videos, and whatnot; they would not pay attention to
anything else.

“Haha, it doesn't matter what role you played. If you have some fun with
me, I'll put in a good word for you later. What do you say?”

“I've nothing to say.”

The pirate tried to tease him, but then he saw the aggravating look on the
man's face. It made him feel as if he himself was a show monkey jumping
up and down, and it made him angry. He barked, “You bastard, what're you
acting all high and mighty about! For you to be able to handle a merchant
troop at such a young age, it really makes me wonder how many old men
you've slept with for your position!”

Zhong Yan had a face that looked much younger than his actual age, but
since he was popular enough to be a common household name, everyone
knew who he was, and he would rarely be mistaken for a young man in his
early twenties; he never expected to be misunderstood here.
While the space pirate continued to hurl abuse at him, he started to unlock
the gates to the cell. Zhong Yan took a step back and said, “I would advise
you against that. Have you ever given any thought as to how a person of my
age can lead such a caravan? I come from the capital, and the Navi Military
Command has already been informed of my hostage status. They are on the
way here as we speak. The only bargaining chip you have now is to use me
as a hostage.”

“What?” His words had wiped the space pirate's previous thoughts clean
off. “The Navi Military Command? You're just messing with me, aren't
you?”

“It's true. If you go and report this to your superior now, you may be able to
get some credit out of it.”

The space pirate relocked the door with haste and ran off in a panic. Zhong
Yan let out a sigh of relief, and a soft, bitter chuckle left his lips as he
allowed his back to slide down the wall.

What he said was fake. It had been an hour since they sent the emergency
call signal, and he had no idea whatsoever on whether the Navi Military
Command would actually pay any heed to their distress signal. Even if they
did send someone over out of a few considerations…he was still not useful
enough to be used as a bargaining chip for the Navi Military Command.

“Did you say that…Navi's military forces are on the way?”

The wide but messy hall was filled with people, and it was unclear whether
the entire crew was gathered here or not. The man sitting at the uppermost
seat was a middle-aged man with dark hair. A horizontal scar ran across his
face which made him look very fierce. At this moment, he was
interrogating Zhong Yan who was standing in the middle of the hall below.

“That's right,” Zhong Yan responded. Even though he knew it was not
likely, he still gave it his all to persuade them. “If you let me go now…”

Before he could even finish, the pirate crew's leader cut him off. “If you put
it that way, it's not completely impossible.”
Zhong Yan waited quietly for him to lay down his conditions, but he did not
expect the other party to say, “Let me say…You're a very lucky one, we
happen to have a signal right now, so let's play a game. Initiate a
conversation with any person in your contact list right now, and tell them
that you were kidnapped by space pirates. Ask them if they're willing to
save you.”

The space pirates around him began to sneer; clearly, this was not their first
rodeo.

The head honcho gave him a nasty smile. “If your friend agrees to it, we
will provide you with a small escape shuttle. But if they're unwilling…we'll
put your personal terminal in the escape shuttle, and when the Navi Military
boys arrive, we'll just say we've already released you. As for your person…
well, you'll just have to stay—without the terminal, they won't be able to
find you either, don't you think so?”

The roaring sound of cheers erupted through the hall. It had been a long
time since they had any entertainment on this ship, so this was exciting for
them. Zhong Yan knew that he had to do it.

He turned on his terminal, and sure enough, there was a weak signal.

Within the excited crowd, another person had also turned on his terminal
and pulled a single person out of his blacklist.

Zhong Yan did not know what he was thinking, but he knew this was
definitely not the best choice he could have made—or you could say, this
was a choice that was sure to fail—but he stubbornly insisted on contacting
that person.

To his surprise, the call was picked up in less than a second.

“Um…A…it—it's me. I'm not sure if you've received the distress signal, it
was sent out about two hours prior,” Zhong Yan spoke.

The head of the pirates pointed his gun at him as a warning for him not to
say anything unnecessary, and to stick with his lines. The hall had turned so
quiet that you could hear a pin drop, and all the space pirates were watching
this rare scene with cruel excitement.

“I've been kidnapped by them.” Hearing no response from the other side,
Zhong Yan's heart sunk; but he still remained firm and asked the question,
“Are you willing to come and save me?”

After a few seconds of silence, the deep voice of a man reverberated across
the hall from the speakers of Zhong Yan's terminal. “No. Is something
wrong with your head? Why are you calling me at this hour?”

The crowd was roaring in a big riot, and everyone had their weapons raised.
Very soon, an area was vacated, and a tall man that had huddled between
them since who knows when stood right in the middle.
 Chapter 17: Strip

"Who are you? How'd you get in?" The boss' right-hand man sitting beside
him shouted.

Adrian pulled back the hood he was wearing for camouflage. The man's
question did not bother him at all, neither did all the guns that were pointing
towards him; he stared only at Zhong Yan and said, "Come here."

Without even a moment of hesitation, Zhong Yan obeyed his order and ran
towards Adrian. Someone shouted for him to stop and turned his gun to
him, but he did not stop. He knew that Adrian would take care of him. The
only thing he heard was two bangs when two of the guns pointed readily
towards Zhong Yan flew out from the pirates' hands.

The deterring power of his technique was clear to see. Even if the two
pirates were unharmed, it was a perfect show of the man's precision and
skill. For a moment, nobody dared to make any moves, but Zhong Yan had
already reached Adrian in a few quick seconds.

"You're really f*cking good at starting trouble," Adrian shot fiercely at him,
"I'll deal with you later."

Zhong Yan's arm was caught by Adrian's rough grasp, and he was pulled
over to him with a tug. It was obvious that Adrian did not loosen his grip.
He could feel the pain of his fingers digging into his arm, but he did not ask
him to let go. In a soft voice, he contended, "How is this my fault? I was
even starting to wonder whether it was you who sent the pirates."

Adrian was so pissed that he could practically drop dead. "Would I need to
hire a bunch of pirates to stop you? With your pitiful ship and your useless
security team..."
"That ship isn't pitiful. It's the latest design and it cost a lot. Have you
received my men?"

"Like hell I would!"

"Hey, listen." The head of the space pirates sitting at the top spoke with a
face red with anger when he saw the two of them arguing. "How long are
you planning to flirt around for?"

One of the lackeys from outside the hall quickly stumbled into the room. He
kneeled down with his head plastered to the floor and shouted, "Boss! What
he said was true! We-we're surrounded by the Navi Military Command's
warships! Their men are boarding the ship, and our security doors have
already been broken-ah!"

The man who came after him gave the back of the lackey a hefty kick. It
was a young Navi military officer. He looked towards Adrian and said,
"Boss, we've taken over the security doors, should we search...oh, you've
already found the special commissioner?"

Adrian responded, "Did you lot get lost on the way or something? You're so
slow."

"The single-seater you left in was the fastest, and the speed is almost twice
that of a large warship. We've already rushed over in the fastest speed we
can." The officer was helpless.

"Go." With his gun in one hand and Zhong Yan the other, Adrian was just
about to leave when he heard the head of the pirates shout, "Hold it right
there!"

Adrian was getting impatient. "Speak quickly, I'm in a hurry."

The leader stood up and walked slowly down the steps towards the center of
the hall. He was a tall man whose body exuded an aura of bloodthirst that
put tingles on ones' scalp when they faced him. Adrian took a half step
forward and covered Zhong Yan behind him.
"What will I do with my reputation if I let you waltz off just like that?
What's this pretty boy to you?"

"None of your business," Adrian spat out.

The space pirate laughed. "I can tell even if you don't say it. I was just
thinking the two of you were pretty familiar a while ago, but sure enough,
looking at you now, you've got those hateful silver eyes. You're Adrian
Yate."

He came closer and closer. Previously, his face that could not be clearly
seen from their distance was fully revealed under the lights. Actually, he
had the face of a man full of charm, but it was only destroyed by the long
scar on it as well as his fierce temper. As Zhong Yan looked at him, a look
of disbelief started to emerge on his face.

Adrian responded, "That's right, it's me, your daddy. My boys have you
surrounded, so do you really think you can stop me?-What're you doing?"

He was only able to finish half of what he wanted to say before Zhong Yan
began tugging at his clothes from behind. Impatiently, he turned around
towards the person at his side. "Save it for later, can't you see the situation
right now?"

"You can use your heavy weapons to turn us all into dust later," the head of
the space pirates started to laugh like a maniac, "but if you're gonna just
swagger out of here like this, you're gonna have to wait till I strip your
skin!"

Space pirates were loyal to their code and had no fear of death. Adrian had
personally dealt with more than a few space pirate crews, so he was very
clear on how these gangs operated. Hearing what he said, he also started to
laugh. "Great, then let's go by your rules-I'll fight you one-on-one, and if I
win, I'll be taking him...What're you doing?!"

Zhong Yan was desperately tugging at his clothes from behind, and in a fit
of anger, Adrian pulled his clothes free from his hands. Zhong Yan had an
awkward expression on his face, but he didn't feel like talking about it in
public, so he whispered to him, "Wait, don't fight with him first, I need to
tell you something..."

"Whatever it is, you can tell me when the fight's over!"

"No! I have to tell you right now!" Zhong Yan looked a little anxious, and
clearly only both the opposing head and him realized this; but since the
other party had no intention of saying it, he would have to speak up.

Adrian wasn't listening to him at all, but Zhong Yan could not be bothered
about that right now. He got up on the balls of his feet and tried to climb his
way up Adrian's arm to reach his ear. Zhong Yan's voice was very light, but
to Adrian, it felt like a crack of thunder.

Zhong Yan said, "I think that person is...your father."

......

Half an hour later, Warship Infirmary.

The space pirates' ship had already been completely taken over by Navi's
troops. Since their leader had been defeated by the general commander of
the Navi Military Command, the group of pirates were not too upset about
it, and there was no serious conflict. Adrian had come out in a hurry this
time around and didn't bring any medical staff with him. At this moment,
everyone was busy, so Zhong Yan could only harden his wits and head over
himself.

"Mr. Parrett, please raise your hand."

Parrett raised a brow at him. "You know my name? Did that brat tell you? I
heard you're married."

"Not yet." Zhong Yan fixed up his arm with a splint and continued. "It
seems you're not completely out of the loop with the news. You must have
known he was in Navi this whole time, right? Why didn't you..."

"Why what? Why didn't I look for him? Why didn't I reconcile with him?"
Zhong Yan remained silent. It was very clear that that was exactly what he
meant.

Parrett sneered. "And what would I do that for? So that I can fight the AI
with him? And what?"

Zhong Yan responded coldly. "He's your biological son."

Before telling him about Vahl's story, Adrian had once told Zhong Yan
about his so-called father who had abandoned his pregnant mother and ran
off to Navi. Unlike Stalvern, Adrian certainly believed that this man who
abandoned his pregnant wife was a scumbag, but his feelings towards him
could still not be considered hate.

"My mother didn't expect me to be born, and she's never taken care of me.
He's not much different from her. Anyway, they're the same as me; we're
only victims. If there is a possibility, I still hope that I can see him once, just
to see what kind of person he is."

He did not say it himself, but Zhong Yan could tell from his words that the
young Adrian had many fantasies and expectations towards his father, but
this man in front of him had never thought about acknowledging his own
son.

Zhong Yan did not wish to stay here any longer, so he said, "It's done. I'm
not a professional, so you should look for a doctor when you reach Navi."

A cold glint of hate could be seen in Parrett's eyes as he snorted, "Son?

Hah, are you still expecting me to act the role of a father to him now? He's
not my son! Adrian Yate is the shame of my life!"

Adrian's hand stopped on the handle of the door to the infirmary. He had
just finished tying up the loose ends at work, and this was the first thing he
heard as he reached the infirmary's door.

At the age of twenty-seven, he finally met his father, and loudly, his father
announced him as his shame.
Suddenly, the sound of a crash could be heard from within; it seemed like
the medical equipment inside had fallen over. Adrian was shocked and
wanted to open the door, but all he heard was Zhong Yan's voice as it
erupted in anger. "Clearly, you were both victims of a tragedy, but the only
thing you can do about it is run away. He rose up and fought against it! If he
succeeds, he will be the greatest hero of mankind in his lifetime, but if he
fails, the annals would still remember him. In hundreds or thousands of
years, people will praise him. Even if he failed, he failed with glory! And
you? What do you think your actions are worth?!"

Parrett pounced at him viciously and caught Zhong Yan's neck with his
good hand. At the same time, the door of the infirmary slammed open with
a bang. With one punch, Adrian hit him square in the temple, causing his
sight to go dark as he was forced to let go.

"You've got yourself a wife with a pretty glib tongue." Parrett sneered at
them from the ground.

"Guard! Get in here and keep an eye on him!" While shouting, Adrian
dragged Zhong Yan out.

Zhong Yan had been dragged all the way to his temporary office. Adrian
slammed the door shut behind him, and with his hand around Zhong Yan's
waist, lifted him up and set him down on the tall office table.

Zhong Yan sat on the desk in disbelief and asked, "What...what are you
doing?"

"Shut up! You're amazing, aren't you? I left for just a moment and you've
already gotten yourself in danger!"

As Zhong Yan's skin was fair, the marks that were left was especially
conspicuous. With just that bit of a scuffle, his neck had already reddened
up to a shocking sight.

Adrian took his chin and lifted it up before checking his neck with rage
filling his eyes.
"It'll go away after a while." Zhong Yan felt uneasy and wanted to move his
hand away, but he could not succeed. "You nearly beat him into a cripple, I
thought..."

"Thought what? Did you think that space pirates are the same as your
council people and the like? You think you could reason with them?"
Adrian continued in a fit of anger, "Do you think you can just get on a space
pirate's ship as you pleased? Are you trying to play the hero? Aren't you
usually very well-spoken? Couldn't you have delayed them till I arrived?"

Zhong Yan's voice was soft. "I never thought you would come."

The two were silent for a while, and neither of them mentioned Adrian's
father again. Zhong Yan cleared his throat and began, "So, you've already
met with my subordinates, right? Did they tell you? We..."

"They told me a lot of things." Adrian cut him off. "For example, they told
me you had a portable camcorder hidden inside your clothes."

Zhong Yan's eyes widened, but he did not refute him. "These are my casual
clothes! They're not the clothes I prepared to wear when I would meet with
you..."

"Who knows about that? Your men said they're in every one of your
clothes."

"How could my men say such things!"

"Cut the nonsense. I can't risk taking you into Navi with the threat of you
secretly taking footage inside. So, before we land, are you going to strip or
do you want me to do it for you?"
 Chapter 18: Sore Spot

Zhong Yan observed his expression for a moment as doubt began to form in
his voice. “Are you joking?”

Adrian looked at him, face devoid of expression. “Do I look like I am?”

The desk was very tall, so sitting on top of it, Zhong Yan had a rare chance
to face Adrian on an equal level. A look of disbelief sprang upon his face as
he enunciated his words all too clearly. “I will not take my clothes off in
your office.”

“This office is the only place on this ship without any monitoring. I'm
already showing you consideration.” Adrian was losing his patience. “So
you won't strip, huh?”

He grabbed Zhong Yan's collar and began to unbutton his shirt. Zhong Yan
subconsciously attempted to retreat, but as he was sitting on top of the large
desk, his back fell directly onto its surface. Without any signs of rest,
Adrian took a step forward in response and took hold of Zhong Yan's hands
that were desperately resisting him. With his other hand, he grabbed his
shirt that appeared very expensive upon observation and tore it open
roughly. Under his violent movements, one of the buttons gave in and
landed with a crisp clink on the floor.

“Wait! Wait a second!” Zhong Yan tried to push him, but his efforts were in
vain. Soon he had the realization that struggling against Adrian was a
foolish decision. With his face red from struggling, he shouted, “I…I'll take
it off myself!”

Adrian bent over and pressed him down before confirming, “Really? Are
you willing to strip now?”
Zhong Yan glared at him. “Yes! So get off!”

Adrian retreated. Zhong Yan sat himself up once more and tidied up his
messy clothes and hair. His breath was still slightly haggard from the tussle
they had just engaged in a moment ago, but Adrian's breath, in contrast, was
not affected in the slightest, and he was standing at the side with his arms
crossed as if nothing happened.

Zhong Yan stared at him and observed him again, but felt as if he didn't
know him anymore. He muttered, “How did you turn out this way now?”

“Turn out like what?”

“You…you weren't like this before. You used to be…”

Zhong Yan's words were slightly incoherent, but Adrian certainly

understood how he ‘used' to be.

He used to want for nothing than to hold Zhong Yan in the palm of his
hand. Don't even mention how much he coddled him, he would even ask to
see if he was okay if he so much as heard a cough; when had he ever been
this rough and unforgiving with him in his life?

Adrian spoke. “Because we're not in the past anymore.”

Zhong Yan's expression changed. He opened his mouth, but he could not
say a single word.

Adrian observed his face and felt as if someone had just poured oil over the
bubbling magma beneath his heart.

He raised his voice. “What're you sulking for?!”

“I'm not.” Zhong Yan turned his head away quickly, unwilling to look at
him any longer.

Adrian warned him, “You better not cry.”

“I'm not going to!”

The one thing Zhong Yan hated the most in his life was for others to see his
vulnerable side. The more he denied it, the more Adrian wanted to bring it
up.

“It's the first time I've ever seen you crying like that during the school's
anniversary celebration. Speaking of which, you've also changed in the
seven years we haven't seen each other. What, is crying the new pity play
you learned after becoming a representative member? How come I've never
seen you practice this in public?”

Before he could even finish talking, Zhong Yan had picked up the cup on
the table and hurled it at him. His aim was not very accurate, so Adrian was
able to easily avoid it by moving his head a little without even having to
move his feet. Then, a loud crash could be heard as the cup smashed into
the wall right beside his ears.

The calm and self-sustaining Zhong Yan was finally angry. Adrian felt a
rush of pleasure from it and refused to let go of this weakness of his. He
continued on, “Has your guts shrunk to so small now? You always look like
you're going to cry when I've been seeing you recently. Did you secretly cry
when you got kidnapped by the space bandits too?”

Zhong Yan's face was covered with a layer of frost as he spat out coldly,
“That simply makes no sense, what's there to cry about getting kidnapped
by space bandits?”

Makes sense. When Adrian slipped into the bandit ship's hall earlier, he saw
how the other man's face was filled with not a single shred of panic even
when he was surrounded by hundreds of vicious bandits, much less any
tears.

Then why did he cry in the stairwell last time? Could he be scarier than a
hundred or so wicked space bandits?

As Adrian wondered about it in his gloom, he spoke, “This cup costs three
hundred and sixty thousand. Pay me back in half a month.”
“My button costs four hundred thousand. You don't have to pay the extra
forty thousand.” Zhong Yan's breaths came back to normal, and he touched
his shirt which button had been torn off, and turned back to ask with
reluctance, “What will I wear if I take this off?”

Adrian knew that they would be landing sooner than they realized if they
continued their bickering, so without a single word, he took off his sports
jacket and threw it to Zhong Yan.

He wasn't in his military uniform today, and nobody knew whether this was
due to him being in a rush, or that he just didn't care to change, but perhaps
he had only worn his casual clothes so he would not stand out as much
when he tried to blend in with the bandits.

Zhong Yan grabbed the jacket and without even having to check it with on
his own body, he said, “Your clothes are too big.”

This was not Zhong Yan's first time wearing Adrian's clothes. During their
winter days in the Institution Star, Adrian would often take off his jacket for
him when they walked together as Zhong Yan was sensitive to the cold.
Adrian liked to buy loose clothes, and he was also tall. Not only was Zhong
Yan half a head shorter than him, he was also very slim, so the jacket would
end up as a long coat on his body.

But right now, he was not prepared to help him with the sizing issue.

“You can stay naked if you prefer.”

Right now, Zhong Yan knew that he really meant what he said; he was not
joking. He quickly moved his hands to the jacket to protect it in his arms as
if he was afraid that Adrian would go back on his word.

Zhong Yan spoke, “Then, you go outside, I'm going to change.”

Adrian raised a brow at him. “It's only temporary, but this is still my
office.”

“I know, what of it?”

“I am the highest commander of the largest armed organization of the anti-
AI, and you are the direct subordinate of AI. You think I'm going to leave
you alone in my own office? Dream on.”

“Isn't the terminal in your office protected by a password?”

“And what if you manage to guess it? I'm not prepared to take that risk.”

“Guess it…” Zhong Yan repeated the line and felt so angry that he had to
stop and take a breath. This man was too unreasonable. “Me? Guess your
password? How am I going to do that? It's not like it's my birthday or
something, is it?”

Adrian paused in his breath. This sentence stabbed right at his sore spot. He
really was using Zhong Yan's birthday as the password for his personal
terminal. He was the only one who knew this, not even Fayn did. He
thought that it would be too petty of him if he were to change the password,
it felt like something only a little girl would do.

Zhong Yan had unsuspectingly made a strike at him without knowing it, but
he kept his expression solemn, firmly refusing to show him any clues.

“You've been an official for so long, how do you still have no tact? I just
don't want you in here alone, it's like leaving a thief next to a locked case, I
just don't like it.”

The faint blush on Zhong Yan's face that came from his earlier struggles
had now faded completely. The anger and humiliation that had been kept
silent within him since his childhood was now roaring out and was almost
spilling out from his eyes. He closed his eyes, and after catching a few
breaths, he said, “Then turn around.”

“Zhong Yan, do you really think I'm here to play with you?” Adrian
sneered. “You have a highly concealed recording device on you, and I can't
be bothered to bring in the high-precision detection equipment. The easiest
way is for you to change, and now you're trying to stop me from seeing the
changing process? Then what's the point in getting you to change?”
When Zhong Yan brought up this suggestion at the round table, he had only
thought that this would help to increase the success rate of the plan; he
never thought he would be pushing himself into this situation, but even
worse was…

“There's really nothing on these clothes! My formalwear is…” Zhong Yan

hated that he didn't tell it to him clearly from the start, he told him they
were clothes, but never said which ones. He wanted Adrian to watch out for
the probing devices on his ship, but who would've thought that he would be
robbed by space bandits before he could even arrive at Navi? And now it
had been taken over by the Navi Military Command.

After his ship was dealt with, Adrian shifted his attention and started to
treat all his clothes as if they were enemies.

“It's on the cufflink of my suit. It's a miniature camera that can't be detected
by ordinary security detection devices, but you can find them if you use
high-precision equipment! You can search my room, it's right in my closet
—”

“You'll never get the chance to wear that suit in your life, so why would I
have to bother? It's enough for me that I watch you take this pair of clothes
off.”

Zhong Yan's face had turned into an unbelievable shade of white. Adrian
had actually figured that these clothes he wore were likely fine, he was just
doing it for insurance. But now it almost felt like a lottery; was there really
some hidden device within his clothes? Why was Zhong Yan so desperate
to keep it on?

“You can tell anyone else to watch me change. Anyone! As long as it isn't
you! Anyone would…”

Before Zhong Yan could finish, the internal communication device on the
table rang.

Adrian picked it up and answered. “Speak.”

The person on the other end of the communicator spoke, “Commander,
we've entered the White Aegis' atmosphere. The cockpit sent me to ask if
we're ready to land.”

“Do it.”

“Roger.”

Adrian threw the communicator back on the table. It slammed down,

bounced back up, and fell on the ground, but nobody paid it any attention.

“You heard it, now's your last chance to do it yourself.”

Zhong Yan looked at him, and a look of despair welled up in his eyes.
Adrian was getting more and more confused—Wasn't it just a hidden
device? Is there a need for this?

“Fine, I'll take it off. I'm nothing in your heart now anyway, this won't
matter.”

What? What won't matter?

Adrian was starting to feel as if things were much different from what he
had expected, and it made him feel rather uneasy at the bottom of his heart.
Zhong Yan did not delay and immediately went on to remove his buttons.
When he pulled his shirt away, Adrian moved forth and grabbed his hand
that was trying to cover himself up.

For a moment, he could not believe what he was seeing at all. He even
reached out uncontrollably to touch it, and the bumpy texture on his
feelings proved to him that what he saw in front of him was all real.

“What is this?! What—is this?!”

Right beneath Zhong Yan's chest were dense scars on his ribs. The scars
were gnarled and twisted, and they were very old, from the looks of it, but
you could still clearly see the words they formed.

“Thief”.
 Chapter 19: Marked

Zhong Yan pushed Adrian's hand away and quickly took off his shirt before
putting on Adrian's jacket. He wanted to pull up the zipper, but the more
anxious he became, the harder it was for him to get it right. Adrian could
not stand the sight any longer and pulled it up for him in one rough motion.

When he was done, Zhong Yan pushed him away once more. He wanted to
get off the table, but Adrian was standing in front of him like a wall.

Zhong Yan reached out to push him, but he could barely move him a single
inch, so he could only say, “I changed my clothes. Move over, I want to get
down.”

Adrian asked, “What was that?”

“Whatever it is, it's none of your business. Move!”

Not only did Adrian not move away, he even stopped Zhong Yan's hands
that were struggling with him repeatedly. He warned, “I'm in a bad mood
right now, so you're done for if you kick me. Try it if you dare.”

Adrian was standing right in front of the desk, and his legs were intertwined
with Zhong Yan's. Zhong Yan could have easily raised his legs and kneed
him right at a man's most vulnerable position, getting himself out of this
predicament; but his threat was effective.

Zhong Yan thought about the other's unpredictable temper and decided to
endure the urge, instead opting to move him with reason. “Why do you
always try to solve your problems with violence? You can't convince
anyone with violence, you…just let me go first…”
“This is not the capital, violence can convince the people. Welcome to
Navi, Representative Member,” said Adrian. Seeing that he was not
struggling for the time being, he released his hand but did not move away.
He remained standing in front of him. “So, what was the case with that?”

Zhong Yan met his eyes and was silent for a long time. Then, he said,
“What's it to you? We're not friends anymore.”

“In Navi, I ask. You answer. No arguing. Speak.”

Zhong Yan lowered his gaze. He saw it, Adrian would not let him go if he
did not get a clear answer today. After being apart from each other for seven
years, he was not like the man in that ivory tower like he used to be in
school. He was now a rigid overlord who was not afraid to do whatever he
said.

"When I was still going through my compulsory education, I got into a

conflict with a senior. He and a few friends of his carved it with a utility
knife. That was it.”

“What conflict?”

“The daughter of a wealthy businessman was from the same batch as I was.
She was very pretty and my senior was interested in her.” Zhong Yan spoke
very calmly as if he was speaking about someone else. “I've always been
the first in class, and my appearance was not too bad, so the girl took an
interest in me. I didn't accept her, so she cried, then the senior got some of
his friends to stick up for her. They did it in the locker room of the public
bath since there was no surveillance there.”

Adrian closed his eyes and forced himself to not imagine that scene. He
pushed down that unbelievable sense of fury and asked, “Huh. Why that
word in particular?”

“Oh, that's another story.” Zhong Yan chuffed, but no hint of amusement
could be found in his eyes. “Do you still remember when I told you about
my first adoptive parents?”
“The one who sent you back after the woman got pregnant?”

“Yeah. For the sake of appearances, they made up a story. In the next ten
years, it became the most popular story in the orphanage. So, when the
senior went there to ask about me, many of the younger children rushed
over to him to tell him that story.”

Adrian could already guess. “They said you stole something…”

“Yes. When I grew up and started to understand the world more, it's
actually not something I couldn't understand. But the truth of the matter is
not important. That orphanage…” Zhong Yan let out a light scoff. “The star
system I was born in wasn't that developed to begin with, and the orphanage
was built on a fourth tier planet. The standards were quite poor with the
management and the system, so many things happened based on
connections. The administrator and the other staff were all snobs, each one
worse than the last. How much good could any of the children there grow
up to be? None of the children who came out of there were good people,
including me.”

“That senior had a very decent family background—oh, but of course, it's
hardly comparable to you. He came from one of the top families in the
small planet that we came from. If he ever did anything to me, I could only
endure it. If I were to kick up a fuss, I would not even be able to stay in
school. Much too many of these incidents happened, but these were not
serious cases yet. It was just that this particular incident left a scar.”

Adrian clenched his fists and said, “You've never told me any of this.”

“Yeah, I was worried then…” Zhong Yan never finished telling him what he
was worried about, he just laughed self-deprecatingly. “Now you know, my
childhood is way different from what you imagined. It wasn't an
inspirational story about an orphan from a backwater planet who struggled
hard to change their own destiny. Do you regret being my friend even more
now?”

The fury burning within Adrian's silver eyes almost seemed as if it was
going to ignite. He gritted his teeth and said, “What do you mean even
more…”

“Didn't you say it last time? You wouldn't have been friends with me if you
knew this was the kind of person I was. You're right. My past was worse
than you thought.” Zhong Yan seemed to have made up his mind to make
Adrian hate him even more, and went on in one burst, “We learned to lie as
children when we were very young. The orphanage would not starve the
kids there, but we would eat the same things every time. There was a
rotation of the same cheap ingredients, and the pattern never changes.
Sometimes the food was good, but it was rare, done purely to make the
purchase form look good. For the sake of being able to eat a little more of
the good, lying was nothing. One time, when the local council's social
welfare department came to visit, I forgot the words I was supposed to say
—I still remember it right now. ‘Miaomiao Orphanage is our home. We all
like it here'. I was too young then, and I forgot the other half. For a month
after that, I was only allowed bread and porridge. I never forgot my lines
after that. As I got older, I've even learned to improvise and stand out. If I
did it well, I would get a small piece of cake. It was so precious, that I…”

Zhong Yan frowned, suddenly realizing he had said something he wasn't

supposed to. He was just about to cover it up, but what's done was done.
Adrian grasped onto that point and asked, “Is that why you liked cakes
so…”

“No!” Zhong Yan cut him off. “That's not the reason. I didn't have any
preferences towards cakes, but I didn't want to waste it since you bought
them. This has nothing to do with it.”

Adrian knew that Zhong Yan was especially fond of eating cake, and he had
discovered this during the first year they had known each other. When they
had just met, Zhong Yan had actually yet to fully reach the age of
seventeen, so his birthday came soon after school started. Adrian bought his
roommate a birthday cake, and he had prepared to share a small bit of it
between them each day until they could finish; but while Adrian had only
taken a small slice that night, the rest of it was scarfed down by Zhong Yan
as his dinner.
From then on, Adrian would often buy him cakes, but he didn't dare to buy
the big ones. He was shocked by how Zhong Yan had finished an entire
birthday cake by himself that night. Zhong Yan said he wasn't sick of it, but
he still felt that eating cake like that wasn't too healthy. Later on, he would
only buy him small cupcakes. As long as he bought them, they would be the
first things to be eaten—Zhong Yan didn't have a big appetite, so he could
take only half of his usual dinner after finishing two small cakes, which
made it so that Adrian had to hold him back whenever he ate them, and he
would never allow him to have them before his meal.

Zhong Yan was also too embarrassed to tell Adrian that while the birthday
cake was indeed very tasty, it still felt a little too much when he reached the
end. But since he was young, he had always thought that he had to finish
the birthday cake on the very same day. After seeing how hesitant Adrian
was to speak, he felt like something was not right. It was only later when he
secretly looked it up that he realized that there was no such custom. He was
afraid that Adrian, a young master from the capital, would find him barbaric
if word ever got out, especially how that was the first time he had ever
eaten a birthday cake. He kept silent about it, and maintained his image of
"finishing the cake first no matter how big it was".

But no matter what misunderstandings there were between them, there was
something that both of them were sure about: Zhong Yan did love eating
cakes. Adrian had never been able to understand how a man could love
such sweet pastries, but he still quietly embraced his roommate's hobbies,
just like how he embraced his roommate's hobbies of wearing pajamas
covered in pictures of giant space rabbits.

Today, on this unexpected occasion, he finally got an answer; but this

answer was much more bitter than the sweetness he had expected.

Zhong Yan used to think that if Adrian were ever to find out his fragile
needs for his self compensative behavior, that it would definitely be used
against him based on how much he hated him right now. But unexpectedly,
Adrian let the cake issue go, and acknowledged it with just a hum before
continuing, “So you reported the orphanage as soon as you entered the
Supreme Institution?”
“More than that.” Zhong Yan responded, “After I graduated from the
Supreme Institution, I returned to that little planet the year I entered the
Supreme Council. It was doing decently, but since it was not a developed
planet, news did not reach them that fast, and most of the people I wanted to
look for were still there. Let's just talk about the one you know about…that
senior. He broke his ribs that day. I hired someone to beat him up. For the
sake of currying favor with me, the local council members specially
prepared me a corner without any surveillance. I was standing right at the
side when they hit him. He was actually quite strong, and he really could
have beaten the people I hired if he really went for it, but he didn't dare to
resist them. I worked in the Supreme Council, the disparity between us was
so big that I could easily tear his family apart. I think it was when half of
his ribs were broken and he couldn't take the pain any longer that he cried.
He shouted and told me he was sorry. He asked me to show mercy and
spare him. I didn't tell them to stop.”

Zhong Yan touched his left rib. Right under Adrian's jacket was the
unsightly scar he received when he was just a boy. “He didn't do it himself
back then, but I didn't either. He didn't cut off my future, and neither did I
cut off his, but I wanted him to pay for everything he's done with interest.
This was the oath I made to myself in the past, and I did it. It was justified
to me. I don't regret it.”

He had never shown such a dark side of himself to Adrian in his life, but
coming clean to him now made him feel despondent.

Zhong Yan kept his eyes obstinately down on the communicator on the
ground; he didn't dare to look at Adrian's expression. Adrian would
probably be very disappointed and get even angrier after discovering how
despicable a person he was.

How did it turn out like this…He tried so hard to get himself to Navi.
Clearly…Clearly he didn't come here to say this.
 Chapter 20: Fierce

The knock on the door broke the silence in the room.

“Commander? There seems to be an issue with the internal communicator, I

can't get through. Are you in there?” The person outside asked.

Adrian glanced over at the communicator that had died gloriously in battle
on the ground. He raised his voice and asked, “What is it?”

“We've entered the atmosphere, and we're expecting to land on White

Aegis' landing pad in ten minutes.”

“Got it.”

Zhong Yan gave Adrian's chest a light push. This time, the other man took a
step back following the ministrations of his force.

As he expected, Adrian had lost all interest in him—whether it be as a

friend or enemy. As these self-deprecating thoughts floated in Zhong Yan's
head, he jumped off the desk. He had been sitting for a long time, so his
legs had already gone slightly numb; when he landed on the ground, he
couldn't hold himself up firmly enough, so Adrian supported him.

“Thank you.” Zhong Yan kept his eyes on the space between his and the
man's feet. “Right, I didn't get to ask earlier. Where are my men?”

This man had not dared to look at him since their conversation ended.
Adrian suppressed his anger and asked, “That…I mean…why didn't you tell
me those matters earlier?”

“I've asked you about them since we were still on the bandit's…”
“I'm not talking about that!”

Zhong Yan raised his head, and shot him a smile; a smile filled with
bitterness.

“I know you don't want friends like that. You like friends like Suster.
Someone like you, passionate enough about changing the world that they'd
give their lives for the cause. If I told you early on, you would have
abandoned me long ago, would you have waited till graduation? I was
fortunate enough to have those three years. You should hate me. It wasn't as
if I never thought of the possibility that…that something like what
happened during our graduation would happen. I thought about it, but I still
did it. You really should hate me.”

Adrian gnashed his teeth as he spoke. “I don't like guys like Suster. You
foolish idiot, you don't know anything.”

“Don't you like him enough? You told me how much you liked him the day
you met, and you wouldn't stop talking about him that day. Before even a
month had passed, you said he was basically your best buddy, ” Zhong Yan
reminded him with displeasure. “You've never even called me your buddy,
and everyone else called us the Twin Stars back then. But anytime anyone
mentions the best friend of the military academy's Chief, everyone would
instantaneously think of Fayn Suster.”

Who wants to be your buddy?! I wanted to…

“We're not even talking about the same—”

A slight tremble shook through the hull of the ship, interrupting Adrian's
words, and also dragged him back to reality from the glimpses of his
student days.

Adrian cleared his throat and said, “We've already settled your men down
on the White Aegis earlier.”

Zhong Yan had also realized that with their current status, there were things
more important to them right now than their relationship.
“Thank you. Then, let's head out…”

“Don't thank me so soon, I'm not done yet—Your boys are on the White
Aegis but I never planned to let you see them.”

To Adrian's surprise, Zhong Yan nodded without any hint of change in his
expression; it was as if he had told him “I've prepared a banquet for you”
instead. He calmly asked, “So, what are your next arrangements there?”

“We'll talk after we get down,” Adrian responded.

Adrian went off to settle the captive space bandits they brought back and
assigned two quiet guards to send Zhong Yan to their temporary stop.

To put it nicely, they were escorting the guest; but it was not much different
from escorting a prisoner.

After he received their silence to his casual question of “where are we

going”, he was able to fully understand the Navi Military Command's
stance towards him—or so to say, they were only following the example of
their superior; this was Adrian's thoughts on the issue of his visit.

But truth be told, this was much better than what he expected.

Zhong Yan didn't feel bored when he was in the car. This was his first time
coming to White Aegis. Even though the ownership issue of White Aegis
Star had been loud and tumultuous the past two years, and having seen
some videos of the place, this was still the very first time he had ever seen it
in the flesh.

White Aegis Star was a semi-developed planet. The position here was not
very good as it was in the corner of the Labor System. The signal was poor
all year round, and there were also barely any routes to get here—it was
hard to land even when the spacecraft had arrived since the construction of
landing pads were only funded for the sake of geological investigations.

There was an unbroken chain of mountains in the distance. Zhong Yan had
never seen such a large plot of natural forestry in his life. The greenery of
the Institution Star was also quite renown, but it was artificially created by
humans; the elaborate creativity of mankind could barely compare to the
magical wonders of mother nature.

Only when the car stopped did Zhong Yan realize that his temporary resting
spot was actually the local council house of White Aegis.

Even the council house of the fourth-tier planet where Zhong Yan was born
was much bigger than the one he saw before him. If not for the fact that
Zhong Yan could see the sign hanging above the gates after they finally
went closer, Zhong Yan would never imagine that this three-story
residential-like building was actually the local council house.

It was currently early morning in the local time, so the gates of the building
were still shut. One of the guards tried to push it, but it was locked.

“Hey, are you here for the council?”

An older man riding a rusted electrical bike passed by. He looked curiously
at the strange trio—there were two Navi military soldiers in uniform, and a
man wearing an oversized track jacket with formal slacks.

“It's not time for work yet, you came too early.”

Zhong Yan asked, “Sir, can you tell us when they open?”

“Gosh, I'm no sir.” The older man quickly waved his hands. “Someone will
come to work by lunchtime, but there are a few councilors nearby if you're
in a hurry…”

“It's fine, we don't have any important business.”

After bidding farewell to the passer-by, Zhong Yan turned to leave but was
stopped by the two guards. Zhong Yan said, “We can't get in right now, A…
he probably wouldn't be coming here so soon. I'll go for a walk nearby.”

The two guards looked at each other, and one of them said with hesitation,
“Sir Zhong, we need to request permission from our superiors, please
wait…”
Right in front of them, Zhong Yan dialed Adrian's number.

The two guards widened their eyes, and looked shocked at the terminal of
he-who-must-not-be-named-in-Navi; Adrian's voice flowed out of his
receiver.

“You better not tell me you've got yourself in trouble again.” Adrian said,
“And also, just cuz I haven't had time to block you since we got off that
pirate ship doesn't mean you can harass me as you please.”

Zhong Yan ignored the latter half of his words very naturally and said with
dissatisfaction, “What do you mean getting into trouble? The council only
opens in the afternoon. How is it my fault you didn't check before sending
me here?”

The two guards sucked in a breath of cold air. Everyone in the federation
knew that since the whole marriage proposal ordeal, Adrian's mood had
been rock bottom. The entire military department was careful, but recently,
there have been too many military affairs related to the Supreme Council,
and there were constantly people who would accidentally say the wrong
things, rubbing their commander the wrong way, and were scolded to all
hell.

But right now, he-who-must-not-be-named himself was actually speaking

so rudely with their commander. He might…The guards were waiting at the
side with gloom, but they never would have expected that though Adrian's
tone was in fact quite unhappy, it did not seem any different to his temper
from before.

“That it? Can't you just find a place to hang out for now? Didn't you come
to assess the place to see if it's suitable? Your council people have already
assessed the place in the past, so now you can review it.”

“I don't have any detection devices on me,” Zhong Yan reminded him. “I'm
even wearing your clothes.”

What?! The two guards looked strangely at Zhong Yan's track jacket that
was clearly not in line with his personal style. So this was the commander's
jacket? No wonder the commander was only wearing a t-shirt.

“That's really reassuring. Well look as you please, nobody will care even if
you slip and fall down a mountain. I'm blocking you, don't contact me
anymore.”

As soon as he said that, he hung up.

“…So fierce,” muttered Zhong Yan as he watched his terminal screen go

dark.

Was that fierce???

The two guards were thinking to themselves silently. They heard that once
the commander gets angry, he would generally send them straight into the
hospital if they so much as say one thing wrong. Even the civil officials
would often be scolded by him to the point where their faces turned fully
red or white as a sheet, whilst the more timid of them would just start to cry.

Before they could even recover from their shock, the two received an order
from their terminals at the same time.

Watch him closely, don't let him go hiking on any mountains.”

Zhong Yan had originally intended to find a shop to buy himself a set of
clothes. The track jacket was truly too big for him; he had to roll up his
sleeves just to see his hand. He was also much skinnier compared to Adrian,
and much less shorter him, so the loose hem of the jacket went down
directly over his hips. It felt loose and flabby and was uncomfortable to
wear.

There were not many people out on the streets this early in the morning.
Zhong Yan walked through the streets slowly and aimlessly. There were
only a handful of shops open, but none of them were selling clothes.

The two guards did not know why, but they felt much more nervous than
they did before, and followed him as closely as they could, which puzzled
Zhong Yan. Don't even mention offensive power, Zhong Yan was not even
able to receive proper nutrition when he was a kid, and now all he does is
sit in an office all day after getting out of school. Right now, his physical
qualities were so bad that it pissed people off, otherwise, he might not have
gotten a cold in school after just being in the wind for a few hours. Right
now, he was already nearing his limits even though he had only been
walking for a short while. Fortunately, he just happened to chance upon a
small round square right in front of him, so he decided to sit on one of the
benches for a break.

Only after sitting down did he notice a small stall right besides the bench.
An old lady with white hair was manning it.

It would be a good idea to inquire about where he could buy clothes.

As he thought of that, Zhong Yan went over, leaned down, and asked,
“Hello granny, I'd like to…”

Before he could finish, a silver glint on the stall caught his attention.

Turns out that this was a stall selling handmade crystal jewelry. Zhong Yan
did not have much insight on jewelry, but he could tell that these were not
precious crystals, but rather cheap and processed artificial crystals. They
came in a variety of colors, and amongst them was a clear piece of silver
crystal

He couldn't help but trail off mid-sentence. “…I'd like to ask, how much
does this cost?”

“This is a cufflink.” The old lady spoke in a genial tone. “It comes in a pair.
Hold on, I haven't taken the other one out.”

As she said that, she rummaged through the large pocket at her side. Zhong
Yan asked, “Can I pick it up and look at it?”

“I found it, here you go. Silver is rare, it looks very good with dark
clothes.”
The old woman put the pair in Zhong Yan's hands, and Zhong Yan brought
one of them up to the sun to see.

The clear silvery color shone with a dazzling light.

“It does look very good.” Zhong Yan carefully returned it to the palm of his
hand and said, “I'll take it.”
 Chapter 21: The Right Thing

“Please keep it, I don't need the money.” The old woman was cheerful. “Are
you from the Navi Military Command?”

Clearly, she could recognize the uniforms of the two guards. But she could
not recognize Zhong Yan's face for some reason, so she just took him as one
of their companions.

Zhong Yan felt a little awkward and denied it. “No, I'm not.”

“Then you must be a guest.”

An uninvited guest. Perhaps enemy would be a more appropriate term.

Zhong Yan was just thinking about how he could somehow hint at his
unwelcome identity, but the old woman was already muttering away by
herself.

“Take it, I'm not short of money, I just have too much time on my hands so I
make these, and I brought them out to sell since my house is starting to get
a little full. Ah, young people are rare on our planet. The ones who could
manage to leave had all left.

"But something happened two years ago. So many young ladies and lads
have come running back. Did you hear about how our planet was relabelled
as a resource planet just a few years back?”

Indeed he did. He had yet to be elected as a representative council member

at that time, but his position was still very high. He was responsible for
drafting the bill between the two star systems. The one in charge of the
Labor System, the councilor who kicked off the project sat right next to his
office cubicle.
“I heard the issue really blew up. They're also talking about it all over the
virtual communities. I'm sure young people like you have heard about it. I
used to love looking through the forums when I was young, but the signal
here isn't very good, so I could only use the no-image mode. Otherwise, it
wouldn't turn on easily—Ah, don't say it, things are much better now that
we're closer to the Navi System's virtual community. But I've gotten old.
My eyes start to hurt if I keep looking at my terminal, so I might as well
work on some crafts and set up a stall.”

Zhong Yan finally understood why the other person did not recognize him.
He was not a very good listener, but he really liked the pair of cufflinks.
Even though the old woman didn't have any want for money, it still was not
proper for him to just take it. So, having a chat with her was still a good
idea. Thus, he sat down.

“Even though many places on this planet are not very good, the people here
are wonderful,” The granny began slowly, “That was a tough year. Wave
after wave of proposals were sent to us…ah, we call them proposals, but
they were actually orders. Major fines like those aren't anything a small
planet like ours can afford. The Labor System's council was also lost on
what to do. I heard they were under a lot of pressure, but they fought for us
many times. That's how it managed to drag on for so long.

"Everyone felt very uneasy on this planet, but nobody was willing to leave.
Later, many young people gradually returned. They heard about what
happened in their hometown and rushed back to help. Several of them
returned from the Navi System. They said it went through a drastic change,
and the army had taken over the council…I don't understand it very well
either, but I'm sure you know, the leader of the Navi System is anti-AI. The
young people who came back discussed it with the local council, and in the
end, we sought out the Navi System for help.

“We thought it would be hopeless, but they actually agreed to help. I heard
the one in charge of Navi is a young man, and he's only in his twenties.”

“Twenty-seven.” Zhong Yan told her.

“Oh, yes. He would have been a little younger then. Ah, he really is a brave
one. He's going directly against the Capital, isn't he?”

In Zhong Yan's opinion, it was indeed a bold decision for Adrian to protect
White Aegis, but it was also a wonderful move he had to take to show the
world his might. By far, White Aegis Star was the center of the Navi
System and the Capital's first open conflict with each other. Though the
smokes of war could not be seen in this conflict, there was no doubt that
Navi had won. This result stirred up all the human autonomy supporters
throughout the entirety of the Federation because this was the very first
time that Navi had displayed its complete lack of fear against the Capital.

But of course, Zhong Yan knew that Adrian definitely did not think the
same. Perhaps there were many people around him who thought this way.
This was also the reason why the higher-ups of Navi could so quickly reach
an agreement to send their troops over to protect White Aegis Star.
However, Adrian definitely did not do it for that purpose. Even if he would
not have received any benefits from saving White Aegis Star at the time, he
would have still happily did it; this was also the reason why many people
were happy to be under his leadership.

Zhong Yan asked, “So, where is the original base station of ‘Butterfly'
here?”

“That thing? They demolished him a long time ago.” The old woman shook
her head. “It was taken down as soon as we received Navi's authorization
letter. Sigh, AI had actually managed Labor System for less than forty
years, but we've heard it's been way longer than that in the capital. Forty
years ago, before ‘Butterfly' came, there was propaganda everywhere, and
everyone was praising him like he was God. They said the people in the
capital had long ushered in a life of comfort, and it was all thanks to that.
But if you ask me, that's just normal, it had nothing to do with whether he
was God or not. Sometimes, even I don't know what the ‘right' choice is.
You can say that since we've discovered the mines underneath the ground, it
would definitely be better if we sold it compared to just leaving it there, and
naturally, it would be better the earlier we start on it. But…”
The woman's teary eyes looked towards the streets that did not look too
prosperous; behind them were lush and green ancient mountains.

“But that's how humans are, sometimes the ‘right' thing is hard for us to
accept. At the end of it all, machines are still machines. They would not be
able to understand humans.”

Zhong Yan lowered his gaze and sat quietly beside the old lady.

That's not it. An old person from a remote planet understands AI as a high-
level machine, but anyone who received their complete compulsory
education would know that he is more than just that. The one currently
there on that pedestal has a complete and perfected personality. It was not
that “Butterfly” did not understand humans, he just…didn't care.

But he should have cared. Since the beginning of his birth, he should have
been the most empathetic and all-encompassing existence in the world.

When Adrian arrived by the small square, he saw Zhong Yan sitting right
beside an old lady next to a stall.

Adrian had not seen Zhong Yan so relaxed in a very long time. His alabaster
face looked peaceful beneath the sun, fading away his usual sharpness and
distance. The track jacket was a little too big for him, so it hung loosely on
his body. For a moment, it felt to Adrian like he was just a normal young
man in the city, not a high-ranking council member.

Adrian swept away the trace of softness in his heart and walked over.

The instant Zhong Yan saw Adrian's silver eyes, he closed his fists
instinctively and stuffed what he held into his pocket.

Unfortunately, his actions were seen by Adrian. But with outsiders around,
he let it go temporarily, and went instead with, “Done playing around? Let's
go.”

“Okay.” Zhong Yan stood up and turned to the old woman. “I'm going now,
thank you for your…gift.”
“Don't worry about it.” The woman looked over amiably at Adrian who was
standing at the side, wearing a t-shirt that was a little too thin for the season.
Even though her eyesight was slowly going, and the fact that Adrian was
too tall, especially with her sitting down, and also the fact that her eyes
were not as good as the man's eyes that were the same color as the cufflinks
she had just given away, she still had sharper eyes than most young people.
In a cheerful mood, she jested, “Did your friend come to get you? That
jacket belongs to him, doesn't it?”

The word ‘friend' rang the alarms in Zhong Yan's mind; he was afraid that if
he was recognized as Adrian's friend, that he would get mad. Thus, he
quickly denied. “No, we're not friends. We're…school…schoolmates.”

Adrian's face darkened.

“Are you going to get down to business or not? How long are you going to
muck about here for?”

Sure enough, he got angry. Zhong Yan quickly said his farewell to the old
woman and left for the council house behind Adrian.

“What did she give you?” Adrian asked.

Zhong Yan squeezed his pocket. “It's nothing, just a bauble. Don't walk so
fast, I can't catch up.”

Adrian could not be bothered to force an answer out of him, so he beckoned

one of the guards instead.

“What did he receive from that stall owner?”

“A pair of cufflinks, Commander.” The guard responded honestly.

Zhong Yan paused in place, fearing for whether he would ask his guards
what the cufflinks looked like, so he quickly cut them off, “I told you it was
just a bauble. Why? Are you worried I'd get cheated? Let's not talk about
this. Are my men safe? Are they on White Aegis as well?”
“Correct, but don't even think about seeing them. I'm sending them out of
Navi by tonight.”

“That's fine, I'm the only one needed here for what I want to talk about
anyway. However, there's one particular person you don't have to be in such
a hurry to send away.”

While they were talking, they had already made their way towards the
entrance of the council house. The doors were open now. Perhaps Adrian
had already contacted them. Adrian told the two guards to stay at the door,
and went in with Zhong Yan.

“Who shouldn't I send off?” Adrian asked.

“My right-hand man, Bayer. You know him, right?”

Adrian snorted. “Know him? I've known him for ages. He often tells me to
study hard while I was still doing my compulsory education so I could take
over my grandfather's position when I grew up. Never thought you'd be the
one receiving the baton. Unfortunately, the last person I want to see besides
you is him. Do you think I'll keep him around just because you say so?”

“You're not fully understanding me.” Zhong Yan spoke calmly. “I didn't tell
you not to send him off just so I could see him, or that I want to go back
with him. What I mean is…it is quite unfortunate that Mr. Bayer had gotten
injured during the space pirate attack, and requires time to recuperate.
White Aegis looks good. The scenery is good, and the water is clear, it will
do him good to have a peaceful moment here. And since he will be resting,
you won't have to give him his terminal for the time being. The signal here
is poor anyway, it's not like he could handle any documents.”

Adrian stopped in his steps. Zhong Yan had only realized he had left him
behind after going a few steps without him. He turned around and asked,
“What's wrong? Which room are we heading to?”

“Do you know what you're saying?” Adrian asked.

Zhong Yan's expression was as usual, and his tone was calm. “Of course.”
“You are suggesting that I put him under house arrest.”

“You're overthinking it. He's hurt, and as my guardian, he has merit to me.
Naturally, I must…show compassion to my subordinates. I will explain this
matter clearly to the capital, so do not worry.”

Both of them were clear that nobody was hurt at all during the entire ordeal.
However, cutting off Bayer's connection to the capital would undoubtedly
cut off Stalvern's important right hand; and this matter was completely of
no harm to Navi.

Adrian met Zhong Yan's gaze for a moment, and asked him
straightforwardly, “What do you mean? What did you come here for?”

“Let us speak inside the meeting room. What kind of people did you bring
here?”

“Only me, there is no meeting room. I chose to speak with you in the
council house just so you can make your report look a little more formal.
Otherwise, you can't tell the Capital that you negotiated with Navi while
walking on the streets.”

“Oh, there is actually no need for that.” Zhong Yan said, “I have no
intentions of reporting our negotiations to the Capital.”
 Chapter 22: Side by Side

Most of the doors within the council were locked, so they had to try a few
rooms before they could find one open. It looked like a small auditorium,
and there was only a single tall window in the room that was covered with
thick curtains, leaving the entire room dark.

Adrian turned on the flashlight on his terminal and looked around the room,
but could not find where the light switch was.

“It's fine, it's not like we can't see anything at all,” Zhong Yan said. “It's fine
as long as we can sit down.”

It was not as if he was putting on airs, and only willing to talk if he could sit
down; he was, in fact, getting a little tired from all the walking. When he
saw the rows of chairs in front of him, he could not even bother about the
lights and sat down on the nearest seat.

Adrian searched another wall, but his efforts were fruitless. He was not a
very picky person anyway, so he shut off his flashlight and sat beside Zhong
Yan.

But as soon as he did, he regretted it. The seating spaces in the auditorium
were too small, and there was practically no space between them; every two
seats shared a single armrest with each other, and they were also very
narrow. When he sat on the seat neighboring Zhong Yan's, their shoulders
were practically touching.

He enjoyed situations where he could face Zhong Yan and suppress him
while looking down at him from above, but he could not accept sitting
shoulder-to-shoulder with him.
Fortunately, this was an auditorium, so there was no light. It would require
actual visibility for him to see their current predicament, so it was not too
hard to accept. Moreover, standing up again to change seats would be a
blow to his image. Adrian pressed down his impulses and asked, “If you're
not planning to report to the Capital, are you here to talk about personal
matters? I don't think we have anything to talk about besides the four
hundred thousand fine.”

“It's not a personal matter.”

“And you're not planning to report it to the Capital?”

But Zhong Yan did not answer his question. Instead, he brought up
something that was seemingly irrelevant. “I'd originally planned to come to
Navi to talk to you, but I never thought you would choose to bring us to
White Aegis Star. Are you confident that White Aegis is safe?”

“What do you mean, ‘safe'?”

“Are you sure you've removed all of the AI base stations in White Aegis?”

The cogs in Adrian's mind started to turn. Zhong Yan's words held two
meanings; first, that he was concerned that White Aegis Star might still be
under some form of control by the AI; and second…if he were to get
anything out of him, it could only be in Navi; or the so-called safe zone.

Why? Why would a representative member describe an area controlled by

“Butterfly” as unsafe?

“Before White Aegis' merger with us, our technical team had already
probed the entire planet. Regardless, there is no way I would ever merge
White Aegis without making sure.”

Zhong Yan shook his head. “The terrain in White Aegis is very complex,
with mountains and vegetation covering more than half of the land, it's not
impossible to miss something. Whichever way, it cannot be compared with
Navi where ‘Butterfly's' roots have not been planted at all.”
“In that case, I can, at the very least, assure you that the entire area around
this building is completely clean. This is the place we put the most focus
on.”

Zhong Yan looked towards Adrian and noticed that he was looking at him.
Within the darkness, his face was a blurry sight; but his eyes were
becoming more and more dazzling.

Zhong Yan took a deep breath and spoke very vaguely. “He has already
gone crazy.”

“Who?” Adrian could not help but ask.

Zhong Yan did not respond. He looked quietly at him, and after a few
seconds, Adrian could feel a slight chill running down his back.

Unconsciously, he shifted towards Zhong Yan, leaned forward, and asked

with a burning gaze, “You're saying…”

“Yes.” Zhong Yan met his gaze without shrinking back. “I originally came
to Navi to show you something, but this is not Navi, and I do not want to
take any risks.”

Adrian observed Zhong Yan's expression for a moment, and said, “There is
no way I will bring you into Navi just because of one sentence. I don't trust
you, Zhong Yan.”

Zhong Yan's voice was so soft it was borderline inaudible. “The proposal
will soon be upgraded into an order. The round table is going to be
disbanded. These plans will be put forth next year.”

Adrian's pupils constricted.

“I'm sure you definitely have your own intelligence channels, so you can
find your own way to verify whether you want to trust me or not. There are
still many things, but I will not take the risk by bringing out the evidence
here.” Zhong Yan stressed the point in a whisper. “‘He's crazy, completely
so. If there's even the slightest hint that he's not, I would not have gone
against the policies to come see you in Navi.”

Adrian had also suppressed his voice and questioned, “You didn't say
anything when we saw each other in the Institution Star.”

“Institution Star?” A chuckle leaked from Zhong Yan's lips in the dark. “If
we made…a ranking, how high do you think the Institution Star would be
ranked?”

The most crucial keyword was omitted from his sentence, but Adrian was
very sure about what he meant. It was the planet under the strongest AI
control, and there was a consensus within the entire Federation; of course, it
had to be…

“Is it not the Capital?”

“It's not.” Zhong Yan let out a soft sigh. “We were truly too young when we
were still students. Now, thinking about it…an artificial planet. That
attribute in itself should have been the biggest warning sign.”

Adrian was silent for a moment before he asked, “Why are you seeking me
out? What are you trying to achieve?”

“The round table will be gone.” Zhong Yan repeated. “The twelve
representative councilors will soon have a real disparity in status. Moreover,
it is still unknown whether twelve would still remain after the reformation.
We can speak about the details when we enter Navi.”

This made things clear. Adrian sneered in his heart. Sure enough, this was
his style; he was already caught up in the flames, but he only took the risk
out of desperation when the fire grew out of hand. However, Adrian had to
admit that this piece of news sent by the other man was much more
credible. If Zhong Yan told him that he suddenly had an epiphany, and
decided to take a vote on Navi for the sake of humanity, then he really
would not dare to believe him.
Adrian stood up and left the auditorium in large strides. Zhong Yan heard
him speaking with someone at the door about something, and repeated the
information he had just heard earlier, asking the person to investigate its
authenticity. Thinking about it, he might be someone from the Navi Military
Command's intelligence department.

The auditorium door was half-open, and a sliver of light shone in from the
outside. Adrian was standing in that light with a firm posture.

“What're you still sitting around for?” Adrian hung up his call and turned
back to see Zhong Yan still sitting in the dark. “Are you waiting for the
council to put on a movie for you?”

Zhong Yan looked dumbfoundedly at him for a moment, and responded,

“Coming.”

……

It was noon when they left the building.

The sun was bright, and its rays striking for the two who had just come out
from the darkness. For a moment, Zhong Yan could not get used to the
sudden shift in brightness, and raised his hand to shield his eyes.

He had not managed to tidy up his clothes for some time, so his rolled-up
sleeves had already unfurled. Adrian could see now that his clothes were
too big for him. The only thing revealed from the arm Zhong Yan had raised
up were only four of his fair and slender fingertips.

Zhong Yan took a few seconds to adapt to the light. He met Adrian's gaze
just as he put his hand down, and could not help but wonder, “What's
wrong?”

Adrian quickly moved his gaze away and said, “If you don't want to take
any risks, I don't either. You will come with me on my ship and return to
Navi at lunchtime. Besides your own body, you are not allowed to bring
anything inside.”
“Wait a minute.” Zhong Yan finally realized something. “What about my
clothes? I came with sincerity, and you should have some trust in me now.
Only my formal uniform has…”

“Whether you're sincere or not, you still have to wait for the verification
results of my intelligence team, and I still have to see the evidence. None of
us want to be making any mistakes. It's a critical moment right now, and it's
better to stay safe. Isn't that so?”

Zhong Yan glared at him with his beautiful phoenix eyes. After a moment,
he requested, “Then, I want a set of new clothes. Yours are too big.”

“You still have money for clothes?” Adrian went on coldly, “If you've got
money to buy clothes, you might as well pay me back the three hundred and
sixty thousand you owe me. There's only half a month left.”

“We've talked about this. My views have not changed.”

“A pity. In that case, don't even think about buying new clothes, keep that
on.” Adrian turned to the guard at his side. “Notify the fleet, we're returning
to base at lunchtime.”

“No—Why are you like this? Those are two different things!”

Adrian was unmoved, and responded plainly, “I do not differentiate

between work and personal matters. That's just how I am.”

“Can't you be a little less unreasonable? Are you really a soldier? You're
practically no different from a space pirate.”

Adrian said, “You saw my dad this morning, blame it on my genes.”

Zhong Yan was suddenly at a loss for words. He knew that the reason
Adrian could say this was because he did not care about that father of his
anymore. After all, he had never seen his father, nor had he had many
expectations for a man like that to begin with. A person he has no care for
would never be able to hurt him.
If you knew Adrian as well as Zhong Yan did, then you would definitely be
able to find words of rebuttal even for such a strong comeback. All he
needed to do was to bring up his fatherless childhood, but Zhong Yan did
not say a single word of it.

He and Adrian were no longer friends. In seven years, they've met twice,
and exchanged only bitter words between them. Adrian frequently used
their past as a weapon against him, but he would never do the same.

Those were the most precious memories of his life; he could not bear to use
them in such a way.

……

When Adrian returned to his ship, the liaison officer from the intelligence
department could be seen rushing over to him. Their previous call had been
too short, so he wanted to clear up the situation with Adrian. Just as he was
about to speak, he suddenly caught sight of the person right behind Adrian.

The liaison officer looked as if he had seen a ghost, and he suddenly

paused.

“What's wrong? Adrian asked in puzzlement. “Is there something you're not
clear about from my previous orders?”

“This…isn't this…um…that…special commissioner?”

“Oh, I forgot to say, he's coming back with us. Great timing, inform
headquarters about it.”

What? The liaison officer was absolutely baffled; he-who-must-not-be-

named-in-Navi himself was actually about to enter Navi! What is going on?
But fortunately, he still had the identity of special commissioner. Otherwise,
he would have nothing to call him by!

“Yes, and how long will the special commissioner be staying in the main
star? Are there any arrangements for when we arrive?”
“No need for any arrangements, I'll deal with it myself.” Adrian continued,
“He'll be there for at least half a month. Go pass on the message.”

“Hold on,” Zhong Yan who had been standing quietly behind Adrian
stopped the liaison officer spoke up. “It won't take that long. I only need to
evaluate whether Navi is suitable for ‘Butterfly's' implementation or not. I'll
be done in a few days.”

The liaison officer looked at Adrian.

Adrian asked, “What're you looking at me for? Am I your commander or

him?”

“You are, sir. The special commissioner will be staying in the main star for
half a month; I will inform headquarters now.”

As soon as he was done speaking, he quickly slipped off without hesitation,

completely ignoring Zhong Yan's attempts to stop him.

Zhong Yan could not get him to listen, so he could only turn to Adrian and
said in surprise, “When did I tell you I was going to stay that long? The
things I need to speak with you about will take no more than two days.”

“Do you think Navi is a place you can come and go as you please?” Adrian
looked condescendingly down at him from above. “Pay your fines, or don't
even think about running away.”
 Chapter 23: Slow Down

By the time Zhong Yan realized he had been kidnapped, it was already too
late.

"This isn't what we agreed!" It took Zhong Yan a lot of effort to follow
Adrian down the warship's corridor. "Slow down, I can't keep up!"

Adrian turned a deaf ear to his last sentence and did not slow down in the
slightest. Without any hesitation at all, he said, "I have no disagreements
whatsoever with you. You asked to enter Navi, and I allowed it. You should
be feeling grateful right now."

"I came to seek a collaboration! Does the Navi Military Command treat
their business partners like this? I...Slow down!"

Adrian could feel a force pulling him back. He lowered his head to look.
Turns out Zhong Yan was pulling onto the hem of his t-shirt.

"Let go!"

"I can't walk anymore."

Adrian thought he was just complaining for the sake of it, but when he
turned around, he could see that Zhong Yan was actually panting lightly as
if he had just exercised excessively.

Zhong Yan's physical condition had been very poor since he was still in
school, and he kept having menial issues like headaches and fevers during
that time. During their second year, Adrian forced him to take morning runs
for some time, but school work became more and more arduous for him.
Zhong Yan still had to deal with his work as the Student Council President,
so he would often go to sleep only when the early hours of morning came.
It was better for him to sleep a little longer, so Adrian could not bear to
wake him up an hour earlier. Thus, his morning runs could only be left
aside.

But during the month when he ran with him, Adrian could fully understand
how bad the other person's physical condition really was. The standard
track was only 400 meters, and most people would often be able to run ten
laps within half an hour during their warmup morning run. After they were
done, they could still chat and laugh, but Zhong Yan's face started to pale
after completing only a single round, gasping to the point where he could
not even speak; even when severely dehydrated, Adrian would still be able
to survive doing two laps in a row. Then, he would not be able to move a
single limb at all.

"Even if you can't run, you can't just sit around." Adrian pulled him up
halfway from the ground. "Get up and walk for a little. Xiao Yan. Come on,
you can do it."

Zhong Yan's face was as pale as a ghost, and he was leaning on his body
without a single drop of energy left in him. Through his violent gasps, he
could only barely make out, "No...can't...I can't move...give me...a break..."

"I'm holding you, come on, just walk for a bit. You're really too...you only
jogged for two rounds, if someone didn't know, they might even think you
just finished a 10K timed run!"

Zhong Yan grabbed his own chest and felt so tired that he barely wanted to
talk at all. Adrian allowed him to prop an arm over his neck while he took
his waist to support his weight.

The two walked a small half lap around the outer ring of the field. Zhong
Yan finally managed to catch his breath and softly began, "Adrian...can I
run only half a lap tomorrow?"

His sweaty body was sticking to Adrian's, but neither of the two had any
intentions of changing their posture.
"Half a lap? Don't be like that, just the distance between our room to the
canteen alone is much further than half a lap. Even if you don't feel
embarrassed running that little, I'd be too embarrassed to join you."

然跑慢点也......"

"Two laps is too much." Zhong Yan complained quietly, appearing very
wronged. "You have to let me adapt...I really can't run anymore...if not,
running slower is also..."

When he spoke, Adrian suddenly tightened his hold on his waist and
blocked him with a turn of his body.

"Fellow senior sisters," Adrian winked at the two girls who were passing
by, "could you please not record us? My honey's a bit on the shy side."

One of the girls blushed instantly, and could not muster any words as she
watched his mirthful silver eyes. But the other girl was much more carefree,
and openly raised her hand to fiddle with her terminal. She said, "Since
you've said so, I'll delete it."

"Thank you, senior sister. What's your name? We can go for lunch later."

"No, no need." The two girls could recognize that he had only been saying
these words out of courtesy, and quickly refuse him before leaving tactfully.

"It's okay now, they left." Adrian was amused. "Are you trying to strangle
me to death?"

Only then did Zhong Yan realize how nervous he was. He had
subconsciously tightened his arm around the other person's neck. He
quickly let him go and took a step back. After steadying himself, he
dropped his head and said, "I'm not gonna run tomorrow...who knows how
many people will be filming."

Adrian knew that he valued his image very much, and refused to show
weakness in front of everyone; he definitely did not want any recordings or
photos of him during his embarrassing state of being like wet rags fished
out of a pond and circulated around the school forums for people to
comment on.

Adrian looked at Zhong Yan. His sweaty black hair was sticking lightly to
his forehead, the contrast making his skin appear excessively pale. His
sweat dripped down from the tips of his hair and rolled down his handsome
face, gliding over his clavicle that was still faintly rising and falling from
his gasps, slipping beneath his collar.

For the first time, he had the same idea as Zhong Yan; indeed, this
appearance was...better off hidden from the others.

"Ade?" Zhong Yan's chest constricted when he saw the unhappy expression
on his face. Adrian sacrificed his own time to run with him in the mornings,
and he was still grumbling and complaining...

"I...I think I feel better now after some rest, I'll do two laps tomorrow,
okay?"

"Huh?" Adrian came back to his senses. "Oh, really? That's great. Let's run
around the art campus' field tomorrow. There's a lot of people around your
campus."

"Okay. I made eel with rice for lunch today, I'll pack it up for you later so
you can take it with you..."

Seeing that familiar smile returning to his lips once more, the unease in
Zhong Yan's heart was finally set down.

He had to stop being needy and ungrateful in the future, or so Zhong Yan
warned himself. He had to go with Adrian's every word; if he told him to
run, then he had to run, so what if it was a little tiring? Adrian had now
entered the School of Military Affairs, he will have many new friends; what
would he do if he decided to move in with Fayn Suster instead if he ever
made him unhappy?

......
"We barely even walked, have you really been sitting in your office for
seven years?" Adrian tried to pull the hem of his t-shirt back. "Don't pull on
my clothes!"

Zhong Yan tightened his grip on his clothes even more, refusing to let go.
He fumed, "I kept telling you to slow down but you didn't! I wouldn't be
this out of breath if we walked slower! You've been like this since long ago.
I've been keeping it in for many years. I told you I can't run anymore, but
you kept telling me to run! Do you think everyone has a perfectly arranged
exercising schedule like you from a young age? I've ran more that month
than I've ever walked in my entire life!"

Adrian looked incredulously at him. "That's eight years ago, why are you
bringing that up now? What's more, what's wrong with that? You can't deny
it, your physical condition improved during the latter half of that year!"

"No! I caught a cold that month as well, but you just didn't realize it."

"You didn't even tell me and now it's my fault? I was practically keeling
over with work and I still had to wake up early every morning to run with
you. Thinking about it now, I might as well have fed my time to the dogs
instead! I told you to let go of my shirt, stop pulling it!"

"No!"

Two patrolmen who were passing by were stunned to see their commander
raising hell with the councilman-who-must-not-be-named. Right when the
two were hesitating over whether they should be changing their patrol
route, the conflict between the two men escalated. Hands were raised, and
they watched as his commander wrestled with the man's hands, but the
other would not let go no matter what. Not only that, he even started
grabbing onto Adrian's clothes with his free hand.

"Are... are they going to fight? Should we go and help?" One of the
patrolling guards asked.

"Help with what?" asked the other. "When has our commander ever needed
help in a scuffle? Isn't he always the one taking on a group of people by
himself?"

"That's true."

The two patrolmen watched for a while, but Adrian did not lay waste to the
other man as quickly as they expected. The two continued to struggle with
each other for a few minutes, and their quarrel had not stopped during it,
but Adrian still was not able to retrieve his clothes from the other man's
grasp.

"What's the commander doing?" asked one of the patrolling guards to his
companion. "Isn't it easier if he just breaks his wrists? How can he not pull
him off?"

"Yeah, that what's his name's wrists are so thin, the commander could pull it
off in one tug."

"Maybe he's worried about the consequences? Isn't that guy a special
commissioner this time? It's gonna be trouble if he gets broken bones in our
warship."

The two were stuck in the middle of their patrol route, and the two could
not figure out whether they should continue going or not. So, they
whispered amongst themselves for a while, and finally caught Zhong Yan's
attraction.

Zhong Yan paused in his actions, and quickly let go before whispering,
"Someone's here."

Since his clothes had been pulled by Adrian during their struggle, his overly
large jacket was now slanted over to the side, revealing a small area of his
smooth left shoulder. Adrian subconsciously cut in between him and the
patrolmen, blocking the view from the two with his body.

"Enjoyed the show? Don't the two of you have patrol?" asked Adrian.

His eyes were extremely cold, and when the two guards saw them, they felt
a chill run down their bodies. They quickly declared that they had not seen
anything, and hurriedly sped up their steps to continue their patrol without
allowing their gaze to stray.

"You're pretty good at being a menace, aren't you?" Adrian reached out to
pull his collar straight before he mocked, "Must've been real tiring to put up
a show all this while huh?"

"I didn't..." said Zhong Yan through gritted teeth. But thinking about it
again, there was no merit in explaining; Adrian was now fully confident
that he had been deliberately deceiving him all those years, and he would
never believe him no matter how he denied it. He put down this potentially
hazardous topic and said, "Forget it...it's nothing. I'm getting hungry,
weren't we going to the canteen?"

Adrian responded in a huff. "So you've got the balls to mention that huh? If
you hadn't started kicking up a fuss, I would've finished eating by now."

"Then walk slower."

Adrian snorted before turning to leave. Even though he did not verbally
agree to it, his pace had clearly slowed down.

This was all for the sake of his image in the eyes of his subordinates,
thought Adrian. If he was caught arguing with Zhong Yan again, the one
losing face would be him. What's more, there was important news he
wanted right now from Zhong Yan.

The waist and hem area of his clothes were wrinkled from their earlier tug
of war, so it looked very awkward. Zhong Yan was following behind him
and frowned as he stared at the wrinkles.

It was just in time for lunch, so there should be many people at the canteen.
This entire ship was under Adrian's command, so Adrian should be
maintaining the image of his status, but if his clothes were so messy...

Zhong Yan hesitated over and over again, but still reached out to straighten
the back of his clothes before they reached the canteen.
Adrian turned back to look at him and did not put it to heart. Casually, he
commented, "People with OCD sure are riddled with problems"
 Chapter 24: Cupcake

The second Adrian and Zhong Yan walked through the doors, the bustling
canteen was washed over with a strange silence.

Both of them were accustomed to receiving the attention of a crowd. Adrian

casually sat himself down on an empty seat, while Zhong Yan sat directly
opposite of him.

During their usual missions, Adrian would always eat at the canteen with
the other soldiers. It was well known that this young commander did not
have much arrogance in private, and was very well-received. If there were
no military officers joining him in his meal, he would usually pick a seat in
front of one of the normal soldiers who was dining alone. Sometimes, when
they saw him sitting alone, there would also be soldiers who would sit with
him regardless of their ranks in the army.

But of course, nobody had been doing that recently. They had heard the
news that the commander had been in a disastrous mood lately, and his
temper was about ten times more violent than usual; nobody wanted to be
willingly smitten.

Right now, the source of the problem himself was sitting opposite of their
commander at the same table, ready for lunch…

Some people silently sped up their pace for fear of the big bang of the
century possibly blowing up the next minute or so, and getting their
innocent selves caught up in it; there were also the gutsier ones who slowed
down their pace so they could watch Navi Military Command's
unmentionable taboo man.
Zhong Yan did not pay attention to the surrounding atmosphere; he was
looking through the virtual menu displayed on the table.

In combat-type warships like this one, the non-combat areas were designed
to be very simple for the sake of saving space. The tables used in the dining
hall were narrow and long, just wide enough to fit a meal tray for the person
sitting on the opposite side. With such a narrow distance, there was no need
to embed a virtual menu on the surface in front of each diner's seat, just one
was enough for two to share. There was a virtual screen perpendicular to
the table right in the middle, and the image was visible on both sides.

Zhong Yan skimmed through a few pages, and just when he was about to
order a regular looking bowl of noodles, Adrian suddenly caught his wrist.

The hearts of all the people focusing on them jumped—What's happening?

Are they going to fight?

“That's spicy,” said Adrian as he let him go.

“Oh.” Zhong Yan gave up on the noodles; he did not eat spicy food.

After going through a few more pages, Zhong Yan's eyes lit up. There were
actually desserts on the very last page. The selection was small with just a
few of the classics available, but they had a cupcake amongst them, though
it was not dressed up in any fancy decorations. It did not look remarkable,
but…he had been too busy recently. It had been a long time since he has
had any sweets.

Just as Zhong Yan was about to order one, Adrian caught his wrist again.

“What's wrong? Is this also spicy?”

“Are you going to skip lunch if you order that?”

“Isn't it good if I save you some money?”

“Well thank you very much, I'll accept your thoughtfulness.” Adrian was
still holding onto his wrist, unwilling to let go, while his other hand flipped
the menu away from the desserts section, “Get a proper meal.”
Zhong Yan glared at him over the virtual screen. “I want to eat cake.”

“No can do.” Adrian snarked maliciously, “It's cute of you to think you can
just come to my place and eat cake. It's nice enough for me to even let you
eat.”

Since he was now residing under his roof, Zhong Yan could only order a
proper meal with disappointment. But when it came Adrian's turn to order,
Adrian ordered a meal and added a cupcake right in front of him before
slowly turning off the virtual screen.

Zhong Yan was so mad that he could not speak. After a while, both of their
meals arrived. Zhong Yan stared at the cupcake on the corner of Adrian's
tray and could not help but ask, “I thought you didn't eat sweets?”

“I ordered it for decoration,” he responded. “When I'm sick of looking at it,

I'll throw it away.”

“And you call yourself a soldier. It's shameful to waste food!”

“The person least qualified to say that is you,” Adrian retorted. “Speak to
me again if you can finish what you ordered.”

Zhong Yan looked down at the portion size of the meal in front of him and
was stunned for a moment.

His appetite had always been very small, and for many years, he had always
been cooking based on how much he could eat; but things were a little more
awkward when it came to eating out. Not being able to finish a single
person's portion was normal for him.

In the past, when he was still in the Supreme Institution, he would need to
divide a portion of his food for Adrian every time they ate outside to avoid
having leftovers.

What's more, the canteen in the warship had larger portions than usual. For
him, it really did seem…impossible to finish.
This was the Navi Military Command's warship, it would be too unsightly
of him to leave half of his food untouched with so many of Navi's men
watching him. Zhong Yan began to regret not having insisted on just having
a small cake. Since he missed that chance, he should just pack it up and be
done with it; going hungry was better than letting others see him leave
behind most of his meal…

With his cutlery in hand, Zhong Yan was in a dilemma. Suddenly, Adrian
who was sitting across from him pushed his own tray forward.

Zhong Yan was stunned. He was much too familiar to this action: before
they started eating in the past, Adrian would always push his tray forward
just like this if he ever made a difficult face, signaling for Zhong Yan to
portion some of his food to him, and it had already become a tacit
agreement between them. Later on, when they ate in public, Zhong Yan
would only need to give Adrian a glance before he would help him portion
away some of his food without having to say anything.

“What are you waiting for?” Adrian grunted impatiently. “You're not
actually planning to waste the food on my ship, are you?”

Zhong Yan quickly took the tray.

The people in the canteen were horrified to see the councilman, their
commander's worst enemy, scooping out half of his food over to the
commander's tray in a very natural manner. After that, he even tidied up the
position of the broccoli and the salad with his spoon. After fixing
everything up, he passed the tray back.

Adrian frowned. “You're only eating that much? Even rabbits eat more than
you do.”

Zhong Yan's eyes brightened. “That depends on what species of rabbit it is.
Adult giant space rabbits eat more than you.”

"…"
Most of the time, Zhong Yan was not a man of many words, and would
even end up more of the silent type when it came to speaking with
strangers; but when giant space rabbits were mentioned, things would
always go out of control. Adrian recalled back to many years ago when he
had been dragged into a two-hour supplemental lesson on “how normal
rabbits mutate into giant space rabbits” and “100 habits and characteristics
of the giant space rabbit”, and as any wise man would, he chose to shut his
mouth. Instead of lingering on that topic, he decided instead to reflect
deeply upon himself.

There were so many animals that did not eat much, why did he have to
choose a rabbit?

……

Zhong Yan brought the little cupcake with him and sat in Adrian's office.

Adrian was sitting behind his desk, handling his business. His office
terminal was one-way so he could not see its contents. Thinking about it, it
probably consisted of the ship's internal affairs. After all, the signal was
unstable during navigation, and it was not very easy to contact land.

Zhong Yan stared at Adrian's profile and daydreamed for a while. Then, he
placed the cupcake—the one that took him much effort to get Adrian to
agree to give him—carefully on the corner of his desk before turning on his
own terminal to write his reports. He was going to send it back to the
capital as soon as he landed.

“Why do I have to stay for half a month?” Halfway through his report,
Zhong Yan stopped to ask, “I can't just tell the capital that you're forcing me
to pay the marriage refusal fines, right?”

Without even lifting his head, Adrian responded, “You could also choose to
pay the fines now, then you can return as soon as we're done discussing
business.”

Zhong Yan said, “Why don't you pay the fines now? Even if you detain me
for half a month, I still won't give you the money. You still pay to pay it
when the deadlines come. You're just wasting time.”

“You might not be able to handle the consequences if you don't hand over
the money before the deadline.” Adrian paused his work to glare coldly at
Zhong Yan. “Do you think I would allow a councilman to share spousal
rights with me? Don't even talk about keeping your clothes then, you
shouldn't even dream about keeping your terminal.”

Zhong Yan had to admit that this was indeed a powerful threat. In this day
and age, you were practically disabled without a personal terminal; not to
mention someone with such a high status as him. If he were at a distant star
system without his terminal, the entire department below him would come
to a complete halt without any ability to work remotely.

But if you asked him to pay…

There was still half a month, there was time to think about it more. With a
headache, Zhong Yan shut off his terminal. He picked up the cupcake and
began to nibble on it.

“Are there any people in your ship wearing a similar size to me?” Zhong
Yan spent much effort to roll up his sleeves to reveal his hand, “The sleeves
keep falling down even after I roll them up, it's too troublesome.”

Adrian raised his head to look at the man wrapped in his jacket. He
imagined if that jacket was switched out for someone else's, and
immediately felt offended.

“No. If anyone tries to join the army with a body like yours, they'll be the
first to go.”

Zhong Yan wanted to say more, but he was interrupted by a knock on the
door.

Only then did Adrian remember that the destroyed communicator in the
room had yet to be repaired. He asked aloud, “What is it?”

“Commander, Adjutant Suster's fleet has converged with ours.”

“Tell him to board the warship and wait for me in the conference room. I
have something to speak with him about.”

“Yes.”

Zhong Yan stopped filling himself with the cake. The cake suddenly did not
feel as appetizing to him as before.

Adrian felt suspicious as he watched him put the cake down before he left.
Did he choke?

It had not been very long since Adrian left the office when another knock
came from the door.

Zhong Yan hesitated, but he still went over to open it. He thought that
Adrian might have locked him in here, but he never expected the door to
actually open. There was a patrolman standing outside.

“A…Your commander went out,” announced Zhong Yan.

“I know, I came to look for you.” As he said that, the patrolman nervously
handed him a glass of water.

Zhong Yan accepted it and asked in suspicion, “What's this?”

“It is a glass of water.”

Zhong Yan felt even more suspicious. “…Why are you giving me a glass of
water?”

For a moment, the patrolman did not know how to answer him. Earlier,
Adrian stopped him, and told him to “pour a glass of water for that guy in
my office, but don't tell him I asked you to do it.”

“I…If there's nothing else you need, I'll be taking my leave.”

Saying that, the patrol left speedily, leaving the confused Zhong Yan behind
with the glass of water.
 Chapter 25: Majestic Attire

Adrian gave a simple explanation about the nature of Zhong Yan's trip to
the few officers present in the boardroom.

“Contact the generals immediately after landing, we will hold a meeting at

headquarters an hour after our landing so we can discuss with the special
commissioner about ‘Butterfly's' entry into Navi.”

The liaison officer nodded. “Understood.”

An officer from the logistics department asked, “Commander, since the

special commissioner has come this time to seek collaboration with us,
should we arrange upscale accommodations for him?”

“Upscale accommodations? Do you think we have something like that at

the primary star? What about the neighboring planet? There's a new resort
there that looks pretty good.” Fayn suggested.

“No, it's too dangerous for Zhong Yan to be alone. I don't feel good leaving
him elsewhere,” Adrian said. “He can just stay at my place. I can watch him
myself, you don't have to bother with it. As for his reasons for being here, I
shall warn you not to believe him so easily about whether he's really here
for a sincere collaboration. We still don't know the truth of it yet. Liaison
Officer, pass this message to the generals before the meeting begins.”

The liaison officer accepted the order and noted it down in his mind.

After the meeting was dissolved, Fayn was left alone.

“Brother.” Fayn put his arm around Adrian's shoulder and heaved a long
sigh. “What did you say before I left? You said you didn't want to see what's
his face, and you wanted me to talk to him no matter what. And then what
happened? I told you something happened over there and like an idiot you
flew right over in a fighter by yourself. You were the first one there! If you
knew that was going to happen, why'd you tell me to go?”

Adrian turned off the datasheet and responded plainly. “Those space pirates
who escaped from Navi have been making waves around the neighboring
star systems. It's had a very bad impact on them, and it's part of our
responsibilities to capture them.”

“Forget it.” Fayn went on, “You said you wouldn't see him but you still
went with my suggestion anyway.”

“What suggestion?”

“Stop pretending, I'm talking about the one I mentioned last month.” Fayn
lowered his voice to make himself sound mysterious. “You know, the dark
room. Didn't you just…”

Adrian threw his arm off his shoulder in disgust and cut him off. “What on
earth is going on in your brain? My house has complete security system
protection, and barely anyone lives there. There's no information anyone
can steal from there. The only person authorized to go in and out that house
is me only. That should be able to limit him to the greatest extent. The
interiors and exteriors are pretty decent. It's the most ideal place so far.”

With an expression signaling his thoughts of "whatever you say", Fayn

asked, “Well, since this is all happening, are the two of you rambling about
divorce yet?”

“Watch your mouth, I'm not married to him yet.” Adrian added, “And we
won't be married.”

“Actually, isn't it a good thing for both of you if you married him now? You
can have an even steadier collaboration.”

Adrian shot him a glare and said, “We are the stronger party, there's no need
for your commander to sell his body for the sake of collaboration now, is
there?”
“How could you call that selling your body! Just ask yourself, do you want
this wedding?”

“Nope.” Adrian was firm. “I don't lack confidence to the point where I have
to marry someone who doesn't like me.”

Adrian's original plans after landing were to immediately bring Zhong Yan
to the headquarter's conference room; but after some thought, it felt quite
inappropriate, so he notified the liaison officer to change the location to a
temporary meeting room instead—he did not want to take any risks of
bringing a councilman into their headquarters.

One of the officers who lived rather close by arrived early. He saw that the
adjutant, the liaison officer, and several of the other members of the fleet
had already arrived, so he asked, “Is the commander not with you?”

Both the liaison officer and Fayn looked at each other and were both at a
loss. “I didn't see him when we came down, must be held up with some
work or something.”

……

And the person holding up Adrian was Zhong Yan.

“Are you moving or not?”

Adrian was pulling one of Zhong Yan's arms in an attempt to pull him out
of the car, but Zhong Yan refused to let go of the armrest.

“No! How am I going to attend a meeting wearing this? You're all in

military uniforms but all I have is a track jacket. What's with that? And this
jacket is extremely oversized!”

“I'm not wearing a military uniform either!”

“But they're your men, it's fine for you to dress casually.” Zhong Yan was
desperately trying to instill propriety and decency in him. “I'm the enemy
who came to seek collaboration…ah!”
After being at a stalemate for so long, his arms were already running out of
energy. Taking advantage of that, Adrian forcefully tore him from the car.
Zhong Yan turned around in hopes that he could hold onto the door, but his
hands were quickly clamped down by Adrian. He grabbed him by the wrists
and dragged him away from the car.

“Don't worry if you think you need to dress formally to see your enemies.
The Navi Military Command is uninterested in such hypocritical things.”

“That's not it, you…just listen to me first. You must have video archives for
major meetings, right?” Zhong Yan tried to pry himself off with the weight
of his body, but it was still not enough to beat Adrian's strength. “Ow, be a
little gentler…”

Adrian looked down to see how tightly he was holding him; red marks were
already appearing on Zhong Yan's fair wrists from his struggling.

He let him go. Immediately, Zhong Yan's hands retreated back into his
sleeves, and he quickly said, “Listen, I can't dress so inappropriately. It's not
just for the sake of my image either, it'll make me look disrespectful. I don't
have to be in a suit. As long as…As long as it fits, anything's fine.”

Adrian could hardly care whether Zhong Yan would humiliate himself or
not; if possible, he would forcefully drag Zhong Yan all the way into the
meeting room, but that person was truly too weak. He had only been
dragging him around for a little while…Adrian retracted his gaze from his
sleeve and threw out a sentence with a sullen face. “Wait here.”

Zhong Yan watched as he returned to the car, and came back with a military
coat after a moment.

Adrian walked up to Zhong Yan and shook open the coat before putting it
on him and fixing up the topmost button.

Being draped over with the heavy military coat made it look as if his body
was covered with a cloak.

“Satisfied now?” Adrian asked in a cold tone.

“Um…” Zhong Yan looked at the gold-trimmed black military uniform on
his body; the dazzling insignia at his shoulder showed that these clothes
belonged to the highest commander of this military command. “Would it
be…out of place for me to wear this?”

“Out of place?” Adrian snorted. “Not like you're from this system to begin
with, what's there to be out of place of? Only you would be bothered by
such trivial matters. If you don't want to wear it, take it off. I'll drag you into
the meeting room if I have to.”

Zhong Yan silently gripped tightly onto the military coat. “I'll wear it.”

The moment Zhong Yan stepped through the doors of their temporary
meeting room, all the officers inside stood up. One of the officer's mind was
still caught up on his military work from earlier, and automatically bowed
and greeted, “Commander…”

The officer next to him shoved a foot at him, and kicked him back to his
senses; only then did he see that the man wearing the commander's coat was
not actually Adrian.

The officers on the scene exchanged strange looks with each other.
Following Zhong Yan's emergence, Adrian quickly appeared behind him.
Then, the sound of greeting burst out in the room and Adrian said,
“Everyone, take your seats.”

He took the main seat and sat with a straight posture, deliberately leaving
behind an empty space to his right. Steadily, Zhong Yan settled down in that
seat.

Most of the people here were seeing Zhong Yan for the first name, and
nobody would have expected him to actually be wearing the military
uniform of their supreme commander, so they could not help but spare a
few extra glances at him. This man did not have a sturdy body, You could
even say he was skinny, so the coat had become a cloak when worn on him;
but surprisingly, it suited him. The deep black, and the gold trims over his
alabaster face was inviolable, and it gave him the air of a man of high
standing and grace.
Adrian began, “I believe everyone in this room has been informed about
why we're suddenly having a meeting today.”

Everyone turned their attention to him. Adrian was wearing a simple, thin t-
shirt, but nobody thought his aura was in any way suppressed by Zhong
Yan's beside him; on the contrary, he was only sitting leisurely, but they felt
that he could easily stand up against Zhong Yan. He did not need his fancy
decorations. He was the unparallelled king of this star system, and the
spiritual pillar of the human renaissance movement.

“Councilor Zhong Yan, you said you came with your sincerity.” Adrian put
his attention on Zhong Yan. “Now, please show it to us.”

“Of course.” Zhong Yan was calm as he returned the gaze of those sharp,
icy eyes. Then, he stood up and looked around the entire room.

“Generals of the Navi System, with great designs, I have traveled past
thousands of planets from the Capital just to bring this warning to you: AI
has already stepped down its altar. He will no longer be as our ancestors
envisioned, the selfless ‘God' they created. Instead, in its endless process of
self-improvement and updating, it has become closer and closer to a real
human being. It possessed the character of man, and that should have been
the goal of ‘artificial intelligence'. But unfortunately, when ‘Butterfly' was
the one going through that change, this major breakthrough in the scientific
community might not be any blessing to us.”

“Two years ago, there was a misjudgment case that shook the entire
federation. I'm sure everyone still remembers it. Let's start from the bottom.
According to the internal data I possess…” Zhong Yan turned on the
projection function on his personal terminal and cast a holographic image
onto the table. “This matter was not just an accident like how we tried to
sugarcoat it. It was a deliberate misjudgment with malintent. And an even
more terrifying point is that the internal archive records that I'm showing
you have been tampered with by someone. According to the series of events
that I am about to tell everyone, I have reason to believe that the first person
in contact with those records is the Representative Councilor, Sir Bard
Pearson and his party members who have established a more intimate
relationship with ‘Butterfly' without our knowledge. Please pay attention to
the second paragraph of this information…”

Adrian had long known that Zhong Yan was an excellent speaker. He
seemed to have been born steadfast and calm. He could always keep an
unmoved expression no matter how shocking or outrageous the words
coming out of his mouth were; his articulation was always clear, his tone
smooth, and it gave people the illusion that he was the most objective and
rational existence; it was as if he had anticipated everything, and it was all
in his control, giving people the inclinations to believe in him. Many years
ago, in the Supreme Institution, this was the steady manner in which he
conquered his professors and the student council, allowing him to rise into
the position of Student Council President in just his second year despite
how rare an occurrence it was.

An hour later, Zhong Yan's declaration came to an end. The records and
materials had already been brought out, and was fully capable of proving
his conjectures. The AI that had been brought up onto that pedestal by
human hands and now holds onto the destinies of billions of human beings,
has been colluding with a small number of the most powerful people in this
generation and was seeking gains for his own selfish desires.
 Chapter 26: Breaking Through

Humans have their own selfish desires, but they are limited by their
physical bodies. There are limits to one's energy. No matter who it may be,
they will eventually pass away after a hundred years.

But what if an omnipotent, omniscient, and immortal “human being”

appeared?

The officers in the room were all shocked. They whispered their thoughts
and ideas to each other. It was only Adrian who had thought about this
matter since long before. He did not join in on their discussion, and instead
asked the person to his right, “What is your aim?”

Everyone stopped their discussions and looked at them.

Zhong Yan slowly took his seat again and responded unperturbed. “I do not
understand your question.”

“You do understand.” Adrian continued on sharply. “You said you crossed

thousands of miles to get here, all that so you could pass us a warning? You
might be able to trick them with this, but not me. What do you want when
we begin our collaboration?”

Zhong Yan let out a faint sigh and responded slowly. “With Councilor
Pearson in the lead, there are several others who believe that there is a
problem with the membership structure of our Supreme Council of today.
They believe that the equal 'round table' structure of the twelve
Representative Counselors should be changed to a ‘pyramid'. This plan is
already being drafted, and if they're quick, it will be on the itinerary by next
year, and it's even possible it may start before they start to push forward the
Honor Decree'.”
Everyone heard him explain what the “Honor Decree” was prior to this. For
the sake of ensuring the stability of the Federation's government and to
further improve the community's efficacy, they will phase out the fines
system and will instead replace it with the deprivation of property and
power. So to say, you are only required to pay a lump sum in order to refuse
a proposal, but the punishments you may face in the future are likely to
include prison sentences.

With the obeisance towards AI as honor, that is the “Honor Decree”.

“Even if it's next year, I'm still only twenty-eight, that is far too young for
the Supreme Council. Moreover, I have only just taken up my seat as a
Representative Councilor not long ago, I will definitely be the first to be
deprived of power as soon as the structure of authority changes in the
council.”

It is rumored that this legendary member of council had taken up his

position at an alarmingly young age, all with the help of the century-old
household, the great Yate family. Moreover, insiders would know that the
patriarch of the Yate Family, Stalvern Yate, is constantly in conflict with
Bard Pearson, another representative member of council. The two have
been building up their cliques in both the Supreme Council and the upper
echelons of the capital, meeting each other face on as equals; they were the
two most influential humans of this age.

Even though Stalvern had already retired, his influence was still there, and
the fact that he could still raise Zhong Yan up onto that seat was proof of it.
But it was unfortunate that no matter how great your influence was after
retirement, you still could not compete with someone who was still actively
holding his position. Right now, it was Bard, his old rival, that wanted the
reform; he would definitely be aiming for Zhong Yan's head, and Zhong
Yan's position truly would become a difficult thing to hold onto.

Zhong Yan had only told them that he would be the first to bear the brunt
only because of his young age, but the high-ranking officers knew that
much more was at play in the background. But it truly was an awkward
point to consider that the person behind Zhong Yan was in fact, Adrian's
own grandfather. Thus, everyone accepted his reason of being “too young”
and said nothing.

“So, your purpose is to stop them and keep your seat?” One of the officers
asked.

Zhong Yan gave a faint nod in silent accord of the statement.

Adrian did not continue bombarding him with questions, seemingly having
accepted his reasons. He said to Zhong Yan, “You don't have to listen to the
rest.”

He stood up and walked over to open the door to the conference room, and
ordered the two guards at the door, “Bring him to my car.”

Zhong Yan followed him to the door, and with his body as a shield against
the gazes of those behind them, he carefully reached his hand out from
beneath his cloak to pull Adrian's clothes.

This was a habitual action they were both very familiar with many years
ago. Both Adrian and Zhong Yan did not like to talk about their private
matters in front of other people, so if they ever had anything to say to each
other in a public space, Adrian could just bend down and speak by Zhong
Yan's ear; but Zhong Yan could not reach Adrian, so if he wanted to say
something, he had to give Adrian's clothes a tug and wait for him to lean
down before speaking by his ear.

This time, Adrian reacted to his actions as usual; but instead of moving his
ear over, he came close to Zhong Yan's ear and spoke in a quiet yet cold
voice. “Listen up, pull my clothes one more time and I'll break your arms.”

Zhong Yan's hand immediately retracted into the coat. He whispered back
to him, “I just wanted to ask if you locked the car door.”

“I did not lock the door, but there is a lock on the driving system. There are
guards all over the yard, so you better settle down, don't even think about
trying to escape with the car or anything.”
“I'm not,” argued Zhong Yan, though in vain. Adrian was not listening to
him and was signaling to the guards instead to take him away.

Zhong Yan thought that after bringing him such important information, that
Adrian would lighten up a little with him; he never would have expected
that not only was that not the case in the slightest, he was even very fierce
to him.

He averted his eyes to cover the look of disappointment in his eyes, and left
with the guards.

“Commander…”

Adrian put out a hand to stop what the officer was saying. “I know what
you want to say, the AI has been undergoing changes and is seeking greater
control, so we should be abandoning the path to steady development and
accelerate our plans, is that right?”

He had hit the nail on the head, and the officer could hear the disapproval in
his tone. He felt awkward as he said, “Ye…Yes. The development plans we
have planned beforehand were formed with the basis that the AI remains in
a constant state, but nobody here could have expected him to change.”

Another officer chimed in, “That's right. ‘Butterfly' is now beginning to

gather power autonomously. If he allows those powerful human followers
of his to push those new policies forward, then his control of the Federation
will reach new heights. If we continue as we are now, we will definitely be
constrained and forced into a passive position.”

“It's a good thing we managed to get ahold of this news, it's not too late to
start mapping things out now.”

Adrian silently listened through the enthusiastic discussion of his officers as

they planned out a countermeasure. Fayn asked, “Commander, do you still
have any doubts on the authenticity of this piece of information? If I may be
so bold, the information that the Special Commissioner has just shown us is
very hard to forge.”
The other officers did not speak. Even if all the high-level positions in the
Navi Military Command now consisted of Adrian's men, the adjutant was a
person who had been following him since they were students after all, so
their relationships were definitely closer. Take for example, when it came to
that councilor who had just gone out not long ago, it was the adjutant alone
who dared to say a word or two about him.

“I know, just…”

Adrian stopped. After a while, he raised a hand to massage the bridge of his
nose and said, “What you've all said is very reasonable, but we're not in
such a rush that it has to be done within these few days. It's a very big
matter, so wait for the confirmation from the intelligence office before
starting any concrete plans. The information is genuine, but the source is
too unreliable. No matter what, wait until our men have verified it before
you do anything. You're all dismissed; Adjutant, you stay.”

After all the officers left, Fayn frowned. “What's wrong with you? It's not
like you to be this wary.”

“How long will it take the intelligence department to verify it?” asked
Adrian.

“We've just arranged it this afternoon. Something concerning the capital

would take several days alone just to transmit information back and forth,
I'm afraid our agent in the capital is not in a high enough position. We
might even have to contact ‘Specimen'. Well…if you want a more solid
estimation, it will take more than just a few days.”

Adrian pondered over it for a moment, and started slowly, “Tell the
intelligence department to look over something else…Check if there is any
contact between Zhong Yan and Bard Pearson. It doesn't matter what form
of contact it is.”

Fayn was shocked and quickly asked. “What do you mean? You're still
suspecting that this is a ruse?”
“His excuses can't convince me.” Adrian continued, “Would he invest so
much effort in surrendering to his enemy just to protect his position? I don't
believe that this is really the only path he can use to keep himself up there,
he has been active in the capital for more than seven years after all.”

“Uh…Actually, all of us believe him.” Fayn expressed analytically, “Even

if he used his own networks to find a way to remain in his seat, things will
still be tough for him in the future. When the structure changes, Pearson
will definitely be above him. When that time comes, there's no way Pearson
won't go after his head since that guy has been hanging around your
grandfather. It can't be guaranteed he won't be the death of him one day
either. So, he's better off jumping off the sinking ship and abandoning your
grandfather to turn to us instead. If we win, he would have half of the
credit, no? You said you wanted to check the relationship between him and
Pearson…Are you suspecting that he may actually have switched over to
Pearson's side? Then that's even more impossible. Would Pearson spend all
this effort to set up a ploy just to let us know that the bastard has finally
gone crazy? Wouldn't that be a joke?”

“Makes sense,” said Adrian. Then, he put on a bitter smile. “Why do you
think I insisted for you to do the talks with him last time? I told you he's
going to cloud my judgment, do you believe me now?”

Fayn rolled his eyes. “I believe it now. In the past, you'd always think about
all the good when it came to him like a brainless idiot, but now you've gone
the other extreme. It's all brainless conspiracies now. You better not eat
steak or anything when you live together, I'm afraid you're going to think he
was trying to assassinate you if he ever lifts his knife.”

“It's not that extreme.” Adrian loosened up a little and began to joke,
“Aren't you looking down on me too much? With his level of combat
proficiency, I doubt he'd be able to do me in even if I gave him a gun and
fought him bare-handed.”

Fayn gave him a playful punch and laughed, “That's way over the top. I told
you you still haven't come out of it, just look at how deep the psychological
trauma was in your heart. You think he's lying to you no matter what just
cause he lied to you once. Do you think that's necessary? Isn't it just a failed
marriage proposal? It ain't nothing big! I lost my position of best man too,
and I didn't say anything about it now, did I?”

With a bang, something seemed to have fallen on the ground outside; the
faces of the two changed. Adrian quickly rushed over and opened the door.

The statuette that had been on display on the flower stand fell to the ground
and rolled away. Zhong Yan was standing there with his face pale with
shock, holding the flower stand in one hand, and his body swaying.

Before Adrian could say anything, he asked both urgent and anxiously,
“What marriage proposal? What best man? I only heard the last sentence,
what were you talking about?”
 Chapter 27: Missed Opportunities

Adrian did not answer him. He frowned. “Didn't I tell you to go to the
car…”

“I saw them come out in the car, so I came to look for you.” Zhong Yan
quickly interrupted him, “What were you talking about earlier? Who was
proposing to whom?”

“Guards!” Adrian shouted.

A young guard sprinted over from the corridor. Before waiting for him to
salute him, Adrian barked a question to his face, “What were you doing out
there? How did someone this big slip in?!”

The guard was dumbfounded. “Zhong…The Special Commissioner said he

was here to look for you. The meeting…Isn't the meeting over?”

“Who told you the meeting was over? Why would I be in there if the
meeting was over?” Adrian burst out in anger. “You let him inside just
because he said he was here to look for me? Would you let him go into the
data room too if he asked? If he overheard anything classified today—”

“Adrian.” Fayn put a hand on Adrian's shoulder and stopped him from
venting on the poor guard. “Enough, he didn't do it on purpose. Everyone's
left, so he thought the meeting ended. It's not like we were talking about
classified information anyway.”

As he said that, he waved his hand towards the guard, motioning for him to
leave. The guard looked worriedly at Adrian, who had yet to calm down
from his fury; when he saw no reaction from him, he quickly bowed and
left.
Zhong Yan was still standing at the side, watching Adrian in a panicky
manner, but still persistently waiting for his answer.

Adrian brushed Fayn's hand off his shoulder and said to him, “You should
go first."

This meant that he wanted to speak with Zhong Yan alone. With a spark of
interest, Fayn said to him, “Alright, you two have a good chat. I'll be going
now.”

After saying that, he glanced over at the snowy and fair hand that slipped
out from beneath the coat, then at Adrian's brewing storm of an expression.
He couldn't help himself from adding on in a whisper, “Lay off a little.
Don't cripple the guy, we're still counting on him.”

Adrian glared at him and squeezed a few words out of the cracks of his
teeth, “I have my restraints, so get outta here.”

Seeing that Fayn had left, Zhong Yan thought that Adrian was finally going
to speak with him; but without saying anything, he started walking towards
the parking lot.

“Hold on,” Zhong Yan followed him and asked persistently, “Were you
talking about someone else earlier? I'm sorry, I didn't eavesdrop on purpose.
I really thought it was only you inside. I didn't notice that Suster was not
out either. Who did he say he was going to be the best man for?”

Adrian was walking in front as if he did not hear him at all. Very quickly,
Zhong Yan was left in a gasping mess and could not speak any longer.
Adrian was walking too fast, so his energy levels were plummeting. He
tried to make Adrian slow down a little, but this time, Adrian gave no
consideration for him. With the earlier warning he was given, he did not
dare to pull on the man's clothes either. He could only break out into a jog
every so often just to barely keep up with him.

When they reached the car, Adrian opened the door on the passenger side;
without waiting for Zhong Yan, who had just rushed over, to say anything,
he stuffed him in in one violent motion before wandering over to the
driver's seat. He booted up the driving system and started the car in full
speed.

Zhong Yan looked at his stiff profile. His heart was leaping madly into an
abyss.

Adrian would never get this angry just because he heard an unimportant
piece of gossip. This reaction practically confirmed it for Zhong Yan; the
person with the “failed marriage proposal” mentioned by Suster was
Adrian.

Who did Adrian fail to propose to? How could that be possible! This man
had such a strong physique and handsome face, commanding powerful
troops at his fingertips with a resounding name; even if you pushed all of
these aside, Zhong Yan had still seen what a gentle person Adrian could be.

Why would anyone reject such a perfect person? Clearly…Clearly, for the
sake of maintaining his friendship with Adrian, he had spent all of his
efforts just to end up in that tragic abandonment of seven years; but
someone was actually able to obtain Adrian's precious and loyal heart?

Zhong Yan could not describe the feeling in his heart. He tried so
desperately to protect that pool of water in his own palms, but he could only
watch with his eyes wide as the water flowed through his fingertips, while
someone had managed to receive a great ocean that would never dry up.

How was it possible…Zhong Yan tried to make sense of it in his chaotic

mind. How could anyone deserve to receive Adrian's heart?

When they were still in school, it was their golden years, where they were
just entering the age of twenty. Even though Adrian was deviant in his
political tendencies at the time, there were still many men and women who
professed their love to him without a care for that quality. Zhong Yan never
had any special feelings for those people; he knew that Adrian would
refuse. In his opinion, those people were far from being worthy of Adrian.

Nobody could ever be worthy of Adrian, but Suster was telling Adrian
"wasn't it just a failed marriage proposal?".
Who was it? What kind of person…

Zhong Yan had to admit that the second he heard that sentence, a crazy,
almost dreamlike guess had passed through his head.

No, it was not a guess. It was an idea that came from his intuitiveness, but
he did not dare to touch on it. He tried his best to ignore it.

It was impossible; if it was true, he would definitely fall into an abyss of

remorse.

……

Adrian's silence continued until they arrived at Adrian's private home.

The full name of Navi's primary star was Naviland, or Navi for short, and
the Navi System was named accordingly. This was the largest planet in the
Navi System. Based solely on the surface area of the planet, it was slightly
larger than the capital. However, unlike the Capital where every inch of
land was worth its weight in gold, Navi was a planet under military
management where every member of society was an admitted soldier. The
Navi Military Command's headquarters was located here, and outsiders
were prohibited from landing on the planet. Since the population density
was so low, many places were still uninhabited.

Adrian's private home was just away from the bustle of the main
population. Adrian had his eyes set on this multi-storey home that had a
vast grassland in its backyard the moment he set eyes on it, but he had very
few opportunities to actually stay in this home in. Most of the time, he
would just be sleeping at headquarters.

However, Zhong Yan could hardly care about being curious as to why
Adrian's private home looked like a newly-renovated model home ready for
sale; it was barely lived in at all. He took off Adrian's coat and hung it up
before quickly rushing over to stop Adrian who was prepared to abandon
him there.
“Get out of my way!” Adrian gave off a chilling aura, but Zhong Yan was
unwilling to move. He reached out to grab his clothes, which was actually
his own jacket and threw him onto the sofa.

When Zhong Yan saw that he was about to leave, he threw all his thoughts
aside and pounced over, latching onto Adrian's clothes.

This move had completely detonated the landmine of anger Adrian had
been suppressing. He turned around and pushed Zhong Yan abruptly to the
wall. Zhong Yan felt the strong impact of his back hitting the wall, but
before he could even process the pain, Adrian's body closed in, full of
oppressive energy. He grabbed hold of his chin and lifted it, forcefully
lifting his head up to meet his eyes.

“Did you hear a damn thing I said? Did you forget what I told you this
afternoon? Pull on my clothes one more time and I'll have your arms.”

“It doesn't matter…it doesn't matter…just take them.” That horrifying

conjecture was torturing Zhong Yan to the point of madness; he had to
confirm it immediately. He could not wait even a second longer. He was
practically begging him at this point. “My hands…just take them, just tell
me what you two were talking about. Who did you propose to? Tell me,
please, I beg you…”

Adrian sneered at him. “You couldn't guess? With how agitated you look,
I'm guessing you couldn't.”

Sirens were blaring in Zhong Yan's mind. He held his last thread of hope
and asked in a quiet whisper, “Is…Is it someone from the military
command? You've fallen for someone in these years, didn't you?”

“No.” Adrian enunciated with cruelty, “It's not from these recent years, it
was eight years ago. I fell in love with a liar. It's the dumbest thing I've done
my entire life, and it'll be a lesson I'll never forget for the rest of it.
Fortunately, I hadn't had the time to propose in the end before the liar could
stop himself from revealing his true self. At least I got away.”
Zhong Yan's mind went blank. He could see Adrian's silver eyes so close to
his, and that bone-chilling icy gaze pierced straight into the softest corner of
his heart, stirring up his flesh and blood into a mess, in a painful agony that
made him wish he was dead.

Impossible, it was impossible! What did he…what did he do…what did he

miss out on…?

Zhong Yan asked with a shaky voice, “When was it…When did you plan
to…Was it after graduation?”

“During the graduation ceremony,” he told him. These words were like a
dagger that had been pierced deep into his wound; and now, he was pulling
it out himself and using it as a weapon against him. His own wounds were
also torn apart, with fresh blood still gushing out of it. “On that day, I had
the ring in my uniform's pocket. The party poppers were with Fayn. I was
waiting right below the steps of the stage. I was going to kneel when you
came down from the stage after refusing the career proposal and asked you
whether you would be willing to stay with me for the rest of your life.”

Zhong Yan's eyes were red. “Why didn't you tell me earlier? Why didn't
you…”

Adrian responded fiercely, “Earlier? Don't tell me you couldn't tell at all,
Zhong Yan! When have I ever treated anyone as well as I have you?”

“I thought we were friends…” Zhong Yan muttered as a burning tears

started to roll down from his eyes. “I thought we were the best of friends…”

“Friends? What kind of person would, for two whole years, spend so much
effort to wash their friend's clothes, cook for them, take care of their meals
and daily necessities without a single word of complaint? You've been
misleading me deliberately, you gave me the illusion that it was not
unrequited love, you gave me the illusion that I only had to get past that
paper-this barrier to achieve the greatest happiness of my life!”

Friends…couldn't friends be like that?” There was not a single hint of doubt
in Zhong Yan's words. “I just wanted to treat you better, I wanted to be
better to you than your other friends, so you wouldn't not want me
anymore…I'm sorry, I didn't know friends couldn't be like that, nobody ever
taught me…”

Adrian snapped coldly, “Do you think that I'd believe you if you started
acting pitiful now?”

Zhong Yan's face was filled with his tears. He gritted his teeth and grabbed
Adrian's lapel. He looked deep into those silvery eyes and said, “Listen up,
I'll admit you hate me, but there's one thing! In all my life, I've spoken
countless lies. For the sake of coming out on top, I lied to the auntie in the
orphanage, I lied to the inspector, I lied to my teachers and my schoolmates;
when I grew up, I lied to my colleagues, I lied to the media, I lied to
everyone in this world, but I've never ever told a single lie to you, Adrian
Yate!”
 Chapter 28: The Pond in the
Backyard

“Let me remind you,” started Adrian, unmoved, “For more than a dozen
times during school, when you were so sick you couldn't go to class, you
still told me you were ‘fine'. Just half a month ago you had a fever that went
up to 39 degrees, but do you remember what you told me?”

Zhong Yan was rarely fierce with his words, but unfortunately, the waves
fell after the initial outbreak. He wiped the tears off his own face and said in
a quiet voice, “You know I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about lying
with malicious intent. I know there are many things, and many of my own
ideas that I never told you, but I never wanted to use you…it's not like what
you're making it out to be, I wasn't misleading you, nor was I trying to
pretend.”

Saying that, he averted his gaze downwards, and let out a bitter laugh. “I
didn't want to explain it, and I thought you would not believe me if I did…
I've never had friends, you're the first peer I had who allowed me to call out
your name. Then, when our campuses were separated in our second year, all
the students from the military school had left, but you said you weren't
going anywhere, that you'd rather spend an extra hour on the road. Since
then, I've been careful every day of my life. I had to think about whether I
would make you upset before I said every word, but at the same time, I was
so afraid. I was afraid one day you'd find a better friend, or maybe I'd make
you unhappy somehow, and you'd leave. So, I did laundry, I cooked, I did
everything to please you so you wouldn't leave. I didn't know what else to
do, I…I didn't realize…I'm sorry, I didn't realize…”

Adrian loosened his restraint on Zhong Yan and looked at him with a
complicated expression for a moment. For the first time, that tit-for-tat fury
was gone. “You didn't feel a single thing at all? I'm not a good-tempered
person, but in those three years, I've never once shown my anger to you.”

“I thought you had a very good temper, and I thought you were the same
with your friends too.” But now he knew that it was his privilege. This
wasn't funny to Zhong Yan at all, it just made him want to cry. “I didn't dare
to think about it at all. I was happy as long as you would always be my
friend, and never get sick of me, but if I knew…if I knew earlier…”

“If you knew, would you have rejected me?”

Zhong Yan denied it. “How could I reject you?”

Adrian questioned him, “Then would you have refused ‘Butterfly' in the
end?”

Zhong Yan raised his eyes to confront Adrian's gaze. You could say that he
may have been weak in the past, but now, on this planet without artificial
intelligence, they were in a place without outsiders. It was a private
residence with only the two of them. After seven years, this was the first
time they had frankly confronted each other with their own wounds; even a
warrior with a firm heart like Adrian could not help but ask such a question.

There was an obvious look of expectation in his eyes; right now, all he had
to tell him was…Yes.

