Chapter 30: Big Brother, I Need You (Second Update)
A roll of thunder boomed.
Silver-white electric pythons flashed across the sky.
The artificial weather on the Federation’s main star strictly replicated the natural weather of the Pre-Ancient Civilization Era one-to-one.
The wind whistled, and the drizzling rain gradually turned into a downpour.
The rain soaked the ground and likewise soaked the cub lying at the gate.
A’mei and the others rushed over, only to see a little cub soaked like a drowned rat.
A’mei let out a cry of surprise and hurriedly took a towel from a servant to dry the cub’s fur.
Shen Lin was carried back by A’mei.
He huddled quietly in A’mei’s arms, his gaze always fixed on the distance.
A’mei was anxious; the normally lively young master had suddenly turned into a wilted little cabbage—how could one not worry?
“Young Master?”
A’mei tried calling him several times but didn’t hear the young master respond.
A’mei immediately grew frantic and had someone call for the medical officer.
Not long after the servant left, A’mei couldn’t wait any longer and ran out to see where the medical officer was.
The rain drummed loudly.
Shen Zexi walked in through the torrential rain, took off her damp coat, pushed open the tightly closed room door, and stepped inside.
The cub was wrapped obediently in a small blanket, with a head of wet fur, staring blankly at a certain spot.
She reached out to rub the cub’s still-wet fur, picked up a clean towel, and carefully wiped it.
Shen Zexi did things rigorously. Even while helping the cub wipe his fur, her eyes revealed seriousness.
The constant-temperature instruments covering the walls lit up, and the red energy stones in the nest emitted a heat source, raising the temperature in the room.
The fur on the little cub gradually dried.
Shen Zexi squatted down, her gaze level with the little cub’s.
“Bingbing.”
Her voice was soft and carried a certain soothing quality.
The little cub still sat quietly without any reaction.
Shen Zexi stroked the cub’s head again and again, her fingertips passing over his small ears.
The cub’s ears were very sensitive; every touch could provoke a slight twitch of the ear tips.
“Bingbing, Papa asked me to say sorry to you.”
Hearing the word “Ba-ba,” the cub’s ears clearly paused.
Shen Zexi took in the cub’s tiny movements and changed the subject: “Although everyone praises him as the Federation’s War God and the hero in everyone’s hearts, in my heart, he is still an unfit father.”
“No~”
The cub suddenly looked up, disagreeing with Shen Zexi’s words.
“Ba… ba… good~”
Monster Papa was the best Monster Papa; Shen Lin didn’t allow anyone to say anything bad about Papa.
Not even Papa’s current children!
“Do you like Papa that much?”
Shen Zexi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as she rubbed the cub’s soft fur.
But in her heart, some indescribable emotions arose.
It was as if she were jealous of her own father.
Saying it like that seemed right; she indeed felt jealous of her father.
She was clearly the one who had taken care of the youngest the longest, yet the youngest was closest to their father.
Now it had evolved to the point where he couldn’t stand hearing anyone say a single bad word about his father.
Sourness welled up in Shen Zexi’s heart, and she gave her younger brother’s soft fur a rough rub as a small bit of revenge.
The little cub had no idea his second sister was jealous and said very seriously, “Ba… ba… good~”
“Fine, fine, fine, I won’t say bad things about Papa anymore.” Shen Zexi pulled back her smile, looked directly into the cub’s eyes, and said, “Bingbing, remember what I say next.”
The cub looked at his second sister in confusion.
Shen Zexi had discovered that the cub could heal bloodline berserkization syndrome, and since the cub himself was very independent, she no longer treated him as an ordinary cub but communicated with him on an equal level.
She tapped her Star Brain, the interface popped up, and she swiped her finger in the void.
A huge black-and-white Yin-Yang disk landed on the ground, with skyscrapers standing tall and busy, prosperous streets intersecting like close connections between bridges.
“This is District 13, and it is also the home belonging to the Ninth Legion and the people of Blue Star.”
A speeding spaceship slid out of the aerial corridor, coming straight toward Shen Lin’s face.
Just as it was about to touch him, the spaceship turned into light particles and re-condensed, merging back into the torrent of countless spaceships.
At the intersection of the aerial corridors, bionic robots were performing their duties by directing traffic.
On the sidewalks, people were coming and going, each with a happy smile on their face.
