Chapter 84#
The ice shards filling the sky finally dissolved completely, and the rain gradually diminished, becoming a light pitter-patter.
Under this wispy night rain, the base was in a deathly silence.
After an unknown amount of time, the sky finally began to brighten gradually. A hazy streak of crimson dawn appeared at the far edge of the sky.
Light Realm Knight Yao Ning let out a light sigh in his heart. He slightly twisted his stiff neck and turned his head toward the wreckage of the spacecraft.
He was suddenly stunned.
The youth was still sitting dazed in the charred ruins, his pale face devoid of any expression. He sat there obediently holding his knees, sitting properly as if waiting for someone. [But for your sake, I have pondered until now.]
However, his thick and smooth black hair had completely turned into a lifeless silver-gray.
That extremely young and handsome face, paired with such a hair color, looked exceptionally eerie.
Feeling a surge of pity, Yao Ning took a couple of steps forward and said boldly: “Lord White Knight, the Crown Prince… he wouldn’t want to see you like this.”
Bai Mo initially had no reaction, until he heard the words “Crown Prince.” Then he hesitantly lifted his eyelids, his expression almost looking helpless: “What? What wouldn’t he want to see?”
Yao Ning said in a low voice: “The Crown Prince was a magnanimous and responsible person. Now that he is gone, and you are in this state…”
Bai Mo froze for a moment, then suddenly murmured: “Right, he said… he wanted me to be a good Emperor… I have to listen to him. When he’s not here, I… I have to take good care of this place.”
“Right, that’s right.” As he spoke, his eyes brightened slightly, “If I do well and he’s happy, he’ll naturally come back.”
Everyone lowered their eyes in silence, almost unable to bear looking at him.
It was truly too pitiful, and too comical.
…
Three days later, White Rose Palace, Crown Prince’s palace study.
Lu Xing was tied up firmly, kneeling on the ground in a state of utter disarray. But that cynical and arrogant face still bore a look of indifference.
Bai Mo stood up slowly and walked a circle around him.
The youth’s eyes were bloodshot, and his voice was extremely hoarse: “Lu Xing, since he found you to help when he escaped, did he tell you… where he was going?”
Lu Xing couldn’t help a cold sneer: “Is there something wrong with your head? That man is very calculating; how could he possibly tell me… besides, even if there was somewhere he wanted to go, he can’t go anymore.”
He stared at Bai Mo, intentionally saying word by word: “He. Is. Dead.”
Bai Mo stared fixedly at the other, his teeth clenched tight, his mouth filled with a thick taste of blood.
He barely restrained the boiling killing intent in his heart, intentionally avoiding that word ‘dead’: “I saw the surveillance footage showing you two spoke for a long time… what did he say to you?”
Lu Xing raised an eyebrow: “Oh? Then you also saw us kiss?”
Bai Mo, unable to control himself, kicked out fiercely and roared: “You’re asking for death!!”
Lu Xing was sent rolling twice by this merciless kick.
Lying on the pure white long-haired carpet, he coughed low a couple of times, barely suppressing the waves of blood rising in his throat. Then he laughed nonchalantly: “You’re simply a pitiful wretch… clearly jealous to death in your heart, yet you can’t let go and won’t admit it, always getting defensive.”
Bai Mo breathed heavily, and it took a long time before he barely calmed down, saying hoarsely: “Lu Xing, you’re intentionally provoking me. Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you? If you just tell me his whereabouts… I’ll let bygones be bygones regarding your past affairs. I can give you a path to live.”
Lu Xing raised his eyebrows somewhat amusedly: “Bai Mo, in that one sentence of yours, there are two errors.”
He licked his lips, his eyes filled with a chilling, pure malice: “First, I don’t know the ‘whereabouts’ you speak of; second, there is no ‘past’ between us.”
“Regarding the first error, you know very well in your heart that he has already… it’s just that you aren’t willing to admit it because you won’t be able to live on. And the second error… you’ve actually been misunderstanding him all along, but you’re unwilling to believe it.”
Bai Mo directly ignored his first sentence and asked in a low voice: “What misunderstanding?”
Lu Xing laughed, his voice light and soft: “Bai Mo, between him and me, there has never been anything. I was just… unilaterally infatuated with him, that’s all.”
He stared fixedly at Bai Mo’s bloodless face, as if the other’s expression could bring him some great pleasure.
