Chapter 22: Goodnight, My Sun~
“A-Mei, I’m very happy that you finally have time to come and find me today.”
Ruoduoya affectionately took A-Mei’s arm. Under the light and shadow, the girl’s smile was as bright as the sun, like a nimble deer in the forest. If it were in the past, A-Mei’s gaze would have been hard not to be attracted to her. But now, her eyes had become dark and unreadable.
“Ruoduoya, how come I don’t see you carrying flowers today?”
“Didn’t you say before that since we need to take care of the Little Master, we can’t have anything with a scent on us? Hearing that you wanted to see me, I specifically changed into clean clothes.”
Ruoduoya blinked her eyes, looking cute. Her neatly trimmed fingers, coated in a light layer of blue nail polish, lightly brushed over the back of A-Mei’s hand, like the sticky, lingering ambiguity of a lover.
A-Mei grabbed the hand that was trying to reach into her chest and looked at the exquisite manicure.
“Ruoduoya, a B-grade deer beastman. Her father followed Marshal Shen in the military for twenty years, climbing from a lower-district commoner to a local star’s security official. His status was given to him by Marshal Shen. To show his loyalty, he sent his first-born child to the Shen family. Official Ruowei has been poor and honest his whole life, never accepting a single bribe. Let me ask you: how could a poor family be generous enough to let you embed precious energy stones into your nails?”
“What do you mean? I don’t understand.”
Ruoduoya tried to pull her hand away, but A-Mei’s hand was like an iron clamp; she couldn’t budge it. A-Mei moved closer to Ruoduoya, her sharp gaze locking onto the other party, beast markings appearing at the corners of her eyes.
This head maid, who was always gentle in front of the Little Master, revealed her tiger-beast fangs at this moment. The danger of a carnivore was soul-chilling.
“A tiger is the overlord of the forest; its nose can catch the scent of prey hundreds of meters away. You intentionally approached me, saying ambiguous things and trying to pry into the master’s business. When you learned the Little Master likes to collect stones and leaves, you deliberately threw down Iris Silver Blue on the path he passes.”
A-Mei beckoned. Behind her, a maid’s tray held several blue wind chime flowers. The petals were slightly curled from being detached from the main branch and lacking water, their color changing from light blue to deep blue.
Ruoduoya went silent for a moment, then looked up with watery eyes full of tears, trying to use her fragile appearance to win the tiger-beastman’s pity.
“There are many Iris Silver Blue planted in the garden; sometimes I accidentally carry some on me. It has no harm to cubs. Even if you suspect me, you have to show evidence.”
A-Mei didn’t argue with her, just quietly looking at Ruoduoya. She moved her finger. Ruoduoya, who had just been arguing her innocence, stopped abruptly when she saw another maid bring a branch.
The cub often liked to stay by a small forest watching the miniature creatures; this branch came from there.
“Iris Silver Blue itself has no problem. But when its naturally fallen flowers collide with the Langjishu Tree, they emit a unique scent. Normally this scent won’t evaporate, but it will produce a stimulating odor when it encounters a snake beastman. Originally, I thought you were targeting the Little Master, but I didn’t expect your target to be the Second Miss. Why would you do this? Haven’t Marshal Shen’s helps to your family been enough?”
“Hehe, because my father is biased. He’d rather tilt all the resources toward my younger brother than give me even a tiny bit. Is it wrong for me to want to live a better life? If someone just asked you to place some inconspicuous things in the Shen residence and not only gave you a generous reward but also gave you an upper-tier district identity… you, and all of you—wouldn’t you be tempted?”
Ruoduoya’s fingers pointed one by one at A-Mei and the servants behind her. She continued: “I’ve had enough of the pain brought by injecting cheap suppressors! I’m not as stupid as you all, tying yourselves to the tiny Shen family for the sake of so-called loyalty.”
However, not a single servant present agreed with her; they all looked at Ruoduoya as if she were a fool.
“Is the person behind you willing to give such a generous reward?”
“What do you mean?”
A-Mei pulled up an identity info-screen. The two-inch photo on it was the person who had met with Ruoduoya. And the other party’s identity was an interstellar criminal who had been executed half a month ago. Even if Ruoduoya completed the task, she wouldn’t get the reward.
“How… how is that possible? I don’t believe it. You must be lying to me!”
Ruoduoya’s smug expression cracked. The door opened, and Shen Zexi’s cold, elegant face appeared.