“Our Papa came from the bottom-tier Blue Star system. To prevent Blue Star from becoming a colony of the Star Clans, Blue Star gathered global resources to support Papa’s entry into the Federation military. He climbed all the way from a low-level grunt to the position of Marshal, buoyed by all the resources. District 13 is the result of our hard work until now. Isn’t it beautiful?”
Shen Lin looked at District 13 in the light screen again.
It was indeed very beautiful.
Looking down from the sky, the entire District 13 was atmospheric and ancient, full of the hustle and bustle of the human world.
After the rain stopped, a ray of sunlight peeked out from the dark clouds.
The light enveloped the city as if coating it in a thin layer of golden light.
From where his head had been stroked by his second sister, a faint warmth came, and her voice sounded in his ear.
“Papa is a Federation hero, and also a thorn in the side of others; many people want him dead. If someone knew that Papa’s berserkization syndrome was cured, those people would grow desperate and might even destroy the beautiful home of District 13. So Papa has to hide in the background and be the navigator and guiding light for all of us.”
“Ba… ba… awe… some~”
The little cub straightened his small body, tilted his head up, and looked proud.
Seeing that the youngest’s mood had improved, Shen Zexi winked at him.
“Of course, this is only temporary. On the surface, Papa has entered the Blood Abyss, but secretly, Papa will come back. So Bingbing, don’t be sad anymore. Maybe you’ll see Papa as soon as you wake up from a nap.”
Sure enough, the cub’s eyes lit up instantly. “Really?”
Shen Zexi said, “Of course it’s true. When has Second Sister ever lied to you?”
Shen Lin finally showed a smile.
Shen Zexi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Coaxing a cub was harder than approving a hundred documents.
Big Brother, I really need you!
Shen Zexi only left after she had coaxed the cub to sleep.
Just back in her room, before she had time to drink a mouthful of water, an attendant came over with a communicator.
The communicator was an old model phased out decades ago; basically, a second one couldn’t be found on the market.
Dismissing the attendant, Shen Zexi went to her room alone.
She turned on the jammer and pressed the answer button.
“How is the youngest?”
“Asleep.”
The person on the other end clearly let out a breath of relief, then said in a somewhat proud tone, “I didn’t expect the youngest to be so in tune with me. We hid it so well, yet he acted as if he felt me leaving and chased me directly to the door.”
Shen Zexi suddenly spoke up: “Dad, Bingbing’s state is very wrong! He has no sense of security, and his attitude toward us is lukewarm. Only in front of you does he show a bit of a cub’s behavior. Moreover, he basically has nightmares every night, sometimes even waking up screaming in terror, but he remembers nothing upon waking. The medical officer said his symptoms are very similar to post-war traumatic stress disorder.”
Both Big Brother and she had seen the cub cry until he fainted, so the small castle had medical officers on guard 24 hours a day.
The food he ate was basically mixed with soothing medicine.
The medical officer didn’t dare use too much medicine, fearing the cub would develop resistance, causing the symptoms to worsen.
The medical officer suggested that family members should accompany the cub at all times, creating a warm and safe atmosphere to gradually lower the cub’s psychological defenses.
So even if Second Sister Shen was busy, she would make time to go home and accompany the cub, even if it was just for a simple meal.
Shen Zexi gathered her thoughts and continued, “Big Brother and I have been observing Bingbing’s state and suspect that what caused this is related to his own special ability. This special ability allows him to heal bloodline berserkization syndrome, while simultaneously bringing all the violent and suppressed emotions of bloodline berserkization to him. Our own bloodline berserkization is a repetitive accumulation, like 2000GB of stored files being compressed to 1GB. But for Bingbing, it’s the opposite—a massive amount of information fragments wash over him, which led to his emotional collapse and nightly nightmares.”
Big Brother Shen agreed with his sister’s reasoning; after all, the one with the highest IQ in the family was the second sister.
With Big Brother’s agreement, Shen Zexi narrated the same concept to Father Shen.
Father Shen’s voice was rough as he said, “This was my oversight. It won’t happen again.”
Shen Zexi rubbed her brow: “It’s my fault for keeping it from you. Originally, I planned to follow the medical officer’s suggestion and use your departure to test Bingbing’s state. It’s just that I didn’t expect Bingbing to be so resistant to your leaving.”