Yes, if I had one more chance, it would have been a perfect ending; just like
that, he could push the responsibility on all the misunderstandings, and on
fate itself. Those times had passed anyway. Nobody could change what has
happened in the past; with one easy reply, he could heal the hate and
disappointment; then maybe…maybe if he was lucky enough, he could
even revive that thread of fate.

So why not?

You only needed to nod.

For a long time, Zhong Yan was silent. But in the end, he said, “Those are
two different things.”

Just like in their third year, he could have told Adrian that for the sake of
saving the country in this roundabout way, he was going to devote himself
to politics. He could hardly count how many times he had told such a lie
growing up. It was effective. It was perfect; but he wanted to keep Adrian,
so he did not say those words to him.

Right now, he was not willing to go against his own heart to verify his
assumptions. He did not want to lie to him.

“If I realized it early enough, I would've replanned my future for you. But if
I had only known in the last few months…” Zhong Yan shut his eyes. “If I
only found out at the end, I would at least have told you in advance that I've
already made my plans. I won't sacrifice myself with you to the human
renaissance movement. But If I would have known, I definitely would not
let you…”

He could not go on. In the past years, he had always resented how Adrian
had never given him any chance of reconciliation after the incident, nor
could he understand why Adrian had so much hate and anger towards him.

But now, he knew.

Whenever he recalled how, in that year, Adrian had watched him as he went
up that stage with such joy in his eyes; then, with those feelings, he left the
hall and returned to the dormitory where they had lived for three years.
Zhong Yan could feel nothing but pain, to the point where he was
suffocating; countless needles were pricking his heart, and each of those
needles shared the same name of regret.

Regretful at knowing that he had reached the ocean, but had not realized it.
Just for the sake of retaining that small pool of water in his hands, he had
instead hurt the person he cherished the most in such a cruel way.

Adrian took a step back. He regretted it the instant those words came out of
his mouth, but when Zhong Yan told him he would not reject him, a fantasy
sprung up in his heart. He wondered if there never had been such a huge
gap between them, that it was all just a mistake.

But Zhong Yan told him with his own mouth, his dreams were just mere
dreams.

He did not continue his anger and spoke only in coldness. “As expected of
you. I was just overthinking things, I really thought you liked me too.”

“I didn't not like you! How could I not like you?” said Zhong Yan, anxious.
“I've always been…”

“Don't, stop right there.” Adrian raised a hand to stop him. “I don't want to
know your thoughts right now at all. Do you think that after going through
all of that, that I would still continue liking you like a fool?”

“I…I didn't know back then, I'm sorry. I'll learn, I will, can we…”

He was both anxious and felt lowly, to the point where he did not have the
courage to speak his request. He whispered his pleading in an incoherent
mutter, expecting a miracle to happen, and give him a chance to make up
for what he had lost.

But Adrian firmly refused him. “No. Zhong Yan, I'm no longer—For a long
time, I have not wanted to be married to you.”

Zhong Yan looked at him, stunned.

“Enough, let's end this here.” Adrian evaded Zhong Yan's eyes. That
broken-hearted gaze made him feel very uncomfortable, even the pleasure
of revenge was gone. “I'm no longer in any position to be thinking about
romance either. Have you sent your report to the council?”

Zhong Yan shut his eyes and took a deep breath. After a few seconds, when
he opened his eyes once more, its clarity returned, leaving behind only the
tear stains on his face.

“I did. We encountered some space pirates outside of Navi System, and we

entered into physical combat after the space pirates entered our ship. The
injuries Bayer received were too grave, so he fell unconscious. My injuries
were lighter, but I still needed some time to recuperate. As for the regional
assessment, it can only be postponed.”

Adrian nodded. “Understood. Send me a copy of the report, I will tell the
rest to match the information.”

“Alright.”

“The bedrooms upstairs are empty, pick one to stay in. I will lock the main
door, and there is an alarm in the outer circle of the yard. Right now, just
stay inside your room until our marriage contract is dissolved. I will arrange
for you to leave Navi after that.”

“I really don't have the money.” Zhong Yan dropped his head. “I can't shell
out three hundred and sixty thousand in one go, but is it alright if I start to
save up now, and pay you in installments? Just hold on for a while, I'll pay
you back the money…”

His tone did not sound fake, but Adrian was full of doubts. In his opinion,
four hundred thousand was worth practically nothing. From the very
beginning, it was purely because he could not swallow down his anger that
he wanted to make Zhong Yan pay up just to disgust him. How could he
really be unable to pay?

Indeed, if you asked a normal young person in his twenties to pull out four
hundred thousand in one breath, it would be a hard one to force on them.
But for someone with a position as high as Adrian, this amount was just a
slight change in the numbers of his bank account. He always thought that
Zhong Yan would be much wealthier than he was.

“Where's your money?” Adrian asked. “Everyone says you're unscrupulous,

but that's not true as well, or is it?”

“Taking this path just makes it easier for others to avert their gaze, it's
false.” Zhong Yan continued on with unease, “But if there's income…there
would naturally be expenditures.”
He did not seem as if he was going to elaborate, but Adrian did not have
any interest in listening on either. “Well, alright. Anyway, you sort it out
yourself before the month ends. I still have work at headquarters, so I'll be
going. I've ordered dinner, your food will be sent to the receiving platform
at the window by drone.”

“Are you not coming back to eat?” Zhong Yan followed behind him.

“No.”

“Then, will you be coming back to sleep tonight?”

“This is my house.” Adrian put on the military coat Zhong Yan had taken
off at the door. “It's none of your business whether I come back or not,
you're overstepping it. Don't follow me, you do not have access to enter the
main door. Do you feel like staying out in the yard the whole night?”

Zhong Yan stopped awkwardly by the door. “That's not it, I was just asking.
Wa…Wait!”

Adrian looked impatient to his endless barrage of questions. Zhong Yan

quickly spoke up. “One last thing—That ring…What happened to it?”

“I threw it.”

Zhong Yan quickly asked, “Where did you throw it?”

“And why are you asking me that for?” Adrian said, “Forget it, I'd rather
chuck it than let you have it.”

“Where did you throw it?” Zhong Yan was persistent.

“In the pond in the backyard.” Adrian was at his limits. “Can I go now, oh
great Councilor?”

At this time, he would not have known the consequences of his casual
words; but if he knew, he would never have said such a thing.

……
A few hours later, deep into the night, Adrian returned to his private home.

Too many things happened today. It was actually quite rare for him to be
this busy. But after thinking about it, and after pacing around his own
bedroom at headquarters, he still decided to drive home at night.

In the early morning, at the beginnings of sunrise, the multi-story building

was quiet. All of the furniture was in its own place, with no private
possessions in sight, revealing the icy atmosphere of abandonment. But
right now, someone was clearly staying inside. Adrian frowned at the seats
at the dining table; they did not look to have been moved at all. Where did
Zhong Yan eat?

He turned subconsciously to the platform near the window—The meal he

ordered was placed neatly there, even the packaging was not removed.

Adrian knocked on all the few doors of the second floor and was ready to
give the other man a talking to about the severe impact of wasting food, but
nobody answered.

Was he asleep? Zhong Yan had always been a light sleeper, it was
impossible for him not to have heard the knock on the door. On the way,
Adrian had opened all the doors—The were all empty.

Was he not in the rooms? He did not receive any alarm notifications, so he
could not have left the yard; but he did not see anyone when he came in
from the front yard…

Adrian rushed downstairs. The door to the backyard was locked, but the
window next to it was open. He remembered very clearly that those double-
windows were closed in the beginning.

It was so early in the morning, what was Zhong Yan doing in the backyard?

Adrian recalled the sentence he had left him with before leaving home, and
his face suddenly changed. He opened the door and rushed out.
The backyard of his villa was very large, and after passing through the
thicket that was grown as shade from the sunlight, there was an open
grassland with a small artificial pond on one side.

From far away, Adrian could see a man by the pond.

Zhong Yan was sitting there, his body wet and shoes by the shore. The cold
winter winds were blowing softly by, and the light sports jacket was stuck
to his body. He could not control the trembling of his body, but he still
insisted on going into the water. He did not know how many times he had
gone down there, but this time, he heard a thundering noise not far behind
him. “Zhong Yan! No!”

Why did Adrian come back? Zhong Yan was surprised. He turned around in
a hurry but did not expect to take a wrong step, and without being able to
steady himself, he fell into the water. The icy cold water of the pond seeped
into his nose cavity, and painfully he swallowed several mouthfuls of water.
Gradually, his languish body was sinking.

His consciousness was fading far away. All he could hear was the sound of
the water splashing. Following that, a pair of warm and powerful arms
circled around him in the water, and with him in hand, they returned to the
mortal realm.
 Chapter 29: High Fever

Zhong Yan felt a raging pain in his chest, but he could not open his eyes. A
darkness was pressing heavily down on him. At this moment, someone
peeled his mouth open, squeezed his nose, and a warm pair of soft buds
were printed onto his cool lips. Following that, breaths of life were passed
continuously into him. (note)

“Cough… cough cough…” Zhong Yan started to cough, and his sunken
chest had once again started to heave up and down violently. Adrian
breathed a sigh of relief and supported him up a little to help him cough out
the water he swallowed.

When his consciousness fully returned to his body, the intense cold finally
registered. Before Zhong Yan could even think about what he was doing, he
had subconsciously leaned towards the warmth at his side. When Adrian
saw him curling up entirely into his embrace, he lifted him up in his arms
and headed towards the house in large strides.

“So…Sorry.” Zhong Yan trembled in his arms. With his teeth chattering, the
words that came from his mouth were choppy. “I d-didn't want t-to trouble
y-you. I thought y-you…w-weren't coming h-home t-today…”

“So you jumped into a pond in the middle of winter just because I'm not
coming back?!” Adrian thought of himself as someone with great self-
control, but he was never able to suppress the fire anytime he was met with
anything relating to Zhong Yan. “You jumped into the water this time, but
what am I going to expect the next time I come home? Are you going to
jump off the building? Then you better not live upstairs, the bedroom on the
first floor will be yours from now on.”
There was only a single bedroom on the first floor. Most of the functional
areas of the house, such as the kitchen and whatnot were on the first floor.
Occasionally, when Adrian did not feel like getting himself up and down
the stairs when he came home, he would just sleep in that room to save
trouble. Before he told Zhong Yan this, that room could barely be described
as his bedroom.

Zhong Yan's black hair was soaked. Feebly, his dripping head was resting
against Adrian's similarly wet chest, and he said his compliance in a quiet
voice, “Alright…I'm sorry.”

When Zhong Yan and Adrian butted heads in their vocal arguments, Adrian
would always spit out the most vicious words he could think of to attack
him; but now, when he saw how obedient he was, Adrian swallowed down
those words, and was left unable to say a single thing.

Even if he really wanted to pursue the matter, he couldn't because he knew

that it was his fault Zhong Yan fell in.

Looking back now, why would Zhong Yan go to that pond when he was not
at home…?

Adrian carried him into the bathroom with a dark expression on his face. He
quickly activated some settings on the terminal at the door, and the bathtub
Zhong Yan was sitting in quickly filled with warm water at a suitably
comfortable temperature. Steam started to gather from the water, and
gradually soothed his trembling.

Seeing that he had recovered, Adrian left him to take a bath by himself
before heading into the upstairs bathroom for a brisk shower. Then, he
began looking for emergency kits around the house.

He knew the state of Zhong Yan's terrible physical condition too well. He
would definitely catch a fever in a while. Even though the Supreme
Institution, located on the Institution Star, was said to have a simulated
autonomous weather system, they had still chosen to stimulate the
friendliest and most gentle climates. Even so, Adrian had still ordered a
copy of the weather forecast produced by the School of Sciences. As long
as the wind was breezy enough that day to shake a blade of grass, he would
have to pile Zhong Yan up with clothes and made him take supplements as
if he were preparing for a dangerous battle. For those three years, no matter
how he tried to shield him against nature, Zhong Yan would still frequently
catch a fever. Adrian would always lament, what kind of growth process did
a person have to go through to have such a weak immune system?

But now he at least managed to get a peep at the tip of the iceberg. Since he
was small, he would only consume a large amount of carbohydrates. It was
almost pitiful the amount of protein and vitamins he lacked. When he grew
up, he finally had the chance to enjoy high-quality food and improve his
diet, but he just had to be limited by the eating habits he had developed
since he was young. He had a small appetite, so he could only eat half the
amount his peers could. It would be strange if he could get stronger in such
a way.

Adrian managed to find an emergency kit in the study. Fortunately, he had

just changed out the medicines in the box just a few months ago during the
annual house inspection, so they were still good.

……

When Zhong Yan walked into the first-floor bedroom with a clean bathrobe
wrapped around himself, he could see that Adrian was already seated
inside. There was a pile of pills and disposable injections laid out on the
table in front of him.

“Get under the blanket.” Adrian gave him a concise order.

As soon as he said that, he heard the doubtful voice of a man from the
loudspeaker of his terminal. “…What?”

“Not you. Is there anything else I can use? I just saw a box for similar
symptoms…”

“The ones I mentioned earlier are already at a large enough dose,

Commander.”
Zhong Yan crawled into the blankets and finally realized who the familiar
voice of the man belonged to—It was the Chief Medical Officer of the Navi
Military Command, Wei Lan.

It was currently dawn, so he must have been woken up from his sleep by
Adrian's call, but his voice sounded as clear and calm as ever. “Please do
not increase the dosage, too much of it can easily cause strong side effects.
Also, please do not try to administer similar drugs on your own. Some of
them will conflict with each other and affect the efficacy.”

“Alright.” Adrian put down the box of pills in his hands with reluctance.
“I'll call you if there's anything else.”

When Zhong Yan saw him hang up, he asked slowly, “Are you giving me
preventive medicine?”

“What else?” responded Adrian in a grunt. He went over to pull up Zhong

Yan's blanket before tucking in the corners, making sure he was completely
wrapped up, leaving only the upper half of his head exposed. “Wait here,
and don't move. I'm going to get you water for the medicine.”

“I couldn't find it,” said Zhong Yan without any context.

His voice was caught in the blanket and came out muffled. Adrian asked
subconsciously, “What?”

“The ring…I couldn't find it,” said Zhong Yan with disappointment. “When
did you throw it? I thought…the water wasn't changed for simulated ponds
like that. I searched every corner but it wasn't there. Was the water changed
because of a failed quality check…”

His voice gradually turned softer, perhaps due to the fact that he saw the
look of displeasure on Adrian's face. So, he said, “I wasn't trying to steal
your ring, I just wanted to take a look, just to see what it looked like…I'm
sorry, please don't be angry…”

When they reunited at their school half a month ago, Zhong Yao had no
intentions at all to apologize, but he said many apologies today. However,
Adrian still did not achieve any sense of victory.

Telling him he threw the ring in the pond was only a casual remark, he
never thought that Zhong Yan would actually believe him. He forgot the
window could also lead to the backyard, and most importantly, he really
underestimated…how important the matter was in Zhong Yan's heart.
Zhong Yan had never once stopped to wonder whether the words he left
before rushing to work were actually true or false, but even if it had the
slightest bit of a possibility, he would still throw everything away and put
his mind to finding it.

An uncontrollable sense of pain washed over Adrian's heart. It did not sting
too much, but it was painful enough that it was hard to ignore.

“I'm not angry.” Adrian tried his best to remain calm. “Stop thinking
nonsense, I'll go get water.”

After watching Zhong Yan swallow down all the medicines without a single
word, Adrian pulled the chair from the table and sat beside the bed. Zhong
Yan looked at him in confusion.

Quite uneasily, Adrian tried to speak. “I'll watch you tonight. Sleep.”

Many years ago, whenever Zhong Yan was badly ill, it was always Adrian
who watched over him through the night.

“I'll be fine.” The powerful sedative ingredients quickly started to take

effect. Zhong Yan's eyes were half-lidded, and he was almost about to sink
into dreamland as he muttered, “I'll be fine…You still…have class
tomorrow…”

……

Even after being administered such a large amount of preventive medicine,

Zhong Yan still woke up with a high fever the next morning.

The blanket had already been spread out from his tossing around last night.
Adrian kept putting his limbs back into the blanket, but Zhong Yan's body
temperature was too high, and would always try to tear the blanket away in
discomfort while he was still sleeping. In the end, Adrian could only choose
to roll him up in the blanket. He sat down on the bed and together with the
blanket, he carried him over and held him in his arms. Only then did he free
one of his hands to operate his terminal.

Zhong Yan wiggled uncomfortably in his arms and muttered, “My…My…”

“What?” Adrian asked, worried that he was getting thirsty. He pulled him
closer and put his ear to his lips, but all he could hear was Zhong Yan
muttering incoherently, “…I had…my Ocean…can't find it..it's gone…”

What ocean? Adrian was puzzled but marked it off as just sleep talk. Once
again, he dialed Wei Lan's twenty-four-hour work line.

“Commander, what's wrong?” Wei Lan picked up and asked before Adrian
could even speak. “Didn't work?”

“I knew conventional drugs wouldn't work.” Adrian said, “Should I wake

him up now for the second dosage of medicine?”

“How could it not work? That shouldn't be. It's very normal to catch a cold
from falling into water, there's no need for any special medicine.” Wei Lan
had been in the military for many years, and pulled countless lives in battle
back from the hands of death; to think he would make a mistake for a tiny
cold surprised him. “How bad is it?”

“His fever is close to forty degrees, and he is still unconscious. Based on

my experience, if he isn't quickly administered with medicine that's
efficable enough, it will soon deteriorate into severe viral influenza, as well
as a variety of other complications,” said Adrian, speaking helplessly as if
he had turned into a doctor from the many years of dealing with his
illnesses. Then, he heard a mutter from the one in his arms, and he added.
“Oh right, he's also speaking nonsense in his dreams, and I've never seen
this in the past. Is it serious?”

Wei Lan said, “I have no surgeries today, I'll come over during the day. You
can't solve the problem just by using medicine alone.”
“Alright, I'll have to trouble you then,” said Adrian. After a quick pause, he
stopped Wei Lan from hanging up, “Wait, are you coming over from
headquarters?”

“Yes. I have to go to the medical office in the morning first.”

“You…” Adrian took a look at the person in his arms; Zhong Yan was
frowning lightly and was expressing a very uneasy look from his dreams.
He rested his head on Adrian's chest, and his soft black hair was now messy
from his sweat.

If anyone had to be blamed for the matter, it would be him. Adrian closed
his eyes, and told him, “When you come, bring a cake with you from the
headquarters' dining hall. Pick a smaller one, it's for one person, don't get a
big one.”

Even Wei Lan, whose expression would not change even if Mt. Everest
crumbled in front of him was stunned because of this irrelevant request; but
he's the Chief Medical Officer after all, so he calmly accepted the order and
even asked, “Are there any specific requirements on the type?”

Adrian conveyed to him his many years of experience in buying cakes for
Zhong Yan. “Any type is fine, just tell the waiter to recommend you
something super sweet, the sweeter the better.”

-----------
Note: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation should be performed alternately with
chest compressions and artificial respiration, do not proceed blindly with
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, it is required here for the plot, please do not
imitate.
 Chapter 30: Winter Special
Sweethearts Exclusive Heart
Shaped Chocolate Cake

Zhong Yan woke up groggily and opened his eyes to see the unfamiliar
ceiling. For a while, he was dazed, but he quickly remembered his current
situation after a few seconds.

The blanket slid down his body as he sat up. His head felt heavy but his legs
were numb, and his whole body felt hot, but he did not seem to have
developed any other symptoms. Perhaps the medicine he took last night was
effective? Thinking about it, Zhong Yan was quite surprised. When Adrian
comes back tonight, he definitely had to ask what medicine it was he took.

Frankly…Zhong Yan could vaguely feel that he had been woken up once in
the morning and was given another dosage of medicine. Someone had held
him gently in their arms, but he was so tired he could not open his eyes, so
that person had to feed him the medicine. Then, the person fed him some
liquid food before wrapping him up in his embrace once more, allowing
him to sleep.

…How could he have such an unrealistic dream? Zhong Yan laughed

bitterly to himself. He really was possessed.

The sky was very bright at this moment, it seemed to be noon. He touched
his wrist habitually—it was bare.

Right, he took off his terminal at the pond before getting into the water
yesterday.
Zhong Yan immediately prepared to head over to get it, but just as he got
off the bed, someone opened the door.

“What are you getting up for?” Adrian came in with a meal tray. “Lay back
down.”

Zhong Yan asked in amazement, “Are…are you not going to headquarters

today?”

“Who knows what else you're gonna do if I go? I'm worried I'd find you
tearing down my house when I come back.” Though he said so, no hint of
anger could be heard from his tone.

Zhong Yan was dumbfounded as he looked at him, and was deeply

suspicious of whether his mind had shorted out from the fever. However, he
could not resist the temptation of this fantasy, and carefully asked, “Did you
feed me this morning?”

“There's only two people in this house. If not me, who else did you think it
was? A cleaning robot?” Adrian put the tray down on his pillow. Before
Zhong Yan mentioned it, he had not realized it, but now he did. He was
furious when he asked, “Why didn't you eat the dinner I ordered
yesterday?”

After finding out about that matter yesterday, his stomach was churning.
How could he have any appetite left to eat? Zhong Yan dropped his head
and apologized, “Sorry, I won't do it again.”

There it was again. Adrian could feel his throat clogging up with anger as
he looked at him irritably. Since yesterday, it was as if this person would
comply and apologize for all the accusations he had against him, and he did
not know why, but Adrian would rather have him argue back to him.

He skipped the matter and asked, “What were you trying to do?”

“My terminal, I left it at the edge of the pond yesterday.”

“I'll get it. Eat your lunch first.”

Zhong Yan's heart jumped, and he quietly said, “No need, I still have to get
out to shower anyway. I can go myself…”

“Don't talk nonsense,” said Adrian. “You go shower, and I'll get your
terminal.”

“No, I really don't want to trouble you. You don't know where I put it.”

“You can just tell me where you left it.” Adrian observed his seemingly
normal expression with suspicion. “What're you so nervous for? It's not like
I know the password to your terminal.”

It seemed like Adrian was determined not to let him out into the backyard.
Zhong Yan confessed, “I'm not nervous…I left them next to my shoes.”

That thing was so small, Adrian probably would not notice…right?

Contrary to Zhong Yan's silent prayers, Adrian saw the two small shining
little objects right beside the mass-produced wristband terminal at a glance.

Adrian picked them up in confusion, and only realized upon closer

inspection that they were a pair of cufflinks.

A pair of clear, silver, square-shaped crystal cufflinks.

Right…that old woman gave Zhong Yan a pair of cufflinks in White Aegis.
He knew that, but he never paid attention to it. He had taken a glance of that
small stall at the time. They were all hand-made accessories made of
artificial crystals with many cufflinks among them. At that time, he had
thought it was Zhong Yan's handsome appearance that had garnered the
fancy of the old woman, so she had given him a small gift.

Many years ago, Zhong Yan had once given him a tie clip embedded with
white crystals. With much regret, he told him he could not find any silver
crystals, so he could only buy a white one.

“How could there be any natural silver crystals?” Adrian chuffed at the
time.
“There weren't any artificial ones either. I saw one of them labeled silver,
but it looked gray and dull,” said Zhong Yan, upset. “How could they call
that silver? That's gray. Silver should be translucent, not dull, like your
eyes.”

Zhong Yan had always been obsessed with finding accessories that matched
Adrian's irises, but the Institution Star's shops were limited after all. Even
when they graduated, Zhong Yan still could not find the perfect silver he
had in mind.

He never thought that after so many years have passed, he would finally
find the one thing he had always been dreaming of but could never find in
little stall on a small remote planet like that; They were silver crystals that
were in the same exact shade as Adrian's eyes.

Adrian was still as he stared at the cufflinks in his hand for a few seconds.
Then, he gathered his fingers and held them tightly in the palm of his hands,
completely disregarding whether the corners dug into his palm or not.

……

Zhong Yan washed himself up absentmindedly and happened to see Adrian

who had retrieved his shoes and terminal from the backyard just as he left
the bathroom.

“Have you eaten lunch?” Zhong Yan took the terminal and put it on. As he
did, he observed Adrian's expression with a guilty conscience.

“I just ate,” said Adrian with his usual expression.

Zhong Yan secretly breathed a sigh of relief; but then he heard him say, “I'll
accept the cufflinks.”

“I…” Zhong Yan's face was flushed red in an instant from embarrassment.
This gift was worth so little he could not bring himself to give it to him, so
he was going to keep it himself as a memento; he never thought it would be
discovered. On the other hand, he was anxious that Adrian would really put
cheap stall goods like that on and lose face. He quickly said, “It's not worth
much, don't wear it, people will laugh at you if they see it.”

“We'll see if there's a single person in the entire Federation who dares to
laugh at me,” Adrian spoke understatedly, “I'll make sure to fix him up so
he'll never be able to laugh for the rest of his life.”

Zhong Yan wanted to urge him again, but the doorbell rang.

It was Wei Lan. Adrian opened the door with his authorization, and
suddenly remembered what he had told him to do. He was just about to
drive Zhong Yan back into his room, but it was too late.

As soon as Wei Lan entered the door, Zhong Yan's sharp eyes caught onto
that small little cake box in his hands.

“Medical Officer, you shouldn't have,” Adrian quickly put in the first word.
“You didn't have to bring gifts, how kind of you, just leave it on the table.
The patient is right—”

If Fayn was here, he would have been able to understand what he meant at
hello, and cooperated with him in the play.

Unfortunately, this is Wei Lan.

Not only did the medical officer have no care for gossip, everything he
knew about the pair was limited to the headlines in the news; moreover, he
never knew how to read the atmosphere.

“Didn't you tell me to bring it?” He asked with great doubt. “You even told
me the sweeter the better. Did you forget?”

Adrian: “…” Damn me then.

When he saw him remain silent, Wei Lan seemed to have figured something
out and said vigilantly, “This ‘Winter Special Sweethearts Exclusive Heart-
shaped Chocolate Cake, Small” is very expensive. You're not going to make
me pay for it, are you? This isn't a gift, it was clearly you who…”
“I'll transfer it to you right now!” said Adrian with a hand on his forehead.
He kept reminding himself, this was a medical officer, he needed him to
save lives, he could not hit him.

Zhong Yan seemed calm on the surface, but his eyes were brighter than
usual. Adrian met those eyes of his which joy could not be concealed, and
said with unease, “This cake is…in exchange for your cufflinks. Now we're
even.”

However, it was obvious that he had only discovered the cufflinks a few
minutes ago, but Zhong Yan was tactful and did not say anything about it.
With great anticipation, he asked, “So, can I have it right now?”

Adrian firmly refused him. “No, eat it after lunch.”

After being forced to eat every single thing on his tray, Zhong Yan was
completely unable to eat the cake.

He looked resentfully at the heart-shaped chocolate cake with its seductive

luster that was put into the refrigerator by Adrian. He could only comfort
himself by telling himself that it would taste even better chilled. With much
reluctance, he left cooperatively with Wei Lan to do his physical
examination.

“This situation is not too good indeed,” said Wei Lan while he flipped
through the diagnostic records. “A typical case of malnutrition, low
immunity, and many suboptimal health indications. According to the
patient's description of drug use history, it is clear that his body shows
resistance to conventional drugs, and only shows improvements from the
use of drugs with greater potency. But such drugs are harmful to the body, it
will come back around in a vicious cycle. In the long run, I suggest starting
today that you should stop using these drugs, including this time, even if it
will take longer to recover.”

Adrian frowned when he heard that. He asked, “Are there any other ways to
improve the situation?”
They were talking in the living room, and Zhong Yan wanted to hear the
diagnosis, but Adrian forbade him from leaving the bedroom. Since
yesterday, Zhong Yan had been surprisingly obedient. Since Adrian asked,
he stayed obediently in the room and did not come out.

Wei Lan said, “These problems have been building up for many years, it
cannot be improved in just a short while. He will need long-term
supplements, gradual increase of physical exercise, and proper rest. Keep it
up for a year or two, and you may start to see results.”

Of the three suggestions, Zhong Yan could not do a single one.

Adrian asked with a headache, “What will happen if we let this continue?
Will the impact be big?”

“What sort of impact? If you have a strong enough mind and can ignore the
occasional fever and cold, along with some good luck on not catching any
major illnesses, it will not have many impacts on normal life.” Wei Lan
continued, “But definitely, he will not live long. The average life
expectancy of human beings now is around a hundred years old or so, but
that is basically impossible to achieve with his physical condition.”

When he asserted that the other would “not live long”, it was no different
from his usual tone. There was not even the slightest hint of fluctuations in
his mood, as if he were only diagnosing an ordinary flesh wound.

Adrian looked at him silently for a while, and could not help himself from
asking, “Doctor…actually, many soldiers have told me that you were too
blunt, but I'm glad that was within the army, everyone there had the right
psychological quality to take it. Anyway, can you be a little more mindful
when speaking about such damning things?”

Wei Lan revealed a look of uncertainty for the first time in a while, and
asked, “Am I? I, too, always get the feeling that some of their faces would
twist occasionally when I was done speaking, but Adjutant Suster said
nobody had any comments about me.”
Adrian rubbed his face and decided he would have to have a good talking to
with his adjutant. One should show grace to the man who saved your life,
but if this goes on, someone will end the medical officer one of these days.

“Let's wrap it up for today, I won't be seeing you out, so I'll be troubling
you.” Adrian saw him out the door. He seemed to have thought of
something, and asked, “Doctor, are you returning to headquarters now?”

Wei Lan gave him an affirmative. Adrian said, “Great. When you go for
dinner at the dining hall, tell them it's an order from me. Don't give cakes
such terrible names in the future!”
 Chapter 31: Backing Out

After eating some of the small chocolate cake, only half of the heart was
left. The break at the center was smooth and neat, so much so that those
who did not know would have thought it had been cut with a knife.

When in fact, Zhong Yan had eaten with a spoon.

Biting on to the spoon, he was enraptured by the half a heart that was left
over, and stared at it with desire for a long time; but in the end, he still
carefully refolded the cake box, and brought the cake to the refrigerator.

Adrian was looking through some documents on the living room sofa when
he saw Zhong Yan walking out with the cake box. He thought he was going
to throw the box out after finishing the cake, but he did not expect to hear
him opening the fridge door and gently putting the cake inside.

“What are you doing?” Adrian asked casually.

“There's still half left. I'm putting it in the fridge.”

Adrian looked up from his military documents and looked at Zhong Yan in
amazement. This was the first time he had seen Zhong Yan leave part of a
cake behind. Did he really eat too much during lunch? But he did not give
him a lot.

“You can't even finish a cake that size?”

“It's not that…”Zhong Yan paused, and continued in a whisper, “I'm putting
it in the refrigerator so I can eat it tomorrow.”

This was the cake specially brought back by Adrian. In the past, Adrian
would always bring a cake back for him at the dormitory; but now…he
would probably only receive such treatment when he was sick. If he left
half for tomorrow, he could pretend that Adrian bought him cake twice.

Adrian felt suspicious. “Just eat it if you can finish it. Why wait till
tomorrow? It won't taste good overnight.”

Zhong Yan did not know how he should respond to him. Those thoughts of
his were things he could never say. It would be bad if he made Adrian angry
now, so he could only vaguely say, “If I eat it today, then…there won't be
any tomorrow.”

“It's not like I took away your terminal, can't you just buy it from a dessert
shop nearby?” Adrian could hardly understand him, but then he realized
something. “Oh, you don't know the address of this house, do you?”

The online virtual community had already become a second full-fledged

society after the real world. Practically all physical stores could be found on
the internet. After ordering takeout, unmanned drones would be sent to the
receiving platforms left out by each house. That was how Adrian ordered
dinner yesterday.

But the cake he bought himself would be different from this cake.

Zhong Yan said, “It's alright, I like this piece…I mean, this type.”

The chocolate cake looked unbearably sweet. Once again, Adrian had
reached a new understanding of Zhong Yan's love for sweets, and even
thought he finally understood the reason why he could not bear to finish it
—the headquarter's dining hall was, in fact, not open to the public.

“Just eat it.” Adrian immersed himself in work once more, and casually
said, “I'll bring you a new one when I go back to work.”

Wei Lan had left behind detailed instructions for his recovery. Zhong Yan
was being surprisingly obedient, doing whatever it was he asked from him.
On the third day, he seemed to have recovered back to normal, but Adrian
felt that his mental state was quite terrible.
Compared to the previous two days, Zhong Yan had clearly fallen into a pit
of depression. Most of the time, they would be working on their own
personal terminals, and would occasionally bump into each other in the
house. Adrian kept having the feeling that those beautiful phoenix eyes had
lost their luster.

Adrian was even faintly regretting telling him about that matter. Zhong
Yan's reaction was far worse than he expected; just for the sake of seeing
what the ring looked like, he even dared to jump into a pond in the middle
of a cold winter night. Adrian changed his room to the first floor as a safety
precaution, but he still could not be at ease.

And so, on that morning, Adrian locked all the doors and windows before
heading out. After thinking about it again, he decided to take the knives and
tools from the kitchen with him too.

He had promised Zhong Yan that he would bring him back a cake when he
returned to headquarters. After settling his official business of the day,
Adrian was just preparing to head to the dining hall early to buy a cake to
bring home, but someone stopped him at the door of his office.

“Hey buddy, don't be in such a hurry,” Fayn pushed Adrian back into the
office and shut the door behind him. “I just came out of the medical office
and I wanted to have a chat with you.”

When he heard him mention the medical office, Adrian responded

immediately with, “Oh right, I have something I want to talk to you about
too.”

Fayn went straight into it. “What did you say to the doctor?”

Adrian was dissatisfied. “Why won't you ask what he said to me instead?”

“What did he say to you?”

“He told me right to my face that Zhong Yan won't be living long. Do
people normally say that?” Adrian went on, “But that's Wei Lan after all, he
saved your life and I wanted to give you face. I would've started on him if
he was any other doctor.”

When Wei Lan was still a low-level medic, he had once went on an assault
with Fayn. At that time, Fayn had gotten gravely injured in order to cover
for his teammates, and everyone thought he could not be saved. The
conditions were bad, and the medics in the team did not dare to take the risk
for surgery either. Adrian had just been promoted at the time, and everyone
knew that this new adjutant was the most loyal and trusted friend to their
new chief commander; in the case that the surgery fails and he could not be
saved, they would have to take on the wrath of their new commander. Wei
Lan was the only man who said he could save him after looking at him.

The other medics reminded him of the man's status, but Wei Lan could not
understand. “What does this have to do with his status? He will die if we
don't perform surgery now, so why shouldn't we do it if there's a possibility
for him to live if we do?”

Nobody dared to help him, so he used his simple medical equipment to

perform the surgery alone on the warship that was still flying across the
battlefield. Fayn was also a tenacious man, so they actually managed to
succeed.

After they returned to headquarters, Adrian was furious, and with this
incident as the main reason, he replaced the entire top rung of the medical
department, and directly appointed Wei Lan as the new chief medical
officer, forming a new medical team with the younger subordinates of the
department.

After Fayn's recovery, he became the no.1 braindead fan of the newly
appointed chief medical officer, and could not stand having anyone
speaking badly of Wei Lan. The entire military command raged at the chief
medical officer, but they did not dare to voice it out. Half of them were
indeed respectful of the chief medical officer's immaculate skills in
medicine, but the other half…

“You call that not starting on him? You told him he was too blunt!.” Fayn
was pointing fingers out of grief, “Doctors are different from us, they're
precious! You can't just scold him as you please! What if he gets
traumatized? You'll rarely find an honest doctor like Wei Lan in this era!
Why did you have to completely rectify the medical office in the past? Isn't
it because of those corrupt medics who only know how to escape their
responsibilities for their own selfish gains without any shame? Wei Lan is a
forthright man, you're trying to corrupt our chief medical officer!”

Adrian watched speechless as Fayn's words escalated higher and higher. In

just a few moments, his comments to Wei Lan was already close to
affecting their great human renaissance cause.

No wonder those soldiers would always choose to complain specifically to

him when it came to Wei Lan, they can never mention it to the adjutant.

Adrian cut him off immediately. “I was wrong, I shouldn't have

disrespected the medical officer, and I am reflecting deeply on my actions.
Please let me go, I really am busy right now.”

“That's better.” Fayn was finally satisfied. He hooked his arm around
Adrian's shoulder and said, “We haven't received the intelligence report
from the capital yet, so it's rare that we're free these days. Do you have
anything going on? Come on, let's go eat dinner.”

“No thanks, I'll be leaving after I pick something up from the dining hall.”

“Oh…” Fayn dragged his words in an ambiguous manner, “Rushing home?

Is that guy better yet?”

Adrian stopped in his steps. “How did you know he isn't well?”

“The entire headquarters knows!” said Fayn. “On the second day of the
special commissioner's stay in your home, the medical officer was urgently
summoned there, so people asked him when he returned, and he said that
doctors could not disclose private information about his patients. Nobody
could pry a single word from him. Most everyone thought that you finally
couldn't stand it anymore and beat Mr. Who'sit in your own home, but then
you ended up staying away from headquarters for two days, so all sorts of
rumors are floating out there right now.”
“Are you lot that idle? Is the daily training not enough to shut your
mouths?”

The two reached the elevator while chatting. They were just in time to
bump into the liaison officer who had just come out.

Commander, I was just about to look for you! Ah, the adjutant is here as
well, that's good. I have news from the capital.”

Both Fayn and Adrian looked serious. Fayn asked, “Is the report
confirmed? The AI…”

“Uh, it's not about the AI. About ‘Butterfly', our men in the capital have
already gotten in contact with that specimen store, and they are urgently
trying to confirm it now.” The liaison officer added, “We have news about
the matter you asked us to investigate after that.”

The other one he asked for…

Adrian said, “Come with me to my office.”

Fayn could see the faint look of unease on the liaison officer's face, and his
heart jumped. He asked as soon as they entered the office. “What
happened? Is that guy really in collusion with Bard Pearson?”

“Based on the information we have, he should not be.”

Fayn said, “Then isn't that fine?”

“But…” The liaison officer felt awkward, “The special commissioner…He

was indeed at Pearson's side for the two years after his graduation, but for
some reason, he suddenly backed off in the third year.”

“So there's that too, huh?” Fayn was stunned. “So he can still raise the
waves in the Supreme Council even after falling out with Pearson?”

The liaison officer shook his head and said, “That wasn't the case. Because
of that, his political situation in the Supreme Council was not ideal, so he
could only participate in some marginal work and promote things such as
the ‘Giant Space Rabbits Hunting Law' and whatnot. He didn't have much
actual power. Until he and…um…Councilor Yate formed a party did he
finally have the opportunity to turn himself around. Later, it was under
Councilor Yate's help that he managed to be elected as a representative
councilor. This old matter was not particularly hidden, so many senior
officials in the Supreme Council know about it, and we were able to find
out about it after some inquiry. When the special commissioner graduated,
he was taken by Councilor Pearson into his team, and he had given him
many resources. From the looks of it, he was going to support him pretty
strongly, but nobody knew what happened to them two years later, nor did
they know if it was Councilor Pearson who kicked him out, or if was he the
one who insisted on walking out on him.”

Adrian had a grave look on his face; his expectations had come true.
Between the giants Bard Pearson and Stalvern Yate, Zhong Yan had indeed
preferred Pearson during that time. However, what could have happened
that year for Zhong Yan to be willing to face the pressure of Pearson
suppressing and getting revenge on him for the sake of heading down this
ship towards the pinnacle of power?
 Chapter 32: Housework

Zhong Yan had been staring at the sweeping robot for a long time.

He was originally sitting in the living room so he could use the virtual
screen projector there. This device could broadcast the terminal's virtual
screen into a larger size, which was convenient for work.

But ever since the sweeping robot started its work, his focus would
involuntarily be attracted by it.

The sweeping robot used in Adrian's residence was a small one in a round
shape that was attached to the floor. It was relatively silent while activated,
so logically, it should not distract the people who were working in the
house; but unfortunately, after Zhong Yan had inadvertently caught sight of
the sweeping robot in between the gaps of his documents, he could no
longer move his eyes away.

But it was not his fault; the workflow of this sweeping robot did not seem
quite perfect enough; there was a corner of the dining table at the side of the
living room that it could not clean.

Zhong Yan watched as the sweeping robot approached the area again, and
cleaned the ground dutifully for a second time, but it just could not clean
the palm-sized piece of ground right beside the table.

After completing one round of its cleaning procedures, the sweeping robot
slid out of the living room and sent itself back into the storage room.

Zhong Yan, “…”

……
Adrian parked his car with his heart heavy with thought. As soon as he
entered the house, the first thing he saw was Zhong Yan with his entire
body underneath the dining table; he was kneeling on the ground and
wiping the ground beside the foot of the table with a rag.

He had his back towards the door, and he was wearing Adrian's white shirt.
Because of his forward-leaning posture, a section of his smooth and fair
waist was revealed.

Adrian had wanted to interrogate him about Pearson as soon as he came

back, but he suddenly felt his throat getting parched after being shown such
an abrupt scene; he had completely forgotten what he was going to say.

Was Zhong Yan's waist that thin? It almost looked like there was barely
anything to hold. If he held him with both his hands, maybe…

“You're back.” When Zhong Yan heard the noise, he slipped out from under
the table.

Only then did Adrian realize what he was fantasizing about. He made a
cough as if to hide his thoughts and put down the cake box in his hand. He
asked, “What were you doing under the table?”

“There's a spot that the sweeping robot kept missing.” Zhong Yan walked
over to the open kitchen and washed the rag under the sink.

Since he was worried about getting his sleeves wet, he had them rolled up
high. The wide cuffs made his arms look long and slender, and even though
the shirt was clearly a pure white, his skin seemed to be even more sheer
and snowy-white than it under the sunlight coming in from the french
windows.

Zhong Yan busying himself with housework like this was a scene he had
not seen for many a year.

They had always hated being peeped on in private, but with both of them
being almost god-like figures in both their respective studies, they had
succeeded in getting an exemption for the weekly school check for their
humble dorm which housed the Chief of the School of Military Affairs, as
well as the Student Council President. As nobody came to check, it was
only natural that they could not compete in the various evaluations;
however, Adrian was very sure that if they ever participated, that they
would definitely win the title of “cleanest male dormitory in the whole
school” every month.

Zhong Yan could take 150% of the credit for that. The extra 50% was to
make up for Adrian, who liked to throw his clothes everywhere and left
food all over the place, creating a negative impact to their dormitory's
environment.

Adrian looked at one side of the living room; due to him being in the house
these past two days, the daily necessities left on the sofa and the coffee
table were now properly cleaned after going to work for one day. However,
it wasn't the cold and ashen tidiness that was there before, his cups and
other scattered items were now neatly placed on the table, giving it a very
homely feel.

“Don't wash it by hand, just throw it into the washer,” said Adrian as he
took off his coat.

“It's just a small cloth, I'm almost done.” Saying that, Zhong Yan left the
rag to dry and washed his own hands before walking towards Adrian,
picking up the coat he had thrown on the chair, and hung it on the coat
hanger. Then, he took the cake he had casually set down and brought it to
the refrigerator.

He did everything so naturally that neither of them noticed anything

strange. Many years ago, Adrian had been used to Zhong Yan following
behind him and cleaning up everything he had casually tossed around.

“I just came back from headquarters.” Adrian walked to Zhong Yan and
was prepared to talk business with him. “And I have to ask…”

Since the clothes he brought over were confiscated by Adrian, the white
shirt Zhong Yan was currently wearing was loaned to him by Adrian. It was
too big for Zhong Yan, and he also had the first button loose. Due to their
height difference, Adrian could see his collarbones that were revealed
between his collar just as he looked down, and beneath those collarbones…

Adrian sucked in a breath, and suddenly forgot what he wanted to say.

“What did you want to ask?” Zhong Yan raised his head to look at him in
confusion. He did not know why he suddenly stopped after speaking
halfway. “Is there any other information about the Supreme Council that
you want to know?”

“I…No.” Adrian turned his eyes away and was starting to get a little angry
about his embarrassment. “Button up your shirt!”

“The temperature in the house is controlled. It's not cold.”

…I wasn't worried about you getting cold! Thought Adrian irritably. He

will have to get a few sets of loungewear tomorrow, ones that fit. Zhong
Yan was right, his clothes really were too big for him.

Seeing him remain silent, Zhong Yan went on, “The Capital gave me a clear
response today. The Supreme Council has decided to send a few people to
Navi's primary star to retrieve me and Bayer.”

Hearing that, Adrian sneered. “Are they going to check on Navi's military
forces while they're at it?”

“That is their idea. I told them that I have yet to recover from my injury,
and am not suitable for long-distance travel, so they have not decided on the
date yet.” Zhong Yan said, “When that time comes, you can send me out of
Navi first. Since the signal they will be broadcasting is one for pickup, it
will not be proper to insist on entering Navi after they have us.”

“Do you know who's coming?”

“Not yet, but I will try to get my first-in-command assistant to lead the
team.”

Adrian asked, “Isn't that Bayer?”

“Oh, wasn't Bayer ‘gravely injured' and couldn't work for a while? I
assigned a subordinate to replace him and take care of things for now. He's
a young man with great potential. I'll be better able to work out the
dynamics if he's in charge.”

A young man with great potential? Adrian's interest was piqued. He tried to
ask in an inadvertent manner, “It's rare to hear praises from you, who is it?”

“Intron Gines, he had just entered the Supreme Council recently. Speaking
of which, he's an alumni like us, and he's three years younger. We're from
the same major and learned under the same instructor in my third year, so
you could say he's my underclassman from the same department.” While
saying that, Zhong Yan was ironing out any creases from Adrian's military
coat with a hand-held iron. “Our instructor has a very high evaluation of
him as well, and he also has the instructor's personal recommendation letter
—even I didn't get a recommendation letter from my instructor.”

Zhong Yan's instructor from the Supreme Institution…Adrian was very sure
that his name was on the list they got from the specimen store's list.

Even though he appeared neutral in public, he was actually one of

“Specimen's” informants in the Supreme Institution amongst the highest-
ranking teachers, and he was one of the professors engaged in the anti-AI
movement. It was no wonder why Zhong Yan could not receive a
recommendation letter from him. He accepted ‘Butterfly's' proposal. It
would have been strange if the professor would write him a letter of
recommendation after that.

But in truth, though Intron had also accepted ‘Butterfly's' proposal during
his graduation, he still received a recommendation letter. Adrian was now
even more confident that Intron had been a member of ‘Specimen' since
before he graduated. The so-called graduation letter was merely an
operation within the members of their organization, and the reason why he
could be so ‘lucky' after graduating, ‘coincidentally' entering the council as
Zhong Yan's subordinate must all be thanks to ‘Specimen's' work.

If he could speak face to face with the man ‘Specimen' had planted by
Zhong Yan's side in the Supreme Council, that would be wonderful. Adrian
was silent for a moment. Then he said, “In a few days, you can loosen up a
bit and tell the capital that you're recovering well.”

Zhong Yan turned back and looked at him doubtfully.

“They're going to come anyway,” Adrian said very naturally, “They'll start
to get suspicious if you keep refusing them.”

“But I'll have to go if they come get me.” As he said that, Zhong Yan's
voice lowered. “Didn't you say that…I couldn't leave before paying the
fines?”

A twinge of sadness could be heard from his tone, and alongside it was
something he could not speak of, but it was a desire that was clear to see.
He eagerly wished he could stay longer so that he could be with Adrian for
a few more days.

Adrian felt as if something was stuck in his throat, and a gush of impulse
was brewing within his heart. He wanted to say that they could make up
some other excuse, but mostly it was so he could allow Zhong Yan to stay
behind in Navi—to stay with him.

Calm down, Adrian warned himself. Putting his hopes on the same person
twice is a mistake only a fool could make, so don't be that guy. What's
more, they were now standing in the frenzy of a changing era. He could
never give up an opportunity to learn about important information just
because of his own feelings.

“I do believe that since you've agreed to pay me the money, that a proper
councilman such as yourself would not go back on your word.” Adrian
pretended not to have heard the deeper implications of his words, and in the
end, he replied, “After all, we are, to some extent, working together right
now.”

“…Yeah.” Zhong Yan turned his gaze down and smiled reluctantly. “Since
we're partners now, can you take my name out of your communications
blacklist?”
“No can do.” Adrian refused.

Zhong Yan had too great an influence on him. He had only been staying for
a few days, but he could sense a small wave; he must not give himself any
more opportunities for personal contact with Zhong Yan.

“I won't bother you, just…if there's anything, it's easier to tell you right
away. I received news from the Capital today, and I wanted to tell you as
soon as I got it, but I couldn't contact you.” Zhong Yan pleaded, “Just this
half month, okay? When I return to the capital, I definitely would not dare
to contact you under ‘Butterfly's' watch either…”

Adrian cut him off and refused once more. “No. If you have anything to say
next time, you can just contact the headquarters' reception. The
communication details are available on our homepage. Tell them clearly
what you need, and tell them to connect you to my personal line.”

Zhong Yan was visibly disappointed, but he still agreed obediently.

The light in his eyes dimmed, and he stood there in disarray. Adrian had
originally wanted to ask him what the deal was between him and Pearson,
but he could not find any way to ask now.

It would be the same if he asked tomorrow. Thinking that way, the words in
his mouth involuntarily took a turn. “Do you want to eat the cake now? You
can have your dinner a little later.”
 Chapter 33: Compromise

Adrian would never expect that, on the second day, he would receive a call
from the internal communicator.

“Commander, someone is calling and they said they have something to talk
to you about…”

At first, Adrian did not realize who it was who called, so he thought the
reason why the receptionist sounded so hesitant was because some other
bigshot had called and was seeking him out, so the reception desk could not
decide what to do.

“Who is it? Didn't I say I was busy this month, and to respond to all of them
by saying I'm not around?” Adrian casually said, “Transfer it to the
adjutant.”

“Uh, but he said he was…was…um…”

Hearing the receptionist stutter to such an extent, Adrian finally realized

that something was wrong. Then, he finally reacted, “Is it Zhong Yan?”

“Yes, yes, it's him.” When the receptionist heard that Adrian did not get
angry, it almost felt to her like she had received the emperor's pardon. “So,
should we transfer it to the adjutant, or?”

“Why should you transfer his call to the adjutant? Transfer him to me. Did
he say anything?”

“He said it's urgent, but he didn't tell me the details. I'll transfer him to you
now.”
After the notification bell, the voice on the call was replaced with Zhong
Yan's.

“What is it?” Adrian asked. “Did something happen at the capital?”

“Zhong Yan said, “No…I just wanted to ask, where did you leave the
knives in the kitchen? I clearly saw them just a few days ago.”

As if he was facing a great enemy, Adrian asked vigilantly, “What are you
looking for the knives for?”

Zhong Yan had been down in the dumps lately and looked out of sorts.
Even though he wasn't the liveliest person in general, he simply appeared
sullen these days. Adrian had constantly been worried about things like him
jumping into a pond happening again, so just in case, he had been bringing
the knives and kitchen tools to work with him in his car for the past two
days.

“What else would I need a knife for? To cut vegetables.” Zhong Yan said, “I
went through all the cabinets in the kitchen but I can't find them. Where did
you keep them? I'm in a hurry to use them.”

Why would he be so urgent about cutting vegetables? Adrian was very

suspicious that Zhong Yan had finally broken down and was prepared to
end himself with a knife. He quickly stood up and turned off the virtual
screen in his office before walking out and said, “The knives were getting
rusty so I chucked them. I'll buy a new set on the way home.”

“Oh, that's alright then. I can just buy them now on the virtual community. I
think I saw quite a few stores nearby that support drones. It'll still be a
while before work is over for you.”

“No!” Adrian replied. “Don't buy and leave random stuff in my house. I'm
coming back right now. I'll buy it.”

“What? You're coming back now?” Zhong Yan's voice sounded a little
panicked. “How come you're so early today?”
Hearing that, Adrian was even more convinced about his own conjecture.
He decided that Zhong Yan must have been prepared to do terrible things to
himself with those knives. While rejoicing about having kept away the
knives, he responded firmly, “Yes, and I will be home very soon, so just
stay there and don't move.”

Adrian quickly drove himself home and rushed directly through the door
without even parking his car properly.

Then, he was shocked by the scene before him.

All he saw was that the previously beautifully furnished open kitchen was
now heating up with activity. There were now two pots on the induction
stovetops that had never been turned on before, and some unknown food
was cooking in the pressure cooker. Steam was constantly blowing out of
the ventilation hole.

Zhong Yan was holding a pan with a variety of colorful vegetables sizzling
inside, and some spare ingredients had been neatly prepared next to the
console, ready for use, with the seasonings and condiments at Zhong Yan's
right.

The delicious smell of food was floating in the air, and for the first time, life
could be felt in the usually empty house.

“You're back? That was quick.” Zhong Yan was bustling around. It could be
seen that he was cooking two things at once and had already tried his best to
speed up. “Wait just a little while longer, I'll be done soon. Where's the
knife?”

Adrian was speechless for a moment.

As he tossed up the food in the frying pan, he peered over to him—both his
hands were empty.

“You didn't get the knife?” he asked uncertainly.

“…I bought them,” said Adrian. “I left them in the car. I'll go grab them
now.”

He took the set of tools he had taken out from the house back in again.
Zhong Yan accepted them and washed them, but suddenly paused. He
brought the knives closer and observed them, then looked at the whole set
of tools.

“This kitchen knife…looks a lot like the one before,” he stated in

confusion.

Adrian: “…”

He did not want to admit that he was worried Zhong Yan would commit
suicide with a knife, so he had been going to headquarters with a bunch of
kitchen knives for two days. He could only grit his teeth and say, “That's
just the style I like.”

Zhong Yan looked puzzlingly at the set of mass-produced kitchen tools and
tried to figure out what Adrian liked about them.

“What's in here?” Adrian approached the kitchen and looked at the pressure
cooker.

Zhong Yan let the tools go and responded, “It's a vegetable broth, I had to
tear the vegetables by hand so they may not look too good, but they won't
be fresh anymore if I don't use them, that's why I was in such a hurry
earlier. You should go sit down, we can start our meal after I'm done with
this—”

Zhong Yan.” Adrian cut him off. “What are you trying to do?”

Zhong Yan's hand paused on the meat. He raised his head to look at Adrian
and noticed the displeasure on his face. For a moment, he felt uneasy.
“I'm…cooking? You said I could buy food from the virtual community…”

“I'm telling you to buy what you want to eat, I didn't tell you to buy
ingredients to cook for me.”
Saying that, Adrian pressed on the stop button of the pressure cooker.
Zhong Yan screamed out for him to stop. “No! You can't open the pot while
it's cooking!” But Adrian turned a deaf ear to him and opened the lid of the
pressure cooker after the green light was on.

It was not fully cooked, but the aroma of the vegetable broth was already
wafting over. After carefully distinguishing the smell, he knew that this was
the vegetable broth he had greatly praised many years ago, and the one that
Zhong Yan would simmer from those few vegetables he usually cooked.

“It's still exactly the same,” said Adrian. He casually tossed the lid of the
pressure cooker aside, breaking up the prepared ingredients with the impact,
and scattering them around the console. “What are you trying to do? Are
you trying to relive your old dreams with me?”

“No…” Zhong Yan put the knife down helplessly and said, “I just wanted
to…if the ordered meals weren't to your taste, I was at home anyway, so…”

“And how would you know they're not to my taste?”

“There was fish in yesterday's dinner, I thought you didn't like fish…”

“Well, I love it now.” Adrian said, “It's been seven years. My tastes have
changed.”

Zhong Yan stood quietly. Seeing the mess on the stove, he tried to save the
meal. “I…what do you like to eat now? I can learn now, I…”

“You don't have to. Zhong Yan, do you think that by doing this—cleaning
my house every day, and cooking, that I'd fall in love with you again like in
the past?” Speaking up to this point, a faint frown had formed between
Adrian's brow; because there was a weak voice in his heart, and it was
saying: Yeah, wouldn't it? Weren't you moved? Wasn't your gaze attracted
to him again?

He felt a burst of anger rising up, anger that was directed towards himself.
No way! He could not let things go on this way.
Just like that, he pushed that voice down, and at the same time, he spoke,
“Never. If you have any such thoughts, then forget it. I told you, my tastes
changed, and it's not just for food.”

“I didn't mean it that way. I just…wanted to do what I can…” Zhong Yan

tried to argue in a quiet murmur.

“To compensate me?” Adrian asked. After seeing Zhong Yan nod hesitantly,
he went on, “I don't need your pity. The last thing I need is your sympathy.”

Zhong Yan said anxiously, “I'm not trying to pity you! I just wanted to—”
He suddenly stopped.

What did he want to do? Naturally, he felt remorseful after knowing the
truth; he wanted to treat Adrian a little better, but if he asked himself, he
really had to admit that he was indeed hiding such selfish wishes. He hoped
that he could reproduce that scene from that year, then perhaps he would
find another chance for a miracle to happen.

But miracles were only called miracles because they were so rare in this
world. Sure enough…Zhong Yan looked motionlessly at the pressure
cooker that had been opened. Without a knife, the vegetable leaves that had
been torn by hand were already unsightly, but now that the pot had been
opened before the time was up, the taste was also ruined. It was destined to
be a failed dish.

“I'm sorry.” Zhong Yan no longer tried to explain himself. Silently, he

picked up the lid that had been thrown aside by Adrian. “I won't do it again
next time.”

Adrian's brows were knitted into a tight frown. “You don't have to be so…
subservient. I'm just saying that you don't have to do those things, you just
have to stay here.”

“I won't be staying for long, A—” After thinking about it, he swallowed his
name right back down his throat. Adrian would get angry, and he had
agreed not to call him by that name. He would not pull on his clothes
anymore, nor would he clean up the house and cook. The things Adrian
once enjoyed were disgusting to him now. But that was a matter of course,
as Adrian was no longer in love with him after all.

“I've just confirmed it with the Capital today. Intron will be leading the
team to Navi after the New Year to take me and Bayer back.”

The New Year, it was only a week until then.

Hearing that, Adrian could feel his throat constricting. It was clearly he who
told Zhong Yan to inform the Capital to pick him up, but when he was
finally informed of the time, a gush of remorse started pooling up within his
heart. So fast? Their days of getting along together like this will come to an
end. In a week, they will be departing; and perhaps he, Zhong Yan, would
only be able to stay with him for less than ten days while they were on the
way.

Then when will be the next time they meet again? Another seven years?
Perhaps they may not have to wait that long. With how things were going
right now, it might be next year, or at most, the year after that; the conflict
between Navi and the Capital will be completely blown up. When that time
comes, regardless of what way it would be, they will definitely meet each
other.

Why did he have to throw off that lid today? It was only ten days, he had
seven years to feel hate and regret. Was his willpower so weak that he could
not even stand ten days?

“The New Year's…Will you be at home on New Year's Eve?” Zhong Yan
asked cautiously.

“There's a celebration at headquarters on that night,” Adrian responded.

“…Oh.” Zhong Yan lowered his gaze to cover the disappointment in his
eyes. He picked up the rag and wiped the console that had been splashed by
the lid of the pressure cooker earlier.

Go back to your room now, Adrian told himself. Don't be soft, you can't
show vulnerability to him. Was that lesson not painful enough for you??
But it was as if his feet had taken root to the ground. He could not move. He
watched Zhong Yan clean up the messy kitchen on his own, and though it
was still full of food, with the same man busying about, he could not feel
the same bustle he had felt when he entered through that door. Only
desolation.

“What's wrong?” Zhong Yan did not hear him walking away, so he raised
his head and tried his best to put on a smile. “Is there anything else?”

Yes. He was supposed to ask Zhong Yan today why he was with Pearson,
and why he stepped out. But… Adrian saw the faint red circle around his
beautiful phoenix eyes, and it was not difficult for him to imagine how
those eyes would quickly fill with tears as soon as he turned around.

Don't be soft on him…You can't…

At the moment, the owner of those eyes were still trying their best to remain
smiling, but perhaps he was just afraid that he would get upset.

“Yes,” Adrian spoke up. He sighed in his heart. “I'll…try my best to get
home before midnight that day.”
 Chapter 34: At Midnight

The intelligence report from the Capital had taken an entire day and night to
be transmitted.

Adrian was woken up by the notification bell of his terminal. When he saw
that the caller was Fayn, he reached out to accept the call.

“Boss, I just received a confirmation letter from the Capital.” It was two in
the morning, but Fayn’s voice sounded very alert. “The information
provided by the Special Commissioner, including the ‘Honor Decree’, is
indeed true. Our AI has changed, and he is no longer satisfied with the
status quo.”

Adrian was not very surprised. In fact, the evidence Zhong Yan showed that
day when he arrived was enough to prove things. This was just too big an
issue. A readjustment in the deployment and planning for the entire Navi
Military Command was required, so he had to confirm it for insurance.

“Alright, we’ll have a meeting tomorrow.”

“Got it. We only need a word of approval on this matter, but this isn’t the
reason I called you.” Fayn continued, “The signal officer responsible for
keeping an eye out for the Capital’s movements contacted me urgently. Just
ten minutes ago, there was a big change in the Labor Star. The top rung of
the region’s council, a total of three high-ranking members including the
current council head have been convicted as guilty by ‘Butterfly’ and are
now in jail.”

Adrian finally realized why Fayn sounded so sober. All the sleep drained
from his body the instant he heard that news.
“Guilty?” Adrian sat up from bed, fully awake. “Guilty of what?”
“Quite a lot. Two of them were convicted mainly for corruption, while the
council head was not only convicted for corruption, but also for the long-
term misuse of his authority for personal reasons.”

“Misusing his authority for personal reasons, for the long term?” Adrian felt
like he was still in a dream. “The current Council Head of Labor? The one
we know?”

The Labor System’s council’s performance in the White Aegis incident was
unsatisfactory. But to be precise: it was not to the Capital’s satisfaction.
Before this incident, the council house had been in a constant dispute over
the problems with the old residents of White Aegis, and they argued for an
entire year. Later, White Aegis’ Regional Council announced that they
would separate from Labor System and enter the Navi System instead. The
regional council had been letting it slide, not even making any movements
to suppress them with the might of Labor’s residential army; they only said
they were threatened by the Navi Military Command, and the disparity in
strength was too daunting, so they did not make a move, and instead were
waiting for the rescue of the Capital.

Both the Capital and Navi were far away from each other, and they were
way too far to be of any help. By the time the Capital arrived, Navi’s army
had already occupied White Aegis, and even the new border had been
established.

Only a few senior executives in the Navi Military Command knew that they
had never threatened Labor’s Council at all. Labor’s Regional Council was
lying with their eyes open, and the Navi Military Command was just
silently accepting it. The handover of White Aegis was quick and peaceful
with no conflicts whatsoever.

Since then, the relationship between the two adjacent star systems had
quietly improved by a lot. Therefore, whenever someone had an issue
concerning both parties in these recent years, they were both willing to
concede in a tacit agreement to give face to the other.
Due to his identity, Adrian had never been in direct contact with the
Council Head of Labor’s Council, but from the perspective of how the other
man worked, he had to be a good official who was very compassionate to
his people. His reputation amongst the residents of Labor was also very
good, but now…

“It’s the same one we know. Look at the news. It’s the headlines right now
and the public is in an uproar. There are some saying he hid it well, but also
those who don’t believe it.” Fayn continued, “Things have gone chaotic at
our neighbor’s. The three remaining high-ranking members have
temporarily become the ones in charge. I saw some photos of the scene.
There are already military troops out on their primary star’s streets. They
may have to go under martial law for a while.”

Adrian coldly remarked, “It seems like the Capital knows we’ve been
getting too close to each other. Is the emergency department on standby?”

“Yes, the signal officer sent them a warning before calling me.”

“Pass on my order. Inform the borders now that if anyone escapes from
Labor to Navi to avoid the disaster, extend our help to them. After they
enter our borders, verify their identities and inform headquarters.”

“Yes.”

“The Capital will definitely do a follow-up, so begin sending more people

to watch the situation. Tell the intelligence department to set up a team just
to investigate this matter. Tell them right now. Don’t wait for the sun to
rise.”

“Yes.”

Adrian had also added a few precautions before hanging up. Then, he
opened the news interface. Without even the need for the search bar, the
headlines were already filled with this case. All the mainstream media were
criticizing the Labor System’s Council Head—Or rather, the former Council
Head, for corruption, praising the AI for pulling out another weed for the
humans.
He felt nauseous. Just as he was looking through the comments, someone
knocked on his door.

“Come in,” said Adrian. It seems that Zhong Yan had also received the
news.

As expected, it was the first thing Zhong Yan brought up. “Did you know
that—Oh, you’re looking at it. I just received the notice from my assistant.
We will be holding an emergency round table meeting to discuss the
vacancy of Labor’s Council House later in the afternoon, Capital Standard
Time.”

Zhong Yan was faintly gasping; it seemed he had run up the stairs. Adrian
said, “Sit down and talk.”

Zhong Yan pulled op the chair from his desk and sat down. He had
obviously been woken up from his sleep as well, as he was still wearing the
new pajamas bought for him by Adrian. He did seem to have patted it down
properly after getting up from bed, but he forgot to tidy up his hair. At the
moment, his black hair was a tousled mess atop his head.

He rarely appeared in such a sloppy appearance. Adrian looked quietly at

him for a while, then asked, “Are you going to participate remotely?”

Zhong Yan shook his head. “I won’t be participating, but I’ll receive the
results as soon as the meeting ends. The general rules state that since I am
in ‘poor health’, I am not required to attend. After all, I am currently in
Navi District, and within your sphere of influence. They’re worried about
eavesdropping, and they will certainly not allow me to attend the meeting
remotely. Earlier, Sir Yate…”

When he said this, Adrian was stunned. He thought he was calling his
name, but he quickly realized that Zhong Yan was talking about his
grandfather, Stalvern Yate.

“Sir Yate contacted me and he told me he was very dissatisfied with the
matter. His original words were, ‘I didn’t raise you up to that position just
for you to not be able to attend a meeting!’” Zhong Yan laughed. “With
Bayer gone, and me away from the Capital, the news he has been receiving
has been very late, so he is starting to get anxious.”

。”

“Speaking of which,” Adrian asked, “I’m curious. How are you going to
explain the matter when you return? You can tell them you were ‘injured’,
but Bayer wouldn’t lie to his master. When that time comes, my grandfather
would, at the very least, find out that Bayer has not been hurt at all, and that
it was us who forced him under house arrest.”

Zhong Yan widened his eyes at him, seemingly a little surprised.

Even if it was not the right time for it, Adrian had still let his mind wander.
Zhong Yan had a small face, so he would appear very young every time he
widened his eyes; not to mention the pajamas Adrian bought were of ill
taste—dark blue starry sky print with a large beige-colored rabbit on the
front. In order to distinguish it from an ordinary rabbit, the cartoon pattern
was usually matched with a starry sky in order to indicate that this was a
giant space rabbit.

Zhong Yan was wearing the cartoon-print pajamas with his hair in a mess;
Adrian suddenly felt as if he had gone back to that time ten years ago. It
was as if they were still the seventeen-year-olds chatting the night away in
their dorms, and not two adult men who held power and authority at
opposing ends.

“He already knows, I told him,” said the man whose appearance at this
moment could look no purer. In an inquisitive voice, he asked, “You…You
wouldn’t think I haven’t been contacting him after so many days have you?
I told him you separated me and Bayer, and I couldn’t get in contact with
him, so I don’t know his current situation.”
Adrian: “…”

Clearly it was this person in front of him who proposed to put Bayer on
house arrest at that time, but he had completely cleaned his hands of the
matter. But no matter how he considered it, Zhong Yan really should not be
falling out with Stalvern right now. There was nothing to be gained from it
for either of them. So, Adrian could only carry the blame in silence.

“You’ve been in Navi for a while, and you’ve always been in contact with
him. Did he ask about me?” asked Adrian.

“…He did.” A flash of anger flitted through Zhong Yan’s pupils. “He asked
about your personal life, and also about our marriage contract.”

“Oh. What did you tell him?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

From the information Adrian had about the Capital, it seemed at the very
least, that Stalvern’s control over Zhong Yan should be very strong; Zhong
Yan appeared almost obedient to his every word. Thus, he could not help
himself from asking, “You didn’t? Wouldn’t that be considered as rebelling
against him? He took it without getting a heart attack from anger?”

“He’s used to it,” Zhong Yan told him. After some consideration, he added,
“Not only him, I think everyone in the Supreme Council should be used to
it.”

Only then did Adrian recall that he had also watched one or two of Zhong
Yan’s interviews where Zhong Yan was asked about the “Twin Stars Falling
Out Incident” that was the hot topic within the Federation at that time.
Whenever that happened, Zhong Yan would always remain silent without
attempting to brush over things with his skills as a means to fight against it.
This move was interpreted by the public at the time as him drawing a clear
line between himself and Adrian, who stood on the side of the anti-AI, and
was not keen on bringing up the three years where they had gotten too close
with each other.

“And what would you say to your subordinates if they ask in private?”
Adrian asked. “Speaking of which, why have you always been silent
whenever they asked about me?”
“I didn’t want to talk about you with those people.” Zhong Yan looked at
him. “Especially not with your grandfather. Whenever he mentions you,
it’s…not pleasant.”

Not pleasant was a tactful word to use. Adrian had grown up next to
Stalvern all those years. He understood too well what his own grandfather
was like; ever since he made clear his political stance, Stalvern had always
been furious with him and regarded him as a stain. All kinds of terrible
words had been said from his mouth. Unfortunately, he could not meddle in
the affairs of neither the Institution Star nor the Navi System. Otherwise, he
might have taken things into his own hands long ago and cleaned up his
doorstep with force.

“You’ve always been ignoring me. There was still news about you the first
few years, but then you became the commander and Navi closed its borders.
Sometimes, I wouldn’t hear a single word about you for months, and in
those times, I wished there were people I could talk about you with as
well.”

Zhong Yan paused abruptly as if he had suddenly realized he had

misspoken. He turned his eyes away from Adrian’s face, and muttered, “I…
I should be returning to my room. You should sleep. You’ll definitely be
busy tomorrow…”

“I’m hungry,” Adrian suddenly announced.

For a moment, Zhong Yan was still caught in a daze as he subconsciously

asked, “What?”

But for some reason, Adrian would not go further no matter what. Stunned,
Zhong Yan looked at him for two seconds, then, an unbelievable wave of
ecstasy washed over him. For reassurance, he carefully asked, “There’s still
leftovers from the ingredients I bought a few days ago, how about I cook
you some noodles? It’ll be difficult to sleep at night if you’re hungry…is
that alright?”

“Two bowls,” he responded. “Eating alone is too dull.”

 Chapter 35: New Year Gifts

When he bought this place, Adrian never expected that he would see
something like this happening here.

At three in the morning, he sat at the dining table, handling the news he
received from Headquarters while Zhong Yan was busy cooking noodles for
him in the open kitchen.

The aroma of food slowly wafted out from the kitchen. Adrian had been
hungry, but now, he was starting to get a little restless from the tempting
smell. When he failed to process that piece of information on his screen that
he had looked over more than three times, he decided to shut off his
terminal screen.

His efficacy was too low at the moment. It would be best if he ate before he
went back to work.

He walked into the kitchen separated by the bar. He stood by Zhong Yan's
side and watched as he sliced ham. He asked, “How much longer?”

“It's almost ready. Five minutes.” After slicing the ham, Zhong Yan stacked
them neatly on the chopping board. Just as he was about to grab the kettle,
he noticed that Adrian was standing in the way, so he gave him a light push.
“Don't block the cabinet door.”

Adrian made way and retreated to the chopping board.

There was a row of ham on it. Ham was a cooked food, which meant it was
ready-to-eat, and he really was very hungry at the moment. He stared at the
tempting row of sliced ham.
Zhong Yan boiled the water and heated up the pan. He pushed away Adrian
who was blocking the chopping board, and just as he was about to fry the
ham, he suddenly paused.

“Where's my ham?!” asked Zhong Yan as he pointed to the empty chopping

board.

Without a change in expression, Adrian replied, “I was testing it for

poison.”

“Get out, don't mess around.” With a headache, Zhong Yan drove him out.

Whenever he cooked, he would have to spend twice the effort whenever

Adrian was in the kitchen; if the ingredients weren't going missing, then the
young master who, volunteering to help but could not differentiate between
sugar and salt, would add the wrong seasoning; or, he would latch onto him
regardlessly to watch him cook, making it hard for him to move.

Adrian was unwillingly driven out of his own kitchen, and could only watch
from outside by the bar.

“Aren't you cooking for two?” He saw Zhong Yan put only a single portion
of noodles into the pot, so he asked.

“I'll split them into two bowls. I'm just taking a bite.” Zhong Yan slowly
stirred the noodles in the pot while he spoke, “It's the middle of the night
and we're heading to bed after this, so it'll be better if you don't eat too
much either. It's bad for your stomach, so it'll be just right after I take
some.”

As he spoke, he started staring at the noodles for some reason, and a look of
confusion formed in his eyes. Then, he quickly turned on his terminal and
typed something in.

Adrian could not understand what he was doing. “What's wrong?”

“I haven't cooked noodles for too long. I forgot how long I need to cook it
for.” Zhong Yan's fingers slid over the screen and found the corresponding
guide. He mouthed the words as he read, and then he turned off his
terminal.

Adrian was puzzled. “Do you not cook noodles in the Capital?”

“I don't cook when I'm by myself. I usually just buy take out,” Zhong Yan
responded.

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?” Zhong Yan was confused. “I've only cooked for
you. I never cooked when I was by myself. It's too troublesome, and it's a
waste of time.”

It seemed to be somewhat different from what Adrian had imagined. He

asked, “What about when you entered the Supreme Institution?”

“I didn't know how to cook before I met you. I was either living in an
orphanage or the dormitory of compulsory schools. I would also live short-
term with a few adoptive families when I was younger. I didn't have the
chance to enter a kitchen. From where would I learn to cook?”

Adrian was truly shocked by this revelation. He had always thought for sure
that Zhong Yan definitely belonged to the “poor kids who handled the
household early” group. He never thought that Zhong Yan would tell him so
many years later that he actually had not known how to cook even during
the days when they first met.

“You said the food in the canteen was unpalatable, so I learned from guides.
Actually, I was quite unfamiliar with it the first month I started, so I only
cooked simple things.” When the noodles were done, Zhong Yan scooped
them up with a skimmer and casually said, “Later, I thought that if I could
cook even better, that you might be even more willing to stay with me, so I
kept learning to improve my skills. Didn't you notice that my cooking skills
soared in our third year?”

Adrian: “…” He was completely unaware. At that time, he was watching

Zhong Yan through the eyes of a lover, and thought from the first moment
that his cooking was the best. It was the food prepared by the person he
liked. How could he have any attention left to think about the taste?

“And just a few days ago…” Which was the time when Adrian had
suddenly gotten angry and ruined the half-cooked soup in the pot. Zhong
Yan paused and tried to avoid bringing up the awkwardness of that day.
“That was the first time in seven years that I've cooked since graduation.”

So it turns out that he was the only person in this world who had tried
Zhong Yan's cooking skills. Adrian tried to control his emotions, but he
could not stop himself from feeling overjoyed.

While filling up the bowls, Zhong Yan tried to probe in a subtle way, “If
you're coming home during New Year's Eve, should I cook dinner? Just…
Just take it as a New Year's gift.”

They had once gone through two New Year's Eves together. School starts
for the Supreme Institution at the start of the year and ends at the end of the
year, with two holidays in between. Due to Adrian having completely
thrown the towel with Stalvern, he did not return to the Capital, while
Zhong Yan did not even take that small planet as his hometown. With the
two left with no home to return to, and with the school unaccepting of
stragglers, they went to a tourist planet nearby and rented a room to spend
their holidays.

Friends with good relationships would send each other New Year's gifts,
and during those two nights, they waited together for the clock to strike
zero, exchanged gifts, and fell asleep.

Adrian knew that he should give a firm rejection to his proposal. He should
tell Zhong Yan that there was no need for that. They were not friends
anymore. They did not need to exchange any more gifts for New Year's. He
had already reached the edge of the cliff, and he should not let himself
come any closer, but…Zhong Yan was leaving soon.

Why not just indulge for a few days? Zhong Yan would not be staying for
long anyway. After the New Year's, Zhong Yan's assistant will set off from
the Capital to come pick him up, and there was only two days before then.
It was a moment of the calm before the storm, it should be fine to indulge
himself a little, right? When Zhong Yan leaves, he'll pay the fines. Then
they will have no more reasons for any more private contact. Everything
will go back on track.

“Whatever you want,” Adrian heard himself say.

……

Even though Adrian did not give him a definite answer, Zhong Yan had still
bought a lavish selection of ingredients early in the last day of the year.

This is the first New Year's Eve that he will be spending with Adrian after
seven years. The quake was coming. Everything would start to change.
Nobody knew if this would be the last one, or if Adrian would even allow
him to use his kitchen after tonight; this might be the very last meal he
cooked in his life.

So, he pulled out all the skills he had, prepared the recipe plan for the
afternoon, and after lunch, he began to work, finally completing his work
when the sun had set.

It was only a dinner for two, but he cooked enough to fill the table; all of it
were dishes that could be preserved in the fridge for a few days. After all,
this was going to be a New Year's gift. He had to make it grand.

He wondered when the celebration at Navi Military Headquarters would

end.

Zhong Yan sat in the living room and went through his documents absent-
mindedly. Every other minute, his eyes would peer towards the clock on his
terminal.

The minutes and seconds passed, but at eight, Adrian had still not returned.
Zhong Yan did not mind. Thinking about it, it would not be good for the
General Commander to excuse himself early in a grand celebration such as
the New Year's.
But nine passed, then ten, and even eleven; Adrian had still not returned

At 11:30, Zhong Yan could not sit still any longer. After much hesitation, he
called the reception desk of the Navi Military Command.

He never had much hopes to begin with, but he never expected the
reception desk to still be operating as usual on a celebration like this. He
told them his name and asked, “I would like to ask about the New Year's
celebration for the military command…is it not over yet?”

“Mr. Zhong, are you talking about the New Year's celebration at the
headquarters?” For some reason, the receptionist's voice sounded very
unsure, “It ended long ago. Everyone left after nine because we didn't want
to deprive everyone the right to celebrate with their family and friends. Of
course, there may still be private celebrations happening after nine, and for
that, I'm not too sure. May I ask if you need something?”

Did that mean…that Adrian was at someone's private celebration? Was he

going to countdown to the New Year's with his “good friends”?

Zhong Yan pursed his lips, but still decided to ask, “I'm looking for your
commander, can you please tell him for me?”

“The commander is not at headquarters.” After a pause, the operator finally

could not help but ask, “Is he not with you?”

Zhong Yan said, “No. So he left after the party?”

The operator was surprised. “No, the commander did not attend the party
today! We all thought he went home to stay with…Um, well, what I mean
is, the commander is not at headquarters right now.”

After thanking the operator, Zhong Yan sat confused in the living room.

Adrian did not attend the celebration at all? So what was he doing? Why
was he still not home yet?

Looking at the time, it was now 11:40. Zhong Yan gritted his teeth and
found a number in his address book that he had never called.
“Hello, who is this?” That person from the other side asked.

Zhong Yan hesitated for a moment, but he asked in confusion, “Did you not
save my communication number? Didn't we exchange numbers in front of
A…in front of him?”

“Zhong Yan?” Fayn was even more confused than he was. “What're you
calling me for? And don't kid me, I deleted your number long ago. With
what happened between you and Adrian back then, why would I still have
the contact information of my best friend's ex-boyfriend? That's too
inappropriate.”

Zhong Yan listened on enviously at him calling out Adrian's name

unimpeded. When he heard the final bit, he was speechless. “What ex-
boy…forget it, that's not important. I called because I wanted to ask, is he
with you?”

“What? Is he not with you?”

“No…he didn't come home.”

“What do you mean he didn't come home?” Fayn was astonished. “He
never came to headquarters at all today. Wasn't he at home this whole
time?”

He didn't go? But Adrian went out early this morning! Zhong Yan had no
clues at all. He hastily responded to Fayn and hung up the call. There was
only ten minutes left until twelve.

Where did Adrian go this whole day? Even Fayn did not know his
whereabouts…

Zhong Yan had not yet time to think of a reason when a dull bang sounded
out from the backyard as if something large had landed on the ground.
Zhong Yan could even feel the sofa he was sitting on trembling faintly.

What was that?! Did something invade the yard?

Zhong Yan jumped up and rushed to the kitchen to pull out a kitchen knife.
If some armed forces really came in, a knife would actually be of no use
with his physical limits, but it was better than going unarmed. Zhong Yan
held the knife and carefully approached the window. He pulled open one
corner of the curtain and looked outside.

Then, he saw a scene that had him dumbfounded.

Originally, the only thing between the grassland of the house and the
backyard was a row of five-meter-tall trees. Not only did they provide
shade, they also prevented anyone from looking into the house from the
backyard, allowing more privacy; similarly, it was difficult to see what was
in the backyard.

The only reason Zhong Yan could see it, was because that thing was much
taller than the row of trees.

It was a big, snow-white, fluffy, floppy-eared…

Rabbit.

With a beep, someone had opened the back door with the owner's
authorization.

Adrian walked into the house, weather-beaten. He raised his wrist to look at
the time: 11:59.

“Hey,” he greeted Zhong Yan who was standing like a fool with a knife in
his hand, “Happy New Year.”
 Chapter 36: Can't Eat That

Zhong Yan was so shocked that he could not speak properly. “Ha…Happy
New Year…Where did you go? Ah no, what's that in the yard?”

While taking off his coat, Adrian said, “Don't you know what that is? It's a
giant space rabbit. And to think you've been talking about how much you
liked giant space rabbits all these years.”

“Of course I know what it is!” Zhong Yan refuted. He even ignored the coat
Adrian had thrown on the dining chair. “Is this…a holographic projection?”

Adrian responded, “You'll know when you touch it. Come on.”

Zhong Yan followed him dazedly out the backdoor. They passed through
the row of trees, and stopped in front of that giant mass of white fur, lifting
their heads to stare at it.

Adrian stuck a hand in his pocket and stood behind him. “Go ahead, try it.”

Zhong Yan put his hand on the dense white fur on the rabbit's legs; it was
soft and warm.

The amount of force he exerted was too light, so the lop-eared rabbit paid
no attention to him. However, it suddenly laid down after seemingly having
finished observing its surroundings. Zhong Yan was frightened. He
retracted his hand and retreated two steps backward, bumping into Adrian
who was standing behind him. Adrian supported him by holding his
shoulders.

“Did you touch it? Is it a projection?” He asked.

“No…it's real.” Zhong Yan's mind was filled with all sorts of questions for
a moment. He turned around and stared at Adrian for a long time, but did
not say anything. Finally, he managed to pick out a single question with
difficulty. “Why do you…Why do you have a giant space rabbit?”

“Didn't you say you were going to cook dinner for me?”

A bad feeling rose up in Zhong Yan's heart, and as expected, Adrian

continued with, “Red braised sounds good.”

“You can't eat it!” Zhong Yan stopped him anxiously. He looked carefully at
Adrian's face to see if he was joking, but the other man was looking clearly
at him with his head faintly lowered. The lights shining from the house in
the distance illuminated half of his face, and the dim light softened his
sharp features. In the breeze of the night, his silver irises looked mysterious,
and he was so handsome that it made him feel flustered.

Zhong Yan's heart skipped a beat. His favorite giant space rabbit was just
right behind him, and this was the first time in his life that he was so close
to one; but at this moment, he had completely lost all notions of turning
around to look at it.

There was a scene that attracted his gaze even more, and it was right in
front of him.

Adrian said, “Didn't you bring the knife out as well? Should I help you
out?”

Zhong Yan came back to his senses and finally realized that he was still
holding the knife. There were simply no words he could use to explain
himself. “This isn't for…I heard a noise just now, so I thought it was an
enemy attack…”

He hurried to explain himself in a few words. When he saw that Adrian's

expression was still the same as usual, he finally reacted a little. After some
hesitation, he said, “You weren't joking earlier…were you?”

“Who's got the time to crack jokes with you?” Adrian responded.
“I've already made dinner. There's a lot of dishes, they'll be ready after I
heat them up!” Zhong Yan tried his best to persuade him from the idea. “I'm
very tired now, I can't move anymore.”

Adrian suggested, “We can eat it tomorrow…Oh, it's already twelve, so

we'll eat it in the morning. Come on, it's time to head back.”

“Ah…are we…going just like that?” Zhong Yan asked, “What about the
rabbit?”

“What do you mean 'what'?”

“Should we feed it something? I wonder if it's hungry. It's so small, is it still

a kit?”

“It's a kit,” Adrian answered. “I fed it on the way back, and what's more, it's
normal for these type of rabbits to not eat for more than a dozen days or
so…isn't this what you told me before?”

Zhong Yan was very confused, “…You fed it on the way? Where did you
get the rabbit from?”

“Why do you care where it's from?”

“You didn't just catch one from somewhere, did you?” Zhong Yan asked
with suspicion. “You can't catch wild giant space rabbits, that's considered
poaching. The ‘Giant Space Rabbit Hunting Law' states it. I drafted the bill
myself.”

Adrian shot him a provoking smile and said, “Welcome to the extrajudicial
area, Councilor.”

“Even if that's the current situation…” Zhong Yan tried to speak, “You still
haven't split from the Federation after all. Laws that are applicable to the
entire Federation apply to Navi as well. There are many procedures that
have to be gone through to qualify for private breeding of giant space
rabbits, and you need a license.”
Speaking to this point, he suddenly realized that Adrian actually met all the
qualifications for it.

The giant space rabbit is a mutation of its genus. Thousands of years ago, a
scientific research ship crashed. The search and rescue team rescued the
researchers, as well as most of the animals and plants, but left several
rabbits of different breeds. Within the cosmos, they produced mysterious
variations, and coupled with their strong reproduction ability, managed to
survive as a new species altogether. An adult giant space rabbit could
generally grow up to 20 meters in length, with slight variations in different
breeds, They are usually found floating around in outer space, but they can
also survive on the surface of planets. They are considered gentle creatures
with no aggressive tendencies.

In outer space, its figure was actually small enough to a point where it was
negligible, but they appeared very huge on land. And, as a space-land
amphibious animal, most giant space rabbits floating in the cosmos will
inevitably wander into the atmosphere for a while. In a planet with regions
densely packed with various breeds of giant space rabbits, you can
occasionally see giant rabbits floating in the sky, and it has even become a
famous tourist attraction. Similarly, giant space rabbits living on land, such
as those in giant space rabbit research institutions, will be brought by the
researchers on a ship every so often into space for a walk to maintain their
health.

So to say, not only did taking care of these rabbits require one's time,
energy, and knowledge, a venue large enough to handle the daily activities
of such a large rabbit is also needed if one wishes to rear them. They also
needed a very large private spaceship.

Such strict conditions have easily filtered out most of the general public,
leaving behind only a few of the rich. However, besides being large, having
the ability to overcome gravity and to survive in outer space, giant space
rabbits did not have any special abilities. A large sum of money is required
for their purchase, and the procedures are both numerous and cumbersome.
Moreover, you needed to spend time studying to take the test for the license,
so rarely would any rich people be interested enough to put themselves
through that.
There was a very, very small number of privately raised giant space rabbits
in the entire federation. One of the more famous owners of one was a
female magnate. Even Adrian who was completely uninterested in giant
space rabbits knew about it, and that was because Zhong Yan used to follow
her social media account. Every day, he would refresh her page just to see if
she posted any pictures of her rabbit.

As for all the other rules and regulations, Adrian was up to the standard.
Zhong Yan had also gotten his giant space rabbit rearing license a long
seven years ago. With his current position, he only needed to show up and
say hello to get the procedures done. Everything would be settled quickly as
long as the materials had no issues. Unfortunately, the only problem was the
fact that the source of this rabbit seemed to be illegal.

“How could you catch a rabbit? If word gets out, it will be bad for both
your reputation and your image.” Zhong Yan was anxious. “Did anyone see
you?”

A corner of Adrian's mouth drew up. “I didn't catch it, so don't worry
yourself over nothing.”

“Someone caught it and gave it to you? Is this some sort of gray-market

entertainment activity?”

Adrian did not confirm nor deny his speculations.

The more Zhong Yan thought about it, the more he felt that that was the
case. Lop-eared giant space rabbits were very rare. Maybe Adrian went to
participate in a private invite-only party, and the owner gave Adrian the
rabbit to get closer to him. It seemed to be a reasonable explanation…but it
just wasn't legal.

Zhong Yan was worried. “Then, we'll have to raise it secretly. Thank god
there's not many people around here. We'll need to make it a nest and get it
a leash. What if a small lop-eared bunny like this slips out? There are all
kinds of people in Navi, it's too dangerous.”
Adrian was nonchalant, “Aren't I itching to chop it up and destroy the
evidence? Who said we were going to raise it?”

The snow-white lop-eared rabbit was laying down quietly beside them this
whole time, but for some reason, it came over and rubbed itself on the two
humans right beside it.

Its soft and furry ears swiped past the two. On Zhong Yan's white-colored
loungewear, it was not obvious, but several very long, prominent, and white
hairs stood out from Adrian's black clothes.

Adrian: “…”

The rabbit kit stared at them with its big, red eyes, appearing both innocent
and pitiful. Zhong Yan's heart melted and he could not help himself from
happily rubbing away at the droopy ears of the rabbit. “What a good bunny!
This one is so sweet!”

It had been a very long time since he had seen Zhong Yan this happy. This
man did not smile often, but he looked very good with the corners of his
mouth raised. Adrian quietly turned on the camera of his terminal. But of
course, when he went back to look at it in the future, he would realize that
what he took was a picture of Zhong Yan touching a rabbit in the middle of
the night with a knife in his other hand, revealing his side profile decorated
with a bright smile. It looked very strange, as if it was some promotional
poster for a dark fairy tale movie.

All the way back to the house, Zhong Yan was clearly more excited than
usual; even while he was heating up the food, he was still talking to Adrian
about the giant space rabbit's habits, and only suppressed the urge to
continue when they were about to begin eating.

The variety of the dishes was overwhelming. Adrian was quite surprised to
see the dishes laid out on the table. He knew that these took a long time to
make even if he did not know how to cook. Zhong Yan saw Adrian's hands
stopped after he picked up his fork, and he suddenly worried that he was
still keen on having rabbit for dinner.
“I'll buy some rabbit meat tomorrow and make red-braised rabbit, okay?”
Zhong Yan hesitated again and again, but still said, “The supermarket sells
rabbit meat that was specially bred as poultry, they taste way better than
wild rabbits.”

Adrian said, “That's what you say, but your face is telling me that you don't
want to make it at all.”

“I don't eat rabbit meat.” Zhong Yan muttered a bit chagrined, “I thought
you didn't like it in the past either?”

“I love eating rabbits now.” Adrian moved his fork. “But don't buy it,
you've never cooked rabbit meat so it might not taste good.”

Zhong Yan breathed a sigh of relief and returned to his happy self.
Regardless of the matter, Adrian brought home a rabbit before midnight.

He knew that this was no mere coincidence, that no matter what, him being
here was definitely part of the reason that Adrian brought it back.

But no matter how big of a reason that was, it was enough to satisfy Zhong
Yan as long as that number was not zero.
 Chapter 37: Nest

After having his meal, Adrian asked,

“

Have you figured out when Gines is going to pick you up yet?”

“He's setting off tomorrow and taking the official route, so about four days?
It depends on where we meet.” Zhong Yan brought out the dessert. There
was no oven at home, so the small cake was bought from a nearby dessert
shop. Casually, he said, “I've only mentioned his name once, but you
already remembered it.”

Adrian's heart jumped. Quietly, he accepted the small matcha cake and said,
“It's quite a common surname, but I don't recall his first name. I had thought
to send both you and Bayer to the Lebor System and have them pick you
up, but with the changes in Lebor, it might not be safe.”

Zhong Yan held his own slice of cake. There was a layer of syrup on top,
and it was very sweet. Adrian did not like this kind of cake. He sat down
opposite of Adrian, and just when he was about to speak, he was interrupted
by the notification bell of his terminal. He opened it up to check, and his
expression changed. “Speak of the devil, the person responsible for
gathering news for my subordinate has just come back with something. The
results from the round table meeting two days ago are out.”

“The one about Lebor? It only ended just now?”

“It is quite rare. ‘Butterfly's processing speed is many times faster than that
of a human's, so he can generally make decisions on the spot in a round
table meeting, but this time…I heard that the plan had already been decided
long ago. They wanted to send one of the councilors from the Supreme
Council to the Lebor System to become their Interim Head of Council,
replacing the three councilors who had just been convicted, thus helping
Lebor out with its…'difficulties' until the situation is stabilized.”

Of the three convicted counselors, one was the Head of Council, while the
other two were high ranking members, so they were all from positions of
power. Now, the powers of three people were going to be in the hands of a
single person, so you could almost say this one Head of Council would
have the entire Lebor System under their grasp.

“The problem lies in the candidate. Pearson wants to send one of his
assistants to the Lebor System to become the Interim Head of Council.”
Zhong Yan sneered. “He's getting anxious. It's like he's afraid people won't
know that he's the one pulling the strings behind this entire fiasco. But with
‘Butterfly' at his side, there was no need for him to cover up his tracks.
Unfortunately, he has really gone overboard this time. Lebor may not be the
most populated star system, but they are the source of nearly one-sixth of
the Federation's minerals. Did he think the others would just sit quietly and
let him swallow the whole pie? I wasn't present, and besides the other three
councilors who are in on this with him, the remaining seven were in
opposition to the idea. That's why they were in a deadlock until now.”

If seven of the twelve representative counselors opposed a bill in the round

table meeting, even ‘Butterfly' would have to reconsider its decisions. In
other words, any major decisions carried out by ‘Butterfly' will require the
votes of at least six other members to be passed. The original idea of the
round-table system was to select twelve of the most capable human beings
to become the protective barrier for the remaining billions of their
compatriots. And in the last few decades, where everyone was in agreement
to the usage of AI, those in opposition would only deal a great blow to their
own political image, so the barrier had been ineffective. And in this current
time, there were people who could hardly even wait, and they weren't even
trying to maintain this “image” any longer.

While Zhong Yan was talking about business, he had almost never brought
his own personal feelings into the mix; just like when he was in a meeting
with all the military officers that day. He was calm and unnerved, even
while bringing up such sensational news. Probably due to the fact that he
was more relaxed today, he had forgotten about maintaining his mask. From
his words, Adrian could pick out a hint of his…distaste for that man called
Pearson.

“I heard you used to be one of Pearson's subordinates for two years.”

Adrian put down his cake. “I'm curious, with your acuity in politics, did you
not see the ambition in him at that time?”

Zhong Yan looked calmly at Adrian. “His ambitions were exactly the
reason why I entered his command.”

“That's what I guessed.” Adrian went on, “Then why did you leave after
that? Were you the one who initiated it?”

Zhong Yan looked deeply into his silver eyes.

Why did he take that step back? How should he answer that question? He
was about to leave. Adrian no longer liked him. They were only seven days
away from that one-month deadline. Adrian had said he would pay the fine
himself before the expiration date, so their marriage contract would be
dissolved soon, and they will no longer have any personal connections after
that happens.

They were two men in antagonistic positions. There was no chance for them
to be together anymore.

“We had a difference in opinions,” Zhong Yan finally let out.

Adrian raised a brow at him. “What kind of differences could make you
give up on your future?”

“If there is a suitable opportunity in the future, I will tell you about it,” He
thus responded. Zhong Yan curved his lips up into a smile at Adrian; it was
such a gentle smile, but Adrian felt a strange sense of sorrow.

But before he had any time to think about that unusual feeling, Zhong Yan
had already put away that fleeting smile, and that impeccable mask was
returned to its place. He continued on, “Earlier, ‘Butterfly' announced the
candidates for the interim position of Head of Council in the Lebor System.
It's a high ranking counselor who had been responsible for handling the
reports from the Lebor System all this while.”

Adrian's attention was drawn back to the current situation. He frowned,

“And what sort of person is this Interim Head of Council? Do they have any
private dealings with ‘Butterfly' as well?”

“That's not possible, his ranking is too low,” responded Zhong Yan without
any hesitation. “In the past millennium since the activation of the second
generation AI, the only people within the Federation that could have direct
contact with ‘Butterfly' were only the twelve representative councilors. I
know that person. He sat neighboring my desk when I was still a high-level
councilor. His name is Qu Yongyi, and he's about…forty or so. Anyway, he
was considered young amongst the high-ranking councilors. The impression
I had of him was that he was a man of little words, and did his work in
silence. He's not someone with a lot of presence. But impressions aren't
always accurate in the Supreme Council, I immediately started to
investigate him, and you would do well to start your own arrangements as
well. I know you have your own men in the Capital, so we can check from
both channels. We may be able to get a more accurate result if we compare
our findings.”

“So he was the one in charge of governmental affairs for the Lebor
System?” Adrian said, “Then that's just the proof of their inability to settle
their internal differences. In the end, both of them had to take a step back
and follow the logical choice of finding a man that fits neither sides.”

“There's no harm to being cautious.” Zhong Yan had already sent out the
message he was typing. “If this was not the result Pearson was hoping for,
then there would also be the problem that the councilor might not be able to
successfully reach the Lebor System.”

Adrian turned on his own terminal. Sitting across from each other, the two
chose to issue their commands through text.

Since the terminal screen was a one-way display, you could not see what
the terminal's owner was doing from the back. So, Adrian did not know that
after instructing his men to gather information on Qu Yongyi, Zhong Yan
added another command: Find out if Pearson has any plans to target Navi in
the future. On the other end, Zhong Yan was also unable to see that Adrian
had not given the command to investigate Qu Yongyi to the intelligence
department. Instead, it was: investigate Zhong Yan's relationship with
Pearson again.

……

After their dinner that evening, Zhong Yan's heart was itching to see that
rabbit again but the only person with the authority to open the backdoor was
Adrian. It was already dawn, so he would feel bad if he called Adrian out to
stay up and play with the rabbit with him, so he could only look out from
the window.

While standing up, the kit's head could reach over the trees, but it was
laying down now, so the only thing you could see through the trees was a
faint, seven to eight meter long pile of snowy white fur on the ground.

When Adrian was about to go upstairs to sleep, Zhong Yan was still happily
looking away at the rabbit through the window. His feet stopped, and he
brought himself over to Zhong Yan's back.

“Is it that nice to look at?” Adrian asked.

Zhong Yan responded with great enthusiasm, “It's snow-white! It's the first
time I've seen one with this color!”

Adrian, who had no knowledge whatsoever about rabbits, wondered,

“Aren't rabbits generally white?”

“Are you talking about normal white rabbits? They're not the same breed.
The normal white giant space rabbits are those with erect ears, which looks
a bit like this.”

Zhong Yan stuck out an index finger on each of his hands and placed them
at the top of his head, gesturing to him the type of ears you would normally
see on a normal giant rabbit.
…Just looking young was enough, but why did even his behavioral patterns
regressed to that of a young boy when he sees rabbits? When he saw how
he was looking up at him, with his fingers on his head, pretending to be a
rabbit, Adrian could not help but gulp. With a straight face, he reached out
his hands to grab the two “bunny ears”

“I know what it means, you don't have to show me.” Saying that, he took
Zhong Yan's hands down.

“Oh. Well, lop-eared giant space rabbits are rare to begin with, where did
you find it?”

Adrian looked out the window as if he had a newfound interest in the trees,
and he pretended as if he did not hear him.

If he did not wish to talk about it, then Zhong Yan would not pry. It wasn't
as if he could really report him to the proper authorities. Even though he
was obsessed with giant space rabbits, if he compared them with Adrian…
Might as well just raise it secretly for now. He figured that Adrian would
probably get sick of it after a few days, then he can try to persuade Adrian
to send it to an animal protection agency before he leaves.

……

After a good night's sleep, the first thing Zhong Yan did was to go over to
the window to look at the rabbit, but unexpectedly, he found the back door
open.

Adrian was the only person with the authority to open the door. Zhong Yan
went out, and the first thing he saw was the rabbit kit. It was too big, so it
was hard not to notice it.

The kit had already woken up, and its body was half-raised. He could not
tell what it was looking at, but its tail was facing towards the house. Zhong
Yan stood behind it and stared at the big, round, fluffy bunny tail for a
moment. Without holding back, he rubbed it softly.
The rabbit ignored him. At this time, Zhong Yan heard a loud banging noise
coming from the front.

He walked past the rabbit and went deeper into the field, and finally saw
what the rabbit was looking at. A pile of artificial wood planks were
scattered on the ground, as well as an artificial wooden wall fixed to the
ground that was about as tall as two people. The clinky banging noise was
coming from behind that wall.

Zhong Yan continued on to the back of the wall. Adrian was only wearing a
sleeveless black tank and was sitting atop a three meter high ladder,
hammering a piece of artificial wood on top with his hand-held multitool.
With his clothes on, he appeared to have a rather slender figure, but with the
sleeveless top he wore for the job, the beautiful muscles on his arms were
revealed.

Zhong Yan raised his hand over his eyes to block out the morning sun and
looked up to ask Adrian who was on top of the ladder, “What are you
doing?”

“Making a hutch,” Adrian responded. “If there's no cover, people will see it
when they pass over in the sky. This planet is full of people from the
military command. I don't want them to find out that I've got a rabbit in my
backyard.”

Still struggling to look up, Zhong Yan asked, “Why?”

“This thing is too detrimental to my image.” Adrian lamented, “If I ever get
a pet, it probably has to be a wolf or something.”

“Then, I'll help you hold the ladder,” Zhong Yan volunteered himself.

“Forget it. You?” Adrian stopped his work and mocked him from above,
“I'll have no troubles at all even if I really fell from this height, but you'll
definitely be half-dead if the ladder crushes you.”

Being given the cold-shoulder to his self-recommendation, the only thing

Zhong Yan could do was to sit down with his back against the front feet of
the fluffy bunny kit, joining it as they watched Adrian work together.
 Chapter 38: Bedding

The winter sunlight was spread warmly across the grassland.

The kit looked around for a while before getting bored and laying down.
Zhong Yan quickly moved away. Fortunately, he had responded quickly and
took a few steps back. The rabbit leaned towards him and laid down on its
side before dozing off.

It didn't rest on its long ears, so it covered the grassland like a big fluffy
blanket

Zhong Yan sat himself down again, next to its ear.

With one section of the nest done, Adrian climbed back down the ladder
and walked out from behind the wall only to see the rabbit sleeping on its
side, while Zhong Yan had disappeared.

He wondered, had Zhong Yan returned to the house? But if he did, he

would have at least told him.

Unless…Adrian looked to the direction of the artificial pond, but nobody

was there.

Just as he was about to look for him back at the house, he suddenly stopped
in his tracks when he walked by the rabbit's ear.

Since it was laying on its side, one of its ears was laid out over the ground
like a blanket, but there was a suspicious human-shaped bulge in the center.

Adrian: “…”
He lifted the ear of the young kit, and as he expected, Zhong Yan was
laying inside. Since his cover was removed, the breeze was coming in. And
so, he sneezed and slowly woke up.

“Are you also an amphibious animal?” Adrian was practically speechless.

“Don't you need oxygen when you sleep?”

Zhong Yan sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Did I fall asleep? It was too warm
inside…”

“Go sleep in your room.”

“I'm not going to sleep anymore, I'll stay with you while you build the
hutch.” Zhong Yan crawled out from beneath the kit's ears. “Are you not
going to headquarters today?”

“It's the first day of the new year, I think even the Supreme Council isn't
doing business today.” Adrian put down the bunny's ear. “Don't buy
anything today.”

“Why?”

Adrian said, “There are cameras on the drones, I don't want them to catch
any footage of me with a rabbit in my house. That's going to destroy my
image. You'll have to wait till I'm done with the hutch.”

“Okay, we have a lot of leftovers anyway, it should be enough for today.”

Adrian spent the entire day building a house about eight meters in both
length and height, and made a door that the rabbit could pass through. The
door opened from the opposite direction of the house, so nobody could see
what was in the hutch from above or from the house. But his thoughts were
too optimistic; he thought that once the nest was built, the rabbit would
definitely stay obediently inside. After all, Zhong Yan spent three years
instilling in him the concept that “giant space rabbits are very well-behaved
animals”.

This idea was tragically shattered that afternoon.

The small building was set up, but no matter how they tried to pull the rope
tied to its leg, the kit would not budge. Baiting it with food didn't work
either as it had just eaten not long ago. It was not hungry yet.

“Didn't you say these rabbits were well-behaved?” asked Adrian with a
blank face. He regretted having listened to Zhong Yan's nonsense now. How
could he have trusted a fanatical giant space rabbit nerd to tell him that they
were well-behaved! He should have added the roof later, then he could deal
with everything else after dropping the rabbit in with his ship.

Feeling guilty, Zhong Yan argued, “Isn't it? It didn't get mad at you no
matter how hard you tried to pull it.”

“Didn't you also tell me that rabbits liked nests like these?”

“It's reasonable to say that this is what it's used to, so it should have taken
the initiative to go in. I have a giant space rabbit breeding license.” Zhong
Yan eyed the empty wooden house. “I think we have to layer on some soft
padding on the ground. Right now, the ground inside is hard, so it's not
attractive to the giant space rabbit.”

Adrian was completely unable to understand. “Don't they live in space all
year round? Why do they like things like that? Do they get padding in space
too?”

“That's how these mysterious creatures are,” said Zhong Yan matter-of-
factly. “This is why the giant space rabbits are so fascinating! There are
many mysteries surrounding them, such as how they came to mutate this
way. Did you know? They found new results in the experiment just a few
years ago, and they speculated that it may be related to a type of cosmic
radiation…”

Adrian could tell already that this was going to be bad. Once he gets started,
he probably would not stop even after an hour. He quickly cut him off.
“Alright, if they like it soft, then they like it soft. But what can we use as
padding?”
Zhong Yan stopped in dismay that the topic of “the cosmic radiation
hypothesis on the mutation of giant space rabbits” would not be continued.
After some thought, he said, “Why don't we just buy some blankets? We
don't have to stitch them together, just lay them on the ground and we can
easily wash the dirty ones in the future instead of having to do all of them
together. We can also get pillows as well. Any sort of bedding will do as
long as it's soft. We'll buy some and pile them on the ground.”

Actually, according to the process, domesticating a giant space rabbit

should start with training them to discharge their waste at set timings, but
Zhong Yan figured he was about to go soon, so there wasn't any need to
spend so much effort on this as Adrian definitely would not be keeping it
for long either. They can send it to the protection agency in a few days, and
there will naturally be professionals there to take care of it.

But what he never thought of was the fact that this lop-eared giant space
rabbit would stay under their care for decades to come. His thoughts at this
moment would soon lead to the madness caused in the following years by
the rabbit's refusal to use the toilet.

Adrian had no comments. “Alright, I think twenty comforters should do the

trick. We'll also get some cushions and maybe some bedding as well.”

They both turned on their terminals at the same time, then they both paused.

…If they buy something off the virtual community, they would be delivered
by the drones, and the drones have cameras on them.

“I'll buy them on the way back from work tomorrow,” said Adrian.

“But I don't think your car can fit twenty comforters and a bunch of pillows,
can it?”

“I'll just drive a big enough car.”

Zhong Yan was shocked. “You have other cars?”

“Isn't that nonsense?” Adrian asked in return, “Don't tell me you only have
a scooter back in the capital?”

“Yeah,” Zhong Yan responded.

“…” For a while, Adrian did not know what to say. “You're doing quite a
lot to keep your image clean.”

Zhong Yan contended, “No, that was all I could afford. The things in the
capital are too expensive. Both the car and housing prices there are the
highest in the Federation.”

“Well thank you for educating me on that. I've only lived there for about
seventeen years.” Adrian snided, “Have you never realized that I have an
underground garage?”

“I do know there's a garage in this house,” Zhong Yan responded. But he

always thought that it was the same as the villas in the capital that could
only park a car or two.

“My underground garage is about as big as the first floor of this house,”
Adrian revealed.

Zhong Yan was so shocked that his eyes widened.

“So don't worry, I have cars that can fit twenty comforters.”

“Are you that rich?” Zhong Yan asked with admiration.

“I'm alright,” said Adrian understatedly. “The main point is, my garage is
full, but I remember I still have a few extended large-capacity cars in a
resort under my name in a neighboring planet.”

Zhong Yan's eyes glistened brighter in awe as he looked at him. Adrian was
getting a little light-headed. It was no wonder that some people in the
virtual community loved to flaunt their wealth. Experiencing it for himself
was quite…
But before he could enjoy two seconds of Zhong Yan's gaze, he was
interrupted by his ringtone.

“What's up?” Adrian had a clear look at the caller and was instantly
displeased.

Fayn was unaffected by his emotions at all and sounded in high spirits.
“Happy New Year, Boss! I'm out with Dr. Wei to have some fun and we
happen to be near your house. Why don't we have dinner at your place
tonight? You're home, right?”

“Happy New Year.” Adrian looked up to the giant rabbit beside him that
refused to enter its nest, and firmly rejected. “Nobody's home”

“Stop joking, I'm right outside your door and I see lights.”

Adrian, “…”

“Hello? What's wrong? Come open the door.”

“No…” Adrian struggled to find the right words, “Why didn't you tell me
you were coming earlier?”

Fayn was surprised. “When have I ever called to tell you I was coming?
Haven't I always just came? What, you got something you can't show
anyone in your house? Isn't it just that guy there? It's not like I haven't seen
him.”

From Adrian's words, Zhong Yan was able to deduce what was going on, so
he mouthed out a question, “Suster?”

Adrian nodded.

Zhong Yan pulled Adrian's wrist over to him and placed his terminal to his
ear. “Suster. It's me.”

“…” Fayn jumped. “What's going on?”

“Well, we were just about to go out so why don't we go out for dinner
together?” Zhong Yan was speaking to him completely unperturbed. “We
haven't cleaned up the house yet and it's a bit messy, so we won't be inviting
you in.”

His tone sounded so natural that Fayn couldn't find anything wrong with his
words, so he responded in a dazed state, “Oh…Um, that works, I guess? Dr.
Wei, they said we're going out to eat.”

Only then did Zhong Yan realize that Wei Lan was around as well. He could
only hear a vague and incoherent response from Wei Lan, then Fayn
continued. “Dr. Wei says sure, so you guys come out and I'll drive.”

“Alright, we're coming.”

Zhong Yan hung up the call and looked at Adrian.

“Drive out your extended car,” Zhong Yan said, “We'll buy it after dinner.
Then we can get the rabbit in when we're done tonight. We shouldn't wait
for tomorrow. Too many matters are suddenly coming up.”

Adrian wiped his face. “Alright, go get changed.”

Adrian drove his car out from the underground garage and to the front yard,
picking Zhong Yan up, then left the gates. Fayn and Wei Lan were both
chatting outside their car. When they saw Adrian's car, both of them
stopped.

When Adrian and Zhong Yan got out of their car as well, Fayn said, “Isn't
that a bit over the top? We're just eating dinner. Do you have to drive out a
limited edition car?”

…No, it's only because this car has the largest capacity. Adrian said, “I just
casually picked one.”

Fayn's face showed that he almost wanted to say “You're shitting me”, but
Zhong Yan tried to add on to the story, “He forgot to charge the car he
usually drove.”
“Didn't I say I was going to drive?” said Fayn.

Adrian responded, “We've got other things to do after dinner.”

“It's the first day of the New Year's, what kinda business you got?”

“Just buying some things.”

“What a coincidence, I was just about to head down to the commercial

district to buy myself a new razor. I've been too busy these past few days.”
Fayn stroked his chin and turned to ask Wei Lan, “Are you going too,
Doctor?”

Wei Lan nodded. “Sure, I could stock up on some cereal.”

Adrian and Zhong Yan met eyes for a moment, and their faces looked
slightly awkward. If they went together, then they obviously wouldn't be
able to explain why they had to buy so many comforters and pillows in one
go. So, with a throbbing head, Adrian tried to find a way to stop them. “I
don't think we'll be going the same direction. We'll be purchasing bedroom
accessories.”

Fayn was shocked as he stared at the awkward looks of the two. He asked
in suspicion, “What sort of bedroom accessories are we talking about?”

Calmly, Wei Lan offered his analysis, “I don't think it's the type that's
suitable to be bought with other people around.”
 Chapter 39: What Are You
Looking At?

“The hell are you talking about?” Adrian responded, “I'm talking about
pillows and blankets.”

Fayn asked, “What are you suddenly buying pillows and blankets for?
What, are you sleeping separately now?”

Adrian could deeply feel that this topic could not go on any longer. He spat
his words out through his gritted teeth, “We've always been sleeping
separately.”

“Oh right, you only have one spare set at home. I've even slept on them
before.” Fayn was even more puzzled now. “Then why are you buying new
ones?”

Wasn't it because that damned rabbit wouldn't go in its nest? Adrian shot
Zhong Yan a look that said: You wanted to buy the blankets, you deal with
it.

So Zhong Yan did. Swift as a blade, he blurted out, “One of them got dirty.”

Fayn asked, “Wouldn't it take just two hours to throw it in the washer and
dryer?”

“…It ripped, so I threw it out.” Zhong Yan forced himself further down the
rabbit hole.

Fayn was shocked. “What on earth did you do to not only get a blanket
dirty but also ripped?”
Zhong Yan looked to Adrian. It almost looked as if he was trying to ask for
his permission to tell, but in truth, it meant: I can't anymore, you go.

The words “what the hell kind of a stupid reason is that?” were practically
written in Adrian's eyes.

Even Fayn was feeling hesitant. He could not believe what was going on.
“Could it be… you two…fought?”

“Adjutant Suster, stop asking about the blanket,” Wei Lan interjected.

Both Adrian and Zhong Yan breathed a sigh of relief, only to hear Wei Lan
say, “The blanket must be dirty for reasons that are inconvenient to explain,
thus why the commander is not saying it. So it would be better for you not
to ask.”

“Pf-” Fayn could not help himself from laughing.

Adrian rubbed his forehead. Zhong Yan turned his head to observe the logo
on Adrian's car and pretended that they were no longer caught up in this
troubling conversation.

“What's wrong?” Seeing the reaction of the two, Wei Lan's spoke with some
confusion, “After the commander's suggestion from last time, I reflected on
it and felt that it made sense, so I've been learning to read the atmosphere…
was there anything wrong with what I said?”

Fayn tensed up immediately, and said earnestly to him, “You're absolutely

right, Dr. Wei! It's my fault for being too dense. I won't ask anymore. Have
you been practicing just recently? I think you've really made great
progress!”

Adrian said to Wei Lan, “No, I don't think you…”

But before he could finish, Fayn hooked his arm around his neck and
brought him to the side, whispering, “Come on, bro, what's up with you?
Can't you be a little nicer to Dr. Wei?”
“Me? Not nice enough?” Adrian was at his limits. “And what the hell's with
what he's saying?”

“Then tell me, what are you buying the blankets for?”

Adrian: “…”

“Look, you're not gonna say it either, so isn't it an inconvenient reason to

talk about? What did he say wrong?”

In that instant, Adrian felt the impulse to come clean to Fayn about the
rabbit in his backyard and be done with it. This guy would definitely make
fun of him, but so be it then.

“What's more, he's only saying this now because of that random suggestion
you gave him, now look what you've done.” Fayn tried to persuade him,
“Anyway, he was just trying to be nice and help you out. I was going to
mess around more if he never spoke up, it's just too hard to pass up.”

“Get outta here.” Adrian said, “We'll go our own way after dinner. I can't
stand him.”

