Chapter 40#
The Innocent and Naive Fool#
Lin Xiaodong had originally intended to squint for a while on the road, but unexpectedly, it took less than half an hour for the flight vehicle to dock on the starship’s hangar.
He looked at the bright and beautiful Central Star floating in the universe behind him and asked with some surprise, “You’re docked right under the noses of the nobles? Is it really okay?”
“That’s exactly the effect we want,” Xu Feng snorted with a smile. “Those bastards let the soldiers rush to the front line to risk their lives for them, while they’re busy with internal strife, each thinking it’s best if we and the mother worm both suffer losses. But now that we’re back, their good days are coming to an end.”
He sighed, “Speaking of which, we have to thank Lu Xing. If he hadn’t killed the King, we wouldn’t have a reason to station troops around the Central Star. Now, if we want to fight, it’s just a word from the Lieutenant General.”
Lin Xiaodong thought silently that this was exactly the effect Lu Xing wanted.
The young man didn’t mind the military benefiting from it. His only purpose in secretly provoking the conflict between the nobles and the military was to completely subvert the entire upper class of the Empire. As for who would come to power afterwards, Lu Xing probably didn’t care at all.
“Where is he now?”
Xu Feng understood: “I’ll take you there, but,” the man paused and looked at the little merman with some concern, “you can’t get close to him, and you absolutely cannot enter the room. Do you hear me?”
The little merman nodded obediently.
The interrogation room was not completely closed. Just like on TV, there was a remote-controlled glass window for people to observe the situation inside the room. Xu Feng pressed the button on the console, and the originally pitch-black glass instantly became completely transparent.
Through the glass, the entire interrogation room could be seen.
There was only an iron bed inside, and Gu Xi was lying on it with his eyes closed.
The man’s upper body was naked. From this angle, one could see that a thin layer of silver-gray hard shell had grown above his spine, running from top to bottom across his entire back.
Looking at the exquisitely fitted structure of each joint connection, Lin Xiaodong momentarily thought it was some kind of man-made bionic machine.
“Damn,” he bit his handkerchief inwardly with envy, “this guy Gu Xi is so lucky, even turning into a bug is so handsome!”
System: “The change in appearance is only one aspect. Now his physical functions far exceed the human peak.”
“Will the mother worm parasitize other hosts?” Lin Xiaodong thought for a moment and asked.
“Probably not,” Xu Feng shook his head. “It doesn’t have more energy to transfer itself.”
“Then why lock him up here?”
Xu Feng sighed: “Because that’s what Lieutenant General Gu requested himself. He’s afraid he’ll be deprived of his sanity by the mother worm and become its puppet.”
“He won’t,” the little merman said seriously. “With me here, he’ll be fine.”
With that, he pressed the button to open the interrogation room door.
“Hey, don’t—”
Lin Xiaodong’s movements were too fast, and Xu Feng didn’t have time to stop him. He could only watch helplessly as he jumped off the chair and ran all the way to the door.
Hearing the movement, Gu Xi in the darkness opened his eyes.
The man propped himself up on the bed, sat up halfway, and stared at the direction where the light was coming in, a trace of faint doubt appearing on his pale face.
He asked in a slightly hoarse voice, “Who?”
“It’s me!”
Gu Xi’s eyes widened, and he was caught off guard as the little merman suddenly jumped on him and pinned him down. He subconsciously reached out to catch Lin Xiaodong. The little merman’s soft and warm body still carried a hint of the scent of sunlight, and thus recklessly crashed into his heart.
“You, how did you…” Gu Xi really couldn’t do anything about Lin Xiaodong. Looking at the foolishly brilliant smile on the little merman’s face, he had to vent all his anger on the adjutant standing helplessly at the door.
“Xu Feng!”
“Lieutenant General, I’m sorry, I’ll go punish myself with three laps right now!”
The adjutant saw that he couldn’t handle the situation and immediately slipped away faster than anyone else.
Gu Xi: “…………”
He had no choice but to patiently persuade Lin Xiaodong: “Be good, go out first. My current state is very dangerous, and I might accidentally hurt you.”