“A-Cheng… he never promised me anything, let alone sold anything out. Having stayed in prison for so long, I’ve managed to figure it out. Although he is cunning and detestable, he is actually a bit dense regarding feelings. Do you think if anything had happened between us, you would have even had a chance?”
Bai Mo said with a trembling voice: “You, what are you saying?”
Lu Xing laughed somewhat cruelly; for a moment, it seemed as if he had gained the absolute upper hand: “Bai Mo, all those things I told you before, those romantic entanglements between him and me, they were all fake… I lied to you. I was only jealous of you, so I fabricated those lies.”
Bai Mo’s face was a blank, and his body swayed very slightly.
Lu Xing paused, almost at leisure to appreciate the other’s expression, then added: “If you don’t believe me, you can call Yu Jingqiu to ask. My Senior Brother Yu is the most honest among us brothers.”
Bai Mo slowly retreated two steps, feeling his entire body go weak. This Super-S class controller now almost needed to lean against the desk to barely stand.
Fu Yucheng and Lu Xing, between them… there was nothing?
It was all to deceive him?
He turned his head almost dazedly and bewilderedly, looking out the study window.
Outside the window were large patches of blooming white magnolia trees. In the faint, shimmering shadows of the trees, a small pavilion could be seen… that night, in that pavilion, that person had coldly pushed him away.
That person said he had always been clear about rewards and punishments.
He also said that he wasn’t the first and there was nothing special about him.
These… were also all to deceive him?
And later?
He had imprisoned him, and he had frantically tried to explain… he said he had difficulties, he had no choice, he just wanted to make him give up…
And he, of course, didn’t believe a single word.
He even felt his defense was very laughable.
And even forced him… forced him…
Lu Xing watched Bai Mo quietly and suddenly said softly: “Bai Mo, I really envy you.”
“With his status, his personality… such a strong and proud person was actually willing to let you… he must have loved you very, very much. Perhaps even he himself didn’t quite understand this feeling. And a fool like you, naturally, understood even less.”
Bai Mo’s face no longer had a trace of color. His lips trembled involuntarily: “You, why… are you telling me this?”
Lu Xing laughed: “I’m not feeling well, so naturally I’ll make you not feel well too. You don’t know how pathetic and laughable you look right now.”
…
Before long, Yu Jingqiu also arrived.
This delicate and gentle youth looked much more sober than a few days ago, though he still looked a bit timid.
He glanced at Lu Xing and said softly: “Junior Brother Lu.”
Lu Xing smiled quite naturally: “Senior Brother Yu, long time no see. Back then, to save your life, I had the laboratory use gene technology to repair and transform your body, which damaged your memory… you don’t blame me, right?”
Yu Jingqiu hesitated a bit and didn’t answer.
Lu Xing didn’t press further and added: “Senior Brother Yu, please tell this Lord White Knight here properly about those things from back then.”
Yu Jingqiu froze for a moment, then took a cautious look at Bai Mo.
He naturally knew that the silver-haired youth before him, like a snow sculpture, was the actual ruler of the empire, and couldn’t help but feel a bit apprehensive: “I, what should I talk about?”
Bai Mo spoke slowly, his voice deep and hoarse: “Anything. As long as it’s related to him, anything is fine.”
Yu Jingqiu naturally knew who “he” was in the other’s mouth. After only a moment’s reflection, he began to recount in a low voice.
“The first time I met A-Cheng was in the teacher’s study…”
As Yu Jingqiu recounted slowly, Bai Mo gradually became deeply absorbed, and even Lu Xing stopped his sharp, cold remarks.
“…A-Cheng was very popular with the girls in the industrial zone, but he had too many things on his plate, busy with random stuff every day, and had no time to deal with those girls. Occasionally one or two particularly enthusiastic girls would come looking, and they were…” Yu Jingqiu couldn’t help but glance at Lu Xing, “and they were sent away by Junior Brother Lu.”
Lu Xing smiled slightly, his expression somewhat distant, as if reminiscing about something: “Actually, you and Senior Brother Lin had seen it long ago, but he didn’t feel it at all… he even thought I was jealous of his popularity and wanted to introduce girls to me.”
Speaking of past events, Lu Xing’s cynical expression melted quite a bit, and even his tight lips relaxed.
Yu Jingqiu said in a low voice: “On your eighteenth birthday, you performed a great feat, and he was exceptionally happy, taking you out for ice cream to celebrate. We all thought you would speak your heart… Senior Brother Lin even made a bet with me.”