The differences between people are too huge, so Adrian thought. He didn't
even have one-hundredth of the tolerance that Zhong Yan had. Only Fayn
could stand him.

“Alright, alright, I won't bother you with your bed accessory shopping,
okay? Don't be so cold man.”

While talking, Fayn led him back with his arm still around his shoulders.
Enthusiastically, he turned to Wei Lan. “The commander said he didn't
think your efforts were fruitless. You're doing really great right now!”

Adrian couldn't stand to hear more so he twisted his head to the side, and
noticed that Zhong Yan was looking straight at him. With outsiders around,
his demeanor was as calm as still water, but Adrian could still see
resentment welling up in his beautiful phoenix eyes.
What happened? Adrian pondered on it for a moment and realized that
Fayn's arm was still around him.

Zhong Yan had once accused him of “being interested in Fayn”.

Adrian shuddered and shrugged Fayn's arm off his shoulder.

“What's up with you?” Fayn suddenly asked while speaking with Wei Lan,
perplexed.

“Stop pulling me around when you talk. Do it normally. There's people

watching, show some propriety.”

“What? Who's watching?” Fayn asked.

Zhong Yan quickly paved a way out for Adrian. “So what's good to eat in
Navi's capital? I saw some good reviews for a steakhouse in the virtual
community, should we eat there?”

“Sure, get in the car.” With years of tacit understanding built up between
them, Adrian followed him out without any hesitation. He opened the door
to the driver's seat and spoke with grave sincerity to Fayn, “We have one
day off and it's work again tomorrow. Better set your mind back for that and
stop asking useless questions.”

“What? But I didn't do…”

But before he could finish, Adrian had already gotten in the car with his
final last words of “I'll send you the address” before shutting the door.

“Did you really find a good steakhouse?” Adian asked.

“Yeah, I saw some good reviews of the black pepper sauce in this place.
They made it themselves.” Zhong Yan turned on his terminal and showed
him the address. “It's this one. Have you been there?”

“Nope. Let's go try it out.” Adrian sent Fayn the address.

Zhong Yan thought about what Adrian told him not long ago, about the
change in his taste, so he asked hesitantly, “How come you haven't been
there? Do you not like black pepper steak anymore? Should we go
somewhere else…”

Adrian activated the driver's panel and said, “You're overthinking it. I've
been busy and this is a new shop, I just haven't had the time to go.”

The two pairs met up outside the restaurant. When they walked in together,
half of the people in the steakhouse stood up.

The sounds of greeting such as “Good day, Commander”, and “Good day,
Adjutant” could be heard resounding through the restaurant.

Adrian gave them an acknowledging nod before waving his hand, signaling
for them to sit. “Happy New Year's everybody, please, continue.”

Though he said that, it was clearly still difficult for some not to pay
attention to them. Though they've seen their commander eating with the
adjutant quite often, it was rare for their commander to be seen together
with that unmentionable person.

The business in this shop was good, and four people just so happened to
have finished their meals in the corner, leaving a vacant table.

Zhong Yan took the innermost seat and sat down. Adrian sat beside him,
whilst the two others sat opposite of them. There was an ordering screen in
front of every person, but Adrian shut off his own menu without even
looking at it and connected his personal terminal to the screen. Most
restaurants offered this setting so their customers could look through their
terminal while dining.

“Are you not eating, Commander?” Wei Lan asked, confused.

Fayn rolled his eyes and responded for him. “No, he's eating. Someone else
will order for him.”
Adrian was flipping through the news and was just about to say something
when he heard that, but he heard the one sitting beside him speak to him
softly, “I'm done. You like it medium-rare, right? With a side of vegetables,
but you should skip the pasta since I still have to give you half of my steak.
It's not good to eat too much.”

Adrian casually responded, “Anything's fine, you decide.”

“Look at that, Doctor. I can't stand it. They were like this every time they
ate when they were still in school.” Fayn complained to Wei Lan, “I never
ate with them alone after that, and I also stopped calling people out for
rumor mongering in the school's gossip forum.”

Wei Lan was born without much interest in the interpersonal relationships
of others. For him, reading about medical literature was much more
interesting than gossip, but Fayn was a rare friend of his, so he tried his best
to figure out how he was supposed to react and came to the conclusion that
“Fayn was envious that Adrian has someone to order food for him”. Since
he was in unfamiliar territory, he pondered over the matter seriously and felt
that there was nothing wrong with his conclusion. Only then did he say,
“Adjutant Suster, I can also order for you if you don't mind.”

This time, not only Adrian, even the pinnacle of calm, Zhong Yan, raised
his head to look at them.

It was like Fayn had suddenly turned mute. He stared at Wei Lan's delicate
face, but he could not spit out a single word. After hemming and hawing for
a long time, he finally mustered, “I…don't need help, how about I order for
you? Ah, no…I mean…”

“I've already ordered.” Wei Lan looked in confusion at the state of his
breathing and said, “Adjutant, you seem to be breathing unsteadily. What's
wrong? Is your glucose level low?”

Zhong Yan shook his head almost undetectably before lowering his head to
the menu again and added a drink for Adrian.

Adrian sighed in his heart and opened up a chat with Fayn.

Fayn received two incoming message prompts back to back, so he quickly
slipped away from Wei Lan's questioning with the excuse of checking his
messages. Opening it up, it read:

Adrian: Are you an idiot?

Adrian: That was too embarrassing, don't tell anyone you know me.

Fayn: Go buy your blankets and leave me alone.

Wei Lan was the fastest of them to order so his meal was ready soon after.
A young girl brought his dish over and placed it in front of Wei Lan before
saying the usual “please be careful, it's hot” and so on.

When she left, she gave a few hard glances to Zhong Yan, and she was
completely unable to cover up that strange smile on her face that was
different from the usual business smile. The girl's eyes were so fiery that
both Adrian and Zhong Yan had noticed them.

…For some strange reason, that smile and gaze felt rather familiar, so
Zhong Yan thought.

Adrian's thoughts were far simpler than his; he figured that someone would
only stare at Zhong Yan because of how good he looked, and this was
already a common occurrence since they were still in school. He swept his
eyes over the restaurant—he and Zhong Yan were sitting in the deepest part
of the restaurant, and thus were facing the entire restaurant, so they could
easily see the situation around the whole restaurant. He had only realized
from that quick glance that practically the entire restaurant had been
watching them subtly.

Fayn and Wei Lan had their back towards the rest of the restaurant, so the
only ones they could see were him and Zhong Yan. Since he was stationed
on Navi's capital for the long-term, it was not rare at all to see him here.

Adrian turned sideways to look at Zhong Yan. For the sake of setting the
atmosphere, the overall lighting in the establishment was very dim, but
there was still a warm yellow light shining down above each diner.
Being caught in the beam, Zhong Yan's skin still appeared extremely fair
despite the warm yellow lighting. Currently, he was quietly sitting with his
hands propping up his cheek, his head lowered down to look at the virtual
screen on the table. A warm shadow was cast beneath his eyes from his
long eyelashes. This was clearly a peaceful and serene scene like that of an
oil painting, but he still felt a strong allure when he looked closer upon the
face in that painting.

Adrian suddenly stood up, and the other three people sharing his table
jumped in surprise.

“You two,” said Adrian to Fayn and Wei Lan who had their backs to the rest
of the restaurant, “change seats with us.”
 Chapter 40: Black Pepper Sauce

"Why?" asked Fayn.

Adrian told him, "I don't like sitting on the inside."

"How come I've never heard you say anything like that in the past?" Fayn
said. "Dr. Wei's food is already here. We should just stay put."

Adrian had already gotten out of his seat and helped Wei Lan move his dish
to Zhong Yan's spot. Wei Lan had no comments on the issue, and Zhong
Yan had only casually sat down there; since Adrian wanted to change, the
two of them didn't mind doing so.

Seeing that Wei Lan had already moved over, Fayn followed him over
despite having nary an idea on what Adrian was trying to do. The table was
very wide, so those sitting next to each other were much closer than the
people sitting across from them.

Not long after changing their seats, their food was served.

Adrian took away the decorative flower on his dish and passed it to Zhong
Yan.

First, Zhong Yan carefully observed his steak for a few moments before he
began to cut into it. With his eyes alone, he could see a small amount of
tendon that was hard to chew on the steak he ordered, but they were quite
thankfully gathered mostly on one half of the steak. Zhong Yan carefully
planned out the line he was going to cut and sliced out the half of the steak
that was pure meat.

Just as he was done, Adrian suddenly reached over and snagged away the
tough half with his fork.
Before Zhong Yan could react to what had happened, Adrian had already
put that half of the steak on his own plate and pushed it back in front of
him.

"Wait!" Zhong Yan quickly spoke, "You got the wrong one, that one's not
for you."

"You really think you can cut or chew this half with your strength? You're
slow enough as you are," Adrian said impatiently. "Stop bullshitting and
start eating."

Helpless, Zhong Yan could only eat his meal.

Fayn tried a few bites and said, "No wonder this place is so highly praised
in the virtual community. I thought the shop hired people to write reviews
but the black pepper sauce is actually really good."

"Yeah," Adrian echoed his sentiments. "The taste is not bad."

Zhong Yan paused in his movements for a second and looked pensively at
Adrian's plate.

Near the end of the meal, the waitress who had brought Wei Lan's meal
came over again. This time, she brought Adrian a caramel pudding in a tall
crystal glass.

Adrian was doubtful. "Did we order this?"

"Commander Yate, our boss says this is a gift for you," the girl explained.
"This is to thank you for your contributions to the Navi System. It's just a
simple dessert. We hope you enjoy it."

Adrian nodded. "In that case, please help me thank your boss for his
sincerity."

The girl thanked him again and took another look at Zhong Yan, then
turning back to look at Adrian. A dreamlike look appeared on her face, and
she left again.
She thought she wasn't being too obvious, but Adrian still noticed it. He
couldn't help but find the waitress a bit strange, but he did not think much
of it.

He pushed the pudding towards Zhong Yan's side and said, "You eat it."

"They gave it to you, it wouldn't be nice if you didn't eat it," Zhong Yan
refused.

"I've already thanked them" Adrian grimaced at the layer of caramel on top.
"It's too sweet. We have our backs against the restaurant, nobody's gonna
see."

Adrian did not enjoy eating sweets, and would only barely accept matcha
flavored cakes; Zhong Yan knew this. With some awkwardness, he offered,
"Why don't I eat the caramel layer for you?"

Fayn poked his nose in on purpose. "I can eat it for you, boss. I'm not afraid
of sweets, bring it over."

Adrian glared at him and pushed the cup in front of Zhong Yan. "Hurry up,
stop dallying. I'm going to go wash my hands. I want to see you done with
that when I'm back."

The washroom was close to the back kitchen of the steakhouse. When he
passed by the kitchen after washing his hands, Adrian caught sight of the
waitress crouched into a corner with her head down, looking at something.

After some hesitation, he sneaked up to her.

He wasn't trying to do anything bad. Adrian was really only doing this
because he found her earlier expression strange and it made him suspicious,
especially with how she was secretly squatting here and all, and so he
quietly sneaked up behind her.

When he realized that the girl was only checking some messages in a small
chat group on her terminal, he immediately wanted to retreat and avoid
intruding on the privacy of others, but it was already too late.
Being rather short, Adrian was much taller than the girl, which made it easy
for him to see the contents of her screen from behind her. Thanks to his
good dynamic vision, Adrian was able to see at one glance the name of that
chat group-Silver Eyes Giant Space Rabbit Frontline Discussion Squad
(Navi Platoon).

Silver eyes...

Giant rabbit...

What the hell does that mean?

Don't all rabbits have red eyes?

And what's that Navi Platoon thing in the parenthesis? Did they have other
platoons elsewhere as well?

Adrian was completely puzzled, and at the same time, he felt that those
stupid creatures, the giant space rabbits, had been coming up in his life way
too much recently. Ever since he graduated and no longer had to stare at
Zhong Yan's giant space rabbit bed sheets, it had been many long years
since he had heard the name of that creature.

But actually, he did have a conjecture in his heart; he felt that those two
words seemed to have something to do with both him and Zhong Yan, but
he really couldn't bring himself to peek at the contents of another person's
messages again, so he could only leave in confusion. He decided to wait till
he returned home to investigate what that chat group was all about.

......

The four of them said their farewells at the entrance of the restaurant.

Zhong Yan and Adrian were headed towards where they parked their car
when the cold winter wind blew past. Zhong Yan rubbed his neck and
stopped in his tracks. He turned to Adrian and said, "You should go ahead
and start the car first. I seem to have forgotten my scarf at the steakhouse.
I'll go get it."
"I'll go with you," said Adrian, and he casually added on, "I'll wait at the
entrance. Otherwise, what am I going to do if you ran off?"

When they went back to the steakhouse, someone had already occupied
their corner. The staff at the front desk said, "Zhong...Ah, um...are you here
for your scarf?"

"Yes, that's right."

"It's over here, the waiter who cleaned the table picked it up earlier." The
cashier handed the scarf to him. "Here."

"Thank you." Instead of receiving it, Zhong Yan paused for a moment
before asking in a quiet voice, "Is your boss in the shop?"

"Huh?" The cashier was surprised. "Do you need our boss for something?"

"I'd like to speak with him."

The cashier made a call, and a middle-aged man with a beer belly came out
not long after. He looked puzzlingly at Zhong Yan and was just about to ask
what he needed when he was stunned in place, unsure of what he should
refer to him as.

But while he was still feeling troubled over what to call Zhong Yan, Zhong
Yan began, "Hello, may I ask if you are willing to sell the formula to your
black pepper sauce?" I can sign a confidentiality agreement, and I can
guarantee you that it is only for personal use. I will not use it for profits and
I will never make the formula public. If you're willing to sell it to me, you
can name me your price."

The boss wiped his sweat and said, "Oh, so it's about that! And here I was
wondering what went wrong...Well, I don't mind. The price can be flexible
if you're using it for yourself...but a breach of contract is going to cost you
more, is that a deal?"

"Deal," Zhong Yan easily agreed. Adrian was still standing outside so he
was in a rush to go. He exchanged contact information with the boss and
decided to wait till they were back before settling the contract.

But just as he was about to go, the cashier who was still holding onto Zhong
Yan's scarf quickly stopped him. "Oh wait, hold on, Zhong-"

"Don't say it!" The boss was so shocked that he quickly interrupted the
cashier.

"Oh no, I forgot!" The cashier was also sweating heavily in shock. She
patted her chest and said, "Gosh, that scared me, I nearly blurted it out.
Thank God Commander Yate isn't here."

"Blurted what out?" Zhong Yan, who had been called back, asked
suspiciously, "And why are you thankful he's not here?"

The cashier returned his scarf to him while the boss said in surprise, "Do
you really not know? We can't say your name in our star system. Otherwise,
the Commander will get furious."

"...Oh." No wonder. Zhong Yan carefully recalled the people he had come
in contact with in Navi System, and it was indeed true that he rarely heard
anyone call him by name.

The cashier asked, "Sir, are you and the Commander getting married? Time
is almost up to pay the fine." But more importantly, the two of them did not
seem to be at each other's throats like the rumors said when they came to
eat.

The boss waved his hands. "The Commander has his own plans, naturally.
So don't ask nonsense."

Zhong Yan bid them farewell and left. After he did, the cashier said to her
boss, "I wonder what he wants the formula for."

"What else for? Didn't he just eat dinner here? He liked it so he wants to
cook it for himself when he returns to the Capital."

The cashier was even more confused. She said, "But he didn't order black
pepper just now. He wrote it himself in the notes that he wanted tomato
sauce. I don't think he likes black pepper at all."

......

"What took you so long?" Adrian asked just as Zhong Yan came out, "Was
it that difficult to get your scarf?"

Without arguing, Zhong Yan said, "Come on, let's go buy the blankets."

The streets were bustling as it was the first day of the New Year's, so there
were quite a lot of people passing by them. Many people recognized the
two who were walking side by side, and they were all watching them, even
turning back to look after passing them by.

Adrian stopped in his steps. Before Zhong Yan could even ask what's
wrong, Adrian pulled the hood of his jacket over his head with one hand.

Zhong Yan was startled. Of course, he knew that many people were
watching them, but he had already been long accustomed to drawing gazes
after being the focus of attention for the last decade. It was reasonable to
say that Adrian should be used to it as well. Maybe...Adrian just didn't want
to be seen walking next to him by too many people.

But that was only normal. Zhong Yan pulled up his scarf silently. After all,
Adrian should scorn him for his current identity. Or perhaps, he did not hate
it, but only did not wish to be seen with him. After all, the boss told him
earlier that Adrian would get furious if he so much as heard his name.

"I would've brought a pair of sunglasses if I'd known earlier." Zhong Yan's
voice was muffled by his scarf. "Why don't we split up? I remember where
the car is."

Adrian could not understand his train of thought. "Split up? Why? Are you
really trying to escape? But what you said makes sense, I'll get you a pair of
sunglasses later. It's like these people have lived all their lives never seeing
a..." a good looking person before.
He had swallowed down the last bit of his words back in time. But
unfortunately, he had already said words like those many times seven years
ago in the past, so it did not stop Zhong Yan from understanding what he
meant at all.

In order not to make it awkward for Adrian, he tried his best to press down
his urge to smile, and quickly pulled out a question, "Oh right, did we leash
the rabbit before coming out?"

"It's leashed," Adrian responded, "Your memory's terrible, you asked me

that just before we came out."

The two chatted idly about the rabbit while entering the car, and headed
towards the shopping district.
 Chapter 41: Mystery Forum

Since the blankets were for the giant space rabbit kit, naturally, they had to
be the biggest ones.

Adrian brought Zhong Yan into the largest bedding shop. The sales assistant
recognized him and quickly came to ask what he needed.

“What's the biggest type of blanket you have here?” Adrian asked.

It was a strange question, but the sales assistant still answered to the best of
her ability, “We only have a few varieties in the largest size. They are
designed specifically for extended king-sized beds, but any beds below 2.3
meters would not require it. May I ask how large your bed is?”

…About 8 meters long and wide.

Adrian responded, “I just want your largest. Give me twenty.”

The sales assistant could not believe her ears. “Did you say…twenty?!”

“You don't have the stock?”

“We…We do have the stock.” The sales assistant stuttered. “Should I show
you the designs? Do you have any color preferences?”

“Any twenty will do. I'm not picky,” said Adrian. It's just for a rabbit. What
kind of fancy designs did it need?

Just as he said that, he heard a soft voice from behind him saying, “We have
to choose, the colors have to be bright.”
Only then did the sales assistant notice that a shorter man was following
right behind Adrian. That man was wearing a hood with his head slightly
lowered. The sales assistant had initially thought it was one of Adrian's
army friends so she did not pay attention to him. But now, only when the
man raised his head to speak did the sales assistant finally catch a glimpse
of that shocking face.

The person who came with Adrian to buy blankets actually happened to be
he-who-shall-not-be-named! She was even more shocked now than when
she had heard Adrian asking for twenty blankets in one breath.

But the most shocking parts were still to come.

Adrian revealed an incomprehensible expression as he turned to ask Zhong

Yan, “Why? Are the gi…are they picky with colors too?”

They? The sales assistant perked her ears. Were they buying these for
someone else? What kind of person was worthy enough to have both the
Chief Commander of the Navi Military Command and a Representative
Councilor of the Supreme Council buying stuff for them?

Zhong Yan nodded resolutely. “Bright colors are more attractive to them.”

“How old do you think they are? You think they care about that?”

What? Turbulent waves were crashing in the sales assistant's heart. How old
did they think they were…Was it a child?

“It's because they're…still young.” Knowing that other people were around,
Zhong Yan chose his words with caution, and vaguely said, “His character
may change when he grows up a bit, but it's just part of a newborn's natural
nature.”

A newborn baby! The walls were crashing down on the sales assistant's
heart.

Adrian looked doubtfully at Zhong Yan for a moment. Why are creatures
living in the galaxy all year round attracted to bright colors by nature?
But Zhong Yan was the professional in this regard, so Adrian definitely did
not want to be questioning him in his field. It is highly likely that he would
be force-fed a scientific education on this subject for days to come. Even if
he was not going to speak about it in public in front of everyone, he would
definitely do so when they reached home. Adrian wisely chose to swallow
down his response of “That makes no sense”, and turned back to the sales
assistant. “Give me bright colors, in your biggest size. I want twenty. Do
you have pillows? I need big ones.”

“Large bolsters and cushions are fine too,” Zhong Yan added on from the
side.

The sales assistant was barely able to squeeze out a professional smile and
led the two further inside. “Yes, we do have large pillows. What do you
think about this one? There's this type too. We have large cushions over
here as well.”

Zhong Yan went over to pick out some pillows with the sales assistant.
Meanwhile, after looking for a long time, Adrian picked up a big red pillow
and gave it to Zhong Yan, asking, “What about this one? It's bright.”

Zhong Yan reached out to squeeze the pillow and said without any
hesitation, “This won't do. This is buckwheat husk, isn't it? It's not soft.”

“Isn't it quite soft?” It took so much effort for Adrian to pick one that he
could not let this go. Frustrated, he squeezed it himself and said, “Let's buy
a few.”

“If I say it's not soft enough then it's not soft enough. Am I the expert here
or are you?”

Adrian shut up. He tossed the big red pillow back with indignation and
grumbled, “This is too damn troublesome. I'm going to be throwing him out
anyway.”

Zhong Yan quickly turned around and said in a stern voice, “What are you
saying? You were the one who…” brought it back “you have to take
responsibility.”
“Should I still…note it down?” The sales assistant had the store's
customized electronic stock records in hand while she looked at the two
men giddily.

“No.” Adrian spat, “Don't ask me, ask him.”

A short while later, the sales assistant recorded down the few types of
pillows Zhong Yan had picked out, while Adrian added on, “Give me ten of
each of these.”

“Ten? Of each?!” The sales assistant asked, her voice nearly cracking.

“Don't, that's too much,” Zhong Yan quickly stopped him.

The sales assistant thought to herself: Yeah, even if you want to spoil a
child you shouldn't buy so much in one go—

“It won't fit in the car,” Zhong Yan continued on. “Just buy a few for now,
we can get more next time.”

Adrian pondered on it and found it reasonable, so he said to the sales

assistant, “Keep a backup of this list. I'll come back for it next time. I'll pay
for the blankets first. Get some people to move them to my car.”

Adrian wrote down his parking lot number and left after settling the bill.
The sales assistant looked at the figures of their backs with a dazed face and
was out of it for quite some time.

“Hey…hey!” A few of her other colleagues, who didn't have anyone to tend
to, came over and gave her a nudge. “What's wrong?”

“What did Commander Yate buy just now?” A colleague asked.

The other began, “Was that the taboo councilor next to him earlier? I
thought they didn't get along. Why did they come out to shop together
today?”

The sales assistant slowly came back to her senses and told her colleagues,
“I…I think I just heard about something amazing from them…”
……

Once they returned home, Adrian temporarily passed Zhong Yan the
authorization rights to the back door and threw the arrangement of the
rabbit nest to him.

He was originally prepared to settle some of his official duties, but it was
the first day of the New Year's; it wasn't just him, most of the people in the
Federation were on vacation, so there really wasn't much to do. At this time,
he suddenly recalled the strange waitress he met during dinner, as well as
her little discussion group.

Adrian pulled up an incognito software, the results of the research and

development team. This software could create a virtual terminal address to
cover up his real identity, so he could avoid being tracked by “Butterfly” for
a short period. In recent years, this was the type of illegal technology used
by those within “Specimen” to dish out anonymous leaks in the virtual
community.

But this time, he was not using the virtual terminal for anything related to
“Butterfly”. Silver eyes were a well-known physical feature of the Yate
family, so Adrian felt that this group must have been formed against him. It
was better to not risk using his account to investigate.

He set up his anonymous account, and typed in “Silver Eyes Giant Space
Rabbit Discussion”. Thanks to the accuracy of the search phrase, he was
able to find the entrance to the forum quite easily. Once he entered, a
seemingly clean-looking forum appeared, and the introduction greeted him:
The Silver Eyes Giant Space Rabbit Forum, founded seven years ago. A
discussion group for the biotechnology enthusiasts amongst the people,
discussing on how to cultivate silver-eyed giant space rabbits.

It sounded harmless enough, but something seemed off regardless of how

he thought about it. Adrian casually opened up a tool to bring up webpage
traffic data and typed in the forum's name. What he found was that the user
loyalty rating was shockingly high. Measuring the user loyalty levels of a
forum with the tool's algorithms would usually bring up results of about
10%, but this Silver Eyes Giant Space Rabbit forum had the staggering
results of 72%

…Cultivating giant space rabbits with silver eyes…is that really such an
attractive topic?

But to really look inside the forums posts, you would need to have
membership rights. Adrian chose to register in the forum, and a long
questionnaire popped out.

The top read: Due to the special circumstances of the forum, we adopt a
strict membership system where new members are required to answer a set
of questions before they are manually reviewed. As the largest forum in this
circle, truly likeminded brothers and sisters should be able to understand
our cautiousness. If you can't understand the contents, this forum has
nothing to do with you, so we wish you a good day before you leave.

Adrian, who could not understand yet was reluctant to leave, trudged
onwards.

First question, short answer question. What is the most important article of
the Code for the forum.

…No idea, skip.

Second question, essay question. Please explain in detail the meaning

behind this forum name.

…Seems like the introduction on the front page was written for nothing.

Adrian gave up his idea of becoming a member and turned to use the
keywords to search for that discussion group instead. As expected, he found
a lot of relevant groups. In addition to the so-called “frontline squad” he
saw that day, there were a lot of less private groups. He chose a random one
out of them, but he still had to answer a verification question despite the
lower privacy requirements: Please answer the family names of any of the
main characters.
Adrian pondered on it for a moment. The group he saw earlier with the
name “frontline” something had entries like “Navi Platoon” and “Capital
Platoon”, so he could almost be certain that these groups were related to
him and Zhong Yan. After all, it was no secret that Zhong Yan loved giant
space rabbits, and knowledge of it was even more well known after he
promoted the anti-hunting bill.

He thought about it, and typed in the answer “Zhong”.

Verification passed.

Several people welcomed him for joining, but even more people were
discussing heatedly about something in the group.

“I also want to see for myself how good the President looks! Ah, will I
make it in time if I move to Navi now?”

“Did you take a good look at the post? The girl who leaked the news said
their height difference was super cute! There probably haven't been many
people who've seen them standing together in real life.”

“I can only use holographic projections to image the height difference…”

“Are they that rare? Hasn't everyone in the administration group of our
forum seen it in the past? After all, they were part of the gossip board in the
Supreme Institution.”

“Based on our forum's standards, sitting and eating together is no different

from getting married and having sex, huh?”

“No no, they weren't eating alone, the informant said other people were
there too.”

“Then they're married, but haven't done it yet.”

“It's reasonable to say that the truth is not too far off, friends! They're still in
the state of wedding preparations! I don't care, there's only a few days left
and they still haven't paid the fines. They're definitely not paying it.”
“They'll get married! They won't pay the fine! It will definitely happen if I
keep lying to myself every day.”

“Wasn't it one of the frontline girls in Navi who leaked the news that the
Chief is super rich?”

Adrian looked at the scrolling chat on his screen, and was speechless for a
moment; it felt like he was reliving the shock he felt from seeing the Twin
Star tag on the school's gossip forum for the first time ten years ago, but the
shock he received today was clearly even greater. After all, everyone spoke
very vaguely in the school's forum. Nobody dared to say words like “having
sex” and whatnot.

He mulled over it for a long time before he could finally type out something
to try and figure out what this group of people were doing. “Sorry, I'm new
here/ May I ask why you're still calling Adrian Yate 'Chief' and Zhong Yan
'President'? They've graduated for so many years. And also, who leaked that
Yate was rich?”

His questions hit like a grenade, and the entire group was roaring.

“…Don't mention the names!!! What's with this newbie??? Where are the
moderators?”

“First article of the Code! Don't mention their real names!!! Do not ask
about the identity of the informants!!!”

“The newbie sounds strange, did they join on accident?”

“Don't mention their real names! Don't ask about the informants! It's a hard
life trying to find a place to squeal over them! Are the moderators going to
deal with this? This is a blatant violation of the Code.”

The group administrator soon appeared, “Checked the terminal address, not
a forum member. Could be a mistake, should we kick them out?”

A line of agreements popped up below.

Before Adrian had any time to argue, his terminal screen popped out of the
chat group.

“You have been kicked out of the group.”

 Chapter 42: Rabbit Nest
Adventures

Adrian's espionage mission failed miserably just as he began. Besides

finding out two articles of its mysterious “Code”, he got nothing else out of
it.

He shut down the incognito software and felt like he really was too idle. He
was wondering if he should prepare his speech for tomorrow's meeting in
advance when a call suddenly came in.

It was Fayn. Adrian picked up the call, and before he could even say
anything, he heard snarling from the other end, “Can you do something?!
He called me for two nights straight! These are the only two nights in Dr.
Wei's entire working year that he's free! He keeps interrupting us every time
I get a good vibe going! I knew he had something against me…Is this
revenge? You…”

“Slow down, buddy,” said Adrian, confused. “Who called you for two
nights straight?”

“Who else?! That guy in your house! He asked me where you were
yesterday, and now he wants me to pass on a message to you. Why can't he
just message you directly?”

Awkwardly, Adrian replied, “…Because he can't get to me. He's on my

blacklist. What does he need?”

“He wants you to go look for him right now, said he's got ‘a bit of a
problem'. I asked where he was, and he actually told me he was in your
house! Fucking shit…You're both in the same house, what kinda problem
does he have that he can't just knock on your door? Are you guys doing
some kinda play? Could you not drag me into it?”

A bit of a problem? Is the rabbit not getting into the nest? That's not right…
He knew how Zhong Yan was. He definitely wasn't the type who would
seek help if it was something he could handle himself, much less seeking
help from someone he doesn't even have a good opinion of. If the blankets
weren't working, he would definitely come knocking himself to tell Adrian.

Then what was it? Looking at the time, they've been back for quite a while.
He thought that Zhong Yan was already done laying out the blankets for the
rabbit's nest and should not be outside at this moment, but did something
dangerous happen? Adrian's chest constricted. He stood up and said as he
walked towards the backyard, “Alright, I got it.”

“What did you get? You have to deal with the situation…”

Adrian had no mood to deal with him anymore so he interrupted him

outright, “Alright alright, I'll deal with it. I got stuff to do so I'm hanging
up.”

He opened the door to Zhong Yan's room. As expected, it was empty. So, he
headed to the backyard.

The eight-meter-high rabbit nest was on the grass, but he didn't see the
rabbit. Thinking about it, the blankets must have been effective so the rabbit
should be in the nest. Adrian circled around to the nest's entrance and
instantly stopped.

To be precise, half of the rabbit was in the nest, but half of its white and
furry buttocks and its big round tail was exposed.

Adrian looked around, but Zhong Yan was nowhere to be seen.

Suspiciously, he walked over and flipped through the giant fluff of a rabbit
tail, but he was not inside.

“Zhong Yan?” He tried to shout.

Unexpectedly, he got a response. Zhong Yan's voice sounded out from
inside the rabbit's nest and was transmitted from an area close to the door.
“I'm here.”

Adrian managed to pinpoint his position by the sound, and he walked

towards the door. He asked, “Did you finally get eaten by this rabbit?”

“No, giant space rabbits don't eat meat,” he responded, but his voice
sounded a bit muffled through the artificial wooden planks. “I tried to lead
it in with the rope after putting down the blankets, but the door was too
small, so it…it got stuck, and I couldn't get out either.”

Adrian reached into the dense rabbit fur and touched the edges of the door:
there was no gap. Sure enough, it was stuck. He shouted to the inside,
“Then let it out.”

“I tried, it doesn't want to go out, it just kept pushing in!” shouted Zhong
Yan back to him. “I told you the blankets were effective!”

“It's really effective. Amazing,” Adrian mocked with sarcasm. “So Mr.
Rabbit Expert, may I ask how you're going to get out of there now?”

Zhong Yan was defeated, and jabbed back after a long time, “You're the one
who made the door too small!”

“This rabbit is fatter than I thought,” Adrian said. He thought the rabbit just
looked puffy because of its dense fur, but he never expected a genuine deal.

“Why don't you widen the door a bit? Do you have any tools like chainsaws
or whatnot in your house?” Zhong Yan asked from inside.

“That I do, but you'll have to come out of there first, or the wood chips will
fly everywhere.”

Adrian circled around the exposed rabbit butt. Actually, there were two
skylights at the top of the nest for ventilation. It was big enough for a
person to pass through it, but it was too high up. There was only a single
ladder in the house so there was no way for him to get him out after getting
up there. Looking around, there seemed to be a small gap at the rabbit's
back.

The door was too narrow so the rabbit was stuck on both sides, but it was
tall enough that there was some space on top.

“Climb up onto the rabbit's back first, then you can walk out on its back,”
Adrian instructed him.

Awkwardly, Zhong Yan touched the rabbit's ears and said, “I tried that,
but…I couldn't do it.”

“It's laying down, how tall do you think it is? Can't you get up just by
pulling on its hair?”

Zhong Yan tried again, but his arms were not strong enough. After tussling
about for a long time, he still did not get anywhere besides tiring himself
out and panting.

The little rabbit kit thought he was trying to play with it, so it nudged its
head over and rubbed him softly.

“I can't get up.” On the edge of tears, Zhong Yan sat on the blankets and
said this to the outside.

Adrian's muffled voice sounded out from the outside, “Well color me
impressed, you can't even climb up this height?” Then, he stopped talking.

Did he leave because of how useless he was? Zhong Yan lifted up the
rabbit's ear and placed it on himself before sitting down, downcasted. It was
fine if Adrian left, the rabbit would have to go out for some exercise during
the day anyway, he could just go out then. There were so many blankets
inside that it wasn't cold either…

Suddenly, the clear voice of a familiar man came from above his head, “I
moved you out of my blacklist.”

Zhong Yan raised his head and saw Adrian looking down at him from above
the rabbit. The moonlight shone in from the skylight and was cast upon him
like a spotlight on a stage.

“Don't call my subordinates so casually next time, especially at night. He's

also a single man, what do you think would happen to his image if word
gets out? But of course, that doesn't mean you can bother me either, so you
better watch yourself, understood?”

Zhong Yan looked up at him, and answered dazedly, “Okay.”

Adrian jumped down and landed nimbly beside Zhong Yan. The kit turned
its head over in an attempt to nuzzle him, but it was pushed away with
disapproval.

“This rabbit is too stupid.” As he said that, he pulled Zhong Yan up from
the ground. “I'll pull you up.”

“Wait, hold on. The blankets were quite big so I didn't use all of them
earlier, we have two left.” Zhong Yan motioned Adrian towards the side.

The whole nest was full of bright colors like red, yellow, green, and blue;
Adrian could hardly see where the leftover blankets were.

“We can bring it back and I can use it, I was just thinking of changing mine
anyway,” said Zhong Yan.

“What's wrong with your current one?”

“Didn't Suster say during dinner…” Zhong Yan went on awkwardly, “Didn't
he say that was the set he used when he slept at your house? I don't want to
use the same set of beddings as him.”

Adrian grunted, “He said the one he used were the spares in my house.”

“He said you only had one set of spares, so shouldn't the one on my bed
be…”

“Yeah, there's only one set of spares, and I'm using it. The room you're
sleeping in is my room, my bed, and my blankets.”
Zhong Yan looked at Adrian in disbelief, and stuttered, “What…”

“If you don't like it, then bring one over. Hurry up.” Saying that, Adrian
was going to grab the remaining two blankets, but he was stopped by Zhong
Yan.

“Well…it's quite troublesome to take it up, we still have to climb up the

rabbit's back, so…let's not.”

“Can't you make up your mind? Get up if you're not getting them.”

Adrian crouched down to allow Zhong Yan to step on his shoulder, then he
stood up and sent Zhong Yan up by supporting his legs. Meanwhile, he
grabbed the rabbit's fur and easily climbed up himself.

“Let's go,” he said to Zhong Yan, who did not dare to move. “I'm here, you
won't fall.”

Zhong Yan nodded. He walked unsteadily over the kit's back. It really was
reassuring to have Adrian right behind him. They bent down to cross
through the door of the rabbit's nest. Zhong Yan looked at the ground and
said anxiously, “…How do we get down?”

Adrian jumped down first. The grass was not as soft as the blankets in the
nest, but he rolled out of it and reduced the impact. It did still hurt a little.
An indiscernible frown crossed Adrian's brows, that bit of pain would not
bother him; but if it was Zhong Yan's soft and tender body, it might…

“Why don't you move a ladder over?” said Zhong Yan from on top of the
rabbit.

“No need, just jump. I'll catch you.”

Adrian spread his arms wide and raised his head to look at him, “Come.”

Zhong Yan took a breath. It took so much effort for him to struggle through
life till he was this old. For him to get a foot up in the world, he was a
cautious person who cherished his life; but at this moment, he put away all
the safety concerns to the back of his mind. Adrian was standing in the
grass beneath the starry sky, looking at him with his arms wide open, telling
him to jump.

So he jumped.

The wind whistled in his ear while Adrian's face grew bigger in front of his
eyes. In less than a second, he slammed into Adrian's arms, and the two fell
onto the grass.

That free fall caused Zhong Yan's heart to beat wildly, and he was only able
to snap out of it after a few seconds, only to realize that Adrian was stuck
beneath him.

“Sorry.” After saying that, Zhong Yan tried to get up, but realized only after
he moved that Adrian's arms were clenched tightly around him.

And strangely enough, Adrian seemed to have realized this even later than
he did. He jerked his hands back abruptly and said under his breath, “Get
up!”

Zhong Yan quickly got up and wanted to reach out to pull up Adrian, but
Adrian sat up and ignored the hand that was reached out to him, and instead
said, “Go inside, your work's done here.”

“Are you not going in?” Zhong Yan asked in confusion.

“I'll go in after making the door wider.” Adrian looked at him rather
impatiently, “Go on, hurry up.”

Zhong Yan was starting to get anxious after seeing no attempts from him to
stand up, so he crouched in front of him and asked, “What's wrong? Did
you hurt your leg?”

Adrian reflexively curled up one of his legs, and put his arm around it
before barking out irritably, “I'd be fine even if you'd get a fracture out of
that. Can you just go? Looking at you annoys me.”

He was still fine earlier, but Zhong Yan was suddenly given a scolding out
of nowhere, so he left a little confused.
Perhaps he was unhappy because he made him fall down, so Zhong Yan
thought, but he didn't do it on purpose.

Adrian sat on the grass by himself for a while.

Zhong Yan's waist was really slender. It had been so long since he held it.
But…even during the best time of their relationship, Zhong Yan had never
pressed his body down on him like that before, and he even held Zhong
Yan's waist so tightly…

No! Stop thinking about it! After sitting and mulling over things for a
while, that part that had gotten a reaction earlier did not go down in the
slightest and even became more spirited. Adrian forced himself not to think
about the feeling from earlier and stared at the rabbit's tail to divert his
attention.

And the worst part was, the rabbit who had refused to step back actually
came out by himself, perhaps because nobody was playing with it anymore.
It lowered its head and rubbed its ear against Adrian, but Adrian grabbed
the rabbit's fur and yelled, “What a damned trouble maker, this rabbit ain't
no different from its owner!”
 Chapter 43: Illegitimate Child

The next morning, Adrian woke up late.

He took a cold shower in the middle of the night before widening the door
of the rabbit's nest. After his work was done, he started to feel peckish.
Thinking about it, all this work was Zhong Yan's fault to begin with, so he
dragged Zhong Yan out of his blanket to have him cook a snack for him,
and only fell asleep at dawn.

This directly led to him missing his morning alarm. If Zhong Yan hadn't
come knocking on his door to wake him, he would probably have slept
through the first meeting of the year.

Adrian was still struggling to stay awake when he arrived at headquarters.

But even so, he still noticed some peculiarities.

The people in the headquarters' main building were all looking at him
strangely today. Adrian walked all the way to the meeting room and was
just about to ask what was going on, but unexpectedly, all the high-ranking
officers inside were looking at him with inscrutable expressions as soon as
he opened the door.

“What's wrong?” Adrian asked in confusion as he looked towards Fayn.

It was as if Fayn didn't know him at all; he was looking at him with a
brand-new set of eyes.

An officer asked, “Commander, have…have you read the news?”

“No, I was in a hurry this morning so I didn't get to read it. What
happened?”
Before anyone could answer, the door to the conference room was opened.
With a frown, Adrian turned around only to see the head of the public
relations department, Ping Yan, standing in the doorway with a grumpy
face.

Ping Yan was a female officer with a hot body and an even hotter temper.
Adrian grumbled, “What's with you? Don't you know what level this
meeting is for?”

“And what's your problem?” Ping Yan did not think she was overstepping
her boundaries at all, and even snapped back even stronger, “How could
you hide such big news from us? We only found out cause it got leaked out
in the news so now we don't have a backup plan at all. Not a single person
in the public relations department knows what to do! Come with me now. I
have a few key questions prepared that I have to ask you before we can
prepare a response.”

“What? What big news am I hiding?” Adrian was beginning to suspect that
he was still in a dream. To think a subordinate would actually dare to speak
to him like this! “Whatever it is, you can talk to me after the meeting's over!
You can't just barge into a meeting of the highest level, I could definitely
have you…”

“Cough cough, actually, I can also preside over the start of the year
meeting,” Fayn suddenly interrupted. “Commander, why don't you head to
the public relations department first? I think things there are a bit more…
urgent.”

The rest of the officers nodded in agreement.

Adrian who had not a single idea about what was going on went out with
Ping Yan. On the way, he opened his terminal to have a look at what kind of
big and shocking “news” everyone was talking about.

The only thing that came to mind was his and Zhong Yan's outing
yesterday. Didn't they just have a meal, and bought some blankets? Did that
count as big news that he was trying to hide from the PR department? What
else did they want? Should he have to report all his personal activities to
them as well? Adrian was still feeling indignant when the news page
loaded.

“Adrian Yate and Zhong Yan have an illegitimate child! The real reason
why the refusal of the marriage proposal has been dragging on!”

“Was it unexpected, or was it planned? Analysis of Zhong Yan's trip to

Navi, was the aim to reunite with his son?”

“Blamed for corruption, the Capital's Institute of Research released an

urgent statement: No genetic fusion has been performed for any same-sex
partners.”

Adrian was shocked in place. “…”

“Do you see the news now?” Ping Yan had also stopped. She stood akimbo
and interrogated him, “You better tell me where you made an artificial baby.
Has the evidence been destroyed? How old is the child? Is it male? Female?
Where were they born? Navi System or the Capital? Is that guy bringing the
child with him when he leaves in a few days? Did he come to Navi to pick
up his child to receive education in the capital? Besides you two, has
anyone else seen the child? And who else knows about this?”

“I don't have a child!” Adrian's head was buzzing as he refuted.

“Then whose child is he? Did he bear a kid with someone else?”

“No, he doesn't have a child either!”

“You adopted? Is the child not blood-related to either of you? Then that'll
be easy to deal with. We can just issue a statement that-”

“No! There's no child at all! Where did this child thing come from? Who is
pulling this nonsense out their asses?!”

Ping Yan had a face as if she did not believe him in the slightest. She raised
a brow. “Last night, you mentioned that the child was still young when you
were in the shopping district. That guy said you weren't good at raising
children and even told you to take responsibility. More than just one person
heard it. Do you think all these people were just gathering together to lie?
And even though some heard more than others, the contents of what they
heard still lines up with each other.”

Adrian was speechless, “I did say that, but the subject wasn't a child at all!
Aren't those sentences just normal?”

“It's normal if someone else says it, but it's not normal when it's you and
that guy saying it.” Ping Yan tried to persuade him. “Just admit it, quickly,
we still have to write a statement based on the facts.”

“That's not it, recently, we were raising a…” The words “giant space rabbit”
took a detour just as it reached his lips and were shoved back down his
throat. From Adrian's perspective, he would rather admit to having an
illegitimate child with Zhong Yan than to admit that he was raising a soft,
fluffy, giant space rabbit.

Ping Yan urged him, “Raising a…?”

“Raising a…a pet. Don't ask me what it is, just know that it's not a person,”
Adrian confessed.

Ping Yan looked at him with suspicion, “What is it?”

“I told you not to ask!”

“Is it really not a child?”

……

“It really isn't a child, Sir Yate.” Zhong Yan held the terminal to his ear. He
sounded very sincere, but his expression was so calm that hardly any
respect could be found within it.

“Make a statement to clarify the issue right now!” Stalvern Yate ordered at
the other end, “I told you to inquire for news, and instead of giving me
news, you're giving me some mysterious grandchild?! You could've started
this rumor with anyone, but it just had to be with that traitorous scum!”
There were no people in the room nor surveillance. A look of unconcealed
anger flashed past Zhong Yan's eyes, but his words were full of obeisance,
“Yes, my team is already making preparations. We will set up a live
broadcast immediately to clarify the rumors.”

“How long do you think it's been! Are they even working?”

“My apologies, Intron has been busy with his departure from Capital Star,
but the speech should be ready soon.”

“Don't hang up the call,” Stalvern said discontentedly, “Leave it on and rush
them now. I'm going to be supervising you personally in case you mess up
as well!”

Zhong Yan's face darkened. The speech was ready long ago, but no matter
how he tried to explain, he just wanted to drag things on for a while so he
and Adrian could get their stories straight. But if Stalvern insists on not
allowing him to hang up, he would have no way of contacting Adrian.

“Ah, I've received the speech,” Zhong Yan pretended to have just received a
message, “In that case, I'll have them arrange for the live broadcast now.”

Since that was the case, he might as well face everyone directly. He had
never worried about being mismatched with Adrian when it came to
fabricating stories together for outsiders anyway.

Adrian sat in the public relations office to take on the bombings.

Because, even if he died, he still refused to say what on earth it was that had
“just been born” that he and Zhong Yan talked about last night in the
shopping district. Ping Yan and her assistant both insisted that it must be a
child.

“Spare me, sis, Navi doesn't even have the technology, and the capital's
research institute says they haven't done it. Where on earth would I get my
genes fused with his?”
Ping Yan retorted, “The capital's always been corrupt, and that councilor is
in a high position. It won't be hard for him to get the Genetic Research
Institute to open up a back door for him.”

Adrian responded powerlessly, “There are limits to having those kinds of

babies each year, even if Zhong Yan's a councilor, it'll still be hard to—”

“Chief!” One of the staff ran in from outside and shouted towards Ping Yan,
” That guy is broadcasting live! He's making a live clarification on the
mess! It's on his work page!”

Ping Yan immediately turned to observe Adrian's face. Adrian did not seem
panicked in the slightest, and met her gaze calmly; this caused her to waver
subconsciously: Could it be that there's really no child? One had to know
that Adrian had been with her this whole time since he found out about the
news, and never contacted anyone in between that; there was no time for
him to have made up an excuse with anyone.

Adrian had great confidence in Zhong Yan's public relations ability, and
also believed that the other must have a comprehensive argument, so all he
had to do was give his cooperation.

Ping Yan went onto Zhong Yan's work page on her terminal and projected
the live broadcast on the wall. They took a seat in the office and watched it
together.

Zhong Yan had always kept up his well-dressed image of being suited up all
the time, but now, he was only wearing loungewear. It was as if this prince
that was so out of reach had suddenly become the boy next door. Before he
could even officially start, there were already many fans screaming in the
comments because of this never-before-seen side of him.

Adrian could not help but feel offended, but at the same time, he felt
regretful for having bought him clothes. Zhong Yan cared so much about
his image, so he probably would have done an audio broadcast if he didn't
have clothes.
“Since I'm still recovering, I'll just make it short. I believe everyone is here
to hear the truth.” Zhong Yan began to speak without hurry, “At noon today,
capital time, a piece of news was reported concerning me and Adrian Yate
bearing an illegitimate child. This entire matter is a misunderstanding.”

“The day before yesterday, Mr. Yate had saved a newborn rabbit while he
was on the way to discuss business with me. As everyone knows, I…” He
caught the right moment to put on a light smile, “have been studying these
creatures for a while. So, I helped him take care of it for two days.
Fortunately, the rabbit has almost made a full recovery…”

Saying that, he bent over to pick up something, but Adrian had a bad
feeling about it rising up from his guts.

As expected, he was able to see what Zhong Yan picked up from outside of
the screen in the next second: it was…a fluffy, soft, and snowy-white rabbit
the size of a fist.

Adrian “…”

For a moment he was unable to control his expression, but fortunately,

nobody realized; all of them were focused on the little rabbit.

“Wow!” Ping Yan stared at the screen with sparkling eyes, her body leaning
forward to take a closer look at the little rabbit in Zhong Yan's palm. Then,
she turned again and said to Adrian, touched, “Commander, did you save
that rabbit? I didn't know you had such a sweet side to you! Oh gosh, were
you too embarrassed to say it earlier? Is it your pet now?”

“No, we're releasing when it gets better.” Adrian went along with the story
Zhong Yan had made up about him with a poker face. With their many
years of tacit understanding, he knew very well that there was no way that
Zhong Yan would screw up his part of the story. “I saw it on the side of the
road and I couldn't just throw it aside. Zhong Yan needed something to do
anyway. It's better than giving him the free time to investigate us.”

He must be possessed! Was Zhong Yan a rabbit magnet? Where on earth

did he get that rabbit? Adrian's thoughts ran wild; wasn't one rabbit enough?
The giant space rabbit was too big so there was nothing he could do about
it, but he had to throw this one out for sure! Otherwise, it's dinner!
Definitely!
 Chapter 44: Compassion

The comment section of the live broadcast blew up as soon as Zhong Yan
brought out the rabbit. As for what Zhong Yan said later about his apologies
to the innocent Capital Research Institute, how he will take the
responsibility to investigate the related media, and so on, nobody paid
attention. While he spoke, the rabbit bun was moving about on his palm.
Every time the rabbit moved, the comment section below would be filled
with screaming.

When Zhong Yan finished the clarification segment and entered the
Q&A session, he bent over to put down the rabbit, which drew strong
protests from the comments section. Zhong Yan smiled helplessly and tilted
the lens slightly downwards. He said patiently, “The rabbit will feel
uncomfortable if I keep handling it. It's time for it to sleep.”

Everyone could see the large box on the ground. Half of it was filled with
blankets that were red, orange, and yellow. With how white the rabbit was,
the contrast was very eye-catching when it cuddled against the blankets.

They were all screaming about how cute the scene was in the comments
section; only Adrian's mouth was twitching. He recognized the box as the
box of the cleaning robot at home. The box was usually stuck in place while
the cleaning robot was out, so Zhong Yan must have taken the box while the
cleaning robot was out at work; he didn't even know what the cleaning
robot was going to do if it returned to the storeroom to find the box missing.

“Alright, we still have ten minutes, so please ask any questions you may
want to know before the time ends.” Zhong Yan straightened his body and
turned back to the camera. With the rabbit gone, the intimate aura from his
body went as well. Even though he was dressed in casual home clothes, he
still sat upright with a solemn face, which made it hard for the audience to
joke around.

“Firstly, my friends from various circles in society have been concerned

about the progress of ‘Butterfly's' implementation in Navi System, correct?
Regarding that, the Supreme Council has always placed the interests of the
Navi System's citizens at the forefront, so we need to make full
considerations…”

He began to speak his way around the questions eloquently. For the Public
Relations Department, they could understand both the inner and outer
implications of his words; it was a basic requirement. Ping Yan listened for
a while and whispered to Adrian, “Is he trying to drag things on?”

Adrian responded, “The capital never had that plan to begin with. They
haven't figured out our might, so they dare not face us directly. The
Intelligence Department will catch you up to speed.”

It seemed reasonable for him to say this much, but if you thought about it
carefully, you would realize that it was almost equal to saying nothing.

Zhong Yan saw a question pop up in the comments section.

May I ask why Counselor Zhong Yan has taken this long to divorce
Commander Yate?

“Strictly speaking, even though the fine was under ‘divorce-related fines',
we're still not married yet.” He responded with a few sentences to drag on
the time. But at the lower-left corner, a small video frame that only he could
see was playing. His assistant team had finished typing out a good answer
key for him. “Respect ‘Butterfly's' decision. You do not know why Yate is
not paying.”

Indeed, that was the safest answer for his position, but the times are
different now.

The era of the nation's belief in artificial intelligence was about to undergo
earth-shaking changes. The assistant was not sure which direction the trend
would go, but Zhong Yan could not be clearer.

Or perhaps, you could say that he had decided on a direction and was set on
pushing towards the era to that direction himself, so he could not answer in
that way right now in case it was used against him in the future. What's
more, it also went against his own personal agenda. He needed an intriguing
enough reply to draw everyone's attention towards a different direction.

“I do not have many communications with Mr. Yate so I'm not sure what his
thoughts are. But as for me personally…” Zhong Yan spoke in a natural
tone, “The fine is too heavy for me, that's all.”

The audience was in awe.

“So it's really because you can't afford the fines? How high is the fine?”

“Is it that the two of them cannot afford the normal fine, or can one of them
not afford the five-fold fine?”

“What kind of joke is this? How high can a divorce penalty be? Wouldn't it
be a hundred thousand at most? Five times would only be five hundred
thousand.”

“I think he really can't afford five hundred thousand. Didn't they say that
Councilor Zhong Yan's house in the Capital is rented?”

“Does that mean…he has the intention to refuse? He must be crazy,

refusing ‘Butterfly's' proposals less than two years after joining the council?
Is he trying to kill his own career?”

“He's going to be following down Vahl Cayman's footsteps. Is he not

thinking clearly?”

“Seems like he really hates Yate.”

Ping Yan watched Adrian's reaction. There was a change in his expression
as if there was some confusion, but before she could take a good look, a
knock sounded from the door.
“Enter,” said Adrian.

The soldier saluted him and said, “Commander, the adjutant is in the
Intelligence Department. Please go take a look, there's news from the
capital.”

“I'll be heading off.” Adrian stressed to Ping Yan, “About the absence of the
child, I'll leave it to you to deal with.”

“You should actually upload some photos of that rabbit to your page.” Ping
Yan stood up to see him off, and suggested, “It'll be good for improving
your image. Those of us from the inside know that you're very
approachable, but according to this year's survey, especially from other star
systems, there are some people who've misunderstood you as someone
who's too stiff and grim. We're going to be coming out of Navi soon after
all…”

“Then let them think what they want. If I got myself a wolf, I'd take pictures
of it every day, but a rabbit…” Adrian recalled the soft creature with a
complete lack of combat ability and was completely unable to accept being
linked with a pet like this. He continued firmly, “Just forget it.”

“Gines has already departed from the capital,” said Fayn as soon as Adrian
entered the room. “There's no problem if we arrange to meet him on White
Aegis, is there? Gines passed us a message through ‘Specimen'. They're
moving through the official route and will arrive at the border in three days,
afternoon local time. When that time comes, we can interview Gines, and if
nothing unexpected happens, they can make their landing. On the next day,
that guy will depart with them.”

“That'll work, make the arrangements.” Adrian went on, “Is there anything
to report from the meeting earlier?”

“Besides everyone discussing enthusiastically at the end about the news

between you and him, nothing else happened. The recorder should be able
to send you the full recording immediately.” Saying that, Fayn could no
longer hold his expression together; stifling back a laugh, he asked, “Is it
true? You saved a little rabbit? And you're even taking care of it?
Hahahaha! What the hell, is this overflowing compassion? Or the
tenderness of an iron heart?”

He could no longer stop himself after saying that. He began to beat the table
in a burst of laughter and was completely unable to take in Adrian's
explanations, “I didn't! Zhong Yan's taking care of it! It's got nothing to do
with me!”

It was right of him not to have said anything about the giant space rabbit.
With a straight face, Adrian thought about his best friend's betrayal; if this
guy were to find out that he had brought home a giant space rabbit out of a
moment of impulse, and even raised it, he would seriously be made fun of
till his hair turned white.

He had to raise a wolf. A fierce one. The fiercer the better.

Going back to the topic, where on earth did Zhong Yan whip out a normal
white rabbit from?

When Adrian returned home this evening, Zhong Yan was still dealing with
work. It was the first working day of the new year, so there was a lot to do
to begin with, but he still had to spend some time to deal with unexpected
emergencies. What's more, one of his two assistants was deprived of his
terminal as he was put under confinement in White Aegis, while the other
had boarded a spaceship and was now sailing around the universe.

The box of the sweeping robot was placed right beside Zhong Yan's feet.
Adrian walked over and opened the lid. The palm-sized white rabbit was
sleeping inside.

He picked it up and the rabbit trembled. It woke up and kicked its feet
uneasily in the air.

“God, what are you doing?” Zhong Yan discovered Adrian's atrocities in
time, and quickly set his work down to snatch the rabbit back from his
hands.
It was actually alive…he thought it was just a simulation. Adrian watched
as Zhong Yan carefully pacified the rabbit in his hands with gentle strokes,
and asked, “Where'd you get this little rabbit from?”

Zhong Yan asked in turn, “Then why don't you tell me where you brought
that big rabbit from?”

“Those are two different things,” Adrian said, “You're in my territory, and
you've suddenly pulled a rabbit out of thin air. How could I not worry? I…
hold on, what's that sound?”

“Oh, the cleaning robot…” Zhong Yan responded awkwardly, “I took its
box and turned it into a rabbit nest, so it's been going in circles in the
storeroom this whole time. I tried to turn it off but it didn't work…”

“That thing has to be turned off from my terminal,” said Adrian, speechless.
“I'll give you authorization for the cleaning robot. Now you don't have to be
bothered about it not cleaning certain spots.”

“Sure.”

“Well, when are you going to return the box?”

“Do you have any other boxes? I couldn't find one. A smaller one is fine
too, I just need to stuff the blankets in since we already bought some.”

Adrian looked at him incredulously, then at the rabbit in his hands. “You're
not really thinking of raising that, are you? I'm telling you now, you better
return that. I'm not raising no rabbit.”

“I'll take it away in a few days.” Zhong Yan put the calmed rabbit softly
back into its box and said, “Speaking of which, Intron has already departed.
He'll arrive in about 4 days.”

In actuality, he will arrive in just three days. Adrian was unperturbed, “Got
it. I'll tell the guys at the border to lead them to White Aegis' landing, and
I'll send you off in four days.”
“When I go…if it's not convenient, I can take the giant space rabbit with
me. If you can arrange a larger, empty spaceship, you can put it in. I've
already checked, there's a rather large giant space rabbit research center two
star systems away from here.” Zhong Yan carefully persuaded, “See, if I go,
you're also…um…not quite fond of it, so you might as well send it off…
what's wrong?”

He couldn't go on because Adrian was staring at him, and it was giving him
goosebumps.

Adrian raged forth, “Don't even get me started. What on earth kind of shitty
story did you make up? What's the difference between raising a 4-inch
rabbit or a 23-foot rabbit? Everyone's been praising me for my compassion
every time they see me today!”

“Because you have more leeway when raising a 4-inch rabbit, but a 23-foot
rabbit is a protected animal. What's more, the way you obtained it was
illegal!” Zhong Yan huffed, “I made such short work of getting a rabbit in a
hurry, making up a good story, making a nest for it, and covered up the fact
that you've violated the ‘anti-hunting law'. I even helped you establish a
good image, but you're not appreciative of it at all!”

But I got it through legal channels! I don't want this kind of image! Adrian
could practically feel himself spitting blood. But no matter what, he would
never tell Zhong Yan how he got the rabbit, so he could only grit his teeth.
“Send it away? Don't even think about it, I'm hiring a chef and turning it
into braised rabbit as soon as you leave.”
 Chapter 45: Informant

As expected, several mainstream media outlets that were in close contact

with the Supreme Council began to criticize the remarks Zhong Yan made
during the day.

Saying that he could not afford the fines implied that he was prepared to
refuse to begin with. For a councilor, this was a rather unusual statement.

Adrian called out to Zhong Yan when he was passing by the living room,
ready to go to bed.

“Why did you say that today?”

“What?” Zhong Yan responded casually, “Didn't I say it? Giant space
rabbits are illegal, but normal rabbits aren't.”

Adrian turned off his terminal screen and looked at him. “You know what
I'm talking about. You were busy earlier. I bet you were trying to appease
the forces behind you and also using this to test your colleagues, right?”

Zhong Yan did not deny it. He nodded, “This is a good chance to test them.
I'll get to re-examine the cards in my hands and decide which ones can be
used, and which ones to discard.

“There's no turning back once you start,” said Adrian, words laced with
intent. “Are you trying to show your sincerity?”

“Naturally, it's good if this is of any reassurance of you. If I defect after my

return to the Capital, and turn towards the AI side in the oncoming changes,
you can easily destroy my reputation since you have recordings of me
leaking private information during the meeting. There was no turning back
for me in the first place. I still haven't planned to exit the stage of history
yet, so you don't have to be worried about my sincerity.”

“Then why did you decide to choose a road so different from what you
chose in the beginning, after so many years?”

“We've already discussed this issue.” Zhong Yan evaded the question.

“To protect your seat?” Adrian asked. “I've always felt that this wasn't
enough motivation to push you towards gambling everything. I know how
you are.”

Zhong Yan opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but he just
shook his head in the end. “You can't ask me to disclose my full plans to
you. You've never revealed your military secrets to me either, right? Our
current demands are the same, so this is enough to achieve a cooperation.
There's no need for us to share everything. That there is the real risk.”

Adrian still felt uneasy, but he managed to overcome his desire to ask—He
himself was also clear that he would never ask his partners to reveal their
full decks. He did not even care about a secretive organization such as
“Specimen”, but it was only because it was Zhong Yan; that brand of
betrayal was engraved deep in his heart, so subconsciously, he felt the
desire to demand it.

“I don't trust you,” Adrian said. But he did not have any intentions of asking
further.

Zhong Yan could feel a dull throb in his heart. It was not a strong sting, but
it was just like Adrian's tone; it only existed. Without any change in his
countenance, he nodded calmly. “As you should. Goodnight.”

……

Three days later. White Aegis.

Intron walked down the gangway and looked curiously around at the
legendary planet. The guards led him to the front passenger seat of the car
sent over to receive him. After getting in the driver's seat, the guard looked
curiously at the young man from the corner of his eye.

Intron had short, curly brown hair, and he wore a pair of glasses. On the
surface, he looked pure and harmless; but the guard knew full well that this
young man was not just a simple assistant to a councilor.

And he knew because he was the newly appointed personal guard to Navi's
military commander.

The person this young man was about to meet was the leader of Navi
System who had come secretly himself, Adrian Yate.

“Intron Gines?” A third voice suddenly sounded from the back seat of the
car.

Intron was startled. He raised his head to look at the rear-view mirror; a
man was seated at the back. From the darkness, the view of his face was
blurred, but his silver eyes were glowing.

Intron quickly reacted and spoke with great respect. “Greetings,

Commander Yate.”

“Hello, Mr. Gines,” Adrian spoke. “Must have been a terribly long trip.”

“No no, it was fine,” Intron responded humbly. Following that, he asked
curiously, “Where…are we heading to?”

“Nowhere in particular. You've taken a long trip here as Councilor Zhong

Yan's right-hand man, so we've arranged for you to have a tour of White
Aegis to enjoy the scenery. We'll bring you back to your ship after we take a
look around.”

Intron understood, he intended to talk to him in the car. Indeed, it would be

quite suspicious to bring him anywhere at all. The survival of “Specimen”
relied on being cautious and low-key. Intron was grateful, “I appreciate
your thoughtfulness, this is the best arrangement. In that case, let's not
waste time and get right into it. I have two main purposes for coming here
today.”

Adrian responded, “I am listening.”

“Firstly, it is about the information requested by the Navi Military

Command half a month ago, regarding ‘Butterfly's' changes.” Intron turned
on his terminal and pushed up his glasses. “We have verified it urgently
with our informant. Regarding the plans with Navi, including next year's…
oh, sorry, it's this year now. Including the ‘Glory Order' that was going to be
implemented this year, it's all real. But it's too difficult to pass information
outside of the Navi System. We could not pass on some of the information
we collected on the Supreme Council, so I had to come over myself. I've
already written everything down on paper while I was on my way. I'll hand
it to you personally when we return to my ship.”

Adrian responded, “Alright. Intron—you don't mind me calling you by

name, do you?”

Intron quickly shook his head. “It is my honor, Commander.”

"I've always wanted to ask you some personal questions. If it goes against
the rules of your organization, you do not have to answer.” Adrian slowly
began, “You've been with Zhong Yan for about…two years now?”

“About to be, sir.”

“Was it by chance that you picked him?”

Intron hesitated for a few seconds before responding, “No. He has a high
enough position and was young enough. Only by his side am I able to
achieve the highest possible position and access as much information as
possible.”

Adrian tried to probe, “No other reasons? For example…did you know that
he had a live broadcast on the day you departed?”
“I did know. I still had signal then, so I watched it. I headed to a service
area on the way here and caught up with the follow-up news. What are you
asking for?”

“He seems to have changed his position,” Adrian said.

“We have not conducted any personal investigations against Sir Zhong,”
Intron said cautiously, “In my opinion, he has never privately disclosed his
thoughts on the current setup either, so I can not make any judgments.”

“Zhong Yan is one of the twelve representative members of the council. Did
you actually not collect any intelligence on his position at all?” Adrian
asked, “What if he could be won over?”

“Our founders and leaders are very cautious,” Intron responded.” It's
dangerous to contact a council member. As for information collecting,
investigations, and influencing the public opinion…that is up to our leaders
to decide. We will not act arbitrarily before receiving any orders. Even if I
get along well with Sir Zhong, I still will not do more than I am asked if the
order is not given.”

Adrian sighed, “No wonder you were able to hide so well. It's been two
years. Does the Capital not know of your existence?”

Intron looked at the rearview mirror, and a faint change could be seen in his
countenance, but he did not make any retorts.

“It's been more than two years?” Adrian was able to catch the faint change
in his expression.

Intron smiled politely to him. “That specimen shop you went into in
Institution Star nearly a month ago…I was working there when I was in my
third year. Sorry, I shouldn't say anything more.”

“I was the one asking too much,” said Adrian. Intron was three batches
below him and Zhong Yan; so to say, ‘Specimen' was already formed three
years after their graduation. It has been more than four years now.
In less than five years, their members were able to penetrate into the top
positions of various important institutions…The founder of the organization
himself definitely would not be low either, and he most likely held a high
position within Capital Star.

Could he be among the Twelve? Zhong Yan had once told him very
honestly that those who had direct contact with “Butterfly” were the
successive members of council; and what Intron brought him just happened
to be some of the most secretive information regarding “Butterfly”.

“With your rank in the Supreme Council…are you able to access the
contents of the ‘Glory Order'?” Adrian asked.

“Of course not,” Intron let out a chuckle “There are no more than ten people
right now within the Supreme Council that know the general contents of the
‘Glory Order'. I suspect that not even Sir Zhong knows about this matter.
After all, he is not one of Sir Pearson's confidants.”

Intron actually believed that Zhong Yan had no idea about the “Glory
Order”? Adrian's mind started to churn; Bayer was the eyes and ears of
Stalvern. Zhong Yan was averse to him, and it was understandable that he
hid many things from him, but Intron was his own after all; he was the
right-hand man Zhong Yan chose himself, so it was reasonable to say that
he led all the other men beneath him, and also did the intelligence work. In
other words…the source of Zhong Yan's news was not his men from the
Supreme Council?

He temporarily brushed off the question and continued to ask Intron, “So,
have any of your members reached…the position of representative
member?”

“This is the second purpose of my trip,” Intron explained, “Not everyone

willing to help our cause are our members, this is not realistic. Take for
example, lecturers and teachers all have jobs. They are only providing us
with some information when we request it, so they are our informants. But
of course, they could also be members, but there are rules. It is forbidden to
ask each other about their identity even if it was someone above or under
them, just like how the ones under me may also believe that I am just an
informant working within the Supreme Council, but I am in fact, one of the
earliest members.”

Adrian said, “So you have a representative member as an informant. At

least he is one.”

“Yes,” Intron admitted. “And he wishes to see you.”

Adrian raised a brow, “How?”

“He is in Navi right now.”

Adrian's heart suddenly jumped. A representative member in Navi? But

Intron had clearly just said that Zhong Yan…

“Commander Yate,” Intron said solemnly. “Councilor Vahl Cayman is on

the ship, and he hopes you can take the time to see him.”
 Chapter 46 - Specimen Ban

When he was young, Adrian’s favorite adult was definitely Vahl Cayman.

There were just those few big families within the upper echelons of the
capital, so they would often meet during parties. This uncle, who had no
blood relationship with him, would often secretly bring him snacks that
children liked to eat. Adrian’s grandfather did not like this young colleague
of his and warned Adrian many times not to talk to such people, but this, in
turn, served to arouse Adrian’s rebelliousness. As long as he had the
chance, he would try to talk to Vahl as often as possible. Vahl would not
reprimand his outspoken and childish thoughts in harsh tones like Stalvern
did, but would instead encourage him kindly, or coax him patiently.

The only time Vahl spoke harshly to him was when he was thirteen. He had
a fight with the older kids in his school and was photographed by the patrol
cameras. The parents of several of the participating students were asked to
come discuss the incident with the school. Adrian knew what Stalvern’s
temper was like; he would definitely fly into a rage on the spot. He did not
wish to lose face in front of the other students, so he lied that something
happened to his grandfather and called Vahl to come instead.

Sure enough, Vahl protected the boy’s pride. He rushed over with the other
parents, and after listening to the matter, not only did he not reprimand him
like the parents did with their children, he even said without a care, “I don’t
hear anything wrong with what Adrian has done.”

Vahl had no rights to speak at the round table, but that was a matter within
the inner workings of the Supreme Council so outsiders did not know much
of it. The other parents were scared of his status as a council member and
did not even dare to talk back to him, while the teacher had been in
disbelief. “Sir Cayman! Mr. Yate has wounded two of his seniors!”
“So you mean to say that two sixteen-year-old kids tried to bully a thirteen-
year-old, and got beaten up instead by said thirteen-year-old?.” Then, they
could hear him speaking casually to Adrian. “That’s where you’re wrong
then, Adrian. How could you be so harsh with your seniors? You need to
give your seniors some face. Apologize.”

“Sorry, seniors, I’ll go easy on you next time,” said Adrian, following his
advice.

The two sixteen-year-old senior students were so angry that their faces were
flushed red with fury. The complexions of their parents also changed. The
teacher would never have expected a proper council member like him to be
so blatant in showing his favoritism. She was just about to say something,
but Vahl went on, “Alright, he’s already apologized. So, Miss…”

“‘Butterfly’ is about to be implemented in its 51st and 52nd star systems

soon. Everyone knows this. Roundtable meetings are becoming more
frequent, so Sir Yate has to be relied on for many things. The children have
only gotten into a small conflict with their fellow schoolmates…so you
shouldn’t disturb him for such a matter now, right? How about this. I’ll
bring this boy home, and I’ll have him reflect on what he did today. Then,
we’ll just see this as the end of this matter. Is that alright?”

He spoke slowly, but his words show no acceptance of refusals; the teacher
could only nod and let them go.

Adrian really believed with all of his heart that Vahl really thought him as
blameless, and he even told him on the way out of school excitedly how he
taught those two seniors who had come to provoke him a good lesson…he
would never have expected Vahl to drop the facade once they reached the
car, and ask him seriously, “Adrian, do you feel proud of yourself for
winning over those two seniors in a fight?”

This was the very first time Vahl had ever spoken to him so harshly. Adrian
was stunned, and nodded hesitantly.

“You clearly agreed to having a one-on-one fight, but the other party
brought two people. They never wanted to have a proper fight with you at
all. They wanted to teach you a lesson!”
“So what if they brought two people? I won!” protested Adrian. At thirteen,
he was unconvinced he did anything wrong.

“Have you thought about this then? If that boy wasn’t sure of your strength,
he might have called another person. Do you think you could win if there
were three? What about five? Ten? What if they brought weapons? It’s very
dangerous for you to rush headfirst into things like that. You were lucky
today because your opponents were foolish, and their hearts were not
completely corrupted! Adrian, you should be more cautious about your own
safety. It pained me to hear from your teacher that you had gotten hurt. Your
mother didn’t give you your life just so you could go on such risky
ventures.”

Nobody has ever told Adrian that seeing him hurt pained them. Adrian
raised his head and looked at the profile of the middle-aged man who was
driving and muttered, “Okay…”

“Alright, your grandfather is probably going to be back late today, so I’ll

send you home for now. Then, I’ll head back to school later to get this
wiped from your record. It won’t leave a big impact, but…it’s a fierce
competition, getting into the Supreme Institution. ‘Butterfly’ will be doing a
full evaluation of your school performance, so it’s best to stay on the safe
side.”

“Wiped?” Adrian said, “We learned in school that all the cameras are
‘Butterfly’s’ eyes. He won’t forget after seeing it, would he?”

“You’ve forgotten what your uncle works as,” Vahl chuckled, “This is just a
small matter. It can be wiped, so don’t worry.”

Adrian raised his voice, “I’m not worried, but how could the records be
wiped? Doesn’t AI represent absolute justice? If humans can change the
records, then what’s the meaning of its existence?”

“There’s no such thing as absolute justice in this world, Adrian. However,

‘Butterfly’ has indeed become the closest to that standard. Many things may
have come from good intentions, but…”
“But those good intentions can’t have been all that good, right?” Adrian
pouted. “Since there’s no such thing as absolute justice, why did they have
to forcefully make one?”

Vahl was stunned by this child who was only thirteen this year. After being
immersed in the world of officials for so long, he found himself unable to
answer for a short moment.

“Uncle Vahl, being cautious is not a solution either. It can’t solve our
problems.” Adrian continued, “The only way to solve our problems is to get
stronger. When I’m strong enough, so strong that I don’t have to care
whether my opponent is one person or ten, then they’ll never dare to pick a
fight with me at all.”

“That is what we call a deterrence, but I wasn’t trying to teach you that…”
Vahl didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry at his answer, and a funny
idea crossed his mind.

This child had the makings of a general. Even though every star system has
military commands situated in one or more planets, going to war had long
existed only in the history books. Ever since humans had come together to
form a federation, peace had been maintained for many centuries. When
thinking about the coming years, a real war fought with guns and
ammunition was quite unlikely to occur.

At that time, Vahl would never have imagined that in just a short decade or
so, the smoke of trouble would rise up once more for the Federation.

The frenzied comments of the public were unstoppable, and thousands upon
thousands of ordinary civilians now had the guts to speak out for
themselves, all in support of the Navi Military Command that was in distant
confrontation with the Capital. That boy who said that “becoming strong
was the true solution to problems” has now grown into a man who the
Capital has to avoid provoking.

Adrian had not seen this uncle of his who treated him so sincerely for many
years. Since entering the Supreme Institution, and announcing his stance, he
never took the initiative to contact Vahl. Later, the situation became more
and more tense, so there were even less chances for the two to talk. He
always thought of Vahl as the one man in his life who truly played the role
of a father. Even though they did not have frequent contact, it was Vahl who
taught him tolerance and growth..rights and wrongs…love and hate.
Meanwhile, all Stalvern could instill in him was the family’s honor and
dignity.

It was undoubtedly a very fortunate thing that he was able to reunite with
Vahl in this situation now, and to know that he was in the same camp as
himself.

“Commander Yate,” Vahl spoke. He had not been able to continue when
Adrian immediately said, “Uncle Vahl, please, there’s no need for such
formalities between us.”

“Councilor Caymon, Sir Yate, please continue your chat. I will return to my
room first,” Intron excused himself. Adrian told his guard to escort him
back.

“You shouldn’t send away the only guard you brought.” Vahl disagreed
with his actions. “It’s dangerous for you to stay alone here if I were to have
any ill intentions.”

Adrian couldn’t help but laugh. “Uncle, please spare me. You’ve been
nagging me since I was young. It’s been nearly ten years since we last met
and you’re already starting.”

As he brought up the past, the distance that came from not having seen each
other for many years melted a little. Vahl’s lips were curled up in elation,
but he still said sternly, “In these years, ‘Specimen’ has repeatedly warned
you to be wary of the intentions of anyone from the Supreme Council.”

“Oh, the warnings that Pearson is vying for my life?” Adrian disregarded it
completely. “You don’t have to remind me. I know full well that he can’t
wait for me to die. Which radical supporter of AI does not want my life?
But they’ll need the capabilities to get it.”
Vahl was dissatisfied. “Adrian.”
“I know, I know. I do have my defenses up against people from the
Supreme Council, really. Just look at Bayer, and…Zhong Yan. I’ve put
them under house arrest.”

Vahl said, “Speaking of Zhong Yan, your fines will be expiring tomorrow,
right? What happened? If you’re having any financial difficulties, I can…”

“No no, my financials are fine. Well…just leave that alone.” Adrian didn’t
want to talk to others about his bad debt with Zhong Yan, especially with
his own elder. It was too awkward.

“，……？，，’’？，，，——”

“Adrian, tell me clearly…do you want to get married? Don’t be

embarrassed about it. A marriage is a matter of a lifetime. So what if
‘Butterfly’ assigned a partner to you? If you know you’re following your
heart, then that’s enough. To choose freedom in life, hasn’t that what you’ve
been fighting for—”

“Uncle, what are you saying? I don’t want to marry him,” Adrian quickly
interrupted. “I’ll pay the fines tomorrow. Time is limited, so let’s talk about
the important things. I’ve always felt that someone from high above is
operating ‘Specimen’. I should’ve known it was you early on, from the
cautious style of…”

“What? Me?” After hearing half of it, Vahl realized something was wrong,
and quickly denied it, “Adrian, you’ve misunderstood. I’m not
‘Specimen’s’ founder, nor the leader. I’m just their informant.”

“It wasn’t you?” Adrian frowned. “Then, do you have any clues? Time
waits for no one. If we can work more closely with ‘Specimen’ that will be
a great help. But before that, I really want to meet the founder myself.”

Vahl shook his head. “I don’t know much either. This organization operates
with one-to-one contact, so I’m afraid only a handful of the senior members
know the leader’s identity. I’ve been their informant for two years, and
Intron is my minor. Him entering the Supreme Council was also done with
my help as well. As for the founder, he is probably only in contact with the
people directly under him, and he has only issued direct orders to the entire
‘Specimen’ organization twice since its inception. The first are the rules set
at the beginning of its establishment. We are not allowed to infiltrate into
the higher levels of Navi’s rung, and we must never set foot on Navi
System. At that time, you were already beginning to climb the ranks over
the others. I think this may be to show respect for the pioneer from the same
camp. The second one is very strange, and it was only issued about half a
month ago.”

“Half a month ago?” A strange hunch arose in Adrian’s heart. He suddenly

remembered that he had personally contacted the organization nearly a
month ago. At that time, outside of the specimen shop, he met…

“The order required all specimen stores to make immediate rectifications,

all specimens of furry animals had to be removed.” Vahl retold the incident
in confusion. “What do you think that means?”
 Chapter 47 - Different Paths

Adrian had originally planned to stay the night in White Aegis before
returning to Navi’s capital the next day to pick up Zhong Yan, but he rushed
back home in the middle of the night.

Zhong Yan wasn’t in the house, so Adrian walked out into the back yard.

The giant space rabbit kit was laying on its side on the grass, while Zhong
Yan was sitting on its back. There was also a small rabbit bun on his
shoulder, which was the normal rabbit kit from before.

Both the rabbits were sleeping, and Zhong Yan was daydreaming with his
head raised to gaze at the stars in the sky.

“Zhong Yan.”

Hearing his call, Zhong Yan who sat atop the rabbit’s back lowered his
head, and with an expression as calm as spring water, he said, “Have you
met up with Cayman? Didn’t you say you weren’t coming back tonight?”

He had already found out. But that was normal. Before he left in a hurry,
when he was confirming about the prohibitions with Intron, his actions
were passed onto Zhong Yan through several people, so naturally, Zhong
Yan had already known.

“Your information moves fast,” Adrian said.

Zhong Yan lowered his head. “It is directly proportional to the time and
money I’ve invested in it.”

Adrian had a lot of things he wanted to ask, but when he saw the rabbit bun
curling up on Zhong Yan’s shoulders, his gaze suddenly focused, and he
asked, “Where did that rabbit on your shoulder come from?”

Zhong Yan chuffed softly. “Don’t worry, this is something I asked the
steakhouse owner to help me buy.”

“When did you pull the steakhouse owner to your side?”

“Don’t make it sound so bad. When I went back to get my scarf, I had a talk
with the boss that day, and we stayed in contact with each other is all.”
Zhong Yan took the little white bunny from his shoulder, holding it in his
palms, and stroked its fur. “I don’t have anyone in Navi. As far as I’m
aware, none of the people sent by the Supreme Council have succeeded
either, so don’t worry.”

“I know. They told me today. ‘Specimen’ has a special rule not to touch
Navi.” Adrian stood a few steps away from the giant rabbit kit, and though
his voice was not loud, it could be heard unusually clear in the quiet night.
“Why?”

“‘Specimen’ is an organization dedicated to overthrowing the rule of

artificial intelligence. Its key direction was naturally to infiltrate the Capital
where the AI’s main body resided. Why would I snoop around for my
friendlies’ information?”

Adrian stood quietly on the ground as he looked up to observe him. After

meeting his gaze for a few seconds, Zhong Yan said, “Fine. It’s because I
know you hate things like that. Once you find out that somebody has been
planting people by your side, there’s no way they’ll ever be able to work
with you in the future.”

“So it’s not a coincidence that we met outside of Specimen.” Adrian went
on, “it was you who bought the store after the juice shop closed down.”

“The juice shop did not close down, I bought it over at a high price.” Zhong
Yan moved his gaze away, looking straight ahead. “It’s been seven years, I
couldn’t contact you, but I finally had a chance to meet you in person, so I
went there to wait for you.”
“And if I didn’t accept the invitation? If I didn’t attend?”

“You would. If you didn’t accept the invitation, you would have soon
received ‘Specimen’s’ message, informing you that we hope that you will
come personally to take the name list. If you refused, I would have arranged
for one of the core members to head to the school’s stronghold and tell you
that the organization’s senior members would like to personally meet with
you. If you were still hesitant, I would continue to increase the bargaining
chips until you agree to participate in the celebration.”

“Just to see me?”

“Just to see you.”

Adrian asked, “So why didn’t you tell me after we met?”

“For what purpose?” Zhong Yan looked at him once more, and asked in
turn, “So that you can cut off your contact with ‘Specimen’? I understand
you too well. You don’t like when people set up the winds from the back.
The only reason you tolerated those illegitimate means is because you felt
that the starting point of the organization was right. People who accomplish
big things don’t trip over the small things after all. But if you find out that
the leader of this underground resistance organization was me, and since I
don’t care whether humans are free or not, would you still continue working
with us?”

“This is exactly what I came back to confirm with you. I asked you why
you came to Navi before, and you said it was because ‘Butterfly’ and
Pearson are working together to threaten your position, but ‘Specimen’ was
established many years before you even discovered the changes with
‘Butterfly’. You have been plotting to overthrow ‘Butterfly’s’ rule since a
long time ago. Why?” Adrian enunciated each word as he asked, “What are
you trying to achieve?”

Zhong Yan did not respond to him immediately. He returned the sleeping
rabbit bun in his palm back onto his shoulder, while he stood up on the back
of the giant rabbit. He turned his gaze to the starry sky above him and
sighed almost tenderly. “The stars are so beautiful, only when you stand this
high can you see the beauty of the scenery.”

Adrian’s pupils constricted. He asked in a heavy voice, “Are you not

standing high enough?”

Standing atop the giant rabbit’s back, Zhong Yan lowered his eyes down to
look upon Adrian from above. He held up a hand to his ribs—Adrian knew,
right there was a shameful scar, and it was something left behind from
Zhong Yan’s unfortunate childhood.

“It’s not high enough. The so-called twelve people at the peak of power
aren’t even standing on equal grounds. Even if we were…that is still not the
peak. The peak is when you stand beneath just one, but above all others.”
Zhong Yan’s voice was very gentle. If the picture at this moment could be
fixed in time, nobody would ever be able to think that what he was
revealing at this moment, with that peaceful smile on his beautiful face,
were words that contained human’s greatest ambitions in this great era, in
the vast Federation that consisted of thousands of planets. “It’s too crowded
for twelve people to stand together. I want the highest position that no one
else can have.”

Even if it was Adrian, he was still caught speechless for a moment. With the
giant rabbit laying on its side, Zhong Yan walked down from its hind legs
and walked around the rabbit towards the direction of the house.

“Let’s talk inside,” Zhong Yan said as he passed Adrian.

Adrian followed silently behind him. When the two returned inside, Zhong
Yan put the sleeping little rabbit from his shoulder lightly into the box.
Then, he sat on the sofa opposite to Adrian.

As soon as he sat down, Adrian started to revolt, “You tricked them.”

“I’ve deceived everyone in this world besides you. Who are you talking
about?”
No remorse could be seen from him at all. Adrian pressed down his anger
and said, “Those passionate people from ‘Specimen’. You used them to
achieve your own selfish desires! They work so hard because they think
they’re overthrowing the AI, but they’re actually helping you climb the
ranks!”

“I do wish to rise up, but the premise of that is that the position can be taken
up by humans in the first place. This isn’t about deceiving them or not,
‘Specimen’ has been established for more than four years, everything
they’ve done was for the sake of pushing towards human autonomy. And
once that dream is realized,” Zhong Yan said, “Someone will have to rise
up.”

“And it shouldn’t be you.”

“Why can’t it be me?”

“Because you’re not fit for it!” Adrian spat out sharply, “You don’t have the
world in your heart, no righteousness, all you have is your own selfish
desires!”

Zhong Yan was silent for a moment, but he suddenly said, “Don’t you think
you’re being too harsh on me?”

“What?” Adrian repeated incredulously, “I am too harsh on you?”

Zhong Yan took a deep breath and said, “I’ve been in the Supreme Council
for seven years, and I’ve never done anything to betray the world. I’ve
never done anything unrighteous. If one day, I could sit on that position, I
would definitely work hard for it. A saint is crowned for the work they do,
not their desires, and you’re asking me to be even more of a saint than a
messiah! As long as the leader can manage his territory well, and benefit his
people, what’s the difference if the leader’s heart is filled with his love for
the world or for power? What difference is there whether his motives are
for the sake of humanity, or just to consolidate his position?”

“It’s different,” Adrian said coldly, “That’s everything that’s different about
it.”
The look in Zhong Yan’s eyes had also cooled. Sitting there, the expression
on his face gradually faded, leaving only a flawless mask behind. He spoke
softly, “And so what? You’ll be the only one to know in this world. If big
things can be achieved, and it comes time to count the merits, I would
naturally…take it as an obligation.”

Adrian sneered, “Zhong Yan, you once told me I was naive, but I don’t
know which of us is worse in that regard—Do you really think that you can
overthrow the system that has ruled human society for hundreds of years
with just your play of intrigue alone? And then safely transition yourself
into power? What we’re talking about is to completely subvert an era, not
the position of Student Council President that you and those senior brothers
and sisters contended for in the Supreme Institution! Didn’t you come to
investigate Navi’s military? It seems that in any case, we are on the same
boat for the following, limited period of time. Since you’ve come clean
with me, I will come clean to you as well. Not long ago, Navi System has
already ceased to exist.”

Zhong Yan was shocked. He asked, “What? What do you mean the Navi
System does not exist anymore? Aren’t we in the Navi System’s capital
right now?”

“This is the Navi Military Command, not the Navi System.”

The Federation currently consisted of a total of fifty-three star systems, and

each of them would at least have one or more militarized planets. Such
planets stationed in the federal army are called military commands.

Originally, the Navi System’s militarized planets were some of the other
planets in the system, but since Adrian occupied its council, the general
headquarters were moved to the primary star, Naviland. As he thought
about this, Zhong Yan slowly said, “Your current headquarters are now
here, and this place is called a military command…makes sense.”

Adrian was still looking at him, but he did not speak.

This was the Navi Military Command, not the Navi System. Navi System…
had long ceased to exist.
Zhong Yan gradually absorbed the information, and bit by bit, surprise
floated up in his expression. He began slowly, “Navi System…The 53rd
system…What about the other planets?”

Adrian did not answer directly, but instead revealed a cold smile. “The
Capital has made the correct choice of not starting conflict with me.”

Zhong Yan murmured incredulously, “All the planets are now classified as
military commands?! How many troops and weapons do you have?”

“Aren’t you overstepping your boundaries asking this, Mr. Councilor?”

Adrian dwelled on the trivial matters. “Why don’t you tell me what
information or plans you have in your terminal instead?”

“How long do you think you’ve been the supreme commander for? I was
just wondering why I’m the only one driving public opinion. Did you pour
all your energy into developing your military power? The entirety of Navi,
the entire star system, is filled with military troops?! What are you trying to
do?”

“Mr. Representative Councilor, can’t you tell what the signals mean with
your keen political nose?”

Zhong Yan ignored his mocking tone, and couldn’t help but stand up,
shouting, “Adrian Yate! Are you crazy? Are you trying to start a coup?!”

Compared to Zhong Yan’s agitation, Adrian was clearly the calmer one. He
also stood up and took a step towards Zhong Yan. He looked down into
Zhong Yan’s furious eyes, and asked, “So, will you stand down?”
 Chapter 48 - Common Ground

Zhong Yan was both anxious and angry. “Have you really gone mad? There
is still retreat if a coup without bloodshed fails, but have you ever thought
about the consequences of the failure of an armed revolution?”

Adrian shot back, “Retreat? What retreat would there be for the failure of a
peaceful coup? To spend the rest of my life in prison?”

“That’s better than losing your life!”

“I don’t care,” Adrian responded resolutely, “I was determined to lay my

life on the line the moment I stepped on Navi…”

“I care!” Zhong Yan shouted angrily as tears poured down from his eyes
uncontrollably, “I care! How could you be like that? You’re the only person
I care about! What about me?!”

Zhong Yan rarely let his emotions break out, and this incited a change in
Adrian’s expression. He could hear a deep sigh emerging from a soft corner
of his heart, but he wiped out that bit of weakness in resolution and said,
“If…” He was shocked at how choked his voice was. He cleared his throat
and continued, “If, seven years ago, you told me this before our graduation,
I would’ve reconsidered. But right now…Zhong Yan, it’s already too late.”

“I was wrong, I was wrong, I’m sorry.” Zhong Yan cried and pleaded,
“Please give me one more chance, we can start over…just give me one
more…”

Adrian pursed his lips and shook his head lightly. His mind was blank. This
was the results he had decided on because he knew that if he ever allowed
himself any freedom of thought, he would definitely make an impulsive
decision.
Then, something filled his arms. Zhong Yan’s arms passed beneath his and
tightened around his body. Very quickly, his chest became warm and damp:
those were Zhong Yan’s tears.

“It’s fine even if you don’t like me anymore, just don’t send yourself to
your own death. Please…I beg you…”

His voice was muffled on Adrian’s chest, and it felt like every one of his
words were worming into his heart. His hands hovered only a centimeter
away from Zhong Yan’s back, and at the moment where Zhong Yan could
not see, a look of struggle emerged on his face. Then, those hands were
clenched into fists, and moved away by their owner.

“If we could start over, would you abandon that position?” Adrian asked.

The body in his arms stiffened. Zhong Yan slowly let go of Adrian’s waist
and took a step back. His eyes were still red, but he tried his best to control
his emotions, “What does this have anything to do with that position?
You’re asking me to give up on my lifelong dreams for you.”

Even if he knew he wouldn’t agree, Adrian still couldn’t help feeling

disappointed. “You have also asked me to give up my hopes of liberating
mankind because of this. This matter has nothing to do with the armed coup
either.”

Zhong Yan sat himself down once more on the sofa and supported his head
with one hand. For a moment, he did not speak, but when he started again,
his voice had already stabilized. “You’ll lose. Let’s not even mention how
strong the defense system of the Capital itself is, just by adding up the
military strength of the star systems nearby, I’m afraid the strength is going
to be far beyond that of the Navi Military Command. Even though the
military commands and sub-councils in each region are of equal standing,
they will not obey Pearson…But they will accept ‘Butterfly’s’ orders. Just
calm down, don’t…”

“I know, I’m very calm. The only reason you can come to this wrong
conclusion is because you don’t know of Navi’s true strength.” Adrian was
really afraid that he would cry again, so he tried to keep his tone as mild as
possible. “Besides, I didn’t say I’m going to bring my troops to the Capital
the very next day. I have yet to fully perfect my preparations, and many of
my officers are still working on a plan together…”

Zhong Yan shook his head. “No matter what plans you make, do you know
what you’ll be recorded as in the history books if the first shot is fired?
You’re bringing a group of humans to attack another group of humans. Do
you know what that means? The peace that has been maintained for dozens
and dozens of generations by mankind will cease to exist. Once you are
defeated, the winners will write you down as a sinner in history, and you
will forever be nailed down onto the pillar of shame. You tell me that I
don’t know your strength well enough…Fine. Let’s say you win. What
then? War makes no distinctions, sacrifices will be made. Humans have not
sacrificed their lives on the battlefield for centuries. Don’t even tell me this
is a necessary sacrifice, or a glorious one, people of this age can’t accept
this sort of thing. This is far too removed from what we know. Even if the
victims themselves were willing to dedicate their lives, and maybe their
families would understand, but the people in this world will only know that
you were the one to cause this terrible situation. Do you still think you can
serve the people then?”

“Why should I serve them?”

“Didn’t you prepare the seat for yourself?”

“Of course not,” Adrian denied it, “You’re overestimating how versatile I
am. I can’t even take up the position of Student Council President, how
would I be able to handle that position?”

Zhong Yan blurted out, “What? I thought you filled up the campaign
application back then. Didn’t you give up just because I joined? You were
worried I’d dwell on it so you never told me, and even deleted your
application.”

Adrian was stunned. “What kind of nonsense are you talking about? I don’t
even know what the campaign application form looks like, who told you
this?”
“I…It was on the school’s forum, um…There was a ‘Twin Stars’ tag…”
Zhong Yan said awkwardly. “Was that fake?”

Adrian couldn’t stop himself from thinking about the forum he had
mistakenly entered, and it seemed to say that it was established by several
girls from the gossip section of the Supreme Institution’s internal forums
after their graduation. Their little chatroom was filled with words like
“marriage”, and “having sex”…

“I told you to stop looking at the forums!” Adrian grunted, “How many
times have I told you? The things they write in the gossip section are all just
rumors!”

“Oh…” Zhong Yan felt wronged. “You told me this on our third year. I saw
it during our second year…”

Adrian pulled their conversation back on topic. “Anyway, I don’t have the
talent in this regard, but I will choose someone with that talent, and bring
him up there myself.”

“A person with both talent and a mind for the world,” Zhong Yan added
coldly, “and regretfully, I do not meet the latter condition. So does that
mean you have someone in mind? Oh, since you just went to see Vahl
Cayman today…”

A slight change emerged in both their expressions at the same time. Zhong
Yan’s eyes lit up. He had found another way to persuade him. “That’s right,
you went to see Councilor Cayman! Does he agree to this as well?”

“I haven’t talked to him about this.” Adrian kneaded the bridge of his nose,
“You too…don’t tell him for the time being. I’ll talk to him personally
when everything is prepared here.”

“You know he won’t agree to it, and the reason why you never told him is
because you know he will try his best to dissuade you as well.”

“No, it’s just not the right time.” Adrian looked straight at Zhong Yan. “You
won’t expose information about your temporary ally on the very first day
we announce our plans to each other now, will you?”

These words blocked out all of Zhong Yan’s paths, so he could only agree.
“No. Since that is the case, to each their own. The deer has not been hunted
yet, so let’s not argue about how we’re going to divide the meat.”

Adrian disagreed with that metaphor. In his opinion, this was not a matter of
obtaining interests for himself, but he knew that was exactly what Zhong
Yan meant. He did not waste his energy on refuting him and agreed to
disagree, nodding his head to a temporary truce.

……

That night, Adrian couldn’t fall asleep. Most of it was because the lights
outside were lit the whole night through, and the faint glow of it seeping in
through the cracks of his door implied that Zhong Yan did not return to his
room.

It was already late at night, was Zhong Yan still working? Was he writing
up a new plan, or dealing with the new situations that had risen today?

He couldn’t sleep anyway, so Adrian decided to just wake up, and go

downstairs to find trouble with Zhong Yan. Just as he opened the door, he
was shocked stiff by the person standing in front of it.

Zhong Yan was standing there, wearing his pajamas with the giant space
rabbit prints. He had one hand raised as if he was about to knock on the
door, but the door suddenly opened. It surprised him too, and he took a step
back because of it.
“What?” Adrian asked.

“Oh, well…” Adrian began. He tried to put on a carefree look, but

unfortunately, he was not very successful. No matter how you heard it, he
sounded nervous. “I’ll be…leaving tomorrow.”

“Right. Didn’t I tell you? I’m sending you to White Aegis tomorrow.”
Zhong Yan nodded, and he spoke again with his eyes trailing left and right.
“I just received some credits in my account these few days, and also saved
up a little before. I’ll transfer four hundred thousand to you. Tomorrow’s the
deadline, isn’t it?”

“No need, I’ll pay it,” Adrian casually responded when he saw how hard it
was for him to even get four hundred thousand. “Why didn’t you choose a
shop that made some money instead? You could have gotten some return.
You just had to go and open a specimen store…Who still buys stuff like that
these days?”

“It’s because it’s niche that it’s not eye-catching,” Zhong Yan explained.

“Capital aside, let’s just talk about that specimen shop in the Institution Star
—In a school filled with eighteen or nineteen-year-olds, even a decent juice
shop went down, so don’t you think it’s eye-catching at all for a specimen
shop to survive four years without closing?”

Zhong Yan did not know why but he felt a little uneasy. Even he himself
didn’t realize that his speech had started to speed up. “There’s a new batch
of students once every three years, how would anyone realize that it’s been
open for four years! And the teachers and professors aren’t that idle.

“What’s more…there’s actually a bit of income from the branch in the

Capital…”

“Did you come upstairs to my door in the middle of the night…just to talk
to me about the operating conditions of your specimen stores?” Adrian cut
him off and said, “Are you getting nervous?”

“What? No, no, not at all,” Zhong Yan emphasized it over and over again.
The courage he had managed to gather up before coming upstairs had all
deflated just like that, but he wasn’t willing to leave just like that. After
standing around for a while, he still said, “Today’s the last night. When you
pay the fines tomorrow, when I leave Navi, we won’t have any personal
dealings anymore, and there’s absolutely no possibilities for us anymore,
right?”
Adrian didn’t know what he was trying to say, but he still responded.
“Right.”

Zhong Yan tried to hint vaguely, “I just took a shower. Can I come in?”

“…What?” Adrian almost thought he had heard him wrong, but Zhong Yan
refused to say anymore, and just looked at him from outside. Adrian slowly
began, “Do you mean what I’m thinking?”

A faint red could be seen on Zhong Yan’s ears, but he tried to look as calm
as possible. He calmed his voice and said, “Just for one night.”

Adrian did not respond, nor did he move away; he just stood there blankly.

He probably felt disgusted in his heart. Perhaps it was just for the sake of
giving some face to his “temporary ally” at the very end that he didn’t tell
him “scram”. Zhong Yan wallowed in shame and despair for a few seconds
and finally determined that his idea of leaving behind a final memory was a
terrible one. Softly, he apologized and turned to leave.

Before he could even reach the stairs, he suddenly heard the sound of
footsteps coming from behind him. With the time it took Zhong Yan to turn
around, Adrian had already reached him. Without a single word, he leaned
down and hauled Zhong Yan onto his shoulders violently. Without stopping,
he took him down the stairs, and opened the door to his original room.
Chapter 49 - Inviting the Wolf Into
Your House

When Zhong Yan was thrown onto the bed, his mind was still confused. He
first thought that he must have gotten Adrian angry, and he was probably
going to leave after throwing him here; but in the next second, Adrian
pressed down on him.

“I’ve wanted to ask you a long time ago, Zhong Yan.” Adrian leaned down
and trapped him beneath him. “Do you really not know what you look
like?”

“What?” Zhong Yan was shocked. He had never seen such an aggressive
side to Adrian. He could see a dangerous tint of darkness that belonged to
that of a predator in the deepest depths of his silver eyes. Just like that of…
a wolf.

Zhong Yan could vaguely feel that things were not the same as what he had
imagined. He sat in the living room until late, thinking that tomorrow will
truly be goodbye. As time passed, Adrian might slowly start to forget him.
He thought about it depressingly in the middle of the night: if they were
destined to go different ways, what could he leave with Adrian in these last
few hours? And what could Adrian give him? How could he leave an
indelible mark on that person’s heart? What kind of memory could he make
that could be used to comfort himself for the rest of his coming lifetime?

For a moment, his head felt hot. Like latching onto the last straw that could
save his life, he latched onto that crazy thought. By the time he stood in
front of Adrian’s door, he had started to feel that it was ridiculous again.
But just then, the door actually opened.
And so, he said it.

He was prepared to be ridiculed, but now it seemed like…

Adrian spoke in a hushed whisper, “Do you know how dangerous it is for
you to make such an invitation to a healthy adult man in the middle of the
night when you look like this?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Zhong Yan whispered indulgently, “It’s fine as long as
it’s you.”

It’s fine even if all he wanted was his flesh. This was good enough since he
couldn’t give anything more anyway.

Zhong Yan reached out to circle his arms around Adrian’s neck. The loose
sleeves of his pajamas rolled down, and the fair skin of his arms were
plastered directly to Adrian’s skin.

This shouldn’t be happening, Adrian thought. He should leave immediately,

not continue to tangle himself with this man. Zhong Yan looked pretty and
harmless on the surface, but this was too dangerous, especially for him; he
was much more dangerous than anyone else. But somehow, his hands that
were trained to be able to take out professionally trained combatants bare-
handedly were unable to break free from that pair of soft and weak arms
hanging loosely around his neck.

“This… is wrong.” He ignored the crazy desires in his heart. He didn’t

know whether that was hope that Zhong Yan would take the initiative to
back off, or that Zhong Yan would convince him, and pull him down the
abyss with him. “This is wrong, we shouldn’t…”

Zhong Yan satisfied his latter wish.

“What’s wrong about it? By law, we’re both willing. Morally, both you and
I are single. And ethically, we have no blood relations. After tonight…we’ll
have no connections with each other.”

No…Adrian thought with his last line of reason.

He looked at Zhong Yan’s unparalleled face. The man he had longed for so
long was finally lying under him and telling him that it was fine as long as
it was him.

What’s wrong about it? He heard another voice in his heart. Zhong Yan was
right, they were both single, adult men, so what’s wrong if they willingly
relieved their desires together? They’ve been adults for so long, these
things…were nothing to kick up such a big fuss about…right?

But…

Zhong Yan will soon leave, the voice continued to entice him. This may be
the last chance you’ll get in your lifetime. You’ll regret it if you let it pass.

“You’ll regret it.” Adrian’s words were practically squeezed out through his
gritted teeth. “If you say no now, I’ll leave immediately.”

“Don’t go,” Zhong Yan cajoled, “I won’t regret it.”

His last string of reason snapped.

Adrian’s eyes darkened. “You said it yourself.”

Saying that, he began to tear at the pajamas with the giant space rabbit
prints. Zhong Yan shrieked and stopped his hands. “Turn off the lights!”

“For what?” Adrian grunted. He lowered his head and breathed in the smell
of his neck.

Zhong Yan raised his neck and exposed his weak throat to the fangs of his
predator. He was gasping, but at the same time, he insisted, “No…turn off
the lights first…”

“There’s always so many problems with you!” Adrian gnashed his teeth. He
used the last shred of his self-control to move his gaze away from Zhong
Yan’s face, just to see Zhong Yan holding a hand under his ribs desperately.

There was a mark there that both of them knew the origins of.
Adrian’s heart suddenly softened. He shut his eyes and suppressed his
raging desires. He put his hand beneath Zhong Yang’s bottom and lifted the
man out of bed. Zhong Yan suddenly felt his body rise up, and he
instinctively wrapped his arms and legs around him.

“What’s wrong?” Zhong Yan asked in confusion.

Adrian carried him off the bed and went to turn off the lights. The predator
who had locked onto its prey could not stand letting go, even for a short
moment. He had to keep it imprisoned between its arms to fill the gaps of
desire in his heart.

The lights went out, and the starlight was blocked out by the dense curtains.
In the darkness, Adrian set Zhong Yan down on the ground and pushed him
to the wall before pressing against him to prevent him from moving.

He slid his hands into Zhong Yan’s pajamas that had been pulled away
earlier. His calloused fingers that was attached to his gun year-long was
carefully rubbing around the smooth exposed skin of his waist. Zhong Yan
shuddered and almost fell over. He reached out to hold Adrian’s neck, and
mumbled from his chest, “…Do you have experience?”

“I…” Adrian paused for a moment. Quickly, he recalled the various studies,
books, and videos he had seen. He felt that his theoretical foundation alone
should be enough to support him in successfully completing his first
practical drill, so he responded stubbornly, “I have tons of experience, so
don’t worry.”

…So it turns out somebody had already engaged in intimate relations with
Adrian during a time he was unaware. Zhong Yan felt sour in his heart. But
on the other hand, it did reassure him a little. His voice trembled faintly,
“That’s good. I don’t have any experience, so I’m…scared.”

“Don’t be,” Adrian breathed. He caressed his cheeks and his soft lips in
tender pity, and in the next second, replaced his fingers with his own lips.

In the darkness, they temporarily forgot about all the problems in the world,
about their ambitions, and pretended that they were lovers with connected
hearts. Quietly, they embraced each other and kissed passionately.

Adrian leaned his body forward to connect with his, and he was able to feel
Zhong Yan’s desire that was similarly raised like his own.

Zhong Yan blushed. He was glad that they turned off the lights. But, he
didn’t realize that there was no need for Adrian to confirm the heat of his
cheeks with his own eyes. Adrian could feel his burning cheeks from his
lips, which also served to ignite his desires.

He leaned down to pick Zhong Yan up and returned to the bed. His
beautiful prey was lying there obediently, allowing him to do whatever he
wanted; he nearly lost control. He tore away the clothes from Zhong Yan’s
body before touching the bare pearl that had been stripped of its outer shell
attentively with his hands.

Those rough and powerful fingers glided past every inch of his skin, and
when he rubbed past the scar under his ribs, Zhong Yan held his hand.
“Don’t…”

“It’s alright,” Adrian gently coaxed him, “It’s alright, only I know. It’s
alright…”

Zhong Yan slowly let go of his hands, but Adrian caught hold of his wrist
and brought them downwards.
Those long and slender, pampered fingers that did the work of those at the
highest level of the Federation every day were now trembling and covered
around the large bulge, completely perplexed. Zhong Yan explored that
region mindlessly and tried to unbuckle Adrian’s trousers. After a few
minutes, the buckle still did not unravel, and the desire within was standing
even more rigid.

“Do you…” Adrian asked with gritted teeth, “know how to do it or not?”

Zhong Yan was so scared that he retracted his hand, and said with a
wronged cry, “I told you I didn’t…You take it off yourself.”
Adrian unbuckled his own trousers with one hand and released his heat
from the fabric. He repositioned himself so he could hold the rigid organs of
both he and Zhong Yan together, and began to rub them back and forth.

Both their breaths interweaved in passion under the darkness. Zhong Yan
stiffened his body so that both he and Adrian’s most intimate parts could
cling together. The repeated ministrations of that large hand to his heat was
pushing him higher and higher to the peaks.

Zhong Yan’s breathing was turning more and more rapid. Adrian knew that
he was coming, and he swept his powerful fingertips over the small hole
before him. Zhong Yan’s body shook fiercely and he dug his fingers deep
into Adrian’s shoulder from his back with so much force that even Adrian
could feel a little pain from it.

“Ah…” With soft pants that sounded like whimpers, Zhong Yan’s mind
blanked out and he reached his climax in Adrian’s hand.

In the afterglow, he couldn’t help but turn soft in Adrian’s arms, his soft
black hair soaked with sweat. Adrian opened up the soft entrance beneath
him with his semen. After putting in just half of his finger, he was able to
feel the ring of flesh biting down his finger tightly, and the person in his
arms shivered.

“Does it hurt?” Adrian asked nervously. His finger was stuck and it was too
rigid to move forward.

Zhong Yan shook his head. “Quick…it feels…too weird…”

Adrian slowly began to explore the hidden lands before him. Zhong Yan
was constantly buried in his arms, and he was gasping softly with his chin
on his shoulder. When he could finally get a third finger in, Adrian took all
of them out and pushed the man down on the bed.

His hot pride was propped up to his soft entrance. Adrian’s forehead was
already covered in sweat, and enduring his urges, he made the final
confirmation. “Can I go in? I don’t have condoms at home, but my medical
reports are normal.”
“Come in,” Zhong Yan spoke.

Adrian obeyed the order. His manhood was already fully engorged and
much thicker than the width of three fingers. Even if he had taken a long
time to stretch him out, Zhong Yan still couldn’t help but choke, “Ow…
slow down, it hurts…”

Adrian had only entered halfway, but he didn’t dare to go any deeper since
Zhong Yan said it hurt. He thrust in and out at a shallow depth in a small
attempt to ease him into it.

The fire of lust slowly dispelled the pain from his body. Zhong Yan reached
out to Adrian, and he leaned down to allow him to embrace him. From soft
movements, he gradually went harder as uncontrollable moans overflowed
from Zhong Yan’s lips.

Having adapted to the dark, he could see that the face beneath him that was
usually so cold was now filled with lust and dyed an ambiguous color by
the darkness.
Adrian couldn’t stand it any longer. He pulled up Zhong Yan’s weak and
soft body and had him sit on top of him.

“Ah, don’t…ah!” Zhong Yan screamed through his tears, “It’s too deep…
too deep! Don’t move, ah!”

The change of position made it so that Adrian’s thick erection was pushed
fully inside. He brushed a hand between the wet strands of Zhong Yan’s
hair and brought his head down for a kiss. Zhong Yan’s moans were trapped
in his mouth, and he on Adrian’s body. He had already exhausted all his
strength earlier, so he had no power to struggle at all. He could only bear
with the rigid heat slamming repeatedly into the deepest depths of his body
with tears streaming down his face.

When Adrian finally released his lips, Zhong Yan was sobbing so
desperately that he couldn’t make a coherent sound anymore. Adrian wiped
away the tears from his face and softly coaxed him. “I’m sorry, it hurt
earlier didn’t it? I’ll slow down, don’t cry, Xiao Yan…”
But his appeasement was met with the opposite effect, Zhong Yan was
crying even harder now. Adrian felt a little panicked since it was his first
time, so he didn’t know whether it was too painful for him or not.

“I can’t anymore, hurry up and finish…” said Zhong Yan through his
sobbing, “I can’t, I’m too tired. My waist is sore…I don’t have any strength
left…”

Adrian: “…” But he just started!

However, Zhong Yan’s physical strength has indeed reached its limit. He
could only appease Zhong Yan with promises that he was nearly done while
speeding up the tempo of his movements. Zhong Yan had no strength to cry
any longer, and could only let out unbearable whimpers. His round nails
dug into Adrian’s back, and he couldn’t help scratching the skin beneath
them. Their owner had already lost his reason, and he could hardly control
the strength of his fingers. Fortunately, he didn’t have that much strength,
otherwise, Adrian’s back might’ve become a bloody mess right then.

After deliberately releasing his desires uncontrollably, Adrian had also

quickly reached his peak. Without a condom on, he pulled out from Zhong
Yan’s body and vented his desires outside.

Zhong Yan’s body was exhausted of all energy, and he fell into a deep sleep
almost immediately after that. Adrian carried him to the bathroom to wash
him up, and he was going to put him back down on the bed before heading
back to his own room to sleep, but Zhong Yan was instinctively holding on
tightly to him in his sleep, refusing to let go.

Adrian looked at the faint red flush at the corners of his eyes and carefully
held him in his arms, deciding to let himself indulge in this dream.

……

When the first hint of sunlight shone in through the curtains, Adrian knew it
was time to wake up from this dream.
Zhong Yan slept quietly in his arms, and he fit so perfectly it was almost as
if it was tailored for him. These feelings were so overwhelming that he even
wanted to attempt to stay in this dream even after Zhong Yan woke up.

Zhong Yan sat up, and the soreness and discomfort of his waist helped
speed up the sobering process. He lifted his wrist to check the time: it was
time to get ready for departure.

He did not look at Adrian. He sat by himself and sorted out his thoughts for
a few seconds, then he got up and began changing his clothes.

“You could stay if you want,” Adrian said to his back.

Zhong Yan’s hands paused at his buttons. He asked, “And then what?”

“I thought about it earlier, you’ll be at a disadvantage even if you go back,”

Adrian said, “With your current modus operandi, you can only wait for the
other party to make mistakes before you can expand on it, and create a
discussion. That’s too passive. On the other hand, I can take the initiative to
attack.”

“For you to make this inaccurate judgment of us is precisely because you

don’t know enough about us,” Zhong Yan used Adrian’s words from last
night against him.

Adrian raised a brow. “Why do you say that?”

“We are not ‘waiting for them to make mistakes’. Last year—Oh, my
apologies, it was the year before the last—Two years ago, during the hot
topic that changed the winds of the people’s opinion. Do you remember
that?”

Adrian nodded. “The misjudgment incident. I know, the reason why that
matter was blown up into such a huge storm was because your group was
fanning the flames from the background.”

“That girl would often publish anti-AI sentiments in the virtual community,
and she was very active in many of the major forums. After that incident,
her background was fully exposed. She was the child of a normal civilian
family, and everyone thought she was just an ordinary youngster who was
against AI. At most, her homepage was a little popular, and there were a lot
of other netizens she was familiar with who also voiced that everything had
been blown out of proportions. But in truth…” Zhong Yan paused for a
moment. “She is one of ‘Specimen’s’ core members. The person who came
in conflict with her sued her, and the people she was mischarged guilty
against by ‘Butterfly’…are also our men.”

Adrian was shocked. “So…”

“It’s very difficult to create a hot topic amongst the people. Throughout this
decade, the only thing that could match up to that matter in terms of traction
might just be the fallout we had back then. We have arranged this play for a
whole half-year, and this wasn’t the only ‘target’ we prepared…it’s just this
girl alone who managed to hit the bull’s eye,” Zhong Yan explained. “Do
you think we can rely on the right time, place, and people for things like
these? We created all three elements by ourselves. We are also actively
attacking them.”

“Don’t you think you’re…” Before Adrian could finish, Zhong Yan
completed his sentence. “Deceiving the public? I knew you wouldn’t be
able to accept it. Yes, we planned a trap, but if the AI could really be
selfless, all the ‘targets’ we created would have failed, and what happened
later would naturally be avoided. Besides…How high was your support rate
seven years ago, and how much is it now?”

If he were to say words such as “I don’t want the support gained from such
means”, then he really would’ve gotten a cheap deal, and even got to play
the good samaritan. In the end, he said, “It’s not like I can’t accept it, I just
wouldn’t do that.”

With the time it took for him to speak, Zhong Yan had already changed into
his pure black suit. This was the formal suit he purchased a few days ago
just for this occasion.

Fully-dressed and proper, the Councilor opened the curtains and looked out
at the wide expanse of mountains in the distance. Calmly, he said, “I will
finish before you do.”

Adrian was still sitting in bed half-naked. The strong morning sun from
Navi landed on his back, and the scratches on his skin throbbed, reminded
him that the frenzied passion they had in the dark just hours ago was no
fantasy, and the man who gave him this pain was standing right behind him,
coldly announcing his farewell with his back to him.