“Why? I think you’re quite normal.” As Lin Xiaodong spoke, he curiously began to touch him, especially the external skeleton that looked like a steel mecha. He couldn’t put it down, “So cool!”
Before seeing the little merman, Gu Xi had imagined countless possible reactions he might have in his heart.
Rejection, disgust, keeping him at a distance… he was prepared for everything.
But none were like this.
Gu Xi even felt like he was still dreaming. He stared unblinkingly at the excited expression on Lin Xiaodong’s face and asked softly:
“You… like this?”
Lin Xiaodong nodded like a chick pecking at rice: “I like it very much!”
The little merman restlessly wiggled his tail in his arms, reaching out to touch the silver-gray hard shell covering the man’s spine behind him, but inadvertently pressed against Gu Xi’s lower body.
Gu Xi gasped on the spot, a cold blue light flashed in his eyes, and he finally couldn’t bear it and pinned the person to the bed.
“Ah hahaha, it tickles… don’t, don’t touch there!”
Lin Xiaodong fell onto the bed, not knowing where he had been touched. For a while, he laughed so hard that he couldn’t even speak a complete sentence.
Gu Xi stared down at the little merman lying beneath him, his temples throbbing because of this grueling little fellow.
“Alright, alright, no more laughing.” Lin Xiaodong laughed for a long time before finally stopping.
He first let the system check the condition of the mother worm in Gu Xi’s body and found that, as the adjutant said, it was indeed in a semi-dormant period. Currently, there were no major problems, but at the same time, it was very difficult to separate it from Gu Xi surgically. They could only use some drugs for conservative treatment, but the effect was not good.
“I won’t let you die.” He propped himself up from the bed and promised the man once again, “Let’s go, come out with me.”
But Lin Xiaodong pulled and dragged for a long time, and Gu Xi still didn’t move.
The little merman also got angry, hands on his hips and scolding him: “Coward! I’m not afraid, what are you afraid of?”
Afraid of losing you, Gu Xi’s lips moved slightly.
“Lieutenant General.”
“Commander!”
Calls came from the door. He looked up and found that it was actually the commanders under him who had come to the interrogation room. They looked at Gu Xi earnestly, and the meaning in their eyes was already clear.
Xu Feng, who had gone to run laps drenched in sweat, had also returned at this time. He took a step forward and said firmly: “Lieutenant General, now we will not obey anyone’s orders except yours!”
“Please give the order!”
Gu Xi took a deep look at them, and his gaze finally fell on Lin Xiaodong again.
The little merman looked at him with eyes full of trust and expectation, just like the water of Lake Garan, clear and deep. Even in a dark room, there was no gloom or fear.
As if he had never changed from beginning to end.
Under repeated persuasion, Gu Xi finally compromised and walked out of that dark and cramped interrogation room.
The adjutant immediately brought him his military uniform, which had been ironed long ago. The man who changed into the uniform was no different from before, with a tall and straight posture and a cold temperament. If one didn’t touch him, it would be impossible to see that an external skeleton was still attached to his back.
Gu Xi quickly flipped through the intelligence sent back from the Central Star, and half an hour later, decisively ordered:
“Deploy the entire fleet and surround the Central Star!”
“Lu Xing, as the Crown Prince, committed insubordination, killed his King and father, and acted against all reason,” he lightly skipped over the fact that the person who actually did it was Lin Xiaodong, and said to the adjutant without hesitation, “The military refuses to recognize his inheritance qualification. From this day forward, we publicly declare war on the royal family!”
“As you command!”
The adjutant and a group of subordinates were so excited that their faces flushed red.
It wasn’t easy, they thought with tears in their eyes. For more than ten years, they finally waited for the Lieutenant General to say these words personally!
But Lin Xiaodong still had a doubt: if they declared war now, what about the Star-Destroying Cannon?
However, looking at the scene of high spirits in the command room, he silently swallowed this sentence back into his stomach.
System: “Do you have any clues about the last Good Person Card?”