“Take her away.”
A-Mei flopped straight onto her knees, lowering her head. Shen Zexi waved her hand. “Why are you kneeling here? Bingbing should be waking up soon; take good care of him.”
A-Mei gave three heavy kowtows, said nothing, and respectfully withdrew. Shen Zexi held a slender lady’s cigarette between her fingers, smoke puffed from her mouth, her expression hidden and unreadable.
A gardener disappeared from the garden, but no one noticed. When Shen Lin was playing in the garden, he saw a new face for the gardener and only looked twice before losing interest.
Shen Zexi was eating with the cub when a servant hurriedly came in with a communicator.
“Second Miss, we’ve received a communication from the Ikaruosi Empire outside the Federation system. Should we connect?”
“How could a communication from Ikaruosi be sent here?”
Ikaruosi? It sounds familiar. Where have I heard it before?
The cub’s round eyes showed a brief moment of confusion. Looking down at the crimson plume hanging on his chest, a memory of a red-haired boy as brilliant as the sun flashed in his mind.
Could it be Little Chicken Brother?
All sorts of guesses ran through his brain. The cub’s eating slowed down, and he secretly pricked up his ears. The light-screen scrolled rapidly, blue text-chains emerged, and signals intertwined and reorganized, condensing into a familiar figure.
Red hair tied back, revealing full and beautiful features—this was a face with top-tier bone structure. Very beautiful, but it wouldn’t make one overlook his gender. The red-haired boy looked healthy and spirited, not at all like his weak appearance when they first met.
“Your Majesty Li Heng?”
Seeing this youthful but familiar face on the screen, Shen Zexi raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“Councilor Shen, good afternoon.”
The red-haired boy greeted her politely, his gaze constantly searching until it locked onto a pink ball of fur. It lit up instantly.
“Little Bear!”
The cub looked up, a ring of white milk-stain around his mouth. That silly, pink, tender appearance instantly hit the boy’s heart. He quickly flashed to the front of the cub, even the virtual data could barely keep up with his speed.
“Little Bear, did you miss me?”
The red-haired, red-eyed boy squatted down in front of the cub regardless of his image, his eyes sparkling.
“En-ying~”
A sweet little milk voice, with a sincere attitude and not a trace of perfunctoriness.
The red-haired boy was satisfied, revealing a smile more brilliant than the sun: “Little Bear, I’m coming to the Federation in a week. I’ll come to your house as a guest then; you can’t block Brother at the door, okay?”
Little Chicken Brother is coming as a guest?
The cub was happy! Having a friend come over for the first time, the cub put in 200% effort. He patted his chest, showing a clever “leave it to me” expression, making the red-haired boy laugh again.
Inside the Ikaruosi Empire palace, the ministers were surprised to see the bloodthirsty young sovereign revealing such a pure and happy smile. At the same time, they were curious about what kind of person could make the young sovereign never forget them after returning, even going so far as to use a massive amount of manpower and resources to re-open the shortest route to the Federation.
Quite a few ministers took a peek. With that one look, the ministers were stunned.
A fluffy, round, chubby pink ball. A panda cub?
The ministers simultaneously cast accusatory looks at Sang Hu.
Good boy, you’ve kept this from us for so long.
The young sovereign’s confidant, Royal Captain of the Guard Sang Hu, said nothing, his gaze guiltily looking at the exquisitely carved phoenix paintings on the dome.
This dome really is a dome…
A chubby, round, pink ball. Adorable and with a head. Growing with the wind, his first small tooth has successfully emerged. The cub can be seen when he smiles.
But the cub rarely smiles because Shen Zexi thinks the small tooth is too cute and always wants to tease him. The cub was often teased into exploding his fur, getting angry at himself. After holding it in for half a day, he still couldn’t help but complain to Little Chicken Brother about his sister’s “un-human” behavior.
Although the young sovereign didn’t quite understand the cub’s “ying-ying” language, he still put on a look of serious listening, occasionally showing an expression of sharing the same enemy.
After the last call ended, the cub asked for the communicator from Shen Zexi and talked to Little Chicken Brother from time to time. The cub is teething now, and his ingredients are no longer just mush; he has an extra dish of bamboo leaves. Originally, the cub wasn’t used to eating bamboo leaves, but after the first bite, he fell in love with it. He didn’t forget to share it with Little Chicken Brother.