Lu Xing shook his head: “I did want to speak. In the end, he didn’t bring any money and forcibly kept me there to wash dishes for the boss for two hours… I was furious and didn’t speak to him for three days. Later, when my anger subsided, I thought if he apologized to me, I would… I would confess to him. In the end, he completely forgot about the matter.”
Yu Jingqiu couldn’t help a light laugh: “That’s just how he is, casual. I still remember his bed was always the messiest, with clothes and socks thrown everywhere. When the teacher said a few words to him, he was still full of arguments, something about great men not sweating the small stuff… The teacher was so angry he punished him by standing in the corner for three hours, and he still wasn’t convinced, muttering all the time. Oh, he even bribed me, trying to get me to help him clean, but Senior Brother Lin heard and he got another scolding.”
Lu Xing laughed: “Right, he was especially afraid of Senior Brother Lin. I still remember one time…”
Bai Mo listened in a daze to the dialogue between the two brothers, his expression going from stunned to extreme bitterness.
Yu Jingqiu sighed: “A-Cheng, though he seems cheerful, open-minded, and casual, actually hid many things in his heart… it really wasn’t easy for him. Lu Xing, I never expected that you would later do such a thing…”
Lu Xing was silent for a long time, then said softly: “In this life, I have failed him.”
He looked up at Bai Mo: “Bai Mo, I know you hate me to the bone… kill me.”
Bai Mo looked down at him and said hoarsely: “I won’t kill you. You treated him like that and slandered him at will… killing you would be too easy for you.”
Lu Xing laughed, though the smile was somewhat bleak: “When I was in prison, he told me that as long as I revealed the truth to you, you wouldn’t kill me… It seems he really knew you well. However, I don’t really want to live much either.”
Bai Mo said coldly: “You want to seek death? You don’t have the right.”
Lu Xing looked at the blue artificial vault outside the window. After a long time, he suddenly said softly: “Then let me go to Earth. Take my mental power, cut away those cerebral cortices that originally didn’t belong to me, and then let me go to Earth… I want to go and see what kind of place it was where he lived for so many years.”
Bai Mo stared at him for a moment and finally nodded lightly.
After Lu Xing and Yu Jingqiu had both left, Bai Mo dazed out for a long time, then slowly walked into the pavilion in the back garden.
It was already evening, and the evening breeze brought bursts of magnolia fragrance.
Bai Mo unconsciously picked up a snowy white magnolia petal from the pavilion’s railing. In the past, he had also picked up such a petal from that person’s shoulder.
Let it be.
The people who hurt you will be temporarily exiled… when you come back, they will be dealt with.
Your empire, your White Rose Palace, and these flowers… I will take good care of them for you.
I’ll wait for you here.
Just, don’t make me wait too long… okay?
At some point, several drops of transparent tears fell onto the pure white magnolia petal with faint “patter” sounds.
The youth blanked for a second.
I… why would I cry?
Before, I was wrong and made you angry.
You said you wanted me to be a good Emperor… I’ll listen to you.
I’ll guard the White Rose Palace well for you, guard the Central Empire, guard your people… until you come back.
When your anger subsides, come back. Okay?
…
In the following months, things became very simple.
The regime of the Central Empire experienced several giant upheavals in succession. Quite a few nobles like Edmund felt their opportunity had come and began to act in secret… The people in the industrial zone, who had long been dissatisfied with the bipolar system, also took to the streets in protest…
For a time, riots broke out across the nine Dyson Clouds, and the building was on the verge of collapse.
At this time, the original Royal Chief Knight, the White Knight Bai Mo, stepped forward and, by his own effort, suppressed all the rebellious factions.
As a Super-S class special-type controller, his means of quelling the rebellion were devoid of any emotion, which could be described as extremely cold and at times even overly cruel, yet very effective.
The empire returned to peace once again.
Several months later, with the tacit consent of Empress Rong Xu and amidst the silence of the knights, nobles, and cabinet elders, on January 1, 2401 AD, this White Knight of a different surname was officially crowned, becoming the new monarch of the Central Empire—known as the “White Emperor.”
This White Emperor—with his sculpture-like handsome face, his iconic silver-gray hair, his ice-like personality and ability, as well as his lowly laboratory background, his solitary and cold personality, even including those secret and forbidden same-sex romantic histories… in the centuries to follow, would be a favorite topic of conversation for later generations, even giving rise to many well-substantiated and ambiguous apocryphal histories.