Lin Xiaodong really didn’t know who it was with.
He had considered many people: Lulu, the researcher under Lu Xing, even the attendants in the palace. He had tried each one, but unfortunately, he gained nothing.
“Are you sure there are five in every world?” he wondered, “I only see four no matter how I look at it.”
System: “It’s indeed not necessarily five, but there will definitely be more rather than fewer.”
Lin Xiaodong: “…………”
“Forget it, let it be,” in the end, he also took a Buddhist approach, “At most, I’ll stay for a few more years and enjoy the high technology of the interstellar era. By the way, have you contacted the headquarters?”
System: “…………”
Both the person and the system were poked in their sore spots and tacitly decided to skip this topic.
Gu Xi was busy with a battle of wits and courage against the nobles, and Lin Xiaodong couldn’t help, so he simply went back to his room first. He opened the Star Network, and as expected, the internet had completely exploded.
Once the military’s manifesto was issued, the people of the entire universe now knew what good deeds Lu Xing had done. The key was that the official account representing the royal family stood up to publicly deny it, saying the old King just died suddenly, and denounced Gu Xi as the one who was treasonous and intended to rebel.
Both sides stuck to their own stories, completely tearing off their faces.
Anyone with discerning eyes could see that this was a rhythm for war. Other places were fine; planets further away were just eating melons, as either one winning would be the same for them. However, people at the center of the storm were panicked. The entire Central Star fell into a gloomy atmosphere of panic all day long. Especially the nobles who were usually arrogant and domineering were frantically pointing their spears at the culprit who caused all this, Lu Xing.
“You have to give us an explanation!”
“Exactly, if it weren’t for you, Gu Xi wouldn’t have made a move!”
“Kill him! It’ll be fine if we kill him!”
Lu Xing sat on the throne, listening to the bursts of noise coming from outside the palace. He yawned expressionlessly and couldn’t help but let out a contemptuous laugh.
It’s too ridiculous, he thought with a grin.
Do these fools really sincerely believe that if they kill him, Gu Xi will let them off?
“Where are the Imperial Guards?” he picked his ear and asked impatiently, “How long has it been noisy, and they haven’t driven the people away yet?”
An attendant stepped forward cautiously. Although this new Emperor was no longer as moody as the former old King, he was also a monarch with an unpredictable temperament. He whispered: “Your Majesty, the person leading the trouble this time is Earl Lian. He also brought his own private army. The captain of the Imperial Guards dare not fight him in front of the palace gates, fearing that it will be difficult to clean up if it gets out of hand.”
“Earl Lian?” Unexpectedly, Lu Xing immediately perked up when he heard this.
He asked with interest: “He came personally?”
“Yes.”
“That’s just right,” the smile on the light-eyed young man’s face slowly widened, “Tell the Imperial Guards, the nobles outside the palace now, except for Earl Lian whom they should leave half-dead, the others are all to be killed on the spot!”
The attendant’s eyes widened in shock.
“What, didn’t you hear me?” Lu Xing frowned, squinting his eyes at him, “Do I need to say it again?”
“No, no need!” The attendant shook his head in a panic, “I’ll go inform the Imperial Guards right now!”
He stumbled away from that vast and cold palace, but the chill in his heart didn’t dissipate for a long time. As a veteran who served two generations of Kings, the attendant felt from the bottom of his heart that the person sitting on the throne now was not a normal human at all.
He is an out-and-out madman!
Shortly after the attendant left, shrill screams and cries rang out outside the palace. Accompanied by the hair-raising sound, a thin man in a white lab coat hurried in.
“Your Majesty,” he bowed, “the surgery is ready.”
Hearing this, Lu Xing, who was leaning on the armrest and dozing, opened his eyes.
“Ah, Doctor, you’re finally here,” he said cheerfully, “remember to pack it exquisitely when the time comes, hear me? This is a Valentine’s Day gift I’m giving to the Little Prince.”
the lab coat straightened up, and calmly pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose. A cold light flashed in his eyes hidden behind the lenses.
“Understood, Your Majesty.”