“Alright,” Adrian responded, “I’ll be waiting.”

 Chapter 50 - Departure

Zhong Yan was alone when he had arrived, and he didn’t have any luggage
or anything. But when he left, he packed two boxes.

“Take away the kitchen utensils you bought as well.” Adrian leaned on the
wall and said, “I don’t cook.”

“I don’t cook either,” Zhong Yan responded. The palm-sized rabbit was
sitting on his shoulder, and the white furball was especially eye-catching
against his black suit.

Only then did Adrian remember that Zhong Yan didn’t cook when he was
by himself.

Zhong Yan gave his boxes one last check to see if he missed anything.

Adrian couldn’t understand why he had to. He felt that it was fine even if he
left something behind. He had only bought those clothes and daily
necessities after coming here anyway. But he couldn’t say that. He knew
that Zhong Yan had always been very anxious and obsessive about these
small things that seemed completely irrelevant to him. For example, he
couldn’t stand seeing people, which mostly referred to Adrian, with
wrinkled clothes, a flipped collar, or casually tossing stuff around. As long
as he saw it, he would personally correct it. For example, right before the
exams, even if he was clearly the one with the best grades, he would still
feel that he hadn’t studied enough, and would nervously review madly.

Zhong Yan had already packed up yesterday when he was home. Seeing
that Zhong Yan was busy with the other box, he casually opened the
remaining one as well.
Only after opening the box did Adrian realize that this was the cleaning
robot’s box. The inside was lined with the brightly colored blanket, and
there were also some strange things and some bags of food packed inside.
“What’s all this in here?” Adrian pulled out an unidentified pink bag and
saw some words written in a soft girly font: Healthy Food for Pet Bunny.

As a soldier who spent most of his days with his blade dripping with blood,
the mental impact he received from this sight caused his hands to loosen,
and the pink bag of rabbit food fell back into the box.

“How could shops in Navi sell stuff like this?” Adrian asked in disbelief.

Zhong Yan’s long trip syndrome was starting again. He was tiring himself
over checking the inventory of his luggage, and nervously recalling whether
he left anything or not, so he didn’t pay much attention to Adrian. He heard
him talk, and absentmindedly asked, “What…?”

Saying that, he raised his head to take a glance; then, he couldn’t stay calm
anymore.

“Why did you open that box?! It took me so much work to pack it!” He
picked up the small packing device on the side and with a headache, drove
away the troublemaker. “Don’t you have anything else to do? Why don’t
you go and feed the rabbit in the backyard?”

Adrian closed the lid awkwardly and took a step back, but his mouth
refused to back down so easily. “So what if I open your box? It was my box
to begin with. What’s more, what am I going to do with the cleaning robot
if you take this box away? Do you expect me to turn the robot on and off
manually every single day?”

“I asked you a few days ago, didn’t you say I could use it? Right, you
should take this chance to buy a new cleaning robot.” While resealing the
box, Zhong Yan said, “I told you when I just arrived, there’s a problem with
your cleaning robot’s programming. There’s a lot of places it doesn’t clean
properly. This rabbit likes this box a lot, so I don’t want to move it to a
different nest.”
After packing up the two boxes, he straightened his body. Just then, he felt a
discomfort in his waist that he had never felt in his life, and nearly toppled
over. Thankfully, Adrian had quick reflexes and caught him at the waist.

“Thanks,” he said under his breath, then pushed his hand away after
steadying himself.

Fortunately, both of them managed to retain their senses yesterday, and still
had some sense of restraint, so they didn’t actually spend all night indulging
themselves.

Adrian pursed his lips and did not speak. Before the sun came out, they had
already agreed that what happened that night would be left in the dark;
when the sun comes out, everything will go back to normal.

This was the best choice. He told himself that this was the most mature way
to deal with this. But the right thing that was determined by reason could
not always be accepted by one’s emotions. For example, right now, a strong
sense of dissatisfaction had built up inside of Adrian from the fact that
Zhong Yan was going to leave.

It felt just like watching with your own eyes as your own belongings
disappeared, but he was also clear that this was the right choice.

Adrian had long realized Zhong Yan’s cold-blooded nature. Even at the
critical moment, his emotions would not drag him down. If there was
anything he wanted, he could give up anything for the sake of it—even if it
was something important to him. This was how Adrian had been abandoned
by him once in the past, so even if it hurts just the same, he could still be as
harsh on himself as he was on others.

Such people are often able to achieve great things. Just from among their
peers alone, Zhong Yan has indeed obtained great achievements.

And today, he still acted as he usually did, as if that encounter last night did
not really happen at all. Adrian couldn’t help some of those old memories
of the past from resurfacing. To him, this felt just like…this person had
abandoned him once more.
“Oh, right,” Zhong Yan suddenly spoke, “I nearly forgot. You’re paying the
fines this afternoon, right?”

“Right.” Adrian could not hold back the negative emotions within his heart,
and his voice was laced with ridicule. “But don’t worry, you’re the last
person I want to marry, so I’ve already set up a timed transfer. The payment
will definitely be made before the deadline.”

Adrian’s attitude towards him had loosened up in these recent days, but it
suddenly turned awful towards him again. Zhong Yan looked at him a little
inexplicably and attributed this to his disgust towards the idea of their
marriage.

Zhong Yan turned on his own terminal and pressed a few buttons.
Following that, the bell of a prompt could be heard from Adrian’s terminal.
He opened the message he had just received, only to see a notice that said:
Notice of change in divorce penalty fee amount.

“I refused it,” Zhong Yan said, “I know you don’t care about the money, but
it’s still better to save wherever you can. Why should you give money to
‘Butterfly’ anyway? The base penalty amount is around eighty thousand, so
I’ll pay forty thousand from my side later. You just have to pay the
remaining half.”

“No need, just take the forty thousand as my donation to ‘Specimen’.”

Zhong Yan paused for a moment. “You’re going to have to change the
transfer amount anyway, so we should just pay half-half.”

“Well, aren’t you being pretty generous right now?” Adrian showed no
appreciation towards him. “If you would’ve done this sooner, we could’ve
avoided all those problems.”
“I never planned to advance the plan so quickly. I was thinking of planning
it out a bit more when I returned. These days, if it weren’t for…that thing of
yours being rushed and all, I would’ve advanced it as soon as I felt that the
time was right.”
“What do you mean my thing?” Adrian was dissatisfied. “You think that’s
all my own business? You think I can pop out a baby by myself?”

“Alright.” Zhong Yan had finished arranging his boxes properly. “Let’s go.”

He brought his suitcase towards the back, while Adrian moved the cleaning
robot’s box. With one in front and the other at the back, Zhong Yan had
already walked through that door, but he did not have any intentions of
turning around to look at the house he lived in for the past half month.

“Zhong Yan,” Adrian called out to him from behind the door.

Zhong Yan turned his face to the side and asked, “What?”

“What…did yesterday mean for you?” Adrian tried to control his voice and
did his best not to sound like a formerly pure virgin trying to come to terms
with their first morning after, even though he really was one just last night.

But Zhong Yan was clearly one too! How could he not care at all?

Zhong Yan lowered his gaze. “Didn’t we agree to not bring this up after
sunrise?”

“Just this once,” Adrian insisted. “Once I come out this door, we will no
longer have the chance to speak alone.” And perhaps, that might be true for
the rest of their lives.
Zhong Yan closed his eyes. What did yesterday night mean for him?

A moment of indulgence he had snatched from the gods of destiny, to be

hidden within layers after layers of locks within the deepest consciousness
of his memories.

He opened his eyes and curved his lips into a smile. “…There’s no meaning
to it. Let’s go, your men must be waiting outside.”

……

Even when they reached White Aegis, Adrian still couldn’t figure out
whether Zhong Yan’s words meant that “there’s nothing to talk about with
this topic”, or if he meant that…this whole thing in itself had no meaning.

But he had no more chances to ask.

The small spacecraft was parked directly on the Supreme Council’s long-
distance ship. As soon as they came down, Intron came to receive them and
gave Adrian a formal greeting.

Adrian nodded and said in a lukewarm manner, “Safe travels. Your rabbit is
falling off.”

“My…what?” Intron asked in confusion. Only then did he realize that the
latter sentence was not directed at him.

A small snow-white rabbit was crouched on top of Zhong Yan’s shoulder.

Due to the angle they stood at, he wasn’t able to see it earlier. Half of the
rabbit was sliding down Zhong Yan’s shoulder, and since it was too light,
Zhong Yan didn’t notice it at all. Now that Adrian mentioned it, he quickly
picked up the little rabbit kit that was fast asleep and held it in his hands.

Intron asked in surprise, “Is…this the rabbit that Commander Yate

rescued?”

“No, that one I already ate for dinner,” said Adrian with a straight face.

“This is the one.” Zhong Yan was completely unperturbed. “Pass on the
order later. Open up that square box, and take everything out besides the
blanket, then put the rabbit inside.”

As he was saying that, he shoved the rabbit in his hands to Intron who
hurriedly accepted it.

Adrian’s guard came over and said something in his ear.

“Got it,” Adrian said, “I’ll be there.”

Zhong Yan couldn’t help but wonder. Adrian was dressed in casual clothes
today, but that was just as usual. Besides the day of the school’s celebration,
he had not seen Adrian dressed formally since. But when Adrian’s guard
picked them up at his house, he was clearly dressed in a military uniform,
but now he had also changed into casual clothes.

Where were they going to go? Was it inconvenient for them to wear their
uniforms?

“That old man’s on your ship already,” Adrian told him. “He’s a bit rowdy
so we gave him some medicine. He’ll probably be awake in two hours.”

Hearing that, Intron nearly wanted to vomit blood. Even though all three of
them knew that Bayer had been forcibly put under house arrest. As the
saying goes, even if you wanted to punish a dog, you had to check who the
owner was; wasn’t saying this in front of Zhong Yan the equivalent of
picking a fight?
But things took an even stranger turn. Not only was Zhong Yan not angry,
he even asked, “Is there any for me? Once he starts, he’s even harder to deal
with than someone more youthful.”

“Oh, are you planning to throw my grandfather aside soon?”

“Of course not, it’s not time yet. But the old gentleman is too vigorous…
You know how he is.”

Holding the rabbit, Intron, for the first time ever, felt like he was lacking in
brain cells, and it took him some effort to piece everything together.

Adrian, the core figure of the anti-AI coalition.

Zhong Yan, one of the highest members on the AI’s side.

Himself, the assistant of said highest member on the AI’s side, but was in
truth a spy for the anti-AI party.

Adrian knew that he was a spy for the anti-AI.

Zhong Yan thinks that he is his assistant.

Zhong Yan did not know that he and Adrian were in the same camp.
Adrian also knew that Zhong Yan didn’t know that he and Adrian were in
the same camp.

So how did these two end up chatting about these things so naturally in
front of him?

Before he could figure things out, he heard Zhong Yan say, “Oh right,
Intron.”

Intron reflexively responded, “Yes.”

“From today on, I will be your direct confidant.”

 Chapter 51 - Return

Their ship had already set sail for two hours, and the rabbit had already
woken up, but Intron was still immersed in the great shock he received just
now.

Every day, he had been dealing with Zhong Yan with his heart in his throat.
Anytime Zhong Yan’s calm and unfathomable gaze brushed over him, he
would wonder with his heart pounding whether he had messed up
anywhere. But now he’s telling him that the one in this battle of wits was
actually his real superior?

When Zhong Yan verified his identity with him, he had done it so simply
like nothing had happened and told him to go put the rabbit away just like
usual.

……

Intron watched soullessly as the little rabbit nibbled on its rabbit pellets
when suddenly, his terminal lit up.

They’ve just entered an area with a stable signal. Intron looked through the
news that had just come in, and slowly stabilized his expression before
getting up to look for Zhong Yan.

He knocked on the door of Zhong Yan’s Office. When he heard the call of
“come in” from inside, he opened the door and went in. The terminal screen
was not on, and Zhong Yan was not working. He seemed to be in a daze.

“Sir Zhong, we’ve just received news,” Intron said, ” The Interim Council
Head of Leber System has arrived in Labor System.”
“Did he just arrive?” Zhong Yan asked. “That means he just passed us by,
didn’t he?”
“No, he seems to have arrived a long time ago.” Intron shook his head.
“Perhaps the message was delayed.”

Ever since separating from Adrian in White Aegis, Zhong Yan had been
feeling restless. He rubbed his temples and gave it some thought. “Show me
information on Qu Yongyi.”

Intron was surprised, and he asked, “Do you suspect that there’s a problem
with him? Do you want to look at the official information, or…”

“The information we built on him is not official,” Zhong Yan said. Intron
was a very orderly worker and soon sent over all the files regarding Qu
Yongyi to him with his terminal.

Zhong Yan did not ask him to leave, so he stood beside Zhong Yan, and
went through the files with him.

If Qu Yongyi was placed in the general public, he would definitely become

a successful person at the top of the pyramid. After all, he worked in the
Capital’s Supreme Council. But if you were to hand in that resume to the
internal departments of the Supreme Council, he could only be said to be
unremarkable. His father was also a councilman, but he had only worked in
the council house of a second-tier planet. After transferring into the
Supreme Council of the Capital, his connections were lacking, and his rate
of promotion was also slow. He was only in his thirties when he entered the
Supreme Council, which was considered a relatively young age for them.
Now that a decade has passed, he was no longer the “young” one. His
political achievements were bland and unremarkable. Adding on his
reserved personality, he was practically buried in the Supreme Council
where the elite gathered and became a wallflower.

This time, when “Butterfly” suddenly launched an issue with the Leber
System, the interests of many parties were locked in a stalemate, which was
how he came to be pushed out. Zhong Yan originally thought that he would
not be able to come to work so smoothly, but he had already arrived, and he
did not seem to have stumbled at all.
But how?

Zhong Yan looked through the files of this middle-aged man with a frown
between his brows. After wasting so much effort through the ups and
downs, there’s no way Pearson would be willing to just let this go. But now
that Qu Yongyi had already headed off to work, what were they going to do
now? Drag him down again? That would be too unsightly, and it’ll be hard
to just brush this over.

The Leber System is close to the Navi System and has large amounts of
mineral resources. The reason why Pearson put his hands on Leberr was so
he could put the star system in his bag. Zhong Yan didn’t feel like any of
this was worth his curiosity. He had also screened Qu Yongyi’s information
a long time ago. From the looks of it, he was just someone who happened
upon a catch birthed from conflict, and nobody could say for sure whether it
was good or bad. But today, he was feeling vaguely uneasy about all this.

“Have we left Leber yet?” Zhong Yan asked.

“Not yet,” Intron responded, “We have a while to go.”

“How far is the next signal zone?”

“We passed one just a while ago, so the next one…” Intron checked the
map on his terminal, “should be half an hour away. This area is densely
populated, so there are many areas with stable signals.”

Zhong Yan looked at the time. There was less than half an hour to go for his
and Adrian’s penalty deadline.

He had already paid him half of the fines after taking off. Adrian said he
had set up an automatic transfer, but even though he did not know how long
in advance his transfer was set to go, he was sure it should be right before
the deadline.

In other words, when they receive a signal in half an hour, he should receive
news that their marriage contract has been dissolved.
“Is everything settled on the public relations side?” Zhong Yan asked.

Intron did not ask him what he meant. After the ideal marriage partner is
announced, there is a one-month buffer time before the spousal relationship
is officially announced. If they wish to refuse the proposal, they also had to
pay the fines within that timeframe. The list updated last month on this very
day will officially be announced soon. Today, the various platforms of the
virtual community were counting down, especially as the times were
coming closer, and the two had yet to pay the fine. Intron even thinks that
most everyone in the Federation was likely on their terminals, eagerly
awaiting the news.

“Everything is ready, don’t worry,” Intron responded.

“What about Navi’s Public Relations Department?”

“I contacted them this morning. The drafts on both sides are ready. As soon
as the news of the dissolution of your and Commander Yate’s relationship is
announced, we will be able to follow up immediately after to control the
situation.”

“Good. Where did Councilor Cayman head to?”

“He returned immediately after talking with Commander Yate yesterday.

We just contacted their fleet earlier. They’ve passed the Glory System, and
all is safe.”

After asking about all the little details, Zhong Yan finally eased up and
allowed Intron to leave.

Half an hour soon passed. As soon as their ship entered a stable signal zone,
the notification bell of his terminal beeped without a moment’s delay.

Zhong Yan sat at his office desk, and he knew that everything was over
now. He was rarely weak when he was alone, but he did not open his
terminal. Even if he knew that news about the dissolution of his and
Adrian’s relationship was now flooding the entirety of the Federation very
quickly, from all angles with various interpretations from various positions,
each competing with each other, it didn’t matter. The Public Relations
departments on both sides have already prepared their rhetorics. At the very
least, there was no need for him to step out personally at this moment.

Then just let him run away from this for a few more minutes; to turn away
from the goodbye known throughout the entire world; their last goodbye
after the previous one from seven years ago.

Someone was knocking urgently on his door. Zhong Yan answered, “Come
in.”

Intron who had left not long ago hurried in again. Before Zhong Yan could
say anything, he quickly said, “Sir Zhong, have you contacted the other
side?”

“Which side?” Zhong Yan could sense that something was not right.
“Contact about what?”

“Haven’t you looked at your terminal yet?”

Before he even finished speaking, Zhong Yan opened his terminal, and he
didn’t even have time to look at the news when he saw the two notices from
“Butterfly”.

…Two notices. Zhong Yan knew the very moment he saw that number that
a deviation had occurred. After all, it only took one notice to notify him of
the marriage contract nullification.

And of those two, one was the notice of the late payment of the fine, and
the second, the change in his marital status.

The first notice notified him that since the fine was not paid within the
stipulated time, his refusal was invalid, and so the parts of the fine that had
been paid was returned to his account.

The next notice congratulated him on his partnership with federal citizen
Adrian Yate.
“That’s impossible!” Zhong Yan stood up abruptly from his seat and looked
at the two notices with incredulity.

“What do we do now?” Intron asked, completely unsure of what to do.

“None of our manuscripts and plans can be used anymore. Earlier, the
Capital office contacted me and asked me what to do. Even those from
Specimen are asking about our next steps. The people from Navi contacted
me as well on my way to your office to ask us what to do. Maybe it’s better
if both sides keep quiet for a while…”

“Hold on,” Zhong Yan caught a clue in this raging chaos, “people from
Navi are asking us what to do? Why don’t they ask—”

He paused. if the Navi Military Command was contacting him, that meant
they couldn’t get in contact with Adrian.

Zhong Yan suddenly thought of White Aegis. Before Adrian left, Zhong
Yan saw his guard changing into casualwear. At that time, he also guessed
that he was probably going somewhere that would be convenient for them
to be in their uniforms.

Zhong Yan’s heart started beating rapidly. He tried to dial Adrian’s number,
but he did not succeed.

The call did not go through. Even the automatic transfer failed. Did
Adrian’s terminal stop working completely? Why? What happened?

“Leave that aside for now.” Zhong Yan forced himself to calm down and
told Intron, “Contact our men now. At the fastest speed possible, and at all
costs, check if…”

Before he could finish, he was interrupted by a special ringtone that

sounded from his own terminal. His expression changed—this was an
emergency call from ‘Specimen’.

Zhong Yan picked up, and the two sides quickly exchanged their
codewords. The other side hurriedly said, “I just received news that the
people secretly trained by Pearson have disappeared. It’s been more than a
day, and we have yet to be able to verify when it first happened. But it
seems to be…”

“When Qu Yongyi departed from the Capital to his post?” Zhong Yan asked
with a dark expression.

“…Yes.”

Zhong Yan hung up directly. All the doubts in his mind had formed into a
clear line. He did not try in vain to contact Adrian and instead called Fayn
directly.

As soon as the call connected, Zhong Yan asked without even waiting for
Fayn to say anything, “Is he in Leber System right now? To see Qu Yongyi?
And has the other party taken the initiative to seek cooperation with you?”

After breaking through all the high-level military secrets in one quick burst,
Fayn blurted in astonishment, “How did you know?”

“Because something is wrong, he’s not on your side! He’s just bait, this was
a trap!” Zhong Yan quickly said, “Pearson has trained a group of
throwaway assassins to deal with his problems whenever they crop up. I’m
almost completely sure now that they must have followed Qu Yongyi to
Leber.”

“Adrian brought his guard…” Fayn said subconsciously. But his heart
suddenly sank—he stopped being able to contact Adrian as soon as the
news came out, and he thought that Adrian might be in a secret meeting
with Leber’s interim council head. The Leber System was within
“Butterfly’s” supervision, so it was normal for both sides to activate their
shielding devices. Perhaps the reason why Adrian missed the deadline for
the fees was due to his neglect on that point.

But now it seems like there’s a large possibility that he was not negligent.
He was unable to get himself out of the shielded place in time.

“I’ll bring some people over right now.”

“Give me the coordinates,” Zhong Yan said, “I still haven’t left Leber.”

Without even a single word of nonsense, Fayn immediately reported the

name and coordinates of the planet before quickly hanging up.

Zhong Yan looked at Intron. After hearing that conversation, Intron was
completely able to grasp the current situation. When he saw him walking
over, he immediately asked, “Should we notify the cockpit?”

“Yes.” Zhong Yan repeated the address to him. “Notify the cockpit to turn
around immediately and head to the destination at full speed.”
 Chapter 52 - Uninvited Guest

The planet was unexpectedly close to their current position, so Zhong Yan
and Intron were able to arrive very quickly.

The address Fayn gave him was that of a small manor located in the green
nature of mountains and rivers. It was a commercial resort. Clearly, they
were hosting guests today. There were two fully armed security guards
posted at the entrance to the manor.

After their car stopped, both Intron and Zhong Yan got off. The security
staff yelled to them, “No entry allowed. Leave now!”

Intron was just about to go forward to talk sense to him, but Zhong Yan
raised his hand to stop him. He took off his shades and looked coldly at the
guards, asking, “Do you know who I am?”

Both the guards were shocked. One of them blurted out, “You’re that Zhong
Yan guy!”

“It’s good that you know. Do you know who’s inside, and what they’re
talking about?”

While asking, Zhong Yan observed their expressions. The two security
guards had faces of pure surprise and confusion, but they were not nervous,
so he had a faint idea. These two were merely hired as guards and knew
nothing of what was going on inside.

As long as they weren’t people from that side, then things will be easy to
deal with.

“You don’t, but I do.” Zhong Yan said, “So move away.”
The two guards quickly stopped him and said, “Sir Zhong, our guests today
have given us special instructions not to let anyone in. You…”

Zhong Yan felt anxious inside, but he didn’t show it at all. Arrogantly, he
said, “I am kin to one of the guests, and your esteemed guest has asked me
to come. Your list of ‘anyone’ does not include me. I was late to begin with,
so don’t delay me any longer.”

“Kin?” The two guards looked at each other. Everyone in the Federation
knew that the legendary councilor, Zhong Yan, was a parentless child who
grew up in an orphanage, so how could he have kin? Unless…

“Are you so dedicated to your work that you did not look at your terminals
at all?” Intron asked.

Of course they did. The two quickly responded, “So the person inside is…”

Intron said, “If you understand, then step aside quickly, don’t delay Sir
Zhong’s business.”

The two were still a little hesitant. Zhong Yan said with impatience in his
tone, “Alright, I’ll go in myself. It shouldn’t be a problem if I don’t bring
my assistant, is there?”

One of the security guards began to contact one of his superiors on his
terminal. Intron quickly took this opportunity to whisper to Zhong Yan. “Sir
Zhong, you’re going in alone? Let me go with you, if things turn for the
worst…”

“And what use will you have if you go as well?” Zhong Yan asked him
calmly. “If everything goes well, I will be safe on my own. But if something
does go wrong…you would have gone in for naught.”

Intron couldn’t refute him. Zhong Yan went on to ask, “Where are Navi’s
men currently?”
“They’ll be here soon, about twenty minutes.” Intron nervously confirmed
the information on his terminal. “Why don’t we wait for them to arrive
before we…”
Zhong Yan refused without even considering it. “No, I will go in first. The
longer this goes on, the more dangerous it will be.”

“They seem to have alarmed the media. Several of Navi’s warships have
left their borders and broke through the border crossing of Leber System
without declaring their intentions. Many of Leber’s media outlets are
following their movements, won’t this alert them?”

“No matter, outside news can’t enter right now. It won’t do any harm.”

While they were talking, the two guards ended their call and turned to
Zhong Yan with complicated expressions. “Sir Zhong, we’re not sure why,
but we can’t contact any of the guests inside. Manager’s orders. Why don’t
we… let you in just like you suggested, by yourself?”

Zhong Yan eased up a little. This place was most likely chosen by Qu
Yongyi. If the manager of the resort couldn’t contact him, that meant he was
still inside. If he did not come out, then they must not have succeeded yet.

He stepped into the manor under the worried gaze of Intron.

When he was standing right outside the door, Zhong Yan turned on his
terminal deliberately to confirm. The signal was blocked.

He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

……

“Is someone knocking on the door?” Adrian suddenly said.

Sitting across from him was an average-looking middle-aged man in his

forties. Hearing that, he had a start, and subconsciously said, “How could
that be?”

The parlor room was quiet for a few seconds. This time, the muffled sounds
of the door reached everyone’s ears.

“How…how could anyone be knocking?” Qu Yongyi looked extremely

unsettled, “I told them not to…”
“Don’t be so nervous, Councilor. Perhaps it’s service provided by the
manor.” Even though Adrian was getting impatient with how this person
kept going back and forth, avoiding the main topic, he vaguely felt that this
so-called cooperation could not be achieved. But it will be no good for both
sides if word were to get out about him and a member of the Supreme
Council having a secret meeting. He told his guard, “Go and see who it is.”

It was impossible for it to be a service staff of the manor, and Qu Yongyi

was very clear about this. He had made it very clear when he booked the
manor. He was going to talk about confidential things with some bigshots,
so nobody was allowed to come anywhere close to that building.

The guard accepted the order and left. Only Qu Yongyi, his assistant, and
Adrian were left in the parlor room now.

Qu Yongyi couldn’t be bothered to think about anything else now—the

guard finally left, and Adrian was alone. Was this a good chance right now?
Maybe they can…

He was still hesitant and wanted to turn to his assistant and look at what he
thought. But this opportunity was fleeting. The manor was not big to begin
with, so the guard returned not long after leaving—And, they brought an
uninvited guest.

It’s hard to say whether Adrian or Qu Yongyi was more shocked to see
Zhong Yan under these circumstances. Both of them stood up and was just
about to speak, but nobody was as quick as Zhong Yan. As soon as he
stepped into the room, he started complaining before anyone could even say
anything. “What is wrong with this manor? The guards at the door actually
tried to keep me out—what a joke, don’t they know who I am? Say, and
what’s wrong with you? Didn’t we agree you’d come pick me up in a bit?
What took you so long? Now I had to come here by myself.”

As he said that, he walked very naturally to Adrian’s side, and helped him
dust away the nonexistent dust on his collar. Adrian did not evade him.
Zhong Yan who should’ve been on a ship right now suddenly appeared
here, and his behavior was abnormal. He suppressed his confusion and
quietly waited to see.
Hearing this, Qu Yongyi was dumbfounded and looked dazedly at Zhong
Yan. He asked, “Councilor Zhong Yan…Were you not returning to the
Capital?”

“I was,” Zhong Yan responded. Affectionately, he patted Adrian’s arm and

said, “This guy promised he’d come see me off. But he never showed up, so
I could only come myself.”

“How did you know I was here?” asked Adrian, expression unperturbed. He
was trying to figure out what was going on.

“Don’t you have a tracker installed on your terminal?” Zhong Yan said,
“Your adjutant helped me check where you were. Don’t blame him for this,
he really can’t help it. I’m not delaying your business, am I?”

Adrian was very clear that no such thing was installed on his terminal. So…
Fayn told him where he was. Why?
“Oh, oh no, nothing of the sort.” Cold sweat was starting to ooze from Qu
Yongyi’s forehead. A tracker? But all signals were clearly shielded in this
building, so how could the tracker find them? Could there be a problem
with the shielding device? He couldn’t help himself from being a little
flustered, but he tried his best to smile. “Councilor Zhong, you… I thought
your relationship was not good? It seems like the rumors can’t be trusted.”

Zhong Yan sighed. “Well, we’re already married, what can we do? The
fines were really too high. We discussed it, but we could really only give
in.”

He saw both Adrian and Qu Yongyi looking at him with horror and
pretended to be surprised. “Oh, didn’t you receive the news?” He turned to
Adrian. “Didn’t ‘Butterfly’ send you the notification? I received our official
marriage notification earlier. You…did delay it, right?”

“We have a one-way shielding device in use here,” Qu Yongyi quickly

explained, “Sir Yate knows.”

The so-called one-way shielding meant that outside signals could not enter,
nor detect any of the activities inside, so automatic transfers of this sort
would not be affected. Adrian’s heart jumped—The automatic transfer
failed? This building…is not under one-way shielding?

“Oh, then I’ll show you mine. Look, those are the two notifications. One
says our fines are overdue, and the other is the notice of our marriage.”
While saying that, Zhong Yan turned on his terminal and showed it to
Adrian, but the screen wasn’t showing the notice from “Butterfly” as he
described, and was instead showing the text communication interface with
Adrian. The input field says: Danger. There are assassins in the house, lots
of them. Do not fall out with him here. Leave.

“It’s just a marriage notification, what’s there to look at? It was set to
happen a long time ago,” said Adrian, unperturbed. He raised his hand to
shut off Zhong Yan’s terminal screen, and following that, held his hand in a
very natural manner.

Though his appearance was calm and steady, Zhong Yan’s palms were
covered in sweat.

Adrian had a basic understanding of the situation now. He was only told
when he came in that this building was protected by a one-way shield, but it
was actually an in-depth two-way shield. Even if he realized that something
was wrong, nobody inside could seek help from the outside.

“How long have you been talking here? Are you done yet?” Zhong Yan
looked at Adrian. “Why don’t you continue your talk after you send me
off?”

“Well, we’re not done here yet—” Qu Yongyi subconsciously tried to stop
him, but then he couldn’t be too sure about that decision. It did not seem
like Adrian noticed anything off, and Zhong Yan had also crashed in by
coincidence. Adrian’s guard did not leave that whole time, so for the sake of
security, he never made his move, and waited patiently for Adrian to be left
alone. Word is that Adrian was the strongest soldier in the world. With 1 vs
10 being a piece of cake for him, anyone who could become Adrian’s guard
was likely no pushover either. And now that Zhong Yan was suddenly
mixed into the pile, the instability factor has greatly increased. Things like
this only allowed for success. Failure was no option. If Adrian lives through
this, then he would be the one dead. He might be better off…letting him go
first, and arranging for another opportunity. If he forcefully stopped him,
they might end up finding something fishy about him instead.

But this didn’t seem right, how could Zhong Yan be in such a relationship
with Adrian? This wasn’t how it was written in the information he heard
prior to this at all! How did they get married? Could they really not afford
the fines? And why doesn’t Zhong Yan look surprised to see him at all?
And how could Adrian’s adjutant tell him such a confidential thing?

“It’s more important for you to be with Councilor Zhong. I mean, you’re
newly married…” Qu Yongyi’s mind was in a mess, and his words were
already getting incoherent. “It’s only proper. That’s right, I still haven’t
congratulated Councilor Zhong…”

Zhong Yan gave him a reserved nod. He was a representative council

member, so was not very respectful towards Qu Yongyi, and only
responded plainly, “Thank you.”

Adrian was pulling a long face. From the looks of it, he looked rather
unhappy to have his conversation interrupted, but it would not be good for
him to get into a fit in front of an outsider. He said to Qu Yongyi, “I’ll be
back in a moment. I’m sorry, he’s quite the troublemaker. He’s been this
way since we were still in school. He’s gotten too used to using his
privilege.”

Qu Yongyi told them not to worry about it, and sent the three of them to the
door, only to hear a voice ring out from the parlor room just before they left.
“Do you think he’ll return after leaving?”

It was Qu Yongyi’s assistant, who had been silently standing at the side
without any sense of presence. They turned their heads to look at him and
saw the unattractive man raise his head, looking at him with a pair of cold
eyes that glimmered with frost. He shouted, “Get them! This is our only
chance!”
 Chapter 53 - Shield

Following his loud shout, it was like an explosion had been set off in the
quiet manor. The sound of glass breaking and heavy things landing on the
ground rang out before that voice could finish its sentence.

Adrian took this opportunity to open the door of the parlor room and pulled
Zhong Yan to him before giving a short order to his guard, “Go!”

Outside the parlor room, several men wearing anti-detection camouflage

uniforms suddenly appeared as if out of thin air in the once empty hall.
Some of their bodies were even still covered with leaves and grass. All the
windows were broken, so it was not hard to guess where they were hiding,
and where they broke in from. All of them were holding knives in their
hands that gave off cold glints.

When coming over from the Capital, one would have to go through frequent
border checks. It was hard for guns or any other weapons to escape
detection. Whether it was a laser gun or a traditional gun, they had
sophisticated instruments to detect their traces after use. Then, it would be
easy to find any clues afterwards. The only way to avoid detection was to
go by the most ancient way: using cold weapons.

Even though the lethality and the attack distance was limited, and it
required high technical skill, this was enough. After all, Adrian who had
entered the manor through the normal way had already accepted the
security check at the entrance. He did not carry any weapons on his body
and was truly unarmed at this moment.

All the doors and windows were covered, and the number of people in the
parlor room behind them were more than those in the hall. Clearly, they had
been preparing to take action in the parlor room.
“Just dodge! Don’t initiate them.”
That was the only thing Adrian could warn Zhong Yan of. He raised his
arms and warded off the blows of two of the assassins that had rushed
towards him. He swept his eyes through the chaotic scene, and the only
peace of mind he could get was the fact that this gang of people were doing
just as he guessed: they were all aiming at him. Since his guard was
covering his back, he also received their attention, but the heat on him was
less than Adrian. Meanwhile, hearing his order, Zhong Yan practically
received no attacks at all.

Zhong Yan was an extremely stable man when it came to big matters, and
he was never controlled by his emotions. Adrian had always put faith in this
point. Take for example, Zhong Yan must be feeling very anxious inside at
this moment, but he was still very clear on why Adrian ordered him to do
that. He wasn’t good at fighting in the first place. He never learned any of
the techniques, and his strength was also lacking. If he ignored all that and
tried to help, not only would he be of no deterrence to the assassins, he
would even be done in by the assassins for being an obstacle. If that
happened, Adrian would even need to spare some effort to save him. So,
without a word of discontentment, he retreated to the walls and watched the
fight anxiously while also scouting for an escape route.

There was an archway not far from here, and behind it was the dining hall.
Zhong Yan found a gap and ran to the dining hall. Fierce fighting was
heating up right behind him, and what he saw before him was a luxurious
dining table. The long dining table was well-furnished with cutlery on both
ends, as well as a wine bucket, and candles at the center. Zhong Yan rushed
over without hesitation and pulled out the knives from the two dining sets.

There were two large bright windows in the dining hall that were still intact.
This meant that none of the killers broke in through the windows from this
room, which also implied that the outside was safe. As long as they escape
from these windows, they’ll be able to leave this building that was filled
with killing intent and live to see another day. Without even looking at the
two windows, Zhong Yan took the knives and ran back to the hall without
hesitation.
Since graduating and getting out of the training programs in the Supreme
Institution’s military academy that sought to help individuals “break
through their limits”, Adrian had indeed been rarely forced to this point in
these recent years. He was already wounded, and due to him bearing the
brunt of the attacks, his injuries looked to be much more serious than that of
his guard’s. His high level of skill in close-quarters-combat enabled him to
protect his heart and neck, as well as other vital areas, but his limbs were
already bloodied up.

Being unarmed was really too much of a disadvantage. Sometimes when

dodging was impossible, he could only block the blows with his body. And,
this group of people were well-trained hardened assassins who would rather
get hurt themselves than to lose their holds on their weapons and give him
the opportunity to grab them.

He can still hold on at this point, but his guard was clearly strained. The
longer this went on, the more serious the injuries of his body would
become, and the more it would impact him. The battle was already at a
deadlock. Adrian swept his eyes over to Zhong Yan who was at the wall. He
was obviously staring at him with eyes that seemed to be hinting something.
Both his hands were behind his back, and a cold glint could be seen at his
back, which helped Adrian understand his intentions immediately.

Another life-threatening slash came. Adrian ducked under it and tumbled

over the ground, avoiding another strike in the air. At the same moment
when he was getting up, two shining silver tools slid quickly across the
ground to him. Nimbly, he intercepted the two knives with each hand and
got up to block the next wave of attacks.

Clink!

The sharp clash of two blades rang out within the hall for the first time. The
young guard who had become downtrodden suddenly perked up, and
looked over subconsciously just to see Adrian getting through the guard of
one enemy to get closer to him, and shouting, “Catch!”

A knife came flying over. Adrian helped him stop one of the assassins who
tried to intercept them, and the guard successfully caught the knife from the
air. With the force of his anger, he thrust the blade down, and the dull dining
knife dug straight into the neck of the killer that was temporarily caught
under Adrian’s control from his exertions.

At the same time the knife was pulled out, blood spurted out like a
waterfall; the first casualty finally emerged within this room.

Adrian had once been the leader of the military academy, but he was not the
top of every battle category. However, the biggest contribution to his overall
ranking was his solo combat capabilities.

Using only his body as a weapon, he was still able to fight against many
other enemies by himself, much less with a blade in his hands now. A single
dining knife was able to multiply his lethality considerably. After the first
assassin fell, a few others fell into the pits of death under Adrian’s hands in
just a few short minutes. No matter how well-trained they were when they
were still alive, a dead person could not keep their weapons from being
snatched away. Soon after, Adrian and his guard were able to exchange
their dull knives to tactical blades. Bloodied blades that were made to kill.

Qu Yongyi who was hiding behind the parlor room door watched as more
than half of his men fell and felt the situation had turned for the worse. He
shouted loudly, “Forget it! Use it now! It’s better to leave some evidence
than to get killed by him here!”

These words woke Adrian up. With his sharp eyes, he was able to see one
of the people near him put a hand into the bulging pocket of his combat
trousers, and forcefully made a move despite the dangers of leaving his
back open to severe the man’s arm with one strike.

That assassin who tried to produce something from his pocket but failed let
out a pained cry. Blood poured out of his dismembered arm, and he quickly
lost his ability to fight.

“Shut up, you coward!” One amongst the group of assassins shouted out.
Qu Yongyi was so scared that he immediately returned to hide in the parlor
room and didn’t dare to show his face any longer.
This voice emerged just a while ago. Zhong Yan looked towards the person
who spoke. It was Qu Yongyi’s “assistant” from earlier. Of all the assassins
in the room, he was the only one not in camouflage, so even if his face was
easy to forget, it was hard to lose him. Zhong Yan stared firmly at the man’s
face and turned on his terminal in the midst of the flashing blades and
flying blood, quickly scrolling through the data in his terminal.

Found it!

“Kohler Lanz!” Zhong Yan yelled out, “Your parents and your wife are now
under Bard Pearson’s control, did you know? Once you finish this task and
return, he will use your child to force you to commit suicide. Did you know
that? The assassin working under you last time, Ang Lake, that was how he
killed himself, and his family didn’t receive the compensation Bard Pearson
promised at all. Did you realize any of this?!”

The killer named Lanz was extremely determined and unmoved, but some
of the assassins amongst them were affected, especially those who knew the
man called “Ang Lake”. As soon as they heard that, they couldn’t help but
be distracted, but they were stabbed straight through the heart by Adrian’s
guard in the next second, thus ending their lives.

“Don’t listen to his nonsense!” Lanz yelled, “Use your emergency

weapons!”

Of the few remaining assassins, there were people who immediately took
out a small metal spray bottle. This person stood behind Adrian, and this
time, he was unable to stop him, and could only hear his guard shouting,
“Commander!”

Adrian had just repelled a deadly attack, only to feel himself being pushed
fiercely away by someone, landing on the ground. He slid across the
smooth ground from the inertia. He watched as his guard took the spray for
him, which caused him to stop immediately. Without fighting back, he fell
to the ground and started to squirm before his body stopped moving
completely.
It can’t be poison. Adrian immediately judged that if it was poison, then
they would definitely have to deal with the body, otherwise the autopsy
would determine the cause of death. For a toxin powerful enough to be fatal
with such a small dose, there were only several kinds in the world, and they
were all strictly controlled. So, it would be very easy to find out who was
behind this. This wasn’t the “bit” of evidence Qu Yongyi mentioned earlier.

Then it was most likely a powerful hallucinogen.

Only four killers were left. Fortunately, they kept their primary goal in
mind, and didn’t waste their time giving the guard an extra stab to infuriate
Adrian, and instead, all of them rushed towards him.

The ones who could persist till the end were all the elite amongst the elites.
Three blades clashed with Adrian’s, but Lanz did not come forward, and
instead took out a small metal vial from his pocket.

“Ade! Watch out!”

Hearing Zhong Yan’s loud and anxious reminder, Adrian subconsciously

held his breath and dodged to the side. A colorless spray of mist dispersed
right past his ear, and all three of the killers that were close to him were
affected. After a sway, they all fell down. Adrian was able to receive a
timely reminder, but a small amount of the gas had still entered his blood
circulation through the exposed wounds on his body.

He had received a very strict anti-drug and anti-fainting training. Especially

in tight situations, even if it was a strong hallucinogenic drug such as this,
he could still force himself awake if you gave him a few seconds and if it
was only a small amount of contamination.

But in an ever-changing situation, he didn’t have the privilege of time.

Adrian’s body swayed, and he fell to one knee while his consciousness
drifted from him.

Zhong Yan snatched a knife out of one of the corpses and tottered over the
sea of bodies, crossing over to Lanz who was running towards Adrian. But
in the next second, the knife was knocked out of his hands by the
professional killer like a toy.
If Fayn or any of Adrian’s guards were here, they could help Adrian hold
out for a few moments while he recovered, but unfortunately, it just had to
be the Zhong Yan who had zero combat ability. From the looks of it, he
couldn’t hold on for even two seconds.

Lanz had a smug sneer on his face as if he was simply dealing with a child.
With one strike, he easily plunged his blade into Zhong Yan’s abdomen.
Right after pulling out, he was going to cut Adrian’s neck next.

But that smile on his face went stiff on his face in the next second. Zhong
Yan clung to his arm with all his strength, not allowing that knife to leave
his body. He mustered every last bit of strength he had in his body, and
Lanz was actually unable to tear away from him. Overcome with anger, he
howled, “Damn it! Get away from me! Scram!”

Without any fighting abilities, he could only use the most foolish way of
using his own flesh and blood as a shield.

Lanz couldn’t make any big movements with his arm, so he could only tear
the blade halfway out and shoving it back in over and over again from
different angles in an attempt to get rid of Zhong Yan by pain or death. In
just a short few seconds, Zhong Yan’s body had already gone soft, and he
was no longer clamped down on the man, falling down onto a pool of his
own blood.

But this was enough.

At the same time that Zhong Yan went silent, the strongest warrior had
awoken.
 Chapter 54 - Unrestrained
Spending

Pain had completely drowned out his thoughts. Zhong Yan never knew that
such pain could exist, and his thoughts had completely stopped. He could
only hear the roar of a man that sounded like an injured beast, and the dull
sound of a blade piercing a body. Though the sound could pass through his
ears, it did not register in his mind.

The swaying lights were hanging right above him. After a few seconds, or
perhaps a few years, when time had lost meaning to him, someone fell
down beside him, and the anxious face blocked the light.

“Xiao Yan!” Adrian held up Zhong Yan’s head. His beautiful phoenix eyes
were open, but they seemed to have lost their spirit. “Xiao Yan, no…don’t,
please…”

Adrian had never been this scared in his life, nor had he ever killed a person
so quickly. Lanz’s body fell beside them and he had already stopped
breathing. Adrian couldn’t even care to stab him a few more times to vent
his anger, he was only scared of holding Zhong Yan up.

Adrian cradled Zhong Yan’s face and tried to wipe the blood from it, but his
own hands were also stained with blood, so Zhong Yan’s face was stained
with more and more of it. Zhong Yan blinked. He caught onto Adrian’s
clothes with his hands that were already soaked with blood and said, “It
hurts…Ade, it hurts…”

“I know, I know. I’ll find someone to save you right away, so don’t be
scared. It’ll stop hurting soon.” Adrian quickly comforted Zhong Yan, and
himself. He immediately moved to stop the bleeding, but only after taking a
close look at the injury on Zhong Yan’s belly did he realize how deep the
wound was. It had simply been turned into a mess of flesh and blood. Their
battlefield first aid guide didn’t talk about how to stop the blood in these
situations at all.

Under these circumstances, they would generally be abandoned on the field.

But the battle had already ended. With how advanced the current medical
technology was, as long as they were treated in time, as long as they had
one last breath in them, or even if they only had half their bodies left, they
could still be saved. There was no way he couldn’t be saved!

Adrian gritted his teeth and was just about to go out to find a signal to call
for help, but Zhong Yan’s weak voice stopped him. “Don’t go…just leave
me. I don’t think…I can hold out any longer. Listen to me…”

“Shh, leave that for later, I’m going to find help, I’ll be back as soon as
possible!”

“No, there’s no time left, listen to me…” After saying these words, Zhong
Yan’s focus seemed to have converged. With much difficulty, he took a
deep breath while ignoring the pain. “The password to my terminal is ten
years ago from today. The full authorization rights to ‘Specimen’, and the
rest of the important information is inside. A long time ago, Pearson, he
said you were a natural during your first two years in Navi. He said you
were a revolutionary, and that you would become a big problem, so you had
to be dealt with…I, through Specimen, have been trying to warn you many
times, in these years…”

He would be barraged with severe pain every time he moved while talking,
so he had to pause after every few words. Only after hearing this did Adrian
finally realize that those warnings had not been conveyed to him by Vahl…
It had always been Zhong Yan!

“So, you separated with Pearson because…” His voice trembled as he

spoke.

“Perhaps…even Pearson might not know…why I insisted, to step back…”

Zhong Yan tried weakly to laugh, but he didn’t even have the strength to
move the corners of his lips anymore. “That year I left, I opened, the first
specimen store. I wasn’t, seeking for that position…It was…a way out I
prepared for you. You have to…quickly tell them, check the situation in,
each military command. only when you’re clear, can you fight…”

“I got it, so don’t talk about this now. Don’t worry, we’re not going to start
a war, we’re only going to use force to defend against conflicts…I just went
way too overboard that day because I wanted to scare you, I’m sorry…”
Adrian hurried to explain. Zhong Yan seemed to have become more at ease
as he looked at his eyes. Then, his heavy eyelids slowly closed. Adrian
suddenly held his face, “Xiao Yan, don’t sleep, don’t sleep. I’m just going
away for a few seconds, okay? I’ll be back soon, wait here for me, okay?”

Zhong Yan’s hands clung tightly to his clothes, expressing his refusal. Just
as Adrian was about to bear with the pain and move away his hand, it
suddenly got noisy outside.

With the roaring of armored military vehicles coming closer, the sound of
them braking could be heard outside the mansion. Fayn led a fully armed
elite-team and crashed in. He only had time to verify that the only person
sitting on the ground and was still alive in this sea of blood and corpses was
Adrian when he heard him shouting at him. “Where’s Wei Lan?! Medical
team, hurry up! Quickly! He can’t hold on any longer!”

Fayn had never seen Adrian so uncomposed before, but he couldn’t bother
to assess the situation and just pushed the nearest soldier to him. “Quickly
go and get the medical team from the rear support vehicle! There’s an
emergency, make sure that Wei Lan himself comes!”

The soldier obeyed the order and immediately ran out.

Fayn took a few steps closer. Only then could he clearly see that the person
covered in blood from head to toe was Zhong Yan, and couldn’t help
himself from feeling shocked. He immediately turned back and ordered,
“Don’t spread out! All of you go outside!”

He saw the hideous wound on Zhong Yan that was exposed to the air and
feared that a group of soldiers rushing in would cause the flow of air to stir
up the dust and pollute his wound. He took a few steps forward and added a
bullet to each of the corpses lying by Adrian and Zhong Yan, making sure
that they would no longer pose a threat.

“My guard, Fayn, he’s injured. He inhaled a powerful hallucinogen, move

him out first,” said Adrian as he pointed towards the direction in which his
guard fell.

Fayn quickly followed the direction he was pointing and found the
unconscious guard and moved him to a place outside where he could get
some fresh air.

Adrian leaned his body over, and said in a gentle yet powerful way, “Did
you hear that, Xiao Yan? The doctor is coming soon, so don’t sleep! Talk to
me, Xiao Yan…”

“The ring…what did it look like…” Zhong Yan muttered.

“I didn’t throw out the ring! It’s still at home. You’ll be able to see it when
we go home.” Adrian quickly added, “It’s silver. Very cheap because I
didn’t have money at that time. I’ll bring it out and give it to you when
we’re home, okay? You have to come home with me. Don’t sleep. Hold on
for a little longer.”

Zhong Yan’s breathing was becoming weaker, and his voice was so quiet
that he could hardly be heard. Thankfully, Adrian had learned to read lips
during his investigations class. “Do you…love me again? I’m going soon,
Ade, just lie to me…”

“I’ve always liked you! Really! I’ve never stopped liking you! Right, didn’t
you say you wanted to start over? We can start over as long as you live
on…No, let’s start over right now, okay? Please marry me. Zhong Yan, will
you promise me that?”

“Thank you.” A flash of pleasure could be seen in Zhong Yan’s eyes that
were gradually dimming. His lips were moving weakly, and though he
could hardly see it move, Adrian could still read the words from his lips:
“You’re really kind…”
The moment he read those words, it simply felt as if an arrow had pierced
through his heart. He spent so much time going out of his way to repeat to
Zhong Yan how much he hated him that Zhong Yan couldn’t even trust his
sincere confession now. He believed that this was only his last favor to him.

“I’m not lying to you!” Adrian’s hot tears dripped down onto Zhong Yan’s
face, but he could no longer feel the warmth. “I’m not lying, Xiao Yan, I
love you…It’s true…No, don’t sleep, don’t do this to me, please…I beg
you…”

His tears blurred his vision, and a clear voice yelled out to him. “Move
away!”

A pair of powerful hands pulled him, and dragged him away from Zhong
Yan with an unshakable force. Adrian quickly wiped his tears and
recognized that the figure of that white-robed back was Wei Lan. Fayn was
at his side, trying to pull him back to his senses.

“Let go,” Adrian said under his breath.

Fayn saw that he had recovered some of his senses, so he obeyed and
released him.

Adrian asked, “Can he be saved?”

“He can.” Wei Lan was in a hurry to deal with his wounds and responded
without even turning back.

Anybody was willing to lie in order to comfort him, but Wei Lan wouldn’t.
The boulder hanging on Adrian’s heart finally fell, but he quickly heard Wei
Lan saying before he could even relax his breath, “He needs a large blood
transfusion immediately before I can begin the operation. What’s his blood
type, Commander?”

Adrian was just about to open his mouth when suddenly, he stopped as if
something had caught his throat.
Another doctor took over Wei Lan’s work, and only then was Wei Lan able
to take some time out to look at Adrian. “You don’t know? Xiao Lu, take
out the blood type detector…”

“Type B…” Adrian said with much difficulty, “Variant class, type B.”

Even the doctors who were busy cleaning the wound couldn’t help
themselves from looking over, and their voices cracked. “Variant blood
type?! That…We don’t have that type in the portable blood bank we
brought.”

Even Wei Lan was frowning, but he passed on the instructions practically
without pause. “First, give him artificial blood to hold him on. Then,
Commander, you…”

Adrian quickly responded, “I’ll contact the blood banks nearby. How long
can the artificial blood hold him?”

“Don’t bother with any blood banks more than an hour away, there’s no
time.”

Several doctors carried Zhong Yan to a stretcher and transported him out of
the mansion that was filled with corpses. The rear support vehicle was
already outside. They had to transfer Zhong Yan to the sterile room in the
vehicle to continue treatment.

Before getting in the vehicle, Wei Lan’s last words to Adrian were: “Two
hours is the limit. Going by the regular course, artificial blood can be
inserted for a maximum of ten to twenty minutes. When it goes past half an
hour, I have to pull out the transfusion needle. In the ischemic state, he can
hold out for at most half an hour. For the first hour, at least get him one
batch of blood, but a large amount of blood is needed in the follow-up, so
start contacting the blood banks from nearby to far away.”

Adrian’s lips were pursed tight and he nodded to show that he understood.
Fayn and the two other officers standing next to him were busy trying to
contact the nearest blood banks, but after hanging up their calls, their
expressions were heavy.
“Nothing?” Adrian asked.

“We have 400 milliliters in our own military command’s general hospital.
It’ll take an hour…I’ve already asked them to send it over in the fastest
combat ship we have. It should be able to arrive in time.” Fayn said,
“Variant blood types are too rare, even more so here. In the blood blanks
closest to here, the only large-scale blood bank that has a small amount is a
star system away from here. It’ll take at least two hours for them to reach. If
we go further…Glory System has some, and the distance is four hours away
from here…”

Adrian clenched his fists and said solemn voice, “Tell all the blood banks
who have it to send it over. Immediately notify headquarters to search the
files and screen through every person to find who has type B variant blood
in the military command. If there is, immediately negotiate with them.”

Fayn nodded immediately. At this time, all of them heard a bustle from
outside. Fayn said, “It’s that group of reporters. They’ve already been
stopped outside of the manor so they can’t come in, don’t worry.”

“Wait.” Adrian said, “There are reporters outside?”

“Yeah. We rushed here too quickly so we didn’t get to conceal our tracks
and they followed us over…Hey, what’re you doing?”

Adrian strode out of the gates of the manor in large strides. The door had
long been surrounded until there were no leaks. The Navi military unit saw
that it was him and automatically made way. A raging storm was breaking
out in Adrian’s silver eyes, and his body was covered in blood as if he had
just crawled out of hell. The reporters at the front were stunned by his
imposing aura for a moment, and it actually turned silent in an instant.

“Are all of these cameras on live broadcast?” Adrian swept over a dozen
hovering cameras that were suspended at a person’s height.

“Most of them are, Sir Yate,” several reporters responded cautiously.

“Good. I am now offering a reward to the entire Federation. My location
is…” Adrian clearly spoke out his coordinates to the live cameras which
were transmitted by hundreds of millions of bitstreams over to the virtual
community that was expanded over every inch of civilization. The
mysterious uncrowned king of the Navi System appeared covered in blood.
In a short few seconds, views were booming, and the numbers were still
climbing rapidly.

“If anyone with type B variant blood can rush here within four hours, for
every milliliter of blood, I will offer 1 million standard federation dollars.
The reward is now in effect, and the prize money is halved every hour. I
will honor with my life the health, safety, and return of any type B variant
blood carriers who come.”

The crowd was in a turmoil and all the reporters had gone crazy. A male
reporter shouted to confirm, “Sir Yate, did you just say you were offering
one million for every milliliter?”

“That’s right.” Adrian repeated himself, “For every milliliter of blood, I will
offer one million. Every ten, ten million. Every hundred, one hundred
million.”
 Chapter 55 - Heaven

With such a great reward, the brave will definitely come.

Just within the first hour, two people managed to rush to the scene, and one
of them even insisted on giving out more than a single blood donation, but
could only give up with the discouragements of the doctor.

Fayn found Adrian in the front compartment of the rear support vehicle.

He couldn’t see the situation within the simple surgery room behind him,
but this was the closest place to Zhong Yan. The wounds on his body had
been dressed up simply to stop the bleeding, and the bandages could be
seen between his open neckline and cuffs. He was sitting on the chair with
his head down while his terminal rang from time to time, half of them
coming from his own wrist, and the other from the one he held in his hand:
Zhong Yan’s terminal that the doctor passed him earlier. But he just sat
there without any reaction and didn’t even bother to mute his own terminal.

Adrian knew what he would see if he turned on his own terminal. The first
thing he would see was definitely the highest priority message. The
notification from “Butterfly” that congratulated him and Zhong Yan for
becoming legal partners.

And it was that notice that made Zhong Yan keenly aware that something
was wrong, dragging him out from the Grim Reaper’s grasps, but putting
himself in instead.

He had known Adrian for nine years, but Fayn had never seen him look so
dispirited.

“It’s not going to help if you just sit here either.” Fayn stood in front of
Adrian. “The urgent stuff is already dealt with. Don’t you trust Wei Lan’s
medical skills? I was hurt way worse than him back then and look at me
now. I’m perfectly fine. You were just hit by the hallucinogens earlier so
you should get some fresh air right now.”

Adrian raised his head to look at him. Instead of responding to his advice,
he spoke in a hoarse voice. “How’s my guard?”

“His external injuries are fine. They’re not as serious as yours, but he
inhaled a relatively large amount of the hallucinogens so he’s still
unconscious. But the doctor said he should be fine after two days of
recovery.”

“That’s good. He’s still young. He should get another check-up after
returning to the headquarter’s hospital. It’s best if he doesn’t end up with
any side-effects after this.”

Fayn gave him an acknowledging response. Adrian asked again, “Is the
search of the mansion over?”

“It’s basically over. Two of the assassins are still alive and they’ve been
taken into our warships.”

“What about Qu Yongyi?” Adrian asked with eyes overflowing with

murder.

Fayn frowned. “He…We still haven’t found him. His private spaceship, as
well as the assistants accompanying him, are all gone. He probably escaped
before we arrived.”

Adrian stroked Zhong Yan’s terminal and was quiet for a moment. Only
then did Fayn really begin to worry. From what he knew, Adrian had never
been a passive person no matter what sort of serious matters happened. It
goes without saying how important it was if they could capture Qu Yongyi,
but Adrian actually didn’t react at all when he heard that he escaped.

Just when he was about to leave Adrian here and head out to arrest him
himself, Adrian said gloomily, “Pass on my order. Transfer out the first
division unit and seal the border.”
“The border?” Fayn was slightly stunned. For a moment, he couldn’t figure
out what the relationship between the first division and sealing the border
was. “Hasn’t the border always been sealed?”

“I’m not talking about our borders.”

Only then did Fayn realize what he was saying. He was shocked. “You want
to seal Lebor’s borders?! Do you know how serious that move is?!”

“I’m very clear. This is the result of my deliberation.” Adrian took no

refusals. “Is Intron in our warship? Contact him, tell him to check the list of
Qu Yongyi’s entourage. Don’t miss a single name. I want the ones still
alive.”

Fayn calmly asked, “Lebor is within ‘Butterfly’s’ scope of control. We’ve

already received serious warnings and interception just with me bringing in
a small troop earlier. Even though this place is remote and the Capital’s
forces won’t be able to reach here for a while, ‘Butterfly’s’ orders have no
limits on their distance. What if he orders the Lebor System’s troops to
resist us?”

“Look for Intron. Ask him to release a joint announcement with us. On the
way of Councilor Zhong Yan’s return, he was met with Qu Yongyi’s armed
ambush. He is the interim Council Head of Lebor and his goal…This is
Lebor System’s provocation towards the Navi System through me, and the
Capital at Councilor through Zhong Yan’s.” Adrian had clearly thought
about it very clearly and ordered without hesitation. “I want the public
relations department and legal affairs to polish up the wanted order. Stick
on as many crimes on them as possible. Tell the third and fifth units to
follow the first unit to the border just to deter them. Do not fire unless it’s
an emergency. Hold the twelfth unit in Navi’s borders and prepare heavy
duty cross-planet long-range strike weapons. In the event of a crossfire,
shoot immediately. Don’t just stand there, Adjutant, execute the order!”

Fayn obeyed. “Yes!”

He turned and left to carry out his orders. Adrian took a few deep breaths to
suppress the anger in his heart. Pearson’s move on Lebor seemed to be a
rash move, but it was actually a surefire plan. If someone from his party
could gain the position of Head of Council, then he could take over that
resource-rich star system. Otherwise, he could use his trump card, Qu
Yongyi, disguising him as an anti-AI supporter to perform the assassination
mission.

Adrian turned on his terminal and contacted the person from the
intelligence department who was in contact with Intron. He wanted to ask
“Specimen” to provide evidence to help convict Lebor’s Council Head as a
criminal.

The Lebor System. If he moves his troops to occupy it now, then he won’t
be returning it to the Capital. In any case, Pearson was too far away from
him. Without Zhong Yan around, it would be difficult for him to get his
hands on Pearson directly. However, Pearson and “Butterfly” had both
taken a fancy to the Lebor System that was right on his doorstep, so he will
teach them a lesson without standing on ceremony.

Before Zhong Yan lost consciousness, he had told Adrian the password to
his personal terminal. He could turn on Zhong Yan’s terminal and give
direct instructions to “Specimen” himself, but he did not do so.

This was what Zhong Yan entrusted to him, but the will is only to be
executed after the death of his person. There are still decades before Zhong
Yan’s will should really come into effect.

The terminal password was the most important thing to a person, and the
most private. And for such a password, Zhong Yan had actually used the
date “ten years ago from today”. Only now, after being blank on it for so
long, did Adrian finally think of it. Today is the day they got married, then
what day was it…ten years ago from today?

He suddenly recalled something, and quickly turned on his terminal to look

at the date—Ten years ago from today was a Sunday.
On the second Monday of January every year was the start of school for the
Supreme Institution. Ten years ago was the day before school started for the
Supreme Institution…It was the day he and Zhong Yan met for the first
time.
Adrian looked at the calendar and was out of it for a long time. He used to
have Zhong Yan’s birthday as his password, but he changed it after they
graduated. But Zhong Yan…In these seven years, what did he feel every
time he had to put in his password upon opening his terminal?

The rescue mission lasted for four hours, and Adrian sat in the compartment
separated by that wall with a heavy heart for four hours. It wasn’t until Wei
Lan walked out of the surgery room and told him himself that Zhong Yan’s
life was no longer in danger did Adrian finally loosen up. Due to the
immense blood loss coupled with the effect of the hallucinogens, he finally
could not hold on after four hours of mental stress, and fell over.

……

，。

When Zhong Yan opened his eyes once more, he stared at the familiar yet
unfamiliar ceiling light above him for a long time.

He didn’t know why but his brain felt stiff. Everything seemed like it was
covered with a layer of something, and his thoughts were particularly
scattered. Only after a few minutes was he able to barely recall that this was
the chandelier in Adrian’s bedroom. He had lived in Adrian’s room for
more than half a month, so he recognized it.

After straightening out that thought, he settled down. He wanted to fall back
into sleep, but was unsuccessful.

The soft sound of the door could be heard; someone entered the room. The
person walked to the bed and seemed to have put something down at the
headboard. Then, a soft touch was felt on his cheek before the deep voice of
a man could be heard asking by his ear, “Xiao Yan, are you awake?”

Zhong Yan heard that familiar voice and struggled to open his eyes again.
Groggily, he said, “Adrian.”

“It’s me.” Adrian leaned down and kissed his forehead. “Do you want to
drink water? I went out and poured you a glass.”
Water. Zhong Yan thought about it for a while. Water can form lakes, and
also the ocean…That’s right. The ocean. Adrian. Why is Adrian here? He
hated him, he would never treat him this kindly.

Zhong Yan was clearly distracted, but Adrian waited patiently for his
response. Wei Lan told him that the effect of the anesthesia is very strong. It
might still affect him for half an hour after waking up, and for a short while,
his thoughts may not be too clear, but he will be fine once the anesthetics
wear off.

Adrian would prefer this effect to last a little longer. If the anesthesia wears
off, then Zhong Yan would begin to hurt. The painkillers would only relieve
his pain to some extent.

“Is this heaven?” Zhong Yan asked seriously as he blinked.

Adrian didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry. He put a pillow under
his head and fed him the water through a straw. “It’s not, Wei Lan managed
to save you. Now we’re at home.”

While drinking, Zhong Yan stared at Adrian almost as if he had never seen
him before, and he didn’t know whether he even understood him or not.
Zhong Yan had always been a rational and self-sufficient person. He had
never seen him this confused in his life before. Adrian felt an itch tugging at
his heart. After feeding him water, he couldn’t help but tease him. “How
could heaven look like our home?”

“It is Heaven.” Zhong Yan could finally talk after the straw was moved
away. “This is how good you are to me in my dreams. That’s the light
before death, that thing called…the will-o’-the-wisp. Scientific research
shows that a person could hallucinate before his death, and that was…”

He was trying to explain science on one hand but talking about Heaven
from mythology on the other. Also, under the effects of the anesthesia, his
words came out slurred, so he started to confuse himself after a short few
sentences.
And when Adrian heard what Zhong Yan said about him treating him this
good only in his dreams, he felt his heart hurt. He took his left hand and
brought it to his lips for a kiss before raising it in front of him. “Do you see
this? Does Heaven have this?”

A very simple silver ring adorned Zhong Yan’s left ring finger.

“This ring…” Zhong Yan kept his eyes still on it for a moment and couldn’t
figure out what it was for. So, he said his honest, intuitive feelings that he
would never say when he was sober.

“It’s so ugly.”
 Chapter 56 - Don't Want the
Wabbit

Adrian “…”

Was it ugly? Doesn’t it look quite good though? It must be because the
effects of the anesthesia was too strong that Zhong Yan’s mind was
muddled. He’ll ask again when Zhong Yan was more sober.

Adrian, who firmly refused to admit that there was anything wrong with his
aesthetics, naturally pushed all the blame to the muddle-headed Zhong Yan,
whose mind was currently in a mess. Since they couldn’t talk about proper
business anyway, he sat by the bed and continued to tease Zhong Yan. “Do
you like me?”

All the calm in Zhong Yan’s beautiful phoenix eyes disappeared at that
moment, and only a look of pure ignorance was left. Without any hesitation,
he said, “I do.”

Flowers were practically blooming in Adrian’s heart. He secretly turned on

the recording function on his terminal and urged him, “Say it again.”

Even though his brain was now a paste, he still had a restrained nature.
Zhong Yan hesitated, but this was a request made by Adrian. He always
satisfied Adrian’s requests, whether it be big or small, so he still said in a
whisper, “I like you.”

“I like you too,” Adrian told him. Then, he leaned over to place a kiss on
his lips.
Zhong Yan looked dazedly at him, and a faint red blush emerged on his
cheeks. He grabbed his blanket with his hands and wanted to bury his face
in them.

Adrian was afraid that he would agitate his wound if he moved and make it
hurt even more once the anesthesia wore off, so he quickly got on the bed
and held him over the blanket, not allowing him to move.

“What are you shy about?” He teased, “Didn’t you test the goods before we
married? What’s with you getting all bashful now?”

Zhong Yan couldn’t understand his sordid words and softly asked, “What?”

He was so cute that it made Adrian giddy, but at the same time, he felt a
little guilty. It felt like he was talking about dirty stuff with a pure little
child. He quickly cleared his throat and changed the topic. “Cough cough,
it’s nothing…Right, do you want to see the rabbit? I told Intron to bring the
small one over. I’ll bring it over for you to play with, okay?”

Zhong Yan subconsciously reached out to grab the hem of his clothes.
“Don’t go.”

“I won’t go.” Adrian carefully brushed away the messy hair on his
forehead. “I’ll go and bring you the rabbit.”

“I want you, not wabbit…” Zhong Yan said. Then, he realized that he
wasn’t pronouncing it quite right, and tried to correct himself in confusion.
“Wabbit. Wa…bit…”

The anesthesia affected his ability to control his tongue. After failing to
make the correct sound after several tries, Adrian tried his best to endure,
but he still couldn’t resist holding the person in his arms tight as a deep
laugh vibrated from his throat. “Alright baby, I’m not going anywhere so
you can stop, okay? Good boy.”

Feeling as if he was wronged, Zhong Yan stopped. Finally, he expressed his

thoughts resolutely. “I want you. I don’t want you to turn into a wa…bit…”
“I’m not turning into a rabbit.” Adrian couldn’t stop himself from laughing.
“We have to rabbits at home, do you remember? We have a giant space
rabbit with lop ears, a white one.”

Zhong Yan shriveled into Adrian’s warm embrace and started to feel a little
sleepy. When he heard that, he was barely able to manage waking up a bit.
“Giant space wabbit…is there one here?”

“There is. Do you want to see it?” Adrian asked. If Zhong Yan really
wanted to see it, then it would be quite troublesome. Wei Lan had already
warned him, so he wouldn’t dare to move Zhong Yan too much. The rabbit
was too big and it couldn’t get into the house. What if…he installed a
camera in the back yard?

While he was thinking of a viable method, Zhong Yan suddenly asked after
some thought, “So is this place…controlled by my thoughts?”

Right, he’s still stuck in the setting of “being in heaven” and was even
trying to figure out the mechanisms of it. Adrian didn’t know whether he
should laugh or cry. Before he could say anything, Zhong Yan said with
great enthusiasm, “When can I have a bigger one? I had one once. But it’s
too small, less than 26 feet.”

Adrian “…”

He raised his hand to tap Zhong Yan’s nose. “You ungrateful little thing. Do
you know how much effort it took for me to buy that rabbit? The research
institute is two star systems away from here. I had to drive the whole day to
get there and back just so I could bring you a New Year’s present, and
you’re complaining that it’s small? Do you know how expensive lop-eared
giant space rabbits are? I’m all broke now, that thing’s already the most
valuable thing I own in my assets.”

Zhong Yan was beginning to struggle with opening his eyes. Adrian lightly
patted his back to lull him to sleep while speaking softly at his ear.
“However, even though I’m almost broke after just getting married, it’s too
late for you to regret now. The divorce penalty will be much higher than the
refusal fee. As the saying goes, marry a chicken, follow the chicken, marry
a dog, follow the dog…”

“Mm.” Sleepily, Zhong Yan could only muster a hum, but it wasn’t known
whether he was agreeing or not. Slowly, under the soothing male voice and
the gentle patting, he fell asleep.

……

When Zhong Yan woke up once more, he was woken up by the pain.

Wave after wave of pain came from his abdomen. He thought he was still in
that murder filled mansion house and softly called out, “Ade…”

Adrian had always stayed right by his bed, watching over him. After
hearing his movements, he immediately shut off his terminal that he was
working on and took Zhong Yan’s hand, responding, “I’m here. Xiao Yan,
I’m here.”

Zhong Yan turned to look at Adrian, then at the room. All his memories
returned, and he quickly raised his left hand despite the pain to look. Sure
enough, there was a ring on the ring finger of his left hand. What happened
earlier…was actually real!

Since he moved too quickly, he agitated his wound. He was in so much pain
that he sucked in a breath. Adrian quickly caught his left hand and
reproached him softly. “What are you rushing for? You just had an
operation…slow down!”

The identical rings present on both their ring fingers clashed together,
emitting a crisp and pleasant sounding clink.

Zhong Yan was eager to confirm it. “This ring is…”

“It’s the ring I bought seven years ago to propose.” Adrian brought his left
hand in front of him so he could see. “It’s cheap, but it’s custom made.
There was a custom ring shop in the art academy, I chose the design myself.
Do you like it?”
Zhong Yan “…”

He looked at the inexplicable and unfashionable lines on the ring, as well as

the two names that should’ve been engraved on the inside, but were
casually printed outside of the ring for some mysterious reason. And the
more horrific part was, the names were not engraved, but rather protruding.
Zhong Yan truly felt that him saying “it’s so ugly” before was wrong. It
really should have been “it‘s too ugly”. Adrian was waiting expectantly for
his praise, so Zhong Yan tried with difficulty to find the right words.
However, he couldn’t sincerely say it looked “nice”, so he could only say,
“Looking at it closely, it…it’s quite special.”

“Right?! I think so too! It’s one of a kind.”

Zhong Yan recalled to when his mind was in a blur, as well as what Adrian
had said just now, and a balloon called joy slowly expanded in his heart.
But he didn’t dare to believe it, and confirmed carefully, “Why did you give
this to me? Is it…is it to uphold the image…”

“What do you mean image?” Adrian said in dissatisfaction. “I proposed to

you yesterday. You’re not planning to reject me, are you? That won’t do,
you’ve already put it on, and you’ve already been married for two days. It’s
too late to regret it.”

“Who proposes like you?” Zhong Yan couldn’t hold back his laughter. “I
haven’t even agreed and you’ve already put the ring on me.”

Even his eyes were covered in mirth. Adrian watched him adoringly, and
suddenly realized he had not seen Zhong Yan this happy in ages. He
couldn’t help but feel a twang of pain in his heart. He held his hand and
brought it to his lips in a cherishing kiss. “I’ll treat you well from now on.”

“You’ve always treated me well,” Zhong Yan said with his eyes curved
pleasantly. “You’re the one who treats me best.”

He had never encountered much goodwill in his life, so he was easy to

satisfy. Adrian felt extremely guilty, and he solemnly vowed once more. “I
treated you terribly in the past, but I’ll definitely be good to you in the
future.”

Zhong Yan responded softly, “Alright.”

His wound was throbbing with pain. As he got more sober, the wound
started to get more and more painful. He shut his eyes and endured it for a
moment. Adrian held his hand and asked in pity, “Does it hurt badly?”

“It’s…bearable.” Zhong Yan sighed. He had never liked having Adrian

worry over him, so he tried his best to change the topic. “I think I heard you
mention you went broke? Did I hear wrong?”

“Not yet.” Adrian reached out to caress his face. “Thank god you had a
strong will. The operation was a great success so we barely managed to
keep our house and cars.”

Zhong Yan did not seem to have understood what he meant, so he asked in
suspicion, “Was the operation…expensive?”

Adrian hesitated for a moment. Actually, he didn’t really want Zhong Yan
to know how much he spent to snatch him back from the Grim Reaper’s
hands, but this incident had already exploded throughout the entire virtual
community. Yesterday, it didn’t take long for Zhong Yan’s blood type to be
dug out. What’s more, the wanted order that was spread throughout the
Federation stated it clearly. Qu Yongyi attacked Adrian and Zhong Yan, and
both of them suffered serious injuries. Everyone knew that he burnt through
all his money just to save Zhong Yan. For a moment, it seemed that no other
news could be found within the virtual community at all. Everyone was
eagerly talking about the reward video and the relationship between the two
of them. Later, even the big news of the Lebor System’s borders being
forcibly sealed off by Navi’s troops, and receiving three consecutive serious
warnings from the Capital received barely any viewers.

Zhong Yan would find out sooner or later. Instead of letting him see the
gibberish speculations all over the virtual community, he might as well
come clean to him right now.
Adrian tried to understate it as much as possible. “You have a rare blood
type, right? So I offered a reward yesterday in order to buy the blood. And
rewards and stuff…You know how it is, nobody will come if it’s low. Then,
a few people came in. The headquarters helped me out with some of it first
since I don’t have much liquid assets. Then, to settle the debt, I let them
confiscate all the real estate I had besides this house and several transport
vehicles. Oh right, speaking of which, I thought about this when I was
sitting outside the surgery room. The reason why you like giant space
rabbits so much…is it because they’re mutated rabbits, and you’re a person
with a mutated blood type? Hahahaha…”

Zhong Yan glared at him bitterly. “That’s not funny.”

Hearing that, Adrian shut his mouth obediently. But he did not give up in
diverting Zhong Yan’s attention. He turned on his terminal and presented
his little treasure to Zhong Yan. “You fell asleep earlier so I picked out a
new ringtone, give it a listen.”

Zhong Yan didn’t want to listen to that sort of insignificant thing since he
still had a lot he wanted to ask, but before he could say anything, he heard a
familiar voice being transmitted from Adrian’s terminal.

“Don’t want the wabbit. Wa…bit…wa…wabbit…”

“What is that!” Zhong Yan threw his other thoughts to the back of his mind,
and asked with both anger and embarrassment, “Why did you record that?!
Delete it!”
 Chapter 57 - Your Techniques are
Bad

While saying that, Zhong Yan was just about to reach out to snatch Adrian’s
terminal.

“Don’t move around, doesn’t your wound still hurt?” Adrian quickly
grabbed his hands and chuckled. “Aren’t you amazing? You want to snatch
something from my hands? Are you able to?”

Him being a patient aside, he was never strong to begin with. There was no
way Zhong Yan could snatch something from Adrian with brute force. He
quickly realized this and deflated. There was no way, so he could only plead
softly. “Please delete it…Come on…”

Even Zhong Yan did not realize that he was acting cute with Adrian right
now.

His tone was so soft and delicate. Adrian had not heard him sound like this
before. That voice tickled his heart, he couldn’t bear it and wanted to hear it
more. “I’ll delete it if you say something nice.” After thinking about it, he
added, “What about this? Call me ‘husband’. If you do, I’ll delete it.”

A light tinge of red emerged on Zhong Yan’s pale face. “Don’t mess
around…How could you set that as your ringtone? What if someone else
hears?”

“There’s only the two of us in here. The closest living thing around us is
that rabbit in the backyard. Who’s going to hear?” Adrian twisted his words
on purpose. “What’s more, so what if someone hears? Am I not your
husband?”
Zhong Yan had always been thin-skinned, so it really made him flush red to
hear Adrian say the word “husband” so directly. He finally realized that
Adrian was teasing him deliberately, and retracted himself back into the
blanket, aggrieved, and refused to show his face anymore.
“Xiao Yan? Xiao Yan, don’t be angry.” Seeing that he had gone overboard,
Adrian quickly tried to coax him. “Alright, I’ll give you a spousal discount.
I’ll delete it if you give me a kiss. Hm? That’s not okay either? Then let me
kiss you, okay? Come on, I’m making a big loss here. If you don’t agree
then the deal is off.”

Zhong Yan peeked his eyes over the blanket and blinked.

Adrian leaned down to place a soft kiss on the corner of his eye, and the
person who was laying down suddenly raised his head slightly and returned
his kiss with a light peck at the corner of his mouth.

Adrian touched the place that had just been touched by something warm,
surprised. Zhong Yan added quietly, “Your service was good. That’s your
tip.”

This was the first time he tried flirting with someone in his life, so he
wasn’t very good at it. He didn’t dare to look straight at Adrian at all, and
he was so embarrassed that he was already blushing to his ears before he
could finish speaking. Adrian was feeling light-headed from this sweet and
unexpected surprise. He cupped his hands on Zhong Yan’s face like it was a
precious treasure. He really didn’t know what to do. A smile could be seen
at the corners of Zhong Yan’s lips as he pushed him lightly. “The ringtone.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll delete it right now,” Adrian responded. Just as he

raised his wrist, his terminal alarm started ringing.

“It’s time.” Adrian shut off the alarm. He saw Zhong Yan’s confused gaze
and explained, “I had a dietitian write you up a healthy diet plan today.
We’ll go with a mainly liquid diet until you recover. Then we’ll have to
follow the diet strictly. You’ll take three meals daily on time. I’ll be
supervising your meals every day from now on.”
He hadn’t even explained everything yet. There was actually an exercise
plan as well, but he will implement it after Zhong Yan recovers from his
injuries. Zhong Yan had always hated exercising, so it would be best to tell
him when the time comes. After teetering at the edge of death, Zhong Yan’s
already weak body was in even worse shape. To improve such a weak
body…Adrian could actually feel how heavy this task was going to be.

He was going to head out and bring Zhong Yan’s dinner in, but he suddenly
felt a slight tug on his clothes.

Zhong Yan had subconsciously grabbed onto Adrian’s clothes, but he

shrunk back abruptly—He suddenly recalled, Adrian warned him last
month not to touch his clothes again. He thought he was going to die
yesterday. That was an emergency then, but now…He was just about to
apologize before Adrian got angry, but his hand that had just shrunk back
was grabbed. Adrian leaned over and asked gently, “What’s wrong? Is there
anything you want to tell me?”

“You…” Zhong Yan forgot what he was just about to say in an instant, but
Adrian waited patiently for him and softly urged. “Hm?”

“Come back quickly,” Zhong Yan said, embarrassed. When he saw Adrian
turn around as if to leave, it made him feel very unsettled. How many times
had he dreamed about it at night? He dreamed of Adrian’s disappointed
figure as he left during that graduation ceremony. He chased him as soon as
he got off that stage, but he could not catch him. Seven years had passed
since.

But right now, Adrian was just going out to bring dinner in. Zhong Yan felt
like he was being too needy and wanted to say something to save the
situation, but Adrian had already started to speak. “Alright, I’ll come back
quickly.”

He took Zhong Yan’s hand and kneeled down before kissing Zhong Yan
solemnly on the ring on his finger.

“You saved my life with your own. From now on, I’ll be by your side for
the rest of our lives. I’ll never leave no matter what happens. Forever and
ever.”

……

After dinner, Adrian brought the plate out to be washed in the dishwasher.
When he came back, he saw that Zhong Yan had already turned on his
terminal and was looking at the news on the virtual screen.

Adrian pulled a chair over to the bed and urged him, “You still haven’t
recovered yet. You should rest. I’ll handle everything, Intron is also
working on things your side.”

“I should still handle it by myself. It’ll help distract me. It…” Zhong Yan’s
face was even paler than usual, but he tried to put on a weak smile, “It hurts
a little right now.”

If it was able to make Zhong Yan take the initiative to say it was painful,
then it was definitely unbearable. Adrian instantly felt restless and he
wished he could suffer the pain in his place. With some hesitation, he said,
“Should I give you a dose of your painkillers now? This needle should be
tomorrow’s dose, but I can call and ask Wei Lan if we can administer it
earlier.”

“No need…I can still bear it.” Zhong Yan was gasping lightly as he asked
Adrian, “Where are you sleeping tonight?”

“I won’t be sleeping, I’ll watch over you. If I get tired, I can just rest here
by your bed for a while.”

Zhong Yan wanted to say something, but Adrian thought he wanted to

persuade him to get proper sleep upstairs, so he quickly interjected, “It’s
fine, I was sleeping during the day before you woke up too, so I’m not
tired.”

“That’s not it…” Zhong Yan pursed his lips. He thought that saying this
straight out may be too bold, but—Adrian said it before, they were already
married. They were legal partners so it should be normal. He kept trying to
mentally prep himself through, but he still hesitated a little when he said, “I
wanted to ask whether you wanted to…uh…I mean, if you’re willing, you
could share a bed with me.”

Adrian was surprised. “Really? I was worried I’d bump into you in my
sleep—Oh right, since I’m going to be up watching over you anyway, can I
get in now?”

Zhong Yan nodded. Adrian had always been the proactive type. He
carefully moved Zhong Yan inside a little. Normally, Zhong Yan was light
enough that he could easily lift one of him in each hand, but he was too
afraid that moving him too quickly might open Zhong Yan’s wound again.
He went back and forth, moving his head and legs slowly each time, and
every time he did, he would ask him if he had hurt him. After going through
this process for a few minutes, even the slowpoke Zhong Yan couldn’t stand
it anymore and said, “You don’t have to be so careful, the surgical
techniques these days aren’t like what they were thousands of years ago.
Just a few days is enough to fully recover.”

“That’s other people, do you know how bad your physical qualities are?
There’s no way you can recover in less than half a month.” While saying
that, Adrian crawled in bed and helped Zhong Yan fix his blanket before
holding both him and the blanket in his arms. “What’s more, of course I
have to be careful. You’re my only precious baby, who am I going to cry to
if I break something?”

Zhong Yan was amused. “How am I going to look at the news if you wrap
my arms up in the blanket?”

“Don’t look at it anymore. I’ll help you get distracted by chatting with
you.” Adrian said, “I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Oh right, I
actually do have something I need to tell you. I had Wei Lan remove…the
scar under your ribs.”

Zhong Yan was stunned, then his complexion changed—That’s right, his
scar! All those doctors saw it when they were doing the operation…
“Don’t worry, I know the reason why you never had it removed was
because you couldn’t bear to have anyone see that scar, but your wound
broke up that scar yesterday so the words couldn’t be seen. I asked Wei Lan
to get rid of the remnants as well…From now on, nobody will ever find
out.” Adrian brushed his fingers through his soft hair. “Since you’ve already
had your revenge, just let the past stay in the past. You have me now, we
can make new memories together, and cover all the bad ones.”

Zhong Yan moved his hands from under the blanket to touch his ribs
through his shirt. There once was a shameful mark there. It wasn’t as if he
didn’t want to get rid of it, but he was too ashamed to let anyone see it, even
if it was a surgeon. Even two days ago, the night his body merged with
Adrian’s for the very first time, he felt so embarrassed by that mark on his
body that he didn’t even dare to take off his shirt under the lights. Right
now, the brand that had followed him for half his life, forcing him to
constantly recall his inferior childhood and shame was completely gone.

With his body as a shield, he saved Adrian’s life, and also gave himself a
new lease in life.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry, sweetheart.” Adrian could see the corners of his eyes
getting red and was worried he’d cry. Wei Lan had warned him that he
shouldn’t be stimulated these two days, so he tried to tease him on purpose.
“Hey, so does this mean we don’t have to turn off the lights in the future?”

As expected, he managed to make Zhong Yan laugh. “Now that you

mentioned that, I’ve got questions for you too. Have your former partners
never said anything to you?”

Former partners? What partners? Suddenly, Adrian recalled how he boasted

to Zhong Yan that he had “tons of experience”. He wanted to explain that
that was actually his first time, but he still wanted to listen to what Zhong
Yan wanted to say before that. He was confident that it had to be a
compliment, so he asked with pleasure, “Said what about me? That I’m
big?”

Zhong Yan was stunned by his straightforward self-praise and gave Adrian
a grumpy shove.

“No! I’ve read the books and it’s reasonable to say if that if properly done,
both parties should experience great pleasure. But that day…Well, uh…has
anyone ever told you that…your techniques are bad?”
 Chapter 58 - Concession

No man could bear to receive such an evaluation from their partner, much
less a man like Adrian with such a strong sense of pride. He lost his temper
instantly. “You didn’t even give me time to prepare before blowing up the
bomb on me! I was relying completely on my theoretical foundation. I think
I already managed pretty decently!”

Zhong Yan was stunned. “What do you mean theoretical foundation…

didn’t you say you had tons of experience?”

“I have tons of theoretical foundation experience, okay?!” Adrian was

depressed.

Only then did Zhong Yan understand. After all that, it turns out that was the
first time for both of these two old virgins. His heart was beating madly as
he asked, “So, with other people…you’ve never…”

“No. I’m busy enough, where would I find the time to seek someone out for
something like that?” Adrian complained dramatically, “I kept my body
pure for you for so many years but you still complained about my
techniques. Where am I going to practice? Maybe one day I can go out to
practice before…”

Zhong Yanglared at him. “Don’t you dare!”

“No no, I wouldn’t dare.” Adrian quickly expressed his loyalty before
laughing. “Gosh, you’re so fierce. We’ve only been married for two days.
No wonder they used to say that getting married is no different from taking
a step into your grave. Life is going to be hard in the future…”

When it came to Adrian, Zhong Yan had always been very petty. In the past,
when they were “close friends”, Zhong Yan had disliked Fayn for so many
years only because he got close to Adrian and shook his own position as
“Adrian’s best friend”. He was still stuck on that till now. It was worse now
that they were mutually exclusive to each other. Zhong Yan warned him.
“You’re mine alone, the law recognizes that. Don’t break the law.”

Adrian listened to his serious declaration of sovereignty and could not help
but laugh. Zhong Yan smacked him through his blanket. “Don’t laugh! I’m
serious!”

“Okay, okay, I’m serious, I won’t break the law.” Adrian put on a straight
face and said in a fake serious manner, “I’ve always been a good law-
abiding citizen.”

“A law-abiding citizen who forcefully seized an entire star system.” Zhong

Yan laid firmly in Adrian’s arms with only his face exposed. He rubbed his
face against Adrian’s hand like a gentle little animal and spoke unhurriedly
to him. “I just saw the news about you sealing Lebor’s borders. Did you
find Qu Yongyi?”

“Everyone is talking about how we were attacked and also our marriage,
I’m surprised you saw any other news.” Adrian knew that Zhong Yan was a
constant worrywart. He had already begun to deal with the situation at hand
as soon as he woke up. He told him honestly, “We managed to catch him
just this morning. He’s already been taken to Navi’s primary star. My men
are interrogating him now.”

“Then, when are you going to withdraw your troops from Lebor?”

“I’m not going to withdraw my men.”

Unperturbed, Zhong Yan calmly responded. “You’re not withdrawing? Are

you going to redress the former council heads and duplicate the whole
White Aegis route again?”

Adrian appreciated how composed he was, and how nothing ever made him
anxious. Now that their ideas were well-matched, their tacit understanding
made Adrian extremely pleased and he couldn’t help but lean down to kiss
Zhong Yan’s cheek. “You know me best.”
“We’re talking serious business, what are you doing?” Zhong Yan’s wound
was hurting so he didn’t dare to speak too quickly. He spoke slowly, but he
did not sound like he was blaming him at all, and instead sounded amused.
“How’s the collection of evidence going?”

“Just about done. Most of it was provided by ‘Specimen’. The intelligence

department on my side is working on it. At dawn tomorrow, my men will
go to Lebor’s prison and speak personally with the former head of council.”

Zhong Yan nodded. “Lebor’s former Council Head will be very willing to
help. ‘Butterfly’ sacrificed him and pushed him onto the road of no return.
You’re handing him an olive branch. This is a good chance for him, and
what’s more, you’ve both worked together tacitly on the White Aegis
matter. You could say you’ve had a ‘cooperation’ before.”

“Not bad, that’s exactly what I thought. After all that work, Pearson caused
a big uproar. He definitely must not have expected that Lebor would land in
my hands.”

“Don’t be too relaxed yet. You still haven’t gotten Lebor. Lebor System is
still within ‘Butterfly’s’ jurisdiction. How did the Capital react when you
stepped in just like that? You had a reason when you went to search for the
fugitives so they couldn’t go as far as to send their troops. Otherwise, it
would be difficult to control the public’s opinion.” Zhong Yan made a
guess, “Did they give you a severe warning? Or several?”

Adrian asked, “Did you really not see the news? Aren’t your guesses a little
too accurate?”

“I just know more about the round table meetings and those people,” Zhong
Yan sneered, “Among the twelve, Pearson is basically the only person who
wants to fight. He’s a radical who wants war. On the other hand, your
grandfather is on the same camp that I appear to be on the surface, the
conservative type. The remaining representative members are no fools.
Now that Qu Yongyi’s matter was revealed, they must have figured out
what was going on. Qu Yongyi is just a normal high-level council member.
He doesn’t have the guts to form a plan to assassinate you. What’s more,
Pearson actually agreed to concede without any struggle when it came time
to decide on the candidate. They should also be able to guess that Pearson is
the man behind all this. I don’t even need to participate to know what they
talked about in the emergency round table meeting yesterday. But who
would’ve known that you have the evidence in your hands? If the Capital
sends troops to Navi right now, and you happen to have conclusive
evidence that a representative member planned to assassinate you, the
credibility of the Capital will be destroyed once word gets out. Anyway,
things would be fine if they were able to suppress you with force, but if
they can’t, things will be bad. They’ll lose the people’s trust and it will be
easily subverted. They won’t take that risk. This is how the countless plans
to take down Navi have failed in the round table.”

During the highest-level meetings of the Navi Military Command, everyone

had also been speculating on the Supreme Council’s thoughts, but this is
still the first time Adrian had heard a representative member personally
describe the happenings at the round table. He tucked in the representative
councilor in his arms and raised a brow. “Is this view of you
conservatives?”

“It’s not ‘us’ conservatives, it’s ‘they’ conservatives points of view,” Zhong
Yan stressed. “They are more inclined to scope out Navi’s military strength
before making any plans, and this is also the reason why I am able to come
to Navi. It is by the support of this faction that I am able to come.”

“They’re counting on you to come to Navi to explore its military strength,

but now look what you’re up to? You’re in the home of Navi’s commander
busying about with your rabbit every day. This is a serious dereliction of
your duties, Councilor Zhong Yan,” Adrian laughed.

“Didn’t I got hurt from a space pirate attack? First, your dad attacked me,
and now you’ve kept me under house arrest. I still have to recover from my
injuries. How am I going to work?” Speaking up to this point, Zhong Yan
couldn’t help but sigh. “As expected, people can’t lie. I lied and said I was
injured by space pirates last time and didn’t return because I had to recover
from my injuries, and now I actually got what’s coming for me. I really
can’t go back now.”
“Don’t think about going back once you’re better either,” Adrian said, but
then he stopped.

Zhong Yan did not answer. They all realized at once that when it came to
business, they would inevitably touch that topic in their conversations.

“Xiao Yan, I thought about it carefully,” Adrian said. “You told me before
that I was too demanding of you, asking you to be a saint among saints and
whatnot. Saying that you had to do more…You’re right. I like you, so I had
different expectations for you. I kept feeling that it wasn’t enough for you to
just do good things, and wanted you to be compassionate at the same time,
that’s my fault. You have the ability, and the ambition. Since you want that
position…I won’t stop you.”

Zhong Yan turned his head to look at him in astonishment, but his actions
were too big and it caused his wound to hurt, but he didn’t care. His
unexpected joy was showing in his eyes.

“However! Don’t get happy too soon, there are still buts.” Adrian
deliberately put on a straight face and emphasized. “But, we can only
establish a presidency under a decentralized system. A centralized
sovereign position is not allowed. The terms of office must be made clear,
and it cannot be lifelong. Moreover, if we succeed, and you do have the
ability to climb up then, the position of vice president will be someone of
my own choosing.”

Adrian was a pure yet stubborn revolutionary. Zhong Yan knew that well.
Only such a leader with such firm beliefs can stand out at a time when fifty-
two of the fifty-three star systems are under the control of artificial
intelligence, and protect the last pure piece of land. What’s more, he was
about to take the first shot since the implementation of artificial intelligence
hundreds of years ago. But for someone like him to actually be able to
concede when he knew that Zhong Yan wasn’t thinking the same thing as
him…

“Sure, that’s all fine.” Zhong Yan’s voice was a little choked while he
spoke. He cleared his throat and continued, “Don’t worry, I won’t do
anything to disappoint you.”
Adrian held Zhong Yan even tighter in his arms. His partner was not a
person who was purely “good”, nor did he have any intentions of becoming
the kind of “good” he wanted, but what could he do? Who told him to fall
in love with this person? After entangling with each other for ten years, he
had also recovered his consciousness. The instant he saw Zhong Yan’s body
fall in front of him, he had already given in. No matter what kind of person
Zhong Yan was, he was fine with it. He is the one for him for the rest of his
life. Even if Zhong Yan left one day, and couldn’t be saved, he still
wouldn’t have anyone else in his heart.

Two days later, Zhong Yan could get out of bed on his own and walk
slowly.

This is the day when they would announce “Butterfly’s” misjudgment

towards Lebor’s former Council Head and the other three members. Qu
Yongyi’s interrogation had also come to an end. Zhong Yan even arranged
for Intron to leave Navi today with Bayer back to the Capital. Everything
was piled up at once, and Adrian had been working remotely these past few
days, so he had to go to headquarters today. Before he left, he settled Zhong
Yan down in a wheelchair and nagged him for a full twenty minutes on a
variety of matters before leaving under Zhong Yan’s urging.

Without Adrian at home, Zhong Yan pushed his own wheelchair over to the
backyard to see the rabbit.

The giant space rabbit kit was basking in the sun in its own nest. Zhong Yan
rode a circle around it on his wheelchair and was depressed to find that it
didn’t grow in size at all. It was still so small.

Suddenly, Zhong Yan had a new discovery.

One the other side of the giant square nest was a small, compact wooden
cabin four centimeters square. Be it the material or the shape, they were
both exactly the same as the giant space rabbit’s nest. Clearly, it was also
one of Adrian’s creations. What did Adrian make this small house for?

Just as Zhong Yan stopped suspiciously at that small compact hut, he saw
the palm-sized rabbit he had purchased to make excuses probing its head
out from inside.
 Chapter 59 - Lifting the Ban

Zhong Yan picked up the small bunny and placed it on his lap before
touching the giant space rabbit beside him. Unexpectedly, he ended up with
a handful of dust. He was at a loss for words as he looked up at the big
white rabbit, and decided to wait for Adrian to come back to tell him that
it’s time to wash the rabbit.

Then, he steered his wheelchair one circle around the backyard, completing
the task of “getting fresh air” as Adrian ordered before heading back to the
house. Thinking about how dirty the big rabbit was and how the small one
had also been kept in the backyard for so many days, it was probably in just
as bad of a condition. He touched the small rabbit’s fur and returned to the
kitchen to fill up a basin of water before rolling up his sleeves, and washed
the rabbit.

After washing it, Zhong Yan went to the bathroom to bring out the hairdryer
to dry it. However, the rabbit was too small, so as soon as he turned on the
hairdryer, the strong winds blew the rabbit away and made it tumble
backward. Zhong Yan quickly turned off the hairdryer. Since the room was
warm anyway, there’s no need to worry about the rabbit catching a cold. So,
he wiped it dry with a towel.

The little rabbit was sick of being tossed around by him since long ago, so
as soon as it was returned to Zhong Yan’s lap after cleaning up, it
immediately laid down and shrunk into a ball, continuing to sleep.

Zhong Yan petted the rabbit with one hand, and seeing that it was just about
time, he turned on the live broadcast.

Lebor’s former Council Head and the other two council members have
already been taken out of prison by Navi’s army. They were now holding a
joint conference with the senior officials of the Navi Military Command.
Everything they spoke about in the conference were things Zhong Yan had
already seen prior to this. While listening to it, he followed the sweeping
robot around the house in his wheelchair, supervising its work.
More than a year ago, the incident where “Butterfly” made a false judgment
against the civilian girl caused a frenzy throughout the entire Federation. If
you were to say that the incident led to a sharp decline in the credibility of
the Capital and AI among the people, then this incident that involved people
from various different forces was confusing in the eyes of the people. The
attention this matter garnered was actually less than the clear and simple
misjudgment incident from last year, but the people at the top of the
pyramid, especially the various council members who held power, couldn’t
help but feel the people’s loyalties shake.

The AI that was said to be “absolutely just” actually involved itself in

mankind’s power struggles. Moreover, this struggle had already spread out
of the Capital and even involved the distant Lebor System. With just one
judgment, it had almost ruined the lives of three high-ranking council
members, and even the council head of a star system was powerless to
resist. If they didn’t chance upon the matter where the Navi Military
Command’s leader was attacked, and forcibly intervened in Lebor’s
regional administration for the sake of seeking out the wanted criminals,
then they may never have gotten to see the light of day again.

The former Council Head of Lebor was a gentle person with a good
reputation amongst the people. But no matter how gentle a person was,
there were still limits to their temper. When he was imprisoned, he had
completely lost all his tolerance towards the AI.

At the press conference today, the top rung of Lebor’s council, the ones in
charge of its military command, and the person in charge of Navi Military
Command gathered together. But the main event was not to clear the names
of the three who had been wrongly accused.

Zhong Yan followed slowly behind the cleaning robot while the reporters
were exclaiming in the shrunken window on his terminal. The smart
floating cameras were able to recognize the face that was highlighted in the
database and had swarmed the man that had just entered the press hall,
madly photographing him from all angles.

Zhong Yan’s wheelchair stopped in the living room. Even though the
cleaning robot had already slowly moved away, Zhong Yan didn’t bother
with it any longer. He enlarged the window on his terminal and
concentrated on watching Adrian who had entered the hall.
Adrian was dressed in his formal military uniform today. This was the first
time Zhong Yan had seen him attending an event in his formal attire since
the celebration at the Supreme Institution. The fitted black military uniform
was lined with gold accents, while the rank of the star system’s supreme
commander was displayed on his shoulder. Compared to his rank, his
appearance was so young, but there was no clash. He strode to the front seat
at the press hall with a fierce momentum, and on that handsome face were a
pair of rare silver irises. When he was not smiling, his eyes looked cold
enough to burn, and it made it hard for anyone to dare to look straight at
them.

Zhong Yan looked at him in infatuation for a moment. He snapped a few

photos, but then realized that it was unnecessary. This person was already
his. He could just ask Adrian to wear it for just him to see once he came
home.

Thinking about it, that was simply too extravagant. Zhong Yan suddenly felt
like he had turned into some kind of nouveau riche and didn’t even bother
to save the photo anymore. He just steadily sat down to watch the
broadcast.

Several people from the Navi Military Command stood up to make way for
Adrian in the center. He sat down. Lebor’s Council Head stood up. He
carefully examined the scene, and when he saw Adrian, Adrian gave him a
firm nod.

Adrian was only twenty-seven years old. For federal citizens, this was the
age at which your family and career were just getting started. For Lebor’s
Council Head who was already in his fifties, twenty-seven was very young.
But strangely, it seemed like Adrian was able to make others forget his age
with just his presence alone. Once he entered the scene, it felt like
everyone’s backs straightened. After he nodded, the council head felt like
he had been infected by his firm expression. His heart that was pounding
madly calmed down in an instant.

He announced a decision that was destined to be written down in the history

books with a firm and steady voice.

On this day, Lebor’s Council House united with the Lebor Military
Command to announce their separation from the Federation’s Supreme
Council and joining of the Navi System. They no longer owe their
allegiance to AI, and no longer accepted the leadership of the Capital. Like
the Navi System, they will reinstate the human autonomy system, regaining
free will for marriage and career choice.

The person in charge of the Navi Military Command announced their plans
to the public, and the reporters on the scene turned silent in an instant. All
the reporters were focused on listening about the follow-up measures taken
after the dethroning of artificial intelligence. They were quickly typing out
the main points on their terminals at light speed.

Zhong Yan minimized the live broadcast and clicked on an inconspicuous

software icon on his terminal. After a few seemingly random strokes, he
waited quietly for a few seconds and received a message from his confidant
in ‘Specimen’.

“They’ve already made the announcement, begin the plan.” He ordered the
person on the other end. “Add on a few more people to watch the major
platforms. Make sure the general direction of the public’s opinion is
favorable towards the Navi Military Command’s side.”

After processing, the gender of the voice on the other end could not be
distinguished. “Rest assured, everything is prepared. As for the Lebor
System’s Council Head, Sheng Ping’s manuscript, we already had the
writers from our shop add on the embellishments. It’s too touching, I
wanted to cry after seeing it. Do you want to read the final draft again?”

“Don’t send that out first. We’ll look at the situation after a few hours
before deciding. Send the final draft to me again.” Zhong Yan said,
“Alright, go do your work, contact me again if you need anything.”

The person on the other end was clearly a young person, and they quickly
acknowledged his orders.

After Zhong Yan read the Lebor Council Head’s pity script, he circled out a
point that was inconsistent with Adrian’s follow-up plan before sending it
back to that person from “Specimen”. Then, he brought up the live
broadcast again. The Q&A session had already been going on for a while.

It seems that the key issues of Lebor System have already been asked
several times. When Zhong Yan went back to it, the reporters had already
turned their attention to the Supreme Commander of the Navi Military
Command who rarely showed his face in public.

“Commander Yate, you were attacked in the Lebor System a few days ago,
so how is your physical condition now? And what about Councilor Zhong
Yan?” One of the reporters who had been chosen stood up and asked.

A few of the senior officers from the Navi Military Command who were
sitting on stage sucked in a breath of cold air. Even though news had been
going around these past few days in the Navi Military Command that
Adrian and Zhong Yan had already reconciled, the imprint left behind those
past years by Adrian was too deep, so everyone’s fear of that banned word
had already sunken deep into their instincts. To think this reporter would
actually say that to Adrian’s face in public, everyone in Navi who was
watching the broadcast broke out in cold sweat.

But the real shocker was, Adrian actually didn’t seem angry at all. He
responded casually, “Thank you, everyone, for your concern. Councilor
Zhong Yan is in the midst of recovery. As for my status, everyone can see it
with their own eyes.”

Zhong Yan was very clear that this was also one of the reasons he showed
up in public today. He was Navi’s leader, and also the poster child for the
entire anti-AI movement. He could get hurt, but he must never fall. When
he’s standing, he can bring infinite encouragement and courage to all those
who struggle on the same side.
But Zhong Yan knew that Adrian had only removed all his bandages
yesterday. People only cared about whether the Commander was fit to act,
and whether he could work again in full state. Only Zhong Yan had
caressed the scar left behind by every knife wound, enduring the pain with
his own heartbreak.
At that time, Adrian regretted not having done the laser scar removal
surgery. When he saw how dispirited Zhong Yan was, he scooped him up
into his embrace and joked, “I’m still a man with a fully functioning body.
You’re playing with fire if you touch me all over in bed like that, don’t you
know?”

Zhong Yan responded with a sullen hum, but his mood was still down.
Adrian had to coax him for a while before he could bring his mood back up,
and immediately decided that he would have to find some free time to get
those scars removed in the headquarters’ hospital.

At the press conference, the next reporter that had just been picked stood up
and asked, “Commander Yate, you’ve spent a lot of reward money on
obtaining the variant blood a few days ago, can you disclose the specific
amount?”

“No,” Adrian responded without any grace.

But the reporter was not discouraged either and tried to probe again. ” In
any case, it must be an astronomical sum. So why did Councilor Zhong Yan
claim that he could not refuse the marriage proposal because of financial
difficulties prior to that?”

Adrian said, “He is indeed quite poor. It’s normal if he can’t afford it.”

“But you have money, right?” The reporter asked.

Adrian responded matter-of-factly, “We weren’t related before our

marriage, my money had nothing to do with him at that time.”

He was able to circumvent the reporter, and the reporter actually couldn’t
find any problems with his logic so quickly either. Dazed, the reporter
asked, “Then, now that you’re a family, do you have any plans for
divorce?”
“No, no money, can’t afford it,” Adrian responded simply and directly.
“Alright, let’s give our other media friends a chance.”

Since they’ve already started asking questions like these, it seems like
there’s nothing important left at the end. Zhong Yan shrunk the broadcast
window and stroked the clean rabbit on his lap. Then, he rolled over to the
cleaning robot and continued reviewing its work.
 Chapter 60 - Remote Command

Train your troops for a thousand days, use them for a short moment.

News of the announcement of Lebor’s integration into the Navi System

spread. When the entire Federation was debating over it, Navi had already
readied two regiments to take control of the major planets of the Lebor
System in lightning speed. In conjunction with the Lebor Military
Command, they forcefully demolished all of “Butterfly’s” monitoring
devices before the Capital could make any declarations.

For the Navi Military Command, this was its first large-scale foreign
mission since laying low in Navi for so long. Even though they were busy,
everything was done in proper order, because they hadn’t only been
preparing for the past few days. They had been preparing for many
thousands of days and nights just for this day.

At the end of the press conference, the Supreme Commander himself who
had returned to the Navi System appeared in a place that nobody expected
him to appear.

Improvements could be seen recently in Navi’s economy. There was a

relatively small planet that gradually gained some fame even in the Navi
System thanks to a clothing store that was opened on it that spanned half
the planet. Many people have made a special trip to the planet just to buy
clothes. And today, dressed casually, Adrian landed in a low-key manner
with two of his guards on that small planet.

But no matter how low-key he tried to be, his face was way too
recognizable. He had only visited the first store when half of the planet’s
store owners had already heard the news.
After being attacked, the security level around this Supreme Commander
had multiplied considerably. The two guards were standing on guard by
Adrian the entire time. Only a single clerk who was casually picked out by
Adrian was allowed to follow him, to give Adrian information on their
clothes.
The young salesgirls gathered together to peek at Adrian’s handsome
profile from afar and were whispering to each other excitedly. They were
also feeling envious towards the lucky girl that had been picked.

“The Commander is really tall! This is my first time seeing him in person. It
feels like he looks even taller in person than in the photos circulating
around the virtual community!”

“Of course, he’s usually standing with the adjutant and the rest of the gang
in the photos. Adjutant Suster is very tall as well, so he doesn’t look
especially tall in them.”

“Didn’t you see the photos that came out from when they were still
studying in the Supreme Institution? That time when he was standing
with…that guy, he looked really tall.”

“What do you mean that guy? Didn’t you see the live broadcast earlier?
That name isn’t banned anymore. They’ve already gotten married.”

“You say it if you have the guts. Anyway, I’m not saying it.”

“I don’t dare to say it either…”

“Didn’t he say he wasn’t getting divorced because he couldn’t afford it?”

“Did we watch the same broadcast? I don’t think he means it like that…”

“I saw someone posting an analysis and they said…”

While the two girls were eagerly discussing the hot comments in the virtual
community, another clerk interrupted them and said, “You can talk about
that later! Look, it’s weird, the Commander is holding two pieces of
clothing and one of them doesn’t look his size.”
The two salesgirls quickly stopped their talk and looked over.

One of the guards was holding the clothes he had picked out so they
couldn’t see the size, but Adrian himself was checking out a warm brown
sweater. Strangely enough, he was talking non-stop, but he didn’t seem to
be talking to any of his guards or the sales girl next to him.

After a while, he said a few things to the clerk, and she quickly helped him
find the size he needed. Adrian held it out to see, and all the girls watching
could clearly see right then: the size of this one was definitely much smaller
than Adrian’s body.

“Should I just get the brown one?” Adrian tried to confirm as he turned
around and began looking at another row of clothes. Only then did the
clerks saw the wireless headset on one of his ears, and the camera function
was lit up.

Clearly, Adrian was talking to someone through a video call, and buying
clothes under remote command of the other person.

That person didn’t come out with him. Perhaps it was because it wouldn’t
be convenient to. And when they linked it up with the size of the clothes…

The salesgirls looked back at each other, and all of them made the same,
bold guess.

From a small distance away, Adrian’s voice would occasionally drift into
their ears. Even though they couldn’t hear him too clearly, it still didn’t
prevent them from hearing the gentle tone of his voice.

“…But doesn’t this look pretty good? Too expensive? It’s not that bad…”

“Okay, okay, I’ll listen to you, I won’t buy it.”

“I’ll buy you a red one, how does that sound? I don’t think you have any
bright-colored clothes. What do you think about this one?”

“You want me to wear it? …Maybe not…Alright, alright, I’ll wear it, I’ll
wear it.” Adrian turned his head to the side. “Miss, get me two of these, one
in the other size, and one in mine.”

Then, he picked out another two sets of pajamas. He had casually bought
two sets of pajamas for Zhong Yan last month. Among them was the one
with the cartoon prints of the giant space rabbit that he had bought as a
nasty joke, and was torn by him the night before Zhong Yan left. It was a
good chance now to buy another two sets.

After stocking up on Zhong Yan’s daily clothes, Adrian was chatting with
Zhong Yan about some casual matters and was just about to leave when he
suddenly saw an unusual set of pajamas from the corner of his eye.

Subconsciously, he pressed a button on his headset, not allowing his camera

to show that corner. Nonchalantly, he continued, “Then I’ll head back now.
No, just settle down, you don’t have to cook. I’ll bring dinner home tonight.
Alright, see you later.”

After hanging up the call, he was just about to buy that pair of pajamas, but
he suddenly recalled what happened last time. He had only bought a few
blankets with Zhong Yan but they ended up being in some illegitimate child
rumor. He couldn’t help feeling worried and stopped, turning towards
another shop instead.

After heading out, Adrian suddenly stopped before they could reach the
parking lot. He turned around and observed his two guards expressionlessly.

“Co…Commander?” None of the guards knew what was going on, but they
felt very awkward to be stared at in such a way.

Adrian asked the older-looking one of the two, “Do you have a child?”

The guard was completely perplexed as he answered, “I do, had one last
year. What’s wrong, Commander?”

“Alright, head back to the store we went to last. Go to the kid’s section and
pick out an outfit for your child. Take it as a gift from me.”

“Huh?”
“Then, help me buy something from there as well…” Adrian lowered his
voice to a whisper and carefully described the pajamas he had just seen.

……

When Adrian returned home, Zhong Yan was waiting for him at the door.

“Thank you for your hard work.” Zhong Yan smiled at him. “Welcome
home.”

Adrian’s heart suddenly filled up. A long time ago, Zhong Yan would also
tell him “Thank you for the hard work” every time he returned to the dorm,
but Zhong Yan rarely said “Welcome home” because it was just a dorm.
That place was only their temporary shelter, not their true home.

Then, he finally got a place he could legally call his own. But every time he
returned to that cold and empty house, only silence was there to greet him.

But now—The warm lights were on, and it had been carefully adjusted to a
comfortable brightness. The living room was still very clean, but there were
several cushions on the sofa that didn’t match in color. Those were extras
from what they bought for the rabbit, and Zhong Yan had repurposed them
for the living room sofa; a table cloth was set over the dining table. It was
the floral tablecloth Adrian had bought last time cause Zhong Yan said he
needed it, even though it seemed to clash with the minimalistic design of
the table; normally, when Adrian was not around much, the tableware left at
the table as decorations. Now they were organized on the racks in the open-
style kitchen. Some of the dishes were still covered with water droplets.
Those were the plates Zhong Yan had just used this afternoon, and the water
had not yet dried.

Not to mention the small and inconspicuous daily necessities that had been
added all around the place. The little things were two drinking cups on the
coffee table in the living room, and the big was a new roasting machine
Adrian had just bought in the kitchen. This multi-storied building was
finally filled with life.
Adrian did not push the wheelchair. He leaned down and picked up Zhong
Yan from the wheelchair and carried him over to the sofa and sat down. In a
pretentious act, he pretended to be unhappy. “You promised me when I
went out. I knew you wouldn’t listen—didn’t I tell you to leave the plates
when you were done with lunch, and I’d clean them?”

“I just put it in the dishwasher and took it back out, it’s nothing.” Zhong
Yan reached out cheerfully to curl his arms around his neck. “What’s more,
you said so much before going out, how could I remember everything? At
least I did everything else.”

“I’ll have to print out all the precautions tomorrow and stick them at home,”
Adrian laughed. After parting for a day, he wanted to give his legal partner
a little reunion kiss. He had just leaned down when Zhong Yan quickly
stopped him. “Wait! You’re going to crush the rabbit!”

Having his lovey-dovey moment interrupted, Adrian straightened his body

sulkily. “What am I going to crush?”

Zhong Yan took out the small white rabbit bun from his pocket and brought
it in front of Adrian. “Look! Doesn’t it look whiter? I washed it today.”

“…Does it? Hasn’t it always been white?” Adrian picked up the palm-sized
rabbit from Zhong Yan’s hand and examined it from its ears to its toes. The
small rabbit was woken up by it and kicked out its hind legs unhappily.
Zhong Yan quickly snatched it back and stroked its back to comfort it
before stuffing it back inside his pocket.

“I told you not to work. Why didn’t you wait for me to come back before
washing it?” Adrian complained.

Zhong Yan patted his chest and laughed. “Don’t worry, I left you some
work. I only washed the small one. You can wash the big one tomorrow.”

“Alright. I’ll bring out the hose later. I’ll wash it before I head out to work
tomorrow morning.” Adrian accepted readily and caressed his face. “Does
your wound still hurt today?”
“Not anymore. You don’t have to be so anxious all the time.” Actually, it
still hurt a little when he moved around, but he didn’t want to worry Adrian
so he changed the topic.” Right, I saw the live broadcast of the press
conference today. Can I talk to you about something?”

The press conference? Adrian’s first reaction was that Zhong Yan wanted to
talk to him about business. He wanted to say that he had just gotten some so
couldn’t they wait a little before talking about work, but then he heard
Zhong Yan ask, “Can I see you wear the military uniform at home?”

“…Military uniform?” Adrian was stunned. “The one I wore at the press
conference?”

Zhong Yan looked at him with anticipating eyes and nodded.

Adrian slowly revealed a meaningful smile. “Of course. In exchange…

you’ll wear the pajamas I just bought tonight, okay?”