Father Shen’s breathing grew heavy, and his tone turned a few degrees colder: “You girl, your brother is going through something so big and you kept it from me. What ‘test’? That person is a quack! Fire him once you go back!”
“Dad…”
“Don’t call me ‘Dad,’ I’m not your Dad!”
“Dad, if Bingbing’s illness isn’t treated, if anything happens…”
Father Shen was silent for a long time before letting out a long sigh, his voice heavy with difficulty: “I have failed the youngest. From now on, don’t let the youngest use his special ability.”
After hanging up, Shen Zexi sat in her chair, staring at the ceiling in a daze.
She actually had selfish motives.
Her father had climbed from the bottom to the position of Marshal, like a golden phoenix flying out of a mountain area.
The hope of all of Blue Star was placed on him.
But sometimes she felt the burden on her father’s shoulders was too heavy, so heavy he didn’t dare to breathe, so heavy he became obsessed.
Just like this time, knowing that suppressing the Mother Insect was a certain-death situation, he still went.
Her father was very career-oriented; staying in the barracks all night and day was a common occurrence.
He even left his children to be raised by the butler, Uncle Chen, and they wouldn’t see him for a year or two.
After Big Brother reached adulthood, he had the ability to support himself.
The hard days for her and her third brother improved slightly.
When she was a child, her father simply did not exist in her world.
The hardships Shen Zexi had endured as a child, she didn’t want her younger brother to experience again.
The cub was so cute; he should grow up in love.
To put it bluntly, Shen Zexi was still worried that even if Bingbing’s special ability would put him in danger, her father still wouldn’t take it seriously.
He might harbor illusions and take extreme risks.
So she simply applied a strong dose of medicine, going for the throat.
She concealed Bingbing’s illness to make her father feel Bingbing’s dependence on him.
To let him know that in Bingbing’s heart, the father’s position was very, very heavy.
The grace of saving his life was in front, and the inability to let go of his father followed.
The meaning of the word “Father” was no longer a simple verbal address; it was the harbor that shielded the child from the wind and rain.
Shen Zexi closed her eyes.
“Councilor Shen’s brain is a precision supercomputer, utilizing everyone’s value to the fullest!”
Someone had once evaluated Shen Zexi this way.
Shen Zexi admitted it.
This time, she had utilized her younger brother.
She hoped Bingbing wouldn’t blame her for making decisions on his behalf.
In the corner of the room where Shen Zexi lived, an inconspicuous vine carefully bypassed the surveillance of the mechanical insects and hid in the grass.
The very next second after the vine moved away, the mechanical insect’s iris scanned over quickly, and a red laser was subsequently fired.
An extra deep pit appeared in the ground, with a few wisps of black smoke curling up.
“No abnormal life signatures…”
The mechanical insect circled around the deep pit and continued its patrol.
A robot slid out from the corner.
The chest part opened, and several tentacles holding tools appeared.
The robot made a tiny buzzing sound and began to repair the ground.
The Ghost Vine traveled quickly along the base of the wall and soon reached the small castle, climbing up several floors.
At that moment, a window on the wall opened.
The vine wagged its front end, confirmed the position, and leaped into the window.
A short, chubby, white and tender small hand caught the Ghost Vine’s body.
Dark eyes looked at the brightly lit night sky outside the window, while his hands toyed with the vine, which had been softened into a noodle shape.
Who knew what he was thinking?
The Ghost Vine used its soft, tender leaves to poke his chubby cheek.
Shen Lin accurately caught the misbehaving small leaf and fed it a wisp of healing power.
The Ghost Vine twisted its slender body excitedly, like a piece of seaweed drifting with the current.
Shen Lin’s large and round apricot eyes curved.
He thought that his new family seemed quite good.
It was just that they seemed to have misunderstood something.
Should he explain to them that his healing ability didn’t have any side effects?
Shen Lin thought back and forth and couldn’t sleep, so he simply fiddled with his energy stones and took out his belongings to count them.
Recently, he had collected many useful good things.
Shen Lin counted them once, felt it wasn’t enough, and counted them again. Only then did he satisfactorily hide the things away again.
Coincidentally, sleepiness struck. Holding the crimson feather, he curled into his small blanket and closed his eyes to sleep.
It was late at night.
The Ghost Vine perched on the ceiling slowly retracted and hid itself.
The entire Shen residence fell silent, with only the faint sound of patrolling soldiers’ footsteps.
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