Perhaps the cub just simply wanted to share delicious food with his good friend, but the young sovereign remembered his preference. Those who kept an eye on the palace movements discovered that the Vice-Captain Chen Chan had spent a large amount of star-coins to buy a small planet from the Star Bear race. Everyone was baffled—why go through the trouble of buying a planet from the Star Bear race? After asking around, they found out it was bought for that cub.
Everyone: “…”
“Pu-ya~”
The cub squatted on the ground, picked up a leaf, and showed it to the screen. A half-yellow, half-green leaf, its edges eaten into holes by insects—it didn’t look beautiful. But the young sovereign watched with great interest, so much so that the mountain of files that made his head ache became trivial matters.
The cub’s smile was like a strong suppressive medicine, easily smoothing out his internal irritability. Regarding this, Captain of the Guard Sang Hu was filled with emotion. Since returning to Ikaruosi, the sovereign’s emotions had become more and more unstable. The residual bloodline of the royal family was restless. The old ones, seeing the sovereign was young, were acting as “elders” and moral kidnapping him. The young ones were stirring up trouble everywhere.
The sovereign had to suppress the outsiders with ill intentions and also handle the internal royal conflicts. The blood on the floor of the main hall hadn’t dried for half a month. Suppressors went from one a day to one an hour. Seeing the sovereign thinning day by day and his emotions becoming more and more gloomy, Sang Hu was worried. He realized if this continued, the sovereign’s body would collapse.
Just as Sang Hu was at a loss, Vice-Captain Chen Chan’s casual words reminded him.
“I really miss the sovereign who was buried in the belly and obsessed with sucking the cub…”
Sang Hu’s eyes lit up. Right! How could I forget that pink ball?!
The instructions issued by the young sovereign during his first coronation were suppressed by some disloyal ministers. Sang Hu suddenly made a move, throwing several ministers into prison, and the sovereign’s instructions were finally executed.
Opening a new route is very troublesome, especially with a group of people making trouble. The young sovereign lost his patience and, inspired by his confidant captain, directly revealed his top-tier SSS-grade Fierce Beast bloodline. And that was to kill! Kill until they were terrified.
Architects gave a best-case scenario of ten years to open the new route. But now it was completed in only two and a half months, fully demonstrating the young sovereign’s iron-fisted methods. The young sovereign’s methods were ruthless, yet he wasn’t questioned by the beastmen of Ikaruosi; on the contrary, he had even more followers.
On the day the new route was finished, Li Heng didn’t want to waste a minute and directly ordered the command center to link the Federation’s signal channel. After several detours, they finally connected to Shen Zexi’s terminal.
After seventy-five days, the red-haired boy finally saw the pink ball he had been dreaming of. The pink ball had grown a bit, chubby and pink, with a pair of eyes full of a river of stars.
“En-ying?”
Li Heng missed a beat, and the cub’s small paw propped up his chin, tilting his head to watch him work.
“Sorry, Bingbing, I was too focused on work just now and didn’t notice you. Are you bored?”
The young sovereign wanted to say “if you’re bored, let’s hang up,” but he couldn’t say it. Before he could struggle, the cub took the initiative to shake his head.
Small paws opening and closing~ Like small plum blossoms in bloom. The cub didn’t know why the boy was cooped up in a room flipping through files he couldn’t understand; sitting for so long must be very boring, so he’d play a game with the cub~
“Bingbing, you’re so amazing!”
The red-haired boy praised the cub. The cub arrogantly lifted his little chin. Li Heng’s eyes were full of smiles, watching the cub play the “blooming” game.
“I really hope a week passes quickly; I want to see you so much.” “En-ying~”
Me too, Little Chicken Brother~
Shen Lin lay on the soft carpet, his four paws uncontrollably making a “kneading” motion. The cub fell asleep dizzily, and the star-computer silently recorded this scene. The cub’s little belly rose and fell, looking very touchable, and a purring sound came from his belly, very sleep-inducing and healing.
Accompanied by the cub’s small purring, Li Heng found that the dry and boring work was not so uninteresting. Until late at night, the mountain of files before him disappeared, and the day’s workload was finally completed.
After washing up and lying in bed, the pink ball on the other side of the screen turned over, revealing the crimson plume in his arms. Li Heng reached out to virtually touch it, as if he could feel the soft fur on the cub.
“Goodnight, my sun.”
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