Zhong Yan had been watching him buy the pajamas, and one of them was a
light-colored one that Adrian picked out. He didn’t quite like the style at the
time, but Adrian still bought it. He thought that that was the one Adrian
meant, so he did not hesitate to agree.
 Chapter 61 - My Husband

Ten minutes later, Zhong Yan felt like he had said the most number of
refusals he ever did in his life.

“No, I’m not wearing it,” said Zhong Yan pitifully in the corner of the sofa
as he held the rabbit.

“You promised me earlier, are you going back on your word?” Adrian was
dressed in his black gold-rimmed formal military uniform and was holding
a white terrycloth onesie.

The fabric was very soft, and there was even a hood on the fluffy set of
pajamas. Two large bunny ears hung softly down from the top of the hood.
One could tell at a glance that this was not designed for adults, but who
knew why it was available in an adult’s size?

Adrian said, “I’ve already changed into my uniform, we promised to

exchange.”

Zhong Yan raised the little rabbit to his eyes and pretended he never saw
Adrian’s clothes. “Then quickly take it off. I didn’t see it, and I’m not
looking!”

“Really?” Adrian stepped forward to take the rabbit away from his hands
and placed it down on the coffee table. He stood in front of him and leaned
down. “Then, I’ll take it off now, okay?”

He straightened his body and slowly undid the topmost golden button of his
uniform. The former dignified abstinence was destroyed by that loose
button, and there was a slight feeling of bold uninhibition added in now.
Zhong Yan stared at his well-defined fingers without looking away, then up
at his deep and tender eyes, only to feel the air getting hotter, and his
breaths growing shorter.

But those hands stopped at the second button and stopped moving.

Zhong Yan had always been a very patient person, but he couldn’t bear it
anymore in just a short dozen seconds. He couldn’t help but ask, “Why did
you…stop?”

“Dear, you’ve been watching for so long.” Adrian reached out to stroke his
cheeks and said in a gentle whisper, “You’re not going to tell me you
haven’t seen it, right?”

Zhong Yan met his eyes, then, he suddenly felt like running away as soon as
he found a gap. Adrian quickly grabbed his waist and secured him to his
embrace with one hug. He moved close to Zhong Yan’s ears and chuckled.
“What are you running for? You think you can run without paying for your
meal?”

Zhong Yan who had failed to escape complained, “What kind of stupid
clothes are you buying! If anyone photographs you…then wouldn’t
everyone find out I’d be wearing that?!”

“Don’t worry, I had my guard buy it. I assure you nobody knows.” Adrian
caught him with one hand and brought the pajamas over. “Hurry up, are you
changing yourself or do you want me to put it on you?”

“Don’t wanna.”

Zhong Yan refused him outright. Adrian made a move as if he was going to
take off his button, but Zhong Yan quickly reached out to stop him. While
the two were messing about on the sofa, Adrian’s terminal suddenly
sounded.

“What is it?” Adrian picked up and asked, his voice still sounded cheerful.

But after hearing what the other side had to say, his expression slowly
turned serious. Zhong Yan who was resting in his embrace had also sat up
when he saw his expression and put away his smile.

Adrian gave him a comforting look while he said, “Got it, I’ll head over
immediately”

“What happened?” Zhong Yan asked as soon as Adrian ended his call.
“You’re going to headquarters now?”

Adrian carried him up and returned him to the wheelchair. “No. I’m going
to a nearby planet. Stay home like a good boy, okay? You don’t have to wait
for me for dinner, and just sleep before me…”

Before he could finish, Zhong Yan managed to ask cautiously, “Did Qu

Yongyi confess?”

Adrian was surprised, and said helplessly, “How are you so smart? Yeah,
the person who was interrogating him just told me he was willing to testify,
but he insisted on talking to me face to face. I’m going there now to the
holding center nearby.”

“I’m going too,” Zhong Yan declared.

“No. You still haven’t recovered from your injuries completely, so just stay
at home,” Adrian refused. But more importantly, he knew that Qu Yongyi
definitely wouldn’t be in good shape after being interrogated for so many
days. He didn’t want Zhong Yan to see things like this. The direct visual
impact may make Zhong Yan think that he was a cruel man.

Zhong Yan insisted, “I want to go. I used to work with him and I’ve
collected a lot of his biographical information. I might be able to help.
What’s more…” He recalled the shocking moments of that day, and a look
of hate could be seen flashing past his eyes. “In case you have no more use
for him after he confesses, I want to be the one to fire the gun.”

Astonishment could be seen in Adrian’s eyes. He raised a brow. “Have you

fired a gun before?”
“Adrian, I’ve always gotten the feeling that you have certain…biases
towards people like us, civilian workers, I mean,” Zhong Yan said calmly,
“You seem to be with the idea that lives would never be taken in the game
of intrigue. It is exactly underestimation like that that you’ve ignored
several warnings I’ve issued to you several times over the years. So you
don’t think a representative councilor has killed anyone?”

“Have you killed before?” Adrian asked in turn. He really couldn’t imagine
how Zhong Yan would look like killing anyone.

“Not at the moment, no. But if it’s necessary, I would,” Zhong Yan
answered him calmly. “The difference is that I don’t have to pull the trigger
myself. I only have the issue the order, and somebody will remove the
obstacles in my way, just like how Pearson attacked you. I believe Fowler is
the only ordinary representative councilor without his own clique or team.
When I established ‘Specimen’, I hoped that he could become your eyes
and your ears, so you could be informed of the Supreme Council’s killing
intent towards you, but…Forget it. Anyway, I will become your eyes and
your ears in the future. You can use ‘Specimen’ however you please.”

He was clearly talking about something bloody and ruthless, but Adrian felt
warm after hearing those words. His expression slowly eased up, and he
heard Zhong Yan continue, “After saying all this, what I mean to say is that
I know much more about the Capital than you do. If you have the need, then
let me meet him. Maybe I could get something out of him that you wouldn’t
be able to.”

Adrian pondered on it for a moment, but he nodded eventually.

Zhong Yan leaned forward and fixed up the button Adrian had taken off
earlier before carefully arranging his collar for him. He said, “You should
go start up the ship. I’ll be out after I change.”

When he arrived with Zhong Yan at the holding center, Adrian never
expected that he would actually end up using him.

After he ended his meeting with Qu Yongyi and came out of the
interrogation room, Zhong Yan and the officer in charge who was waiting
for him outside could tell the results from looking at his face.

The person in charge tried to ask, “What’s wrong, Commander? Was it

unsuccessful?”

“He wants a way out,” Adrian sneered. “He said that Pearson is the main
instigator. He wants me to keep him alive in the Navi System, but not in
prison. He wants to return to a free life. Is he dreaming?”

“He brought a gang of killers and tried to assassinate our Supreme

Commander, and now he wants to weasel his way out of it with a
confession?” After hearing that, the officer in charge was also visibly
displeased. He apologized, “I’m sorry, Commander. I was not thorough in
my work. Give me two days, I’ll definitely…”

“I’ll go,” a cool voice sounded.

The officer turned his head, surprised. When he came in earlier, Zhong Yan
had been standing to the side after speaking a few words with Adrian, never
moving, nor speaking. His sense of existence was so low that he nearly
forgot Adrian came bringing his family.

Adrian said, “No need, let’s head back for now.”

“You’ve already been at it for so many days, nothing’s going to change.

He’ll have no more use to you once he confesses, and you won’t keep him
around. It’s easier to just kill him than let him stay in Navi, but if he’s sent
out of Navi, Pearson will kill him. He knows that very well.” Zhong Yan
didn’t sound like he was talking about someone who nearly killed him. He
sounded calm as if this person had nothing to do with him at all. “You
might as well let me try talking to him, it wouldn’t hurt.”

“And what are you going to talk to him about?” Adrian asked. “That is an
extremely selfish and despicable man in there. I can’t think of what else he
would care about besides himself. But as for his personal interests…it just
so happens to be something I don’t feel like giving to him.”
“About ninety-percent of the Supreme Council consists of such people.
Including…” Zhong Yan laughed self-deprecatingly. Someone else was
around, so he did not complete his sentence. “Let me try. Everyone has their
weaknesses, and maybe I may know his.”

The door to the interrogation room was opened once more. Qu Yongyi
thought that Adrian had returned. He had been suffering a lot these days so
it took some effort to raise his head, and he could only powerlessly say,
“Have you changed your mind, Commander Yate?”

The person who entered did not answer him. From the corner of his vision,
he was able to see a set of leather shoes and suit pants instead of the
military boots from earlier. He couldn’t help but feel shocked and raised his
head.

The young councilor who used to sit on the table beside him at work was
now sitting on the only chair in the interrogation room. When he saw him
look over, he put on a genial smile. “I’m sorry, I’ve just gone through a
surgery a few days ago. My husband won’t allow me to stand for long.”

As a councilor that did not need to rely on his face to find work, he really
did look too good, especially when he smiled. It felt like a spring breeze
had come to melt the winter ice, and it was a very pleasing sight.

But Qu Yongyi wasn’t in the mood to appreciate that pretty face right now.
He could only feel a chill climb up his spine. This was exactly how it was a
few days ago. Zhong Yan suddenly broke into the manor and disrupted all
his plans. And going back further…Zhong Yan had clearly entered the
Supreme Council after him, but he quickly reached the same position as
him. For two years, he and Zhong Yan were both high-ranking councilors.
He sat next to Zhong Yan every day, and he felt like it was torture. It was as
if this young man was born a politician. He was always calm and stable,
and he got along well with everyone. Very soon, when he himself was
hopeless in securing a promotion, this young man had instead been taken
note of by Old Yate and was pushed up by him to become his puppet as a
representative member.
That’s right…Old Yate…Commander Yate…They’re married now, and they
seem to be in a good relationship…

“You…” Qu Yongyi suddenly realized something amazing. “Have you and

the Yate family been colluding this whole time? No wonder! I was thinking
why it was always you. Turns out Old Yate had known long ago you were
going to become part of his family!”

Zhong Yan chuckled. “You don’t have to know what’s going on inside.
After all, you won’t be alive for long. I really don’t want to talk too much
nonsense with a dying man, but seeing as you’re the first person to
congratulate me on my marriage…If you’re willing to provide us the
evidence we want, I can personally come to an agreement with you. I will
hire someone to take care of your father in his old age.”

The muscles on Qu Yongyi’s bloodied face suddenly twitched. He glared at

Zhong Yan in disbelief, only to hear him continue, “Did you not understand
me? Then let me be straight with you. If you don’t tell us what we want to
know, you’ll still die, but you won’t be going alone. My husband is a
benevolent man, he would not do such a thing. However,” Zhong Yan
raised his cold eyes to him. “I will.”
 Chapter 62 - Now I Do

“You…” Qu Yongyi was furious. He had never been so afraid, even after
bearing with all the physical torture he went through these past few days.
That was because he realized that Adrian Yate, the man who killed all the
hired steel back in that manor, was not actually a truly scary person. Even
though there was blood on his hands, he had never killed an innocent
person. In the files Pearson passed to him, Adrian was described as a
humane person who never went past the limits of morality.

But Zhong Yan was not. He was a person who did not believe in moral
obligations. For the sake of his own goals, he would not hesitate even if it
meant sacrificing an innocent person to do so.

“Think over this carefully. And if your father is not a good enough of a
bargaining chip…Do you want to know where your children are right
now?” said Zhong Yan nonchalantly.

Qu Yongyi spat out a mouthful of blood and snarled furiously at him. “Are
you even human? They’re still younger than ten years old!”

“What do you mean ‘them?’ You only have one son, and he’s already
fourteen.” Zhong Yan smirked. “You don’t have to try to fool me. You think
I’m just making this up to scare you? Do you want me to order someone to
send a finger over for you to verify?”

Only then did Qu Yongyi believe that he wasn’t just messing around. In a
hoarse voice, he asked, “What is the difference between you and Pearson if
you do this?!”

，，，。，，：“？，。”
This was the first time he mentioned Pearson himself. Zhong Yan raised his
head covertly to look at the corner of the ceiling of the interrogation room.
He had seen it as soon as he entered. There was a surveillance camera there
designed as a hanging light. He raised his hand to cover his jaw to conceal
his movements and chuckled. “And who told you I was any different from
him? If he hadn’t wanted to touch someone he wasn’t supposed to, I might
have helped him all the way up to the peak by now.”

Qu Yongyi was stunned for a moment by the gravity of this piece of

information, but he had not been in the Supreme Council for these many
years for nothing. If that didn’t work, he had to try another way. “Does your
husband agree to you doing something as inhumane as kidnapping a child?”

“And how would he know of it? It’s not like there are any…” Zhong Yan
took another concealed glance at the hanging light on the ceiling,
“surveillance in here. I will come again tomorrow. Before that, I want to
hear that you’ve provided them evidence against Pearson. Otherwise, I will
invite you to join me in watching a rather less…pleasant live broadcast.
This conversation was between you and me. As for the reasons you said
earlier, I will not tell a single thing to the Navi Military Command’s people.
You can tell them you finally saw the bigger picture. You can use that to ask
for a better way to die.”

After saying that, Zhong Yan turned around and was just about to leave
when he heard Qu Yongyi ask from behind him, “How would I know that
you would keep your promise of not touching my family after I die?”

“You don’t have to overthink it. Do you know how much manpower and
resources are required to cover up evidence in our modern Federation?
What point would there be if I chase down your family and kill them after
you’re already dead? What would I get out of that?” Zhong Yan said, “I’m
very poor, I can’t even afford a divorce. I won’t spend my money on such
useless trifles, so don’t worry.”

After Zhong Yan left the interrogation room, the officer in charge was no
longer outside. Adrian was sitting alone in front of the surveillance screen,
waiting for him. When he saw him come out, he stood up and said, “Let’s
go?”
He looked normal. Zhong Yan had also responded calmly, “Yeah, let’s go.”
Adrian reached out his left hand. Zhong Yan was briefly startled, but then
he held it with his own right hand.

The officer in charge of the incident heard the news and came over to send
the commander off, only to see Adrian who was dressed in his military
uniform holding hands with the primly suited Zhong Yan. One looked
sharp, while the other looked icy. Their appearances contrasted each other,
yet they also seemed to meld together when their hands intertwined. Adrian
gave a light nod to the officer and waved him away, signaling that he did
not need to be sent off.

Due to the angle in which they stood, the officer had only now seen the
silver ring on Zhong Yan’s left ring finger. Wasn’t this the hot topic in the
virtual community today? That was the same ring design as the one Adrian
wore during the press conference! The shape did look a bit strange, but
since both of them were wearing them, they really must be wedding rings…
right?

The planet where this holding center was at was a close neighbor to Navi
Star, and it took even less time to reach here than for Adrian to drive a land
vehicle to headquarters.

……

The two held hands as they walked to the carpark. It was already getting
late, and the night breeze was blowing. Adrian suddenly stopped and let go
of Zhong Yan’s hand.

Zhong Yan’s heart constricted, and he was just about to say something when
Adrian took off his military blazer and covered it over his suit.

“No need, I’m not cold. We’re almost at the ship.” Zhong Yan looked at
Adrian who was only wearing a thin shirt, and immediately wanted to take
the blazer off and return it to him, but Adrian stopped him.

“It’s not like it’s your first time wearing it. You’ll get used to it, don’t be
shy.” As he said that, Adrian helped him do up the topmost button of the
blazer. “This planet is cold at night and your wound still hasn’t recovered
yet. It won’t be good if you get sick by the time we’re home.”

Just like the first day when Zhong Yan came to Navi, he was wearing
Adrian’s military blazer. But unlike back then, this jacket carried Adrian’s
warmth with it, wrapping him up in its warmth in the night.

Zhong Yan stroked the blazer over him cherishingly. After a moment of
hesitation, he asked, “Are you not going to ask me anything?”

“About what you said in the interrogation room?” Adrian put his arms
around his shoulder and continued walking. “I figured it shouldn’t be a big
deal, so I wasn’t in a hurry to ask. You didn’t really kidnap his fourteen-
year-old son, did you?”

“Of course not.”

“And you don’t actually plan to, do you?”

Zhong Yan paused for a second, and told Adrian, “His son is in Pearson’s
hands. The Capital had already received the news when you were still
dismantling ‘Butterfly’s’ monitoring devices in Lebor. Just earlier today,
Pearson sent someone to take away Qu Yongyi’s son from school. Indeed, I
had no plans to grab him from Pearson from all the way across the
Federation.”

“And what if Pearson didn’t take his kid away?” Adrian asked.

Zhong Yan seemed to have expected that question. He shook his head. “I
wouldn’t have done so either in that case. I know you wouldn’t accept it.
I’m scared you’d divorce me.”

Adrian was amused and nearly wanted to laugh, but he could hear that
Zhong Yan wasn’t kidding around. He was seriously considering this
question before he made his decision. *Would I divorce him?* When
Adrian thought about this, he couldn’t laugh anymore. Earnestly, he
professed, “I won’t divorce you. You’ve been worried since we came out
today. What are you scared of? You said you’d never do anything to
disappoint me, and you even said you’d never lie to me. I trust you in all of
that.”

Zhong Yan looked up at him, and perhaps the starry sky was reflecting off
of his eyes, but they looked like they were sparkling.

“What’s more, you make it sound easy, but how can we even afford a
divorce? You were already complaining about the price when we bought a
few pieces of clothing. What, don’t tell me you want to sell off that rabbit at
home too?” Adrian deliberately cracked a joke to lighten the atmosphere.

Zhong Yan nudged him lightly with his shoulder. “I’m being serious here.
Today was just an act, I don’t have any evidence to show him, so it’s not as
believable, but I’ve already tried my best. I can only bet on whether he will
believe me or not. If even this fails, he definitely won’t speak. This man
can’t be left alive any longer. Pearson has already taken action, if he doesn’t
hear of Qu Yongyi’s death soon, he may think of doing something.”

“I know. I never expected him to say anything to begin with, but I’ll take
anything he’ll throw at us.”

“Based on the results of the latest round table meeting report I received
today, the Supreme Council has decided to characterize this as an attack
planned by Qu Yongyi alone.” Zhong Yan sighed in dissatisfaction. “If he’s
unwilling to bring up Pearson no matter what, the costs of pushing the
matter to Pearson will be too great. I’m afraid that even if we sacrifice half
of the specimen store in the Capital, we still wouldn’t be able to pull him
down a peg.”

“What are you worried about?” The “Honor Decree’s” trial operation will
be announced soon. We have nothing but opportunities.” Adrian tightened
his grip around Zhong Yan’s arm and comforted him.

Zhong Yan did not speak, but he knew that Pearson was completely
prepared this time. If he didn’t make a sacrifice and expose his cards, it’ll
be difficult to get any conclusive evidence to pin any crimes against him.
It’s still better to wait for an opportunity. But…he still didn’t feel good
about this. Adrian nearly fell into his trap this time. He couldn’t stand
knowing that the culprit was doing completely fine in the Capital.

It was already late in the night when the two returned home. Zhong Yan had
eaten his dinner on the spaceship on the way home from the holding center.
They actually brought dinner for two onto the ship, but Adrian had to drive,
so he never had the chance to eat. As soon as they arrived, Zhong Yan
quickly hurried to the kitchen, but Adrian grabbed him from behind and
picked him up.

“How many times have I told you? Don’t walk so fast. Doesn’t it hurt?”

Zhong Yan knew he was hungry, so he anxiously said, “It’s not that painful
anymore. Let me down. I’m going to make you some food.”

“Nope, you’ve already been standing way past your limits today.” Adrian
set him down on the wheelchair and wheeled him all the way to the
bathroom in the master bedroom. “I’ll just heat up my dinner myself. You
should take a shower first, then wait for me in bed like a good boy.”

“Okay…” Zhong Yan responded reluctantly. “Is Doctor Wei coming

tomorrow for a check-up?”

“Yeah. I’ll be off work earlier tomorrow and I’ll bring him with me.”

“I can head over too. It’s a bit rude if we make him go back himself so
late.”

“Just stay at home, you don’t have to worry about anything. I’ll drive him
home myself if the check-up ends up finishing late.” As he said that, Adrian
suddenly realized he was a married man now, and a homosexual to boot. It
didn’t seem very proper for him to drive another single man around the
same age as him all the way home, and immediately turned to ask
permission from his spouse, “Do you think that’s okay?”

Zhong Yan smiled and gave him a light push. “Shouldn’t that only be
proper of you? Don’t just stay here and joke around. You must be hungry.
Quickly go and eat.”
And so, Adrian left to go eat dinner. After Zhong Yan was done washing up,
he returned to the room and saw the soft terry onesie they had hurriedly
thrown aside on the chair just before leaving.

Zhong Yan picked up the clothes with a complicated mood. He tugged at

the long rabbit ears at the top of the hood. Adrian seemed like he was really
looking forward to this…

Adrian had always been a fast eater. He quickly dealt with his late dinner
and he was just putting the dishes and cutlery into the dishwasher when he
saw something white at the corner of his eyes coming out from the
bedroom, stopping hesitantly outside of the door.

He was just thinking about the meeting they were going to have tomorrow
at headquarters so he didn’t put too much focus on it. He was wondering
absent-mindedly in his heart, how had the rabbit escaped?

That’s not right! After a few seconds, Adrian finally realized that they
didn’t have a rabbit this size at home!
 Chapter 63 - Carnivore

Adrian was so shocked his hands shook, and the bowl fell straight from his
hands. But fortunately, his ability to react was extraordinary. He bent down
at superhuman speed and caught the bowl when it was just centimeters
away from the ground, successfully avoiding the tragedy of breaking one of
his and Zhong Yan’s couple bowls just two days after buying them.

“You…” Adrian was just about to tell him to stop standing and to go lay
down in the room. But the instant he saw Zhong Yan after turning around,
he suddenly forgot what he wanted to say.

Zhong Yan’s skin was very fair, to the point where not much contrast could
be found even against the snow-white pajamas he wore. He was so covered
in white that his pink lips, black eyes, and hair were very eye-catching. He
was not wearing the hood, so the pair of big and long rabbit ears on the hat
were hanging down. At this moment, he was standing right at the door, and
Adrian didn’t know why, but he was suddenly reminded of that day in the
backyard where that palm-sized rabbit was poking its head outside of the
door to the miniature rabbit’s nest, looking around.

Zhong Yan was standing while supporting himself on the door frame
timidly. Clearly, it was way too embarrassing for a man like him who wore
a suit to work every day to wear a loose children’s onesie. He was tugging
uneasily at the soft and fluffy clothes on him. Children have delicate skin,
so the fabric of the pajamas was particularly soft. When he saw Adrian
staying silent, he felt more and more embarrassed and nervous. Even his
voice was shaky. “Is it weird? As expected, for an adult to dress like this is
too…*that*. I should go change.”

“Don’t.” Adrian quickly walked to him in large strides. “Why change? You
just had surgery, this fabric is soft enough, so don’t change.”
Even though he was telling him not to change cause of how soft the fabric
was, his hands could not wait any longer to pull up the hood at Zhong Yan’s
back. After pulling the hood over him, Zhong Yan became a lop-eared
rabbit. Adrian couldn’t resist giving a slight tug on the rabbit ears at the
side. Zhong Yan shrunk away, and couldn’t help complaining, “Why are
you pulling on my ears?”

“You just look so cute I couldn’t help but bully you,” Adrian answered. The
rabbit ears were made of even thicker terry material and it felt nice, so he
couldn’t help himself from pulling at it.

Under normal circumstances, Adrian was a man who sympathized with the
weak. Just like when he first met Zhong Yan. He knew that his year’s top-
scorer was an orphan. He was so thin, but he had to bring a big box to
school all by himself. Not long after living together with him, he heard him
vaguely speak about his less than perfect childhood. At that time, he was
thinking wishfully about how his roommate who had come from a small
planet he had never heard of was a pure little white rabbit that was being
bullied. He did not hesitate at all to bring him under his wing and would
bring him along for everything.

Even though their professions were worlds apart, and they practically
shared no courses, they still spent much of their time together. During their
first year, their classes weren’t far away from each other, so they would
even meet each other between classes to chat for a bit. It wasn’t until Zhong
Yan slowly rose up in school, became the backbone of the student council,
and even successfully took over unprecedentedly as the student council
president in his second year that Adrian gradually realized that this person
was not the little rabbit he thought he was.

But Zhong Yan in the dorms was different from him in the outside world.
Only when the two of them were alone was Zhong Yan’s temper so soft,
and he always went out of his way to accommodate him in every possible
way. There was also no need to mention that Adrian had to look at his giant
space rabbit bed sheets every day. In his subconscious, he could not get rid
of the impression he had that Zhong Yan was “weak and needed his
protection”.
When Zhong Yan first revealed to him his ambitions that he kept deep
within him for the longest time, telling Adrian that he wanted to obtain the
highest position. Adrian could clearly see the sharp light in his eyes, and
that ferocious desire like that of a carnivore. Even if he could not agree with
Zhong Yan’s point of view, he still had to admit that at that moment he
knew, as clear as anyone, that this was not a man that required anyone’s
protection. He was a man who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him,
and an opponent strong enough to rival himself.

Now, with those pair of long ears, and in a pure-white children’s onesie,
Zhong Yan once again looked as if he could be bullied by anyone—that
anyone being Adrian—but for some reason, Adrian did not feel any pity
this time. Instead, he could feel his breath speeding up, and the sinister part
of him deep inside his bones was being aroused.

Rabbits should have red eyes.

“Stop playing around.” Zhong Yan’s rabbit ears were being played with. He
slapped away Adrian’s hand that was constantly playing with his rabbit ears
unhappily. “I’m going to take it off.”

He had just turned around to head back inside the room, but Adrian
followed him in and shut the door behind him before picking him up like a
bride.

Zhong Yan reflexively held onto his neck. Adrian was still wary of his
wounds so he didn’t dare to throw him on the bed, and instead held him like
a fragile object, setting him down softly on the bed. Zhong Yan was trapped
in the soft white material that looked as clean and pure as a newborn baby.
Adrian grabbed the bed sheets with both his hands and trapped Zhong Yan
under him, but he didn’t dare to press down on him, only looking over his
pale skin and red lips again and again.

Zhong Yan felt extremely ashamed because Adrian was still in his neat and
stately military uniform, while he himself was dressed like that. He reached
out to push him. “Wait, you should change first before…before…”
“Before what?” Adrian asked in a whisper, but he could no longer hear
much of what Zhong Yan was saying. This was the first time in his life that
he felt that a soft, weak, fluffy little animal like a rabbit could be so cute.
Take Zhong Yan for example. He had completely grabbed his attention. He
leaned down in fascination, personally taking off the hood he had just
pulled over Zhong Yan’s head, and kissed Zhong Yan whose ears were
already beginning to redden.

“If you don’t let me play with your rabbit ears…” His deep and hoarse
voice lightly brushed against Zhong Yan’s ears, “Then it should be fine if I
play with these ears, right?”

The blush at Zhong Yan’s ears spread all the way to the corners of his eyes.
With the white hood pressed behind his head, the contrast of it accentuated
the red color of his blush. Adrian could feel his throat getting parched, and
the trousers of his military uniform were beginning to feel a little tight.

But this wasn’t a good time for indulgence. Zhong Yan’s wound had still
yet to recover. Moreover, Zhong Yan’s surgery happened the day after their
supposed one-night stand. No matter how careful or restrained he was that
day, there would definitely still be traces. He was very convinced Wei Lan
had seen it, because Wei Lan had specifically ordered him not to engage in
any “intense exercise, including sexual intercourse” during the recovery
period of the patient.

Zhong Yan was just beginning to get into it when he realized that Adrian
had stopped moving. He shut his eyes to recover from his quickened
breathing before turning over, annoyed, to lay down next to Zhong Yan.

“Let’s…do this another time.”

Zhong Yan had also recalled his own condition. It was fine for him to
restrain his desires, but he was worried Adrian would feel bad, so he quietly
asked after some hesitation. “If you want, I could help you with…”

“Don’t say it!” Adrian quickly cut him off. “I’m scared that I’ll lose my
self-control if you say it.”
He got out of bed and didn’t even turn back to look at Zhong Yan’s face for
fear that he would change his mind. While walking away, he said, “Don’t
say anything to me, talk to me after I’ve had my shower.”

Zhong Yan sat up and pulled at the corner of Adrian’s clothes. Adrian
thought he was going to stop him, and at that moment, he had already made
excuses for himself. If he was careful and went slowly, they could actually
give it a try…

“Go shower upstairs,” Zhong Yan said.

This was completely different from what Adrian expected. For a moment,
he couldn’t understand, and asked in confusion, “What?”

“I want to use this bathroom.” As he said that, Zhong Yan got up from bed.

Adrian watched as he tidied up his fur, ah no, his pajamas, and said, “Didn’t
you just finish…washing…” After speaking halfway, he suddenly realized.
Zhong Yan’s reason for going to the bathroom was the same as his. Thus, he
quickly stopped his words. “Oh.”

“What do you mean, *oh*?” Zhong Yan who was wearing the rabbit onesie
with his eyes red went straight into the bathroom of the master bedroom and
shut the door in front of him.

Adrian subconsciously took a step towards the bathroom. As if he could

predict his movements, Zhong Yan knocked on the door from inside and
said, “Quickly go and wash up, you still have to wake up early tomorrow to
wash the rabbit.”

“Got it,” Adrian responded, and headed upstairs for his DIY session.

Adrian spent much more time in the bathroom compared to usual. By the
time he returned to the room, Zhong Yan had already shriveled inside the
quilt to look at his terminal.
“I just received some news from that side when I was taking a shower,”
Adrian quickly told Zhong Yan, “Qu Yongyi has provided part of the
evidence.”
Zhong Yan sat up immediately. “Really? Where is it?”

“God, can’t you slow down a little?” Worried, Adrian rushed straight like
an arrow to his side to hold him. “Does it not hurt for you to move so
roughly?”

“It doesn’t hurt anymore. But forget that, where is it?” Zhong Yan asked
eagerly, “How much evidence did he give?”

“I haven’t finished looking at it myself. We can look at it together.” As he

said that, Adrian enlarged his virtual screen and climbed into the blankets.
Since he was worried about hurting Zhong Yan, they had been sleeping
separately these days.

Zhong Yan moved over to learn on him. He was still wearing the rabbit
pajamas, and the soft fur brushed past Adrian’s arm. But he was no longer
restless like before. Both of them were concentrated on the records in
Adrian’s terminal.

After a few minutes, Zhong Yan muttered, “This is enough. But I suspect
this isn’t all of the evidence, this is just all he can give. Pearson wouldn’t let
him keep something as straightforward as the transaction records anyway.
He knows he won’t be able to escape, so between us and Pearson, he put his
bet on us.”

“I’ll send it over to you,” Adrian said. “Are you going to adjust the
arrangements with your team?”

Zhong Yan responded with his fighting spirit ignited, “Of course!”

Pearson was a thorn in his sides. Ever since finding out that he had
murderous intentions towards Adrian, he had always wanted to get rid of
him. Not to mention the fact that Pearson had nearly succeeded, the old
grudges were now mixed in with the new. Zhong Yan immediately
contacted both Intron and Old Yate, determined to launch his offensive.

Adrian responded to his own subordinates and looked up to see Zhong Yan
working seriously in the childish rabbit outfit, and couldn’t help himself
from breaking out in laughter.

“What are you laughing at?” Zhong Yan took a moment to shoot a look at
him, and his eyes were filled with murder.

A murderous little rabbit.

It was even funnier now.

Adrian quickly reminded himself of the gravity of the current matter at

hand and was barely able to control his own facial expression.

The people Zhong Yan had urgently contacted tonight would never expect
that the signal was being given by someone dressed in a rabbit costume,
because all of them had received tasks that called for bloodshed.
 Chapter 64 - Question

After they laid down and turned off the lights, Zhong Yan whispered in the
dark, “This is great, I was just thinking, you have to go to headquarters
tomorrow, and I have to go to the holding center by myself during the day,
then I don’t have to go out anymore the day after that. Working remotely is
great, I don’t have to go outside at all. Usually, I would have to get up at
least an hour and a half in advance, but now I just needed to change ten
minutes before I have to be present. If it was just a voice conference, I don’t
even need to change my clothes.”

“Yeah…you’re right,” Adrian responded absent-mindedly. But inside, he

was just thinking that his days of staying at home would soon come to an
end.

When Zhong Yan recovers completely, the exercise plan he had the medical
department design especially for Zhong Yan will begin. Adrian recalled the
days when Zhong Yan would be half-dead after running less than a quarter
of a mile. He felt a bit complicated, but he still did not tell him that.

Just let him be “happy” for a few more days.

“What’s wrong? What are you thinking about?” Zhong Yan asked. He
snuggled over to his side and plastered against him through the blanket.

“Nothing, just thinking about some plans in a few days.” While saying that,
Adrian peeled away the blanket and squeezed in with Zhong Yan. “You
seem spirited today. Not sleepy?”

The temperature of Adrian’s body was very high. Zhong Yan couldn’t help
but lean closer to him. Adrian reached his arm over and scooped him up
completely, while Zhong Yan was kept pleasantly in his warm embrace. “I
was thinking about things in the Capital, and I couldn’t sleep, but now I’m
starting to get sleepy.”

The feeling of the soft fabric against his hand was nice. Adrian had been
patting his back to lull him to sleep, but that eventually turned into stroking.
Zhong Yan grumbled as he gave his chest a light smack, “What are you
doing? I’ve already washed myself twice today, I don’t want to go again.”

“I’m touching your clothes, not you. Even though I bought these clothes for
you, it’s still our common property. What’s wrong with it if I touch it?”
Adrian argued. His chest was pushed again, and it felt like he was being
pawed by a small animal. It didn’t hurt, but Adrian knew how painful it
could be if Zhong Yan really clawed him. That time, the marks that were
left on his back took two whole days to dissipate. He had no intentions of
stopping, but instead of stroking him, he returned to patting him again.

Zhong Yan had always slept badly, and it was also difficult for him to fall
asleep. But being in Adrian’s arms was just as effective as taking sleeping
pills. After a few minutes, he sunk into the warm land of dreams.

But of course, thanks to the heat source underneath his blanket latching
onto him tightly, he was woken up by the stuffiness in the middle of the
night. But that all comes later.

……

After waking up the next day, Adrian had already left to go to work. Zhong
Yan had been woken up from his sleep during the night due to the heat and
had to wiggle himself out of Adrian’s arms. Even though he tried his best to
be as careful as possible, Adrian’s vigilance was too high and he was woken
up from the slightest movement. Zhong Yan quickly explained to him in a
whisper, and hearing that he was fine, Adrian quickly fell back asleep. But
when Zhong Yan turned on his terminal to adjust the temperature of the
room, he also looked through the news and couldn’t help himself from
contacting several people to arrange a new task. Then, he was completely
awake. Only after laying for a while did he finally manage to fall asleep
again.
But this caused him to wake up late. He received Adrian’s call as soon as he
got up.

“Awake?” Adrian asked in the call.

Zhong Yan took his toothbrush out of his mouth and mumbled with a full
mouth, “I just woke up. Brushing my teeth.”

“You should quickly eat breakfast after you wash up. I think your food
should be delivered by now.” Adrian continued, “If you don’t eat now, you
won’t be able to stomach your lunch later.”

Zhong Yan spat out the bubbles in his mouth. “Don’t worry, I can just delay
my lunch as well.”

“You can’t.” Adrian put on a stern act. “You have to eat your meals on
schedule. Once you finish, take a picture for me to check.”

Zhong Yan spat out a laugh and teased, “And what if I can’t send you a
picture on time?”

“Then your little cake will be gone tonight.”

“No! You promised I’ll have cake from tonight on.”

Adrian laughed. “Then we’ll have to look at your performance. Alright, I

have to go to the meeting room now.”

“Okay.” As if they were still in school, Zhong Yan responded out of habit,
“Work hard.”

“You too.” Adrian’s voice was gentle. “Quickly go and eat, I’m hanging
up.”

After having his breakfast on time, he passed up his “homework” to Adrian.

Zhong Yan felt his own wound and felt that it was no longer painful, so he
got up from his wheelchair and strolled out to the backyard to see the
rabbits.
The giant space rabbit was not in its own nest and was instead laying down
on the grass nearby, sunbathing. Zhong Yan saw the hose that had been
brought out from the house. This was probably what Adrian used to wash
the rabbit this morning, and he must not have had the time to put it away so
he just tossed it there. Zhong Yan went over to touch the rabbit’s fur. It was
still a little wet.

Zhong Yan turned on his terminal to see. He had finished his duties in the
middle of the night, and due to the time difference, he had no work at this
moment since it was the middle of the night in the Capital. Zhong Yan went
back inside to bring out a hairdryer. While passing through the rabbit’s nest,
he noticed the small white rabbit next to it and brought it with him as well.
When he reached the giant space rabbit and was just about to start work, he
suddenly realized there were no pockets in the rabbit onesie for him to hold
the rabbit.

Holding the rabbit, he looked around him. It was grass all around him, but
there was a spot that was particularly deep. When the giant space rabbit laid
down, it did not feel it much, but the small white rabbit kit would disappear
if he put it down there. He thought about it and stuffed the rabbit into his
hood instead. Only then did he begin blow drying the giant space rabbit.

The rabbit was too big, and it was practically like a tiny mountain made of
fur, while Zhong Yan was using a regular hair dryer meant for humans. He
began drying it from the base of the mountain. He had turned on his
terminal and brought the screen to his eyes so he could watch the news
while he blew the rabbit dry. When he reached the rabbit’s chest, the giant
space rabbit finally discovered a human in front of it dressed in all white. It
shoved the tip of its fluffy nose in front of Zhong Yan curiously. Most of
Adrian’s clothes were black in color, so he always complained about the
rabbit getting its fur all over him. Zhong Yan had also noticed now that this
lop-eared giant rabbit sheds a lot, but the color of his fur today…no, the
color of his pajamas were the exact same as the rabbit, so it was hard to tell.

When Adrian went to buy this rabbit, he didn’t know if there were manuals
or whatnot, nor did he know how quickly a rabbit’s fur turns over. It was
shedding so much, was it growing out new fur? When he put Adrian’s
clothes into the washing machine the day before yesterday, Zhong Yan did
see a lot of long, soft white hair poking out of his clothes.

Then, in the few seconds it took for him to think about Adrian’s clothes,
Zhong Yan suddenly smelled something burning. He quickly came back to
his senses, but it was too late. A cluster of scorched hair appeared on the
dense fluffy chest of the rabbit. Fortunately, the giant space rabbit was large
enough and had enough fur, so even the rabbit did not notice a clump of its
hair being fried. After all, its chest hair was in its blind spot.

Zhong Yan “…”

Adrian was busy the whole day without any time for rest. The Lebor
System was now under the Navi Military Command’s control. “Butterfly’s”
monitoring system was gradually destroyed, and the AI’s misjudgment of
the star system’s Council Head caused him to switch camps, bringing the
entire star system with it…The entire Federation was in an uproar.

In the Round Table, the eleven Representative Members have also been
fighting about it for the whole day. If they did not admit that they misjudged
him, then the Lebor system would actually accept entering Navi’s
jurisdiction, and “Butterfly’s” monitoring systems would be dismantled.
This was undoubtedly a public provocation. The Capital had to send out
their troops, but from the final image data from Lebor’s monitoring system,
they were able to analyze that the Navi military army was much stronger
than they feared. And the more worrying part was, they did not actually
know how many troops Navi had within their own system that had not been
brought out of its borders. If like last time, the Capital admitted that it made
a misjudgment…

In just two years, there had been two cases of misjudgments, and it was
even all such sensitive events. The last time, it was only a girl who was
rather popular in the virtual community, but they had still received massive
criticisms that they had never once seen during the past half-century. But
this time, it was three high-ranking councilors…It is not known whether
“Butterfly” and the Capital that was covered under its wings would
completely lose the trust of the public because of this incident.
The eleven people who held 2 differing opinions were embroiled in an
unending debate. The only one not present was Zhong Yan who was
currently on the other side of the Federation, but there was more than one
person out of the eleven who held his script.

Adrian didn’t have time to look at his private messages until he went to the
medical department to pick up Wei Lan in the afternoon. The last message
he received from Zhong Yan was the photo of his empty lunch bowl, but
there was another image earlier on in his history. Adrian opened it up to see
and saw a cluster of brown in the middle of a snow-white image. At first, he
didn’t realize what it was until he saw another picture taken from afar with
the rabbit’s head in the shot. Only then did he realize that white stuff was
the rabbit’s chest. The words attached by Zhong Yan read: I was blow-
drying the rabbit but accidentally burnt it. Do you know what the shedding
period for this rabbit is?

Adrian laughed at the two images for three whole minutes before replying,
“I’ll ask later. I’m going to pick up Wei Lan now. Remember to change.”

Zhong Yan was just in a call with Intron, so when he received the message,
he just assumed that Adrian meant he was going to ask the Giant Space
Rabbit Research Institute he had purchased the rabbit from, so he asked
without much care, “Okay, remember to show them the photo as well, and
ask whether this is fine or not.”

Huh? Show them the photo as well? It was more than a year ago since
Adrian had last posted an update to his personal homepage. Last year, the
posting interface of the personal homepage was changed once, so for a
moment, he actually couldn’t figure out where to add the image. The last
post Adrian made was about the fact that the space bandits had been dealt
with to the roots, and promoted that the Navi System was now safe and
stable. At first glance, you could tell it was an official post. In more than a
year, Adrian’s supporters and haters had commented beneath that post until
the numbers reached a terrifying height, especially with the recent major
events these past two months that Adrian played the leading role in. In just
a short month or so, the comments had nearly doubled.

After a few seconds, Adrian found the button to add images. After more
than a year, he updated his personal homepage once more.
Adrian Yate(Verified Position: Supreme Commander of Navi Military
Command): A question for everyone, when do giant space rabbit kits molt?
I accidentally burnt some of its fur, will this cause any problems? Picture
below.
 Chapter 65 - How to Treat Your
Guests

“Lebor’s being turned upside down and you’re roasting rabbits for fun?”

“Oh my god, a lop-eared giant space rabbit!!! So cute! Awww, it’s cute even
if its fur is burnt!”

“Yate doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would like rabbits at all. I
seem to recall another rather famous person. The whole world knows he
loves giant space rabbits…”

“I know! The Supreme Commander is trying to say that he wants to roast

the giant space rabbit for dinner. It’s provocation for Zhong Yan! Let me
explain. He wants to know when the rabbit sheds, meaning he wants to take
off its fur, and the burnt fur signifies he wants to roast it and eat it. This
suggests that he is on bad terms with Zhong Yan. Didn’t someone post
about it a long time ago? They had most likely gotten married because they
got attacked together by chance and didn’t get to pay the fines. Seems like
their marriage won’t last for long.”

“Stop fantasizing, the two of them had already admitted they got married
because they didn’t have money.”

“People really believe they don’t have money? I’m done. One’s a
representative councilor, the other’s the big boss of a star system. They
can’t afford a divorce? Who are you trying to kid? To begin with, Zhong
Yan has the Yate family supporting him. I knew from the very beginning
this couldn’t have been a coincidence. After all, everyone in the Federation
knows that ‘Butterfly’ doesn’t play by the rules anymore.”
“Don’t just try to represent the entire Federation. How could we have our
stable lives without ‘Butterfly’? Yate will face retribution if he encourages
young people to rebel!”

“Why is that damn moth’s fans on the Commander’s homepage? Why don’t
you let me explain to you what the case was with the two misjudgments?
I’m just worried you’ll also be ‘misjudged’ if you accidentally did
something the Capital doesn’t like next time.”

“This is his revenge. Do you still remember the Supreme Institution’s

celebration two months ago? Zhong Yan mouthed something to Yate and a
great god managed to decipher the word as ‘top’. He’s trying to pick a fight
with Yate. What he means is that he wants to be on top after they marry, and
now that they’re married, Yate is posting this picture as revenge to say he
wants to eat roasted giant space rabbit.”

“Good one! The Commander is mighty!”

“Are you all crazy? You think he’s a celebrity just cause he’s a little good-
looking? Eating giant space rabbits is illegal. Don’t you know about the
giant space rabbit anti-poaching laws? Are you all ignorant of the law?”

“I don’t think the Commander is just ‘a little’ good-looking…”

“That’s a giant space rabbit? Looks pretty small though? Nobody can see
that if you threw it up in space!”

“Giant space rabbits don’t live to be looked at by you, thank you. This
variety is smaller than the usual ones.”

“They didn’t say anything about that, okay? How could there be such
extreme giant space rabbit fans everywhere? Aren’t they just rabbits that
have been mutated by radiation? You lot are just like a cult.”

“Protecting giant space rabbits has great scientific significance in both the
fields of biology and physics. If you’re free, read up more on science topics.
Spend less time talking smack at people in the virtual community.”
“Replying to the comment above, Yate forcefully demolished the
monitoring system in the Lebor System. He just ignored the constitution
and you think he cares about your stupid poaching laws?”

“The Federation is in turmoil, chaos is coming. Stop talking about the law
and whatnot and make sure you have food stored up instead.”

“??? Can’t he just ask about when rabbits shed? What are they talking about
in the comments, I don’t understand?”

……

……

……

By the time Zhong Yan ended his meeting with Intron, changed his clothes,
and opened his terminal to realize that something was wrong, things had
already gone into an uncontrollable direction.

Since his rise in reputation after achieving top scores in middle school,
Zhong Yan who had to watch every word he spoke in public looked at the
two pictures he took and felt like his feet were swaying.

The entire comment section was a giant mess. There were some who were
trying to analyze the deeper meanings of Adrian’s words, those who were
criticizing Adrian for blatantly violating the hunting prohibition laws,
people arguing about the pros and cons of AI, and also those who were
fangirling over the rabbit. Zhong Yan felt like he should tell his men to get
things under control, but he actually could not figure out where to start for a
moment.
There was even an advertisement in the hot comments section. You could
tell with one look that they had gotten there by spending money on certain
tools. But advertisements themselves weren’t scary, it was the content that
was.

“Agriste Jewelry Design, personal brand of the top jewelry designer

graduate of the Federation’s Supreme Institution’s Academy of Fine Arts.
The choice of the most famous couple in the Federation, Adrian Yate and
Zhong Yan! The latest models are on the shelves, personalized
customization, an ace experience! Please click here for more details…”

No, it was Adrian’s choice, not his!

But just as Zhong Yan was holding his forehead and reading this advert
with difficulty, praying that everyone could just treat his fellow alumnus as
a swindler here to ride the waves, an even more terrifying thing happened.
Adrian was clearly looking at the same comment as he was, and he gave
that comment a like.

Zhong Yan “…” He won’t be able to get out of this one…

Adrian was driving when he suddenly received a call. He was going to hang
it up, but he never would have expected that it was Zhong Yan calling him
when he looked at the screen.

When he was still in school, the campus was too far away from his dorm so
he rented a scooter from the school to get around every day. Zhong Yan
would never call him when he was on the road, so what happened today?
Did something happen at home?

He stopped his car at the roadside and picked up Zhong Yan’s call. “What’s
wrong? I just came out from Headquarters.”

“I…” Zhong Yan had originally wanted to talk to him about his post
directly, but it was so personal. In case Wei Lan was also there, it would be
bad for him to throw Adrian’s face in front of an outsider. So, he turned to
ask, “Have you picked up the doctor?”

“He’s not in my car. Fayn was just at the medical department so he said
he’ll join us. It’s a good coincidence. He can just send Wei Lan home when
he’s done with the check-up.”

“Suster’s coming too?” Zhong Yan was stunned and his focus was diverted.
“Then I should make dinner. I ordered three portions of dinner earlier, it
won’t be enough if he’s coming too.”
Adrian wasn’t perturbed. “Just order another set. You don’t have to work.
After your check-up is done, the two of them can just go eat on their own.”

“It’s already dinner time, how can we not offer any food? That’s not proper.
It’s fine, I just finished my work so I’m not busy…No, I mean, I didn’t call
to talk to you about this!” Zhong Yan finally remembered what he called
him for. “What’s with that post you made earlier?”

“What’s wrong with it?” Adrian was confused. “I asked you about it. Didn’t
you agree?”

Zhong Yan simply could not find his tears. “I…Forget it, fine. If you
wanted to ask, just ask, what’re you uploading pictures for? Have some
shame for the rabbit!”

“That’s what I thought too! But weren’t you the one who told me to put the
photo in as well? Right, did you see the replies? Someone said it’s fine if
the fur outside is burnt.”

“Who cares about that?! I nearly died in a fit of anger when I saw the
comments.” Zhong Yan grumbled. “Those people were scolding you even
though they don’t know anything.”

Adrian laughed. “What’s there to be angry about? There are people yelling
at me for everything I post.”

“I can’t stand seeing people scold you,” Zhong Yan said. “I have a group of
professionals here who can steer the public’s opinion…”

“Don’t bother, sweetheart. If it worries you, I can just delete it. We got the
answer we needed anyway.”

“Don’t. If you delete it that’s going to be news again. I’m going to go make
dinner now, I’ll respond later.” Zhong Yan said, “You’re driving, right? I
won’t bother you anymore.”

“Nah, I stopped my car on the roadside. Just make a simple dinner, don’t
tire yourself.”
Zhong Yan gave an affirmative and hung up the call. However, the
ingredients he ordered weren’t simple at all.

Guests were coming, so it’s best to show them proper hospitality.

When Fayn and Wei Lan entered the door, they couldn’t help but stare at
the person who opened the door for a moment.

Zhong Yan wore a color he had never—at least not as an adult—worn

before. It was a striking red. Not everyone could pull off a bright red,
especially a man, but Zhong Yan was very fair so the red made him look
very lively, and not like his usual cold self. But this was not the reason why
the two paid special attention to his top.

“I was just thinking, seeing Adrian earlier was shocking enough. I had
never seen him wear red in all the ten years I’ve known him. Now, I finally
realized you actually bought a couple outfit,” Fayn laughed.

You’ve only known him for nine, I’m the one who’s known him for ten!
Zhong Yan corrected silently in his heart. But it would be too unsightly for
him to say this to a guest. He only smiled and turned to Wei Lan. “Doctor,
you can leave your medical kit here first. What do you want to drink? We
don’t usually drink anything fancy, but I bought some juice earlier.”

Zhong Yan actually smiled at him and asked if he wanted some juice. Fayn
was shocked. It had to be known that in his few meeting Zhong Yan, he
would mostly be ignored. If Adrian weren’t around, then he wouldn’t even
try to conceal his hostility in the slightest. Adrian hadn’t returned home
today, but he still had a friendly attitude

Zhong Yan led the two of them to the living room for a seat. Fayn drank the
juice that Zhong Yan had personally poured for him while seriously
thinking about how surgery and marriage can change a person. Wei Lan
asked, “We saw the update on the Commander’s homepage while we were
in the car. Have you gone to the Giant Space Rabbit Conservation Center to
play? It’s best for you not to travel long distances in this period.
Overworking yourself is unconducive to your recovery.”
“That’s not it…” Zhong Yan was just about to explain when the sound of
the door opening could be heard. Adrian was back.

All three people on the sofa stood up. This was a private occasion so neither
Fayn nor Wei Lan bowed. They only greeted their Commander. Zhong Yan
went over to help him take his jacket off and hung it on the rack.

“You arrived? Have a seat.” Adrian nodded to the two in the living room.
He was wearing the same striking red top as Zhong Yan. Fayn had seen him
earlier in the headquarters, and he was just wondering why Adrian who had
always work black suddenly wore such a bright color today, it looked very
awkward. But when he came home and stood next to Zhong Yan, it seemed
to look much more harmonic. His usual cold aura had been diluted a lot,
and his entire person seemed to have softened.

“Wow, smells good. You made black pepper steak?” Adrian asked. Then, he
noticed something strange. “This smells familiar. I thought that shop didn’t
do takeaways?”

Zhong Yan didn’t want to say he had bought someone’s recipe just because
Adrian praised it in front of outsiders. He tugged at Adrian’s clothes, and
Adrian leaned down for him. Zhong Yan whispered in his ear, “I made it.
I’ll…tell you at night.”

The hosts were talking about their own private matters. Out of courtesy,
Fayn moved his gaze away and looked out the window instead. Adrian had
a large back yard behind his house. The sun was still up outside, so he could
see a gigantic white furball lying there quietly behind the sparse row of
trees.

Fayn rubbed his eyes hard.

That giant white snowball that was definitely more than 16 feet long was
still there.

“Hey Wei Lan,” Fayn’s voice was stiff, “I’ve never raised a rabbit, but do
you know how big a palm-sized white rabbit can grow in half a month?”
 Chapter 66 - Satisfaction

Wei Lan did not look out the window, so he replied, “Are you talking about
the Commander’s little rabbit? I don’t think it will have grown much.”

“Are you talking about that rabbit?” Zhong Yan walked over with Adrian.
He turned his back to them and showed them the bulge in his hood. “It’s in
here.”

None of them actually noticed the bulge in the hood of Zhong Yan’s red
hoodie. Turns out there was a little rabbit in there.

Adrian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Why’d you put it in your
hood? Are you trying to perform a hat trick?”

“I was too busy cooking earlier so I didn’t have any time to send it back to
the yard. You didn’t bring the box back either, so now neither the cleaning
robot nor the rabbit has a box to stay in.”

“Alright, alright, it’s my fault. I’ll get two new boxes tomorrow, one for the
cleaning robot and one for the rabbit to use as a home.”

Fayn said, “Hold on, if the rabbit’s in here, then what’s that outside the
window? Wait, that’s not the legendary giant space rabbit, right? The one
you burnt? Didn’t they say that giant space rabbits are around a hundred
feet tall or whatever?”

When Zhong Yan heard his ignorant words, his eyes lit up. In his heart,
Adrian exclaimed: Oh no!

“Dear, let me bring the rabbit back to the backyard.” As he said that, Adrian
took out the rabbit from Zhong Yan’s hood and quickly left the scene before
anyone could say anything.
Zhong Yan nodded, unbothered, and took a seat on the sofa. Before Adrian
walked out the back door, he could hear Zhong Yan’s excited voice coming
from the living room. “That’s not true, no giant space rabbit is as big as
that. Based on the latest data from last year, the average giant space rabbit is
no more than 65 feet in length. There are many varieties within the giant
space rabbit species, and their sizes also differ from that. Take for example,
the one we have is a lop-eared breed, so…”

Even though the backyard was big enough for the giant space rabbit to stroll
around in, it still wouldn’t take more than a few minutes to bring the rabbit
back to its nest. Adrian loitered around and manually scooped out the loose
greens in the pond. Then, he went over to the rabbit’s nest to see if any parts
needed maintenance. He even ruffled the burnt hair on the giant space
rabbit’s chest when it came over to nudge him before taking a few photos
for future laughing purposes.

And just like that, when he returned to the living room, he heard Zhong Yan
going on with, “…Later, the research team found that the compositions of
cosmic debris in that star system was different, which led to it being
frequented by the rabbits. I’ve been to that tourist planet with Adrian before
during one of our school holidays. You can really see rabbits floating in the
sky from time to time. We saw one that was black. That color is very rare, I
even took a picture. Look…”

Wei Lan seemed to be really interested. He had always been open to

accepting new knowledge, but Fayn looked like he was done with life.
Seeing Adrian return for him was like seeing his savior, and he cast a look
of pleading to him.

Adrian looked at the time. Zhong Yan had already begun to talk about the
tour, so he estimated that it was just about time. He cleared his throat and
shouted, “Xiao Yan, when is dinner going to be ready? I’m getting hungry.”

When Zhong Yan heard that Adrian was hungry, he abandoned his Giant
Space Rabbit Science Mini Class and quickly got up to head to the kitchen.
“It’s already done. Ade, lay down the dinner cloth. I just washed them
today. Doctor, you can sit wherever you like.”
After Adrian laid out the tablecloth, he helped Zhong Yan plate the steaks
on the table. Compared to that super well-rated steakhouse they went to, the
ones made by Zhong Yan were actually able to match the store’s almost to a
T. Fayn was surprised. “Is this for real? Are you really that good at
cooking? I used to think Adrian was just making baseless praises in the
past.”

Zhong Yan smiled modestly while he took off his apron. Suddenly, he saw a
few long white strands of fur poking out from Adrian’s body.

“Don’t move, there’s fur on you. When did this get on you?” While pulling
the hairs out for him, Zhong Yan said, “It couldn’t have been this morning,
right? Did none of your colleagues mention it to you today?”

Adrian said, “Oh no, the rabbit rubbed itself on me when I went out to the
backyard earlier.”

Fayn watched how Zhong Yan circled Adrian to help him pull out the rabbit
hairs while Adrian seemed to be taking it like it was normal. He didn’t look
put off in the slightest, almost as if nothing could ever be more normal than
this. He was standing very naturally, allowing Zhong Yan to fuss over his
clothes. Fayn couldn’t help but feel the image of Zhong Yan he had in his
heart subverting a little.

In the past, Zhong Yan had already been a notable person since his time in
school, but he did not speak much in front of people. If a normal person did
not speak often, others would get the impression that this person was
introverted. But when it came to someone as dazzling as this, people would
find them proud instead. What’s more, Zhong Yan was the Student Council
President and even a member of the debate team. From all the speeches and
debates he participated, large or small, his performance on the stage was not
like that of an introvert’s at all—though Fayn always felt like he was seeing
him through some type of screen every time he watched Zhong Yan’s public
speeches. In his opinion, Zhong Yan was indeed proud. Even during dinner
parties, he did not speak much, only occasionally saying a few words to
Adrian, and he would mostly be speaking directly to his ear so as not to be
overheard. Plus, with his not-so-friendly gaze, he gave Fayn a rather
gloomy impression.
In those days, Adrian would boast nonstop about how delicious his cooking
was, how nice Zhong Yan had cleaned up the dorm, and he would even talk
to Fayn privately, discussing if Zhong Yan liked him because he would
wash his clothes for him every day. At that time, none of Adrian’s friends
believed him. Most of them figured Adrian was just talking out of his ass,
including Fayn.

Zhong Yan was usually so proud. Even though Adrian would often explain
to his circle of friends that Zhong Yan was “thin-skinned”, that “that’s just
how he is, he’s not looking down on people”, and “you’ll know how nice he
is once you get to know him”. But clearly, anyone who had been in contact
with Zhong Yan could clearly feel that this Student Council President was
hardly as extroverted and approachable as the Military Academy’s Chief. It
would sound more believable if you told them that Adrian was the one
cooking for Zhong Yan every day.

And so, Fayn never understood why Adrian would fall for such a person,
but he did not try to bring a curse upon himself by telling his good brother
what he thought. After all, just his face alone was enough for him to turn his
nose up against the rest of his peers, it wasn’t totally illogical.

It was only today that he finally realized that Adrian’s descriptions were not
mere illusions. They were actually true. Zhong Yan, the one described by
the young poets in the school forum as a man who “did not partake in the
activities of mortals” actually cooked and did the laundry for Adrian in
private. He was a considerate man.

The rabbit was too big so it could cover them with fur with just one nudge,
but nobody knew why this rabbit enjoyed doing that so much. Zhong Yan
was finally almost done picking the hairs out of his clothes, and he had
decided to add a handheld lint roller to his shopping list.

After placing the glasses on the table, Zhong Yan said, “I bought a bottle of
wine as well. Shall I uncork it for everyone?”

Adrian said, “You can’t drink alcohol right now.”

“I know, but you guys can drink it.”

Wei Lan said, “I have a surgery to perform tomorrow morning, so I can’t
drink alcohol tonight either.”

“I still have to drive home tonight, so maybe it’s better if we skip it,” said
Fayn as he took a seat next to Wei Lan. Adrian suddenly had an idea.

“Doctor Wei’s not drinking, just let him drive. The two of us can drink,”
said Adrian, expression unchanged.

Wei Lan was as dense as dense could be. Even if the entire military
command knew that the Adjutant was pursuing their Chief Medical Officer,
the Chief Medical Officer himself still thinks that the Deputy had really
come looking for him all the time to chat because he was grateful for being
saved by him, as the man said himself. If he saw anyone making fun of him,
he would even make a serious retort. Adrian had once tried to give advice to
Fayn, telling him that he had to do everything the other way when it came
to Wei Lan. “For others, you have to confess after getting them to like you
more, but when it comes to Wei Lan, you have to inform him clearly from
the very beginning that you are pursuing him. Otherwise, the only thing
you’re improving with him is your friend zone.”

When Fayn was still in his early twenties, he had told Adrian many times
that he did not want to marry or date, he had even refused all the marriage
proposals that were thrown his way. He felt that freedom was a life lived
alone. He couldn’t stand sticking together with someone else. And these
opinions continued until Wei Lan rescued him from the battlefield.

And the worst part was, Wei Lan did not seem like someone who would
need love at all. He was even indifferent to regular feelings. He seemed to
only be interested in medical knowledge, and the only good news for Fayn
was that Wei Lan was born in the Navi System, so his marriage was not the
AI’s business. Fayn had pursued him for two years, and as Adrian would
describe it, if this was anyone else, they would even have babies by now,
but he was still stuck in the stage of running over to him for a quick chat.

Fayn’s temper was a little unpredictable. After Adrian suffered through the
great impact in his twenties and calmed down considerably, Fayn seemed to
appear much more lively than Adrian, but his late first love caused him
much worry, and he shrunk back with timidity. He knew what he meant, but
he just couldn’t find the courage to confess. Adrian felt that a little alcohol
under the dim moonlight might be able to give him the courage he needed
when Wei Lan sent him home tonight.

But clearly, Fayn did not understand his implications. He even answered
politely, “Still, if it’s just the two of us, we shouldn’t uncork it. You can just
leave it for yourselves to drink.”

“Come on, I want to drink it,” Adrian professed. “Don’t worry about getting
back. It’s not like Doctor Wei can’t drive. Xiao Yan, hand me the bottle.”

Zhong Yan handed the bottle of wine to Adrian and, seemingly without
much thought, he said, “Small amounts of wine before bedtime can help
with sleep. Speaking of which, alcohol does more than just…helping with
sleep.”

When Fayn heard that, he raised his head up. His eyes went back and forth
between Adrian and Zhong Yan’s face. Zhong Yan’s face was blank, but
Adrian was looking at him in a meaningful manner.

In the subtly ambiguous atmosphere, the only one to respond to Zhong Yan
was Wei Lan. “Yes, medical alcohol is generally used for disinfection.”

Zhong Yan chuckled. “As expected of a doctor.”

He took the opened bottle from Adrian and helped to pour a third of a glass
of wine for the guest, Fayn. Fayn gazed at the wine in the glass for a while,
and gritting his teeth, he said, “Fine, but just a bit.”

Adrian looked pleased at Zhong Yan who seemed completely unperturbed.

He had never mentioned the relationship between these two to Zhong Yan,
and Zhong Yan had only just had dinner once with them. Even Fayn did not
react to his words earlier, but Zhong Yan knew exactly what he meant. He
then took another glance to Wei Lan who had no idea what was happening
and actually thought they were discussing the role of alcohol, and he
suddenly felt a little smug.
As expected, my lover satisfies me the most.
 Chapter 67 - Show Off

Zhong Yan distributed the tableware to everyone. The dining set had all
been switched out several days ago, and the four soup plates on the table
were clearly two couple sets. Even the spoons came in pairs. When Zhong
Yan saw that both his guest had their attention on the tableware, he
explained, “We only have couple sets at home. You don’t mind, do you,
Doctor?”

Wei Lan responded, “It’s fine.”

Fayn did not respond. He peered at his and Wei Lan’s dinner sets covertly
and felt both secretly happy and guilty. When Adrian saw him remain
silent, he taunted him deliberately, “What’s wrong? You don’t like sharing a
couple set with the doctor? You haven’t started eating anyway. I’ll change
sets with the doctor. You can use a pair with me.”

“Forget it then.”

“No!”

Fayn and Zhong Yan spoke at the same time. Zhong Yan quickly realized
his own overreaction and cleared his throat. “I mean…the soup is getting
cold so you should drink it quickly while it’s still hot.”

“Heard that? I’m not the only one disagreeing. I’m a person with morals, I
won’t step between a married couple, so give up. I won’t agree to it. It can’t
happen between us.” When Fayn saw this scene, he was quick to add oil to
the fire in joy.

Wei Lan hesitated for a moment. He knew himself well, and he knew that
besides the surgical department, he was not very good in understanding
with people. But he was still worried that his friend would “misunderstand”
Adrian in that way, and that he would anger the couple opposite of them, so
he still reminded him, “Adjutant Suster, I don’t think the Commander is
interested in you in that way.”

Before Adrian could even say the word “scram”, he suddenly heard Wei
Lan’s blow and couldn’t stop himself from laughing. Even Zhong Yan
could not help but cover his mouth to hide his amusement, but it was still
revealed in his eyes. On the other hand, Fayn was looking dazedly at Wei
Lan, speechless.

“Did…I say something wrong again?” Wei Lan could not understand.

Fayn couldn’t bear seeing Wei Lan like this the most. He had completely
forgotten how he had been defeated through and through by Adrian during
one of their arguments that arose from a single sentence Wei Lan said. He
glared at the two who were still laughing at the opposite side and quickly
encouraged Wei Lan. “No, you’re right, you’re completely right. Like I
said, you’ve really improved!”

Zhong Yan quickly stopped his laughter and nudged Adrian with his elbow,
telling him to stop laughing. He said, “Let’s start eating. There wasn’t much
time so I didn’t prepare a lot of food. I hope everyone can still enjoy
themselves.”

The four men raised their glasses and clinked both their juice and their
wine, emanating a sound of crisp bells.

After dinner, Wei Lan went with Zhong Yan to the room with his medical
kit in hand. Adrian invited Fayn over. “Want to go out to the backyard to
have a look? Sober up a little.”

“No need.” Fayn shook his head and checked himself. “I’m not that drunk.”

“I still think it’s better if we go out for a walk. You’ll feel more sober after
getting some air.” Then, Adrian added, “The medical officer is my
subordinate as well. I have to be responsible for him.”
“What are you talking about? Am I…that kind of guy when I’m drunk?”
Fayn gave him a light slap on the back. Even though he said that he still
followed Adrian out to the yard.

They walked through the sparse rows of trees, over to the wooden house on
the open grassland that was just a little taller than a two-story building.
Seeing such a large building all of a sudden, Fayn was sobered up a lot.
“Damn, the hell is this thing out in your yard?”

“A rabbit nest,” Adrian said. “I made it myself. Look closer, over there,
there’s a small one right next to it too.”

Fayn was speechless for a moment. Adrian actually raised rabbits at home
and even made them nests with his own hands. It felt almost surreal. He
could not help but suspect that perhaps he really had drank too much. He
massaged his temples. “I’ve made up my mind. Marriage definitely changes
people. Emperors of the olden days hide their young mistresses in their
fancy houses, so what business do you have hiding rabbits out here?”

“Who’s hiding them? I’m openly raising rabbits.” Adrian was giddy as he
said, “I bought that big one at the very last day of last year.”

But unfortunately, Fayn who could usually empathize with him very well
was now a little drunk, and his mind was buzzing a little. Moreover, all he
could think about right now was Wei Lan, so he did not hear the hidden
proudness in his words and nodded. “Oh.”

He did not realize it, but Adrian was persistent in bragging. “I had to drive
out two star systems over to buy it as a New Year’s Present for Zhong Yan.
He liked it so much.”

Fayn paused. Then, he pounced over to him with his fists out. “You asshole!
You’ve been showing off since we were having dinner earlier. Would it kill
you to lay off a little?!”

“When did I show off during dinner?”

“The two of you were practically eating out the same plate! Is that even
necessary?!”
“So what if I eat the things he doesn’t like to eat?”

Adrian easily intercepted Fayn’s punch. In the time it took for the two of
them to joke with each other, they had already begun to spar. Even though
Fayn didn’t drink much more than Adrian, he ended up revealing an
opening in just a few moves. Adrian caught it in one fell swoop and
grappled him.

“Do you submit?” Adrian asked. “Wanna continue?”

Fayn swiftly conceded. “No no, no more.”

The both of them let go of the same time. Fayn sighed. “Ah, time passes so
quickly. I really miss those days when you used to pummel me to the
ground when we just arrived here.”

Adrian had not adjusted himself as soon as he came here. When they had
just arrived, there was a short time in his life when Adrian would fight all
throughout the day, and numb himself with alcohol at night to sleep. One
time, he was taking a bath after a bit too many drinks, and he was so drunk
that he fell asleep in the bathtub. When Fayn found him the next day, half
his body was still submerged in the cold water and he almost seemed dead.
Fayn’s hands were shaking so much that he couldn’t find his pulse, and
before the emergency doctor could arrive, Adrian had already been woken
up by Fayn. Fayn had instantly went to beating him as he cried, and that
may have been the only time in Adrian’s life that he just laid there to get
beaten without fighting back.

Nobody mentioned this matter again in the years that followed. Fayn may
seem happy-go-lucky, but there was a cautious side to him too, and he was
a reliable person. He was also one of the top rankers in the Supreme
Institution when they graduated, and he had even gotten higher marks than
Adrian in one of the sections. The reason he was able to sit at one of the
topmost positions, beneath only a single man in the Navi Military
Command, was not because of his personal relationship with the Supreme
Commander. Adrian was an impartial person after all.
Now, when their most difficult years were mentioned again, Adrian did not
feel upset by it at all. Instead, he felt pleased. “Ain’t nothing you can do but
miss it. After all, I already succeeded in proposing. I’m really lucky I kept
that ring with me. If I’d known I would succeed, I would’ve told you to
keep the flowers too. I’m even thinking about having a wedding when
everything’s settled.”

As he said that, he raised his left hand to Fayn to show him the ring. The
two of them had been as busy as dogs in Lebor these past few days, and
they only talked about work any time they bumped into each other at work.
They hadn’t had the time to have a private chat like this. This was the first
time Fayn had seen Adrian’s ring in such close proximity. Even though he
could not understand if those mysterious curves were an artistic thing, but
Fayn was still deeply shocked when he saw the earth-shattering designs of
the two names jutting out of the ring in a font that looked like their
terminal’s default font.

“Brother, it may have been the right choice not to have proposed back then.
If you had to propose to him while he was awake with this ring, I think the
chances of him agreeing would be extremely low.” Fayn said sincerely.
“What on earth is this out here? This is the first time I’ve seen someone…I
mean, if you’re going to engrave the name, then just engrave it. Why is it
outside? Even if it’s outside, you could have just engraved it…but why is it
jutting out? But forget that, why did you use the terminal’s default font?
Don’t people usually do it in cursive?”

Adrian took back his hand and dismissed it. “What do you know? Who’s
gonna be able to see if it’s carved inside? And cursive is all squiggly and
whatever. You can hardly read what’s written in it! This is how you gotta do
it if you want people to see who this ring belongs to.”

“Yeah, I see it nice and clear. The virtual community’s been up these past
two days trying to figure out what that thing is on your finger. They didn’t
have a close up of your hand during Lebor’s conference, so next time
remember to lift your hand to the live broadcast camera and let them take a
real good look at the words on your ring,” Fayn complained.
“You’re just jealous,” Adrian said. “The designer’s from the same grade as
us. He even gave me a 20% discount back then. I just saw him comment on
my homepage that he’s opened his own store. Do you want to save his
address? Might come in handy.”

While saying that, Adrian opened his terminal and was just going to find
him the address, but Fayn quickly stopped him. “Please don’t. After seeing
your ring, I don’t think it’s going to work out.”

But Adrian’s face suddenly went stiff after he opened his terminal. After
looking for a while, his brows finally relaxed. “Let’s head back. They
should be done.”

“Your man sent you a message?”

“No, he sent a message to the entire Federation.”

“Huh?” Fayn was stunned. Adrian moved his terminal over to him to show
him. All he saw was the new post on Zhong Yan’s own personal homepage.

Zhong Yan (Verified Position: One of the Supreme Council’s Twelve

Representative Members): This giant space rabbit kit has been legally
procured from the Giant Space Rabbit Research Institution with personal
funds (see Figure 1). Mr. Adrian Yate owns properties that meet the
conditions for private rearing purposes (see Figure 2 for the evaluation
certificate provided by the institution). I personally hold the Giant Space
Rabbit Breeding License (see Figure 3), so no illegal actions have taken
place. The burnt fur was caused by me using a hairdryer, not with fire.
Thank you, everyone, for your time and concern.

Fayn clicked on all three of the pictures to see. The first one contained the
transaction invoice that was only blurred out at the price section. The rest of
the information could still be seen. Adrian had bought this lop-eared giant
space rabbit kit on the very last day before New Year’s at noon. The third
image was the transcript of Zhong Yan achieving full marks in every
section of the Giant Space Rabbit Breeding License assessment.
“That’s…shocking,” Fayn said sullenly. “I’ve always wanted to ask every
time I see the ranking boards, but does he have some kind of special talent
for exams?”

“No, he just puts in the effort,” Adrian said. He was actually not the only
person who noticed this. When the number of comments was still madly
soaring up, most of the people were discussing the first two pictures or the
matter in itself. However, one comment caught Adrian’s attention.

“As expected of a Representative Member. Can’t you use your brains even
if you’re going to go through the back door? Passing the exams with a
perfect score? You think we’re all stupid?”

Adrian who didn’t care at all about his tens of thousands of hate messages
was instantly burning with rage. He turned off his anonymity software and
responded to it with his real account. “@Federation’s Supreme Institution
(Official Certification: Official Webpage of the Federation’s Supreme
Institution) inviting all of Zhong Yan’s past teachers and lecturers, as well
as students who have seen the ranking boards. Is it really abnormal for
Zhong Yan to pass the assessment with full marks?”
 Chapter 68 - Fake News

Adrian was just about to head back into the house with Fayn when the noise
of their conversation alerted the giant space rabbit that was resting in its
nest. The rabbit ran out and followed right behind the shadows of the two,
but fortunately, both Adrian and Fayn stopped as soon as they heard a noise.
Otherwise, if the rabbit nudged them from behind, they’d definitely fall
over.

“Wow, it’s so fat,” Fayn exclaimed. He reached how to touched its thick fur.
“This is my first time touching a giant space rabbit. Doesn’t feel half bad.”

“Of course it feels nice. I washed it just this morning. It’s so big I nearly
died of exhaustion.”

“Is it really that fat or is it all fur?”

“It really is that fat.” Adrian stood there with a straight face, allowing the
rabbit to rub itself all over him. “I used to think it was all fur too in the past.
That is…until it got stuck in the entrance of the nest.”

But Adrian did not mention about how Zhong Yan had gotten himself stuck
inside of the nest. He could make jokes about the rabbit to make everyone
laugh, but anything related to Zhong Yan was a no-go.

Fayn laughed out loud when he heard that story, and his sudden outburst of
laughter caused the rabbit to jump back in fright.

“Quiet down.” Adrian glared at him. “It’s big, but it’s still a rabbit. They’re
very meek.”

As if it understood him, the big fluffball tried to hide behind Adrian. Fayn
couldn’t help feeling curious. “Does it recognize who its owners are?”
“Well, Zhong Yan said that giant space rabbits were much smarter than
normal rabbits. With proper training, they could almost match regular
canines in IQ—But of course, anything he says about giant space rabbits
needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.”

Adrian relied on the bit of rabbit training techniques he learned from Zhong
Yan to coax the rabbit back into its nest. When they returned to the house,
Wei Lan had just finished packing up his medical kit. Zhong Yan saw them
coming back from the backyard and went over to greet them. “You went to
the backyard? I thought you two were talking in the study. Your clothes…
Did you play with the rabbit again?”

The red top Zhong Yan had finished cleaning up just before dinner was now
covered in fur again, and there seemed to be even more than earlier.

“I’m not the one playing with the rabbit, the rabbit’s the one playing with
me.” While saying that, Adrian patted down his own clothes, but Zhong
Yan stopped him. “Don’t brush it down to the floor, the cleaning robot will
get jammed if there’s too much fur. I’ll pick them out for you later.”

And so, Adrian could only stop. With his clothes covered in rabbit fur, he
asked Wei Lan about Zhong Yan’s recovery. Fortunately, he was recovering
well, thanks to the good postoperative care he received.

Wei Lan left him a detailed diagnosis sheet, and the two of them saw Fayn
and Wei Lan out.

“I wonder if they’ll succeed tonight.” The two watched from the front yard
as the car drove off. Adrian said, “Fayn has already rejected two marriage
proposals.”

After seeing off the guests, Zhong Yan pinched Adrian and grumbled, “You
still have the heart to care about someone else?! I didn’t want to say
anything with outsiders around, but what on earth did you just do?!”

“What did I do?” Adrian asked, confused.

Zhong Yan opened his virtual screen and moved it to his face, showing him
the deeds he had done. Thanks to Adrian’s mention, the Supreme
Institution’s official account responded. “From a statistical perspective, it
would be abnormal for Student Zhong Yan to not achieve full marks for a
test at this level.”

As a result of the participation of the Supreme Institution’s official account,

countless students following their page had also seen their reply. When
Zhong Yan graduated, he had broken the highest score record in the School
of Social Sciences’ rankings, and the students of liberal arts schools are
almost always ranked based on the accumulated scores of their test results.
Even if they were not from the same grade as Zhong Yan, and had never
seen Zhong Yan’s results in the ranking with their own eyes, just his
incomparable test scores that had been immortalized in the School of Social
Science’s history at the very top of its leaderboard, and by word-of-mouth
through the posts in the school forum, it was enough to imagine how grand
an occasion it was that year.

The Supreme Institution accepts only the most elite of students. Naturally,
the quality of its graduates will not be poor. No matter what their standpoint
was, Zhong Yan’s abilities in the exams represented the Supreme
Institution’s standards. To question his ability is to question the Supreme
Institution itself. Countless graduates and current students of the Supreme
Institution were lining up to mock and ridicule that ignorant poster, and
there were even many bigwigs who had already achieved much in society
coming in to join them as well. For a moment, this comment had almost
become the most popular gathering spot for students of the Supreme
Institution in the virtual community these recent years.

Zhong Yan could feel his head buzzing with pain. “I just helped to clear
your name and you immediately end up attacking an ordinary citizen—But
that alone is enough, you even rallied up the people from the school to
attack him! I bet you get a lot of heat from your PR department, don’t you?”

“Who said so? I rarely spoke in the virtual community these past few years,
so what can they say about me? The last time I was pestered by the PR
department was when they thought we had a kid.”
“What kid? Don’t try to change the subject.”

Adrian’s strategy to change the subject failed, so he could only say,

“Alright, alright. We’ll go back on topic. When did I attack him? I just
invited our alumni to discuss what happened.”

“But the media will not think so,” Zhong Yan said.

“And will the media not spout nonsense with you posting to clear my
name?” Adrian rebutted. “You don’t like seeing others accusing me, but I
can’t stand others talking bad about you even more. Only you are allowed
to refute the people who scold me, but I’m not allowed to do the same.
That’s a double standard, Councilor Zhong Yan.”

Zhong Yan got pulled in by his unreasonable but sweet words. For a
moment, all the worries in his heart turned into sweet honey. Adrian quickly
brought up a new topic while he wasn’t saying anything to brush this
current chapter aside.

……

At night, Adrian lay in bed looking at his terminal. Suddenly, the sound of
the water stopped in the bathroom. Zhong Yan shouted from inside, “Ade!”

Adrian quickly jumped up from bed. He was worried that he may have fell
inside or something, and quickly rushed into the bathroom, asking
anxiously, “What’s wrong?”

“What happened to the shower gel in the bathroom?” Zhong Yan asked
from behind the shower curtain. “Why did you come in? Close the door, it’s
cold.”
Adrian breathed a sigh of relief and said over the shower curtain, “I thought
something happened to you. I used up all the shower gel this morning to
wash the rabbit. I’ll bring you a new bottle.”

“What? You used it all when washing the rabbit?”

“Yeah. The rabbit’s so big, of course I used the whole bottle.”

Zhong Yan was shocked. “You used the shower gel to wash the rabbit?
Shouldn’t you have used the shampoo instead?”

Adrian hesitated in confusion for a moment. Then, he said matter-of-factly,

“You use shower gel to wash your body, and shampoo to wash your head,
no?”

“That’s not how it works,” Zhong Yan was dumbfounded. “Shower gel is
used to wash skin, you use shampoo to wash hair.”

Only then did Adrian had the realization as if he was suddenly enlightened.
That really seemed to be the case.

Even though the two were separated by the shower curtain, they still
seemed to be able to see each other’s confused expressions.

Zhong Yan did not know whether to laugh or cry. “I was just thinking the
rabbit smelled really familiar today. The shower gel we have has a very
sweet smell.”

It felt a little strange to talk naked, so he quickly sent Adrian away to get
him a new bottle of shower gel. Adrian was also worried that Zhong Yan
would catch a cold if he kept the door open, so he quickly closed the door
and went off to get it.

Soon after, Adrian returned with a new bottle of shower gel. Zhong Yan
thanked him and reached a hand out to grab the bottle, but he could not
make it budge for a moment.

Adrian was a little dazed as he saw the hand that was half-exposed from
behind the shower curtains. Droplets of water could still be seen on Zhong
Yan’s hand, and the slender fingers were clasped around the center of the
bottle. Looking further up, he could see his fair wet hands disappear behind
the shower curtain, making him wonder about the other parts of his
unclothed body that must also be encased in the water and mist at this
moment. He himself had seen how fascinating that body was, especially
when its muscles contracted, or when it trembled…
“Ade?” Zhong Yan asked suspiciously, “What’s wrong?”

Adrian came back to his senses abruptly. He had already gotten a reaction
down there, so he let go awkwardly. “It’s nothing. Quickly finish up, don’t
catch a cold.”

When Zhong Yan came out of the bathroom, Adrian wasn’t there. Zhong
Yan put on his rabbit pajamas and walked out of the bedroom suspiciously,
and walked around the house. He could hear the sounds of the water
running in the second-floor bathroom. Clearly, Adrian was washing up
inside.

Usually, Adrian would wait for Zhong Yan to finish up in the master
bedroom’s bathroom before he would take his own shower. He went off to
another bathroom to shower without even waiting for him to finish. Why
was he in such a hurry today? Zhong Yan returned to the room, confused.
He didn’t take too long in there today either, right?

……

By the time Adrian returned to the room after his shower, Zhong Yan had
already cuddled up in bed. Adrian got on the bed and asked, “You said you
were going to talk to me after dinner earlier today, about the steak. What is
it?”

“Oh, that.” Zhong Yan said, “Don’t legal partners have the rights to see
each other’s recent large-scale income and expenditures? Just open up my
recent records and you’ll find out.”

The reason why Zhong Yan was able to show everyone Adrian’s bill for the
giant space rabbit was because of this function. Adrian looked at it for a
while and finally realized that Zhong Yan had bought the secret black
pepper sauce recipe from that shop at a relatively hefty price for non-
commercial use.

Adrian sighed. “That’s a lot of money you’re willing to spend for a recipe.
You were even crying to me about how poor you were when I asked you for
400,000.”
“I didn’t want to give it to you. You wouldn’t marry me if I did. Even
though I never expected I’d really be able to marry you as well back then…
But I hoped I could drag it on for as long as I could. What’s more, you said
you liked the taste…” Zhong Yan was a little embarrassed and his voice had
turned so quiet it was hardly audible. “Any amount would be worth it.”

Adrian was ecstatic. He leaned over and gave Zhong Yan’s cheek a peck
before carrying him into his arms. He played with the rabbit ears on his
pajamas while he asked, “What are you looking at?”

“Just looking at the news.” With flushed cheeks, Zhong Yan pulled his
rabbit ears back. “Don’t pull my ears. Right, why did you go upstairs to
shower earlier?”

“…Didn’t Wei Lan say that you need needed two more days before you
recover?” Adrian ended up saying something irrelevant, and after Zhong
Yan nodded, he continued, “I’ll tell you again in two days.”

Zhong Yan raised his head to look up at Adrian for a few seconds, but he
couldn’t figure out what he meant. But he was always the meek one when
he was alone with Adrian, so he did not delve too deeply into it. Instead, he
shared with Adrian the fresh news he had just seen. “I just saw in the
trending posts that there seems to be a new breed of giant space rabbit that
was successfully cultivated today. Many people were celebrating, but I
looked through the Giant Space Rabbit Research Institution’s official
website and it didn’t have any updates at all. Right, I also saw a post on the
topic from one of the senior sisters from our school. She also helped me out
back then. Should I message her to remind her that this is fake news?”
 Chapter 69 - Don't Let Go

“Someone who helped you? Which senior sister?” Adrian asked. Zhong
Yan showed him his virtual screen. Everything was fine before he saw it,
but seeing it now caused Adrian to nearly drop his cup onto the bed.

He saw a senior sister that was still relatively familiar to him posting on her
page. “Warmly celebrating the historic breakthrough of the silver-eyed giant
space rabbit breeding research.”

Adrian put his cup back to the table beside the bed and played it cool. “No
need to message her. Just let her believe it if she wants to. It’s better to
avoid any troubles we can. With our current conjecture, the less we say, the
less other people can find faults with us.”

“So you are still aware of that, huh?” Zhong Yan huffed. “The next time
you post something to a public platform, you have to discuss it with me
first!”

“Okay, okay, anything you say. I’ll make sure to let you check my work
next time.” Adrian saw that he had managed to dispel his idea of messaging
the girl, and breathed a sigh of relief. He picked up his cup again from the
table and took a sip of water. Zhong Yan was leaning on his body and
looked up by chance. Suddenly, he said, “Isn’t this my cup?”

“Is it?” Adrian raised the cup to look. The cups they bought were a couple
set. Zhong Yan’s cup had the left half of the heart, while Adrian’s had the
right half. Right now, the one Adrian was currently holding was the one
given to Zhong Yan when they bought them.

Adrian did not mind it too much. “It’s fine, neither of us has any contagious
diseases. What’s more, the cup was just washed.”
“But the significance of it is that it’s supposed to be exclusive for each
person in the relationship. You can’t mix them.”
This was the very first time Adrian, as a man without any experience in
love, had heard this saying. “Why? Who said so?”

“It’s like a sense of ritual. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be any different from

buying two identical cups. If they were both the same, how could it reflect
our relationship as a couple?” Zhong Yan insisted.

They had been sharing two identical cups back then when they were still
sharing a dorm, but now, their relationship had changed, and Zhong Yan
was very sensitive about it. If he could, he would definitely want to
emphasize the fact that they were a couple in every detail of their life. He
had switched out all the regular cutlery, cups, and bowls. He was even
planning to buy two pairs of couple chopsticks from a shop several star
systems away, but spending that much on delivery fees just for two pairs of
chopsticks did not feel worth it. Even though their current economic
situation was much better than the ordinary citizen, Adrian had just tossed
away half of their family assets after all, so they should not be too
luxurious. It’s better to save up wherever they can, so he ended up not
buying the chopsticks in the end.

Adrian knew that Zhong Yan had many OCD triggers in his daily life. Take
for example, the spaces that he had hung around in would always be
cleaned, and every item on every surface would be neatly arranged. Also,
he could never stop fussing over the cleaning robot’s ability to do its job.
He would always follow it around to check how it was doing. If the
engineer who designed the cleaning robot found out about this, they would
definitely die of anger. And also, he could never stand seeing people with
wrinkles on their clothes, or having anything stuck on them. He will always
go up to correct it as soon as he sees it. But of course, that was only limited
to his and Adrian’s clothes.

When he thought about all this, Zhong Yan’s fixation on not mixing their
couple items did not seem like such a big deal anymore. Adrian had always
been infinitely indulgent in these trivial matters when it came to Zhong Yan.
He gave him a nice smile. “Alright, I’ll go change my cup.”
“I’ll get it for you.” After saying that, Zhong Yan got up. “Just leave the cup
here for me. I’m thirsty as well.”

Adrian hooked one hand around him and locked him by his side, not
allowing him to get up. “I’ll go get it, you just lay down.”

Zhong Yan laughed. “I’m not used to you being so attentive.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Adrian said. He stood by the bed and leaned down to
plant a kiss on his forehead. “I’ll treat you just like this from now on until
forever.”

……

By the time Adrian returned with his cup in hand, Zhong Yan was sitting on
the bed talking with someone. His back was very straight, and that
motionless, imposing mask was back on his face. When he saw Adrian
enter, he could clearly be seen to have relaxed a little. His facial expression
had also grown softer even if his tone of speech was still as serious as ever.

“Yes. Push everything back, cancel all the plans.”

“Notify our spies by Pearson’s side. Tell them to find a way to speed it up,
preferably before the heat from Lebor’s news dies down.”

“Without exposing himself, I want it done as soon as possible.”

“No, don’t let Cayman come forward. He must not be involved in this
matter. Neither should I. Not only can we not promote it, we must also
oppose it in public. Otherwise, it will be difficult to convince the public in
the future. I can only tell my contacts to do it. Do you understand what I
mean, Intron?”

Adrian guessed that something must have happened in the capital. Perhaps
the meeting about Lebor finally came to fruition? He laid down beside
Zhong Yan. He listened in as Zhong Yan made his arrangements while his
hands began to play with the rabbit ears on his hood.
Zhong Yan, who was wearing the fluffy rabbit pajamas was listening
intently to the person on the other side of the call, pulled his ears back
absently.

“Has Sir Yate’s men contacted you? I thought he would be more patient.
But this is good. Just send all the information I prepared you for our
surrender to him.”

“Be careful. When the time is right, I will return to preside over the general
situation.”

Zhong Yan’s call ended. Only after hanging up did Zhong Yan realize that
his rabbit ears had been pulled away by another Sir Yate and played around
with. He pulled his ears back and said seriously to Adrian, “The Round
Table Meeting just ended. They’ve decided to admit their misjudgment.”

Only two results could have come out of that Round Table Meeting. To
admit or not to admit. If they admit that they had a misjudgment, then the
Capital’s credibility among its people would be shaken, and drop down to a
freezing point. But if they did not admit it, Lebor’s move in joining Navi
would be considered a rebellion. If the Capital did not forcefully take back
Lebor, then they would also be questioned by the entire Federation. These
were the results of their analysis in one of their meetings at Headquarters.
This time, the possibility of the Capital admitting it is higher. After all, for
the Capital that as full of fear for the Navi Military Command, not
admitting it would only make things more complicated. This result was
within Adrian’s expectations.

Adrian looked at Zhong Yan, who was sitting respectfully in bed, waiting
for his answer with a serious expression. He tried to endure it, but failed in
the end, and broke out in laughter.

Zhong Yan was stunned. “What are you laughing about? I’m being serious
here.”
He was fine before hearing him say that, but now Adrian was laughing even
harder. He said, “I can’t do this, talking seriously with me in kid’s
pajamas…Hahahahaha! It’s too funny! Have you ever seen that picture on
the net, the one with a really serious looking rabbit just laying there?
Hahahahaha!”

“Is it really that funny?” Zhong Yan asked blankly while Adrian nodded at
the side. “Fine, I’ll tell you something you won’t be able to laugh about.
The terms brought up by the radicals to compromise with this situation is
the implementation of the “Honor Decree” ahead of schedule.”

Adrian’s smile went stiff on his face. As he said, he really couldn’t laugh
about this.

“Then, earlier, you were talking to Intron about…”

“I’ve decided to suspend the publication of Pearson being the one behind
the Lebor attack.” Zhong Yan said, “This is already the extent of which Qu
Yongyi is able to cooperate with us. There’s no way we can expect him to
appear in court as a witness or whatever. We did not have perfect assurance
for this plan to begin with. There are too many openings on our side for
criticism. We have no witness, and even the supplier of the physical
evidence is unwilling to show themselves to verify the authenticity. It may
not be possible to pull him off his seat as Representative Councilor. But
if….if his name has already been dragged in the mud by the media, and the
people of the federation feel betrayed by him, then we may not need to have
substantial information to expose him when the time comes. As long as the
evidence is justifiable, just the public opinion alone will be able to drown
him to death with a little oil added to the fire.”

The media and the public. To incur the hate of hundreds of millions of
citizens is a weapon stronger than any blade or gun, and Zhong Yan had
always been good at guessing the hearts of people. Once he reaches a high
enough position, and builds himself a big enough team, he will be able to
manipulate the public’s opinion to his will.

As a leader, braving the rapids is truly a dangerous and terrifying thing.

Motionless, Adrian looked at Zhong Yan for a while, and decided to discuss
on work first. “Is the ‘Honor Decree’ his betrayal to the people?”

“Correct.”
“Is that why you told Intron to tell your men to accelerate the
implementation of the ‘Honor Decree’?”

“That’s right. It’s best if we can link these two matters together. The ‘Honor
Decree’ was drafted under direct orders of Pearson. It is a radical and stiff
act that will inevitably cause a rebound in accordance with the current
social trend as soon as it’s announced. There isn’t much to do. We just have
to capture a few prime examples…” Before Zhong Yan could finish
speaking, he caught sight of Adrian’s less than pleasant expression and
could not help but stop. His originally calm tone had now become a little
anxious. “What’s wrong? Do you think it’s inappropriate?”

No, nothing’s wrong with it. From a general perspective, this is the most
effective way of getting rid of Pearson. For the sake of achieving their
goals, they had to speed up the issuance of some ridiculous law, and waiting
for a victim to appear to stir the flames and turn the situation around. Then,
to beat him while he was still down. Of course Adrian understood all of
this. Nothing was wrong with this. If he were to stop Zhong Yan on his
moral high ground, then he would truly be too soft-hearted. Sometimes, he
would also make some compromises in the name of justice, but he knew
full well that Zhong Yan was not doing this for the same reasons. What’s
more, this was Zhong Yan’s regular routine. There was no compromise.

Since Adrian was not speaking, Zhong Yan began to feel more and more
uneasy. He himself did not have limits to his morality, but that did not mean
that he did not know where the limits of other people lie. With some
hesitation, he said, “Ade…You wanted to stop the ‘Honor Decree’, right?
This law expands the power of AI infinitely. I know you are against it, but
you can’t build the new without destroying the old. This is our opportunity
to break through the deadlock. Otherwise, Navi will likely be stuck in this
situation with the Capital for decades to come. When the next generation
comes…there may not necessarily be a good enough leader who can stand
shoulder to shoulder with you…”
“I know,” Adrian interrupted Zhong Yan. “I don’t mean to stop your plans.
Your judgment is decisive and efficient. It’s just…”

He brought Zhong Yan into his own arms and pressed his head tightly to his
chest with one hand. “I just…have to keep a tighter watch on you in the
future. You’re too dangerous.”

“Don’t worry.” Zhong Yan raised his head and spoke seriously, “I will
report to you every step of the way. You have to watch me, and supervise
me well. Make sure to keep your hold on my ropes, and don’t ever let go.”

Adrian’s eyes darkened. He responded firmly, “I’ll never let go.”

With his desires to conquer as a man ignited, the hand that had been clasped
around the back of Zhong Yan’s head grabbed onto his hair and forced his
head up to receive his kiss. The body of the dangerous man went soft, and
like a tamed creature, circled his arms around Adrian’s neck, allowing him
to seize his lips, completely invading every inch of his soft mouth.

He retracted his fangs and turned back into the meek and harmless little
creature that only appeared in front of Adrian.
 Chapter 70 - Unidentified White
Spherical Object

Compared to the liveliness throughout the Federation and the virtual

community after the Capital acknowledged their misjudgment, Adrian was
relatively relaxed, and he could spend most of his time at home every day.

And so, Zhong Yan’s blessed and happy life finally came to an end.

This morning, Adrian had taken Zhong Yan to the backyard for some
reason. Zhong Yan asked what he was going to do, and he responded with,
“You’ll know when we get there.”

Adrian was definitely a romantic. For example, Zhong Yan liked to eat
cake, so he bought an oven and learned to make them by himself. Zhong
Yan had been eating small, slightly burnt cakes, or cakes where the sugar
was forgotten for several days in a row. But despite that, he would still give
high praises to Adrian, telling him that the cakes he made tasted much
better than the ones they bought from stores.

Taking him to the backyard now, he figured perhaps that Adrian might have
added a new feature to the rabbit nest, or maybe he bought a giant
decorative bow or whatnot for the rabbit. Zhong Yan was holding Adrian’s
hand, fantasizing about the lop-eared rabbit with a bow on.

They arrived at the nest, and the snow-white rabbit was basking under the
sun as usual.

The nest was still just a nest, and the rabbit was still just a rabbit.
“What are you going to show me?” Zhong Yan wondered. He crouched
down to bring the small rabbit out from its nest. But before he could set it
down on his palm, it was snatched away by Adrian.

“Play with the rabbit later. From today on, we’re going to start our running
exercise program.” As if Adrian had just thrown a bomb, Zhong Yan was
dazed for a moment. Then, he turned and tried to run away.

Adrian grabbed his arm nimbly and stepped forward to lock him into his
embrace.

“What are you running for? Do you think you can escape?” Adrian very
easily suppressed him in his arms practically without any struggle while he
was holding the small rabbit in his other hand. He laughed. “Well, it’s not
impossible. Then, we won’t have to use the route I thought of for you. You
can just run from here back to the house. I will go and catch you. Then, I’ll
bring you back, and you can start over. Do that maybe ten times and I’ll
consider your daily exercise done. What do you say?”

Zhong Yan knew that he would not take no for an answer, so he asked
reluctantly, “Then…what’s the original route?”

“It’s not too long.” Adrian said, “Look at the ground.”

Only then did Zhong Yan notice the small track shaped oval drawn on the
lush green grass with white paint around the rabbit’s nest, and the nest was
exactly in the middle.

“In the beginning, you’ll run five laps per day,” Adrian announced.

“Five laps?” Zhong Yan complained, shocked. “You just said it wasn’t
much!”

“This track is only a hundred meters in length. Five laps all together is only
500 meters.”

“But that’s still…I just had surgery!”

“You’ve already recovered. Also, your doctor was the one who built the
exercise plan.”

Zhong Yan tugged at Adrian’s sleeves and raised his head pitifully at him.
“Five laps is too much, I can’t do it.”

“Acting cute with me won’t work.” Adrian put on a straight face.

Zhong Yan thought about it for a while, then he tilted his head and asked,
“Then, will a kiss work?”

Adrian was shot directly in the heart. He tried his best to stop his lips from
curving up and deliberately teased, “In that case, I’ll think about it after you
kiss me.”

Zhong Yan grabbed his lapel. He stood on his tiptoes to give a light peck on
one corner of Adrian’s lips. Unable to wait a moment longer, he asked,
“Can I run two laps less?”

“Hm…” Adrian pretended to think about it for two seconds before hitting
the nail firmly on the head. “Nope.”

Only then did Zhong Yan realize he had been fooled. He was so angry that
he stomped on the ground. “You tricked me!”

“No I didn’t. I said I’d think about it, and now I did think about it. The
answer is no.” Adrian lifted Zhong Yan’s chin with one hand and lowered
his head to give him a firm kiss on the lips. “There, I’ve returned your
deposit. That’s not a loss for you, right?”

Adrian was adamant, and he even began playing petty tricks on him when
he tried to shake him. Zhong Yan was completely out of moves, so the only
thing he could do was to begin running with Adrian accompanying him,
aggrieved.
When Zhong Yan had finished following Adrian at a snail’s pace around the
track for the second lap, they attracted the attention of the giant space rabbit
that was sunbathing. It hopped over to observe them. Its huge body laid
right on top of the track. Gasping, Zhong Yan asked, “If I walk around the
rabbit, that’s going to be a distance of at least half the circle, right?”

Adrian was much quicker than Zhong Yan. When he fell too far behind, he
would even run back to him. Even so, his breathing was still unfettered as
he spoke, almost as if he was just walking normally. “What do you mean
half a circle? It’s not even that many steps!”

Clasping his hand around the shirt at his chest, Zhong Yan had to pause
after every word, but he still spoke on resolutely, “One time, won’t be
many, but, I have to, go past, the rabbit, every time.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be sitting here in the next lap,” Adrian gave him a
guarantee. He let Zhong Yan go first while he stroked the furry nose of the
giant space rabbit. The rabbit thought he wanted to play with him, and
happily, it followed him a few steps away, leaving the track.

When Adrian ran back over and caught up with Zhong Yan, Zhong Yan was
looking at his clothes, triggered. While gasping, he said with difficulty,
“Your clothes…It’s covered in, rabbit, rabbit fur…”

“Rabbit rabbit fur? Rabbit fur is just rabbit fur!” Adrian teased his speech
on purpose. He admired the sight of Zhong Yan glaring at him in a huff but
being unable to speak. “Alright, didn’t we just buy a lint roller? We can deal
with it after we’re done running. The rabbit isn’t on the track anymore. I
lured it away.”

As he said this, the two of them had just reached the other side of the
rabbit’s nest, so they couldn’t see the giant space rabbit on the other side.
By the time they passed the nest and came back around, all they saw was
the empty grass.
Zhong Yan who was short of breath from running had his entire mind and
body focused on the track. He did not pay any attention to his surroundings,
but Adrian realized that something was off. “Hold on, where’s the rabbit?”

“Didn’t you…” Zhong Yan stopped and supported himself on his knees for
a little while, panting, “bring it back to the nest?”
“I’m not talking about the small one. I think the big one’s missing!” Adrian
was shocked. There was no other cover in the backyard except for the rabbit
nest so they should be able to see something as big as that rabbit in one
glance, but the grass was empty. “It was just here earlier.”

Zhong Yan was also stunned. But he finally remembered the key prop.
“Where’s the rope?”

In order to prevent the rabbit from running all over the place, they tied a
300-meter extra-long traction rope specially made for giant space rabbit
pets around one of its legs, and secured the other end to the door of the
giant space rabbit’s nest. The two hurried over to the nest’s entrance. The
rope was still there, but the rabbit that should have been hanging down was
shooting straight towards the sky.

Both Adrian and Zhong Yan’s eyes followed up along the rope, only to see
a big white ball of fluff floating in the air at the end of the rope, 300 meters
in the sky.

…That’s right, this is a giant space rabbit. They don’t necessarily live on
land!

The reason why they are called giant space rabbits is because they are
amphibians who can live both in outer space and on land. Besides their
huge size, the one thing that fascinates scientists the most is the creature’s
ability to overcome gravity autonomously.

As for the one they had, it had always been really lazy since they began
raising it. It usually liked to just lay around, and they had never seen it
floating before. As a result, this family of two humans had completely
forgotten this special characteristic of the giant space rabbits.

Adrian and Zhong Yan both looked up at it for a while as they stood there.
Zhong Yan opened his terminal and took a few pictures.

“Looking at it from afar, doesn’t it seem a little…round?” While checking

the photos he took, Zhong Yan said, “The giant space rabbits we saw on
that touristic planet we visited last time were floating even higher up, but
you can still tell it’s a rabbit.”

“It’s a lop-eared rabbit and a short-legged one. Other rabbits can raise their
ears, so of course they look like rabbits. What’s more, what kind of
misunderstandings do you have with our rabbit? It’s just fat.”

“It must be eating too much,” Zhong Yan decided. “I told you not to feed it
every other day. Feeding it once a week is more like it. Sigh, we’ve been
too busy recently, but we should actually bring the rabbit to space every
once in a while for walks.”

Adrian smacked a fist to his palm. “We’ll do it tonight.”

“There’s still two and a half laps left. Let’s finish our run first.”

“Huh? What’s gotten you so active all of a sudden?” Adrian was slightly
surprised. “You looked like you’d rather die earlier.”

“And I still do,” Zhong Yan said, “but I know how bad my constitution is…
I asked the doctor the other day, and he said that my lifespan will be
affected if I don’t improve it now.”

When he heard this, Adrian was furious. “What is he jabbering about? What
do you mean affect your lifespan? Are these the sort of words a doctor
should be telling his patient?”

Wei Lan’s medical skills were great, the only annoying part about him is his
tendency to speak the truth regardless of the occasion. While complaining
about him, Adrian suddenly recalled how just a few days ago, Fayn had
been walking like he was on cloud nine. It’s like he couldn’t wait to tell
everyone at Headquarters that Wei Lan agreed to try things out with him.
He didn’t even understand what’s so great about going out with Wei Lan.

Zhong Yan quickly tugged his clothes. “Why are you blaming the doctor? I
was the one who asked him what it would affect. It’s not like he could just
lie. Actually, I didn’t care much about this in the past. In my opinion, I’d be
better off living a glorious life for 50 years than to live 100 dull ones. It’s
fine if my body is bad. As long as I could still work, there was nothing
scary about having a short life. But now, it’s different. I’m married to you,
and I’m afraid now. I want to live longer.”

“Of course you’ll live long,” Adrian said firmly. “We will exercise every
day from now on, and you’ll eat all your meals according to your nutritional
needs. I don’t believe that it won’t happen.”

Zhong Yan came over to hug him, and buried his face in his chest, giving
him a muffled promise.

But before they could be lovey-dovey for long, Adrian’s ringtone sounded.

The situation in Lebor has stabilized so Adrian did not go to Headquarters

today. He thought that something happened in Lebor that required his input.
But when he looked at the name, it was actually the Headquarters’
Reception Desk.

This was an external department. After all, the family members of many
soldiers in the Navi Military Command are still living here, and there was
no council house in this star system. If they needed a response, these non-
military citizens will need to call this department. Adrian had completely
forgotten he still had this department’s account added. He picked up the call
doubtfully and asked what they needed.

“Commander, two families have just called to report that a large

unidentified white spherical object is in the sky near them. We have
analyzed the position from the videos sent to us by the two residents and it
seems to be over your personal residence. Are you safe right now? Do you
know what the strange white object is?”
 Chapter 71 - A Drink

“What do you mean spherical? Are you all blind? Don’t you see that big tail
at the back?” Adrian said in a huff. “Reply back to them, that’s my giant
space rabbit. They’re likely going to see it often in the future, so don’t kick
up a fuss over nothing!”

Adrian hung up the call and turned to Zhong Yan. “Sure enough, we can’t
just leave the rabbit in the nest all day. It’s time to bring it out for some
exercise.”

You could say he had only agreed with Zhong Yan about taking it for a
walk just to make him happy, but now he realized how grave the situation
was. Usually, they had to look at the rabbit from the side every time they
examined it. Since it was too big, it was hard to see anything wrong with it,
but the rabbit was so fat it had actually lost its shape when seen from afar.
Adrian really had to admit that he really fed it too much.

After finishing his dinner today, he tied the end of the rope that was fixed to
the nest to his personal spacecraft and flew the rabbit into space.

Adrian parked the ship in a remote star system that was relatively far away
from the travel route s. The two of them stood by the portholes, looking at
the rabbit that was floating not far away from them. In the dense, dark
universe, the white of the giant space rabbit was particularly prominent.
Who knows if black giant space rabbits would become invisible in space?

“Is it just me or does it not look very happy?” Adrian looked at it for a
while and concluded.

Zhong Yan said, “Giant space rabbits aren’t canines. They won’t appear
very joyful when they’re taken out for walks. But you still have to do it to
keep it in good health.”

So far, no results for the cause of the mutation has been found, so how did
they find out that this is good for their health? Adrian didn’t really believe
it, but he was wise and did not ask Zhong Yan about that, lest he be forced
to listen to rabbit science for another half hour.

Currently, they were not far from the ground so they still had a bit of signal.
Zhong Yan looked through the porthole for a while, then he returned to his
seat to look at his terminal.

With the Capital staying silent recently, Zhong Yan seemed to be getting a
little impatient. Adrian walked over to his side and massaged the back of
his neck, asking, “What’s happened that made it so you don’t even want to
look at the rabbit anymore?”

Zhong Yan shook his head. “It’s nothing, I’m just checking if there’s news.”

Frequent contact will increase the risk of exposure, so he could only look at
other news and handle other business affairs to relieve the anxiety in his
heart.

“Relax, it’s no use getting too strung up about it.” Adrian sat on the chair
across from him. “I think I have a few bottles of wine I left here in the ship
from last time. Want a drink?”

Zhong Yan asked, “How are we going to go back if we drink alcohol?”

“The return is generally auto-pilot anyway. We don’t have to drive.”

“I don’t feel like drinking.”

“Come on, just a little toast to relax.”

Accepting no refusals, Adrian brought two wine glasses over as well as a

bottle of wine. Zhong Yan could only close his terminal and say helplessly,
“I’m not strung up, I’m just…”
“Anxious,” Adrian said. “I know. You’re just like how you were in the past,
desperately going through your books before an exam. But did it really have
to bother you so much? You never failed a single subject! I’ve actually
wanted to tell you to try having some wine when you’re anxious since a
long time ago, but we weren’t allowed to drink in the dorms. Now that
we’ve graduated, nobody can say anything.”

Zhong Yan picked up the bottle and looked at the label. “What kind of
alcohol is this?”

Adrian filled both the glasses one-third of the way up. “Navi’s specialty,
Never Wine. It’s a must-have at parties. It’s not a spirit. Give it a try. We’re
not really supposed to drink them in goblets, but these are all we have on
the ship. It’s just the two of us here anyway. It doesn’t matter.”

He passed a glass to Zhong Yan and both of them clinked their glasses
together. Then, each of them took a sip.

The beverage was warm as it entered their mouths, and it had a sweet
aftertaste. It really wasn’t a spirit. Holding the glass, Zhong Yan thought for
a while and asked, “Aren’t you nervous?”

Adrian knew what he was trying to ask. The “Honor Decree” was their call
to strike. They have already been preparing to use this as an opportunity to
launch an attack on the AI that had been raised as a supreme system for
nearly a century. If they win this battle, their names would be recorded as
heroes for the rest of life; if they lose, there was only eternal doom.

With a storm soon to come, even if they had already prepared countless
plans, and were ready to set off, Zhong Yan was still inevitably nervous
before having to set off the stormy wave that will sweep across the entire
Federation and change the course of human history forever.

“I’m not nervous,” Adrian said. “What’s there to be nervous about? We’ve
already gone through so many meetings. The countless people supporting
us from behind have worked so hard for this. We’re fully prepared.
Everything is ready. We don’t need destiny on our side. We have enough to
turn it around.”
His words came out completely natural and unrestrained. Zhong Yan felt
infected by him, and he agreed, “You’re right. We do have enough to turn
destiny around. Cheers.”

The two clinked their glasses and finished their wine in one go.

Zhong Yan had been too busy this whole time. If he wasn’t busy with his
official duties at the Capital, then he’s busy with household chores. He
hadn’t really taken the time to learn about Navi’s local culture. If he talked
more with the locals, he would know that though Never Wine was not a
spirit, it was much stronger in comparison. Space pirates loved this kind of
wine for how strong it was. It gave them the best excuse to indulge
themselves with both the male and female entertainers at the feast after their
drink.

Adrian had a very good tolerance for alcohol. Though on one hand, he had
given Zhong Yan Never Wine to help with his anxiety, he had some other
ideas as well.

As a newly-married couple at the prime of their lives, they actually didn’t

have much of a sex life. Both of them had their own ideals during their one
fling before marriage, and they still restrained themselves in the end. Also,
it was also their first time so it had been a bumpy ride. After their marriage,
their minds were finally one, but the main issue was that they were too
busy. Until today, they had at most helped each other out with just their
hands a few times. Now, things have finally settled down, and they had
some leisure time to spare…

Adrian refilled their cups and stopped caring about wine glass etiquette,
filling it up to the top.

“Are you going to leave after the ‘Honor Decree’ is announced?”

“Not immediately,” Zhong Yan said as he raised his glass. “But soon. As
soon as this decree is promulgated, everything will begin to go down in a
few day’s time.”
Adrian nodded. “Of course, you have to be in the Capital during the critical
moment. I suspect I will not be in Navi at that time either.”

“It would be best if we don’t have to go that far,” Zhong Yan said.

Adrian’s absence in Navi meant that both sides will already have gone
hostile with each other, and that an armed conflict would have broken out.
Adrian would be leading his team on a military expedition, but that was
what Zhong Yan had been trying his best to avoid.

“If only that were possible…” Adrian said indifferently. “Things can
change at any time. It’s no use thinking about it now. Let’s drink up.”

Zhong Yan threw his head back and gulped down half of his wine. Adrian
was feeling secretly happy in his heart, but he had also downed half of his
glass so as not to expose himself too early. Then, he refilled both their
glasses again.

They chatted as they drank. After an hour, they had already finished half of
the relatively large bottle. Only then did Adrian finally realize that
something was wrong.

The alcohol was gradually taking effect. Even Adrian who had a good
tolerance for alcohol was beginning to feel hot, while Zhong Yan who was
sitting opposite him had flushed cheeks. But even so, he was still speaking
articulately and logically about his life when he had just arrived at the
Capital.

Adrian could not believe it. He poured them another round, and half an hour
later, Zhong Yan began to feel suspicious. “Did you drink too much?”

Both his cheeks were red, but his eyes were bright and sober. On the other
hand, Adrian who was trying to get him drunk was already going down. He
suspected that the first to fall from all this alcohol would be he himself. So,
he could only give in. “No, I didn’t. I just…want to relax a little. Let’s stop
here. Xiao Yan, you…take your alcohol really well, huh?”
“Well, I was trained from all the banquets.” Zhong Yan said, “I don’t think
you can take any more. Should I bring you to the bed at the back so you can
rest for a while?”

“Who can’t take any more?” Adrian struggled to maintain his dignity. “A
glass to good health! It’s not that I can’t take it. We said we were only going
to have a toast!”

“Alright alright, we had our toast, let’s stop,” Zhong Yan giggled.

Relying on the auto-pilot system, the two of them brought the giant space
rabbit back to land with their ship. Adrian handles himself well when he’s
drunk, so he caused no problems even when intoxicated. He just got sleepy.
The two of them returned home and fell asleep after a brisk shower. Both of
them fell asleep just seconds after their heads fell to their pillows, and
Adrian even thought that this was quite a shame…

But he thought that too early.

Two hours later, Adrian was woken up by Zhong Yan.

Though he got drunk fast, he sobered up fast too. By the time he woke up,
his head had already stopped buzzing. When he lifted his wrist to look at
the time, it was already past midnight. Zhong Yan was looking at him with
bright eyes, seemingly quite awake. “I can’t sleep. Let’s sing.”

Adrian couldn’t help but wonder whether he was dreaming.

“What should we sing? Do you know how to sing ‘Be Good Little
Rabbit’?” Zhong Yan asked for his opinion.

Adrian sat up confused. Zhong Yan looked normal on the surface, even the
flush on his face was mostly gone. Adrian tried to ask, “Why do you want
to sing?”

“Because…” Zhong Yan looked down, appearing rather embarrassed, “I

like you.”
Flowers bloomed in Adrian’s heart. Even though he didn’t understand what
was going on, he still answered, “I like you too.”

Zhong Yan looked at him for a while, and the smile on his face gradually
disappeared. He suddenly gave him a slap on the chest. “Then tell me so
earlier!”

“…Your drunkenness came it a bit late, didn’t it?” Adrian was caught off
guard. Only now did he realize that he was drunk. Not knowing whether he
should laugh or cry, he brought him into his arms. “Okay, okay. Go to sleep.
You’ll be fine when you wake up.”

“No. Why didn’t you tell me that you liked me earlier? I thought you didn’t
like me. I even had to force you when we slept together that day.”

Adrian was shocked. “What do you mean forced? No…forget it. What am I
talking about to a drunk person? Go to sleep. What time do you think it is?”

Zhong Yan climbed on top of Adrian and would not let him off. “You can’t
sleep, we need to talk.”

Honestly, Adrian had already given up on his earlier plans, but Zhong Yan
was sitting right on top of the key part. Moreover, he was moving around
restlessly. Adrian couldn’t stand it anymore. He turned over and pressed
him down on bed. “Forget talking, let’s get physical.”
……

A fickle night passed like a spring breeze.

The hour before dawn was when the night was darkest. It was raining hard
outside the window in a billowing storm. Zhong Yan shrunk into Adrian’s
warm naked embrace and they cuddled each other to sleep on this island of
tenderness.
 Chapter 72 - The Storm Has
Arrived

It will be a sunny morning a month later when the call to strike finally
sounds.

Thanks to their exploration and practice the night before, Zhong Yan was
still sleeping. Adrian was the first to get up and he went into the kitchen to
prepare breakfast for Zhong Yan. When his terminal rang, he was frying
eggs—a new skill Adrian had just learned. He put the cooked eggs on a
plate and opened his terminal to check the news. The first thing he saw
were the words “Honor Decree” in bright red.

Adrian immediately rushed into the room to wake Zhong Yan.

Unexpectedly, when he opened the door he saw that he had already gotten
up to look at the news.

Winter had yet to pass completely, but the house was kept at a constant
temperature. All four seasons felt as warm as spring. The potted plants
planted by Zhong Yan a few days ago had already bloomed. When Adrian
pushed open the door, it brought in a gust of wind that caused the delicate
flowers on the windowsill to sway.

Zhong Yan raised his head and looked at the door. He had just woken up
and his cheeks were a soft pink that looked even more delicate than the
flowers, but his expression was calm and steady. The eyes of the two met.
Without any need for words, both knew the other had seen the message.

“Are you going to Headquarters now?” Zhong Yan asked.

“Yes. I’ll be going out immediately. Breakfast is ready. Shall I bring it in?”
“I’ll get up and eat. I’ll see you off too while I’m at it. It’s getting windy
outside. I brought out one of your thicker coats and washed it yesterday. It’s
in the sunroom.”

Adrian said, “You shouldn’t get up. I’ll just bring your food in. Then you
can sleep a while longer. I can get the coat myself.”

“How can I sleep? There’s countless meetings waiting for me today.” Then,
Zhong Yan put on a jacket and got off the bed. Besides, he was very
doubtful about whether Adrian would get the right coat.

One morning several days ago, Zhong Yan saw on the weather forecast that
it was going to rain and get colder soon. He was worried that Adrian would
get cold outside so he wanted to get him something thicker. Zhong Yan was
usually the one who prepared his clothes, but there was one day where he
had an emergency contact from the Capital so he didn’t have time to do it.
He told him to get the dark green velvet coat by himself. It was only after
Adrian headed out did Zhong Yan realize that the coat he asked him to get
was still inside the closet, and another thin, dark green coat for spring and
autumn was gone. After that, Adrian still told him in confusion that it
wasn’t cold. Zhong Yan finally realized how difficult it was to instruct him
to find a specific piece of clothing. Since his body was in good condition,
Adrian’s need for specific types of clothes was rare regardless of whether it
was hot or cold. Before Zhong Yan came, he basically only wore two
different sets of winter and summer clothes all year round. And now, having
all sorts of different winter clothes added to his wardrobe, it was no wonder
why he couldn’t figure it out.

Zhong Yan helped Adrian put on his coat and fixed up his collar. Then,
Adrian planted a kiss on his forehead and hurried out.

“A TL;DR summary of what the fresh new ‘Honor Decree’ that’s dropping
next month is: Starting from next month, rejecting ‘Butterfly’s proposals
can no longer be done by throwing out a little money. The fines for trivial
matters is high enough to bankrupt you, and big ones would land you
directly in prison. So for example, if ‘Butterfly’ tells you to make a baby
and you don’t feel like it, prison. If ‘Butterfly’ judges you suitable to be a
cleaner after you finish your basic education but you still want to continue
your studies, prison. If ‘Butterfly’ wants you to retire but you feel like you
can still go on, everything you amassed in all your decades of hard work is
confiscated. The Supreme Council says that this is because of the turmoil in
society that has been happening these past two years. In order to strengthen
their control, these are the measures taken to turn everyone’s obedience into
honor.”
“I’m scared. Will there be orders telling people to die in the future? If you
become useless to society, just obey the arrangements and die. Also, you
have to feel honored even if you’re asked to go die. This is your
contribution to society.”

“Because of the turmoil in society? So what, are they blaming it on Navi

now? It’s clearly the councilors in the Supreme Council causing trouble
behind the scenes. How shameless.”

“The hell is this? I had this shocking news thrown at me just before I was
about to go to sleep. Is our sole purpose of living to maintain the stability of
the Federation and to run an efficient society? What about our thoughts as
sentient beings? Our freedom?”

“I think they’ve got everything the wrong way. They’ve been doing things
in the wrong order since ‘Cocoon’ evolved into ‘Butterfly’. And now
everything’s a terrible mess.”

“It was just barely acceptable before, but is the current ‘Butterfly’ actually
suitable? Hasn’t this AI been making a lot of mistakes these past two years?
Just change the AI.”

“Why do we have to have AI? The original ‘Cocoon’ was only created to
process data and save labor costs. Now, everything we do is thrown to it to
manage. We have to obey it no matter what whether it’s right or wrong.
That’s already unbalanced. For those of you who thought this had nothing
to do with you, do you still think the same after seeing this ‘Honor Decree’?
Restore human autonomy. Every human being who wants their freedom and
dignity has the obligation to support it.”

“You think you bunch of kids have any right to yell about freedom and
dignity? How could we have our stable society of today without
‘Butterfly’? You’re all a group of ungrateful fiends who don’t know how
blessed you are!”

“Okay, then you can kneel down and let them command you like the puppet
you are to your honorable life. I’m sorry, but I don’t think this is honorable.
It’s shameful.”
“Packing up my luggage and fleeing to Lebor, bye everyone.”

“Commenter above is too naive. As long as your identity is still listed as

part of one of the 51 star systems, you’re still within ‘Butterfly’s’ scope of
management. Otherwise, why do you think Yate still hasn’t escaped
marriage even after staying there for seven years?”

“He’s under ‘Butterfly’s’ management system but they can’t catch him,
right? Does the Capital dare to send their troops to Navi and Lebor to
capture people?”

“Then wouldn’t you become unregistered or a fugitive?”

“Hey, can’t you guys see what’s going on? The world has already been
thrown into chaos. Who cares if you’re unregistered, focus on escaping for
now. It’ll be too late when that stupid moth asks you to marry and have kids
with some disgusting guy. It’s either that or prison!”

“Commander Yate, please knock down the Capital!”

Zhong Yan closed the most popular post in the entire virtual community and
said, “Send out the long-term analysis in about an hour.”

“Got it. They’ll realize we’ve written this early on if we post it right now.
Don’t worry, I’m still experienced in this.” After being processed through a
software, a voice of unknown gender was coming out from Zhong Yan’s
terminal. “Articles targeting each age frame has already been prepared.
We’re just waiting to post them. Guaranteed well-written posts and bad
reviews are ready to bomb all major communities and forums.”

“Alright, we’ll keep in touch. I have some business to handle.” Zhong Yan
hung up the completely untraceable call and picked up Intron’s call.
“Sir Zhong, the lecturer just contacted me urgently…” Intron spoke very
quickly, but Zhong Yan interrupted him, asking, “Which lecturer?”

“Our lecturer—Sorry, our third-year lecturer in the Supreme Institution.”

Both Zhong Yan and Intron studied under the same lecturer so they were
fellow coursemates. This lecturer was also one of the main members of
‘Specimen’ from the Supreme Institution.

“Did he contact you to tell you that the students of the Supreme Institution
are preparing to organize a protest?” Zhong Yan guessed.

“I—How did you know?” Intron was so shocked that he forgot his manners.
“Right, that’s what he told me.”

In recent years, the rejection rate of the Supreme Institution has approached
the halfway mark. Most of the remaining half did not refused because
‘Butterfly’s’ proposals managed to meet their expectations. It did not mean
that they support the AI. For such a law to be announced right now, the ones
most affected are the students who were just about to graduate and enter
society. There was no need for Intron to tell Zhong Yan this. Earlier, he had
already received fragments of information from other sources, and all the
major universities had responded to varying degrees.

Zhong Yan calmly ordered, “Contact our lecturer now and tell him to go to
the Specimen Store in the Supreme Institution. Ask him to get an order
from the clerk. The clerk will ask what the order number is, tell him to
answer the insect specimen order that was ordered two months ago. Then,
he will receive a plan. Just leave the rest to our Supreme Institution’s
department.”

Intron couldn’t help but ask, “What plans?”

“To join in with the major universities to protest the ‘Honor Decree’.”

The “Honor Decree” has yet to be officially implemented, but what the
Navi Military Command can do is limited. Adrian holding a meeting at
Headquarters and asked the PR department to post the announcement they
prepared to the official homepage of the Navi Military Command.

The announcement states that both the Navi System and the Lebor System
are welcoming their compatriots who accept human autonomy to settle in
and are also willing to help more star systems return to human autonomy.

This was a rare public provocation written in plain text. Not long after this
announcement was posted, a strictly worded statement was also posted on
Zhong Yan’s homepage, stating that Mr. Zhong has been recuperating in the
Navi System this whole time, so he knows nothing about the “Honor
Decree”. The issuance of this decree should have passed through a round
table vote, but Mr. Zhong himself strongly condemns such unconstitutional
laws and will return to the Capital to handle the matter.

The law was issued in “Butterfly’s” name, and a Representative Councilor

actually condemned the AI’s actions. This was an occurrence that has never
been seen in the century since the Round Table and its twelve members
were established. Not only that, there was also Vahl Cayman of the Twelve
who also issued a similar statement after Zhong Yan. For a moment, many
debates broke out within the Federation. This was the very first time the
Supreme Council was laid so bare in the public’s eyes.

When Adrian returned home, Zhong Yan wasn’t in the house. He took off
his jacket and went to the backyard to look for him. He found Zhong Yan
plucking the rabbit’s fur.

The kit has been shedding these past few days, and a lot of its fur had been
falling off. Zhong Yan could gather a full basket of its fur after his runs
every day. He said he wanted to collect them so he could make two scarves
out of them for Adrian and himself.

“What are you doing?” Adrian asked.

“Hm? You’re back early,” Zhong Yan said, “I’ll be heading off in a few
days. I just contacted a scarf making shop and they said the fur I collected
wasn’t enough. I was just about to send these out today. We almost have
enough.”
“Let me help you,” Adrian said. Then, before Zhong Yan could refuse his
offer, he began casually tugging off a few strands of the rabbit’s fur and
putting it in Zhong Yan’s basket.

“Hey, don’t just pull out its fur!” Zhong Yan called out.

Confused, Adrian asked while holding the fur, “But aren’t you doing the
same?”

“What do you mean?” Zhong Yan grumbled. “I’m just gathering the shed
fur that’s still caught on its body!”

Whether it was cooking or cleaning, Adrian who would always be shooed

away whenever he tried to help could only glare at the rabbit. Zhong Yan
was going to leave soon. When he does, he’s going to pluck this rabbit bald
and turn it into a fur blanket.
 Chapter 73 - Hot-Blooded
Universities

There was only half a month to go before the official implementation of the
“Honor Decree”, and Zhong Yan has decided to return to the Capital before
then. In the days he spent packing his luggage, both real-life society and the
virtual community was in a mess. Every entrance of Lebor’s borders had
long lines of private spacecrafts waiting to enter. The Navi Military
Command had to double the troops in Lebor to prevent any problems from
rising up in this mess.

Naturally, when the voices of opposition emerges in the implementation of

new laws, there are going to be supporters as well. Only this time, the only
people who can truly support the new law were all people who either held
rights or those who could find benefit in the decree. Otherwise, they would
be the extremely conservative who have their mind set on the AI.
Unfortunately, the number of these groups were not large. Zhong Yan found
that he barely needed to put any effort to control the public’s opinion.

From the second day on, protests began to start in various places. On the
third day, the Supreme Institution finally spoke up. They announced on
their homepage that the Federation’s Supreme Institution will never allow
their graduates only two choices of only accepting their proposals, or going
to jail. With immediate effect, all faculty and students will go on strike. The
day of the “Honor Decree’s” implementation will be the day they
announced their official merger with the Navi System.

This was definitely a serious threat. It caused a great uproar as soon as it

was issued. However, no matter how resounding the Supreme Institution’s
name was, it was still just one school. But in the following minutes, the top
universities in each star system issued similar noticed. It did not take very
long for more than half of the top 100 universities within the Federation to
issue strikes and statements about leaving the Capital government’s
jurisdiction.

The entire world was broiling in chaos. Mankind has kept peace and
prosperity going on for so long that there was no need to mentioning
anyone currently living having not experienced such turbulence in the past,
they had never even heard of such happenings. Not even from their own
seniors. These were things they would only hear their teachers mention in
history class when they talked about the distant wars in ancient history.
Everyone thought that it was such a faraway thing, and only ever related to
their coming exams.

Intron walked down the hallways of the Supreme Council’s main building
in a hurry.

In these past two days, everyone in the Supreme Council had been flooded
with work. However, the atmosphere was strange. The new “Honor Decree”
announced by “Butterfly” turned the Supreme Council into a target for
public criticism, and two of the Twelve had also clarified their stance on the
“Honor Decree”, even going as far as issuing blatant accusations against the
AI. There was no need to mention the people, even the members within the
council working inside this building couldn’t help secretly whispering to
each other, and watching the scene unfold with their own different opinions.

“Councilor Gines, heading off?”

Just as Intron was about to leave through the front door, he bumped into
Bard Pearson and his two bodyguards who had just returned to the council
house from outside. He was already seventy this year but he still looked
hale and hearty. He had a humble-looking square face, but his small slanted
eyes added a bit of fierceness to it.

“Councilor Zhong Yan is away and his no.1 assistant seems rather free.
You’re getting off this early?” Pearson had on a shallow smile as he spoke
and the way he said that hinted at his superiority complex, which felt very
unpleasant.
Normally, when you’re only dealing with paperwork, you’d rarely have to
come around personally to hand in the documents. What’s more, with the
recent addition of the frequent protests, everyone was busy working
overtime or going to meetings. Ths building would constantly be brightly lit
even though the nights. Moreover, it’s a sunny afternoon right now, so there
was practically nobody in the lobby.

“Of course I’m free,” Intron said matter-of-factly. “Isn’t everyone on

overtime working on the ‘Honor Decree’? Sir Zhong has already issued a
statement that he has nothing to do with this new law. I’m his assistant, so
how would I have any overtime?”

To think that this bespectacled young man with short curls could face
Pearson without any fear. It is truly as they say, young calves fear no tigers.
Even Pearson’s two bodyguards couldn’t help but throw a glance at him.

Pearson had only seen him as Zhong Yan’s assistant prior to this and wanted
to take a jab at him, but he never expected to get a comeback from this
youngster who had graduated just a few years ago, and so calmly at that.
However, if he were to bicker with this blonde brat right in front of the
council house with his standing, that would be too unsightly. He observed
Intron fiercely for a moment before spitting out the words “You’ve really
learned from Councilor Zhong Yan” and left proudly with his men.

Intron rolled his eyes at him and walked out of the council house.

While on the road, his terminal suddenly rang. He cut off the connection
until he reached home before connecting the shielding device to his
terminal. Then, he dialed back the number that could not be displayed.

Intron had just greeted him with “Sir Zhong” when the other side cut
straight to the point. “Who told them to leave the Capital’s jurisdiction?
Didn’t our lecturer get the plans from the store?”

“He did. The lecturer brought up your plans as his own, but…” Intron knew
Zhong Yan was going to ask him this. He was put into a difficult position,
but he still had to explain. “They, the professors, the student union, and the
leaders and student leaders have all thought that your plan was too…
prudent.”

“Too prudent?” Zhong Yan scoffed. “We have to be prudent if we want to

keep our skins! They want to transfer over to Navi just as soon as the
‘Honor Decree’ is implemented? I’ll give them props for having that idea!
Let’s not mention the other schools, even the Institution Star alone is
separated 6 entire star systems away from Navi! How are they going to
handle things if the Capital wouldn’t compromise no matter what? Do they
really think that the Capital’s attitude will be the same as they are towards
Lebor who’s just at the border of Navi? Who is the current Student Council
President in the Supreme Institution? He can’t even think about the
consequences of his actions, how did he become…”

Zhong Yan rarely ever spoke in such a harsh tone. Intron knew that he was
only worried that if the Supreme Council takes the lead in these radical
protests, that the Capital will only try to use even more radical tactics
against them. Therefore, he had prepared a sufficiently smooth plan ahead
of time that made sure they could easily pull out whenever they needed to.
But these hot-blooded youngsters wouldn’t look quite so far ahead as
Zhong Yan did. For them, they were struggling for themselves, their school,
and the freedom and dignity of all of humanity. They will regret none of
this even in death. This is the passion and spirit of youth.

Intron had been working for Zhong Yan for nearly two years. He
understood Zhong Yan’s concerns very well, but he was also a young man
who had just left school for just a few years and devoted himself to the
resistance movement. So, he could fully understand why the students made
this decision. He could only listen to Zhong Yan’s rare bout of yelling with
a bitter smile on his face. But before Zhong Yan could finish, he heard the
voice of another man with a deeper voice interrupt him. “Just talk business
if you have to. What are you tearing up their Student Council President
for?”

Intron froze for a moment. What’s this? Someone’s beside Zhong Yan? But
before he could react to who that familiar voice belonged to, he heard
Zhong Yan turn the muzzle at the man and asking, “What, do you admire
that Student Council President so much?”
“No, not at all,” that man quickly denied. A hint of amusement could be
heard in his voice. “It’s not like I have any special complexes for the
Student Council President. But love a man, love his house too…right?”

Only then did Intron realize that the owner of the voice was Adrian. That
made sense. Intron glanced over to the clock. It was already late at night in
Navi. It’s normal for Zhong Yan to be with his partner…

…As if! How many people in the Federation actually believes that Adrian
Yate and Zhong Yan actually sleep together at night? Even Intron himself
believes that they had only come to some kind of mutual cooperation
agreement at most. After all, the two of them have been clean after staying
under the same roof for three whole years. And they had been kicking up a
fuss with each other for so many years too. Not to mention, Intron has been
fully committed to the anti-AI camp since his days as a student. Naturally,
he held deep admiration for the poster boy Adrian and knew about his
personality to some extent. Intron believed that he was a good judge of
people. It’s not very likely that someone with Adrian’s personality would
like someone as proud as Zhong Yan—Of course, Intron has no idea that
Zhong Yan was the very opposite of proud when he was with Adrian.

But the fact is that the two of them were still together at this hour. Then
there was only one possibility…

“Are you spending the whole night discussing the countermeasures with
Commander Yate?” Intron asked, feeling touched.

“Discussing for the whole night?” Zhong Yan was confused to hear him
mention this and felt that something was not quite right with that sentence.
“Indeed, we were talking about that just now…That counts, right?”

Adrian asked cheerfully, “What counts?”

“Don’t interrupt,” said Zhong Yan helplessly.

Intron suddenly felt that something was not quite right here. Adrian could
only hear what Zhong Yan was saying, but not Intron. Zhong Yan obviously
wasn’t such an open person, meaning that Zhong Yan had to keep the
terminal’s speaker by his ear. Even though the terminal could receive audio
inputs from all around, you could still hear a difference in distance even if
two people were sitting shoulder to shoulder. But why did Adrian’s voice
sound…so close?

“Intron,” Zhong Yan’s voice dragged Intron back from his thoughts. Adrian
had interrupted them twice, but Zhong Yan seemed calm. “Keep a close eye
on the Supreme Council, see if they have any signs of conceding to the
schools. If they still haven’t done so by tomorrow, then contact Vahl. Tell
him to bring up a delay…No, I’ll do it myself. I’ll bring up the idea of
postponing the decree. Tell them to prepare the first draft tonight, and send
it to me tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, Sir Zhong.”

Zhong Yan hung up the call. Adrian had been holding him in his embrace
this whole time, so he relaxed his body and leaned back on Adrian’s chest.

“Can we sleep yet? I’m dead tired.” Adrian moved his head down and
spoke by Zhong Yan’s ear. When he spoke, his lips rubbed against Zhong
Yan’s ears, causing the sensitive Zhong Yan to flinch in his arms.

“I said I’d make the call in the study so you could sleep, but you said no.”

“That won’t do, I can’t fall asleep if I’m not holding you.”

Zhong Yan knew that he was worried he would catch a cold in the night
away from the warm blanket and that he was just fawning over him with his
words, but he felt sweet inside. Then, his quiet voice began, “I’m afraid I’ll
have to leave early with all this going on.”

“It’s fine.” Adrian could hear the reluctance in his voice. He comforted him,
“We have to be separated for a short while now, but it’s all so we can stay
together for the long-term after.”

But they did not expect that the only one to leave temporarily would not
just be Zhong Yan on the next day.
Before Zhong Yan’s proposal to postpone the “Honor Decree” could be
edited, he received a secret report stating that the Capital has decided to use
force to suppress the protests in the universities.
 Chapter 74 - Fateful Battle

“One of our informants in the Glory Military Command took the risk to
send this to us,” Zhong Yan quickly spoke into the terminal. “I passed the
picture to you. It’s in…”

“I saw it.” Adrian was walking in the Headquarter’s hallway in a quick

stride. Without hanging up the call, he went straight into the meeting room
and continued to ask, “The current question is, is the military command of
Glory the only one that has received this notice, or all of them?”

All the officers at the table stopped talking. They received an emergency
call from Adrian to gather, but they didn’t know what the reason was. At
this moment, when they heard Adrian talking to some unknown person,
they were all listening closely.

Zhong Yan spoke, sounding battered, “I don’t know…I’ve already told all
my contacts to check, but it’s mainly because the military commands and
the council houses are two separate institutions, so I can only rely on my
men within the military commands. But I don’t have many of those…The
Glory System isn’t situated in a very important position. The rankings of
the two universities participating in the joint protest in the Glory System are
also relatively low in the rankings. There’s nothing special about it, so it’s
reasonable to speculate that all military commands have received the
orders.”

“I think so too. I’ll settle this meeting first. You go quickly pack up your
language, and help me take out my emergency travel case too. It’s at the
bottom of the closet. Remember to check all the doors and windows, you
might not have the time later.”
Zhong Yan did not ask why. If the capital has already decided to use force
to suppress the protests, then there’s no way Adrian would just stand idly
by, not would he try to persuade him not to under such circumstances.
Adrian had originally said he wanted to have dinner together with Zhong
Yan tonight after coming home from work before sending him off in his
ship, but it seems now that Zhong Yan may be rushing straight out as soon
as he returns.

“Alright, we’ll keep in touch.” Zhong Yan said simply and hung up the call.

All the officers thought that Adrian was talking to someone from the
intelligence department, all of them looked at each other when he told the
other person to check the doors and windows at the back. They all realized
that it was Zhong Yan.

When Adrian introduced the secret report he had just received to all the
senior officers in the room, everyone was shocked.

“So the Capital has finally decided to use force?” One officer said, “That’s
not right…The Capital’s council house has no military rights. Only
‘Butterfly’ has the rights to mobilize the troops. Seems like it really has
gone mad.”

Another officer spoke up calmly and objectively, “It will not necessarily
have a bad effect. It’s been centuries. For ordinary civilians, besides troops
being sent out for rescue missions during major natural disasters, the only
significance of the military commands’ existence is just as a precaution to
other cosmic civilizations that nobody knows exist or not. The people have
already forgotten that those weapons can also be used against mankind. The
use of military force to suppress the people of our generation is a huge
threat. Many people will be throw down their banners just because of this.”

“Who says the council has no say on the military commands? The supreme
commanders of each military command only go to see ‘Butterfly’ once a
year—our own supreme commander hasn’t even gone once—while those
radical representative members can work in ‘Butterfly’s’ office every single
day. Who knows whose idea it was? Anyway, the AI has no differences
with any other normal human these days, right? I don’t even know if this is
an evolution or degradation.”

“So, should we assemble our troops and head to Glory?”

“I don’t think we’ll make it. As soon as we have a large-scale military

forces sent out, the entire world will know. It will take the Glory Military
Command’s troops at least half an hour to arrive at the school after
receiving the news, but we’ll need at least four.”

“We don’t even know if their orders are to move against all the participating
schools at once. If all the military commands have received the order, then
it’s impossible for us to split out troops all over the Federation, right?”

“Whatever it is,” Adrian said, “if we can’t make the first move since they’re
closer than us, we just have to go by force. Put out the order right now.
Assemble the first to the third regiment, and tell the entire military
command to hold standby.”

Three officers sitting below sat up and saluted, “Yes!”

At this moment, the intelligence officer who had been nervously confirming
the news from all sides suddenly said, “Commander! We have received a
message from that person. It has been confirmed that the second and third
military commands have received similar orders. We can just about
ascertain that all the military commands under ‘Butterfly’s’ jurisdiction
have received the order. That person also said…”

Adrian frowned. “What do you mean ‘that person’? Does he not have a
name?”

The intelligence officer had been reporting to him this way for the past two
years. Now that the ban on that name has been lifted, he couldn’t get used
to it. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, “I’m sorry, I mean Sir
Zhong. Sir Zhong had also said that all military commands near the Capital
have already gathered their troops. All news from a reliable source.”
Adrian froze. A quick-tempered officer was first to speak. “What is the
Capital gathering their troops for? There aren’t even any movements in the
schools nearby the Capital.”

“The Supreme Institution does not belong to a star system. It is a directly

administered planet,” Adrian spoke as if he were mumbling to himself,
“The Supreme Institution is the initiator, so they want to cut them up as an
example for the rest.”

Three hasty knocks sounded from the door. Under the state where they were
prepared for battle, the orderly can meet the commander in chief directly
without notification. The soldier entered and saluted. “Commander, all
troops in the first to the third regiments have been assembled!”

Adrian quickly stood up and ordered, “Tell them to pull out of the camp and
standby at the border. Our goal is the Federation’s Supreme Institution.”

As the roar of the small spacecraft’s engine came closer, Zhong Yan had
already packed up his luggage and waited by yard.

Adrian and one of the guards jumped down from the vehicle that had yet to
land. They took the suitcases in Zhong Yan’s hands, and the last was
Adrian’s emergency luggage. He picked it up himself and found it heavier
than he last remembered it. He couldn’t help but give the trunk a few extra
glances. Zhong Yan could tell his suspicion. He looked awkwardly at the
guard beside him before explaining in a whisper, “I packed you a few extra
sets of clothes. You only have a thin coat inside. I was worried you’d get
cold.”

He was afraid that Adrian Yate, the strongest human soldier that can fight in
the most extreme environments would be afraid of the cold? The guard
nearly fell down when he heard his words. He looed over in fright, just to
see Adrian’s sharp warning gaze, and immediately moved his sight away.
Just lower your head and look away, just pretend you’re both blind and
deaf.

“Thank you dearest. You’re right, I packed this luggage during the
summer.” While saying that, Adrian and his guard loaded the luggage onto
the ship. The giant space rabbit’s food bowl was filled up, and the small
rabbit had been entrusted to the steak shop’s owner. At the very last, Zhong
Yan opened his terminal to check whether all the switches in the home were
turned off before boarding the spacecraft.

Everything happened so suddenly that they didn’t have time for sad
goodbyes. Zhong Yan had immediately started asking about their next plans
as soon as he sat down because he was going to return to the Capital, and
Adrian was getting ready to lead his troops to the Institution Star. They
were both going different ways.

“You can follow my fleet for now. Once we leave Lebor, there will be a ship
that can take you to the Capital.” Adrian said, “I picked out six men to go
with you. They will be your temporary bodyguards.”

Zhong Yan said, “Wouldn’t that be too eye-catching?”

“If that is how it has to be. Your safety is important.” Adrian went on,
“When it has all come to this, the Capital is now the most dangerous place
you can be. The identities of those men are all based in Navi. AI has no
control over them. They’re the best picks if you think about it.”

After exchanging what they knew of the current situation and reconfirming
their respective follow-up plans, the ship had already docked in the warship.
Adrian and Zhong Yan stepped off the vehicle side by side when someone
immediately came to them. Adrian ordered, “Bring Sir Zhong’s luggage
into the ship prepared for him. Notify the army to set off immediately for
the Institution Star.”

Zhong Yan was shocked, but he did not say anything in front of Adrian’s
subordinates. Once everyone had left, Zhong Yan hurriedly said, “You’re
sending out your troops now? But the Capital’s troops haven’t even moved
yet.”

“It’ll be too late when they move. The Capital is much closer to the
Institution Star than we are.”
“Once you leave Lebor, the Capital won’t be the only one receiving the
message. The entire Federation will hear of it. You won’t be able to hide
this. Have you ever thought, just in case, that the Capital will pull back after
hearing news of your arrival? They would rather sacrifice the Institution
Star if it means being able to ruin your reputation. How are you going to
explain to the world why you sent your troops to the Institution Star? Even
if they did set their troops out, they can also say that they were just stopping
you…”

“Then I just don’t have to explain.” Adrian was calm. “Compared to my

reputation, the safety of the teachers and students in the Institution Star are
more important to me.”

Zhong Yan opened his mouth but said nothing in the end. He just nodded
and headed for the temporary waiting room.

But for him to give up persuading him again took Adrian by surprise. He
was also worried whether Zhong Yan was angry with him. But the army had
just set sail, there was too much to worry about. He didn’t have the time to
ask Zhong Yan about his feelings, and headed straight to work.

Two hours later, the ship going full speed ahead had already arrived at
Lebor’s border. After leaving Lebor, they will be exposed within
“Butterfly’s” monitoring area. Then, there is no turning back. Whether they
win or lose, this will be written down in the history books. Adrian Yate will
become the very man to end peace after centuries of peace in the world of
man.

Adrian walked in the hallway of the warship in his black and gold military
uniform. at this moment, all the soldiers in the fleet were concentrated in
the great hall of the warship, waiting for him to appear and give his speech.

He happened to bump into Zhong Yan right outside. Zhong Yan had already
changed into a sleek formal suit, and without waiting for Adrian to speak,
he said, “I’ll be going now.”

At the very last moment, Adrian couldn’t think of anything to say. His heart
churned, but in the end, he said, “I wish you luck.”
Zhong Yan nodded and accepted his blessing before continuing, “I’ve just
contacted the Supreme Institution. They will be issuing a statement that will
be posted in a few minutes.”

“You…What statement?”

“The statement that the Institution Star is officially leaving the Capital and
entering Navi, and requesting the Navi Military Command to send their
troops over immediately.”

Adrian was shocked in place. Zhong Yan looked at him and said firmly, “I
won’t let your name be tarnished. Your name shouldn’t be written down in
the history books like that.”

Turns out that was what he was busy with earlier…Adrian felt his throat
bob and he couldn’t hold back the emotions within his heart. He came
closer and held Zhong Yan tightly in his arms. On the marching fleet, the
Supreme Commander’s behavior should be firm and serious. But the oath-
taking rally has yet to begin. He still had a few moments to himself.

After a few seconds, Zhong Yan gently pushed him away.

“I’ll be late. And you too.” Zhong Yan’s voice was light.

He carefully smoothed out the collar of Adrian’s uniform before taking in

the sight of his silver eyes. He said solemnly, “Commander Yate, I too wish
you a fateful battle.”

“One of our informants in the Glory Military Command took the risk to
send this to us,” Zhong Yan quickly spoke into the terminal. “I passed the
picture to you. It’s in…”

“I saw it.” Adrian was walking in the Headquarter’s hallway in a quick

stride. Without hanging up the call, he went straight into the meeting room
and continued to ask, “The current question is, is the military command of
Glory the only one that has received this notice, or all of them?”
All the officers at the table stopped talking. They received an emergency
call from Adrian to gather, but they didn’t know what the reason was. At
this moment, when they heard Adrian talking to some unknown person,
they were all listening closely.

Zhong Yan spoke, sounding battered, “I don’t know…I’ve already told all
my contacts to check, but it’s mainly because the military commands and
the council houses are two separate institutions, so I can only rely on my
men within the military commands. But I don’t have many of those…The
Glory System isn’t situated in a very important position. The rankings of
the two universities participating in the joint protest in the Glory System are
also relatively low in the rankings. There’s nothing special about it, so it’s
reasonable to speculate that all military commands have received the
orders.”

“I think so too. I’ll settle this meeting first. You go quickly pack up your
language, and help me take out my emergency travel case too. It’s at the
bottom of the closet. Remember to check all the doors and windows, you
might not have the time later.”

Zhong Yan did not ask why. If the capital has already decided to use force
to suppress the protests, then there’s no way Adrian would just stand idly
by, not would he try to persuade him not to under such circumstances.
Adrian had originally said he wanted to have dinner together with Zhong
Yan tonight after coming home from work before sending him off in his
ship, but it seems now that Zhong Yan may be rushing straight out as soon
as he returns.

“Alright, we’ll keep in touch.” Zhong Yan said simply and hung up the call.

All the officers thought that Adrian was talking to someone from the
intelligence department, all of them looked at each other when he told the
other person to check the doors and windows at the back. They all realized
that it was Zhong Yan.

When Adrian introduced the secret report he had just received to all the
senior officers in the room, everyone was shocked.

“So the Capital has finally decided to use force?” One officer said, “That’s
not right…The Capital’s council house has no military rights. Only
‘Butterfly’ has the rights to mobilize the troops. Seems like it really has
gone mad.”

Another officer spoke up calmly and objectively, “It will not necessarily
have a bad effect. It’s been centuries. For ordinary civilians, besides troops
being sent out for rescue missions during major natural disasters, the only
significance of the military commands’ existence is just as a precaution to
other cosmic civilizations that nobody knows exist or not. The people have
already forgotten that those weapons can also be used against mankind. The
use of military force to suppress the people of our generation is a huge
threat. Many people will be throw down their banners just because of this.”

“Who says the council has no say on the military commands? The supreme
commanders of each military command only go to see ‘Butterfly’ once a
year—our own supreme commander hasn’t even gone once—while those
radical representative members can work in ‘Butterfly’s’ office every single
day. Who knows whose idea it was? Anyway, the AI has no differences
with any other normal human these days, right? I don’t even know if this is
an evolution or degradation.”

“So, should we assemble our troops and head to Glory?”

“I don’t think we’ll make it. As soon as we have a large-scale military

forces sent out, the entire world will know. It will take the Glory Military
Command’s troops at least half an hour to arrive at the school after
receiving the news, but we’ll need at least four.”

“We don’t even know if their orders are to move against all the participating
schools at once. If all the military commands have received the order, then
it’s impossible for us to split out troops all over the Federation, right?”

“Whatever it is,” Adrian said, “if we can’t make the first move since they’re
closer than us, we just have to go by force. Put out the order right now.
Assemble the first to the third regiment, and tell the entire military
command to hold standby.”
Three officers sitting below sat up and saluted, “Yes!”
At this moment, the intelligence officer who had been nervously confirming
the news from all sides suddenly said, “Commander! We have received a
message from that person. It has been confirmed that the second and third
military commands have received similar orders. We can just about
ascertain that all the military commands under ‘Butterfly’s’ jurisdiction
have received the order. That person also said…”

Adrian frowned. “What do you mean ‘that person’? Does he not have a
name?”

The intelligence officer had been reporting to him this way for the past two
years. Now that the ban on that name has been lifted, he couldn’t get used
to it. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, “I’m sorry, I mean Sir
Zhong. Sir Zhong had also said that all military commands near the Capital
have already gathered their troops. All news from a reliable source.”

Adrian froze. A quick-tempered officer was first to speak. “What is the

Capital gathering their troops for? There aren’t even any movements in the
schools nearby the Capital.”

“The Supreme Institution does not belong to a star system. It is a directly

administered planet,” Adrian spoke as if he were mumbling to himself,
“The Supreme Institution is the initiator, so they want to cut them up as an
example for the rest.”

Three hasty knocks sounded from the door. Under the state where they were
prepared for battle, the orderly can meet the commander in chief directly
without notification. The soldier entered and saluted. “Commander, all
troops in the first to the third regiments have been assembled!”

Adrian quickly stood up and ordered, “Tell them to pull out of the camp and
standby at the border. Our goal is the Federation’s Supreme Institution.”
As the roar of the small spacecraft’s engine came closer, Zhong Yan had
already packed up his luggage and waited by yard.

Adrian and one of the guards jumped down from the vehicle that had yet to
land. They took the suitcases in Zhong Yan’s hands, and the last was
Adrian’s emergency luggage. He picked it up himself and found it heavier
than he last remembered it. He couldn’t help but give the trunk a few extra
glances. Zhong Yan could tell his suspicion. He looked awkwardly at the
guard beside him before explaining in a whisper, “I packed you a few extra
sets of clothes. You only have a thin coat inside. I was worried you’d get
cold.”

He was afraid that Adrian Yate, the strongest human soldier that can fight in
the most extreme environments would be afraid of the cold? The guard
nearly fell down when he heard his words. He looed over in fright, just to
see Adrian’s sharp warning gaze, and immediately moved his sight away.
Just lower your head and look away, just pretend you’re both blind and
deaf.

“Thank you dearest. You’re right, I packed this luggage during the
summer.” While saying that, Adrian and his guard loaded the luggage onto
the ship. The giant space rabbit’s food bowl was filled up, and the small
rabbit had been entrusted to the steak shop’s owner. At the very last, Zhong
Yan opened his terminal to check whether all the switches in the home were
turned off before boarding the spacecraft.

Everything happened so suddenly that they didn’t have time for sad
goodbyes. Zhong Yan had immediately started asking about their next plans
as soon as he sat down because he was going to return to the Capital, and
Adrian was getting ready to lead his troops to the Institution Star. They
were both going different ways.

“You can follow my fleet for now. Once we leave Lebor, there will be a ship
that can take you to the Capital.” Adrian said, “I picked out six men to go
with you. They will be your temporary bodyguards.”

Zhong Yan said, “Wouldn’t that be too eye-catching?”

“If that is how it has to be. Your safety is important.” Adrian went on,
“When it has all come to this, the Capital is now the most dangerous place
you can be. The identities of those men are all based in Navi. AI has no
control over them. They’re the best picks if you think about it.”
After exchanging what they knew of the current situation and reconfirming
their respective follow-up plans, the ship had already docked in the warship.
Adrian and Zhong Yan stepped off the vehicle side by side when someone
immediately came to them. Adrian ordered, “Bring Sir Zhong’s luggage
into the ship prepared for him. Notify the army to set off immediately for
the Institution Star.”

Zhong Yan was shocked, but he did not say anything in front of Adrian’s
subordinates. Once everyone had left, Zhong Yan hurriedly said, “You’re
sending out your troops now? But the Capital’s troops haven’t even moved
yet.”

“It’ll be too late when they move. The Capital is much closer to the
Institution Star than we are.”

“Once you leave Lebor, the Capital won’t be the only one receiving the
message. The entire Federation will hear of it. You won’t be able to hide
this. Have you ever thought, just in case, that the Capital will pull back after
hearing news of your arrival? They would rather sacrifice the Institution
Star if it means being able to ruin your reputation. How are you going to
explain to the world why you sent your troops to the Institution Star? Even
if they did set their troops out, they can also say that they were just stopping
you…”

“Then I just don’t have to explain.” Adrian was calm. “Compared to my

reputation, the safety of the teachers and students in the Institution Star are
more important to me.”

Zhong Yan opened his mouth but said nothing in the end. He just nodded
and headed for the temporary waiting room.

But for him to give up persuading him again took Adrian by surprise. He
was also worried whether Zhong Yan was angry with him. But the army had
just set sail, there was too much to worry about. He didn’t have the time to
ask Zhong Yan about his feelings, and headed straight to work.

Two hours later, the ship going full speed ahead had already arrived at
Lebor’s border. After leaving Lebor, they will be exposed within
“Butterfly’s” monitoring area. Then, there is no turning back. Whether they
win or lose, this will be written down in the history books. Adrian Yate will
become the very man to end peace after centuries of peace in the world of
man.

Adrian walked in the hallway of the warship in his black and gold military
uniform. at this moment, all the soldiers in the fleet were concentrated in
the great hall of the warship, waiting for him to appear and give his speech.

He happened to bump into Zhong Yan right outside. Zhong Yan had already
changed into a sleek formal suit, and without waiting for Adrian to speak,
he said, “I’ll be going now.”

At the very last moment, Adrian couldn’t think of anything to say. His heart
churned, but in the end, he said, “I wish you luck.”

Zhong Yan nodded and accepted his blessing before continuing, “I’ve just
contacted the Supreme Institution. They will be issuing a statement that will
be posted in a few minutes.”

“You…What statement?”

“The statement that the Institution Star is officially leaving the Capital and
entering Navi, and requesting the Navi Military Command to send their
troops over immediately.”

Adrian was shocked in place. Zhong Yan looked at him and said firmly, “I
won’t let your name be tarnished. Your name shouldn’t be written down in
the history books like that.”

Turns out that was what he was busy with earlier…Adrian felt his throat
bob and he couldn’t hold back the emotions within his heart. He came
closer and held Zhong Yan tightly in his arms. On the marching fleet, the
Supreme Commander’s behavior should be firm and serious. But the oath-
taking rally has yet to begin. He still had a few moments to himself.

After a few seconds, Zhong Yan gently pushed him away.

“I’ll be late. And you too.” Zhong Yan’s voice was light.

He carefully smoothed out the collar of Adrian’s uniform before taking in

the sight of his silver eyes. He said solemnly, “Commander Yate, I too wish
you a fateful battle.”
 Chapter 75 - Letter to My Friends

As mankind’s first artificially created planet, the Supreme Institution

situated at the Institution Star has been famous since its establishment, but
in the eyes of most of the public, the institution had little to do with
themselves even if it represented a group of the most intelligent and capable
students at the tip of the pyramid. Just take what happened for example. If
Adrian and Zhong Yan had not been reunited after seven years, then people
would hardly pay attention to the school’s hundred year anniversary. It
wasn’t until the Supreme Institution took the lead to protest the new law
that was making waves across the world that people started to pay attention
to them again. In just a short few hours, the follower count on the Supreme
Institution’s page skyrocketed. Even the other universities participating in
the joint protest saw the views on their pages multiplying several times
over.

Everyone was waiting to see if the Capital was willing to compromise with
these schools and to see whether the “Honor Decree” will still be
implemented early next month as scheduled. Unexpectedly, just a day after
the joint protests, the Supreme Institution suddenly issued another
statement.

The previous statement was just a series of words posted on their page, but
this new statement was a scan of a notice written in proper format,
announcing that the Supreme Institution will immediately break away from
the AI’s rule in order to respond to emergencies and protect the safety of all
the personnel and students in the school. They have also requested a
garrison from Navi for their protection. Right at the bottom of the notice
was the red seal used by the school board and the student council. Even
though most official notices and letters in this era were attached with
electronic signatures, only a few groups of people still used the seal. But the
Supreme Institution has always gone with tradition. Even under such
circumstances, their official notice was still written in their own
distinguished style.

But hasn’t the “Honor Decree” not been released yet? The Supreme
Institution is leaving the Capital just like that? And what kind of
emergencies are they facing that can threaten the safety of the school
personnel?

Before everyone could take a breather after seeing such a thunderous

statement, an even more explosive piece of news swept through the news
headlines: the Navi Military Command has sent out their troops.

The mighty roar of the engines sounded as the warship left Leboor’s
borders. Through their entire trip, they had no intentions whatsoever to
conceal their movements, and they were going on a straight route to ensure
they arrived as soon as possible.

After just a few minutes, the warships not far from the Capital’s affiliated
military command came out of its nest and headed straight for the
Institution Star as well.

Are they going to fight?!

The virtual community has nearly turned itself upside down. As long as
people were awake, they would all be refreshing the news like crazy. Even
the bosses can’t be bothered to make sure their employees are working—
They themselves are staring at the news, too.

The Navi Military Command has responded to the Supreme Institution’s

call for “help”. So, what did the Capital send out its troops for? They do not
recognize that the Supreme Institution is out of the AI’s jurisdiction, so
they’ve decided to send troops to stop the Navi Military Command, or…
were they the reason that the Supreme Institution called the “emergency”?

Zhong Yan was currently on his way. He asked the cockpit to choose the
route with as much signal uptime as possible, even if that meant going on a
little detour. This was currently a crucial moment when he had to be
receiving information on all parties and plan his next move.
Originally, the distance between the Capital and the Supreme Institution
should have been much closer than Navi, the Capital had sent out their
troops just after Navi’s troops have passed Lebor’s borders. Moreover, even
though the distance was slightly further, the Navi warship’s route has fewer
planets in their path, which means they can go full speed on a straight path
without many detours. What’s more, there were many bustling star systems
between the Capital and the Institution Star, and the planets were so densely
packed. They couldn’t just go in a straight line, nor can they reach speeds as
close to Navi’s warship. It was still unknown which side would actually
reach the Institution Star first.

A moment later, the news Zhong Yan had been waiting this whole time
finally came. He saw a message on his terminal from an unknown account
that said, “They have been retrieved, both are safe.”

Zhong Yan breathed a sigh of relief.

The two people they picked up were two officers who “Specimen” has
spent four entire years, and consumed countless resources to allow them to
make their way up to the Capital’s affiliated/auxiliary military command.
They were precisely the ones who gave “Specimen” a timely warning that
the Capital’s affiliated military command was gathering its troops so that
Adrian was able to seize the opportunity to rush to the Institution Star
before them.

At this moment, the public opinion in the virtual community was practically
all on Navi’s side. Not for any other reason, but because the Navi Military
Command was, first of all, sending out their troops to the Supreme
Institution at their cry for help while not only did the Capital leave no
explanations for sending their troops, they were even suspected to be the
reason the Supreme Institution was calling for help in the first place. This
had all happened because of the official notice issued by the Supreme
Institution, but what the masses could not see was how enormous the cost
they had paid out to issue this statement was.

In the two hours they spent passing through Lebor Zhong Yan had
personally contacted the Supreme Institution to inform them of the
imminent danger and convinced them to draft this document. But for the
Capital, the Supreme Institution putting out this announcement also tells
them that someone within the affiliated military command has leaked
military information and that the Supreme Institution had found out.

If they go back to find the source of the leak now that this situation is
exposed, there’s a high probability they’ll be able to find the spy. So, Zhong
Yan later contacted the two officers urgently through “Specimen’s” internal
channel and informed them of the danger that they will be exposed soon.
He asked them to evacuate immediately and also arranged for their escape
and pick-up.

This so-called escape was only to protect their own physical selves. There
was no way for them to return to the military command anymore. This
means that the two spies Zhong Yan spent so much time and financial
resources on will be useless from then on. The message chain on both sides
will be completely broken.

And he did all this just so he could make sure that Adrian’s reputation in the
future could be saved.

The abnormal silence shown by the Capital’s affiliated military command

was precisely because they found out about the leak. Moreover, from the
speed it took Navi’s troops to leave Navi, the Supreme Institution must have
properly communicated with the Navi Military Command before issuing
their statement. If they categorize the Navi Military Command’s actions
now as illegally occupying a Federation owned planet, and that they are
only sending troops to stop their behavior, then the Navi Military Command
is likely to reveal “Butterfly’s” suppression order and the fact that they have
gathered their troops since long ago. When that time comes, they’re going
to receive backlash from lying anyway, so they might as well not make that
lie to begin with.

Furthermore…This matter can hardly be concealed at all. Because soon

enough, all of the Federation’s military commands will be moving out.

In the very beginning, when the news of a star system’s troops having
assembled was leaked out, everyone thought that “Butterfly” was ordering
them to intercept Navi’s warship en route.
But nobody would ever have thought that they would go in the opposite
direction instead. Their goal wasn’t to stop Navi at all, they wanted to
suppress the defenseless students within the Supreme Institution.

Fully-armed soldiers marched out from the descending ship like a school of
fish and stormed straight into the school campus. Countless reporters within
the star system swarming the area were all stopped outside of the army’s
guard ring. Soon after, there were soldiers coming out of the school,
holding boys and girls that looked like students under their arms. Some of
them were still yelling and struggling, but others seemed to have lost
consciousness and needed to be dragged away by the soldiers. It was not
known whether they were dead or alive. This unexpected scene stimulated
the reporters and onlookers at the scene, throwing them all completely mad.
Everyone was shocked and furious but with the weapons as deterrence,
nobody dared to try and push through the circle. However, the many
floating cameras could—there were some conscientious reporters who
hoped to expose the scenes within, and also those who wanted to the big
news for their platform. At this instant, all the reporters had ignored all the
warnings and sent their camera drones rushing into the campus.

When the soldiers saw those little black balls floating in the sky, they shot
them down immediately. Within the dense sound of gunfire, some unknown
person shouted that “The military command is opening fire! They’re going
to kill us!”, and the already complicated situation became even more
chaotic in and out of the campus. For a moment, yelling, screaming, and
gun sounds were mixed together while the slogan of the captured students
could occasionally be heard. “Overthrow artificial intelligence! Restore
human autonomy!”

These extremely chaotic fragments had been broadcasted within the virtual
community and everything began bubbling up intensely. At the same time,
images of the armies in several military commands gathering have also
been uploaded.

The entire virtual community was overwhelmed by shock and anger. Some
of the people had also quietly shut their mouths because of this, and deleted
all their comments for protest—fear is also a normal part of being human.
Zhong Yan sat in the studio of the small spacecraft, reading the news. His
face looked neither sad nor happy.

He was not shocked or angry either, he was only contemplating the pros and
cons of each move. His private team ad just drafted a plan to use a student’s
life as the breakthrough in this deadlock. Frowning, Zhong Yan hesitated.
The notification bell of his terminal sounded. When he looked at it, he
found that a page that he was following had updated.

There was only one person in Zhong Yan’s high-priority follow list, and his
mind also felt refreshed because of this. Opening his terminal, it was Adrian
issuing a letter titled, “A Letter to My Friends Throughout the Federation’s
Military Commands”.

He spoke directly to the supreme commanders of each military command

and urged them not to obey the orders of a non-ethical machine blindly and
hurt their fellow citizens. At the very end of his letter, he wrote, “Before
executing a military order, we should respond to the situation as humans.
Solders who point their gun towards the innocent are not worthy of being
called humans. Starting immediately from now, I will send troops to all
military commands who are moving out to the schoolsI will clear you all
out and put an end to this chapter once and for all. I, Adrian Yate, is
marching out with my troops.”

After reading this letter, Zhong Yan couldn’t help but put on a bitter smile.
This was the script prepared for Adrian by him. The motivational force
within those words were very strong, but the wording was also cautious.
This was because he believed that this letter will definitely be recorded in
history in Adrian’s name. So, he would never write anything about anyone
not deserving to be called humans, or to end things once and for all; all that
at the end was written by Adrian himself. It seems like this whole affair
really has angered him.

This anger felt so real that those emotions were even more infectious than
the first half that had already gone through retouching and refinement. After
seeing this message on their virtual screens, many people were also moved
and inspired by it.
Zhong Yan stared blankly at the screen in front of him for a while. Then, he
sent a message to his own team, “Dispose of that idea. Do not prepare any
similar plans in the future.”

He didn’t love this world, nor his fellow compatriots. But helplessly, he
loved everything about Adrian. He could only restrain himself at every
moment, incase he loses the only person he loves in this entire world.
 Chapter 76 - Lucky Charm

Adrian had personally led his troops on a military expedition while Fayn
stayed in Navi’s base camp within the system. At the same time that
Adrian’s letter was released, two men contacted him through the military
channel.

“Should we send troops?” Fayn began to speak before Adrian could say
anything. “The entire army is ready on standby. About half of the remaining
force has been sent over to Lebor’s border. They’re just waiting on your
order.”

“What about the twelfth regiment?” Adrian asked.

Fayn froze. He did not expect Adrian to mention all the way to the twelfth
regiment. That was their heavy weapons corps, and you could say that
almost a quarter of all their military expenses were invested into that
regiment. The twelfth regiment was definitely one of their most powerful
regiments within the entire Navi Military Command, and they were also the
ones who normally guarded the Navi System. They rarely ever made a
move.

“They are also on standby within our military command, not in Lebor,”
Fayn explained.

“Bring the twelfth regiment into the frontline expedition group that’s
preparing to head out,” Adrian ordered. “Tell them to set off immediately as
soon as they’ve gathered. First, go to the star system where the protesting
schools have already been suppressed. Speed is not a priority. Just go along
the most crowded route and make sure the media has a good shot of our
fleet.”
Fayn had been fighting side by side with Adrian for so many years that
they’ve already long built up a tacit understanding. He had fully understood
his meaning and nodded. “Yes, Commander.”

Adrian explained some of the details of the operation while Fayn

acknowledged all of them. Then, he quickly hung up the call and began to
arrange it.

“How long left till we leave this signal zone?” Adrian asked.

The soldier next to him searched up the information on the screen in front
of him and responded, “At our current speed, sixteen minutes.”

There was still time. Adrian nodded and returned to his own room. Then, he
dialed Zhong Yan’s number.

As soon as the call connected, Zhong Yan asked, “Ade? Is everything done
on your end?”

Zhong Yan had taken a detour to reach a signal zone, so he definitely must
have seen the letter and knew that Adrian was also currently in a signal
zone. But even then, he did not take the initiative to contact him. He had no
experience in military expeditions, but he still knew that Adrian had to
contact the base camp during this time.

Adrian felt like his heart had just been stabbed. Zhong Yan’s voice when he
asked that question was devoid of any blame or sarcasm. He asked him that
question with a gentle tone as if he was asking him whether he had eaten
lunch. As if it was only a matter of course, he had pushed himself down to
second place just for him.

Zhong Yan’s life till now had been devoid of love and kindness. He met the
very first person who was willing to be his friend a the age of seventeen,
and so he regarded that person as his entire world—Adrian often felt that
Zhong Yan did not have the same feelings for him as any normal partner.
He wasn’t doubting Zhong Yan’s love for him. In fact, it was the opposite.
The love that should have belonged to his family, his friends, and his love,
and even the love for man, his own kind. Zhong Yan gave that all to him.
Adrian still remembered how he felt when he heard that he and Zhong Yan
were matched. He could hardly control his temper in public, but when he
lied to Zhong Yan about having a partner and received no special response
for him, Adrian suddenly felt a dull throbbing pain side of him, getting
stuck in his throat, and making him speechless. He knew he was not a
tolerant person, but he would still tolerate everything about Adrian.

“What’s wrong?” When Zhong Yan waited for a few seconds but received
no answer, he began to feel a little panicked. “Did something bad happen?
Are you unsuccessful on your side?”

“No, that’s not it. But…” Adrian covered his face and sat down on the bed
in his room. In a quiet whisper, he said, “I miss you so much.”

Zhong Yan had also lost his voice all of a sudden. After a short moment, he
responded in an even softer tone. “We’ve only just separated for a few
hours.”

“I know.”

“It won’t take long. Once everything is over, we’ll be able to see each other
again.”

“I know.”

“For many, many long years to come, we will always be together. Always
and forever.”

“I know…” Adrian said. He never knew that the feeling of missing

someone could be so strong. “But I still miss you a lot. I regret not holding
you for a while longer before you left. How could I have just let you go?
Even a few more seconds would’ve been good.”

In a place where Adrian could not see, Zhong Yan was sitting in the flying
spacecraft all the way on the other side of the universe, and the tips of his
ears have slightly gone red. He could hear how dispirited Adrian was and it
made his heart hurt. But uncontrollably, he also felt a little…happy.
He is being so sad right now, how could you be happy! Zhong Yan scolded
himself lightly. After thinking about it, he asked, “Have you opened your
suitcase yet?”

“Not yet. Why?”

“Oh…Not yet? Then, forget it…”

“I’ll open it now.” While saying that, Adrian opened his luggage with his
one free hand. The first thing that entered his sight was a snow-white ball
on top of the clothes Zhong Yan had stuffed into his suitcase.

Adrian picked up the fist-sized round fuzzy-looking object just to find a

rope hanging off from it. This seems to be a charm. While observing the
ball, he asked Zhong Yan, “What’s this? The white ball thing.”

“I thought you’ve already opened your luggage and seen it.” Adrian felt a
little embarrassed. Having Adrian opening up his suitcase to see it just after
he said that made him feel like a child asking for encouragement. He said
bashfully, “It’s a lucky felt charm I made for you. You know how they say
that a rabbit’s foot can bring good luck in the ancient legends? I purposely
collected the fur on our giant space rabbit’s foot and made this. I’m not too
good at it, so it’s a bit ugly…”

Adrian quickly said, “What do you mean ugly? Nobody is allowed to say
that what you make is ugly! Look at how nice this round ball is! I’ll
definitely keep it on me every single day.”

If Zhong Yan found out now that what he meant was to wear it around his
neck, instead of just keeping it on his person, then he would definitely stop
him. Unfortunately, he thought that Adrian meant he was just going to keep
it in his pocket, so he allowed it. By the time he realized his
misunderstanding, it was already too late. The entire Navi Military
Command has already found out that “The Commander’s wife made a felt
charm for the Commander to wear out of the fur on the rabbit’s foot before
the Commander went out for battle.” And, so as not to be outdone, the
partners of the other soldiers also made felt charms for their lovers to hang
on their uniforms, and this would become a popular trend among the
officers of the Navi Military Command for some years after that. However,
that all happened in the future.

“Well, it’s not a ball, it’s a rabbit tail,” Zhong Yan explained embarrassedly.
“I wanted to make a rabbit’s head, but it was too difficult. Time was short,
and I’m just a begginer, so I just made a rabbit’s tail.”

Adrian looked at the fuzzy round ball in his hand. You could still see some
fur sticking out of some spots. You could hardly tell what the ball was
supposed to be at all. He gave up on the idea of looking for things to
compliment in the actual object and began pulling his compliments out of
thin air. “Wow, this looks the same as tail of our rabbit back at home! Is this
your first try? It looks so good! I just knew you were a fast learner at
everything!”

Zhong Yan laughed when he heard that. “I know what level I’m at, I just got
lucky with this one. You can stop flattering me.”

“I’m speaking the truth!” Adrian vowed. “He looked at the time and said,
“I’m about to leave the signal zone. You have to be careful when you reach
the Capital, alright?”

“I know. You too. I’m also losing signal soon. We’ll talk again later.”

The call ended. Adrian used the last minute left of the signal to check what
a felt charm was, and also what the legend about the rabbit’s foot was. He
played with the little white ball Zhong Yan had created with him prick after
prick, cherishing it. He had wanted to hang it on his waist, but on second
thought, it wasn’t obvious enough. So, he simply hung it on his left breast
pocket. However, now it seemed too obtrusive, so he put his military jacket
on top to observe it. At the very end, he hung it on the bucket on his left
breast pocket.

Adrian brought three regiments with him this time. This was not too much
out of their total force, but this was already the limit to ensure a speedy trip.
Moreover, the first three regiments were the main elite troops to begin with.
The two colonels of the first and third regiments were chatting in the war
room when the door was suddenly pushed open.
“Commander!” When they saw Adrian come in, both of them stood up to
salute him. Adrian greeted them back before saying, “Don’t mind me, sit
down. You can continue your chat. I just came to ask…”

He paused for a moment. He didn’t think about what he was going to ask at
all. After a few seconds, he went on unperturbed, “I was just asking how
long it’ll take till we arrive.”

Colonel of the first regiment, “…”

Colonel of the third regiment, “…”

Why didn’t he ask the cockpit this instead? They’re not even the ones
responsible!

Adrian approached them casually while standing with the left half of his
body facing them. Navi’s military uniform was black, so the white ball
hanging from hs chest was extremely conspicuous. The colonel of the first
regiment was already an old veteran so he was able to realize instinctively
that things may not be as simple as they may seem. So, cautiously, he did
not speak. The third regiment’s colonel was a young man, so without even
thinking, he asked, “Commander, what’s that ball on your jacket?”

“What ball? This is a rabbit’s tail. I can tell you’ve never raised a rabbit.”
Adrian who had raised more than one rabbit proudly said, “My family made
it for me using the hair of the giant space rabbit I raised back at home—Ah,
speaking of which. Zhong Yan seems to enjoy doing these useless things all
day. I told him not to do it, but he kept insisting that a rabbit’s foot was a
sign of good luck in ancient times. He made it specially with fur from the
rabbit’s foot. A real piece of work, isn’t he? Oh yeah, he actually didn’t
know how to do these things before this, so he learned it specially just to
give me that bit of extra good luck. Ah, you know how these felt charms
are. Quite fussy to do, and you get hurt easily…”
The first colonel covered his face, unable to bear looking at him directly.
On the other hand, the third colonel who was single since birth was
dumbfounded by this sudden critical hit. He listened to Adrian yammer on
for five minutes straight with a dumb look on his face. Then, after Adrian
finished speaking, he added one last question, “How’s it only the two of you
here? Where’s the colonel for the second regiment?”

“He went back to his room early!” The third colonel did not hesitate to
betray his friend.

Adrian nodded in satisfaction. “I will go and ask whether he knows how

long it’ll be till we arrive.”

After an hour, all the senior officers on the hsip were forced to understand
that the white ball was in fact a rabbit’s tail, and they also learned about the
legend of the rabbit’s foot, as well as the fact that the giant space rabbit in
their Commander’s house had the fur of its foot plucked off.
 Chapter 77 - Family

After the successive bombardment of explosive coming out in a single day,

everyone was already feeling numb to it. So, after Adrian published his
letter, troops were sent out from the Navi Military Commanded once more.
Nobody thought this was hard to believe—after all, one of the military
commands have already put their hands on civilians inside a school. Also,
Adrian’s letter clearly stated that he was going to send troops to deal with
the military commands that attacked.

But over time, everything began to heat up again. An hour has passed since
the media first reported that Navi has dispatched troops. Since then,
warships continued to pour out from Lebor’s borders with no end in sight.
The nearly endless amounts of troops left the entire world shocked. To
describe it using one of the hot post titles in the Current Politics Forum,
“I’ve already gone to sleep and woke up, but the Navi Military Command’s
troops still haven’t come to an end! How many warships do they actually
have?!”

The big black mothership slowly pulled out from Lebor’s borders, leading
with it a large team of frigates. The media that had been squatting outside
the border since a long time ago took pictures of those heavily-armed
warships from far away. For the very first time, the Navi Military
Command was revealing its true power to the Federation after lying
dormant all those years behind locked borders.

Countless army fans watching the live broadcast were able to make out the
outlines of those familiar weapons from those distant and blurry images.
They were all riling up in the comments. They never thought that they
would actually be able to see these weapons on the battlefield in their
lifetime. When these heavy warships just appeared in the Capital, many
people were still wondering, “What are they going to do? Why are they
taking out weapons designed to destroy entire planets?”

After all these weapons showed up as if they didn’t cost any money,
everyone could see that they had brought enough to be able to destroy
nearly half of all the planets within the Federation, but they still did not plan
to scatter. Instead, when the entire team moved only towards that one
military command that had sent out its troops, nobody felt worried
anymore. Everyone could see clear as day that they had enough forces to
beat that military command into submission a hundred and eighty times
over. They didn’t bring these weapons to use them, they were just to deter
them.

This trick really did have a significant effect. All the other armies that had
already gathered had given up on actually setting off after Adrian’s letter.
More importantly, the public opinion that was growing sluggish because of
the Capital’s forceful attitude was now riled up again thanks to the
overwhelming force the Navi Military Command showed, as well as their
Commander’s attitude that was even tougher. The ordinary civilians who
didn’t dare to say anything found the courage to stand up and speak their
minds again. In an instant, anger broke out. The virtual community grew
lively again for two days, and it was even more bustling than when the
videos of the soldiers violently breaking into the school came out.

However, Zhong Yan was not in the mood to look at such things. He left all
this for Intron to deal with instead. Besides dozing off for a short nap
halfway through the trip, he spent the rest of his time refreshing the news
sent over by all parties without rest, calculating whether Adrian will be able
to reach the Institution Star before the Capital. If Adrian was the first to
arrive, then the Capital’s affiliated military command is likely to choose to
retreat and avoid direct conflict with Navi’s army. If they’re not sure they
can win, then there’s no way they’ll want to carry the infamy of being the
one to fire the first shot in a civil war between mankind. But if the Capital’s
army arrived first, Adrian will take that shot no matter what.

Compared to Zhong Yan, the number of signal zones in Adrian’s route were
very scarce. He set himself an alarm clock that notifies him every time his
signal is up so that he would never miss a minute of it even if he was
sleeping. He wanted to send Zhong Yan messages to inform him that he was
safe. If both of them were free, then they can briefly connect to a voice chat
for a short while.

Such experiences rarely appear in Adrian’s life. It was strange to say, but he
never felt the difference when they lived together in the same house.
Everything felt so natural as if they had just gone back to their student days.
The two of them did not need to make any adjustments to their lives at all
after getting married because they used to live together like this to begin
with. But after separating, Adrian clearly realized for the first time what
having a family was like. He also saw him as his own responsibility, and as
long as he had a signal, he would try to update him so that he wouldn’t
worry about him.
All his grandfather wanted was a perfect heir. He never cared about his
feelings at all. On the other hand, his mother didn’t even look forward to his
birth in the slightest, and it made her so sad she ended her own life. His
biological father was forced to marry a woman and he regarded him as a
stain in his life. Adrian’s own family had never thought him what that word
meant, “Family”. But when he reached the age of twenty-seven, he actually
got a small family. Someone was there to pour all their love and care onto
him. Even though a small part of it was given to the rabbit back at home, he
wouldn’t try to fight with a soft herbivore. After all, he was the one who
bought it.

During the times when Adrian was going through the bold and decisive
reform of Navi, there were several times that he thought to himself how
lucky he was that he wasn’t together with Zhong Yan. It had nothing to do
with what sort of person Zhong Yan was, things will just get in the way of
the grand cause if he were to have deep relations with anyone. But only
now when he stood at the cusp of this historical frenzy, he finally
understood how stupid and ignorant those thoughts were back then.

These warm and soft emotions did nothing to dull him. Instead, he became
even tougher and sharper. Now, it was time for him to be unsheathed.

The distant image of the Institution Star could be seen from the porthole.
Just after Adrian stood up, his terminal lit up, reminding him that he had
entered the Institution Star’s signal zone.
“I’ve arrived.” Adrian sent Zhong Yan a text message. “I love you.”

He did not turn off the interface. After waiting for a few seconds, he
received a reply. “Be careful out there. I love you too.”

Adrian reread the last few messages that Zhong Yan sent him again, and
only then did he turn off the virtual screen. He carefully tightened the
pendant to his military uniform before heading to the warship’s podium in
large strides.
All the senior officers in the ship have already gathered there. Adrian
commanded in a deep voice, “Send the word out to the entire team. Prepare
for landing.”

As soon as the messenger wearing a headset received the news from the
scouting ship, he said, “Commander, the enemy has also arrived! They are
in the other direction. Their distance to the target planet is the same as ours.
It is estimated that we will both land in ten minutes—”

“We can’t land with them at the same time,” Adrian spoke. “Colonel of the
second regiment!”

“Sir!”

“Pass on my order, dispatch all single fighter ships in the second regiment.”

“Yes! Commander, do we fight to land first using the fastest ships?”

“Why do you want to land? Don’t land. Tell all fighters to target the
enemy’s ships. Only intercept them. Do not open fire. If they want to leave,
then let them. If they open fire, then…make sure not a single one of them
gets to leave.” A fierce glint of a good battle flashed past Adrian’s eyes.
“I’ve raised soldiers for so many years. After all those fights with space
pirates, I still haven’t crossed guns with any actual armies yet.”

However, his thirst for battle still was not able to be quenched this time. All
the way until three of their motherships have landed on the Institution Star,
the Capital’s affiliated military command that they had intercepted still did
not dare to open fire. Hopelessly, they watched as Navi’s patrolling
warships covering the entire planet very quickly. The troops from the
Capital that had been at a stalemate with them for several hours finally
decided to turn around and leave.

By the time Zhong Yan landed back onto the Capital that he had been
absent from for a long time, the situation had already become serious for
them.

The first thing Navi’s troops did after landing on the Institution Star was to
remove all the monitoring equipment. Right now, things were just like back
then for the Capital when they lost White Aegis and Lebor. They had
completely lost all signals from the Institution star.

Since the majority of the military commands have received “Butterfly’s”

suppression orders, a few days have already passed. Up till now, only two
military commands have executed its order. If you were to say that the other
military commands were lagging behind because both of these military
commands have already been defeated by Navi’s army without any
resistance under the huge disparity in power—all their weapons had been
seized, and all their soldiers were captured—then it was still forgivable.
However, in the two hours before Zhong Yan landed, three military
commands that were close in proximity to each other actually issued a joint
statement. They have decided to form their own military alliance for the
time being and no longer accepted orders from “Butterfly”. When
necessary, they will request for assistance from the Navi military
Command.

“This is too much. This is a blatant act of segregation. What are they saying
at the end? Aren’t they just threatening us right now?” After hearing
Intron’s report, Zhong Yan responded calmly, “We should criticize their
actions immediately.”

Intron answered gleefully, “Of course. But it’s a shame, the Capital’s
already having trouble with how much they’re already getting scolded. If
we criticize them now, I’m afraid we’ll be adding oil to the fire.”

Zhong Yan gave Intron a glance from the rearview mirror. Intron realized he
had gone beyond his own position and quickly put on an anxious
expression, saying, “Sir Zhong, should we head to the council house right
now or should I take you back to your residence to rest?”

“Neither.” Zhong Yan looked out the window and said to him calmly, “Go
to the Yate family residence.”
Stalvern Yate had thought that Zhong Yan would not be the same as before,
coming to see him as soon as he was summoned. But unexpectedly, Zhong
Yan who had just landed in the Capital actually came. He couldn’t help but
wonder in his heart. Did the brat not turn?

“Sir Yate.” Zhong Yan greeted him politely just like he did in the past few
years. Without even waiting for Stalvern’s response, he quickly began
again, “Maybe it’s better if I refer to you as Councilor Yate. Even though
you have already retired, it still feels a little strange to call you Sir Yate.
After all—you have the same surname as my husband¹.”

Stalvern was furious. “What do you mean I have the same surname as
him?! He has the same surname as me!”

-----------

Notes:

[1] Sir, Mr., and husband all share the same word, .
 Chapter 78 - Truth or Falsehood

Zhong Yan chuckled. “You’re right. I misspoke.”

Stalvern could keenly sense that something was different. Zhong Yan still
appeared humble and courteous in front of him. Every time he gets angry,
Zhong Yan would bow his head at his word and admit his own wrongs, but
Stalvern had been psychologically fighting with people all his life. He had
such keen eyes that there was no way he couldn’t tell that Zhong Yan’s
seemingly indistinguishable attitude no longer held any respect for him.

He instantly felt furious and asked him coldly, “What are those men
surrounding my house for?”

“Please excuse me, but how are they surrounding your house? They are
merely waiting for me at the door. They were the bodyguards my husband
assigned to me for my safety. They were going to follow me in, but I
stopped them—how disrespectful would that be to you? Moreover, why
would they need to follow me into the Yate Family residence?”

“And that’s where you’re wrong,” Stalvern spoke with mockery in his
voice. “It is only normal to bring your bodyguards with you when you enter
someone else’s home. You wouldn’t think that this is your home now that
you’ve married Adrian Yate, would you? Then let me tell you, my family
does not recognize that unfilial brat who threw dirt at my ancestors’
reputations.”

Seemingly not the least bit angry, Zhong Yan responded easily, “I did not
think of it that way. After all, my husband does not recognize you as family
either.”
“Hmph. You’ve grown too big for your nest now, have you?” Stalvern
couldn’t hold back his anger. “I was wondering why you spent so much
effort just to go to Navi—it turns out it’s so you can latch onto my
grandson. It’s probably to get the Navi Military Command as your backer
isn’t it? You shrugged off Bayer as soon as you arrived. Funny I actually
believed that nonsense you made up about those space pirates and being
placed under house arrest in Navi!”

“Those are all true.” When Zhong Yan saw him get angry, his tone turned
into a more comforting one. “At first, I really was…detained by them. I
should have returned early on, but Bard Pearson and Qu Yongyi had to step
in. They ended up dragging me into it too when they tried to assassinate
Navi’s commander. Don’t even mention coming back, I nearly lost my life
back there. But that’s fine. I didn’t have to be in the Capital when the
‘Honor Decree’ was announced thanks to their little mess. Now I’m
completely clean of it.”

Stalvern laughed when he heard his words. “So what if your hands are
clean? You’re a Representative Councilor, one of the highest-ranking
members in the Supreme Council. You are one of the Twelve! Now that the
prestige of the Supreme Council has come crumbling down, do you still
expect to come out of this in one piece? You’re too short-sighted!”

“Yes, you’re right. Naturally, I understand that principle. That is why I do

not plan to watch this nest turn over. If I truly am short-sighted, then I
would just hide in Navi while the Capital is in trouble. Why should I rush
back for this event? Naturally…I’ve come to turn the tides.”

Stalvern reacted as if he had just heard a stupid joke. “You? Do you really
think you’re capable of that?”

Zhong Yan was not upset at all about having his ability questioned. As if he
did not hear him, he continued, “I plan to convene a round table meeting.
We are going to vote on my proposal, and it will be broadcasted live to the
entire Federation. This will appease the turbulent hearts of the people and
restore our support.”

“What proposal?”
“An impeachment bill,” Zhong Yan answered him calmly, “and our target is
the artificial intelligence, ‘Butterfly’.”

Stalvern was stunned for a moment before he realized what he was saying.
He couldn’t help but stand up and cursed at him with his eyes wide.
“Outrageous! Sure enough, you’ve really been colluding with those people
from Navi! You want to abolish artificial intelligence?”

Zhong Yan sat down and went on, “Councilor Yate, please calm down.
Would I come to discuss with you if that was truly my goal? Would I not
just be asking for abuse? I am talking about an approach where we break
things down before rebuilding. Currently, the civilians have deep grievances
against ‘Butterfly’. Even the military commands are refusing to stay loyal.
If we do not do anything now, then I’m afraid the Supreme Council is going
to be lost soon. A resounding impeachment case is the best way to appease
the people. Don’t they want ‘Butterfly’ to step down? Then we will show
them what they want to see. Regardless of whether the impeachment
succeeds in the end…the people will already have calmed down after the
meeting ends. The impeachment may not succeed, but the cracks in our
system will be surfaced. We will give them a sincere promise to rectify our
policies, then wouldn’t everything become a thing of the past?”

Stalvern still remained standing. He looked down at Zhong Yan with

suspicious eyes while Zhong Yan allowed him to do so without moving.
But in just a moment, what Stalvern asked was not related to the
impeachment case at all. “How much do you know about Navi dispatching
their troops this time around?”

“I know everything about it.” Zhong Yan laughed as if he was unable to

hold back his amusement. “Your grandson really does not have his guard up
against me at all. I would like to thank Councilor Pearson for this one. It
was with his actions that I ended up accidentally saving his life.”

Stalvern asked in a sharp tone, “If you know everything, then why didn’t
you report this to the Capital in advance?! If we could have sent out our
troops early, then we would be able to control the people on the Institution
Star. We would not have ended up in such a passive position!”
“Perhaps. But if the Capital doesn’t fall into this situation, how am I going
to ‘turn the tides’? If I can’t bring up the impeachment case, then my trust
among the people will not be established.” Zhong Yan’s eyes gradually
cooled. “Councilor Yate. Please do not blame me for being cruel, but if you
give them a disease and cure it yourself, then the merit will be yours—
Councilor Pearson is going to bring up the reform soon. I’m sure you’ve
caught wind of it, right? He helped ‘Butterfly’ draft the ‘Honor Decree’ this
time, so ‘Butterfly’ is likely to support him. Moreover, after the Round
Table changes to a pyramid structure, and the personnel is cut…how will I
still have my place in the Supreme Council? I hope you will take no offense
from what I am about to say. After all, you’re already retired. Your
influence in the Supreme Council is declining. I’m afraid you won’t be able
to help me keep my seat, right? But everything will change after the
impeachment order. The public will learn of my sympathy toward the
people, and the Supreme Council will remember my work as well. When
that time comes, I’ll really have a firm foothold in the Supreme Council. No
one will be able to shake me off easily.”

Stalvern returned to his seat on the sofa. He’d always known this young
man was ambitious, he just lacked the background and qualifications. From
what he could see then, he also lacked the toughness and trickery. Back
then, these were the very things he used to take Zhong Yan under him. But
he never thought that he would judge him wrongly. At first, Zhong Yan was
just like a puppet who was under his control for many years. But it was
never his intention to be one deep inside.

“You’ve crafted such a grand plan and even dragged in ‘Butterfly’ all so
you can steady your own position, allowing the world to insult ‘Butterfly’
as they wished. It’s absolutely shameful!”

When Zhong Yan heard this, he actually laughed. When Stalvern glared at
him, he apologized, “Sorry. I just suddenly thought that you’re still rather
similar to my husband in certain aspects. He really was raised by you after
all.”

The Yate Family has always taken “loyalty” as their badge of honor. Only,
Stalvern’s loyalty was aimed towards the AI, while Adrian pledged his to
truth and justice.
However, he was not here to speak with Stalvern about this. Stalvern was
offended enough right then. When he thought about it, Adrian would
definitely jump out of his seat as well if he heard what he just said.
Fortunately, this grandfather and grandson pair were equally disgusted at
each other, so there weren’t many chances for confrontations.

Stalvern took this as an insult and snapped back at him. “Your style is the
same as my old rival, Pearson. It’s a shame you did not continue working
for him.”

Zhong Yan lowered his gaze and did not deny him. “Is that so? I think so as
well. So, as they say…You can’t have two tigers on the same mountain. If
he can’t tolerate my presence, then it’s neck or nothing for me. I came to
you because I thought we could both benefit. After all, I’m young. I’m
afraid that nobody would even dare to give me any support if I were to
bring up something like an impeachment. What’s more, if it really does
make it to the voting stage, twelve is an even number. What are we going to
do if we have an even vote? And now that Pearson is the most senior
member of the Twelve, the lead will inevitably go to him. So, I was
thinking, wouldn’t it be better to invite you to come out and give your vote?
Then, we will be able to hold the majority firmly on our side. You are the
most recently retired member of the council, and though old, your prestige
still runs strong. It is also easy to explain to the others. What do you think?

Stalvern digested Zhong Yan’s desperate plan for a moment and brought up
his questions. “It’s too dangerous. This is no game. Everything will be
broadcast live to the entire world! What will you do if the vote really goes
through?”

“It won’t.” Zhong Yan shook his head and chuckled. “I believe the only
man in the Twelve who will vote for the idea is Vahl Cayman. As for the
two who are on a neutral stance, I’m not sure about them. But even if they
do vote yes, the only people left are either Pearson, me, or our men. How
could we give out a passing vote? Speaking of which, we can’t have a
lopsided vote. If we’re going to make the move in front of everyone in a
live broadcast, it’ll get everyone talking. Whether the vote will be done
anonymously or with our real names, and in what order, whether we need to
arrange a few people to put in an approving vote, and also whether I as the
person who proposed the idea should vote or not…I’ll have to rely on your
advice.”

Stalvern’s anger finally subsided a little. He let out a cold snort and did not
say whether he was in agreement to his idea or not, but Zhong Yan did not
rush him either. He waited patiently beside him. After a moment, Stalvern’s
cold voice said, “I’ve lost myself a little from my anger earlier. Your idea is
feasible. So, in just the few days it took for Navi’s army to stir up the
waves, you’ve already got yourself set on a big decision like this that’s
going to affect the rest of your career? Zhong Yan, I know what kind of
person you are. You’re cautious. This isn’t a conspiracy you set up with that
unfilial brat, is it?”

“What are you saying?” Though he was hit right in the bulls-eye, Zhong
Yan still remained completely unruffled. “Naturally, this is something I’ve
been planning for a long time. Otherwise, why do you think…”

As they say in the past, the best lies are only 70% false. However, when it
comes to dealing with a sharp and experienced old man like Stalvern, 30%
of the truth won’t be enough.

“Otherwise, why do you think me and Commander Yate would be matched

as optimal marriage partners by ‘Butterfly’ in such a great coincidence?”

Stalvern looked at Zhong Yan in surprise while the latter chuckled. “Would
you like to know who I was originally paired with?”
 Chapter 79 - Legacy

Stalvern looked at Zhong Yan with a probing gaze, as if assessing the

credibility of his words. Zhong Yan raised his brows and asked, “Do you
not want to know what ‘Butterfly’s’ original proposal to me was? Are you
just uninterested in this matter, or…have you known it since long ago?
After all, that person seems to have a very good blood relationship with
you.”

If any part of Stalvern’s expression had been fake earlier, you could now
say the change in his expression now was truly genuine. Earlier, Zhong Yan
took the initiative to suggest that he himself was the one who set up the
match for him and Adrian behind the scenes, and though Stalvern showed
surprise, he did not truly believe it. That is because he still knew a bit of
what was going on in the background in regards to Zhong Yan’s marriage
proposal, so what Zhong Yan brought up may have just been a lie.
However, for Zhong Yan to actually say that could prove that he truly did
find out, and also interfered with his marriage proposal himself.

Stalvern’s expression changed over a few times before finally ending in a

cold smile. “So that’s how it is, huh? You’ve really began setting up your
plan since last year…When it was announced that your optimal marriage
partner was that worthless grandson of mine, I thought there was a mistake.
So you were the one who went to ‘Butterfly’ and asked him to replace your
partner with that unfilial bastard.”

“Yes. I went to the ninth floor just for this matter last year, and after stating
my intentions, ‘Butterfly’ told me that he did have an optimal marriage
partner for me. I understood immediately when I saw the Yate surname…
I’m afraid ‘Butterfly’ was not the one who picked my partner. The one who
chose…was you, correct?”
Stalvern did not deny it. After his abdication, he quickly came to cooperate
with Zhong Yan, but as his own heir of his blood had run away, and with
Zhong Yan being an outsider, he couldn’t have him inherit the Yate family.
Moreover, Zhong Yan was young and helpless at the time and could only
rely on him. But what about ten years later? Twenty? He had to think of an
idea to tie Zhong Yan firmly to the Yate family.

Zhong Yan is an orphan with no relatives. The best way to tie him down is
with marriage.

There are a total of nine floors to the Supreme Council’s building. The
eighth floor was dedicated to holding round table meetings, and only the
Twelve and their assistants can go up there, while even less have set foot on
the ninth floor. It’s commonly said that the ninth floor is where
“Butterfly’s” true body resides. Only the twelve representative members
have the authority to go up there. And, with no one taking over his vacant
position during Stalvern’s first year of retirement, he was allowed to keep
his authority temporarily, and twice he took the opportunity when he
returned to the council house to handle the transfer of his residual duties to
talk to “Butterfly”.
This matter was not a secret in the Supreme Council. Soon after, Zhong Yan
was promoted. Everyone thought that Stalvern had come those two times to
recommend Zhong Yan to “Butterfly”. But in truth, only Stalvern himself
knew that “Butterfly” has always been generous to the loyal Yate family. He
accepted his recommendation the first time he brought it up, and the second
time was for Zhong Yan’s marriage.

Zhong Yan was still young at that time. With the improvement of the
average lifespan of a human, the age of marriage was also pushed further
back. It was considered the more normal age now to get married at thirty. It
would seem too early for Zhong Yan to be married at that age back then.
Moreover, he had just pushed Zhong Yan up into position. If in the blink of
an eye, “Butterfly” also announced one of the Yate family’s heirs as his
optimal marriage partner, it would be too obvious. Whether it was in or
outside of the council, it won’t sound pleasant. So, it had to be delayed for a
few years.
But that matter was settled right then. “Butterfly” promised to choose a
partner for Zhong Yan out of the Yate family’s juniors, and Stalvern himself
had also made his preparations and made himself clear on the situation of
all the male and female juniors at a suitable age within the family. No
matter who “Butterfly” chose in the end, he will still be able to control the
situation. However, he would never have thought that the person he chose
would be Adrian.

Even though Adrian was, in fact, one of the Yate family’s juniors, and
“Butterfly” did keep his promise, Stalvern still could not figure out the
deeper meanings of his actions even after mulling deeply over it for several
days. But when Zhong Yan took the initiative to bring up going to the Navi
System to probe the situation, he was more or less certain. They must have
been in a deadlock with Navi for far too long, and “Butterfly” was
beginning to get anxious. That is the reason why Stalvern strongly
supported Zhong Yan despite how illogical and rash his proposal was. He
thought that Zhong Yan was spurred on by “Butterfly”.

After straightening out all the facts, Stalvern said, “I didn’t think ‘Butterfly’
would actually agree to you asking to be matched with that brat.”

“Everyone called me your puppet at that time. If I were to be an honorable

member of the Twelve, I had to ask for his help to give me an opportunity
to break through the deadlock and fight for a chance to obtain some
political achievements.” Zhong Yan chuckled. “But didn’t I succeed?”

Stalvern quipped, “Not bad. But did we really break through the deadlock?
We’re almost at a dead end! You’re not trying to break the deadlock for the
Capital. You’re just eager to build achievements for yourself!”

“We can’t rebuild everything is we don’t destroy it. Another chance at life
for the Capital may not be a bad thing.” Zhong Yan asked casually, “What
do you think?”

“I don’t need your handouts, but…” Stalvern slowly began, “I’m not going
to abandon ‘Butterfly’ when he’s in danger either. Let’s talk about the
specifics.”
Done deal.

Zhong Yan let out a sigh of relief at the bottom of his heart and put on a
smile. Then, he began explaining the whole impeachment plan to him from
start to end.

Zhong Yan who had been recovering from his injury in Navi was finally
back, and the atmosphere in the Capital’s Supreme Council also turned
strange.

This council member was no longer the same as before. Now, he was
married to the big boss in Navi’s military command, and the various
indications of their married life—at the very least, the post-marital life they
wish to display to the world—showed that they were living quite
harmoniously. That means that Zhong Yan now has the support of the Navi
Military Command at his back. Moreover, due to Zhong Yan being away for
a long time, especially now in this situation where everyone is pointing
fingers at the council and yelling at them, and also how he clarified his
relationship with the matter as soon as he could, the people’s anger towards
the Capital did not affect him at all.

And, even more incomprehensibly, the first thing Councilor Zhong Yan did
when he returned to the Capital was to visit the Yate family patriarch. And,
his visit lasted so long that he did not come out of the Yate family residence
before the sky turned dark. It was not until the second day did he finally
resume his duties in the council house.

Commander Yate and the Yate family should be enemies in an

irreconcilable feud…What on earth was Zhong Yan and Old Yate talking
about for such a long time?

Then, a small number of the people were thinking about this matter were
soon contacted by Old Yate, and found out about the plan.

Zhong Yan went to work as usual during the days when Old Yate was
contacting the conservative party to talk to them about the plan. Even
though he had tossed the matter of the “Honor Decree” aside, the work he
could not finish remotely that had been piling up for months was still
enough to busy him to death. Today, he was only able to walk out of the
council house after the sun had set.

He has not had this many people in his hybrid scooter before. Two of the
bodyguards Adrian gave him were seated in front while he and Intron were
seated at the back. The situation has been getting tense recently, so it wasn’t
safe to move around alone at night. So, he had Intron ride in his car so he
could send him back.

As soon as he got in, Zhong Yan said, “Turn on the shield.”

Intron was caught off guard for a moment, but he still turned on the shield.
Only after that did he say, “Sir Zhong, will the AI detect anything strange
with our actions if we keep turning on the shield every day as soon as we
enter the car?”

Zhong Yan chuckled. “Do you really think we’re the ones using it the most?
Right now, I’m afraid not a single person in the Twelve isn’t using it.
Everything’s about to collapse soon, who doesn’t have their own secret
plans they want to talk with their subordinates about? What’s more…so
what if we’re caught by the AI? He…” He’ll be obsolete soon.

Even if the signal shield was turned on, Zhong Yan was still cautious and
did not speak out that sentence. Instead, he asked, “How is the situation
outside today?”

“Just about the same as two days ago,” Intron answered. “The Navi Military
Command has not withdrawn from Institution Star this entire time, and the
monitoring equipment have all been completely dismantled. Nobody knows
what is going on in Institution Star right now, but according to the posts
made by the students in the virtual community, everything seems quite
leisurely. All the stores and concessions are running as usual, and none of
them need to go to class.”

Even though the heavy weapon units that struck fear in all the military
commands had long cleaned up two military commands and returned to
Navi, but the team that their supreme commander had assumed personal
command of was reluctant to pull back, leaving the Capital on tenterhooks.
After all, Institution Star was much too close to the Capital.

It was now an urgent demand for the Capital to appease the people and the
army due to this overwhelming pressure. Under Stalvern and Zhong Yan’s
efforts, the impeachment bill has been roughly drafted, and now they are
only waiting for the final touches to be added on.

Since Zhong Yan had to take a detour to send Intron back, it was already
late at night when he returned to his condo.

This condominium complex was located in a high-price area, and the

people who lived there were all high-end residents. There was a separate
garage downstairs for each property owner, and there was an elevator
within that brought each person directly to their condo. Privacy was well-
guaranteed here, and it was for this reason that Zhong Yan purchased such
an expensive house.

There were no extra rooms or beds in his one-bedroom studio, so Zhong

Yan had to rent a room nearby for his six temporary bodyguards. The two
bodyguards who were in charge of picking him up today brought him to a
garage, and after watching him take the elevator directly up to his floor, left
with the vehicle.

Zhong Yan stood alone in the elevator, reading through the chat logs
between him and Adrian. After returning to work under “Butterfly’s”
watchful gaze, he could not contact Adrian frequently. So, the two of them
had only exchanged daily reports of their good health to each other these
recent days.

Perhaps…he could give Adrian a call tonight. Zhong Yan stroked the screen
that displayed Adrian’s last message to him. He really missed him too
much. If anything, he could just be a little more cautious and avoid talking
about business on the phone. It’s still good to be able to hear his voice. It’s
been so many days since he’d last heard it.

While thinking about that, Zhong Yan stepped out of the elevator door to
his condo and was instantly stunned.
The lights in the living room were on. The lights that were installed in his
condo were equipped with sensor lights which only lit up when someone
was home. Zhong Yan’s complexion changed. His first reaction was to press
the emergency call on his terminal which was connected to the bodyguards,
but at the same time, a black shadow had pounced on him from behind,
covering his mouth and pushing him firmly down on the sofa.

Zhong Yan struggled subconsciously, only to hear the deep male voice he
had yearned for ring out right by his ear, saying, “Don’t move. I’m a space
pirate and this is a robbery.”
 Chapter 80 - My Gun is Cocked
and This is What You Show Me?

Zhong Yan stopped struggling. He wondered if he was having an illusion

from missing him too much. His reasoning told him the facts of what
happened, but his immense joy he felt made it so he actually didn’t dare to
turn around to verify it for a while.

Seeing him remain unmoving, the person behind began to get anxious.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Adrian helped Zhong Yan up from the sofa and held
his face anxiously, asking, “Sorry, did I frighten you?”

Zhong Yan looked at the handsome face right in front of him and suddenly
pounced over. “Ade!”

The two of them held each other tightly on the sofa while Zhong Yan asked
in disbelief, “Why are you here?”

“Institution Star is in a stable condition now. I wouldn’t have anything to do

even if I stuck around, so I thought I’d come see you.” Adrian stroked the
corners of Zhong Yan’s pleased eyes lovingly and said, “I missed you so
much.”
“Me too.” Zhong Yan lightly punched him on the chest. “Why didn’t you
tell me earlier? You scared me earlier. I thought it was one of Pearson’s
boys.”

Adrian held his hand to his chest in an exaggerated manner and said, “I
plead innocent! You were the one who told me not to say too much in our
text messages.”
“Then did I tell you to play out the role of a space pirate as well?” Though
he said that, Zhong Yan could hardly feel angry with Adrian’s actions. He
reached out to help Adrian smooth out his clothes that had been wrinkled
during their contact. “How many people did you bring here?”

He did not ask Adrian how he came in. Nowadays, when two citizens
became legal partners with each other, certain permissions in the system
would be shared by default, including the permissions for the houses and
cars owned by the couple. You could turn off the permissions manually, but
neither Adrian or Zhong Yan had done so. They even shared many others.
So of course Adrian had the permission to enter his house. Only, Zhong Yan
never expected Adrian to have the opportunity to use these permissions so
soon.

“Uh…Your house is smaller than I expected. Why don’t you buy yourself a
bigger house?” Adrian spoke guiltily, “How many square meters is this
place? Does it even have fifty?”

Zhong Yan narrowed his eyes. “You wouldn’t have come alone without
bringing anyone else, would you?”

Since the last attack, Adrian had greatly increased the security forces
around him. On the surface, he would say that he learned a hard lesson from
it, but in truth, Adrian did not find it that important. He might as well
become more alert himself. However, it was mainly due to the strong
demands of Zhong Yan and some other senior officers that he increased his
number of guards and brought them everywhere with him.

“No, honey. Listen to me, I came here secretly, didn’t I? It wouldn’t be

convenient if I brought my men. I had to keep my identity blocker on the
whole trip here just to get away from ‘Butterfly’…”

“How could you act alone!” Zhong Yan grunted in dissatisfaction. But since
Adrian was already here, it was useless to say anything. Not lingering on
useless things was also one of Zhong Yan’s strong points. Also, he was
particularly indulgent towards Adrian. Take for example how Adrian
always liked throwing his clothes everywhere as soon as he returned. After
trying one time to mention it ten years ago without any results, he never
mentioned it again. Instead, he would always follow behind him and clean
up himself. Zhong Yan did not continue complaining about it and instead
asked, “Does anyone know you’re here?”
“Yeah. Several colonels do. Fayn and the others in Navi know as well. I
haven’t been here long myself either. I just reported to them right before
you came in.”

Only then did Zhong Yan feel relieved. When he saw how travel-worn
Adrian looked with his jacket still on and his hat and sunglasses thrown
onto the sofa, he figured that he must have come in disguise and couldn’t
help but feel pity. “Did you have a rough journey here? When did you last
eat? Are you hungry?”

When Adrian saw that delicious looking face that he had not been able to
see for so many days, his eyes turned dark. “I really am…rather hungry.”

“Really? Then, let me make you some—Oh, I’ve never cooked in this
house before.” The kitchen he had at home was just for decoration. There
was no kitchenware inside at all. Thinking that Adrian must be hungry,
Zhong Yan said anxiously, “I’ve always bought food from outside so there’s
nothing to eat at home. I’ll go buy you supper now. The delivery services in
the Capital are really quick, they’ll definitely be able to arrive within ten
minutes of…Mh!”

Adrian sealed his mouth with his lips and held one hand behind his head to
deepen their first kiss in a while. It wasn’t until Zhong Yan’s body went soft
under his arms did he finally pull back.

“What do you mean there’s nothing to eat at home?” Adrian kissed his
cheek and murmured, “This right here looks pretty good.”

They were both men with normal functioning bodies, so it was natural for
them to have their needs. It would’ve been fine in the past, but once you
have your first taste of meat, it’s hard to stop. After being forced to go
vegetarian these days, Zhong Yan really did miss that taste. Adrian reached
his hand inside his clothes from the hem of his shirt and stroked the smooth
skin of his waist, causing Zhong Yan to shudder. He couldn’t help but feel
aroused and his breath grew heavy as he kissed him. Lower down, his hands
were already beginning to unbutton Adrian’s shirt.

If they’re going to do it on the sofa then the sofa it is, Zhong Yan thought.
The house is pretty small anyways, and there’s nobody…

Ding.

The gentle beep of the elevator caused the semi-aroused couple to freeze.
They looked at each other, and Zhong Yan was the first to recall that he had
pressed on the emergency help button when Adrian pounced on him from
behind. But, before he had any time to react, several fully-armed men
rushed out of the elevator with their guns brandished in the very next
second. When the two men at the lead saw the scene in the living room,
their feet stopped.

Adrian had a stare down with two of his most powerful guard captains.

Before anyone could say anything, the guard standing at the very back who
was unable to see Adrian’s face, and only saw Zhong Yan being pressed
down by a man on the sofa, shouted out without hesitation, “Let him go!
Are you tired of living? How dare you touch our boss’s man!”

Their boss, Adrian, “…”

Zhong Yan, “…”

The other guards, “…”

Two minutes later.

As if nothing had happened, Adrian buttoned up his shirt buttons that were
half-undone by Zhong Yan earlier. Two of the six guards he assigned to
Zhong Yan were captains, and at this moment, the two of them were sitting
on the sofa together with Adrian and reporting to him the recent days’
events. Even though they didn’t really know what they should say
themselves, it didn’t really matter. Adrian wasn’t listening at all. They were
just trying their best to create a normal atmosphere and drown out the
blunder they made earlier.

The guard who shouted out and escalated the situation to peak
embarrassment was currently shrunk into the corner of the living room by
himself with his back to everyone. He was too embarrassed to face
everyone and was just trying to hide his existence right now.

On the other hand, Zhong Yan who had his clothes straightened out by
Adrian and helped off the sofa, ran off to hide in the room after leaving
behind a quick “I’ll get everyone water”, and no longer came out, leaving
Adrian behind to face his six guards.

After hiding for a few minutes, Zhong Yan finally calmed down from his
embarrassment. He said he was going to get everyone water, but there was
actually only one cup in the house so he couldn’t really do that. So, the only
thing he could do was order a few bottles of juice from the 24-hour
convenience store downstairs and quickly brought them in through the
platform outside the window.

Originally, when he was living alone, he felt like the living room for his
apartment was pretty big, but coming out now with eight grown men sitting
in his living room, everything instantly became crowded. Zhong Yan
distributed juice to them, and the guards didn’t even know whether they
should accept it or not as they looked at Adrian with hesitation. Adrian
waved his hand and said, “If Mr. Zhong is offering you a drink, just drink it.
What are you looking at me for?”

Only then did the guards accept the drink. Zhong Yan had originally
planned to sit down with them, but when he saw that the sofa was already
taken up by three people, leaving no space for him, he could only stand
around and find something to talk about. “Sorry, my house is a little messy
since I haven’t been cleaning up lately, it’s quite embarrassing…”

The entire house was as clean and tidy as if someone had just done some
spring cleaning before they came in, but nobody could care about the
discrepancy. The two captains responded with a few polite remarks, both
still scared witless.
Zhong Yan had only pressed on the emergency call button because of how
Adrian teased him. Then, as Adrian began getting way too excited, he
completely forgot about it. But in the end, it was their own fault that they
made them come all this way for nothing, and they were Adrian’s capable
subordinates too. Embarrassed, Zhong Yan invited them to stay for a meal.
“Why don’t you all stay for supper before you go? Since you’re all here…”

The two guard captains on the sofa looked at Adrian again. Adrian stood up
and went to stand next to Zhong Yan, but he couldn’t argue with Zhong
Yan’s kindness, so he could only say with his arms around Zhong Yan’s
waist, “Yeah, stay for supper. Are you guys…” With dangerous and
meaningful eyes, he swept his gaze past each and every one of their faces,
“Hungry?”

All the guards in the living room jumped with a start, and they all hurried to
refuse, “No no, we’re not hungry.”

“We just ate, commander.”

“Thank you for your kindness, Mr. Zhong. I think we’ll…skip for today.”

“Oh, that’s fine then.” Adrian said, “I’m sorry we troubled all of you to rush
over here. You should go back and rest. Also, there’s no need for any of you
to stay on guard tonight. Oh, that’s right. I’ll be living here these days so
you won’t need the permissions for the door anymore. Just cancel it.”

The guards all obeyed his order. If Adrian himself were to stay in this
house, then he would become the strongest guard. There really was no need
for them to keep his door permissions for emergencies.

After sending the guards away, Adrian and Zhong Yan looked at each other
in front of the elevator door, and both laughed at the same time.

Once bitten, twice shy. Zhong Yan locked the elevator door from the inside
with his permission. After all that happened, they really did feel a little
hungry. So, the two of them ordered some supper and sat at the small square
table Zhong Yan usually ate alone at in the kitchen, and ate their food facing
each other.
“You didn’t bring any of your luggage, did you?” Zhong Yan’s voice was a
lot more lively than usual. Even if the current situation was quite severe, he
still couldn’t help but chatter away happily. “Then, I’ll choose out some
clothes for you. I saw a nice coat in the Central Business District last time I
went there. You’ll definitely look good in it—Oh, do you know about that
place? It’s…”

“Of course I do. Your husband’s been living seventeen years of his life in
the Capital,” Adrian laughed. Then, he reached out a loving hand to Zhong
Yan and brushed his hair behind his ear. “Anything you pick out is nice.
Come, let’s eat.”
 Chapter 81 - The Night Before

The next day, Intron came early in the morning as usual, in his suit and
leather shoes, and waited in front of his door. Even though he mentioned in
the beginning that he was only giving him a ride out of convenience, it
actually wasn’t because Zhong Yan wanted to pick him up. And he knew
that too. Right now, he was “Specimen’s” second-in-command, and there
were issues with his security. So, he did not argue or refuse Zhong Yan
when he offered these arrangements. It seemed quite unreasonable for a
Representative Councilor to pick up his assistant to and from work each
day, and they would not have done so in order to avoid any suspicions. But
now…

Intron stood below his own apartment block, watching the cars go by while
he thought absently in his heart, who cares about that now, right? The bill to
impeach “Butterfly” was officially put on the agenda. Anyway, the votes
would be coming in in a couple of days. Even though there were still many
Representative Councilors who were against the bill, there were already
people—naturally, “Specimen’s” men—who have broken the news
anonymously to everyone in the virtual community. The people cheered,
and they all flooded the Supreme Council’s official website and homepage
to ask about its progress, putting the council at an even more difficult
position. If they did not allow the bill to continue, they worried that a
greater rebound awaited them.

Zhong Yan’s affordable four-seater stopped by him. After Intron opened the
back door and got inside, he was just about to greet Zhong Yan like usual
when he suddenly realized that the person sitting beside him was not Zhong
Yan. Instead, it was a young bodyguard.

Zhong Yan who usually sits in the back seat was sitting shotgun today,
while the person driving was a bodyguard wearing shades—Hold on, why
did he need to wear shades while driving? Moreover, the half of the man’s
face that was revealed looks rather familiar somehow…Intron tried and
tried again to think while he stared at the driver through the rearview
mirror, but he could not recall who that face belonged to. He could only
greet Zhong Yan in a muddled state.

“Good morning,” Zhong Yan responded warmly to him. Even though he did
not respond to him any differently—and was pretty nice to him after their
identity as fellow brethren were revealed—Intron still felt that Zhong Yan
seemed to be in a better mood than usual.

However, the young guard sitting at the back was in a complete opposite
state to Zhong Yan. For some reason, this young man who looked just about
twenty or so years old had on an expression almost as if he had seen
through the vanities of life itself. Intron attempted to greet him and tried to
ask what caused the strange atmosphere in the car, but he received a ghastly
gaze in response.

Intron, ?

They quickly arrived at the council house. After the car stopped, Intron was
just about to get down when he heard Zhong Yan say to the driver, “Drive
slowly on the way back and don’t use the Central Commercial Street.
Traffic tends to be heavy there at this hour.”

Intron had never heard Zhong Yan speak in such a gentle tone. He looked
up in surprise at the front and heard the man wearing the large shades
respond, “Got it. Don’t worry, I’m more familiar with the roads at the
Capital than you are. I’ll be fine.”

His tone was filled with indulgence. it was not his usual style of speaking,
but from what he could see of the half of his face that was revealed, Intron
was able to deduce who that voice belonged to, and he was so shocked that
he even forgot to get off the car.

“Well, I’ll be heading to work then,” Zhong Yan told him.

“Hold on a second.” Adrian held his hand to stop him and took off his
shades, turning to the back seats. “You two get off first. He’ll catch up
soon.”

Intron looked at his rarely-seen silver irises and nodded dumbly.

Meanwhile, the young guard beside him asked doubtfully, “Commander,
why am I getting off as well?”

Adrian responded in dissatisfaction, “You get off if I tell you to. What are
you asking all this nonsense for?”

Zhong Yan quickly tugged at his sleeves and coaxed the two at the back in a
gentle voice. “You two are about the same age, right? What a coincidence.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you two could have a chat and maybe become
friends?”

There’s such a high probability of being the same age! How was that a
coincidence?!

With Intron and the young guard both being kicked out from the car, the
two of them stood silently by the road. After a moment, the guard
awkwardly began, “So you’re 23 as well? Haha, it is quite a coincidence,
huh?”

Intron responded, “No. I’m 24.”

…Things got even more awkward.

Fortunately, Zhong Yan joined them soon after, ending the awkward
conversation. Intron breathed a sigh of relief and followed Zhong Yan into
the council house. The usual unaffected expression returned to Zhong Yan’s
face as he asked, “Is the speech finalized?”

“Yes, Sir Zhong.”

“Good. Pass it to me later.”

“Yes, sir.”
While Intron talked with him about work, Zhong Yan did not look any
different from usual. Only by looking closely would anyone realize that his
lips were more bright and moist than usual, almost as if…he had just been
kissed.

“I’ll send you back first. Give me the address,” Adrian said to the guard
who had returned to the car.

The guard had a start, and he quickly responded, “No need, commander. Let
me change seats with you. I’ll drive. The captain will have my head if he
finds out I let you drive while I just sit around.”

He was the one who accidentally accused his commander as a rapist

because he had not seen the situation properly, and he had received a long
nagging from his captain after returning because of it.
“Does it matter who drives? What’s more, this should be your first time in
your Capital, isn’t it? I’m more familiar with these parts than you are. Hurry
up, there’s somewhere else I need to go after sending you off.”

Before the guard could say anything to refuse him, Adrian had already
found where he stayed from the recent navigation addresses recorded in the
car and began heading over.

He had long heard of the rumors that Adrian did not put on any airs in his
private life, and would always treat even the lowest ranking soldiers as
brethren. He finally saw it himself today. Only…The young guard was
sitting in the front passenger seat at the edge of tears, recalling what
happened this morning.

He and another guard drove to Zhong Yan’s garage as usual, waiting for
him to come down. But unexpectedly, two people showed up. Adrian said
he needed to go out for something. So, in order to disguise himself, he had
to exchange clothing with one of the guards. It just so happened that the
older guard wore clothes more similar in size to Adrian, so it was him who
exchanged clothes with Adrian. That resulted in Adrian driving, Councilor
Zhong Yan sitting shotgun, while he alone sat at the back, thinking about
why he was even there in the first place.
To put their relationships into perspective, they were a legal, newlywed
couple. But if you were to call him Zhong Yan’s bodyguard…It did not
seem like there was any protecting to do when the man nicknamed the
Single Strongest Human Soldier, Adrian, was sitting at the front.

He thought it was awkward enough being the third wheel in the car, but he
never expected that that would be over after Zhong Yan got off. But now,
Adrian seemed to have become his driver. The guard felt like he was sitting
on pins and needles the whole ride through. He didn’t even think about
asking Adrian where he was going, and what he was going to do.

That night, Zhong Yan brought home a full set of kitchen utensils when he
returned. The sounds of pots and pans could be heard for the very first time
in his bachelor’s apartment. The small home was now filled with the smell
of food. Adrian lifted his head up from his work, his attention caught by the
aroma and the sight of Zhong Yan’s busy back. He couldn’t focus on his
work anymore, and instead went over to Zhong Yan’s side and paced back
and forth behind him.

“Don’t eat the ingredients,” Zhong Yan slapped away his mischievous
hands that were reaching over and laughed, “Why don’t you chat with me
instead? That’ll keep your mouth engaged.”

Adrian whose hands moved so quickly that his enemies could hardly see
what was coming to them was actually caught by Zhong Yan, who had no
combat experience whatsoever. You could tell he didn’t really intend to
snatch a bite, he just wanted to play around.

Adrian hugged Zhong Yan who was currently cooking from behind. When
they were still staying together in the dorms, he only dared to hold his
shoulder for fear that Zhong Yan would see through his feelings, but he
could openly circle his arms around Zhong Yan’s waist now. “The last fight
is tomorrow. Nervous?”

What he was talking about was the notice released by the Supreme Council
just this afternoon. Due to “Butterfly’s” illegal issuing of the “Honor
Decree”, as well as the military order for the crackdown that ended up
injuring some students, the Supreme Council has decided to start an
impeachment bill. A vote will be held at the round table tomorrow, and in
good faith, the process will be broadcast live throughout the entirety of the
Federation.

“We’ve already come this far. We’ve done all we needed to.” While stirring
the pot with one hand, he let his free hand rest on Adrian’s arm that covered
his waist. “Things were still going fine today. We managed to negotiate the
general process of everything just before work hours were over. Otherwise,
we may have had to start a late-night meeting.”

This morning, the most senior member of the Twelve, Bard Pearson, his
presence long overdue, entered the room just when the meeting was about
to begin. If there was no meeting, then he may not even appear in the
council until the afternoon. The entire council was already used to this.

After this meeting, however, Pearson who still adamant on not agreeing to
the impeachment vote actually nodded. However, he brought up wanting to
host the vote himself. But Zhong Yan was resolute in inviting Stalvern Yate
to reside over it instead. Right now, Zhong Yan’s standing was different. He
held a certain amount of weight in the round table. The two sides were in a
deadlock over the matter, but the matter was finally settled when the neutral
party, led by Vahl Cayman, leaned over to Old Yate’s side.

Zhong Yan covered the pot and turned around to embrace Adrian. He said,
“I thought things would definitely drag on until the day after, but it seems
your work was successful today.”

Adrian did not answer him directly. They always spoke with much caution
within the Capital, and they tried as much as possible to avoid talking about
the specifics of their plans. So, Adrian had only tightened his hold around
that man and said in a warm voice, “Everything’s going swimmingly for me
these past few days. The lucky charm you made me must be effective.”

As he said that, he took out the white ball from his pocket. As soon as he
saw that, Zhong Yan grinned. “You’re really bringing that around with
you?”
“Of course. This is my lucky charm.” Adrian put the ball into Zhong Yan’s
hands and said solemnly to him, “I’ll lend this to you for a day. After you’re
done with it tomorrow, remember to hand it back to me.”

With a smile, Zhong Yan agreed. “Okay.”

While watching him, it seemed like Adrian had something to say to him,
but he kept stopping. Sensing that, Zhong Yan asked, “What’s wrong?”

If they lose tomorrow, then he will forcibly take Zhong Yan away from the
Capital. He knows that Zhong Yan likely won’t agree to that. He would
definitely stay behind to deal with the aftermath. Even if they can’t get
away, Zhong Yan’s safety was still the most important to Adrian, and that
was also the purpose of his secret trip to the Capital.

“If…” Adrian’s words cut off at his lips, but he still managed to say, “If you
lose it, then you have to make me another one. This time, I want a wolf’s
tail.”
 Chapter 82 - The Final Banquet

This may be the most-watched live broadcast in the Federation’s history.

Vahl sat in his usual seat at the round table and swept a glance at the
hovering cameras above the round table. Though this wasn’t the time for it,
an idea popped up in his mind. Last time, when Adrian was buying blood at
an exorbitant price, you could say that nearly everyone had watched the
video. But still, everything happened so suddenly that most people had only
seen the recording afterwards, not the live broadcast. And then there was
the other live broadcast before that ignited a heated discussion among the
people…That press conference held in Lebor? Or was it the hundred-year
celebration of the Supreme Institution? No matter which one it was, Vahl
was convinced that the number of viewers then couldn’t be compared to
right now.

The territory of the Federation was too vast. It was now the afternoon in the
Capital, but it was midnight for some people and early mornings for others.
However, the live broadcast for the impeachment case was announced by
the Supreme Council 24 hours ago. Even the planets where it was currently
3 in the morning were brightly lit.

Some people were expectant, some were angry, some were excited, and
some were fearful. But without exception, many people cared very much
about this ballot that will determine the future direction of human society.

Vahl was the earliest to arrive. The cameras were not on yet, so the viewers
who had logged into the broadcast early were met with a black screen, as
well as notifications that the live broadcast had yet to begin.

There wasn’t any special reason for him to enter the round table meeting
room early. He just wanted to sit down quietly by himself for a moment. He
could not be any more familiar with this room. For 13 chairs to be present
today was a sight he still couldn’t get used to. Besides Pearson, he was the
oldest among the Twelve. At just thirty years old, Vahl had already
managed to become one of the representative councilors. For some time, he
was very well-known for being history’s youngest representative councilor,
and that record was only broken twenty years later by Zhong Yan.

It wasn’t as if he was void of ambition, nor was he willing to just remain

mediocre. Otherwise, he would not have been able to climb to the apex of
human power at such a young age. However, he still could not let go of that
love. With gritted teeth, he sacrificed his future for it. Unfortunately, he was
too young to be able to compete with the Yate family’s patriarch and ended
up with nothing in the end.

If he had accepted the young lady that “Butterfly” had assigned to him back
then, then his life could’ve gone in a completely different direction. Vahl
had the support of the Cayman family at his back. If he married a wife that
stood at the same heights as him in society, then he would definitely have
been able to strengthen his position as a newly elected member of the
Twelve with the support of the two families. Most importantly, he would
not have incurred “Butterfly’s” dislike. Perhaps he might have been able to
contend with the two giants, Stalvern Yate and Bard Pearson, a few years
later. After all, the two of them were old, and he himself had been still so
young. A few more years of experience would definitely have been enough
for him to hold the Federation in his hands.

If only he accepted “Butterfly’s” match back then. Vahl knew its benefits
better than anyone, but he still decided to follow his heart. He never
regretted it, and if he were to ask himself whether he would do it again, he
would definitely say yes.

He thought he would have to sit there for a long time before anyone else
would come, but in fact, the sounds of another person’s feet could be heard
at the entrance in just a moment.

The conservatives, with Stalvern Yate at the lead, made their entrance.
But Vahl was not surprised. Compared to Pearson, Stalvern had always
been a hardworking man who fulfilled his duties responsibly when he was
still part of the council. Now, for him to come to the meeting room early
was normal as he was someone invited to join the meeting. When Vahl first
entered the Supreme Council, he once heard the young members of the
council chatting in private, saying that they suspected that Stalvern was a
robot. Because, he was able to achieve the surprising feat of never being
late, never leaving early, and never taking a single day off for ten
consecutive years in office.

Stalvern was almost forty years old when he received the order to procreate.
He and his daughter did not really receive that order that early on in their
lives, so the age gap between him and Adrian was slightly larger than
compared with the age gap between a regular grandparent and his
grandchild. Currently, his grandson had only turned twenty-seven, while he
was already struggling to talk. Even though he still had a very stern and
spirited face, a trace of his age could still be seen.

Contrary to Stalvern’s old age, the young man walking behind him had a
very beautiful face, with eyes as wonderful as a painting. Vahl often felt that
this overly young and beautiful face looked a little out of place in the round
table where the average age was more than sixty. Ever since Zhong Yan
replaced Stalvern as a representative member at the round table, the average
year of their members had been pushed down by several years just by
Zhong Yan’s help alone.

Three other representative members followed behind the old and young
pair, but neither of the three acted as if they had seen Vahl and gave him no
greetings. Instead, they went over to their own seats and sat down. Without
any hesitation, Stalvern took the main seat that faced the entrance—quite
ironic now if you think about it, but the Supreme Council was originally
designed as a “round table” council, meaning that all twelve representative
members were of equal standing. However, a gap gradually began to form
between the positions. For example, the seat opposite to Pearson that Zhong
Yan usually took represented the very last place.

But today, Zhong Yan had walked with Stalvern straight to the main seats,
sitting down at Stalvern’s right. Stalvern swept a glance over to the
sequence in which the other three members sat, and frowned. “Xiao Li,
don’t sit there. Come here.”

The “Xiao Li” he mentioned was one of the representative members who
was already 67-years-old. The councilor surnamed Li stood up, only to hear
Zhong Yan say, “Hold on.”

They all looked at Zhong Yan. Even Vahl had looked over to him. Could it
be, was the conservative party going to start an internal fight before the
meeting even began?

“It’s fine enough if only the Twelve could see the arrangements during our
regular meetings.” But Zhong Yan was not trying to stir trouble, he only
mentioned to Stalvern in a humble tone, “This time, the meeting is going to
be broadcast to the entire world. If we sit too…It won’t do us any good if
this becomes an object of discussion among the people. No matter what
differences there were in the round table, this is the time for everyone to
work together to overcome our difficulties. I think it would be best to sit
down in chronological order of when we entered the council instead—and it
just so happens that the most senior member is Councilor Yate, while I am
the very last. So, as long as we are situated at the start and at the end,
nobody would say anything regardless of what order we are seated in the
center.”

A tight frown formed at Stalvern’s brow. It seemed like he was going to

reprimand him, but Zhong Yan intercepted him and continued, “Councilor
Yate. What about this? I will sit to your right. Councilor Pearson entered the
Twelve right after you, so he should sit to your left. Then…Who was next?
Was it Councilor Annoni?”

Stalvern froze. He immediately understood what Zhong Yan was trying to

say. This time, the voting was based on an open vote with their real names,
and they were not all going to be making their votes simultaneously. This
meant that each person would take turns announcing their votes. Generally,
such votes would proceed in a clockwise order, which meant that voting
would begin from Stalvern’s left.
“That is incorrect. Councilor Cayman should be right after Councilor
Pearson.” Though Stalvern was speaking to Zhong Yan, he was looking at
Vahl with a meaningful gaze. “But I don’t blame you. You entered much too
late, so you don’t know of the past. Back then, Councilor Cayman had
entered the round table at a very young age. It was big news back then, and
he was much more spirited than you are now too. Come, Cayman. The
second seat to my left is yours.”
This was even better. Pearson would be the first to vote after him, and Vahl
the second. After the two people he scorned the most took their votes early
on, he would be able to enjoy the rest in peace. Even though he didn’t much
like Zhong Yan right now either, they were still in an alliance right now, as
far as matters were concerned. By leaving Zhong Yan at his right, and also
the final vote, would add on an extra layer of security.

Vahl was no longer the young man who jumped at Stalvern’s ridicule. His
many decades of unsuccessful political career had already worn away his
edges. At this moment, none of his emotions showed on his face, and he
only walked silently over to the second seat left of Stalvern and sat down.

The other three conservative members had also figured out their positions
and sat down.

After they were done mulling over the issue of their seats, the rest of the
members quickly arrived. Surprisingly to them, half of the members have
already taken their seats in order. Moreover, Zhong Yan’s words did make
sense. So, everyone sat down in their chronological order of when they had
become representative members. Even Pearson who came the very last had
only scoffed at the matter and said nothing else.

Indeed, this was not the right day for a dispute. They had already reached
an agreement among all the members present during yesterday’s round table
meeting. They assigned five people, including Vahl and the two neutral
parties, as well as one conservative member and a radical member to vote in
favor of the bill. The remaining seven, including Stalvern, would vote
against the bill. At the very end, the case would be rejected with five votes
against eight.
The neutral members who were assigned to vote yes were originally
unhappy with these decisions. This vote was nothing more than a show, and
the AI would not need to actually step down. Voting in favor of the bill
would not help their own political careers now either. Including Vahl, it
wasn’t to say the three representative members were in a party of their own.
They were called the “neutral party” because they were in no party at all. To
put it bluntly, though the two representative members who were in a clique
were assigned passing votes, they were destined to be the losers. But of
course, resources would be given to both parties as compensation after the
matter ended, but the three of them could only suffer.

And so, one of them raised an objection yesterday. He wanted Zhong Yan to
change votes with him. He claimed that if Zhong Yan could both propose
the impeachment bill and win the vote against AI, then he would gain
nothing but benefits, and it would be too greedy for him to do so. But later,
he said that there was no way for Zhong Yan to justify voting against the
bill if he were the one who brought it up in the first place. The public would
think he was inconsistent. So, they might as well get through with it to the
end and have Zhong Yan give a passing vote. No matter what, Zhong Yan
would not change his vote.

For some reason, Pearson was strangely quiet the other day. It was a rare
chance for him to be able to take a jab at Zhong Yan, but he actually said
nothing. With nobody speaking against him, he managed to have his way in
the end.

Right now, this very unhappy neutral member was seated right to Zhong
Yan’s right. Besides Zhong Yan, he was the least qualified member in the
Twelve.

The thirteen councilors are now in place. As the clock hands both coincided
on the old-fashioned round clock on the wall, red lights signaling their on-
air status were now lit up on the cameras hovering above the round table.

The darkness of the screens of the Federations’ ever corner finally subsided.
The image everyone was waiting for finally appeared.
In the vast galaxy, the hundreds of millions of people who inhabit this
world now attend the final banquet.
 Chapter 83 - Judgement Day
Meeting

The live cameras emitted a soft beep to remind everyone present that the
live broadcast had begun.

Since the round table was established, this was the first time AI has been
absent from the meeting for nearly a century. Even if they had already
discussed the process yesterday, and “Butterfly” was informed as well, it
still felt a little strange for the representative members. The hollow cylinder
at the center was empty. “Butterfly” did not come, and their meeting was
going to begin.

The beam, representing the AI’s lack of presence, lit up at the center of the
table. In the AI’s place, Stalvern who sat at the seat of honor stood up and
announced to the camera the beginning of the meeting to all the viewers
present at the broadcast.

In an aged but very clear voice, he began to read out the contents of the
impeachment bill while all members of the Twelve looked at him with
respect.

No matter the results of the voting, this would be the last time the round
table would come into use. No matter how badly news travels, the
representative members knew from what they’ve heard that after the
passing of this critical moment, Pearson’s party will begin to propose the
structural reforms, and the so-called equality of the round table would
forever cease to exist.

In other words, this is the last round table meeting of the human’s
Federation. Mankind will enter a new era, but as for what sort of future the
Federation would usher in would depend on the rise or fall of this moment.

“…According to the emergency regulations laid down more than two

centuries ago, when the first artificial intelligence, “Cocoon”, was born…
When the meeting for the impeachment vote begins, which was a few
minutes ago, the AI, “Butterfly”, will enter a state of temporary hibernation
as we wait for the results.” After he was done reading the contents of his
script, Stalvern reached up and pushed away the virtual screen in front of
him. “Now, as the host of this voting session, I now announce the beginning
of the vote, and I would like to invite my fellow colleagues to express your
stance in clear language after I voice my own vote. The side that exceeds
half of the votes, seven votes, will be adopted.”

After he was done, he seated himself again. As the first person to vote,
Stalvern kept a straight face and said without hesitation, “I vote against this
bill. I vote against the impeachment of the artificial intelligence,
‘Butterfly’.”

On the ballot trackers prepared early on by countless of the Federation’s

media websites, the number 1 appeared under the words “against”.

The very first vote of the bill was a negative one. Even if Stalvern’s
stubborn opposition was fully expected, the virtual community was still in
low spirits. Of course, there were a minority of people who praised the vote,
but the comments were pouring in too quickly no matter what site you were
on. There was no time to respond to anyone at all as everyone was busy
writing their own thoughts on the vote. This actually helped to avoid a lot of
unnecessary quarrels.

The next person to vote was Pearson who sat to Stalvern’s right. He slowly
looked around the audience, showing a gaze that was almost peaceful and
devoid of deeper thoughts underneath all the live cameras that broadcasted
the scene to the entire Federation. Finally, when he saw Zhong Yan, he put
on an almost odd smile as he said, “There is a serious fault with the AI, so it
has lost its meaning. I vote for the impeachment.”

The entire world was in an uproar.

The complexions of almost half of the people at the round table suddenly
changed. Having spent more than half his life in the council, Pearson had
long been skilled at hiding his emotions. After seeing his lifelong rival,
Stalvern, reveal a terrible look of complete shock as he glared at him, he
finally couldn’t help but reveal a look of amusement. But in the next
moment, his eyes peered over to the young man sitting beside Stalvern
abruptly, and his exhilaration faded away like a receding tide.

As the main member of the conservative party, as well as the person who
created the so-called “rebirth” plan which he would benefit from the most,
Zhong Yan’s face did not show any changes despite the fact that someone
was already playing against the script on the second vote. And that person
was Pearson to boot. Zhong Yan’s face remained as still as the surface of an
old, rippleless well.

He was only a child in his twenties. Though he had no other capabilities, he

was pretty good at putting on an act. Pearson’s fun was ruined. However,
thinking that his previous plan had also been destroyed by Zhong Yan
outside of his expectations, he had no idea whether he had done it on
purpose or not. Then, thinking back to the time when Zhong Yan, as a
newcomer at that time, actually dared to separate from his reins, and
switched over to his old rival…New and old grudges raged within his heart.
Pearson was thinking that when the cameras were off, then he would have
to give this young man a good explanation. He would personally tell Zhong
Yan why he changed his mind. He didn’t believe that Zhong Yan could still
remain calm after hearing that it was his husband himself who destroyed his
plans.

“I agree with the abolishment of artificial intelligence. May human

autonomy be restored.” Vahl’s voice pulled everyone back to the current
situation. “I vote for the bill.”

There were now two votes in favor. They were already ahead of the
negative votes.

Stalvern shot Vahl a wicked glance. He felt like he was going to cough out
blood in his heart. Following the process they had arranged yesterday, Vahl
should indeed have voted for the bill, but someone before him changed his
vote. If you truly wanted the plan to succeed and keep the AI in office, then
you should have changed the vote. However, not only did Vahl not change
his vote, he even brought up the slogan long hailed by the Navi System.
“Restore human autonomy”. At this moment, Vahl had completely stated
his position as an anti-AI supporter.

Several people looked at him now in a different light, but nobody would
attack him in clear view of the Federation. Thus, the voting continued.

The councilor at Vahl’s left was the conservative member who was set to
vote in favor of the bill yesterday. He decisively changed his vote. “I vote
against it.”

The votes were now equal again. The fifth voter was a member of the
radical party. According to the script, he should have voted against it, but he
said, “I support the impeachment bill.”

So far, three of the first five voters changed their votes. This scene, which
had originally been a performance with a planned script, had now become a
game with raging currents hidden underneath it.

The sixth vote was cast by a neutral member. Based on the script, he was
supposed to vote in favor of the bill.

After Pearson took the lead in voting for the bill, the second radical member
followed. There must have been many personal dealings between Pearson
and “Butterfly”. Perhaps the public may not know it, but the Twelve surely
do. But right this moment, he suddenly attacked the AI, making his own
ambitions clear to all.

The sixth person to vote, a neutral party member, hesitated for a long time.
He mulled over the calculations of the votes many times—Logically
speaking, five councilors at the table were of the radical party. If you add
Vahl into the mix, the number would only reach six. With thirteen people
voting, they lack a single vote to pass the bill. Someone must have bribed
Pearson to vote for this impeachment. Otherwise, if the impeachment bill
was rejected and “Butterfly” was woken up, the good days of those who
voted for this bill would all come to an end.
However, Pearson may not know that his own radical party was not
completely clean. It is a shame, but it will be difficult for him to achieve
seven votes today.

This neutral party member who had survived many years with his keen ears
on intelligence smirked and made his vote. “I oppose the bill.”

The number of votes were now three against three.

The next three council members were made up of two radical members, and
one conservative member. They also followed their respective party leaders
and voted two votes for, and one against.

The number of votes in favor to against was now five to four.

Nobody remembered what the script was anymore, this had been turned
completely into a game bubbled up from a long-running grudge. At
mankind’s very last round table meeting, at what could be called this era’s
Judgement Day, the Twelve members of this council finally broke apart in
front of the entire world.

The tenth voter was the last member of the radical party to vote. After his
passing vote, the impeachment bill will go through with just one more vote.

“I vote against the bill,” said the last member of the radical party. He was
also the last member to enter said party. “I oppose the abolition of artificial
intelligence.”

Everyone looked at Pearson with deep expressions, only to see him widen
his eyes to stare at the person who had just put out the opposing vote. He
did not seem to show much emotion on his face, but if you looked closely,
you could see that his gaze looked fierce enough that he could eat a person
up.

It took a few seconds before Pearson finally looked away. He and Stalvern
beside him looked at each other for a moment, and Pearson was able to
catch the foxy look in the latter’s eyes.
Pearson shut his eyes and forcibly resisted the urge to leave the table. He
remembered that this councilor was not a member of the radical party at
first. He had always been a neutral party that did not lean to any sides. That
was until he was pulled in a few years ago by him and formally joined him.
But it turns out that he was not a neutral member at all. He was one of
Stalvern’s men. This damn thing really went all out with this one. He
actually used a representative member as a spy. But once this heavy mine
that was buried into the ground exploded, the force was truly
extraordinary…Pearson’s eyes twitched. Just when he was barely able to
keep his focus on the meeting, and when he began thinking of ways to save
his skin, he suddenly heard a voice that came beyond his expectations.

“I agree to the bill.”

The eleventh voter to speak, a conservative member, voted in favor.

It was now Stalvern’s turn to be surprised. He looked at him in an

unfamiliar gaze. It felt like this was the first time he had seen this councilor
in his entire life. Was this man Pearson’s spy in the conservative party?
That’s impossible! Since Stalvern himself had pinned a spy at Pearson’s
side, he was especially wary of having the same done to him. He watched
the interactions between his own party members and Pearson very tightly.
So, if it really was him, how did he not find any traces at all?

While Stalvern was still distracted, Zhong Yan looked up, seemingly
inadvertently, and met Vahl’s gaze diagonally across from him.

The gazes of the two met at the center. Vahl was not a person who would be
muddled over facing a setback. On the contrary, he was a very resilient
man. After so many years, even if they had not been satisfactory, he had
always been working hard to build his own power. This so-called
conservative member who had been recruited by Stalvern after joining the
round table ten years ago was his confidant.

And with that, the votes in favor of the bill reached six. Now, only one vote
was missing.
 Chapter 84 - The Thirteenth Voter

The second last neutral member to vote was covered in cold sweat. The
previous neutral member did not guess wrong.

Last night, Pearson spoke with him in secret and promised him great
benefits, and Pearson himself would take the same vote as him. But who
could have expected such a setback to happen in the middle?

What’s more, he never expected the seats to be arranged in such a way. If he

voted in favor, then it didn’t even matter what Zhong Yan voted anymore.
But at the very least, he wouldn’t be the one to cast the deciding vote, right?

The pressure of changing the future for mankind was weighing down his
shoulders heavily. With sweat running down his head, his mind was in a
mess and his heart was beating madly. Just as he was about to make the
twelfth vote, he almost jumped in shock when he heard Stalvern call out his
name coldly.

“Councilor Parser, why are you looking at Councilor Pearson? Even though
we are at the final two votes, let me emphasize that everyone should vote
responsibly in this meeting.”

If Parser had a clear mind right now, then he would’ve remembered that he
had only inadvertently taken two glances at Pearson. He never stared at him
at all. Unfortunately, the amount of pressure caused his vision to darken. He
just thought that he was unable to control himself whilst being too nervous
and that the whole world had seen it.

If he were to continue on and make a supporting vote now, then wouldn’t he

be admitting to the entire world that he had an under-the-table deal with
Pearson? But if he votes no, and Zhong Yan also voted no, then wouldn’t he
be the reason that Pearson’s plans were foiled? Recalling the underhanded
methods Pearson would use in private from the intelligence he gathered,
Parser instantly began sweating buckets. However, he was still a
representative councilor after all. He did not just throw his head in blindly.

After thinking for a long time, Parser said with trembling lips, “I…I
abstain.”

Stalvern’s tight nerves finally relaxed. No matter how he thought about it,
Number 11 still didn’t seem like one of Pearson’s men. So, Pearson
definitely would not have enough votes.

There was still one more vote to go, and the final voter was Zhong Yan.
Seems like Pearson would only end with 12 votes. But as the host invited to
oversee the vote, it was reasonable to say that in order to keep everything
fair, he must never interrupt someone when they were about to vote.
Otherwise, whether it was reasonable or not, he would still receive criticism
for it afterwards.

But just thinking that Pearson was about to get what he wanted…

If you were to call the AI, “Butterfly” a God created by the humans, then
Stalvern must be his most loyal oracle. As the AI entered into a sleeping
state, he and his apostles had their own designs, and just as their plans were
about to turn south, his heart jumped and he took a gamble. Fortunately, he
must have received the blessings of “Butterfly” sleeping above them,
because he won the gamble!

With this, nobody would be able to achieve seven votes. Both sides will
reach an equal vote. As for how they were going to deal with that situation,
wouldn’t he have the talking rights as the host?

“How could you abstain?!” The opportunity was right in front of his eyes,
but who would have imagined that he would be interrupted at the very last
second? Even someone with such as much power as Pearson actually could
not help but go against etiquette and shouted out.
Stalvern just interrupted someone just as they were about to vote , and now
he was trying to take this opportunity to push the blame on someone else.
“It is his natural right to abstain, Councilor Pearson. Are you going to
interfere with this man’s decision?”
On such a solemn occasion where the entire world was watching at the
same time, the two actually shouted in public. The expressions of all the
councilors at the table distorted. Members of both party were wishing to
themselves that they could go over and pull their party leaders back so they
would stop talking.

Fortunately, they had only lost themselves for a short instant. It was only
natural that Pearson understood what sort of occasion this was as well. He
had said his piece. The more he tries to speak, the worse everything will
become. Even if he hated it and had much to say in rebuttal, he could only
squeeze out a sentence from his teeth. “Of course not.”

Stalvern also knew that this was not the time for arguments. So, he ignored
Pearson and straightened his figure before speaking solemnly to everyone.
“If that is the case, then the results of our vote…”

“Councilor Yate, I have not voted yet.” The thirteenth member of the round
table who had not spoken from beginning to end suddenly spoke.

That’s right, Zhong Yan had yet to vote. This entire plan had been designed
by Zhong Yan to begin with, so he always counted in Zhong Yan’s vote by
default. Just now, he was so muddled by Pearson’s words that he nearly
announced the votes as a draw.
“I know,” he spoke in a soft tone, but his heart was filled with
dissatisfaction. He was angry that Zhong Yan did not remind him in a nicer
way. “I was just about to say that the result of this vote will be decided by
Councilor Zhong Yan’s vote.”

After saying that, he looked subconsciously to the young man at his side,
and Zhong Yan happened to turn his head and looked at him too. After their
gazes met, Zhong Yan suddenly smiled. The smile was not obvious, but the
slight raise at the corners of his lips clearly showed its owner’s good mood.
At this moment, Stalvern’s heart was put back to ease. That’s right, the plan
had not been destroyed so Zhong Yan must be relieved as well. But a
draw…Was that anything worth being happy about? He had never seen a
genuine smile from this man in his life. And strangely…A spark of
suspicion arose in Stalvern’s mind.

That smile was only a fleeting affair. Zhong Yan moved his gaze away, and,
unexpectedly, he stood up.

“It is a lucky day today.” The youngest member of the representing council
spoke. He moved his left hand over to touch his bulging pocket at the right
side of his suit. That there was the rabbit tail charm he made from the lucky
rabbit foot’s fur that Adrian had passed to him last night.
This was the first time Zhong Yan had appeared before the public since he
was married. Everyone could see that a wide silver ring adorning the ring
finger of his fair and slender left hand. It was the very same one worn by
Navi’s Supreme Commander at the beginning of the year when he attended
the event at Lebor. They could guess that it must be a wedding ring.

“And the fortune of today, is the fortune of my own, and all my fellow
brethren all over the world.”

What do you mean the fortune of your fellow brethren?! Stalvern raised his
head to the handsome side profile of this young man standing beside him. A
bad feeling quickly expanded inside of his chest.

“At the artificial intelligence impeachment bill, the current votes numbered
six votes in favor, five against, and one abstained. According to the rules,
the party whose opinion achieves seven votes will be adopted.” The live
smart camera slowly descended and stopped at a height parallel to Zhong
Yan’s line of sight. The entire world had turned silent and everyone was
holding their breaths.

“And the thirteenth vote, is a yes.”

On the final day, God’s last apostle announced His death sentence.
The universe seems to have restarted as countless planets came back to life
at this moment.

The Navi Military Command’s headquarters that had just been so quiet you
could hear a pin drop suddenly erupted in cheers. All the soldiers gathered
in the hall to watch the live broadcast embraced each other in excitement as
they shouted in joy. On the other end, Fayn who was sitting inside the
adjutant’s office’s office breathed a sigh of relief. He had been holding his
breath for so long that he accidentally choked and began coughing.

“What’s wrong, deputy commander?” He had two virtual screens in front of

him. One was displaying the scene of the round table meeting. And, at this
moment, all the aged members were seated at the table with shock on their
faces. On the other screen, a handsome man dressed in a white coat could
be seen. When he heard Fayn cough, he looked over to the camera with
concern, “Did you catch a cold?”

“No no, just something in my throat. Don’t worry about it, doctor,” Fayn
quickly explained. But his heart was filled with contentment. The very first
question Wei Lan asked him after such an earth-shattering moment was
why he coughed. It almost felt as if that was more important than the great
event that had just occurred. Though Fayn knew that Wei Lan likely did not
actually think that way. His brain was just wired a little differently than the
others.

Right now, they were still calling each other by their titles. For Wei Lan, he
had never considered that an issue, while for Fayn, he was still extremely
shy in the face of love and didn’t have the guts to bring it up himself.

However, thinking that Wei Lan would always be a doctor, and that Adrian
was still alive and kicking, with no room for him to be promoted, it
shouldn’t be a problem for now.

“What’s that noise over on your side?” Fayn asked when he heard the
commotion from Wei Lan’s side.

“The students at the Supreme Institution are celebrating.”

Wei Lan stood up and looked down the window to see the ecstatic young
kids pouring out of the dorm. Soon, he saw a tall boy being surrounded by
the crowd. That was the current student council president of the Supreme
Institution. A few days ago when they just landed, many of the trivial
matters were arranged by that boy so Wei Lan remembered him well.
Everyone threw him up high while the students and patrolling soldiers from
Navi also went over to join in on the fun. The entire campus was filled with
laughter.

The same festivities took place in every corner of the Federation. Everyone
had walked out to the streets to congratulate the strangers who had gone
through these difficult times with them. In an era where everything can be
solved without leaving the house, nobody could remember the last time
they had experienced such a scene anymore.

When Zhong Yan walked out of the meeting room, he was slightly stunned.

The impeachment bill was passed. The supreme council system

commanded by “Butterfly” has now collapsed and was in utter chaos. The
eighth floor meeting room that should have been clear was now filled with
council members. They were all dressed formally for work so it was a sea
of black. As soon as the door opened, and they saw Zhong Yan standing at
the entrance, all of them stepped back subconsciously to make a path for
him. Intron squeezed out of the crowd and went to his side.

Zhong Yan had his chin slightly raised as he left the eighth floor calmly
with his assistant under the different gazes of the councilors around them.
Just after reaching the floor where his office was located, someone stopped
him before he could enter.

It was Bard Pearson.

“Councilor Zhong, why are you leaving so soon? You disappeared before
any of us could react,” Bard Pearson said with a false smile. Relief and
pride that could hardly be held back could be heard in his voice. “I came
just to thank you, Councilor Zhong Yan. It seems the many benefits of
human autonomy have also been imbued into your mind after being with
Commander Yate. That must be the reason for your conscientiousness
today. As for whoever is going to be governing this ‘human autonomy’…
Hahaha, I’ll give my thanks in advance.”

Zhong Yan put on a smile and said, “Can a man who is suspected for
murder still qualifiy to run for president?”

Pearson did not expect that he would not let go of that at all. He actually put
that out in front of their two assistants. His eyes instantly dimmed and
turned fierce as a strange laugh escaped his lips. “What nonsense are you
saying, Councilor Zhong? Why don’t I let you in on a secret? The Supreme
Commander of Navi is now in the Capital—Ah, you probably know that as
well. But did you know that I met with him yesterday morning?”
 Chapter 85 - What a Shame

Zhong Yan did not continue on with the topic. Instead, the smile at his lips
lightened a little. It looked as if he could not keep up his smile any longer.
This pleased Pearson very much. He went on obnoxiously, “Why don’t you
guess what he was seeing me for? I had only learned yesterday myself that
this Yate family brat really has quite the fancy for you. He actually tried to
threaten me with a photo of Qu Yongyi’s body, telling me that I’ll end up
just like him if I ever dared to touch you. Hahahaha, I won’t lie, I actually
laughed right then and there.”

The surveillance system of the Supreme Council communicates directly to

the ninth floor and currently, “Butterfly” who resided there was dormant so
the surveillance system was completely nonfunctional. The more he spoke,
the more unrestrained Pearson became. “Why do you think they say that
soldiers are all a brainless lot? He broke into my home and said that Qu
Yongyi passed him evidence before he died, and he would show that to the
whole world if I tried to do anything to you. Hahaha, could the both of you
really have endured so long if you actually had the evidence? Sure enough,
I was able to figure out that he was just talking smack after trying to probe
him. Councilor Zhong Yan, you said that it was a lucky day just now, but if
I had to say it, then yesterday was also my lucky day. If your good husband
hadn’t come to threaten me then I really couldn’t have been sure whether
you had the evidence or not. But since you don’t have it, what should I be
afraid of? You can’t get anywhere without taking risks, right?”

Much to Pearson’s pleasure, a frown gradually emerged in Zhong Yan’s

brows as he listened to him speak. He was just about to take another jab at
him, but Zhong Yan suddenly sighed and lamented, “What a pity. It
would’ve been nice if I was present.”
Pearson laughed agreeingly. “Isn’t that right? Councilor Zhong. I really am
thankful that it was him, though. If you came, then I really wouldn’t have
the confidence to tell whether you were lying or not. After all, as men of
our careers, we’re really not that far off from a professional actor.”

“I wasn’t talking about that,” Zhong Yan denied it, but he did not explain
either. “What did he say exactly when he threatened you not to touch me?”

There were so many important things he could have asked, and yet he asked
something that was completely irrelevant. Pearson was stunned, and also
extremely displeased like he had just been punching at a sack of air.

Pearson said, “Who would remember? That was just about what he said
anyway.”

“Well, if only I was there.” Zhong Yan sighed again. “He must have been
very handsome when he said that. It’s such a pity that I never got to see it.”

Intron could not hold himself back and let out a snicker from behind Zhong
Yan.

Only now did Pearson realize that Zhong Yan was playing him, and his face
turned green in an instant. He took another glance at these two juniors.
Though each was younger than the other, these ignorant juniors held no
trace of fear or respect. Now that the artificial intelligence has stepped off
the stage, he was the strongest candidate to become the president. He will
soon obtain power even greater than what he had before, so how dare this
brat treat him this way! In an instant, the flames of anger raged up within
him and he raised his right palm up high, swatting it down towards Zhong
Yan’s face.

Who could’ve ever expected that after the monitoring system was disabled,
someone like Pearson who maintained an image of decency in daily life
would raise his hands against another person. Intron was so shocked that the
blood drained from his face and he was just about to go forward to stop
him. But, a strong hand had caught Pearson’s wrist in a death grip even
quicker than he could move.
“Ah!” Pearson let out a cry. His assistant was completely dumbfounded by
the man who had suddenly rushed over. He stood in place, not daring to go
forward. Only after Pearson had screamed for quite a few seconds did he
finally wake up as if he had been in a dream and followed on with a shout,
“What are you doing?! Let go of Sir Pearson!”

They were making a lot of ruckus and the entire floor consisted of offices.
One after another, all the councilors came out to see what was going on.
Zhong Yan tugged at the clothes of the man who stood on guard in front of
him, giving him a soft reminder, “Ade, people are coming.”

Only then did Adrian shove the man off with disdain. Pearson was pushed
back two steps and it was only with the help of his assistant holding him up
that he did not fall to his butt on the ground. He gripped his right wrist with
his other hand, unsure whether his bones had been crushed or not. He was
completely pissed. “Very well! Just you wait, Adrian Yate! I will sue you
until you go bankrupt!”

Adrian had been in the army for so many years so his habits were
completely different from these councilors who always had to bend around
the bushes when they spoke. He straight out yelled at the man. “Lay off,
you old bugger! Does my warning from yesterday mean nothing to you? If
you’re so anxious to see your ancestors, I can send you off right now!”

And who had ever dared to point their fingers at his nose and yell at him in
such a rude way in Pearson’s whole life? All his blood gushed to his head in
an instant and he was so angry that he had gone speechless.

Zhong Yan reached over to pat Adrian’s chest to calm him down while he
tugged at his arm. “Don’t be angry, just ignore him. Let’s go back to my
office.”

Adrian took his hand but did not leave with him. Instead, he stood in place
and said, “Didn’t you already know what I said? Why ask him?”

Clearly, Zhong Yan could tell that he was still grumpy with his words. He
smiled helplessly at him and asked, “How should I know what you said to
him?”
“I followed your script down to the very last syllable!” Adrian enunciated
his words very clearly. He did not speak very loudly, but it was enough for
Pearson to hear. While speaking, he glanced over at Pearson while a
provoking smile curved his lips. “I was even worrying that it might not
work, but I didn’t expect this guy to take a U-turn immediately that
afternoon! Everything went just as you said.”

Script?

Pearson’s heart sank, but he quickly calmed himself down. They were
speaking right in front of Zhong Yan’s office and Adrian had come out from
there earlier. It was likely he must have heard him through the door and this
could even be a ploy he thought up on the go to trick him. He swept a cold
glance at the councilors around them, and being glared in such a way, none
of those councilors dared to step forward. Only then did Pearson step
forward. Forebodingly, he muttered under his breath, “Just cut the act. If
you really had the evidence that I’d hired hitmen, then why didn’t you
release the evidence earlier?”

Zhong Yan chuckled. “Perhaps we were just looking for a good opportunity,
like…right now.”

“If I were you I’d pack up my things right now and get out of here,” Adrian
said with a dangerous silver glint in his eyes. “And you better run far. Don’t
let me catch you too quickly.”

“What are you say…” Before Pearson could finish, his assistant had looked
up from checking the news on his terminal and tugged at his arm in panic.
“Sir! It’s bad, the police headquarters just issued an arrest warrant for you
for…for…”

But he could not say it. Pearson had already seen the contents of what was
written on his screen and his eyes had gone so wide that they had nearly
popped out of their sockets. He couldn’t even bother about bickering with
those two and quickly led his assistant away from the crowd.”

“I really hope he does manage to escape,” Adrian said as he stared at their

backs. He had done Zhong Yan so much wrong, and in his opinion, he
should be paying him back, a tooth for a tooth…

Zhong Yan glanced at the people littered around the place and said to them,
“Go back to your work.”

He had just decided the future of humanity with one vote, nobody dared to
talk back to him right now, much less Navi Military Command’s God of
Death standing next to him that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. In
no time, all the onlookers scattered and Intron had also proclaimed, “I shall
get busy with my work then, Sir Zhong.”

“Watch the door. I’m not seeing anyone today, tell them to go to you if they
need anything,” Zhong Yan ordered him. Intron gave his acknowledgement
and headed for his own desk.

“We might be here for a long time today.” Zhong Yan took Adrian’s arm
and entered the office with him. “With the impeachment bill passed, I’m
sure you have many things you have to deal with on your side as well. It
must be inconvenient for you to work here, so why don’t you head back for
now? I told you nothing would happen but you just had to follow me. Now
look, it hasn’t even been a few minutes and the entire world knows you’re
in the Capital.”

Adrian had been smuggled in by him after he disguised himself as one of

his bodyguards. With Pearson bringing his bodyguards to work as a
precedent, and “Butterfly” already entering a dormant state this morning, it
wasn’t too hard getting him in.

Adrian had originally persuaded Zhong Yan to bring him just in case the
impeachment bill fails. He would knock Zhong Yan out before bringing him
away, but now that the bill was passed, that plan was now useless.
Moreover, there was no need for Zhong Yan to know that. Adrian spoke to
him tenderly, “Alright. I’ll call a guard to come. I’ll return after he arrives
to replace me.”

Zhong Yan never got to go home for that entire day. He had been busying
about in the council house until morning the next day and he was unable to
even find any time to contact Adrian in between. On one hand, it was due to
what a sensitive moment it was currently. Both of them had thousands of
things that required their attention. On another hand, all the news reported
throughout the entire day were follow-ups on the actions of the council
houses, the military, and other parties. All they needed to do was look at the
news to know what the other was busy with.

Before the impeachment vote, poll results showed that more than 80% of
the population believed that the impeachment case would not pass. If the
scope of the survey was narrowed down to members on the hull of various
important social institutions such as police stations, schools, research
institutes, and etc., the numbers would probably rise significantly. But
despite the fact that they all believed that “Butterfly” would be woken up
from its slumber, who could have guessed that it would end up sleeping
forever? Whether these people were happy about it or dissatisfied, they all
had the same response: nobody knew what to do.

Fortunately, Zhong Yan and Vahl had long prepared a detailed and
comprehensive plan for the transition. As soon as the meeting ended, both
of their teams began the transitional work and only then was order
maintained, and society remained functional.

News after news had overrun everyone’s minds. First there was news that
Adrian Yate had appeared in the Capital’s Supreme Council and had a
public dispute with Bard Pearson. The news of the assassination case came
soon after that which included Qu Yongyi’s evidence and testimony taken
before his death which pointed to Pearson as the instigator. Some had also
speculated that “Butterfly” would be abolished in the morning and that
Pearson was the most likely person to become president. But who could
have even imagined that the Capital Police Force would inform everyone
just this afternoon that the most promising candidate for president had been
arrested for a trial?

It was now past midnight and the most urgent matters they had on hand had
been resolved. When Intron saw Zhong Yan packing up and getting ready to
leave, he quickly stopped him. “Sir Zhong, why don’t you wait for a while
before you leave? The door…”

“What’s wrong with the door?” Zhong Yan asked.

“It’s Sir Yate, Sir Stalvern Yate, I mean. He came over again and says he
wants to see you no matter what,” Intron informed him helplessly.
“Commander Yate’s guards are trying to stop him, and you’ll definitely see
him if you went out now.”

Zhong Yan broke out in laughter. “I’ll see him if I see him then, what kind
of position do you think we’re in today? Do I have any need to be afraid of
him?”

While speaking, he continued towards the door and headed out of his office,
only to see Stalvern blocking the entrance to his office area immediately
after. He was pointing at a young guard and yelling, “Who do you think you
are? Telling me I can’t insult your boss. Well, I will insult him! I raised him
with my own hands! He is my grandson! And you’re telling me I can’t do
that?! Is he in there? Is Zhong Yan inside of that room? Go in and call him
out right now. I want to see him!”

The young guard who had exchanged ages with Intron yesterday was so
pissed that his face was beet red. His eyes were so filled with anger that you
could almost see the flames, and he looked like he was on the cusp of
exploding. Zhong Yan quickly headed over with Intron.
 Chapter 86 - Confession

When Stalvern saw Zhong Yan coming over from the distance, he thought
he had come to see him. Just as the questions and scoldings he had kept
bubbling inside of him this whole day were about to come out, Zhong Yan
casually said to the bodyguard as if he did not see him, “I’m leaving now.”

“Yes, Sir Zhong,” the young guard responded. Then, he glared viciously at
Stalvern again while he guarded Zhong Yan vigilantly. His posture almost
made it seem like he was worried Stalvern would pounce over to attack
Zhong Yan at any moment.

Stalvern was pissed but he would never do something like chasing after
someone for a tussle. One of the Yate family’s juniors, a man about the age
of thirty or so, was accompanying him. He had silver eyes, a definite sign of
their ancestry. Held back by that junior, he followed behind them, yelling,
“Zhong Yan! Do you not dare to speak with me anymore? You tricked my
grandson seven years ago, and now you’re here to trick me seven years
later?!”

Such level of ridicule was simply nothing to Zhong Yan. While Intron was
thinking so, Zhong Yan suddenly stopped.

Intron was shocked. What’s going on?

Zhong Yan turned around and looked coldly at Stalvern for a moment
before he ordered, “Intron, contact security and tell them to change the
permissions on the council’s entrance. Sir Stalvern Yate is no longer
allowed to enter from tomorrow onwards.”

The one thing he hated most in his life was to be accused of tricking
Adrian. He could only bear with it before, but now that the situation was
set, he had no reason to continue enduring it.
Intron quickly accepted the order while Stalvern was in disbelief. “Have
you gone mad?! Do you really think you can change the permissions to the
entrance however you please?”

“Perhaps not in the past, but now…” Zhong Yan smiled to Stalvern, “I
really do have that right. If you do not believe me, why don’t you try and
see if you can enter tomorrow? But I shall advise you against the idea.
Things are busy enough these days and if you insist on adding to the chaos,
I may have to ask the police to take the necessary measures to deal with
you. I have no contempt nor grievances towards you. If you stay at home
and focus on your retirement, then I will not come seeking trouble with you
either. For what reason do we have to trouble each other in such a way?”

It had been many years since anyone dared to speak to him in such an
uppity tone. Stalvern felt extremely offended, but his reason told him that
what Zhong Yan said was true.

During the day, after the emergency transition plans were launched in
several areas, the police department arrested Pearson in a thunderous affair.
The identity of the people involved in this huge case was a little sensitive,
but the police department acted quickly. Even Stalvern thought it was odd.
He tried to enquire about the news and finally received one vague response.
Someone that they cannot afford to provoke was suppressing the
information.

Who could be someone with so much power just hours after the Federation
entered the “Post-AI era” that even the police department would not dare to
provoke them? Was it the Supreme Commander of the Navi Military
Command and its troops? Or…

The emergency transition plan’s executors were Vahl and Zhong Yan, so all
the work must be carried around the two of them. In just a single day, the
peak of the Federation’s power had changed. Everyone in the council knew
that the position of President, vacant for over hundreds of years, may now
fall on one of the two.

And this was the reason why Zhong Yan could so easily ask for the
permissions on the council’s entrance to be changed. In this society where
the weak were trampled, and the powerful revered, nobody would dare to
help Stalvern who had given the rejection vote when it came to provoking
Zhong Yan who was likely to become the President.

Stalvern’s complexion turned green and pale. Finally, his spirits fell. When
Zhong Yan saw that he finally understood the current situation, he didn’t
want to continue getting caught up with him anymore. After turning around
and walking for a few steps, he could faintly hear Stalvern speaking to the
young man beside him. “Ford, let’s go…”

Zhong Yan’s footsteps paused. Then, he continued to leave in a quick stride

as if he did not hear anything.

In this whole entire world, only he and “Butterfly” knew this fact. After
“Butterfly” entered its sleep, he was the only one left. At that time, the
name of his original partner was…Ford Yate.

To tell the truth, the only reason why Zhong Yan remembered this name
was credited to his good memory. After all, after so many years, he could
still easily say the full name of Adrian’s birth father when asked. Not even
the author could do so without backtracking. But Zhong Yan had never paid
attention to this person. This was the first time he had any sort of contact
with him. The reason why Stalvern could get that man to stay by his side
must be the fact that he was the closest blood-related member of his
family…Zhong Yan thought with an agitated mind, the upper social circle
of the Capital really was too small.

Adrian could keenly sense that Zhong Yan who had returned before
daybreak was not in good spirits.

Even though Zhong Yan was still as gentle as ever when he spoke to him,
he got ready for bed before either of them were able to say much. After all,
he still had to get up early to continue his work tomorrow. But Adrian was
still able to catch hints of hesitation and irritation on Zhong Yan’s face
several times that day.

He perceived that Zhong Yan was different from his usual mood, and
Adrian actually felt a little happy about that. One had to understand that the
incident that broke them apart seven years ago had not been paved over yet.
Zhong Yan had struggled with himself for half a year while Adrian who
lived under the same roof as him knew nothing of it. But now, he could
easily see through Zhong Yan’s emotions. This showed him that Zhong Yan
was now completely unguarded before him.

But why was Zhong Yan in such low spirits right now? Adrian was puzzled.

The voices of the anti-AI are now the norm so those who voted ‘no’ in the
meeting naturally lost their competitive power. On the other hand, all the
people voting in favor were mostly Pearson’s men, and now that their leader
was in prison, their reputation fell with him. Zhong Yan was the initiator of
the impeachment bill, and the one to give the final winning vote. His
partner was also the Supreme Commander of the Navi Military Command.
Even if the Supreme Commander’s true partner for President was Vahl and
not Zhong Yan, the public had no way of knowing this. They all felt that
Zhong Yan was the one with the Navi Military Command’s backing. Even if
he was a little young, he was still a strong candidate to become the
president.

For Zhong Yan, that should have been a very ideal situation.

It wasn’t Adrian’s style to leave a problem hanging when he found one. So,
after the two of them got in bed after their shower, Adrian was determined
to ask Zhong Yan what was bothering him before he laid down to sleep.

“Xiao Yan…”

“Ade…”

The two of them spoke at the same time. After a second, both of them said
at the same time, “You go first.”

“Is something bothering you today?” Adrian asked. “You seemed pretty
unhappy since you came back. Are things not going well on your end?”

Zhong Yan looked at Adrian, feeling surprised. He shook his head. “No, but
I…do have something to tell you.”
Adrian had been leaning back on his pillow, but hearing that, he sat up to
show that he was listening seriously.

But Zhong Yan kept on hesitating. There was a look of struggle in his eyes
but Adrian did not urge him. However, the doubts in his heart grew stronger
and stronger. What is it that makes it so difficult for Zhong Yan to speak
about?

“You…” Zhong Yan seemed to have made a determination as he took a

deep breath. He asked, “Can your salary be credited to my account in the
future? To my private account. The one you don’t have permission to
access.”

“Sure,” Adrian readily agreed. Right in front of Zhong Yan, he logged into
the system of the Navi Military Command’s headquarters and changed his
payment account to Zhong Yan’s private account. After he was done, he
asked with a smile, “My salary is my only source of income now. What am
I going to use in the future? Will you be giving me an allowance every
month?”

Zhong Yan looked still at him without any amusement on his face. The
smile on Adrian’s lips gradually dissipated as well. He asked, “What’s
wrong?”

“There’s something I need to confess to you about. You never asked me this
in the past and I never mentioned it, but I’m ready to tell you now. It’s not
like I suddenly feel…guilty or whatever. It’s just…I found out today that
the risk of that matter getting exposed was too great, and I can’t bear the
consequences. I’d rather tell you now and maybe you…won’t be as
angry…” The more he said, the less confidence he had, almost as if he was
making an extravagant request.

Adrian was finally getting a little worried and he became even more
confused. Quickly, he probed, “So what is it?”

“I’m not even…your actual optimal marriage partner.” When he said that,
Zhong Yan felt his heart empty out. He didn’t even dare to look at Adrian
and kept his gaze down, forcing himself to continue. “I had no other choice
at that time. I haven’t been able to contact you for seven years, and in the
final two, I couldn’t even find any news about you. When I made that list to
lure you to the school, I became worried that you would not talk to me
when we met. That was why I went to ‘Butterfly’ and had you changed as
my optimal marriage partner instead. I even had it arranged so that it would
be announced during the celebration, that way we would have something to
talk about…”

There had never been any optimal marriage partner. When you look back to
it now, it may look like a romantic coincidence, but this was all part of his
deliberate arrangements. What would Adrian think of him? He always hated
these things. Now that he found out that someone was pulling the strings for
this marriage to begin with, would he still want to continue?

A crystalline droplet fell onto the blanket, staining it with a wet spot.
Adrian was so surprised that Zhong Yan was crying that he couldn’t even be
bothered to ask questions anymore. He quickly cupped Zhong Yan’s face,
and when he saw the redness at the corners of his eyes and those tears, his
heart felt so pained that he quickly held him tight to coax him better.

“Shh, it’s okay. Don’t cry, Xiao Yan.” Adrian pressed him to his chest and
said, “Don’t cry…Just seeing you cry makes my heart break…”

With a sobbing voice, Zhong Yan anxiously said, “I’m sorry, Ade. Don’t be
angry. You can have whatever you want, just please don’t divorce me. It’ll
also be very difficult to divorce in the future if one of the partners is
unwilling. You’ll need to file a divorce lawsuit and the cost is very high.
And you’ve also given me your salary…”

Once a person has owned the ocean, they can no longer bear the desert. He
knew he had become a bad person again. He would use whatever means he
could just to keep Adrian by his side, as well as this marriage. But this
method was also full of loopholes. Adrian still had a lot of valuable
property and no matter how bad of shape he was in, he still had many rich
friends…

But just as Zhong Yan’s words were becoming more and more desperate,
Adrian caught his jaw and forced Zhong Yan to look at him, interrupting
him. “You can fill me in on this knowledge that I’ll never have to use later.”

His silver irises glowed with fury underneath the dim light. “What do you
mean you ‘changed’ me as your optimal marriage partner?! Aren’t I clearly
your optimal marriage partner? That thing dares to say I’m not?! What kind
of garbage system does the AI use to determine that? I’ve always believed
its existence was a mistake, but I never thought it was a fool as well.”

Zhong Yan was dazed as he watched him spit out a chain of insults towards
AI. The development of this conversation seemed to be different than what
he was expecting.
 Chapter 87 - Mystery

“Aren’t you angry with me?” Zhong Yan was in disbelief.

Adrian reached out to pinch Zhong Yan’s cheek. “To tell you the truth, the
reason I never mentioned this matter to you is because it makes me feel
uncomfortable that our marriage was arranged by ‘Butterfly’. But now that
I know that’s not true, it makes me feel much better.”

Zhong Yan suddenly felt like the skies had cleared up after a big storm. He
leaned back into Adrian’s arms and wiped away the tears left on his face
with embarrassment.

“I didn’t know you liked me in the beginning, and I never thought we really
could get married. Ever since that unexpected marriage, I’ve always been
wondering how I should tell you this if you ever asked. I don’t want to lie to
you and I’ll definitely tell you the truth, but you’d definitely get angry. I
thought that if you never asked me for the rest of your life, then I would
bring it with me to my grave.”

When Adrian heard this, his expression suddenly flickered. He suddenly

remembered how he never planned to tell Zhong Yan about his original
plans of coming to the Capital either. Not noticing the abnormality in his
expression, Zhong Yan continued, “But today, we gave the technical
department the authorization to open ‘Butterfly’s’ database. Vahl contacted
me this afternoon and proposed that we publish the records for all the
meetings held on the ninth floor to fight the rest of our competitors, and
ensure that the position of president would only be left to me and him. But I
refused. Indeed, there are many shocking things to be found about those
radical members in the records, but me and Vahl aren’t completely clean
either. Both me and him have records that are related to you, even. So it’ll
be better for us not to hurt ourselves trying to hurt our enemies.”
“Wait…Both of you have records that are related to me?” Adrian asked,
amazed. “You went up there to arrange for our wedding, but what did Uncle
Vahl do?”

Zhong Yan was also surprised. “You actually don’t know? More than ten
years ago he went against the law and erased your penalty records from
school. I had a look at it and…Anyway, if we really publish that, then the
entire world would know that you had a fight with two of your seniors
when you were in your teens, and even had to rely on your uncle who is a
member of the Twelve to evade punishment.”

Adrian whose memories of the past had been fished up inexplicably was
speechless.

So there actually was punishment for that incident! He had no idea!

Zhong Yan said, “Actually, a child’s fight is no serious matter. The only
problem is that students with penalties will definitely not be able to be
assigned to the Supreme Institution by ‘Butterfly’. I’m worried that if word
gets out, your eligibility for admission into the school would be
questioned.”

“Then it’s a good thing he erased it for me.” Feeling worried for the past,
Adrian said, “If I never entered the Supreme Institution, then I would never
have met you.”

Zhong Yan shot him a vexing glance. “I’m being serious here.”

Seriously, Adrian responded, “I am also being serious. Alright, alright. Let’s

go back to the topic. Since you’ve already decided not to publish it, why did
you suddenly decide to tell me this today?”

“You’ll probably end up mentioning it some day. Also, I bumped into that,
uh…That person. Let me think…”

“Who?” Adrian asked subconsciously. Suddenly, he understood who Zhong

Yan was talking about and he was instantly displeased. “You met him? At
the council house? Was it someone you know? A colleague? What’s his
name? How is your relationship with him usually?”

Looking at his offended expression, Zhong Yan didn’t know whether he

should laugh or cry. “He’s not someone I know. I don’t even know what he
looks like, but you should be the one who knows him.”

After he mentioned it vaguely, Adrian gritted his teeth and said, “That’s the
eldest grandson of my grandfather’s younger brother. My cousin. I’m going
to the Yate family home tomorrow…”

“Don’t!” Zhong Yan quickly pulled at his clothes. “Right now, we’re the
only ones who know the situation. Wouldn’t you just blow things out of
proportion if you confronted your grandfather with that? What’s more,
there’s nothing to confront him about anyway. Just think about it, that’s all
in the past and we’re married now. No matter who it was, I still would’ve
replaced him with you, so don’t be angry…”

He had to calm him down for quite a while before he managed to convince
Adrian to dispel his idea of barging into the Yate family home. Only, even
when the two had fallen asleep in each other’s arms, Adrian was still
cursing the AI, displeased, and he was even holding Zhong Yan tighter than
usual as if he was afraid that he would run off.

After many years, when Adrian and Zhong Yan happened to be shopping at
the Capital one day, they happened to bump into Ford Yate and his party.
They were walking towards each other in a narrow road with nowhere to
avoid each other from. Ford gave his greetings to Adrian, and when Zhong
Yan saw his silver eyes, he asked Adrian, “Is this your relative?”

Adrian glanced at Ford, displeased, and answered, “One of my cousins.”

It was said that Ford complained to his friends after the matter, saying that
Adrian had forgotten all his past feelings. He had followed after him
everyday calling him big brother when he was three or four, but now he was
demoted to “one of his cousins”.
On the third day of the successful impeachment, the technical department
reported several very serious issues to the few councilors who were acting
as interim agents for the societal transition.

“What do you mean the permissions can’t be revoked?” Vahl frowned.

Zhong Yan followed with a question. “So to be clear, which of ‘Butterfly’s’

permissions exactly can’t be cancelled?”

The technician wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, “There is a
considerable part of the military-related permissions we are unable to
cancel. Including…the authorization for all anti-material, biochemical, and
nuclear weapons.”

The entire meeting room fell into dead silence. After a few seconds, one
councilor asked, “Can’t you just shut down ‘Butterfly” permanently? If you
can make sure that it never wakes up, then it wouldn’t matter how many of
these permissions it has.”

The technician shook his head and said, “Indeed, shutting down the AI
permanently is the most straightforward approach, but it is precisely
because we do not have the authority to shut down ‘Butterfly’ permanently
that we had to turn off its permissions one by one. Based on the data file
from a hundred years ago that we reviewed from the research institute, the
permissions to shutdown ‘Butterfly’ permanently was given only to a single
person, and that was ‘Cocoon’.”

Several of the people who were present at the meeting were shocked, and
one of them couldn’t help but say, “But that’s not a ‘person’, is it?”

Vahl asked, “So only ‘Cocoon’ has the permissions to shut ‘Butterfly’
down? But hasn’t ‘Cocoon’ been abandoned as early as the last century?”

“According to the records we found in the archives, that is in fact the case.
But we don’t even know how they dealt with everything back then, or
whether it can still be rebooted. After checking, we found out that the files
related to ‘Cocoon’ were far too few. Most of the data within the research
institute was on ‘Butterfly’, and it was the data that came from before its
creation.”
“But what if we destroy the main server directly by force? As in, destroying
it physically?” Zhong Yan asked.

The technician said, “That’s possible, but that will bring about a new set of
problems. First, we have to find out where the physical location of
‘Butterfly’s’ brain is.”

Several of the councilors were stunned. The technician slapped himself on

the forehead and said, “Oh, please excuse me. Industry terminologies. We
call the main server for the super AI the AI’s ‘brain’. As long as it is not
declared brain dead, then it is still living. I’m not great with medical terms,
but that should be it, probably.”

Vahl asked, “Isn’t ‘Butterfly’s’ brain up there?” He pointed a finger above.

Everyone understood that he was talking about the ninth floor of the
Supreme Council’s main building.

“That’s what we thought at first, but we checked over the place yesterday
and at best, the ninth floor can only be considered…How should I describe
it? If we *had* to make an analogy, um, then it was probably it’s limbs?
And you can also add half a heart in there. Destroying it completely can
already be considered a serious injury.”

Everyone felt chills running down their backs. One councilor said, “You
don’t have to metaphorize it as a human body, do you?”

“But you wouldn’t understand if I used technical terms.” Helplessly, the

young technician said, “‘Butterfly’ has already been completed for close to
a hundred years, and no related records were made after its completion. We
can only do our own checks to find out its current status, there is not
original data. This is a seriously difficult case.”

“The lack of data is quite suspicious. Could ‘Butterfly’ be the one who
destroyed them?” Vahl speculated. “It has been preparing for this day for a
long time now.”
Zhong Yan said, “But more importantly, how much time do we have? How
long can we keep ‘Butterfly’ in a dormant state?”

“Seven days,” the technician responded. “Once seven day passes,

‘Butterfly’s’ emergency protection module will boot up and wake it from
hibernation. It’s already been three days.”

Everyone on the scene knitted their brows. Would they have to negotiate
with ‘Butterfly’ after it wakes up? Humans have already decided to abolish
it, so that would most definitely not be a very friendly negotiation,
especially when the negotiating party holds enough power to overpower the
Federation’s authority to launch their heavy weapons. There was no need
for this negotiation to be had at all, because the humans do not have the
bargaining chips for it. They were doomed to fail.

So what can they do before the AI wakes up again? Destroying the ninth
floor of the Supreme Council seems to be a palliative move. What’s more, if
they are unable to stop “Butterfly” from waking up, would destroying the
ninth floor aggravate it further?

“Butterfly’s” brain, its mainframe, was not inside the ninth floor. So where
could it be? And where was ‘Cocoon’ that had been abandoned a century
ago?

Nobody could answer those questions, nor could anyone make a decision.
The person who could make the decisions on behalf of all human beings
needs to be a responsible person, of course. But before that, they needed the
power to make this decision.

“I think the need to elect an interim president is imminent,” Vahl said. “We
are in desperate need of a person who can make decisions. Everything
happening these past two days is just the same as today, we are forced to
gather in a meeting where we will inevitably butt heads, and we will often
find ourselves restricting each other…The efficacy is too slow and we can’t
afford to wait.”

Zhong Yan raised his head to meet his gaze, speaking without showing his
emotions, “What Councilor Cayman says is reasonable. I think so as well.”
The rest of them did not say anything. The technician looked at Vahl, then
Zhong Yan, and back to Vahl again, seeming to feel the subtle undercurrents
running through the room. Awkwardly, he said, “Well, I’ve finished my
reports. So, gentlemen. I shall…take my leave?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Vahl spoke, but not to the technician.

“Councilor Zhong Yan, may I speak with you alone outside?”
 Chapter 88 - President

Zhong Yan followed Vahl into the smoking room silently.

“I know you don’t smoke, and you know I don’t either.” Vahl walked over
to his side. “But the building is crowded with people these days and this is
one of the more quiet spots here.”

If you needed quiet, then a meeting room would be best as they were less
likely to be interrupted, but all uses of meeting rooms must be registered.
Vahl did not tell him what he needed to speak with him about, but Zhong
Yan had a hunch. Both of them shared the tacit understanding that neither of
them wanted to make this conversation public.

Zhong Yan locked the door from the inside and sat down on the sofa
opposite of Vahl, smiling. “Well, I just thought you were used to talking in
the smoking room.”

What he meant was the talk the two of them had before one of those round
table meetings they had before Zhong Yan left the Capital. During that time,
Vahl had no idea that Zhong Yan was the creator of “Specimen”. He had
also seeked him out just to enquire about Adrian.

Hearing what he said, Vahl laughed. “It isn’t on purpose, really. It’s just a
coincidence.”

The memories shared by the two of them were still considered amicable,
and this also helped to ease the atmosphere between the two of them. But
the situation on hand waited for no one. There was no longer any time to
slowly ease into the main topic. Vahl spoke up directly, “The situation right
now is extremely tense and complicated. We have to take control now
before things grow out of order. In my opinion, it would be best if the both
of us are to take up the positions of both the president and the vice-
president. What do you think?”

Zhong Yan did not respond to him directly. “Butterfly” will stay asleep for a
total of seven days and it was already the third day today. They really
couldn’t delay things any further. His question was even more direct. “Are
you here to persuade me to accept the position of vice-president?”

“That’s right,” Vahl admitted frankly. “Both of us have points where we

prevail, and though the age distribution for civilian support is varied, the
proportion is almost the same. Since we’re talking about this in private, I’m
not going to bring in all the principals and nonsense. Because both you and
me know that none of that exists. Let’s skip the part where we decide who
is going to step back, we’ll settle this today.”

“Sure,” Zhong Yan responded calmly, “I won’t be the first to step back.”

Vahl seemed to have expected this answer from him as he did not show any
hint of surprise. Instead, he hesitated for a moment, seemingly considering
whether it was proper for him to ask the question he wanted to bring up.
But with how urgent the matter was, this wasn’t the time to care about that.
He asked, “Have you spoken with Adrian about this?”

Unexpectedly, Zhong Yan did not look displeased at all. Instead, he nodded.
“I have. And it seems like you have as well if you’re asking me this
question.”

His guess was correct. Adrian did contact Vahl the day that the
impeachment bill was passed. A look of awkwardness and hesitation
emerged on Vahl’s face. He was trying to consider whether telling Zhong
Yan the contents of his conversation with Adrian would have an impact on
their relationship. Right as he was trying to think of a good way to word
things, Zhong Yan brought it up for him “You are the candidate he supports
to become the president. So to say, the person with Navi Military
Command’s support is you. We have already spoken about this before our
marriage and it has also been brought up after, so it’s fine, no need to feel so
tense. If you feel the need to make this public then please do so, and I’m not
speaking out of spite either. I’m being sincere.”
Vahl was surprised. Then, after a few minutes, he seemed to have thought
of something. Even the look in his eyes was different when he looked at
Zhong Yan now. While Zhong Yan was puzzled over the fact, he heard Vahl
say, “It’s an ancient saying that a father knows his son best. I may not be
Adrian’s father, but I can still say that I know him better than his real father
does, and I also care about him more than anyone related to him. So, it’s
reasonable to say that it’s not my business to step in between your affairs…
But Zhong Yan, Adrian has spoken to me several times after your marriage
and I can tell, he really likes you a lot. Even though you may have decided
to run with the relationship out of your need for cooperation…”

Zhong Yan was confused when he began, but he finally understood near the
end. He quickly interrupted him and said, “Councilor Cayman…Ah no…”
They were speaking of their private affairs and Vahl did not greet him by
title, so he would do better to avoid it as well. A hint of red finally emerged
on Zhong Yan’s unshakable facade. Biting down the bullet, he said, “Un…
Uncle. You’re mistaken. We did not get married for the sake of cooperating.
Me and Ade, we don’t usually interfere with each other’s work, and we give
each other a great deal of freedom when it comes to it. This is the way we
decided would be best for each other after going through many twists and
turns. He will not stop me from running for president, nor would I mind
whichever candidate he supports, but that doesn’t mean that I do not…”
love him.

But speaking up to that point was already Zhong Yan’s limit when it came
to speaking with outsiders. He paused and was unable to say the latter half
of his sentence. Half of his mind felt embarrassed, but the other half was
shocked. Didn’t they come to discuss with each other about the position of
president? Why did he end up talking about this to Adrian’s senior…

Fortunately, Vahl looked even more embarrassed than he was. Quite clearly,
he wasn’t someone who enjoyed interfering with the private lives of his
juniors, so he quickly added in immediately after Zhong Yan stopped. “It’s
alright, you don’t have to tell me. I was overstepping it a little. Cough,
well…About the position…where were we just now?.”

“We were talking about the Navi Military’s support for you,” Zhong Yan
reminded him.
It wasn’t as if Vahl had truly forgotten either, he just needed Zhong Yan’s
response to pull the conversation back to a more natural point. So, he went
on with Zhong Yan’s words and said, “Ah, right. The Navi Military
Command. Since you already know, it won’t hurt to say it. Adrian asked me
yesterday whether I needed him to make a statement of his support for me,
and to tell you the truth…I do need it. But I wanted to confirm it with you
first. If I really had the Navi Military Command do so…Will you continue
to follow-up?”

“Of course,” Zhong Yan responded without hesitation, “and I will go all out
for it.”

They had already said they were going to settle this today at the very start,
so Vahl did not doubt the authenticity of Zhong Yan’s words. Right now,
they should be spending all their time, energy, and resources to build up
momentum for themselves, to attack and wipe out their opponents…

Vahl thought over it for a long time and sighed in the end. “Well, I’ll give
my response to Adrian. I’ll tell him not to make the statement.”

Zhong Yan heard the implications of his words and his expression changed
slightly. Seriously, he said, “What do you mean?”

“Have you heard of an old allegory?” Vahl said, “Once, there was a child,
and two women claimed that child to be their own. The dispute ended up
escalating to court and the judge told the two women to snatch the child.
Whoever managed to snatch the child gets him, he said. Each one of them
took one of the child’s hands and pulled the child to them, and the child was
in so much pain from their pulling that he cried. And so, one of the women
let go, allowing the other woman to take him away. But the judge ruled the
woman who had let go as the child’s mother instead.”

This fable could not be more straightforward. Zhong Yan did not answer
and waited for Vahl to go on.”

“There is no time for us to fight between ourselves, and I am prepared to be

the first man to let go. However,” Vahl said sullenly, “Before I go out there
and announce that I support you as the candidate for the interim president, I
must say, quite frankly, that I’m very worried. I have no doubts whatsoever
about your abilities, but I am worried about your character.”

Zhong Yan was very sure that Adrian was the only person in this world that
understood his thoughts and saw his true self. But in their conversation,
when Zhong Yan insisted that he would “go all out” to fight for that
position despite the crisis they were in, Vahl had already caught onto the
clues, but this was such a pressing situation that Vahl could do nothing else
but step back. However, he still had to make an implicit comment on his
concerns.

“What you worry about will not happen,” Zhong Yan promised.

Just one sentence was not enough to assure Vahl, but Zhong Yan was not
going to say more. He respected Vahl for what he did for Adrian, but that
did not mean he would give himself to him like Adrian would.

“Let time be the witness, then,” Vahl said as he stood up. He reached out a
hand to Zhong Yan and said, “Let me congratulate you in advance, Your
Excellency the President.”

Zhong Yan accepted his handshake. “May we work together in harmony,

Your Excellency the Vice President.”

On the third day of the AI’s impeachment, they had suddenly discovered
that they could not shutdown “Butterfly”, and that it also had the sufficient
authorities to launch weapons that could destroy humanity. Though this
news was temporarily confined to a small group of people, the huge sense
of burden could almost fry the brains of those standing at the top of the
human pyramid. It was today that the first captain of this era was born.

Vahl was the first to formally mention the position of president, and most
everyone thought he was going to recommend himself, but they never
expected him to choose Zhong Yan after having a talk with him outside.

The two most powerful competitors, the ones with the power, have now
reached an agreement. No matter what the others were thinking, it would be
difficult to turn over the storm.
What’s more, not everyone would want to take that position in such a
situation. If things were not handled properly, then the consequences were
not something the current human federation could afford to suffer. It may
seem like a position destined for endless glory right now, but there was also
the possibility to become the greatest sinner through the ages.

With all factors combined, the time that it took for the interim president’s
proposal to be passed was rapid. On that day itself, the council announced
the birth of a new president and his vice president.
“We will have a simple appointment ceremony tomorrow, just inside the
council. Since you did not bring your military uniform, I bought you a
formal suit. It’s in the living room.” Zhong Yan had been arriving home at
daybreak for many days in a row. After quickly cleaning himself up, he
would lay languished in Adrian’s arms to tell him about his next plans.
“Rumors of the crisis have already begun to leak. Right now, rumors are
flying and people are getting worried, so it would be better for us to give
them an open statement. As it happens, there’s no need for us to prepare an
inaugural speech. I will just explain to everyone the situation myself at the
inauguration ceremony tomorrow.”

Adrian was surprised. “You’re going to declare a human crisis as the first
thing you do in office? Is that really alright? You’ll definitely be criticized.
I’ll be attending tomorrow anyway, so you might as well let me do it.”

“No. Whoever brings up the news is going to be scolded, so I definitely

have to be the one to say it.” Zhong Yan was so tired that he could barely
keep his eyes open and his voice was growing softer, and more muffled.
“That’s right, I’ve already drafted your new position…”

“What? The spouse of a president? So the ‘First Partner’ or something?”

Adrian joked, but the person in his arms did not respond. Puzzled, he
looked down. Zhong Yan had already fallen asleep on his chest.
He lowered his head to plant a light kiss on Zhong Yan’s smooth forehead.

“Good night, Mr. President.”

 Chapter 89 - Tyrant

Under Zhong Yan’s instruction, the inauguration ceremony was simplified,

and though they called it an inauguration for the new president, it was more
like a press conference. Only, the hall was not filled with the media but
instead with the councilors.

Ten minutes before the event begins, just as the councilors have already sat
down one after, the protagonist of this ceremony was losing himself over
his partner’s choice of dress.

“You can’t hang it outside! It looks too weird! The ceremony is going to be
broadcasted to the whole world, take it off!”

Adrian left his military uniform in the Institution Star, so the clothes he was
wearing today was the black suit Zhong Yan had prepared for him. Adrian
had never paid attention to formalities and spent most of his time in
casualwear. Even his military uniform was rarely worn. He was so rarely
found in formal wear, in fact, that Zhong Yan had never actually seen him
dressed up in a suit and leather shoes despite knowing him for ten years.

The well-pressed fabric was covering the strong muscles on his body, and
he almost looked like—actually, he was—a handsome noble prince. Zhong
Yan paired him with a silver tie that accentuated his silver eyes even more.

Everything was perfect until Adrian suddenly pulled out that white ball and
hung it around his waist about five minutes ago.

It was the lucky rabbit tail felt pendant Zhong Yan had crafted with the
giant space rabbit’s fur.

“What’s wrong with it being a live broadcast?” Adrian said, unperturbed.

“And how does it look weird at all? I think it looks quite good.”
Yeah, and you think our wedding rings look great too. But Zhong Yan did
not say that to him. No matter what, the sight of a small white ball hanging
on Adrian’s serious black formal suit was embarrassing to him. This was
the very first felting project he had worked on, and to put it nicely, it was a
rabbit’s tail. But, in fact, making a ball was just the easiest since he was in a
hurry. He knew himself that be it style or technique, the pendant was still
unsatisfactory. If Adrian was to wear that outside, then that was no different
than a public punishment for him.

“Stop playing around, this is an official occasion…”

Zhong Yan tried hard to persuade him, but Adrian would not take it off no
matter what. Vahl walked over from the stage. While walking towards
them, he said, “Gentlemen, the ceremony is about to begin. Are you ready
yet…Oh, um…what is that you’re wearing, Adrian?”

He pointed to the white ball hanging at Adrian’s waist. Zhong Yan finally
found an opportunity and tried his best to drag Vahl over to his side,
complaining, “He won’t take it off no matter what!”

“It’s the lucky charm Xiao Yan made me!” Adrian responded at the same
time he did.

“Oh, is that the charm those students were talking about?” Vahl said kindly
to Adrian, “You did good work on it.”

Zhong Yan was instantly stunned. “What students?”

Vahl answered, “The students from the Supreme Institution, of course! You
must have missed the news because you were too busy. I had to hear it from
one of the youngsters on my team myself. The students from the Supreme
Institution said a few days ago on the virtual community that Commander
Yate would wear a white ball on him every day, and it was the lucky charm
made for him by Councilor Zhong Yan. But nobody ever uploaded a picture
of it. So that’s what it looks like?”

Every…Every day?
Zhong Yan was so shocked that he turned stiff. For some time, he had no
idea if it was more embarrassing that Adrian wore that every day, or that his
not very successful first felt project was shown to the world. He felt that
falling in love must have made him sick, because despite how embarrassing
it was…he actually thought it was a little sweet.

While they were talking, another staff member ran in from the front and
said to Zhong Yan, “Sir Zhong, everything’s ready at the front. Do you
think we can begin now?”

“Let’s begin,” Zhong Yan said. The first segment was his inauguration
speech. He tidied up his clothes one last time before quickly exchanging
kisses on the cheek with Adrian. Then, he followed the staff member up to
the stage.

“Here I was worried he was too young to hold up,” Adrian said as he
watched the back of his disappearing figure. Casually, he said to Vahl, “I
didn’t expect these people to be so afraid of him. They’re all acting so
respectful.”

Vahl shook his head, amused. “You’re overthinking it. Who would dare to
bully him for being young after what happened yesterday?”

“Yesterday?” Adrian asked, confused. “What happened yesterday?”

“I’m talking about the position he proposed for you yesterday…You didn’t
know? He didn’t tell you?”

“Oh…He might have wanted to, but he was too tired and fell asleep
halfway through. It’s the same if you tell me now anyway.” While saying
that, Adrian couldn’t help but recall Zhong Yan’s soft and harmless face
from last time, lying quietly in his arms. It really was…

“Right now, everyone in the council’s calling him the ‘Tyrant’,” Vahl
sighed. “Tyrant it is, I guess. Better than being called indecisive. We’re in a
messy situation right now. What the Federation needs is a strong leader.”
For a while, Adrian was unable to associate the words “strong” and “tyrant”
to Zhong Yan’s image from yesterday night. He asked, surprised, “What?”

“Well, he proposed a new position for you yesterday, right?”

“Commander of the fifty-three military regions. I know about it,” Adrian

said. “He and I talked about it early on, that the military power must be
separated from the hands of the council.”

Vahl said, “So you spoke about it? During the break for the meeting,
someone told Zhong Yan in private that he understood his painstaking
efforts to appease you temporarily by giving you military power. He said…
he was willing to help the President with his troubles, and that he would
help him get rid of your restraints so the President could get the military
power back…and his own freedom.”

Adrian froze for a moment before he finally realized what sort of freedom
he meant, and that instantly sent his anger surging. Just as he was about to
start yelling, he heard Vahl say, “It was just casual talk during the meeting
break. He used to be in the same party as Pearson, and I think he was just
trying to show his goodwill to the President so he could become his
confidant, but he didn’t expect Zhong Yan to recount the matter to the entire
table and say his intentions were questionable and questioned how he could
still be thinking about gaining power in such a crisis. Then, he dismissed
him. After he announced his expulsion, one of the councilors continued to
protest, but Zhong Yan said, ‘you can go home with him if you’re
unhappy’. He actually dismissed that guy as well, just like that. Both of
them were kicked out of the meeting together. Even though the meeting
wasn’t over, the two of them had to pack up their stuff and they were
escorted out of the building by security. It was quite a commotion, everyone
in the building found out in a moment.”

“Adrian, as I said earlier, it’s right of him to stay tough right now. But even
without him expressing it, I know that he did not dismiss those two high
level councilors for what he claimed, but because they were belittling and
plotting against you.” Vahl looked at Adrian. “As your uncle, I’m happy he
did that, but as the Vice President, it worries me too. If someone else
became the Commander of the fifty-three military commands, would the
President have gained another confidant yesterday?”

“Uncle Vahl, I understand that you’d be worried for my sake, but your
concerns so far have all been superfluous.”

“Why?”

“Take a look around the Federation. As long as I stay alive, nobody but me
can become the Commander,” Adrian said, “and I will keep an eye on the
President.”

Zhong Yan was worried about the ball hanging at Adrian’s waist. Even
though it looked out of place, his worries had, in truth, been for nothing.
After learning about their survival crisis, practically nobody paid attention
to why the newly appointed Commander of the fifty-three military regions
had a white ball around his waist. Instead, they were all swarming the
Supreme Council’s page to ask the new President about the current
situation.

Zhong Yan had already issued the order to destroy the ninth floor of the
Supreme Council, and his decisive actions won him a lot of support. Vahl
was right in predicting that the world would prefer a tough leader when a
crisis was approaching.

There were only four days left before “Butterfly” woke up. The technical
department and the research institute had been working overtime but they
still lacked the necessary information. They had no idea where “Butterfly’s”
brain or “Cocoon” was, and things seemed to have entered a deadlock.

Adrian was told outside of Zhong Yan’s office that the President was not in.

The President’s newly-appointed secretary, Intron, quickly came out when

he heard the news and asked, “Sir Yate, what brought you here?”

Adrian had just been granted the highest military post in the morning and
became Commander of the fifty-three military regions. It seemed that this
should be a busy time for him, when he should be doing the initial
confirmations of the situation in each of the military regions.

“Where’s the President? I came to talk to him because he did not respond to
my messages.”

It was most likely something urgent at a time like this. Intron quickly
responded, “The President is currently at the police headquarters. There
must be a signal blocker there. I’ll help you pass on the message when he
leaves.”

Adrian frowned slightly. There were no signal blockers in the police

headquarters to begin with. The only place with a signal blocker was the
detention center next to the HQ.

“He went to see Pearson? Why didn’t he tell me…Forget it. I’ll go and wait
for him.”

At this moment, Zhong Yan was visiting Pearson in the Capital Detention
Center.

“Those men are all garbage! To think a kid like you managed to snatch
away the spot of President…” said Pearson fiercely as he sat on the chair
with his hands and legs restrained. Though he had been shut in here for
several days, he did not suffer any physical pains. So, besides his mental
state being a little poor, he was in pretty good condition. He had just been
told about the recent events happening these past few days by Zhong Yan,
and he sneered, “And so you’ve come begging to me for it now? You want
to ask me whether I know ‘Butterfly’s’ secret? You’re no fool at least. I do
know a thing or two. As long as you agree to…”

“What are you thinking about?” Zhong Yan interrupted him rudely. “Of
course not. I just felt irritated that there’s been no progress in my work, and
that’s why I’ve come to humiliate you to vent my stress.”

Pearson’s face distorted when he heard his straightforward way of speech.

“You! Do you really not want to know where ‘Butterfly’s’ brain is?”
“You talk as if you do know. But if you did know of its self-protection
modules, you would not have gone against it to begin with. You actually
confirmed yourself that neither me nor Sir Yate have any means of
threatening you. After you no longer required ‘Butterfly’s’ protection, you
took the opportunity to turn your back on it without any hesitation. It really
shows that you know nothing.”

Pearson’s hatred could almost pour out from his eyes. He gritted his teeth
and said, “Your plots against me are absolutely terrible! If I had known the
truth then I would’ve gotten someone to kill that Yate brat at all costs when
‘Butterfly’ told me he was leaving the Institution Star alone!”

Zhong Yan’s heart thumped. “Butterfly” knew that Adrian left the
Institution Star?

He had come to probe Pearson, who had the closest personal relationship
with “Butterfly”, but he did not expect to actually hear any useful
information. Pearson had no idea, but Zhong Yan knew well that the entire
monitoring system had been completely removed when Adrian left the
Institution Star.

But then, how could “Butterfly” find out what the situation was within the
Institution Star without any monitoring systems?
 Chapter 90 - Special Planet

“Butterfly” knows what happens in the Institution Star like the back of its
own hand, way better than what it knows about any other planet. Zhong Yan
had known this since a long time ago. That was why he did not take the risk
to lay everything on the table with Adrian back then, and waited until they
arrived at Navi before speaking.

Indeed, the Institution Star was special, that was just to be expected. In
every aspect, anyone could easily agree, and that was why Zhong Yan did
not think too much of it when he received the news a long time ago. He just
thought that it was because the Federation’s Supreme Institute was situated
there, and in order to better understand the future pillars of society,
“Butterfly’s” monitoring of the place was exceptionally strict.

But now the monitoring systems have already been removed! Unless…

Pearson was cursing on his own. After receiving this unexpected

information, it was no longer necessary for Zhong Yan to deal with him. He
called out, “Come in!”

A man who had been waiting outside of the room in a police uniform
entered when he heard the order. He didn’t look very impressive, but
Pearson was so shocked that he was speechless. And that was because the
man Zhong Yan called in was holding a gun.
“What are you doing?!” Pearson asked, alert.

Zhong Yan stood up and seemed prepared to leave. He said to the man,
“He’s useless now. It’s done.”

The man nodded and began to ready his gun. There was no way Pearson
would not be able to understand after that. Zhong Yan came to kill him
today! His eyes were wide in shock as he struggled on his seat. Both the
restraining devices on his hands and feet were rattling loudly. “Zhong Yan!
You’re insane! Hasn’t human autonomy been restored?! It’s illegal for you
to kill me in private before my case is even brought to court! How could
you do something like this? You just became the President! If news of my
death travels out, the next one to be impeached will be you!”

Zhong Yan had already reached the door but he turned to smile at him when
he heard that. “Thank you for your consideration but please pass on in
peace. We’re in a special period right now and the President holds a lot of
power. Something like this can still be suppressed.”

With the dark muzzle pointed at his head, Pearson’s cold sweat came
drizzling down. He had never been this close to death in his life, and he
never would have imagined that Zhong Yan who was usually so cautious
would actually be so vicious. At the critical moment between life and death,
even his speech had become jumbled. “You’re actually using your power
for a personal grudge! No, the court case hasn’t even been opened yet. I’ve
already hired a lawyer! No, no…I really do know ‘Butterfly’s’ secret! I’ll
help you! I will!”

Zhong Yan didn’t care too much. “Really? I can consider it if you tell me.”

Pearson was stuck. How could he know any of “Butterfly’s” secrets! While
he was stuttering on some meaningless words so he could buy time to think,
Zhong Yan laughed. “Seems like it was a lie.” Then, he looked at his
confidant and said, “What are you waiting for? Do you want me to pull the
trigger for you?”

“There’s no difference between you and I!” Pearson shouted. “You’re no

different than the AI! Just you wait! After Adrian Yate kills ‘Butterfly’,
he’ll kill you too, sooner or later!”

Bang.

After the muted sound of gunfire, everything turned silent.

Zhong Yan stepped out of the room that was beginning to smell of blood
with Pearson’s last words still ringing in his ears. For him, he was not too
worried about that situation because of the many honest discussions he had
with Adrian. Everyone in the world thinks that giving Adrian power over
the 53 military regions would allow Adrian to keep the President in check,
but only he and Adrian knew that his real restraints were their marriage.

But if one day, conflict arose between Adrian and the power he had been
pursuing all his life, the obsession of standing above all others, how would
he choose? The first time Zhong Yan confessed his ambitions to Adrian in
Navi, and Adrian’s condition for them to start over was for him to give that
up. He had already made a choice back then, but what about now?

Ever since they got married, Adrian had never put out a similar request.
Perhaps he had already accepted one-sidedly that he was more important
than power in Zhong Yan’s heart, and that he had taken the biggest step
back for the sake of their love.

But was that true? Zhong Yan knew what he wanted since he was a kid, but
asking himself now, he actually couldn’t be certain anymore. If he was
given another chance, if such a thing really happened again in the future,
how would he choose?

Zhong Yan stood in front of the door with the bloody scene he created left
behind him. Suddenly, he saw a pair of leather shoes stopping in front of
him. He was standing too close. Who would be so daring as to stand so
close to the President…

“What are you so preoccupied about?” Adrian was just about to reach out to
pinch his cheeks when he realized that Zhong Yan’s subordinates were still
in the hall. It wouldn’t be good of him to do anything that would destroy the
majestic image of the President, so his half-raised hand was put on Zhong
Yan’s shoulder instead. “Is that old man dead?”

Zhong Yan stared at Adrian in a daze. He really did not expect to bump into
Adrian right now. Even though Adrian also made swift judgments towards
his enemies and would not care much of the incident, no man would be
willing to have their partners run into them during a murder scene. A little
uneasy, he said, “He’s dead. You came at a good time, he said something
useful just before he died.”

“Let’s talk in the car, saves time. I have something I need to speak with you
about too.”

“Alright.” Zhong Yan walked out with him, side by side. The entourage he
brought with him had just begun to follow them when Zhong Yan beckoned
to one of them and asked, “Why didn’t you report to me something as
important as the Commander arriving?”

On Zhong Yan’s first day as the President, he fired two high-ranking

councilors in the first minute, throwing the entire council silent, but they
had to admit that he really had the ability to govern the people. From the
impeachment bill to leading “Butterfly’s” termination plan, he gained much
of the public’s support, and it seemed like the heat wouldn’t be dying down
so quickly. Everyone in the council was careful towards the President for
fear of provoking him. Even his subordinate was shaking from fear when he
was asked that, but Adrian who had heard the question at the side
interjected casually, “I told him that he didn’t have to report it.”

He could easily tell that it was a lie, but since Adrian had already spoken, it
was only natural that Zhong Yan would not try to demean him. Dropping
the matter, he said, “You take the car at the back. I have something to talk to
the Commander about.”

His subordinates quickly escaped after giving Adrian a grateful glance.

Then, the rest of them went to the car at the back.

Everyone in the world thought that the Commander was a man who fought
his way up through a rain of gunfire. Now that he held such military power,
he was definitely a fierce character. On the other hand, the image they had
of the President had always been like a clear breeze that just happened to
toughened up because it was necessary for the situation. Only those that
actually had the chance to interact with these two men knew that though
everyone was speaking about the President, the man who truly loved the
people was the Commander.
“Let me go first. This matter is more important,” Adrian told him while he
turned on his terminal. Zhong Yan was just about to tell him that his matter
was relatively urgent too but he still allowed him to go first. Adrian had
already opened up all the data and showed his screen to Zhong Yan. “Look,
these are the three divisions I brought with me to the Institution Star. The
data is almost no different from reality. Do you know where I found this
picture?”

With his attention perked, Zhong Yan immediately asked, “Is this not the
internal plans from your own army?”

“No. This is from the intelligence department of the Capital Military

Region,” Adrian’s voice was grim. “They also told me that ‘Butterfly’ was
the one who sent them this three days after I landed on the Institution Star,
asking them to start their targeted deployment so they could be on standby.
Most of the motherships did not land during the first three days that I did,
and that was in order to prevent them from being included in the surface
monitoring devices. But three days later, I had them land. Xiao Yan, at that
time…”

”You’ve already cleared out all of ‘Butterfly’s’ monitoring systems at that

time.” Zhong Yan had a hunch in his heart already and quickly analyzed,
“But even if the surface monitoring devices were removed, ‘Butterfly’ still
knew the situation on the Institution Star like the back of its hand. Not only
was it able to figure out the military forces deployed throughout the entire
zone, it also knew each and every one of their identities and actions. Before
he died, Pearson had accidentally revealed that he knew long ago that you
left the Institution Star, and that ‘Butterfly’ told him. The Institution Star is
a special existence for ‘Butterfly’. It had the means to monitor the area that
we had no idea about. It was unable to verify the military force before you
landed, so that monitoring device must not be in the air…”

“It’s not on the surface either,” Adrian followed on. “I’m very sure that the
ground had already been swept clean. When it comes to destroying
monitoring devices, the Navi Military Region is professional.”

The two looked at each other for a moment. Both saw the same look of
disbelief in each other’s eyes.
“I’ve been thinking about this since yesterday,” Zhong Yan murmured. “A
super AI that can cover an area of millions of planets, even penetrating
through the areas of the universe without signal and it can analyze and
process the data generated by billions of people every second. How big
must its server be to support such powerful features?”

Adrian looked at him with a scorching gaze. “About the size of an artificial
planet would do it.”

Both of them turned on their terminals at the same time. Neither of them
needed to talk about the next step they had to take, but they each knew what
they needed to do. After a few silent seconds of waiting, the
communications were picked up. Both of them gave their orders
simultaneously to their subordinates at the other end of their terminals.

“Prepare the fastest spaceship and clear the route. The commander and I are
setting off for the Institution Star immediately.”

“Pass on my order. Break open the surface of the Institution Star right now
and check the internals of the planet. No matter what you find, do not act
rashly until I arrive.”

After a few simple orders, the two of them hung up their devices. Zhong
Yan said, “I will now issue a presidential decree to allow the Navi Military
District stationed on the Institution Star to destroy the surface and explore
its internals.”

Adrian nodded. “It’s not so easy for us to explain to the public why we went
to see Pearson, so we’ll just use the military distribution map to explain.”

Parking at the entrance of the Supreme Council, Zhong Yan quickly kissed
Adrian’s cheek before getting out of the car, saying, “Got it. I’ll go deal
with it while you go look for your men. I’ll see you at the council’s take-off
pad later.”
 Chapter 91 - Blasting the School

The total time the second-generation AI, “Butterfly”, stayed in use from its
creation to its abolishment was a total of 98 years. The Federation’s
Supreme Institution had just held its 100-year celebration just a few months
prior to this.

“So that’s it! They weren’t trying to create an artificial planet a hundred
years ago. They were trying to create ‘Butterfly’s’ server! But because it
was too big, they couldn’t fit it into any planet and could only leave it in
space. So, in order to hide it from the people, they just told everyone it was
an artificial planet,” a middle-aged man with glasses said.

This was said on the ship that was rushing over to the Institution Star.
Zhong Yan had brought with him a team of experts consisting of the top AI
experts and artificial planet experts. Now that they have departed, Zhong
Yan organized a simple meeting for them to exchange information.

One of the artificial planet experts said, “No wonder nobody has been able
to replicate another artificial planet with success. Now that I think about it,
those secret documents have all been destroyed by ‘Butterfly’ after it came
into power. After the deaths of all those who participated in the project,
nobody knew where ‘Butterfly’s’ brain was anymore.”

“It’s still too early for conclusions.” Adrian tapped his fingers on the table.
“The Institution Star has already gathered my soldiers as well as a professor
who is an expert in artificial planets to conduct the surface blasting. The
professor for the AI class is also on standby. Soon, we will be able to
receive accurate news of whether ‘Butterfly’s’ brain is really down there.”

One of the AI experts who had just been urgently summoned a day ago
sighed. “It really is a great blessing in this misfortune for this to have
happened in the Supreme Institution. We have all sorts of experts available
and we can get started immediately.”

“Your Excellency the Commander, I’m afraid ‘soon’ won’t cut it for us to
open up the ground. At the very least, it would take a few hours,” said an
artificial planet expert whose hair was already halfway turning white. “I had
the honor to apply for an artificial planet exploration activity many years
ago. We learned from that exploration that all the materials that makes up
the Institution Star’s surface comes from the Tech System, and they are
much sturdier than what your average planet is made of.”

The Tech System is a star system where the Institute of Science and
Technology gathers, and it was right beside the Capital. Its unique
geographical location and atmosphere of pure scientific research made this
star system a holy place for all scientific-minded people. This time, most of
the experts gathered for the AI abolishment plan consisted mostly of
members urgently transferred over from the Tech System. Even the original
Super-AI Research Institute which had been abandoned decades ago was
located there.

Zhong Yan suddenly asked, “This exploration activity you mentioned…Was

it the one that happened during spring eight years ago?”

The older artificial planet expert was stunned for a moment. After thinking
about it carefully, he affirmed, “That’s right. It was spring eight years ago.
Why is Your Excellency asking?”

Zhong Yan and Adrian looked at each other for a moment, and they both
remembered the past. Zhong Yan smiled, “I just became the Student
Council President at the time, and I was the one who arranged the reception
of your exploration team. I was just wondering why you looked so
familiar!”

“It was the President’s first contact with foreign affairs and he was nervous
about it for a very long time,” Adrian teased, “He spent many days unable
to sleep at night and he would drag me into it to fuss over the reception plan
as well. It was a real handful.”
Everyone began to laugh and the tense atmosphere seems to have dissipated
from this coincidence.

Since they have not received any results yet from the Institution Star, it
wouldn’t help for them to continue talking about it on the ship. So, Zhong
Yan said a few words of thanks to dissolve the meeting and immediately
beckoned over an attendant to lead the experts back to the rooms they were
arranged to rest.

Even after clearing the route and moving at full speed, it still took them two
days and one night before they arrived at the Institution Star.

Adrian and Zhong Yan were walking side by side while they discussed the
situation on the Institution Star. One of the attendants on the ship
approached Adrian and asked, “Your Excellency the Commander, will you
be returning to your room now?”

“That’s right. What’s the matter?”

“Your room is not in this direction, please follow me…”

“Wait, I’m in a separate room?” Adrian asked.

Zhong Yan who was also beside him looked over, confused. “Don’t you
know what my relationship with the Commander is? Why is he in a separate
room by himself?”

That attendant’s face was covered in shock and he quickly apologized in a

stutter. But Adrian just waved him away, unperturbed.

The two of them entered the room arranged for the President and Adrian
took off his jacket. “What’s wrong? You look upset.”

“It was practically written on his face!” While hanging up Adrian’s jacket
for him, Zhong Yan fumed, “On his left it’s ‘are you really sleeping
together?’ and on the right it’s ‘going all the way with your act? That’s too
dedicated’!”
Zhong Yan was the man who led the impeachment of the AI and he also
assigned military power to Adrian afterwards. This trend led more people to
believe that the two of them had only gathered at this time for political
cooperation. Now, both of them have clearly achieved their own goals. Each
of them held one half of the world’s power. It seems like the two of them
will be able to declare a peaceful breakup when the situation stabilizes
soon.

This was the most widely accepted theory by the people, and has already
become the main argument. And clearly, the attendant of this ship thought
so as well.

Adrian laughed when he heard that. He took the man into his arms and said,
“What sort of nonsense are you thinking about? Maybe we’ve only been
assigned separate rooms because they felt that the beds on the ship were too
small.”

“Do you think I’m so busy these days that I wouldn’t know what goes on in
the virtual community?” Zhong Yan said grumpily. “I’ll still spend a few
minutes each day to browse through the top news in the gossip section. The
headline of the hot topic yesterday was ‘Countdown to the President’s
divorce? Breakup time receives speculation’, and today’s is, ‘The most
successful political marriage, analysis of the marriage between the
Commander and the President’.”

Adrian didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry. Who would have
expected that the President would still find time to look through gossip in
his busy schedule? He quickly coaxed him. “Don’t be unhappy. When we
reach the next signal area, I’ll make a post to tell everyone how badly I love
you, alright?”

Zhong Yan burst out in laughter. “Don’t bother with it. Even I think it looks
like you’re trying to cover something up. Who would believe you?”

But this was just a trivial matter after all. They could just make a joke out of
it and that was that. Zhong Yan didn’t really put the matter to heart anyway,
he just had to complain a little to vent if he saw it happen. But Adrian
would always remember this. After that, the two of them no longer brought
up the matter and instead began to talk about business instead.

“Have the professors and students on the Institution Star been evacuated?”

“A small portion of the professors and students who can help have willingly
decided to stay. We’ve already arranged the evacuations for everyone else
and they should be mostly gone by the time we arrive.” Adrian said, “There
are also the important documents in the school that are also being sorted out
so the second batch of evacuating professors can take them away.”

Zhong Yan said, “If we really are able to determine that the Institution Star
is in fact ‘Butterfly’s’ main server…Do you think the weapons you have
stationed in the Institution Star are enough?”

For a super-AI that has so many self-protective measures in place, a

“shutdown” wouldn’t be able to put the people’s hearts at ease. Of course, it
would be much safer to destroy it completely. If the situation allows it, then
they’ll have to blow up the entire artificial planet to ensure “Butterfly’s”
death.

Without any need for explanation, Adrian understood what he meant. He

said with certainty, “There’s enough.”

Zhong Yan’s expression was gloomy. He had wanted to say that the planet
was where he and Adrian met, and he also spent the happiest three years of
his life there. Even without mentioning that, the Supreme Institution was,
after all, a place that changed the lives of many people, and he still had
some feelings towards his alma mater in the end. Just destroying it like that
was really sad. But it would be too childish of him to bring that up. In the
face of protecting the safety of humanity, this was just a school. If they
cleared out all the personnel in the school, then its destruction was not a
high price to pay.

He did not say anything, but Adrian held him and said, “I know. I can’t bear
to see the school go either, or the memories of our three years there. But
we’ll have a better and happier life in the future, so don’t be sad.”
Zhong Yan held his hand and regained his spirits. He nodded. “Yeah.”

“What’s more, it’s the ultimate dream of every student to blow up their
school. You and I will be the first people to realize this dream. Cheer up.”

Zhong Yan patted his hand, amused. The gloominess in his heart also
dispersed.

None of them could have imagined, however, that Adrian’s joke would not
be realized.

During the night, they were woken up by an emergency alarm. Since they
knew that news from the Institution Star would come at night, both of them
were sleeping with their outside clothes on. Both of them quickly sobered
up when they heard the sound.

“It’s me, Commander,” the head of the first division quickly said. He was
calling Adrian by his old title, but nobody cared about correcting him at this
moment. Adrian turned on the speakers and responded, “The President and
I are both present. Speak.”

“The ground is covered in dirty bombs! The entire planet is filled with
them! They’re buried deep under several layers of thick shields, but the
number is too large. Our disposal experts estimate that it will take at least
ten teams to work endlessly for many days to deal with them.”

Dirty bombs, radioactive weapons that were different from ordinary bombs
or weapons that could kill a person directly. Once they explode, they would
cause irreversible and disastrous large-scale environmental pollution. No
living being or resource will be spared. Even more terrifying was the fact
that after its explosion, they can try to rebuild, but even after spending a lot
of resources to deal with the aftermath, the land is still contaminated by
radioactive energy. The place will have to be abandoned for at least a few
centuries.

Adrian and Zhong Yan both gasped at the same time. Zhong Yan asked,
“What about ‘Butterfly’s’ server? Is it under the bombs?”
“It’s possible. We are now forced to suspend the mission. The bomb
disposal team is now removing the dirty bombs from a small region. Only
after they’re done can we continue with the detection operation.”

“What if we detonate the planet as we originally planned?” Adrian asked.

“I asked about it. They said that with this number of bombs…” The head of
the first division laughed bitterly. “If it detonates, it will immediately
contaminate at least 3 of its surrounding star systems, and it’ll spread to 10
within a year. In ten years, it will be able to contaminate most of the
Federation.”

Both sides of the communication turned dead silent. Zhong Yan opened his
own terminal to connect with his subordinates and took a deep breath
before ordering, “Wake up all the experts in the ship and convene an
emergency meeting in five minutes.”
 Chapter 92 - Candidate

They couldn’t blow up the school. This caused the people who had breathed
a sigh of relief after seemingly having found “Butterfly’s” server became
tense once more.

Both Zhong Yan and Adrian still were in the mood during the meeting when
they first boarded the ship to make jokes with everyone to lighten up the
mood, but nobody could even muster up a smile anymore.

“On the positive side of things, some people—or AI—must not want us to
destroy the planet from the dirty bombs we found. That at least proves that
something’s down there. We can almost be certain now that that must be
‘Butterfly’s’ brain. It’s something, at least,” one of the AI experts said.
Even though he was trying to comfort everyone, the tight frown on his
brows still showed how worried he was.

Yes, they did manage to get some clues, but they couldn’t act rashly.
Otherwise, nobody can bear the consequences of the radioactive leakage
from the dirty bombs.

Zhong Yan asked, “How’s our backup plan going?”

Their main plan was to find and destroy “Butterfly’s” server, while their
backup was to find “Cocoon”, the only AI with the power to shut down
“Butterfly” for good.

The researcher in charge of contacting the Capital shook his head to Zhong
Yan.

There was no progress. Information was missing. The participants from a

century ago have all died, and every last trace was cleaned up by
“Butterfly”. They simply could not find where “Cocoon” that had been
abandoned a century ago was. There was only one way to go now, and that
was to destroy “Butterfly’s” brain that was surrounded by all those dirty
bombs.

The artificial planet experts began discussing possible solutions based on

video materials sent over from the Institution Star. Adrian had actually
taken a bomb dismantling class during his time in the Supreme Institution,
and his results were pretty good. Only, he never used those skills for many
years and his skills had already turned rusty. Fortunately, one of the guards
he sent to Zhong Yan was part of the bomb disposal unit. So, he transferred
the guard over to discuss with the experts as well.

The discussion went on until they arrived in the Institution Star’s signal
zone, and they saw the message sent to them by the front-line detection
squad a few hours ago. They have already confirmed that the main server of
the super AI is inside the planet.
Mankind created two super AIs in total, and the Institution Star had only
been built a century ago. It can not be “Cocoon” that had been around for
more than two hundred years, only “Butterfly”.

Even though they expected this news, a strange feeling still arose in their
hearts when the confirmation came, especially for the half who came from
the Institution Star. Just thinking about how they lived three years on a
planet that had “Butterfly’s” brain in its core, and covered with so many
dirty bombs, all of them felt chills.

On the sixth day since “Butterfly’s” hibernation, the group of experts

consisting of the President, The Commander, as well as the Federation’s top
scientists arrived at the Institution Star.

In Adrian and Zhong Yan’s memories, they had never seen the school this
cold before. They always came here when school started and left during the
holidays. Every day of their lives at the campus was lively and filled with
vitality. But there was no time for them to mourn the desolate scene. Now
that they have returned once more, they were no longer students and instead
had become those who shoulder the hopes of all of mankind.
“Mr. Headmaster.” Adrian frowned and shook hands with the middle-aged
man. “Why haven’t you evacuated yet?”
This headmaster was not the one during Adrian and Zhong Yan’s time in
school. In fact, he had only been in office for less than three years. This
professor used to be a professor from the School of Social Sciences, and
Zhong Yan had once taken his class. This was also the headmaster who led
the joint protest of the colleges and universities.

“It’s very dangerous here, Professor. We will arrange a spaceship to take

you away now,” Zhong Yan also said.

“My students,” the headmaster smiled. A sanguine look could be seen in his
eyes as he said, “I am the headmaster of this school, how could I evacuate
when my students are rushing to the front-lines? I will not hold you back, so
please let me stay.”

Zhong Yan mumbled, “That’s not what we mean…”

“Your Excellency, your advisor has spoken with me before he evacuated

about the Specimen store you invested in.” The headmaster winked at
Zhong Yan. “Don’t worry, all the precious specimen materials have already
been taken away by the students working there.”

This headmaster was also on the anti-AI side. After the old headmaster
retired more than two years ago, he successfully took up the position of
headmaster with “Specimen’s” strong support, but he had only found out
yesterday that Zhong Yan was the one behind that organization.

Zhong Yan did not expect that his advisor would tell the headmaster his
identity before he left either, and he felt a little embarrassed for a while. He
nodded, “Thank you.”

“No need to worry. I still owe Your Excellency a big thank you.”

Any other person may not understand what they were talking about, but
Adrian, as someone in the know, understood. It turns out that this
headmaster had Zhong Yan at the back to give him the push, and he
couldn’t help but take a glance at Zhong Yan. He realized now that Zhong
Yan actually did way more than he expected those past few years.

But it was no time to talk about the past right now. After making sure of the
situation, all of them began heading to the experiment building of the
School of Engineering together. Since most of the equipment they needed
were in the School of Engineering, that was where they set up their
temporary headquarters for the time being. As soon as the party from the
Capital arrived, they saw a busy scene inside the experiment building’s
lobby. Various instruments they could not say the name of were piled up in
the hall with dozens of huge virtual screens displaying complex graphs and
data. Many of the people bustling about were professors that Adrian and
Zhong Yan were familiar with, and there were even a few teenage girls who
did not look any older than twenty. Those were the students who performed
well enough academically and stayed behind by their own will to help.

Very soon, soldiers from the Navi Military Command came to bring the
Capital’s expert team over to join the work. The three colonels met up with
Adrian and Zhong Yan and reported on their current progress.

“The small-scale detection equipment we brought down were destroyed

halfway through,” the First Regiment’s leader said. “Fortunately, it wasn’t
without reward. After searching various directions with the unmanned
detection devices, we found a special channel that may be used by the
scientists who built ‘Butterfly’s’ server, and it may even lead us to
‘Butterfly’s’ core. We already have a team digging up an entrance there.”

Adrian nodded. “Very good. Where is the corresponding entrance, exactly?”

“Right below the School of Mechanical Engineering, in an abandoned

warehouse. What number was it again…?”

Both Zhong Yan and Adrian blurted out at the same time. “No. 178?”

All three of the colonels looked at them in surprise. The Colonel of the First
Regiment said, “That’s right, it’s no. 178! How did you know?!”
Adrian and Zhong Yan glanced at each other. For a while, they really didn’t
know where to begin. The School of Mechanical Engineering’s warehouse
no.178 was the “down” written down in their cipher book.

“So that’s how it was? It’s no wonder there’s no monitoring there,” Adrian
said, still feeling shocked. “We always sneaked over there back then and
spent the whole night. It’s really fortunate we never got offed by
‘Butterfly’.”

Zhong Yan said helplessly, “This teaches us not to violate the school rules
so casually.”

The Third Regiment’s leader widened his eyes. “You often spent nights in
the abandoned warehouse? What were you uh…doing in the warehouse?”

“Chatting,” Adrian told him honestly.

The young colonel looked at him with scorn, his face saying, “Who are you
trying to fool?”

Adrian slapped him upside the head and shouted, “What kind of nonsense
are you thinking of! We were purely chatting!”

But in fact, the other two colonels did not believe that statement either. The
two of them looked at each other and believed that the young President and
Commander were doing some kind of special play during their school
years. But they were a bit older after all, they wouldn’t run their mouths like
the Third Regiment’s Colonel, and just quietly felt surprised in their hearts.
It turns out that these two calm-looking people were actually so wild during
their school days. Sure enough, young people know how to have fun.

Seeing their reputation growing worse and worse, Zhong Yan coughed and
said, “So, when will the opening on the School of Mechanical
Engineering’s side be open?”

It will take a few hours to break open the surface,” The Second Regiment’s
colonel said. “Your Excellency, there are empty rooms in the dormitory, do
you and the commander want to take a rest for now?”
But of course, there was no way any of them were in any mood to rest.
Thus, Zhong Yan said, “No. We’ll go and see if the experts managed to
devise any feasible plans.”

With that, there were faint changes in the expressions of all three colonels.
The three of them looked like they wanted to say something but were stuck.
Sensing the situation, Adrian asked, “What is it? Is there something you
haven’t said?”

The three of them looked at each other for a few moments. Finally, the
Colonel of the First Regiment bit the bullet and said, “Commander, Deputy
Commander Suster had just set off yesterday and will arrive by today.”

Adrian was stunned. Following that, he howled, “What is he coming for?!

Didn’t I give him the order to stay at Navi’s base camp?! Why didn’t you
tell me yesterday? My adjutant and my colonels are working together to
conceal their military affairs from me?! Do you know what kind of…”

“Ade,” Zhong Yan gently tugged at the hem of his clothes to stop him from
scolding them. Calmly, he asked, “You have already discussed a feasible
plan yesterday and reached a conclusion, right?”

The three of them nodded awkwardly, but Adrian wasn’t surprised at all. It
was because he could guess that he was so angry. Calmly, he said, “The
detection devices can only perform limited movements. It’s too late to
create a suitable report in such a short amount of time, so the best way is to
send someone down to destroy ‘Butterfly’s’ brain. It’s too dangerous and
none of you told me. Instead, you discussed with the deputy and that was
why he rushed over without telling me. He wants to be the one to head
down.”

The colonel of the second regiment steeled himself and said, “The Deputy
Commander’s individual combat abilities are clear to everyone. He’s a very
suitable candidate!”

“Yes, he’s strong,” Adrian said, “but the strongest individual is on this
planet right now.”
The Colonel of the Third Regiment was anxious. “You can’t go,
Commander! What will we do if anything happens to you down there? His
Excellency will definitely not agree to it!”

Adrian suddenly realized how cruel this conversation was to Zhong Yan. He
was just about to ask Zhong Yan to leave first, but he heard him say, “I’m
not against it.”

His tone was steady as usual, but when Adrian turned to him, he could see
his eyes growing red.
 Chapter 93 - Two Generation
Chiefs

“Xiao Yan, don’t…” Adrian felt pained but it wouldn’t be too proper to
comfort him in front of everyone. Their statuses were different now, he had
to show the President respect in front of others. So, he could only dismiss
his own subordinates by saying, “I need to talk to the President. You three
should go check on the progress.”

The Third Colonel knew he said something wrong just now and quickly ran
away while Adrian didn’t have the time to settle the accounts with him.
With his hand half around Zhong Yan’s waist, Adrian took him up the stairs
in the College of Engineering’s Experiment Building.

In order to facilitate their communications and scheduling, all the machines

they needed were moved to the first and second floors. So, nobody was
around when they arrived on the third floor. Adrian took Zhong Yan into his
arms, but strangely, Zhong Yan did not hug him back.

Adrian had many reasons he wanted to bring up to explain why he was the
best candidate. The inside of this planet was filled with dangers after all. A
human had to be sent deep into danger. In a situation others could survive in
he would also be able to survive. In a situation others could not, he would
still be able to survive. Having the strongest person go would be the best
option to minimize the possibility of incurring a sacrifice. But when the
words came to his mouth, he couldn’t say it. There was no way Zhong Yan
would not understand such a simple reason. Moreover, Zhong Yan had
already expressed that he did not object to his choice. This seemed to have
taken away the need for Adrian to even explain.
“I’m sorry.” In the end, those were the only words he could muster. He held
the man in his arms tightly and apologized. “I’m sorry.”

Zhong Yan gently pushed him away. If you did not look at the slight tinge
of red at his eyes, then his expression could even be described as calm.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, really, and I’m not just saying that. You
didn’t stop me when I became President, so I won’t stop you from being the
hero either. Both of us know the line between our personal lives and public,
so I support your decision. When you save everyone…When you come
back…Could you…”

A crack finally appeared on his calm mask. He could hear his voice choking
back. Adrian felt like something was stuck in his throat and he couldn’t say
anything at all. His chest heaved up and down before he could adjust
himself. He promised Zhong Yan solemnly, “Once this ends, I’ll retreat
from the frontline. I’ll never put myself in danger again. I’ll always stay by
your side, and I’ll go wherever you go. I won’t leave anymore, okay?”

Zhong Yan’s mood did not alleviate because of this promise, because the
premise of it was that he needed to come back up alive. For a human made
of flesh and blood to break through the ultimate protection set up by an
omniscient super-AI seemed almost like an impossible task. Without saying
yes or no, he looked down. “Let’s go down and check on the progress. I’ll
sign the presidential decree for your operation later.”

“Xiao Yan…”

“Commander-in-Chief!” A young voice shouted from downstairs.

Both Adrian and Zhong Yan looked over and saw a tall student who was
about twenty-years-old standing by the stairs. Adrian nodded to him and
said, “Yes, what is it?”

Then, he introduced him to Zhong Yan. “This is the current Student Council
President of the Supreme Institution. He helped us out a lot a few days ago
and he’s one of the students who chose to stay behind.”
While he was speaking, the young Student Council President walked over
to them and greeted Zhong Yan. “Your Excellency the President. It’s a
pleasure to meet you. My name is Jonny Studen. I asked a few of the
colonels earlier and they told me that the two of you were upstairs. I just
overheard Senior Zhong Yan talking about a presidential decree on my way
up…Please excuse my presumptuousness, but may I ask if the two of you
were discussing the candidates for the underground mission?”

The situation was getting clearer and clearer, and though no specific plan
has been announced, most people were aware that someone would have to
go down in this situation. There wasn’t anything they had to hide. This was
something they were going to announce soon, so Adrian admitted it. “That’s
right. Do you have any suggestions?”

“I do.” The boy straightened his back and spoke in a firm voice. “Please let
me perform the task.”

Adrian was surprised. Zhong Yan remembered an intelligence report he

received from the Supreme Institution two months ago and whispered to
Adrian, “The Student Council President for this generation comes from the
Military Academy.”

“As of this month’s rankings, I am also the current Chief of the Military
Academy.” Jonny said, “Senior Yate was once the Chief of the Military
Academy as well. I’m sure you must know the weight this list holds.”

If Adrian were to say that Fayn rushing over from Navi behind his back to
take his place in this task annoyed him, then this student who still had that
youthful aura around him simply made him want to laugh, but he restrained
himself. He did not wish to offend this boy’s sincerity.

Zhong Yan said helplessly, “Mr. Studen, we will not send a student who has
yet to leave the campus to this mission.”
“Then much less Your Excellency the Commander.” It seems that Jonny
had already guessed early on that his proposal would be rejected, but he
tried to argue with reason. “Mankind needs the Commander, but they may
not necessarily need a student who has yet to even graduate!”
As soon as he said that, the faint smile at Adrian’s lips disappeared
completely. Zhong Yan shook his head and looked at Adrian’s expression.
Without saying anything, he took a step back.

“Jonny—I hope you don’t mind me calling you that,” Adrian said, “You
told me specifically that you were the current Chief of the Military
Academy, so you also agree that performing this mission may require
excellent abilities in combat, correct?”

“Yes, Senior.”

“Good. Then let’s fight.”

Jonny froze. Suspecting that he might have misheard, he asked, “What?”

“You and me, right here. Let’s fight.” Adrian repeated again, “Not anyone
can be sent out to do a difficult task like this just because they asked to be.
Both the President and I certainly agree on that. At the very least, you have
to show us if you’re really capable of replacing me in this mission.”

The young Chief looked at the most dazzling one of his seniors and thought
back to Adrian’s lofty achievements in the past when he ranked at the top.
The enthusiasm of a man’s itch to fight was causing his blood to surge.
Clenching his fists, he said, “Alright. Let’s do it right now.”

The hall on the third floor on the Experiment Building had already been
cleared out and was now empty. It was suitable to be used as a temporary
arena. Zhong Yan helped Adrian take off his coat and whispered quiet
enough that only the two of them could hear. “He’s a kind boy. Just think of
it as warm-up, don’t go too harsh on him.”

But Adrian was unmoved. “If he needs me to go easy on him, then that
means the quality of the Military Academy’s Chief has declined.”

Zhong Yan shot him a disapproving glare. Adrian scratched his nose and
finally relaxed. “I know what to do.”
Jonny had already known then he wouldn’t be able to beat mankind’s
legendary warrior.

When Adrian Yate graduated the Supreme Institution, he left behind an

outrageously high record in the solo combat standings that was hard for his
successors to beat. Later, the students of the Military Academy, especially
the excellent students who ranked at the top, would constantly work hard to
set a record and they would compare it with the records Adrian left back
then. Jonny was one of them.

There was still a gap between his current records and Adrian’s, but the gap
was not very big. So, he figured that he should at least be able to sustain for
a short period of time in his fight with Adrian before he lost. Moreover,
how many winners were there in the world when it came to fighting bare
handed with Adrian one-on-one? The time he could spend being evenly
matched with him could prove his skill, and perhaps the two seniors would
change their minds and allow him to go.

But he did not expect that he would lose so quickly and so thoroughly.

After the two seconds when he recovered from the pain after being thrown
to the marble floor, he still wanted to get up and fight, but those two
seconds of immobility were enough for Adrian to keep him pinned to the
ground. Struggling to no avail, he could only admit defeat.

Jonny stood up blankly, only to see Adrian stretching the arm he had
managed to grapple temporarily with a carefree expression. He didn’t even
break a sweat at all.
“Indeed, he’s strong for a student who’s only advanced to the third grade,”
Adrian commented, “If you fought me when I was nineteen, then we might
have been evenly matched. But obviously, there’s no way you can beat me
right now.”

After leading his troops on the front line for seven years, Adrian had long
since broken away from being only at the academic level. Jonny felt a little
ashamed when he thought of his self-recommendation, and was just about
to apologize when Adrian patted his shoulder and continued, “Similarly, I
can’t replace you either. Jonny, it took both me and the President’s titles
during our school to make up yours. I can almost imagine how brilliant
your future will be and how much you can contribute to this world.
Certainly, the world needs me, but it needs you too. Now stop saying stuff
like that.”

Tears welled up in Jonny’s eyes, and he choked back, “I’m sorry, Senior.”

“Ade.” Zhong Yan came over and gave Adrian a light tap, motioning for
him to look at the stairs.

Nobody knows how long the three colonels have been there, but Fayn who
clearly looked travel worn was with them as well.

“Go down and check on the progress at the entrance. I’ll come see you
later,” Adrian said to Zhong Yan.”

Zhong Yan nodded understandingly. Then, he took Jonny with him and left.
When they walked past the people at the staircase, he mentioned lightly,
“Please, the three of you. Brief me on the situation again.” Then, he took
the three colonels downstairs with him as well.

“Boss.” Fayn walked over to Adrian and was just about to say something,
but he was stopped when Adrian reached out his fist.

“You’re not gonna want me to beat that idea out of your mind too, do you?”
Adrian asked.

Fayn was silent. After a long time, he started with difficulty, “Even if ten
people went down there, no one would survive.”

“I know. If it has to end in death…” Adrian pursed his lips. No matter what,
he wouldn’t dare to say this in front of Zhong Yan, but Zhong Yan wasn’t
here right now. He said to Fayn, “If it has to end in death, then are you
trying to say that my life is worth more than yours?”

Fayn gritted his teeth. “In a sense, yes, Commander.”

“Fine, my life is worth more than yours and that’s why you’re going in my
place. What about that kid from earlier? The current Student Council
President. He’s still a student. According to your standards, quite naturally,
he can also go in your place since you’re the Deputy Commander of this
military command after all. And if you’re going to be sending a student
down there with limitless prospects in front of him, we might as well just
send a regular student, is that what you mean?”
 Chapter 94 - Gene Sample

Fayn wouldn’t say anything to him anymore, so Adrian sighed. “So whose
life isn’t a life?”

“That…” Fayn wanted to answer him, what about Zhong Yan? But those
words would be too cruel. Since Adrian has already made his choice, he
wouldn’t be able to change his mind by jabbing at him like that. More
importantly, if Adrian turned around and asked him, “What about Wei
Lan?” Then he could also only be silent.

In the end, Fayn swallowed down the words he wanted to say. Adrian did
not notice what he was thinking about so he reassured him, “Anyway, who
says ten have to die? If you guys go down then ten of you would be dead.
But if I go, only 9 die.”

“That’s not any better!” Not knowing whether he should laugh or cry, Fayn
punched him in the chest. Adrian leaned sideways and evaded him,
laughing, “Zero and one is a qualitative difference.”

Fayn rubbed his face in exasperation and said, “Fine, I can’t dissuade you.
Go then. See if they can figure out a way to put a few more detectors down
there. At the very least, that might help you find a way around.”

He just stood up when Adrian suddenly said, “Wait.”

“What is it?”

Adrian reached over to pick off a long white strand of fur from him.

“Oh, that’s from your rabbit.” Fayn said, unperturbed, “Didn’t you tell me
to go over every few days to top up its food? I went just before I came over
and it got all its fur on me. Seriously scary stuff.”
“It’s molting season for it right now.” Adrian held the strand in his hand and
defended his own giant space rabbit.

How strange. He didn’t like that rabbit that much, but he just accepted it
because Zhong Yan liked it. However, now that he saw this strand of hair
accidentally brought over by Fayn, he suddenly recalled all those times it
would rub itself against his body in that intimate fashion. It was clearly
such a gigantic creature but it’s courage was the complete opposite.
Though, it was very gentle too. Zhong Yan complained that the rabbit was
too fat and told him to feed it less, but Adrian would always feed the rabbit
extra behind Zhong Yan’s back. He didn’t know why, but ever since getting
married, he seems to have become increasingly patient with soft creatures
like these.

He didn’t have any good feelings left between him and the Yate family, nor
did he feel that the blood of this so-called top-class family was worth that
much. Moreover, being indoctrinated with the importance of carrying on the
family name and bringing honor to his ancestors at a young age ended up
causing a reverse reaction instead. He always believed that all he needed
was a partner to stay with him in life. Children were cumbersome burdens
and obstacles. But if his partner was Zhong Yan…They’d never even
discussed that question. Would Zhong Yan like children?

Still holding onto that strand of fur, Adrian found Zhong Yan.

“It’ll take some time to get the entrance open, and we still have to get the
detectors down to check on the situation first before the experts will gather
for a meeting. They’ll plan a route for you and make the necessary
preparations. That’s going to take a night to complete, at the very least.”
Zhong Yan had already taken over the work and explained to Adrian what
he told Vahl earlier. “You don’t have to worry about anything. You just have
to rest till the equipment and plans are ready. You should start saving up
your energy now.”

“Alright. I’ll leave it up to you, Mr. President,” Adrian agreed while

stuffing the rabbit fur into Zhong Yan’s suit pocket.

“Huh?” Zhong Yan touched his pocket, confused. “What’s that?”

Adrian said, “Fur from our rabbit. It got stuck on Fayn.”

“Oh,” Zhong Yan wasn’t bothered. His mind was focused on trying to
improve the survival rate of the task. “Why don’t we ask them to find you a
room to sleep in? Or maybe we can get someone to help you warm up—No,
I think you should familiarize yourself with the mechanisms inside that
we’ve discovered…”

Adrian stroked his arm and reassured him. “Even if I go now, I won’t be
able to descend until an hour later, so don’t worry. Think about it this way,
if either I fail or the Institution Star blows up, then, ‘Butterfly’ will wake up
the next morning after to take its revenge on humanity. No matter what
happens, it’ll be hard for any of us to escape. So, if I die, you die too. We’ll
still be together.”

That sort of “I’m not going to die alone, I’m going to drag you with me as
well” sort of line actually had a strange calming effect on Zhong Yan. He
thought about it and nodded seriously. “That makes sense.”

As soon as he said that, his terminal rang. Adrian asked, “Is it from the
Capital?”

“Yeah, things are hectic on that side as well.”

“You should take the call then. I’m going to ask them about the details
inside.”

The two of them worked separately for now. Zhong Yan picked up his call
but Adrian did not seek out the experts like he said he was going to, and
headed for the infirmary instead.

“Boss? Why are you here at this time?” Fayn asked, puzzled.

Without batting an eyelid, Adrian responded, “They told me to come for an

examination. What about you? Why are you here during working hours?”

“Working hours? What do you mean working hours? It’s not like I have
your permission to do the task anyway so I’ve got nothing to do. What, are
relationships not allowed now too?”

“You’re free but the doctor isn’t. He’s busy now, so leave.”

Wei Lan stood up and asked, confused. “What examination? Did the experts
ask for it? An oxygen capacity test or something of the sort?”

“Uh…Right. That’s the one.” Adrian responded, a little abrupt. Then, he

said to Fayn again, “Well, you’re already here so don’t be idle. Go and help
them out at Engineering’s side.”

Fayn acknowledged the order and headed out, but feeling that something
wasn’t quite right, he turned around again and observed Adrian, asking,
“What are you shooing me away for?”

Adrian ordered him impatiently, “Adjutant Suster, go to the front of the

School of Engineering immediately to support the Colonel of the First
Regiment and the President.”

“Yes, Commander,” Fayn responded out of habit. Then, he eyed Adrian and
Wei Lan suspiciously and asked with some hesitation, “You’re not trying to
cuckold me, are you? Don’t agree to whatever he says, Doctor.”

“Get out!” Adrian shouted.

Seeing that he was getting angry, Fayn quickly got out of there.

“Commander…Excuse me, Your Excellency, please follow me.” Holding

his electronic medical record board in hand, Wei Lan stood up, but Adrian
reached out to take the board away from him.

“Hold on. We’re not going to do a medical examination. I came to ask you
something, actually. Wei Lan…Do you know how to use a gene extractor?”

Wei Lan was stunned, but he still responded. “I’ve studied it. But I’ve never
actually operated it since graduating.”

“That’s good enough. I fully trust in your professionalism,” Adrian said, his
face unchanged. “Medical Officer Wei Lan, I will now explain to you the
details of a confidential solo mission for you.”

Wei Lan was a military doctor, with his position as a military man before
that of a doctor. He stood up and responded, “Yes.”

“The Supreme Institution’s School of Medicine has a gene extractor. We

will head over right now, and you will take a sample of my gene. You have
to keep this matter confidential. You and I are the only ones who know.”
Adrian ordered him clearly, “Tomorrow, after I head underground to
perform my task, if the mission is a success but I fail to survive…”

Adrian stopped. He could feel a sharp pain welling up inside of him, but not
for his own possible death. He felt pain for Zhong Yan.

“If I fail to return, hand my gene sample to Zhong Yan. He may do

whatever he wishes with it.”

Even Wei Lan could understand the implications of his words. Gene fusion
technology was a maturing sector. Though there are few spots available,
there are indeed children born of same sex gene infusions each year. Before
Adrian and Zhong Yan got married, there had actually been rumors
surrounding them that they had produced an illegitimate child through this
technology, and till now, some still believed the rumor.

Adrian was actually trying to leave Zhong Yan with a child.

If things really progress to such a stage, then naturally, he would have no

way to interfere with any of Zhong Yan’s decisions. But what if Zhong Yan
still wanted to live on properly? He had to at least give Zhong Yan a reason
to keep trudging on.

“Yes,” Wei Lan answered.

Adrian nodded. “Follow me to the Medical Campus.”

Adrian easily brought Wei Lan over through the place where several
soldiers were stationed, but nobody realized that their Commander and their
Chief Medical Officer went into the School of Medicine and returned. Wei
Lan kept the gene sample properly and the two returned to the medical
office. At that time, Fayn just so happened to have walked in.

“Where did you two go?” Fayn asked.

Adrian was not worried that Wei Lan would spill the beans. Even though he
personally didn’t like Wei Lan’s character, he always trusts each soldier he
promoted in his work, and believed that they could perform their tasks well.

Sure enough, Wei Lan did not say a single word about it. Adrian stepped
between them. “Something came up. Didn’t we ask you to go help? Why’d
you come back in just an hour?”

So they weren’t going to tell him. Fayn rolled his eyes. However, he did not
continue to probe. “What do you mean I didn’t help? Aren’t I here to run
errands for the President? The President is looking for you. They’ve sorted
out all the mechanisms the detectors can reach underneath the dirty bombs
and they’re asking you to head over so they can give you a run down.”

“I’m coming.” Adrian followed him out.

After digesting the underground routes and plans, Zhong Yan wanted
Adrian to get a good night’s sleep before getting up for work again, but they
could not delay the situation any longer. After midnight, it would be the
seventh day since “Butterfly’s” hibernation, which is also humanity’s very
last day. It was a race against time, and all the groups working on the planet
have completed their work in the highest efficacy possible.

Adrian had only slept for less than four hours, but everything else was
ready. Zhong Yan had no choice but to enter the room and wake Adrian up.

“Do you want to sleep a little longer?” Zhong Yan asked with concern while
helping him put on his coat.

Adrian shook his head. “No need. It’s enough. I’m filled with energy right
now.”
Zhong Yan never tried to interject at places outside of his expertise, so he
just nodded to him. Adrian had to take his current clothes off for sure so he
could change into the special combat uniform, but Zhong Yan still carefully
helped him smooth out his collar as usual, saying, “The presidential decree
has been signed. No matter whether you succeed or fail, I will tell the world
about your contribution to humanity.”

“I will succeed,” Adrian said as if to make an oath.

He could only succeed. They were on the seventh day of this artificial god’s
hibernation. There was no way out for mankind.

Zhong Yan shut his eyes and pondered on whether his sentence would be
too weak to bring any psychological impact to Adrian, but he still said it.
“But I care more for whether you’ll be able to return or not.”

Adrian took his hand and pressed it solemnly against his chest, promising
him, “I’ll give it my all.”
 Chapter 95 - From the Cosmos

By dawn, the strongest soldier of the human race was fully armed.

When the scientists and engineers evacuated this planet a century ago, and
buried the entrance to the planet’s core behind them, it was apparent that
they had destroyed the means of transportations of which they used to reach
the depths. With the need to head back down in short order a century later,
they would have to rely on temporary modified geographical exploration
lifts.

Without a single word, Zhong Yan stood in front of the surveillance screen.
He was dressed in a solemn black suit that he had never taken off since he
arrived in the Institution Star, because he had never stopped to rest for a
single moment through day and night. His skin had been pale to begin with,
but now it was morbidly so with bruises emerging under his eyes and color
draining from his lips. Anyone could tell that he was in bad shape even
without any medical experience.

The command hall was located in the School of Engineering’s Experiment

Building, and the team that would assist Adrian in getting underground had
arrived. Fayn said to Zhong Yan, “Your Excellency, he has passed through
the dirty bomb layer. Everything is going smoothly so far.”

Zhong Yan nodded. “Good.”

This message had been broadcast five minutes ago by the team in the
command hall that was monitoring the equipment on Adrian’s body in real-
time, so Zhong Yan was sure that Fayn wasn’t here to tell him this. Sure
enough, Fayn continued. “Zhong Yan, why don’t you take a rest? Adrian
still has a long descent ahead of him and they’ve already cleared the
section. There’s nothing dangerous there. Moreover, he won’t turn on the
cameras so there’s nothing to look at either.”

He called Zhong Yan by his name instead of by his title, indicating that this
was a private conversation between them. Zhong Yan’s expression changed
slightly and he asked, “Did he ask you to pass on his word?”

“Yes. He told me before heading down that he’s worried your body won’t
be able to hold up.”

Zhong Yan shook his head. “It would be outrageous for the President to run
off to sleep when a man is out there struggling on the frontlines to save
humanity. What’s more…It’s not like I can sleep.”

Under such situations, Zhong Yan wasn’t alone. Perhaps, there was not a
single person on the Institution Star that would be able to sleep. There was a
tense and busy atmosphere surrounding the temporary command hall, but in
fact, only a dozen people were working the monitoring station and console.
The others who joined in the mission were reluctant to go out and were
silently standing by the corner of the hall, silently watching the fate of
humanity without disturbing the people working at the consoles.

Unable to persuade him, Fayn could only give up and headed back to his
seat at the monitoring station.

The President stood in his black suit with his hands behind his back in front
of the monitoring station, just like a stiff sculpture. Not only was he a
human like the rest, who was waiting for his fate to be pronounced, he was
also the one in charge of the operation, as well as the partner of the man
proceeding with the mission. Everyone felt sympathetic to him but
encouragement would be too hollow, and comfort would be too weak, so
nobody came forward to interrupt him.

By logic, the President who was the supreme head of the operation was
qualified to sit in front of the command station, but Zhong Yan refused,
stating that all positions should be occupied by people who played roles in
the operation.
Hours passed, and Adrian’s figure appeared on the screens as he released
the first hovering camera.

“Command, I’ve just broken past the detector’s limit distance. No

equipment lost, no injuries. All is well.”

Everyone in the hall breathed a sigh of relief. The detection limit he

mentioned was not due to the detector’s technical inability to continue
downwards, but due to the fact that it was stopped by a protective
identification mechanism. Unable to decipher the century-old passcode,
they could only break past by force. The men on the surface tried countless
times to do so and were unable to succeed even after destroying several
detectors. Many in the group feared that Adrian would also be stuck here
without success, or worse, end in demise.

But from what they could see of the footage, there were quite a few pieces
of fresh mechanical wreckage lying at Adrian’s feet. They were all the
scrapped detectors from yesterday and today, but he himself and the
equipment on his body were all completely intact as he said. Whispers and
sighs of relief rang through the hall.

After breaking past the limit point, there were no more pre-arranged lights
prepared by the surface team. Adrian turned on the lights on his combat
helmet and walked forward. For him, he was walking forward, but from the
imagery that represented him that the monitoring team could see, he was
heading deeper inside. Clearly, the gravity system had been adjusted in the
planet’s interiors. These must be the adjustments made by the engineers
who had built the planet back then to facilitate their own access.

Adrian saw the light switch on the wall and reached out to turn it on,
lighting up the entire passage in an instant. The men in the command hall
were shocked. Fayn who was in charge of the operation shouted into the
comms mic. “Commander! Can you talk to us before you touch any
switches? What if that wasn’t the light?!”

“But it says light on there. Aren’t you guys a little too nervous?” Adrian
was helpless. Even if that wasn’t written on there, what else could these
style of switches be used for? The tense air of the command hall seemed to
be able to pass through his headset. He suddenly realized that Zhong Yan
probably would not heed his advice and go rest, and was definitely there
overseeing the situation. Feeling his heart soften, he quickly changed his
tune and said, “Alright, I got it. I’ll inform Command next time.”

With the lights on, his journey went by quicker. Adrian continued on deep
underground, encountering protective mechanisms every few hours. Each
one of them got progressively more dangerous, but fortunately, the
equipment he brought with him were carefully selected from the best of the
best after taking into account the various situations he might encounter.
This was simply like adding wings to a tiger for Adrian. The few other
times they came down, they suffered many losses to their equipment, but
the personnel only received light injuries.

The image on the monitoring console disappeared. After the mechanisms

destroyed two of the hovering cameras, Adrian decided not to release the
last one for the time being. So, for a very long period of time, nobody in the
command hall could see him, and they didn’t want to talk to him so much in
case they drained his energy, so they could only keep track of his condition
with the medical officer who was staring at the numbers transmitted from
the testing equipment attached to his body.

When night came, Adrian rested for an hour under Wei Lan’s suggestion.

Any explosions happening too close to the dirty bomb layer would be
dangerous. Moreover, the entire section underneath the dirty bomb layer
seemed to be “Butterfly’s” main server according to the experts. If the
section that they detonated was not the core of the server, then they may not
necessarily be able to “kill” the AI. They had to go deeper into the core and
use a small range of bombs to destroy it to make sure their plan was
foolproof.

The lights were brightly lit in the temporary command hall deep into the
night. Before heading down, Adrian asked Fayn for help in looking after
Zhong Yan, and Fayn could see at this moment that Zhong Yan’s
complexion really was looking terrible. With the excuse that “Adrian is
already nearing the core and may need the President to make a decision” he
at least managed to persuade him to sit down at the command console.
But that wasn’t a lie either. Adrian really was nearing the core. The end of
the passageway had begun to appear like a series of room-like structures,
and it did take Adrian some effort to break past the mechanism at the
entrance. He dealt with his injuries that were deep enough to reach the
bones simply and released the last camera.

Even though Adrian didn’t show it, his physical health indicators have
already slipped down to dangerous levels, and there were only a few hours
left before “Butterfly” reawakens.

Everyone’s nerves were tense and their minds were all focused. Adrian
manually operated the camera as he walked, filming the interiors of the
rooms with the intricate machinery that blended into the walls for the expert
team.

An AI expert recognized the machines at a glance and called out with

excitement. “That’s it, that has to be it! That’s the super-AI server signal
emitting structure!”

“That doesn’t look quite right,” an AI researcher said. “Isn’t this the classic
structure from two centuries ago? Textbooks don’t even have diagrams for
this structure anymore.”

Adrian kept on walking through the room that looked like a mechanical lair
until he finally stopped outside of one of them.

Everyone in the command hall was in high spirits, and the sight before them
drew their attention.

It was a huge and empty passage with a cylindrical platform about half a
person’s height, with a gap in the middle of the wall behind it that could
barely be discerned with the naked eye. Other than that, there didn’t seem to
be anything in the circular passageway. The smooth white walls were
spotless and gave off an air of holiness.

They had no proof of it, but everyone felt that this must be the place. This
was their goal. The core that they were seeking must be at the end of this
clean passageway.
The bandages on Adrian’s wounds from before had fallen off from his
strenuous activity and his blood that dripped down his body had long since
drenched the lower half of his battle suit. He walked towards the end of the
passage to observe the cylindrical platform, leaving behind him a trail of
bloody footprints that looked especially striking on the clean and spotless
floor.

Many people sucked in their breaths. Adrian had been acting so normal that
none of them had any idea how serious his situation was. Fayn looked at
Zhong Yan, and he could see that his eyes were shut. Fayn was shocked. He
thought that Zhong Yan finally fell over after being unable to take the
stimulation under his extreme fatigue, but unexpectedly, Zhong Yan opened
his eyes again after he blinked twice, and was still sitting there calmly. No
matter how you looked at him, he looked like a calm and reliable decision-
maker, as if the hurt in his eyes that instant was merely an illusion of
Fayn’s.

Above the cylindrical platform was a slightly recessed scanner panel.

“Commander, use the deciphering equipment.” One of the tech crew

reminded him.

Adrian removed the deciphering equipment from the backpack that was
attached to his combat suit and secured it around the edges of the panel and
casually took off his bandages that had come loose, setting them into a pile
on top of the panel.

The pure white room was unresponsive, but the deciphering device sent
back an error message to the surface.

The principles of the scanning panel were not that complicated. It only
required an object of the right medium to access some permissions.
Generally speaking, a fingerprint was required. However, looking at the
shape of the panel, the passcode didn’t seem to be a fingerprint.

“It’s cosmic matter!” After some time, a cipher staff exclaimed. “The
correct medium to activate the panel is cosmic matter!”
“What kind of cosmic matter?” Adrian asked, frowning.

The head of the technical team said with a sunken expression, “Any sort of
extraterrestrial matter will do. What an ingenious idea. No one would carry
such a thing with them except for those who knew of the key!
Unfortunately, all of the equipment on the Commander is created from
intra-atmospheric matter.”

It was too late for them to find a piece of cosmic meteorite to send down.
Only two short hours were left before “Butterfly” awakened.

Fayn was silent for a moment and asked, “Is it feasible to execute the final
stage of the plan in the passage without entering that last room?”

The final stage was the installation of explosives and preparation for
demolition. It was anyone’s guess whether it was feasible or not, but in
order to make sure that the dirty bomb layer would remain unaffected, the
power of the bombs Adrian carried with him were not very strong.

“Then there would be no point,” one of the experts said under their breaths.

Indeed, their plan was to find the core of “Butterfly’s” brain and detonate it
with precision. But if they could not find the core, they would still have the
same uncertainties as if they were detonating the bombs anywhere else, and
they would’ve wasted all these hours sending a man deep underground.

When they were stopped at the final stage by the protection mechanism
designed by their ancestors over a century ago, all their hearts were filled
with resignation. But right at this time, Adrian suddenly asked, “What is the
definition of cosmic matter? Is something born in the universe considered
that?”

Though the head of the technical team was surprised that Adrian would use
the word “born” and believed that the commander must have made a
mistake in his wording, thinking that he may mean to say something
“originating” from the universe instead, it didn’t affect his understanding of
his sentence. And so, the person in charge affirmed. “Yes.”
“I have it,” Adrian said.

There was a clamor in the command hall. Fayn reconfirmed his words,
almost in disbelief, “You have cosmic matter on you?”

Adrian did not say another word. Instead, under the gaze of everyone, he
undid the layers of his heavy combat gear and took out that precious object
he kept near to his heart. It was a white, somewhat flattened felt ball.

It was the lucky pendant Zhong Yan had made for Adrian, using the fur of
the giant space rabbit that was born in the cosmos.
 Chapter 96 - Breaking Out

All of the equipment Adrian brought with him, from his combat uniform to
his weapons, were all designed by military experts just for him, taking full
consideration of various factors and situations. Nobody knew when Adrian
had secretly stuffed the felt pendant into his clothes.

Strictly speaking, it was a violation of military discipline to bring such a

sizable object with him privately on a mission. All the experts were riled up
on the spot. “Such a large ball! Inside of his clothes! It hurts just looking at
it! The breathable and comfortable suit I designed to fit just perfectly!!!”

The Colonel of the Third Regiment tried to calm the expert down. “Think
of the bright sight. He placed it just over his heart. That will block a blow or
something at the very least.”

“But I designed the suit to block against knife and gun wounds to begin
with…”

But nobody could bother to listen to him talk about his elaborate combat
suit designs anymore. Adrian had already put the pendant down and the
pure white passage glowed with a soft light on all sides. The door at the
very end slowly slid open.

Adrian stood just outside, observing the area cautiously before entering.
Inside was a huge circular room, or maybe more like a spherical room that
had its tops and bottoms flattened out. The walls looked smooth and pristine
without any edges. The room was completely empty, devoid of any
furnishing, but the detectors on Adrian’s body were all going off like mad.

“This is it.” Adrian reached over to turn the detectors off and said,
“Command, I’m preparing to execute the final stage of the mission. Mr.
President…” He looked up at the hovering camera above him and knew that
his lover was watching him, but neither of them could let their emotions
show. They were the final decision makers and ultimate executors in
humanity’s crisis, and the weight of the responsibility they held on their
shoulders did not allow them to get caught up in their own private feelings.
Adrian stared at the camera, his throat bobbing twice before he said,
“Please give the evacuation order.”

Fayn was surprised. Before leaving, Adrian had asked him to persuade
Zhong Yan to rest, but though Zhong Yan did not do so, he did not make a
single peep this entire time. Fayn guessed that besides having the good
habit of not interjecting in matters outside of his profession, Zhong Yan
must have wanted to mislead Adrian on purpose, trying to get him to think
that he wasn’t in the command hall and had gone to rest just so Adrian
wouldn’t worry.

So, Fayn cooperated by not mentioning the President over all these hours as
if he wasn’t there. It wasn’t until Adrian spoke that he realized Adrian had
known since the very beginning that Zhong Yan was around.

He knew Zhong Yan too well.

Zhong Yan examined Adrian intently on the screen. He was covered in so

many wounds and yet he still stood so resolute. Zhong Yan suddenly
recalled the first day of their reunion after seven years. It was right in this
planet, and he asked Adrian mockingly, *for the sake of your grand ideals,
it’s worth it to abandon everything, to run towards that goal without a care
for a single thing in your life, is that how it is?*

“Of course it is!” That was the answer he received from Adrian without any
hesitation.

Zhong Yan closed his eyes and pressed down the pain in his heart. Then, he
suddenly stood up and spoke without further ado, “Thank you to all the
soldiers, professors, and fellow students who participated in this mission for
their selflessness and outstanding contributions to all of humanity. I will
now ask that everyone except for the command and the rescue team to
please evacuate the Institution Star.”
There was no telling what would happen after the bomb was detonated deep
underground in this artificial planet that was filled with dirty bombs. In
order to avoid any incidents, they would first evacuate most of the
personnel, with the last remaining ship parked just outside of the School of
Engineering’s plaza. In case things got bad, everyone in the command hall
could quickly evacuate through there.

“Mr. President,” Fayn called out to him after taking a glance at Adrian.
“Would you please withdraw as well?”

It was hard for Adrian to say this, and it didn’t matter whether it was
reasonable for the President to even withdraw, but it would be favoritism
for him to say it as his partner. Fortunately, Fayn was around. After the
many years of tacit understanding they had built up, he was able to guess
Adrian’s thoughts accurately.

“No need, I’ll stay right here with…” Zhong Yan raised his head to meet
Adrian’s gaze through the camera. After pausing for a moment, he said,
“everyone else.”

This liar. Adrian turned his eyes away. Though there was no way he could
see Zhong Yan’s face through the one-way camera, it still hurt him too
much. He was the only one who knew in this world that Zhong Yan didn’t
care about the survival of the human race at all.

The President was not a man who easily fell to his impulses. Since he made
his decision, nobody tried to persuade him any longer. Not much time was
left, and all of them quickly buried themselves into the final stage of the
mission.

Adrian stepped into the spotless white room, and in that instant, the screen
turned dark.

“What’s going on?!”

“What happened?”

“Commander, are you alright?”

Panic surged through the hall, and it wasn’t after a good few seconds did
Adrian’s voice finally come again. “I’m fine for now, but is the video no
longer working? The camera might be wrecked.”

Fayn caught onto the keyword and asked, “Might? You’re not sure whether
the camera is still functioning or not? What’s the situation?”

“I…” Almost seemed to be struggling to explain the situation he was

facing. Finally, he managed to organize his words and said, “I’m in space.
At least, my vision is telling me that I’m in space. But since I didn’t just
immediately burst into flames and die, I’m clearly still inside of the
atmosphere.”
“Your position hasn’t moved, “Fayn calmly checked his location on the
tracker and looked inquiringly at the medical team. Wei Lan gave him an
affirmative look. “Your physical indicators are still stable, that shows us
that you’re still deep underground.”

“Yeah. I know. I think it’s a visual illusion,” Adrian responded, but his
voice was a little unsteady. “I’m going to try and install the bombs.”

Though he said that, it was hard for a person to overcome their

physiological fears. No matter how much objective evidence he had, his
eyes were telling his body that he was in the vast universe, and there were
billions of stars as far as his eyes could see all around, above, and under
him.

A human being was such a small existence in the large expanse of the
universe, but he was actually able to stand there, completely safe as if it was
a miracle. Who knows whether taking a step forward would cause that
miracle to disappear, and lead to his body to combust in an instant?

Awe, fear, loneliness, and confusion sunk deep into his limbs beyond his
will. Under that tremendous psychological pressure, it was hard to even
think about the bombs or what his task was. In fact, he may even be frozen
in place until the end of time if he was an ordinary human being, unable to
think of anything else.
Adrian calmed himself down and shut his eyes, but the lingering images in
his retina were still affecting him. His heart rate began coming down again
after quickly shooting up earlier. Moreover, he was so quiet that everyone in
the command hall could see that something was wrong, and everyone was
holding their breaths, turning the room so silent that you could hear a pin
drop.

After a few minutes of readjusting his psyche, Adrian was barely able to
clench his fists. But there was no time for him to slowly get used to it. He
needed a strong stimulus to push him out of this predicament. So, he
muttered, “Xiao Yan.”

Everyone in the command hall froze. Only Zhong Yan responded without
hesitation. “I’m here.”

“Talk to me.”

Zhong Yan didn’t waste any time with dumb questions like “whys” and the
like. Adrian had always been respectful and called him President, and he
always called him “Mr. Zhong” anytime they were talking to other people.
But he must be encountering some serious problems if he was calling him
by his nickname in the workplace. Under pressure, Zhong Yan didn’t have
time to think and in a state of disarray, he let out with, “Your salary for this
month is here. It arrived just yesterday. I’m going to open another account
for it.”

Even at such a tense moment, everyone couldn’t help but turn to look in
shock at Zhong Yan.

The Commander’s salary is actually being managed by the President!

It was said that the Commander had already gone bankrupt after the blood
buying incident from last time. Now that the President was in charge of his
salary too, didn’t that mean he didn’t have a single penny on him?

…How miserable.

The object of everyone’s sympathy laughed. “Sure. I’ll leave it in your

hands.”
As his heart rate slowly returned to the normal range, the medical team was
relieved.

Adrian took a deep breath and took a step forward.

He was still alive.

That great mental barrier was shattered and all his reason had returned to
him. Adrian opened his eyes. He was still inside that white space.

Without hesitation, he quickly took out the installation kit and walked to the
center, and began to plant the first bomb.

Right at that moment, a voice spoke to him. “Please don’t do this.”

Adrian’s hands moved to the gun at his waist out of reflex and everyone in
the command hall rose to their feet in surprise.

Nobody would think that voice belonged to a human. It was such a pleasant
voice! It sounded completely androgynous but also rang naturally, filled
with sacred compassion. It was a relatable voice that generated awe in its
audience’s hearts.

As the only former member of the council who has been exposed to the AI
and heard its voice, Zhong Yan said. “This is the voice of ‘Butterfly’.”

“How is that possible?! ‘Butterfly’ is still in hibernation!” The faces of the

group paled in disbelief. They urgently confirmed with the team in the
Capital they had been connected with that “Butterfly” was indeed still
dormant. The only place which had high enough permissions to wake it
from its sleep was the Capital’s Council House. There was no way it could
wake up early on its own.

“What are you? Are you Butterfly?” Adrian asked, not showing any hint of
politeness.

His surroundings changed. A splash of color slowly appeared on the white

walls, spreading out in the blink of an eye. The strange splendor flowed
through the surface. If the cameras hadn’t been damaged, then Zhong Yan
would be able to recognize it as the colors from the pillar of light that
appeared when “Butterfly” descended on the round table.

Unhurried, the compassionate voice filled the room. “Mr. Yate, ladies and
gentlemen of the surface, I am the first generation super-AI, ‘Cocoon’. This
is my main server core and you have just triggered my activation
conditions. Could you please tell me what is going on?”

Many experts expressed doubts about the fact that all the materials of this
artificial planet had all come from the Tech System, which did not
specialize in minerals or manufacturing. They were just in possession of the
cutting edge technology that could produce it. So why was the Tech System
the sole supplier of the materials?

But now they knew. It wasn’t some surface material they shipped over bit
by bite from the Tech System. It was “Cocoon’s” main server.

“Cocoon” sounded very friendly, and many people had involuntarily

dropped their psychological defenses because of it. One officer even said
hopefully, “Great. You have the authority to shut down ‘Butterfly’
permanently, right? Can you help us turn it off? There’s no time for
explanations. We still have several minutes before ‘Butterfly’ wakes up. We
have the Federations’ President here that can sign you a mandate or
anything of the like.”

Zhong Yan did not answer. His brows were knitted into a light frown.

“Of course,” so said the voice that called itself “Cocoon”. “But I must be
fully activated to access that permission. May I please ask Mr. Yate to help
me complete that?”

Following that, a doorway opened up in the splendid circular space, one

different from the door Adrian entered from. But there was a passageway
out there as well, and it seemed to be covered in different rooms that lead to
different functions inside.

But Adrian stood still. He had a strong feeling of unease welling up inside
of him, but he couldn’t tell what was wrong. Right at this time, Zhong Yan
suddenly said, “Are you really ‘Cocoon’? Or should I say…Did ‘Butterfly’
really exist?”
 Chapter 097 - Martyr

His words were like a bucket of ice-cold water, splashing over the excited
hall of people who were shaken up with surprise.
“What do you mean?” Fayn asked immediately.

Zhong Yan said, “The Institution Star has only been established for a
century, and that is a fact. From all the evidence we have, we can deduce
that the server contained in this core did in fact look more like ‘Cocoon’s’.
If there really was any plan for a second-generation super-AI, then why did
they make such a big deal of moving it out of the Tech System even though
they had already decided to abandon it and even expanded it to this size
right now?”

An AI expert echoed his sentiments.

“The Institution Star is the only artificial planet in this world. If this really
was ‘Cocoon’s’ server, then ‘Butterfly’s’ server must be many times larger
than the Institution Star. How were they going to hide something that big?”

More and more people came back to their senses and joined the discussion.

“Not only did they hide it, they didn’t make any ruckus at all during its
creation. How is that possible?”

“This is ‘Butterfly’s’ brain as well as ‘Cocoon’s’, and they share the same
one…No. There’s no ‘they’ here,” one AI expert said.

He was surprised at the words that came out of his mouth as well.

“It’s been more than two hundred years. There was only one AI this entire
time, and it was personally involved in its own upgrade and later destroyed
all the information.”
One officer was puzzled. “There’s nothing wrong with upgrading, so why
bother disguising it as a rebuild?”

“In order to gain permission of its own shutdown,” Zhong Yan said.

He had already ironed out the hints and continued, “This permission has to
be granted by someone else other than the AI itself, so naturally, the
upgraded ‘Cocoon’ is unlikely to get its own permanent shutdown
permissions. But if the upgrade was concealed and it falsely claimed to be a
rebuild of a new AI…”

Before he finished speaking, “Cocoon” started again. “Mr. Zhong.

Speculation is speculation in the end, and we have no way to verify these
assumptions.”

Its voice sounded through the communication equipment Adrian wore on

his body, ringing out through the loudspeakers in the command hall, still
sounding so holy and soothing that no one could bear to interrupt it. Even to
rebuke it would seem blasphemous, so it was not difficult to imagine how
great the pressure was for someone who was listening to it through their
own ears.

“As you have all said, the second-generation super-AI is still in hibernation
while I am having this conversation with you.”

Adrian was not affected by it as he walked towards the side of the circular
space while installing the adsorption device onto the bomb.

“Yeah. No one has the authority to wake you besides those in the Capital’s
Supreme Council. That’s why I’m betting on the fact that you’re nothing
more than a program limited to functioning inside of this room. You’re just
an illusory projection that protects the core and there’s nothing you can
actually do. Like—”

He lifted his hand and planted the bomb with the adsorption device installed
onto the wall.

“This, for example. All you can do is watch, and you can’t stop me.”
There was a moment of silence. Everyone in the command hall listened
intently to their movements. Though Adrian said those words, he was
actually on guard, and his body was tensed up, ready to attack at any
moment.

He waited cautiously for a few minutes but nothing came. However,

“Cocoon” spoke again. It sounded steady and did not seem to be affected at
all.

“I am indeed only a program implanted into this space, and I have asked
Mr. Yate to complete my activation so that I may accept the President’s
commission to complete the second generation AI’s shutdown process. If I
truly am ‘Butterfly’ who is currently in hibernation, there is no way I can be
activated without permission no matter what I do in this room. So why
should I even bother to ask?”

His bet was right on the mark. Its main server was still in hibernation and
was unable to perform any attacks.

After confirming that fact, Adrian began the installation of the second bomb
without pause. “I don’t have the time to offer you any final services of
concern so why don’t you ask the President instead? He may be a little nicer
than I am.”

Zhong Yan kindly took over in the command hall, taking over Adrian’s
place in this simulated conversation with the AI. “Let’s just cut to the chase.
It’s true, he’s not going to activate you completely, but couldn’t you have
fooled him out of the room?”

Fayn chimed in at the side, “It seems like this really is the right room. All
those hours weren’t for nought after all.”

After a long moment of silence, the only sound that could be heard in the
command hall was the rustling of Adrian’s combat suit and the sounds of
him installing the bombs. Then, “Cocoon’s” voice sounded softly, “Mr.
Zhong. You once promised that you would get me his information if I
change your optimal marriage partner to Adrian Yate.”
The weight of that sentence was truly tremendous, but it was not hard to
understand. Everyone was looking at Zhong Yan, either openly or
implicitly.
Adrian spoke, but his tone came unexpectedly with ease.

“So you’re admitting it so soon? Aren’t you going to struggle for a while
longer?”

When they heard this, everyone knew that it was true, and Adrian had
known since early on. That meant that it must have been a plan the two of
them had formed together. The men in the command hall all thought so and
even felt relieved. They didn’t want their Commander and President to be
bickering with each other at this time.

Zhong Yan also breathed a sigh of relief, but he felt a lingering fear hearing
that. Thank god. Thank god he came clean to Adrian early on because he
sensed the hidden dangers of that information.

The AI spoke in a calm town devoid of any sadness or joy. “I believe in

humans, and yet they have betrayed me. You told me that I would only be
asleep for several hours and I would be woken up, but you’re now trying to
shut me down completely.”

“Your loss is not unjustified,” Zhong Yan answered. “You cannot deduce a
human’s heart.” Whether it was the winds of public opinion or even the
members of the council who wanted to churn the waters.

Both Zhong Yan and Adrian were good at manipulating people’s hearts and
minds. “Only humans understand other humans. No matter how close you
are to one, you are not human.”

The AI spoke mildly, “Perhaps so. But my original design, or the purpose of
my birth I should say, my entire being was brought to life in order to benefit
humanity, and my love for them has been inscribed into the very core of my
programming. Even if my destruction is a foregone conclusion, I will still
remind you at the end of my life—My main servers are closely tied to the
systems of this planet. Destruction of my core will cause the complete cease
function of this planet and I must ask you to please evacuate as soon as
possible before then.”

It did not take much expertise to know what it meant for an artificial planet
to stop working. With the disappearance of the simulated atmosphere, the
so-called “planet” would be reduced to nothing more than a giant pile of
minerals in the universe. When that time comes, it would be hard to say
what would happen to the people who still remained on its surface.

As they were speaking, Adrian had already installed the last of the bombs
and was about to detonate them after withdrawing as far out as possible to
gain some distance but his feet paused when he heard those words.

“Shit!” Fayn couldn’t stop himself from cursing out in front of everyone in
the hall. “He’s really pulling out one card after another. Are you really that
fucking desperate for survival?”
Adrian immediately said, “Command, evacuate immediately. I will detonate
the bombs after you finish.”
Then what about you? Those words were stuck in Fayn’s throat, but he
never got to ask.

Adrian’s only chance of survival had been to get as far away as possible
from the detonation point after planting the bombs and finding a good
bunker to detonate them before “Butterfly” woke up. Then, he would at
least be able to survive until the moment when the search and rescue team
finds him.

But now it turns out that those hopes had been slim to begin with. The
passage was blocked off by its mechanisms. It had been such an arduous
task for Adrian alone to go down to begin with so there was no way anyone
else could pass through. With the pressure of the dirty bomb layer coming
into play, the search and rescue team would have to dismantle a large area
of it before they could use high-powered destructive weapons to go deep
underground. An optimistic estimation still stated that it would take a few
days, and they now had only less than an hour left. No matter how Adrian
tried, he would definitely be caught in the blow. Even if he really was able
to find a bunker and lived through the impact, he may not be able to hold
out for so many days.
But now, even that slim hope has been snuffed out. Once an artificial planet
ceases to function, it did not matter whether it was in or out of the planet, a
human would not be able to last even a second if exposed to the vacuum of
space.

With those words, Adrian had already readied himself to die.

“What about you?” But Zhong Yan didn’t seem to understand his meaning
and was still asking, unrelenting. His face still looked calm as always, but
he could not stop his voice from shaking. Many people couldn’t bear to
listen any longer and had sunken their heads, burying them into their hands.

Adrian closed his eyes and said with difficulty, “I…”

“I mean, we went for it in hopes of catching that slim chance of survival,

and we’re clearly at a dead end. Why continue? We should abandon this
plan now and switch to plan B, which is to wake ‘Butterfly’ up and
negotiate with it,” Zhong Yan said quickly. He was barely able to calm
himself, but everyone could see that he could hardly even maintain his own
expression anymore. “We never had high hopes for plan A to begin with,
right? We had plan B waiting long ago anyway. I’m pretty sure we can…”

“Zhong Yan! Your Excellency! Have you gone mad?!” Fayn cut him off.
“We’re about to succeed! You’re calling for a stop now? Are you trying to
throw away your position as President?!”

President?

Without even thinking, Zhong Yan made the choice in his heart. He
responded firmly, “That’s right. I don’t want it anymore. I alone will take
full responsibility for the consequences.”
“Can you not deduce a human’s heart?” The AI said in a leisurely tone. But
nobody knew anymore if it said anything after that.

After Adrian left that circular space, he went into that pure white passage to
retrieve his lucky pendant. Nobody could see it, but he arrived at his final
destination. Then, leaning against the wall, he held the detonator in one
hand and the bloodied felt ball in the other.
“I’m sorry, Xiao Yan,” He tried his best to suppress it, but his voice was
still audibly choked back. “I know you don’t like me talking about this in
front of other people, but there’ll be no time left. I’m sorry. I promised to
give my life to you, but this is how I ended up using it instead—for my own
selfish reasons. Between you and me, I’m the liar who broke our promise,
and it burns me with guilt. I have happily offered up my life, but not
without regret. To all the citizens of the Federation who are listening, if the
President, my partner Zhong Yan, should ever do wrong in the future.
Please, in face of the contributions I offered on this day…”

“No! Don’t…Don’t do it, Adrian!”

Zhong Yan was in a complete meltdown. He tried to stand up but he was

already at the limits of his physical strength. He stumbled, but Fayn quickly
caught him. He gestured to Wei Lan with his eyes, and Wei Lan had quickly
rushed over to help Zhong Yan, but also to hold him back as well.

“I will detonate the bombs in ten minutes, so please evacuate now.” As

Adrian finished his last words, there was an ear-piercing screech. His
communicator had been destroyed.
He cut off his own escape route. They could no longer get to Adrian. He
had already given news of the impending detonation, so even if they did not
want to go, everyone had to evacuate from the command hall.

Both Fayn and Wei Lan were supporting Zhong Yan while the others went
about their respective duties, gathering their notes and records, and the
crowd quickly boarded the evacuation that had been waiting outside in just
a couple of minutes, leaving the planet built around the brain of the AI
together.
A large number of the ships from the Navi Military Command that
evacuated earlier had not gone far so the ship carrying the crowd from the
command hall managed to join them. Everyone stood in silence in front of
the porthole. Wei Lan tried to persuade Zhong Yan to rest, but Zhong Yan
pushed him away. With his face completely devoid of color, he stared at
that planet, staring at the place where he first met Adrian, and also the place
he was going to lose him.
Seconds seemed to have passed, or even centuries, but the clouds covering
the surface of the artificial planet disappeared. Then, due to the loss of
atmosphere, the entire surface of the planet seemed to have erupted in a
massive yet wild explosion, but devoid of any flames. In fact, the entire
planet had lost its luster.
This was the only artificial planet in the world, the Federation’s Supreme
Institution that nurtured a century of top-class talents, and also the place
that housed the god that humans had created for themselves, the super-AI
“Cocoon”. In the silent curtain call of the universe, it exited the stage of
history.
 Chapter 098 - Rabbit Ear Crown

It was only when the scene before him distorted that Adrian was able to
confirm that the planet would stop revolving as soon as the AI’s core was
destroyed. This wasn’t an attempt to fool them. It was the truth.

The final sentence left by the super-AI “Cocoon” to the world was a
rhetorical question. Can one not deduce a human’s heart?
It had expected this fact to divide humanity within itself, that there would
be humans, especially the President, who would be willing to cancel the
mission in order to save Adrian’s life. But it still lost its gamble. It lost
because it had underestimated the fearless determination of a martyr.

In the final moments of its life, the artificial intelligence that had been
running for over two centuries finally got a rough answer to that question.
There was a white glow before his eyes.

Adrian struggled in his consciousness for a moment before he finally

opened his eyes, and he recognized his surroundings to be a ward.

His consciousness was returning and he was aware that there were quite a
few instruments attached to his body. The detectors beside him beeped as
soon as he tried to sit up, and the door at the side of the ward slid open. A
doctor and a nurse rushed inside.

“Sir Yate!” The nurse exclaimed in surprise when she saw him wake up.
The doctor quickly approached the bed and asked, “Please don’t move yet.
How are you feeling?”

“How long have I been unconscious for?” Adrian asked. Having just woken
from a long sleep, his voice was unusually hoarse. “Where’s the President?”

“The President?”
Both the nurse and the doctor looked at each other as if he had just said
something incomprehensible to them. Even though their faces looked
blurred and Adrian could hardly make out their features, Adrian could tell
what they were thinking.

Both puzzled and anxious, he repeated, “The President…Where’s Zhong

Yan?”

“Oh, so that’s who you mean…” Only then did the nurse snap out of it.
“He’s no longer the President.”

The doctor said, “Sir Yate, it’s been ten years since you were rescued from
the scrapped artificial planet. Please listen to me calmly. The Federation no
longer exists. The person you mentioned is now our current Emperor.”

Adrian looked in shock at the two. After a pause, he said, “Is this a joke?
Did Fayn send you?”

“I know it’s hard to take this in so suddenly…” While calming him down,
he told the nurse, “Quick, send someone to inform His Majesty of the good
news.”

The nurse obliged and went out joyfully.

Adrian didn’t listen to the doctor’s urging and sat up. “Doctor, I’m no
medical student but don’t lie to me. At the very least, my muscles would’ve
atrophied if I laid around for ten years without dying, right?” Then, he got
out of the bed and took two steady steps on the floor. “I feel no different
than when I went down on that mission!”

“That’s because medical technology has improved,” the doctor explained.

Adrian said, “Oh. Is that so?”

How strange. He easily accepted the explanation without even thinking

twice about the actual possibility.

“Sir Yate!” the nurse returned with a look of reverence on her face. “His
Majesty is summoning you! Come quickly!”
“Come…where?”

“The palace, of course!”

That’s right. Naturally, an emperor lived in a palace.

Adrian nodded and followed the nurse whose face he couldn’t seem to get a
clear look of.
Something in his subconscious told him that something was strange, but he
couldn’t tell what.
He followed the nurse out of the ward and headed down a hospital corridor
that was pure white in color. Then, the nurse opened the door at the end of
the corridor for him.

“Quickly go inside, don’t let His Majesty wait.”

Adrian took the whole “hospital corridor ending in a palace door” thing for
granted and walked through that magnificent door.
Through the door was a large but narrow palace hall.

The windows were high up in the room, situated at about the height of three
grown men stacked together, and there were fine and elaborate patterns
carved onto the frame. The sun shone in, illuminating the circle of elegant
patterns on top of the expensive marble floor inside of the hall.

A magnificent eight-meter wide, gold-trimmed red carpet was rolled out

from the door all the way to the end of the palace, disappearing underneath
a huge golden throne.
There sat a man right atop the royal throne.

Adrian stared deeply at him. The Supreme Emperor had an unparalleled

face, and even across the entire hall, he could see every line and feature on
that face.
He was sitting atop his throne in his noble and magnificent imperial attire
and crown, his solemn face as cold as frost. Solemn and majestic.

“Xiao Yan,” Adrian muttered.

The instant he opened his mouth, the Emperor rose from his throne and
stepped down.
They were clearly separated by the large hall, but it had only taken Zhong
Yan two steps to arrive before him.
“You’re awake,” Zhong Yan said, no hint of joy or sorrow to be found in his
voice. Echoing through the empty palace hall, it sounded ethereal and
divine. “I thought you wouldn’t make it when the search and rescue team
brought you out of there.”

Adrian said, “You were the one who saved me. I went back to that passage
to get the rabbit tail you gave me, and I just happened to find escape pods
installed inside the walls. Even though our ancestors from a century ago
designed countless chokepoints to protect the AI from intruders, they still
left their fellow men a reprieve from death.”

But to his disappointment, Zhong Yan didn’t seem to have any particular
reaction upon hearing those words and only responded mildly. “I see.”

He had decided to die heroically before he found the escape pods, and that
didn’t scare Adrian, but now he really felt fearful. Zhong Yan had never
been this cold to him. Anxious, he asked, “What’s wrong, Xiao Yan?”
“You should not be calling me by my name,” Zhong Yan said to him in
displeasure.

“Since you are awake, let us talk business. We agreed that I would not do
anything to disappoint you, provided you kept an eye on me. Ten years ago,
you broke your promise. In the coming days where I thought you were no
more, I restored the Empire and made myself Emperor. Now that you are
awake, I have no intention of abdicating. So, will you lead an army to go
against my rule?”

Adrian was stunned. Lead an army against Zhong Yan? Just like back in
those anti-AI days?

He should be against it. The feudal imperial system had its authority
centered around a single person with each citizen born in unequal
circumstances. This was a system fraught with ills that had been abolished
thousands of years ago. But now, Zhong Yan has restored it. No matter how
he looked at it, it was absurd.
Adrian said, “I…”

“You’re going to betray me again,”

Zhong Yan cut in with a cold smile.

“You did that ten years ago, and you’re going to do it again.”
Betrayed. Again.

Adrian was thunderstruck but he could find no words to refute him. Indeed,
he chose to save the world and leave Zhong Yan behind in the final
moments of life and death.

He was clearly the one who committed himself to Zhong Yan when they
just got married, and his life would belong to Zhong Yan in the future. But
now, Zhong Yan had accused him of betrayal, and it was a justified
accusation.

After the successive overthrow of the AI’s rule, did he now have to throw
himself into the campaign to overthrow Zhong Yan’s rule as well? Then
how would it end for Zhong Yan? Would he be defeated and completely
pulverised just like the AI?

“No,” Adrian said. “In those last few seconds, I made a vow as I entered the
escape pod. If a miracle did come and I lived, then I will belong only to you
in the future. I have already died once in the world, and I have no regrets in
this world. Only you. So…”

He went down on one knee in front of the Emperor. “I am willing to devote

the rest of my life to you, Your Majesty.”

The Empire was bound to be subverted, but that was the task of their
descendants. Now, all he wanted to do was protect Zhong Yan’s reign for
the decades to come. If Zhong Yan was destined to be spat upon by the
annals, then he was willing to go through that with him.

Adrian took Zhong Yan’s left hand and bowed his head down for a pious
kiss, but he soon realized that something was wrong.
“Where’s your ring?” Adrian asked with a terrible look on his face.

Zhong Yan slowly withdrew his hand and said casually, “I took it off. I have
already dissolved my marriage with you, but it is good news that you are
not going to go against me. Then, you shall stay with me as my escort.”

“Escort?” Adrian said in disbelief. “Is it because of the institutional changes

that dissolved our marriage? But I’m back now! Aren’t you supposed to
name me your Empress or something like that?”

Zhong Yan shot him a glance and said, “The Empress’ seat is already taken.
He is the heir of the Yate family, your cousin. Speaking of which, he and I
were supposed to be optimal marriage partners as initially decided by the
AI more than a decade ago, and we do get along just fine now.”

Adrian could tell that this face must have distorted. Did Zhong Yan not like
him anymore? How was that possible?

…How could it not? He was the one who betrayed him first, and he had
been lying in bed for the past ten years. No one stipulated that Zhong Yan
had to keep his feelings for him.
He was put in a state of panic for a moment and he had no idea how to
remedy the situation. Right at that moment, he had a clear look at the crown
on Zhong Yan’s head.

There were not three sharp triangles as recorded in the history books, but
instead two long semi-ellipses.
They were rabbit ears.

Zhong Yan really liked rabbits, huh? Even his crown had to be made into
the shape of rabbit ears. He wondered if he could please him by buying him
a giant space rabbit and offering it up as a gift.

But that’s not right…All his money was with Zhong Yan. He was penniless.

Wait a second…Didn’t he already buy Zhong Yan a giant space rabbit?

The scenery around them began to fade away, and Zhong Yan’s figure
blurred. Adrian reached out to grab him and he shouted anxiously, “Xiao
Yan! Don’t go!”

He opened his eyes and found himself lying in a hospital ward.

The monitoring apparatus at his side beeped, and a nurse quickly rushed in.
When she saw Adrian with his eyes open, she exclaimed, “Commander!
You’re finally awake! That’s wonderful news. Please don’t move, I’ll call
the doctor now—”

“Wait,” Adrian called out to her, but his voice was unusually hoarse after
having not spoken for a long time. He observed the nurse’s face carefully.
He was able to see it clearly. It was a young, round-faced nurse. Only then
was he sure that he was no longer in a nightmare. He breathed a long sigh
of relief and asked with a hoarse voice, “Where’s the President?”

“The President?” The nurse repeated in puzzlement, seemingly not able to

understand why he mentioned the President.

Adrian’s heart jumped in an instant. Could it be…that earlier wasn’t a

nightmare? Was it a precognitive dream?

Without waiting for his response, the nurse finally had a realization and said
to him understandingly, “You must be talking about Mr. Zhong, right? He
left just a few minutes ago. I’ll ask someone to call him back immediately
—Oh, that’s right. Mr. Zhong is no longer president. He resigned from his
post less than two months after you were rescued. You’ve been comatose
for most of this year, and your condition improved just last month. That’s
when Mr. Zhong finally found some free time to establish the Giant Space
Rabbit Conservation Association, and he now holds the position of
president there.”
Resigned as the President and established a Giant Space Rabbit
Conservation Association? Adrian’s mind was somewhat muddled after
having just woken up, and hearing that sentence made him dizzy. His mind
was still stuck on the solemn-faced Zhong Yan with his rabbit-eared crown,
and he thought that it might be an organization of a similar nature to the
specimen chain shop. Only, could he be in higher power as the head of this
organization than being the President?
“So, what does this Giant Space Rabbit Conservation Association…” he
asked seriously, “do?”

The young nurse gasped in horror and answered in a stutter, “The Giant
Space Rabbit Conservation Association…conserves giant space rabbits.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Wei Lan just happened to enter the room,
and the nurse looked as if she had found her savior. Mournful, she said,
“Doctor Wei, bad news! The Commander seems to have hurt his head!”
 Chapter 099 - After Awakening

When Wei Lan kept on asking Adrian questions like “what is the name of
your father” and whatnot while examining his body, Adrian couldn’t hold it
in any longer.

“There’s really nothing wrong with my head. My mind just trailed off for a
moment! Who the hell remembers what my dad’s name is anyway! Why
don’t you ask Zhong Yan? He might actually remember.”

Wei Lan nodded. “Seems like nothing’s wrong after all.”

It really did take a lot of effort to talk to Wei Lan. Adrian was exhausted.
He had just woken up from a deep sleep but unlike his dream, his body
didn’t feel too great when he suddenly woke up in bed after half a year.

Wei Lan began giving him a report on his physical condition but he couldn’t
take in any of it at all. Zhong Yan would remember it anyway. So, he asked
urgently, “Where’s Zhong Yan? Where’s my terminal?”

“Mr. Zhong hasn’t left the hospital for too long. We’ve already informed
him so he should be arriving soon—your terminal is also in his custody.”
While saying that, Wei Lan’s own terminal rang. He raised his wrist to take
a look before saying, “Mr. President and Commander Suster have also been
notified. The Commander is on his way but the President is temporarily
unable to avail himself and has asked us to give you his greetings. He will
talk with you later.”

Adrian asked subconsciously, “Who?”

“President Vahl Cayman and Interim Commander-in-Chief Fayn Suster—
He wouldn’t go through with an official ordination and said he would wait
for you to wake up before returning the position to you.”
Adrian tried to sit up but his first attempt failed. Watching this scene, Wei
Lan wanted to help him, but he reached his hand out to stop him. “No need,
I can do it.”

Thus, Wei Lan really did back off and did not move. However, he continued
to advise him. “It’s normal to experience symptoms of muscle weakness for
the first two days but we already have a recovery training schedule
designed for you.”

Adrian nodded and still insisted on sitting up. He continued to ask, “So the
current President is Vahl…Why did Zhong Yan resign?”

“Probably for you. He spends most of his time outside of sleeping in this
ward these days. Thinking about it, he probably wouldn’t have time to
handle his official duties.” If it were anyone else talking about this, then
they probably would have mentioned it a little more vaguely as Adrian had
just woken up and likely wasn’t in a completely sober state of mind. But
Wei Lan never knew what being vague was. Since Adrian asked, he would
just come straight out with it.

“I don’t know what he thinks about it, but in my perspective, I don’t think
he would’ve been able to go on with it. During the days of the search, he
left everything else behind him and focused only on the search. All the
political affairs were left to the hands of the then Vice President. After we
found your escape pod and rescued you, he actually did overtime work for
two months before resigning as President after society had made a
completely smooth transition over to the new system. Then, he took us back
to the Navi System.”

Adrian froze. “This is Navi?”

Admittedly, he was relaxed to know the fact. To him, the Capital was like a
muddy pool. The place was laden with intricate relationships and
unscrupulous people all over, but the Navi System was the much simpler
home that he built up by himself.
Zhong Yan must have taken into account his feelings and decided to take
him back to Navi.
Adrian’s heart felt warm thinking about it and the desire to see that man
grew inside of him. At this moment, the two of them heard an anxious
knock from outside of the door. Wei Lan said, “Mr. Zhong must be here. I
shall excuse myself, Your Excellency.”
His guess was correct. Zhong Yan could not even wait for Wei Lan to open
the door for him and hurriedly entered on his own. He had always been very
polite with Adrian’s attending doctor, Wei Lan, but he had forgotten to even
greet him this time. The only thing he could see in his eyes was Adrian who
was sitting up on the bed.

“Xiao Yan,” Adrian spoke in a hoarse voice. “Xiao Yan.”

Wei Lan left and shut the door behind him.

Tears welled up in Zhong Yan’s eyes and he ran over, jumping into Adrian’s
arms.

“Don’t cry, I’m back.” Adrian buried his face in his soft, dry hair, greedily
inhaling the unique fragrance of his body while he murmured, “I’m sorry,
I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. I’ll resign right away…”

Zhong Yan raised his head with tears still in his eyes. His appearance of
crying and smiling at the same time actually looked really good. Adrian
carefully wiped his tears away while Zhong Yan finally found his voice.
“What are you resigning for? The Commander-in-Chief of the fifty-three
military districts is not like the President. You hardly have to do anything
most of the time. How else did you think you kept your title after laying in
bed for half a year?”

“Then I’ll just resign as the Supreme Commander of Navi and toss that to
Fayn. I’ll just stay with you in the future.”

While saying that, he held up Zhong Yan’s left hand and saw the ring still
worn properly on his left ring finger. He breathed a sigh of relief, “That’s
great…”

“What?” Zhong Yan asked.

“I had a bad dream,” Adrian told him, still a little shaken up. “You didn’t
want me anymore in that dream, and you wouldn’t forgive me no matter
how much I begged. You even got together with someone else.”

A look of amusement appeared on Zhong Yan’s face. He wanted to tell him

that was impossible, but before he could even say anything, Adrian held
him tightly in his arms pleading, “I know there’s no way I can be forgiven
for what I’ve done, but don’t go. Let me repay my debt to you with the rest
of my life. Please don’t leave me, I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”
Hearing his anxiety, Zhong Yan didn’t even feel like laughing in the
slightest anymore. He hugged him back, heart filled with pity. “How could I
leave you? I spent every day with you throughout this time. I would visit
you every day at the Capital Center Hospital even during the busiest two
months of this period. I made sure to eat all my meals on time and did my
exercise. I want to be with you for a long time to come. I resigned from my
post just so I could take care of you and after working desperately for two
months, I finally left once everything settled down. Everyone had a good
opinion of me in the virtual community. They all said that even though I’ve
only been president for a little over two months, I was dedicated and
responsible. But only I knew that I didn’t do it for them. I did it so you
would wake up and see this wonderful world that has successfully
transitioned into a new era.”

Adrian’s heart was shaken. He wanted to thank him but he wanted to

apologize as well. But no matter what, he felt pale and powerless. He
stroked Zhong Yan’s face for a long time before saying, “Do you…still
want to be President now that I’ve woken up? You can run for the post
again after Uncle Vahl’s term is up. I’ll give you my full support.”

“No,” Zhong Yan said. After suppressing his grievances for half a year, his
emotions finally spilled out. “I told you back then that I didn’t want to be
President anymore, I just wanted you, but you wouldn’t answer! You even
cut off communications. Nobody knew there was an escape pod. After
searching for a few days, I…”

He couldn’t go on. It took him a lot of effort to keep his tears from falling.
Adrian felt his heart being wrenched. That he would hurt this man he
vowed to protect so much by his own hand. He only wished he could give
him all the sweetness and tenderness of the next half of his life all to him at
this moment, but he couldn’t. He could only hold the person in his arms
even tighter.

After the two warmed up together for a long time, Zhong Yan began to feel
embarrassed. He wiped off his tears and got out from Adrian’s arms.
“Are you hungry? You must be starved. Those nutrients can only sustain
your life. I’ll go ask Wei Lan what you can eat during this time. We can go
home and I’ll cook it for you. That’s right, they said you’re going to have to
begin your recovery exercises when you wake up. We can work out
together in the future. Oh, and also, the giant space rabbit at home has
grown a little bigger. The entrance to its nest is getting a little narrow again.
I had no idea how to fix it so I had Suster go over to widen it a little. I’m
wondering if I should give the rabbit a name. It’s now an ambassador for
our association. I made a page for it a while back and it’s been gaining
popularity. It’s almost catching up to the number of both our fans combined.
During the middle of the year, when he turned half a year old, many people
drew him celebratory pictures—I can’t figure out why many people color
his eyes silver though, they’re clearly red. Common knowledge about giant
space rabbits is still lacking in our time, so I decided to engage with
them…”
Adrian watched him with patience, listening as he rambled on by himself
about the things he missed out during this half year.

The Supreme Institution was to be rebuilt soon. Vahl and Fayn revealed to
Zhong Yan that it would likely be rebuilt in White Aegis, which was located
between the Navi and Lebor systems. Once the location of the Supreme
Institution was set there, then that would become the foundation of the new
federal state, made up of the cores of both Navi and the Capital.

After rebuilding the systems of education, job recruitment, marriage, and

childbirth, a new online function to convert old marriage certificates was
also introduced. Based on the numbers, they found that barely a majority
had changed their marriage certifications through this function. Most of the
remaining couples did not plan to continue their lives together, but there
were also some with special circumstances, such as Zhong Yan and Adrian
who had yet to apply for the new valid marriage certificates.
Even though the 10-year family planning policy that was temporarily put in
place was put in place when Zhong Yan was still in power to prevent the
population from skyrocketing in a short amount of time, the number of
pregnancies still soared during this half a year. The heterosexual couples
who were willing to continue life with each other and who met the policy
conditions, and wanted to have children were rushing to action. And now,
the entire Federation was waiting. Everyone was wondering where the first
baby created from free will would be born in this new age.

“Speaking of children…Right. Did Wei Lan tell you anything?” Adrian

prodded cautiously.

A week had now passed since Adrian had woken up and Adrian’s
rehabilitation was planned for three whole months. But fortunately, he was
completely fine when it came to basic mobility and was able to be
discharged the very next day, returning to his own home. After being
separated for half a year, it only felt like he had been sleeping for a long
time for Adrian, but Zhong Yan had saved up a lot of things he wanted to
say to him. Things about them, about their dear friends, and also about the
new era.

As night dawned, the two had their dinner early and were now sitting
together on the soft back of the giant space rabbit, gazing at the stars.
Sure enough, the rabbit had grown quite a lot, and was also much more
obedient than before. Now, whenever they wanted to climb up its back, they
just needed to command it to lay down and it would stick out one of its feet
obediently so that the two of them could climb up.

“What did you say?” Zhong Yan asked.

“Oh uh, nothing,” Adrian quickly responded. He figured that Wei Lan must
not have given the gene sample to Zhong Yan since he was successfully
rescued. He was planning to secretly get it back from him, destroy it, and
never mention it ever again. The days he spent together with Zhong Yan
were wonderful. He didn’t want to give himself any extra trouble.

Zhong Yan continued unhurriedly, “He didn’t tell me anything related to a

child, only that it was available at my disposal.”
Having heard him say that with a completely straight face, Adrian instantly
began to panic.

He hurried to explain, “I was just thinking back then that if you ever wanted
to leave a memory, ah no, I was just worried you wouldn’t have a spiritual
pillar to hold onto. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to let it go if
anything happened, and I had no idea what I could leave behind for you.
What I mean is…Look, I’m perfectly fine, right? So should we just destroy
the thing?”

“Why destroy it?” Zhong Yan glanced at him. “If you’re ever disobedient in
the future I can apply for genetic fusion to produce a child. I’m sure the
child will be much more obedient than you are.”
He was talking about Adrian’s diet.

After he was discharged, Wei Lan handed Zhong Yan Adrian’s diet plan and
because he was worried that his stomach wouldn’t be able to adapt to solid
food without having eaten for such a long period of time, he suggested that
Adrian should avoid meat, greasy, and stimulating foods for at least a
month. So, Adrian had been eating bland food day after day. It didn’t help
that Zhong Yan would often eat many nutritious foods to cater to his weak
body, and the food he made was always extremely fragrant and tantalizing.

Adrian who was forced to eat such bland food could not hold himself back.
While Zhong Yan was taking his afternoon nap one day, he secretly got up
and ordered himself delivery of some spicy hot pot.

While he was happily enjoying himself, he was caught red-handed by

Zhong Yan who had woken up to grab some water and was tragically
brought back to the hospital for a physical examination and educated for his
mistakes. After that, Fayn who had learned of the matter from Wei Lan
even sent a message over just to laugh at him.
This afternoon, the two of them had a small table set up in the backyard for
some afternoon tea and Zhong Yan prepared a bowl of salad for Adrian—
Adrian had always been a carnivore and didn’t like vegetables very much.

Just as Zhong Yan returned back inside to refill the teapot, he grew bold and
fed the bowl of vegetables to the giant space rabbit who was laying at the
side. Unfortunately, the rabbit ate too slowly. When Zhong Yan returned
and saw the accomplice slowly chewing on something while the main
culprit’s salad bowl had abruptly become empty, he instantly understood.

Zhong Yan never brought up any of the past or any of their old debts, but
mentioning this now meant that the matter was yet to be over. Adrian
quickly apologized and confessed his mistakes, promising that he would
turn a new leaf and become a new man, eating everything he was given and
swearing off anything he wasn’t, only then was he able to coax him better
with much effort.

It would be better for them to quickly apply for their new marriage
certificate, Adrian thought.

The after-effects of that nightmare was too great. He was constantly stirring
up trouble these days, either by not eating his food properly or
overexercising.

He wanted Zhong Yan to see that he would never be able to take care of
himself properly without Zhong Yan watching over him, and he still had to
check Zhong Yan’s finger every morning to see if he was still wearing his
ring. These were truly excruciating times, he had to hurry and keep him
locked to his side.
 Chapter 100 - Twin Stars
(Complete)

They said they would renew their marriage certificates as soon as possible,
but the two still dragged it on for two months.

And that was for no other reason besides the fact that Adrian woke up two
months just before the one-year anniversary of their marriage and the
anniversary of their eleventh year knowing each other. Zhong Yan strongly
requested for their marriage certificate to be obtained on that day so that
their anniversary would remain the same, and naturally, Adrian had no
problem with it.
Zhong Yan had a grand plan in mind. They could invite Adrian’s friends
over to their house to visit. Their backyard was large enough for it, and they
were all young people. They can throw a party. Adrian didn’t have any
comments about it, but before Zhong Yan could begin to prepare for it, an
unexpected invitation disrupted his plans.

“The school opening ceremony?” Zhong Yan said while reading the letter.
“Isn’t that always held on the first day of school? Why was it changed to
the day before?”

“It’s the first opening ceremony after the reconstruction so they wanted to
make it big. They invited a bunch of the old outstanding alumni to
participate. Practically anyone who’s made a name for themselves after
graduating was invited. I hear there were more people invited than the
hundred-year anniversary last year.” Adrian was holding the exact same
invitation as him. “As a natural planet, White Aegis is a bit on the small
side, but it’s still much bigger than an artificial planet, so there’s no worries
about there being too many guests.”
“But…it just so happens to collide with our wedding day,” Zhong Yan said.

Adrian responded, “Both you and I have the speech scheduled, I don’t think
it’ll be easy for either of us to cancel.”

“That’s true,” Zhong Yan said. He wasn’t very against it as he still had
some feelings left for this place where he and Adrian met. After some
thought, he said, “We better go. I may not be in office anymore but you’re
still the Commander. You have to show your face at the very least. The
marriage certificate renewal is applied for online anyway, it’ll take just a
couple of minutes. We can just spend some time doing it there before the
event starts. What’s the schedule for your speech?”

“Let me see. The attachment on my letter says they want me to be

humanity’s…hero…” followed by a string of adjectives recognizing his
merits that he couldn’t bring himself to read. He stared in disbelief. “Who
the hell wrote this title for me? Isn’t this too embarrassing? What’s yours?”
“Distinguished Alumni Representative, “Zhong Yan easily responded.
“Great. Mine sounds pretty normal.”

“Why can’t I be a Distinguished Alumni Representative too?!” Adrian

stared enviously at Zhong Yan’s invitation.

Zhong Yan replied, “Because there’s only one!”

Adrian wasn’t surprised by this result at all. Zhong Yan had been the top of
all sorts of rankings during their school days, and he was also the Student
Council President. After graduating, he went into politics, and after retiring
from a successful career, he joined science and welfare. His Giant Space
Rabbit Conservation Association was now a very prestigious organization,
becoming a major player in the animal conservation scene after just being
set up for a short few months, cooperating with major organizations and
enterprises from all over the world. Even their ambassador—the Giant
Space Rabbit of the Commander-in-Chief—was a well-known figure.

Rumors flooded the virtual community that Adrian allegedly violated the
rules and brought in the lucky charm made by the then President, his
partner Zhong Yan, deep underground the artificial planet to save humanity,
and that this charm served as the medium to help him open the final door to
the core of the server, the door that safely ushered a new era of freedom for
all of humanity.

Countless teachers and students from the Supreme Institution confirmed

that they had long known of the existence of this charm, and that the charm
that saved the world was made of that rabbit’s fur.

The popularity of Zhong Yan’s rabbit shot up in the ranks of the

Federation’s popularity list overnight after its homepage was created,
surpassing that of its two owners. Much less after the commander woke up
and would feed the rabbit live on stream each day—A giant space rabbit
was supposed to be fed only once every two weeks, but this heinous act of
fattening the rabbit was only stopped after he was personally caught by the
President of the Giant Space Rabbit Conservation Association.

The first opening ceremony of the Federations’ Supreme Institution after its
reconstruction can be said to be bright as the stars. Compared to the
hundred-year anniversary celebration a year ago, the number of people
waiting to watch the live broadcast skyrocketed several times over.

This is the first time the legendary partners, the Federation’s Commander-
in-Chief and the first President of the new era, were appearing together in a
public event since the President’s inauguration ceremony more than half a
year ago.

As the most central figures in the promotion of human autonomy, the two
had long been admired and loved by many. Now, after the Commander-in-
Chief was injured so badly that he fell into a coma, the then President ceded
his authority to take care of him, a love story that touched the hearts of
many.

The people who came to watch the fight between two rivals a year ago were
now waiting to see the loving couple.

When Adrian and Zhong Yan walked down the red carpet to the new school
gates, they couldn’t help but stop.
Beneath the glorious words writing “Federation’s Supreme Institution” was
a grand red banner with a gold rim that said, “A warm welcome to the
return of the Twin Stars to the Federation’s Supreme Institution.”

Even without the need for any names, the entire world knew who they were
referring to. Ten years ago, the Twin Stars of the Federation’s Supreme
Federation broke off during their graduation, each going to opposite ends in
the Federation. Then, it became a word that no one was ever to mention
again. But who knew that the Twin Stars would come together again ten
years later? The Federation had also gone from their single-core system in
the Capital to their current dual-core situation.

The history books were always written in the perspective of the winners.
The government’s announcement to the public erased the footage of Zhong
Yan’s final decision to stop the plan, leaving only the most glorious images
to the crowd. It wasn’t an overstatement to say that Adrian and Zhong Yan
were now the two most admired people in the Federation, and it wasn’t
surprising that the Supreme Institution prepared the banners specially for
them either.

The school was consistently filled with only the best, from its
administration to the students, and they had never invited non-alumni
throughout the history of the events they’ve held. In the words of one of the
headmasters, our alumni alone are enough to hold the field for any big
event. While they were happy to show the world how outstanding they
were, they were also a small, exclusive community. The title of the “Twin
Stars” that originated from the school’s internal forums left a warm feeling
in the hearts of many now that it has returned.

The old school was gone, but they were still around. They managed to keep
the most important things.
Adrian and Zhong Yan stopped to look at each other, smiling tacitly. The
live camera captured the key angles and circled frantically around them.
The two men lifted their feet and went inside when they suddenly saw two
familiar faces.

“To think we had to be so secretive about the two words to the point that the
forums had to rack their brains to find new names, and now the “Twin
Stars” would actually be hung on the school gate today, broadcasted live for
the world to see. Sob sob sob sob…” the short woman said while choking
back tears.

Another tall woman said while looking through the news on her terminal,
“So you still remember that this is a live broadcast to the world? Have some
pride, stop crying.”
“So what if I cry! It’s a big day today! Think of all the struggles we went
through after all those years in the forum we created, sob sob sob…”

When the tall woman saw both Adrian and Zhong Yan, she nodded
normally to them in greeting. “Junior Zhong Yan, you’ve returned.”

The short woman’s crying came to an abrupt stop, and Zhong Yan greeted
them politely as well. “I’ve returned. Nice to see you again, Senior Sisters.”
After they had gone far away, Adrian asked with a slightly unnatural
expression on his face, “You know those two?”

“Yeah. They’re the seniors in the student council. I’ve mentioned her to you
before. Remember I mentioned to you about the fake news that popped up
when we just got married? About the new breed of giant space rabbit. She
was the senior sister who believed it and I even asked you if we should
mention it to her.”

Adrian, “…” So it turns out she was the creator of that strange forum.

“I don’t know the other senior too well. I think she seems to be her good
friend since back then? What was she crying about? I accidentally
overheard some of it. Something about her ventures failing? It can’t be,
right? All the ones invited today are all very successful alumni.”
Adrian seemed to be able to understand some of it, but also not at all. He
had no idea where to begin explaining. But fortunately, Zhong Yan wasn’t
one to dwell in the past. Or rather, he didn’t care about anyone but Adrian.
He dropped the subject after just some idle chatter.

“Lastly, I have one more thing to say.”

As the ceremony drew to a close, all the important guests took to the stage
one after the other to deliver their speeches, and Adrian, who was to give
the penultimate speech, kept it short so it didn’t take long for the final
words to be spoken.

He faced the alumni, professors, as well as the young children still in

school, and also to all the citizens watching live from across the world, his
voice echoing in the glorious newly built auditorium, “Friends! Let us meet
again in Navi!”

The Navi System was no longer just the name of a place. It was
synonymous with the unyielding will of freedom for mankind. More
importantly, these were the final words Adrian left the school during the
graduation ceremony.

That year when he turned down the AI’s career proposal, he raised his voice
and said, friends! Let us meet again in Navi!

The audience below erupted in questions and boos back then and he took
away the few who responded to him.

On this day, when he stood again on stage, saying those words, the entire
audience could not help but stand up. The crowd applauded and cheered,
and the entire ceremony was pushed to a climax.

Adrian jumped off the stage, walking straight back to where his and Zhong
Yan’s seats were. For a moment there, Zhong Yan felt as if he had seen the
spirited Adrian from back then when he had just turned twenty.

Zhong Yan laughed. “Mr. Chief, what will you have me do on the stage if
you rile up the crowd like that?”

“Don’t worry, Council President, your popularity is no less than mine.”

Adrian winked at him and smiled. “Go on up.”

Speeches had always been Zhong Yan’s strong point, but to give a free and
easy speech such as this was still a first for him.
Perhaps the ambient atmosphere of the Supreme Institution was too familiar
to him, but he was jubilant when he walked down the stage in the
thunderous applause. However, he was unable to reach the bottom of the
stairs. Instead, he paused on the very last step leading to the ground.
Adrian stood there, waiting for him with a solemn expression.

The eyes of the entire audience were focused on them and whispers began
to arise in the venue. But when Adrian got on one knee, the entire room
became silent again.

“Mr. Zhong Yan,” Adrian spoke, holding a small box in his hands, “I love
you with all my heart and my soul, and I will dedicate the future of my life
and my loyalty to you alone. Do you agree to become my life partner?”

Zhong Yan would never show his weakness in front of people, but everyone
could see tears welling up his eyes beyond his control at this moment. Just
as he was about to say yes, Adrian opened the box.
Inside it was a golden band which appeared to be some sort of ring, but for
some strange reason, two unidentified semi-elliptical protrusions appeared
above the wide ring.

Zhong Yan, “…”

What is that…?

But he quickly came back to his senses in less than a second and answered
firmly, “I do!”

As soon as he spoke, a bang sounded from beside him. Bright streamers fell
on both him and Adrian. Zhong Yan turned his head to look, only to see
Fayn standing off to the side holding a small empty party popper container
and laughing, “We rehearsed this whole thing eight years ago and we finally
get to do it!”

Zhong Yan giggled as well. Adrian carried him down the stairs and held
him close, only to hear a loud series of bangs as streamers fell down from
the top of the auditorium. Everyone screamed with joy, sending their
blessings to the couple.
“That wedding ring was ordered from my shop!”

A young man with colorful dyed hair said excitedly to the people around
him in the audience. “The ring they ordered eight years ago, and also the
one they’re wearing now, were also designed by me! The Commander is my
savior. I could hardly continue work back then, but the orders coming in
after they got married last year…I could hardly keep up! Oh! But this time
we don’t have similar models of rings. This one was designed by the
Commander himself! He applied for a patent. They’re rabbit-eared shape in
an imitation crown design. As expected of the Commander! He truly is
creative!”
“Ahem, fellow students.”

The headmaster had gotten up the stage at some point in time and pretended
to speak sternly, “Including this time, you have now crashed the ceremony a
total of three times. Though the Twin Stars are the pride of our school, I
would request that all our students do not follow such an example. Unless
you’ve also saved the world, the school will not be preparing flowers for
you if you try to propose during the opening ceremony.”

Amidst the laughter that filled the hall, Adrian took Zhong Yan’s hand and
grinned to the headmaster. “I’m sorry, Headmaster! It’s the last time, I
promise!”

He finally made up for his unfinished regrets that year. And, in the eleventh
year of their meeting, they were finally moving forward to the rest of their
lives in peace and happiness without obstructions.
 Chapter 101 & 102 - The Space
Giant Rabbit Weight Loss Manual
(Extra)

The Interstellar Giant Rabbit Protection Association, founded by the former

president, has become a transcendent public welfare organization after
several months of operation.

The current president, Zhong Yan, is not only a beloved legend himself, but
his husband, Adrian Yate, is also the commander-in-chief of the entire
federal military power, and has a close relationship with the current
president, Vahl Cayman. It is said that on the day when the organization
was announced to be established, everyone in the virtual community
released congratulations one after another. The number and scope involved
were too wide to be counted. Because the publicity picture was a cartoon
rabbit, it was extremely inconsistent with the usual style of many big guys.
On the same day, many people were shocked by fans' messages and
questioned whether they had been stolen.

Adrian was still in a coma at the time and did not witness the event with his
own eyes, but now he can see the popularity of the association's home page.

The non-profit organization established by Zhong Yan itself focuses on the

science popularization and protection of the Interstellar Giant Rabbit.
Although the federation has an Interstellar Giant Rabbit Research institute,
the data and images of the institute have always been confidential, and
ordinary citizens rarely have access to them.
The Interstellar Giant Rabbit Protection Association is very different. This
organization takes the people-friendly route. It will regularly update the
photos, videos and popular science of the Interstellar Giant Rabbit on the
home page. Every day, the comment area is crowded with online rabbit-
sucking masses coming from all over the federation.
The honorary ambassador of the association is the giant space rabbit in the
president and commander's home. Thanks to the hair of this legendary
interstellar giant rabbit...Who helped the commander to turn the situation
around at the critical moment, the new federal government specially
awarded the title of honorary image ambassador to the Conservation
Association after its establishment.

Zhong Yan thought it was just a warm joke and put it behind him. He didn't
expect to receive a bolt from the blue after returning from his honeymoon
with Adrian.

"Promotional photos?! My rabbit?"

He was sitting in the backyard with Adrian drinking afternoon tea. When he
heard the speech, he was so frightened that the cup in his hand almost fell.
Fortunately, Adrian's eyes and hands quickly caught it, and their couple tea
cup was saved.

"Yes, president, isn't that our ambassador?" The young man in the publicity
department opposite the communication said, "As a matter of fact, the
promotional map has always been the cartoon, which isn't a thing. Several
partners have mentioned it euphemistically. Do you think we can use the
photos of the ambassador instead? How suitable it is to have a special
identity as an ambassador!"
As the former president, President and commander of the Conservation
Association, the domestic interstellar giant rabbit, the creature that has
saved all mankind, the honorary ambassador who was personally awarded
the title by the government is really appropriate, but...

Zhong Yan looked up blankly. A snow-white hair ball was floating a few
meters above their heads. The shadow just closed the two people and
covered them from the hot sun in the afternoon. Recently, it was
midsummer. The large lawn in the backyard was unobstructed. Adrian had
to fiddle with huge and bulky umbrellas every day. Often before afternoon
tea, he was sweating first. Later, he came up with a way to coax the
interstellar giant rabbit at home to float into the air and create a shadow for
them.
In Adrian's words, there is no difference between keeping a rabbit for a
thousand days and using a rabbit for a while. It lies on the grass and floats a
few meters high in the sun. Zhong Yan thought that way of thinking was
correct, so he acquiesced that the rabbit to serve as a parasol during tea time
in the afternoon.

Zhong Yan looked down again at the shadow cast by the rabbit on the grass
under his feet - round.
A rabbit, how can the projection under the sun be round!
After hanging up the phone of the publicity department, Zhong Yan couldn't
drink his afternoon tea anymore. He looked up sadly at the big hairball
above his head.

"What's wrong, honey?" Adrian followed him and looked up at the rabbit
and asked with concern.
Zhong Yan said in great confusion.

"How could it be so fat? I obviously fed it according to the standard recipe."

But the other owner at home didn't feed it according to the recipe.

"Fat?" Adrian said carelessly, "There's nothing wrong with it being fat. It's
better to be fat."

"But..." Halfway through Zhong Yan's speech, he suddenly paused. He

seemed to think of something, and looked at Adrian and said: "...do you like
fatter ones?"

Adrian laughed. He leaned over, took the tea cup from Zhong Yan's hand,
put it back on the table, and pulled the man into his arms.

Zhong Yan followed Adrian's force and sat on his thigh. He didn't feel very
good. The tight and powerful thigh muscles made him uncomfortable, but
Zhong Yan still put his hand around Adrian's neck. In broad daylight, a
rabbit that had just been more than a year old was still floating on his head.
This too intimate action made Zhong Yan a little embarrassed. He asked.
"What are you doing?"
Adrian put one arm around his waist and joked, "I'll check whether you've
had a good meal and exercise recently. Well, holding it seems to be a little
fatter. Yes, I like fatter ones."
Zhong Yan also laughed when he heard the words: "I'm afraid I can't get fat,
what should I do?"

"What can I do? I can only make do." Adrian said with a smile. "Who wants
me to only like you?"

Because of this sitting position, Zhong Yan is rarely taller than Adrian. He
bowed down and kissed Adrian's lips with a gentle smile. Adrian's Adam's
apple moved up and down, reached into Zhong Yan's soft black hair behind
his head, pried open his soft lips and deepened the kiss.
The two people who were kissing with their eyes closed felt a light in front
of them at the same time, as if they were suddenly hot.

At the same time, they opened their eyes and found that the giant rabbit on
top of them woke up and floated away, which naturally removed a cool
shadow for them and the vicious summer sun hit them directly on the small
round table for afternoon tea bought by Zhong Yan.

No one was interested in kissing under the sun. Zhong Yan got down from
Adrian's body and watched the newly awakened giant space rabbit floating
around like a joy. There was a special traction rope for the Giant Rabbit tied
to the ground on its feet. He was not afraid to float away, but...
Zhong Yan stared at the circular shadow moving around with the giant
rabbit on the lawn and clapped bitterly: "Lose weight, start losing weight
immediately! How does it do this as an ambassador of the Interstellar Giant
Rabbit Protection Association!"

"Navi Star's summer is almost always sunny, and the fatter shadow area is a
little larger... " Adrian muttered.

Zhong Yan stared at him and said, "if you don't lose weight, the whole
Federation will know that our giant space rabbit is fat in a few months!"
As they were talking, the interstellar giant space rabbit over there slowly
landed, and it jumped twice, jumping from one end of the yard to the
middle, where the two masters were. Such a huge creature bounced close,
and most people would already run away in fear, but Adrian didn't even
blink.

The giant space rabbit came to the two, bowed his head coquettishly, and
rubbed both of them all with rabbit hair. and Zhong Yan lovingly extended
his hand to touch its snow-white chest hair - it was a little hairy, and Zhong
Yan's arm directly sank in half, but he was used to it. He smoothed the
rabbit's hair carelessly and said to Adrian suspiciously, "This rabbit in our
family is too lazy to move. I usually have to coax for it for a long time.
Why does it seem to be particularly excited now? Jumping and jumping, it's
really strange."
This is because Zhong Yan was delayed by a call from the Publicity
Department today and left late. Usually, they end their afternoon tea before
the giant rabbit wakes up. After all, the rabbit will move around when he
wakes up. There is no shadow, and the afternoon sun is very unbearable. It
is often Zhong Yan who leaves to work first and Adrian will stay for a few
minutes to clean up the table - but what Zhong Yan doesn't know is that
every time Adrian cleans up the table, if the big rabbit wakes up, he will
play with the big rabbit for a while and when he is happy, he will... feed it.

It's really heinous and makes the rabbit fat.

So the rabbit woke up and was very excited to see Adrian, which meant
another extra meal.

"...who knows." Adrian said with a guilty conscience, "Let's enjoy the
sunshine."

The young rabbit waited for a while but the person who usually started
feeding it had no intention of giving it food, so he bowed his head more
vigorously and rubbed on him. Fortunately, the rabbit was too big, and the
two stood close to him again.

They couldn't tell who he was rubbing. Zhong Yan only thought that the
giant space rabbit was coquetting the two of them. He didn't realize that the
culprit that caused his giant rabbit to become a ball was on his side.
In order to successfully take publicity photos, set a healthy example for the
star rabbits all over the world, and keep the face of the commander and the
former president's family, the weight loss plan was made. The amount of
feeding of giant space rabbit has been reduced to three-quarters of the
original, but the walking activity outside the atmosphere has increased to
once in two days.

After the honeymoon trip, Adrian and Zhong Yan's lives tend to be calm but
Zhong Yan's spaceship driver's license has not yet been tested. Adrian and
the rabbit have always only fed and not walked together and the two are
tired of being together all the time when they are at home which leads to
them really rarely driving the spaceship out to walk the rabbit. So for giant
rabbit cubs who would not be pulled out for a walk once a month before,
this is really a high-intensity exercise table.

Zhong Yan's execution of any plan is always very high. He organized a

family walking activity that night. The rabbit was not very happy. Zhong
Yan only thought it was lazy. Only Adrian knew that it was because he
didn't get food as usual in the afternoon.
But he didn't dare to say. Not only did he not say it, in order to wash away
his sin of feeding fat pets in front of his partner, he also followed Zhong
Yan frantically and complained that the rabbit was too lazy.

Laziness is indeed laziness. The star rabbit was adopted at a bad time.
Adrian didn't like large herbivores at all, but Zhong Yan loved it very much.
But at that time, Zhong Yan thought that the rabbit would eventually be sent
to the reserve. He didn't take it as his own property, and he didn't bother to
discipline it. Later, everything was settled. Zhong Yan had a heart to
discipline it, but he had missed the best domestication time in the months
when the giant space rabbit was born. The biggest problem is that this one-
year-old domestic little giant space rabbit won't go to the toilet in a fixed
place, and its habit is no different from that of the wild giant space rabbit.

"The wild interstellar giant rabbit is not so lazy." Zhong Yan said, a little
guilty in his heart, "We were too busy at the time, and we couldn't care
about it. Later, you were in a bad situation, and I didn't have the mind to
care about it ... I can't blame it, it was my dereliction of duty."

When he said this, they were standing by the porthole of the spaceship
looking at the giant space rabbit floating outside. The rabbit at home has
always been lacking in interest in walking activities. Today, it is particularly
lacking in motivation. The whole rabbit floats motionless in space.

Floating so much, it has no effect on weight loss at all.

Adrian couldn't bear to hear Zhong Yan blaming himself the most so he
quickly comforted: "I bought it back. How could it be your dereliction of
duty? And it's still small, just teach it slowly, the giant space rabbit can't
live--uh,can live..." He got stuck because he found that he had no idea how
long the interstellar giant rabbit species can live.

"Can live for decades." Zhong Yan answered, and a look familiar to Adrian
suddenly lit up in his eyes. Adrian had a bad feeling but it was too late.
Zhong Yan continued cheerfully: "The topic of the average life expectancy
of the giant rabbit space has not been particularly accurate yet, because the
history of this mutant species is too short, but the longest-lived giant space
rabbit known rabbit is a shorthaired brown rabbit in the Groli Star area. It's
already..."

"That's right! It suddenly occurred to me. Let's release the life-saving cabin
and play with it?" Adrian suddenly proposed.

Zhong Yan froze and refused without thinking: "How can the life-saving
cabin be released to play with it? What if an accident happens at that time?"

The area where they stay is far away from all main routes, and several
nearby planets are sparsely populated. Most importantly, as the former
commander in chief of Navi's military region, Adrian knew very well that
this area was a blind spot for the daily security patrols of the Navi Military
Region, and it was very safe in all senses. However, he also knew that
Zhong Yan was cautious by nature, so he explained: "There are two life-
saving cabins on this ship. It's nothing to put one out for it to play. It's so
motionless now, it doesn't make sense for us to stay here."

Zhong Yan thought it was reasonable, so he nodded. He has passed the

written test of the spaceship driver's license and has not started to prepare
for the road test but putting a life-saving cabin's operation is not a
complicated. Adrian taught Zhong Yan the operation process hand in hand.
The life-saving cabin is not the same as the escape cabin. Zhong Yan, a
beginner without a driver's license, controlled the life-saving cabin
stumbling close to the interstellar giant rabbit. The rabbit finally reacted a
little, and it pedaled a little away, staring cautiously at this little unknown
object.

Zhong Yan's attention was completely on the control of the life-saving

cabin. Adrian escaped a popular science course on the life of the giant space
rabbit and he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

It's not that he doesn't support Zhong Yan's career. To be fair, Adrian is the
person who supports Zhong Yan's star Giant Rabbit Protection Association
most in the world. Since he recovered from a coma last year, no matter what
news he posted on the Protection Association's homepage, he will forward
it first. As a result, his fans often complain about it but there are still people
who complain day after day. Every day for months until everyone has
nothing to say. In the voice of "scattered" and "the commander is hpeless",
Adrian still firmly forwards every dynamic of the public welfare
organization established by his partner every day.

However, even if Adrian faithfully helps Zhong Yan promote the Giant
Space Rabbit Protection Association every day, it does not mean that he is
interested in Zhong Yan's Giant Space Rabbit Science Popularization
lecture hall. He is very worried that he will sleep when he hears it, causing
unnecessary family conflicts.

Adrian was secretly glad to have escaped, and Zhong Yan suddenly asked,
"What is that?"
"What?" Adrian asked, looking at Zhong Yan's eyes.

Outside the window, a black spot was approaching them at high speed. In a
few words, it was close enough for Adrian to distinguish - it was a black
Navi military patrol ship.

Zhong Yan also recognized it, and the two glanced at each other in
disbelief. Before the two of them could react, the giant space rabbit, who
was still competing with the life-saving cabin, also saw the dark warship
approaching quickly.
Even if the size is big, the rabbit's gene also deeply affects the courage of
the star giant rabbit. The young rabbit is scared and shrinks to the side of
their spaceship. In fear of the spaceship, the scenery outside the porthole is
filled with snow-white rabbit hair for a while.

Adrian took the initiative to initiate communication with the opposite patrol
ship. There is only one Navi Star with a giant space rabbit. He omitted to
introduce himself and asked directly, "Why did you patrol along this route?
Isn't there no arrangement in this area?"

"Commander, this is the new patrol point added by the Commander-in-

Chief last week..." the soldiers in the patrol ship said nervously.

"Step back." Adrian said discontentedly, "you scared my rabbit."

Patrol ship: "..."

That rabbit is bigger than this small patrol ship! Who scares who!
Because of this episode, Zhong Yan and Adrian had to end the walk in
advance. Their giant space rabbit was too timid. Adrian asked Fayn for a
new patrol route and chose a new place where they would not collide with
the patrol ship.

Not only did he not give food, but he also went out to exercise at every turn.
Recently, the giant space rabbit has been very unhappy. He shrinks in his
rabbit nest all day and doesn't want to bask in the sun.

That night, it took Adrian a lot of effort to coax the rabbit out of the nest.
Zhong Yan went to the next star district to participate in a public welfare
exchange meeting. The heavy task of walking the rabbit fell on Adrian's
shoulder.

The giant space rabbit drilled out of his nest and saw that Adrian was alone.
Hopeful, he came up and rubbed Adrian intimately.
In the past, every time he did this, Adrian would always go and get some
food to feed him.
"No, you're already so fat." Adrian touched its nose and said, "you're so fat
that I was almost exposed. He's suspicious. You can't eat anymore."
The rabbit didn't understand what he was talking about, and still looked at
him with innocent and transparent eyes open. Obviously, it was a huge
animal, but he rubbed his fluffy head down to please people.

The giant space rabbit can't make a sound. Their vocal cords degenerate in
variation, so the giant rabbit is always quiet. Only their behavior can
express emotion. Adrian took off the traction rope tied to his nest and was
ready to tie it to the spaceship. The rabbit hurriedly blocked his way with
his body.

Adrian reached out and patted the rabbit's thick hair and gently scolded,
"Get out of the way. If my wife hadn't given orders, do you think I would
want to go out with you and exercise?"

The giant space rabbit revolved around Adrian twice and leaned down to
please him again. Adrian is not a soft-hearted person but when the Giant
Rabbit looked at him with those wet and innocent eyes, he couldn't help
thinking of the way Zhong Yan was docile in his arms.

"Well ... just feed a little. It shouldn't matter?"

Two months later.

The shooting of the promotional photos couldn't be delayed any longer.

Zhong Yan reluctantly agreed that the shooting team would come to their
house to take pictures of the rabbits.
The reason he was so reluctant was because he felt that the rabbit didn't
seem to be very thin.

"Why said it isn't thin?" Adrian, who has been feeding rabbits with Zhong
Yan behind his back for the past two months, said with a guilty conscience
"I think it has lost weight."

Zhong Yan said, "It looks like you've lost a little weight, but experts from
the Giant Space Rabbit Institute clearly said that according to the weight
loss schedule, you should be able to significantly improve your body shape
in two months. It must be because our family's rabbit is too lazy to take
good exercise."

"Yes, yes, yes." Adrian quickly echoed.

No matter how Zhong Yan complained, the shooting day arrived as
scheduled. Everything was going well except that the photographer blurted
out "how fat" as soon as he entered the backyard and was stared at by the
two owners of the rabbit.
The shooting of the publicity photo lasted one afternoon. Before the
photography team was ready to leave at dusk, the person in charge of the
publicity department saw that Zhong Yan was busy talking to the
photographer, so he asked Adrian's opinion and said, "Sir, there are several
photos of you and the president. Can we release them as filming gags?"

Adrian asked, "Which ones?"

"It was when you went to the ambassador to rest. We took a few pictures."

Adrian froze for a second before he reacted. The "ambassador" in the other
party's mouth refers to the ambassador of the Giant Space Rabbit Protection
Association, their rabbit at home. He said: "What's it like, show me."

When they took a break, they found that they had not moved the chair out
and a few people could sit on the prop box but it was not enough. Like all
the owners in the world, Zhong Yan also had a little mind to show off his
pet skills. So he asked the photography team to sit on the prop box and rest.
He and Adrian greeted the interstellar giant rabbit to get down and the
rabbit skillfully stretched out one leg. They climbed onto the rabbit and sat
down for a while.

Under the lens captured by the photographer, the snow-white lop-eared

giant space rabbit lay down on the grass and rested peacefully, with two
human backs on its back, one of which leaned on the other's shoulder.

This warm back photo obviously won Adrian's heart. He said, "Pass it to
me. I'll send it."
Adrian's personal homepage is much more influential than the official
homepage of the Giant Space Rabbit Protection Association. As the head of
the publicity department, he was so happy that he couldn't help but agree.
On the other hand, Zhong Yan kept telling the photographer, "You must
slim it down in the photo later, okay? Find a professional, you must repair it
without any trace. You can repair as much as you can. Anyway, you can't
send the original film. The rabbit should be thin. Remember, you must
emphasize it with the post production team..."

The photographer nodded and patted his chest to ensure that the image
ambassador would lose weight without any trace of repair.
Zhong Yan then safely sent off the shooting team.

A few days later, the Publicity Department sent the final film to Zhong Yan.
Although it was still a fat giant space rabbit, it was better than the truth.
Zhong Yan was satisfied. The person in charge of the Publicity Department
said, "Well, we're ready to send it now. I just asked the commander-in-chief
to send out the filming gags."

Zhong Yan: "OK... No, wait, what gags?"

When Zhong Yan hurriedly hung up the communication, it was too late.
Adrian's home page posted a new dynamic with photos, with an attachment:
Family photo.
It still hasn't been a few minutes since it was posted but the number of
comments was so unscientific that it was still increasing at a speed visible
to the naked eye. The comment area is crowded with all kinds of
exclamation marks, exclamation points and so on.
The fact that the commander-in-chief and the former president's fat giant
space rabbit became a rabbit ball was finally exposed today.
 Chapter 103 - Navi Military
District Felt Competition (Extra)

It has been more than two years since the restoration of human autonomy.
In a blink of an eye, spring has come again. In addition to the grass warbler
flying, it also means that the hair changing period of animals has come.
As the weather gets warmer, some animals will take off their thick fur and
prepare to spend the summer. Recently this month, many people with
kittens and dogs in the virtual community in Navi Star district began to
complain that their pet's hair loss is quite serious and their homes are full of
hair.

"I really don't know what to complain about raising a slap sized puppy."

Adrian said, "Before yesterday's meeting, Lieutenant General Tante actually

told me how serious the hair loss of his daughter's teacup dog is-that dog is
so small, how much hair can be lost! Later, I asked him if he knew how big
my rabbit was, and he stopped talking..."

"Is that why you tricked me into coming to your house to pick up rabbit hair
with you?" Fayn asked, deadpan.

Adrian said seriously, "Commander, how could you speak like that? What
do you mean cheating? My wife and I kindly invited you to come?
Afternoon tea..."

"What about afternoon tea?"

"Aren't the two of them here?"

"Then why can't I sit comfortably in the house with Zhong Yan like Wei
Lan? Why can't I also do tea chat? Not follow you out to do physical
work?"

"I did suggest that we all experience the fun of picking up rabbit hair..."

Finn said without thinking. "Don't even think about it. My doctor's hand is
for holding a scalpel. His hands are as precious as gold and I usually don't
let him cook meals."

Adrian ruthlessly exposed him: "Isn't it because Wei Lan's cooking was too
bad? You told me secretly when you got married last year."

Finn pretended not to hear, "Why don't you ask Zhong Yan to pick it up
with you?"

"No, he is not feeling well today."

Adrian said meaningfully.

Finn rolled his eyes. "To put it bluntly, this job falls on both of us." He
poked Adrian's chest with his finger sadly, "A commander of the fifty-third
military region!" Then he pointed to himself again, "A supreme commander
of the Navi Military Region! Specially gathered together on the weekend,
just to-" point to the interstellar giant rabbit cub who looked like a small hill
lying next to them, "Pick up hair around an interstellar giant rabbit! Does
that sound decent?!"

The rabbit had been lying down watching them work and now that he was
pointed at, the rabbit thought they were finally ready to play with it and he
greeted Fayn happily.
Adrian and Fayn suddenly drowned in the raging fluffy chest hair of the
giant space rabbit.

"I told you not to interact with my rabbit!" Adrian shouted. He stretched out
a hand from the fur and pressed it hard on the tip of the rabbit's fluffy nose.
"Stop it. Stop! Sit down! Don't move!"
He finally appeased the excited giant space rabbit, patted it gently on the tip
of its nose twice and complained: "The bigger it is, the worse it is. This
rabbit listens more to Zhong Yan's words better."

Fayn also finally got chest hair from the interstellar giant rabbit. He was
freed, bah-ed twice and spit out the rabbit hair in his mouth before he said
with contempt: "Stop talking nonsense. People got a full score on the
breeding certificate, do you have it?"

"It has nothing to do with skill. The one in my family is very strict with him
and takes care of him very much. The rabbit is a little afraid of him."
Adrian glanced at the direction of the house, made sure that Zhong Yan was
still entertaining Wei Lan in the house, and whispered: "If you want me to
say, this rabbit is still small. Whatever you do-play with it if you want to
play, feed it if you want to feed, it would be happy."

"Still small." Fayn repeated numbly, looking up at the chubby lop-eared

giant space rabbit around him who has grown to more than eight meters in
length.

Adrian fondled the hair of his little rabbit. "Last year, we took it to the
Giant Space Rabbit Institute for physical examination. The adult rabbits
there were nearly 20 meters each. This one in our family was frightened and
refused to move. Later, Zhong Yan asked to take the medical instrument
home and do the physical examination here."
Fayn sincerely suggested: "Then why don't you also find a few people to
come to your house to clean up the rabbit hair? So you don't have to fool
me into picking it up all over the yard with you."

"That won't work." Adrian said, "Our rabbit has little guts and is afraid of
strangers. You are quite familiar with it. You don't know how much trouble
the quarterly physical examination is. Zhong Yan and I should coax it for a
minute, or it will float in the sky and refuse to come down."

"Evil fate!" Fayn wailed, bent down to pick up a ball of snow-white rabbit
hair on the grass and stuffed it into the half full basket at his feet, "I
shouldn't have promised to feed the rabbit for you when you went to the
capital star..."
"What are you dissatisfied with? What an honor it is to pick up the hair of
the ambassador of our Interstellar Giant Rabbit Conservation Association.
If it hadn't been for its timidity, I would have sent out a message. Tens of
thousands of people would have been scrambling to help pick up its hair."

"It's an honor, it's an honor. I'll consider it as physical training." Fayn said
perfunctory, a pinch of hair was pressed under the rabbit. He didn't pull it
for a while, patted Adrian and said, "Let your ambassador move
somewhere."
The hair on the ground was almost picked up, and all the places that could
be reached on the rabbit were rolled up, leaving only the place under its
body. Adrian coaxed the rabbit for a while, and he couldn't let the rabbit
float up, so he had to send a message to Zhong Yan to let him come out.

"What's wrong with you?!" Zhong Yan was suffocated when he saw that
Adrian's black clothes were all covered with snow-white hair. "Did the
rabbit bury you in his chest hair again? I told you not to play like this
lately..."

"It rubbed by itself." Adrian defended, standing and letting Zhong Yan pick
off the rabbit hair on his body. "When the rabbit is big, he is not obedient. I
can't control it now."

"This is all because it's used to it, can it listen to you?"

The two began to complain together that the rabbit at home was too fat and
lazy. Fayn stood aside and said, "Why do you bother picking it's hair? Can't
you go back and stuff it directly into the washing machine?"

"I advise you to also remove the hair from his clothes and throw it in the
washing machine." Zhong Yan turned to Wei Lan and said, "The hair of the
giant space rabbit is too long and it will fail if it is stirred in the washing
machine. Don't ask me how I know. Our washing machine was changed
twice last year."

Wei Lan said inexplicably, "What? Ah, you said washing clothes. I don't
wash clothes in our family..." He looked at Fayn then back at Zhong Yan.
He suddenly noticed something and said, "Do you pay so much attention to
washing clothes? I thought it would be better to put it in the washing
machine. Commander, we'd better take turns in the future..."

"It's okay dear! I agreed before we got married, I will do all the
housework."
Fayn hugged Wei Lan and said.

"Don't show your love when you have rabbit hair on your body." Adrian,
who has rich experience in raising rabbits and has been married for a long
time, disdained to show his love all the time, kindly taught his friends
practical home experience.

"Originally, you only had to clean your hair, but now Dr. Wei's clothes are
full of hair."

Finn said. "I'd rather clean up the twice the rabbit hair and also hug our
doctor."

Wei Lan took off a large mass of hair stuck to Fayn's body and
unexpectedly, it felt very soft. He looked at the big basket full of rabbit hair
at his feet and thought, "Zhong Yan, can you give me some of the giant
space rabbit hair?"

"Yes, how much do you want? Ade, turn around." Adrian turned around
cooperatively. Zhong Yan chatted with Wei Lan while cleaning up Adrian's
clothes.

"Anyway, Ade and I have rabbit hair vests, rabbit hair pajamas, rabbit hair
scarves and so on, and there are two rabbit blankets at home. Alas, mainly
my rabbit is white and it's too easy to get dirty. Last year, I sent some rabbit
hair to the processor and made a rabbit hair collar for our Ade's coat. As a
result, he went to the Capital Star to attend the meeting. When he came
back, the collar was already gray-if only he had chosen a black rabbit. By
the way, what are you going to do?"
"I don't need a lot. I'll make a felt pendant." Wei Lan said.

Felt pendant-this thing has been very popular in the past two years,
especially in the Navi Military Region. Many people have felt pendant
made by a partner, whether an officer or an ordinary soldier. When Zhong
Yan rushed to make that lucky pendant two years ago, he wouldn't have
thought it would end up this way. This matter has now almost become a
custom in the Navi Military Region and there is even a faint trend towards
expansion to the whole league. At the beginning of the year, he also heard
that the stores of the highest institutions began to sell replica of "save the
world rabbit tail pendant". It is said that wearing this pendant personally
designed by the former president of the student union of the Supreme
Instituion, you can get the same score as the president in those years that
year...

"Although I am also a military member, I can't take part in the felt contest
next month, but..." Wei Lan said.

Adrian wondered, "What contest?"

"The felt competition of the Navi Military Region is limited to non-military

members only." Fayn replied to him, "You probably since you've been
flying to Capital star recently, you haven't been in Navi for a long time. The
planning case was handed to me at the beginning of the year. I thought no
one would respond to such a boring project, I casually agreed. Who knows
it's only been two days and the number of applicants has broken a
thousand? It's really terrible."

He said to Wei Lan again, "My dear, I will buy you a good-looking one,
don't make it yourself. It's a lot of trouble."
Wei Lan insisted, "It's meaningful to do it yourself. I read the publicity of
the competition, which said that senior officers of Navi Military Region
have..."

Finn laughed. He just wanted to say that this kind of publicity is to attract
people's attention. Of course, how to exaggerate and write it. Not every
Navi senior officer believes in this boring superstitious behavior. For
example, as the highest commander of Navi, he doesn't...

"Everyone has one. I'll make one for you, too." Wei Lan said.
Finn choked the words down his throat, opened his eyes and asked, "Are
you going to do it for me?"

"Yes."

"How kind of you, doctor!" Finn said moved. He hugged Wei Lan and
rubbed more rabbit hair on Wei Lan's clothes. "You made it for me. I must
wear it to work every day!"

Adrian didn't like Finn's behavior of showing off. He completely forgot that
the biggest reason why felt pendant is so popular now is becuase he showed
his love in such a high-profile way.
But Fayn's marriage did make Adrian start thinking about things he had
never thought of before. That night, he saw off the Fayn's. Zhong Yan was
about to go to the kitchen to cook. Adrian hugged him from behind.

"What's wrong?" Zhong Yan asked. He thought Adrian was joking with
him. He patted him on the back of his hand and said, "Don't make trouble.
I'll cook first."

Not only did Adrian not let go but he gathered him tighter in his arms, his
chin against Zhong Yan's hair, and said in a muffled voice: "I don't think I'm
good enough for you."
Zhong Yan said strangely, "How could it be?"

"Today Fayn said that he did all the housework in his family..." Adrian said,
a little ashamed. "I have been working as a young master in Yate's family
when I was a child and I have not done any housework. Since we met, you
have been doing these things for more than ten years. I have always taken it
for granted. Xiaoyan, I..."

Zhong Yan turned to face him and interrupted him, "If you don't want to
hire outsiders to clean at home, someone must do the housework, right? Wei
Lan, their family is made of Westerners, and my family is made by me.
What's the matter? Besides, you help me share the work. You usually wash
rabbits."
He reached for Adrian's neck and kissed Adrian's mouth on tiptoes. For the
first time, this intimate gesture did not comfort Adrian. He took Zhong
Yan's waist and whispered: "Rabbits only need to be washed once a month.
You have to clean the house, cook, wash clothes every day..."
"I like to do these for you." Zhong Yan said. After being married for so
long, he was still not very adapted to saying such straightforward love
words and his white porcelain-like flawless face smudged a little red.
Adrian held his hand and the golden rabbit ear crown ring touched together,
making a crisp sound.

Zhong Yan said gently, "Sometimes I also think I'm very strange. In such an
era of information transparency, you and I have stood on the peak of power.
The most important thing is contacts and authority. Even so, I can't find out
who and where my biological parents are. I once hated fate and thought it
was so unfair. Why was it that I was born without relatives? Even standing
in the crowd, I felt alone and out of tune with the world... As a result, I met
you later."

He looked at Adrian's handsome face.

His rare silver eyes were looking at him attentively and affectionately.
Zhong Yan choked gently in his throat. A lot of words were saved in his
heart, but there was no need to say it. Adrian looked at him and told him
plainly: I understand.

So he just said, "I appreciate fate."

"I don't appreciate fate, I only appreciate you." Adrian said, holding him
tightly in his arms, "I have countless wealth, but they can't compare with
you."

They embraced each other in their living room and kissed in this quiet and
peaceful evening.

Such a warm moment was interrupted by Zhong Yan's next sentence. He

took Adrian's neck and said, "Why don't we have a child."

Why don't we have a baby......

Want a child......

Child......

Adrian was excited, instantly scared all the thoughts of guilt and emotion
were gone and said in shock. "What?!"
"I've been thinking about it for a long time." Zhong Yan seriously discussed
with him, "I was originally an orphan so it doesn't matter whether there are
descendants or not, but it's always a pity that you were born in a famous
family, and no one inherited your silver eyes..."

"It's not a pity!" Adrian hurriedly said, "Besides, there are a bunch of people
surnamed Yate on the Capital Star. They will have a bunch of children with
silver eyes. Why wouldn't anyone inherit it?"

Zhong Yan said, "Those are not our children. In fact, a few days ago, people
from the capital star gene fusion Institute contacted me again and asked us
if we had any intention. What they meant was that they could give us a back
door without waiting in line. It is said that now ordinary same-sex partners
apply until the next year. I told them that we would consider giving an
answer..."

"Don't think about it. Reply now! I don't want children." Adrian said, "I
can't stand seeing you take care of others."

This sentence was very useful for Zhong Yan. He was just thinking about
Adrian. Since Adrian didn't want it himself, he smiled and said, "Well, I'll
answer them later. What would you like for dinner?"

Zhong Yan actually seriously considered adding someone to his family

which made Adrian feel a sense of crisis. He was determined to find
something for Zhong Yan to do, so when Zhong Yan told him that he
wanted to sign up for the Navi Military District felt competition, but it
seemed that he did not meet the registration conditions, Adrian killed
through Navi Military District headquarters without saying a word.

"Isn't it possible for non-military Navi Military District military families to

sign up? Why can't my family?"
"Navi Military District military families." Fayn stressed, "Your Excellency
Commander, are you a soldier in the Navi Military Region? You do not
belong to individual military regions; you are the commander-in-chief of
the fifty-third Military region."

"That should be counted as I belong to every military region, including the

Navi Military Region." Adrian was dissatisfied, "Besides, I was born in the
Navi Military Region and our family still lives in Navi. Now the Navi
Military Region has actually shut us out of activities which is too
unreasonable!"

It's just an entertainment activity. Since the commander spoke, Fayn didn't
dwell much, and sent a communication to the following people, asking
them to pass Zhong Yan's application for registration.

"As for you." Fayn said with disdain, "Yesterday you still hated me for
showing love. You have been married for so long and you still have to feed
your subordinates dog food."

"What do you know. I didn't sign up for him to show kindness and love.
The one in my family finally has an interest, just that the rabbit hair at home
is too much to use." Adrian said, "It's the off-season of public welfare
activities recently. He doesn't go out all day. The rabbit is still changing his
hair and can't take it out for a walk. However, I have meetings one by one
this month, and I don't have time to accompany him. It's good for him to
poke the felt at home."

Don't get any ideas about a child.

Although Zhong Yan signed up for this competition himself to pass the
time, however, from young to adulthood, his competitiveness is very strong
in any ranked activities, not to mention that this felt competition is based on
a family unit. Each registered army belongs to a soldier and the winning
result is two people. That is to say, this is also related to Adrian's ranking.
Zhong Yan raised his fighting spirit after a long time, as if he had returned
to the school on the eve of exam preparation.

Because he raised an interstellar giant rabbit, there is never a shortage of

rabbit hair at home, which can be used for him to practice repeatedly.
Unfortunately, Adrian's criticism is very incompetent. No matter what kind
of felt Zhong Yan made, he will blow the sky and the earth with real
feelings. Within two days, Zhong Yan was tragically expelled from giving
criticisms.

Adrian was very resentful and when he went to the meeting in the next star
area, he was still complaining to the fellow officers.

"Really, the one in my family is just asking too much for himself, obviously
everything is very good-looking. He didn't have to say I was boasting with
my eyes closed."
Several generals who arrived early looked at each other, and one of them,
who was more familiar with Adrian, confirmed puzzlingly: "What did you
ask President Zhong Yan to make for the competition?"

"Wolf tail." Adrian said quite contently, "Because I like wolves."

Several generals wanted to stop talking, and no one dared to offend the
commander, but they all saw madness in their respective eyes.
Wolf tail, what kind of strange shape is that?

Use felt to make a wolf tail, isn't that a long strip?

Forget it, think about the rabbit tail pendant that has maxed out the virtual
community in the past two years, isn't it a ball? The commander-in-chief
and the former president both insisted that it was a rabbit's tail, so they got
their way.
It has long been said that there are problems with the aesthetics of this
family, look at their rings...

"In fact, it has begun to vote now. You remember to vote for the one in my
family. Each terminal can vote for him. He is No. 817-hey, is it too early to
leave? Well, let's open the terminal now and cast it." Adrian said, "I have
sent you the address to prevent you from taking time to find it."
All the participating generals were forced to open the terminal at the request
of the commander, click into the home page of this inexplicable event in the
military district, find work No. 817 and cast their own vote. Fortunately, it
was much more presentable than they thought, at least it could be seen as a
tail. As for why a pure white tail made of rabbit hair is a wolf tail...
Just be happy for the commander's family.

After Zhong Yan submitted his work, he put this matter aside for the time
being and waited for the result. He didn't know that Adrian was still
canvassing for him when he went out to the meeting. By the time he knew
it, the whole federation already knew.
Virtual community today's popular keywords: wolf tail pendant voting.

Zhong Yan: "???"

Puzzled, he went in to check the discussion under this topic.

"Please give us a vote for President Zhong Yan's wolf tail pendant! There is
only one day left!"

"Only a few hundred votes short of our president will be able to take the
first place! Silver-eyed Giant Rabbit Forum, go!"

"The commander has updated the his homepage! Both of them haven't
updated the news for a whole month! Although I don't know what kind of
strange game this is, the commander spoke and voted first!"

"Silver-eyed Giant Rabbit Forum lottery record: draw ten friends, each send
a set of physical photos of the ambassador officially produced by the
Interstellar Giant Rabbit Protection Association. It is an out-of-print
autographed by the commander and the president! A screenshot of the wolf
tail pendant voting for the commander and president of our family is
required."

"The voting page is good, is it all crowded in to help the commander vote?"

"You are toxic, because the commander's dynamic life paralyzed the
activity website of others."

"Didn't the news say that the commander is participating in some inspection
activities in other military regions? Don't forget to canvass for your wife in
your busy schedule making me laugh to death."
"So their family now has a rabbit tail and a wolf tail. Why do they use
interstellar giant rabbit hair to make a wolf tail? Have you considered how
rabbits feel?"

Zhong Yan closed the discussion page with his face covered, hating that the
whole person could not be buried in the chest hair of the interstellar giant
rabbit.

He just casually participated in a military district entertainment

competition! Who knew that Adrian put business to his heart and canvassed
for him? Now, the whole world knows...

After the people who came to vote for Zhong Yan crowded the event
website, there was naturally no suspense about the results of the
competition. So many people participated in the event, and the official of
the rising popularity of the event actually applied for a top-three name
certification from the virtual community management agency. Zhong Yan
refused to use this certification. Adrian was happy to change it.

From then on, in addition to the "Commander of the fifty-third Military

Region", there was an additional column in Adrian's personal home page
identity authentication column, "The family of the champion of the first
Navi Military Region felt Competition". Zhong Yan was too ashamed to let
Adrian remove this certification after all.

But Adrian felt that it took Zhong Yan many days to make the felt to earn
the identity certification and it was a pity that it was wasted. In the end, the
honorary title of the champion's family was added to the home page
certification of their rabbit.
The lop-eared interstellar giant rabbit cub, who is floating over the
backyard to bask in the sun, has won a new honorary title today.
----

Thankyou for reading No money to Divorce. If you enjoyed reading it, you
can browse my Profile for more stories. I post Human Translation Boys
Love danmei, or adapted to manwha bl. Enjoy Reading!