Chapter 47#

The Innocent and Naive Fool#

After returning from the Rosette Nebula, Lin Xiaodong’s life suddenly became busy.

He began to broadcast for one to two hours a day according to the military’s arrangements, soothing the people who had fallen into a whirlpool of emotions after being parasitized by brainworms, and also recorded many online songs as a small contribution.

Although besides being pleasant to listen to, these online songs played almost zero role in treatment…

Time passed day by day like this.

The situation on the Central Star gradually stabilized. The Imperial Council, which had originally revered the royal family, gradually transitioned into a Federal Parliament. The words “King” and “noble” gradually disappeared from the public’s mouth, replaced by keywords like “Marshal” and “Speaker.”

Not long ago, Gu Xi had officially taken the position of Marshal of the Federation.

Incidentally, the current Speaker was Xu Feng’s wife, Lulu.

When she was still the eldest Princess of the Empire, Lulu’s reputation had always been very good. When she was expelled from the royal family, many people had even spontaneously taken to the streets to petition for her.

But now she had completely shed her noble status. After marrying Xu Feng, Lulu could be said to have completely abandoned her past.

Having just given birth to twins and not even having finished her postpartum confinement month, she directly contacted her past connections to establish a post-war reconstruction foundation and adopted over a thousand orphans left homeless because of brainworms, instantly becoming famous on the Central Star.

Because she was too busy with work and had no time to look after the children, she had even once charged into Gu Xi’s office and slammed the table, demanding that Xu Feng take annual leave to go home and nurse the children. Regarding this, the entire military had to admire this lady’s iron-blooded methods—

You have to know, besides Lin Xiaodong, she was the first person able to talk Gu Xi into changing his mind!

Seeing this, Gu Xi simply went with the flow and helped her promote a bit. With such interactions, the title of the first Speaker naturally fell to her.

“I can be considered to have brought honor to my ancestors,” Xu Feng sighed, laughing as he spoke. “Marrying such a powerful wife, she even said a couple of days ago that I should find a chance to resign from you and retire, to focus on being a full-time stay-at-home dad.”

Gu Xi hooked his lips: “And what do you think?”

“Actually, I’m not that opposed. After all, Lulu is indeed much busier than me. Between a couple, one always has to sacrifice more.” Xu Feng thought for a moment and said, “But somehow… it feels a bit unimaginable.”

“Unimaginable what?”

“Just the life of staying at home every day to take care of kids.” Xu Feng gave a forced laugh. “I have, after all, seen the world following you.”

Gu Xi indeed agreed with this point. If Xu Feng didn’t lack ambition and wasn’t too lazy to bicker with those old fellows in the military, he should have long since set up his own house, and his military rank would at least be a Lieutenant General.

“By the way,” Xu Feng suddenly asked, “why haven’t I seen Xiaodong lately?”

Gu Xi paused for a second and answered him: “He’s been sick these past two days, so I let him rest well at home.”

“I see…”

Xu Feng was still thinking about visiting Lin Xiaodong with Lulu another day, but didn’t notice that when Gu Xi spoke, his expression flickered with an unnatural moment.

After parting with Xu Feng, Gu Xi looked down at his watch.

There were still forty minutes until the end of work.

Seeing this, he simply ordered the orderly to prepare the flight vehicle, intending to leave work early.

Back home, as expected, the living room and kitchen were all silent and dark.

Gu Xi silently turned on the lights, changed into slippers, and walked to the bedroom door, taking a look inside.

No one.

So he turned back towards the bathroom; the light was on.

The little merman was quietly leaning in the bathtub filled with water, his eyes closed as if he were in a deep sleep, but the calm surface of the water showed not the slightest ripple.

For some reason, Gu Xi’s breathing skipped a beat.

He pursed his lips tightly, accelerated his pace to walk to Lin Xiaodong’s side, and gently touched the little merman’s cheek. The warm sensation instantly made his heart relax. “Why didn’t you go sleep in bed?”

“Mmm…?”

Hearing the sound, Lin Xiaodong struggled a bit to lift his eyelids, looking up at him in a daze.

“You’re back.” He gave a large yawn, naturally stretching out his hands towards Gu Xi. “Hug.”

Gu Xi looked at him helplessly, but ultimately compromised.

The feeling of holding the half-soaked little merman in his arms wasn’t great, but he still patiently and meticulously used a bath towel to dry that silver-white tail, which for some reason had been looking increasingly dull lately, and then carried Lin Xiaodong to the bed in the bedroom.

Before he could even put him down, the little merman had fallen asleep again on his shoulder.

Gu Xi stared at that lotus-white arm hanging in mid-air and swaying, his brow uncontrollably furrowing.

He naturally knew that Lin Xiaodong’s current lethargic state was very wrong. He had brought many expert doctors to see him before, but the merman’s body was a completely unknown field to them. Moreover, there had been no signs before; Lin Xiaodong had just mysteriously weakened day by day… Gu Xi’s mood had been increasingly gloomy lately for this very reason.

It wasn’t until around nine in the evening that Lin Xiaodong finally woke up.

System: “Congratulations, you’ve set another record.”

Lin Xiaodong rubbed his eyes, which were nearly swollen from sleep, and asked blankly: “What record?”

“The record for staying awake no more than five hours in a day.” System said.

Lin Xiaodong: “…………”

He decided to interpret this sentence as the System being jealous that he ate well and slept well.

“But seriously,” he said solemnly, “is my state related to the Merman Star that was destroyed before?”

System said: “There’s an eighty percent chance, yes.”

“As expected,” Lin Xiaodong murmured to himself, “But Gu Xi still hasn’t told me the truth yet. Is he really planning to keep it from me forever?”

But that was clearly impossible.

He walked out of the bedroom and saw the man sitting on the sofa in the living room, intently leafing through large volumes that appeared obscure and difficult to understand. Lin Xiaodong took a quick glance and found they were mostly about merman legends and records.

“What are you looking for?” he couldn’t help but ask.

Gu Xi’s movement paused, and he turned his head quickly: “You’re awake?”

“Hmm,” Lin Xiaodong walked over, staring at the table full of books and asked again, “What are you looking for?”

“Nothing, just occasionally curious and flipping through for fun.” Gu Xi smiled, closing the book in his hand as if nothing was wrong. “Let me make you some noodles. You haven’t eaten all day.”

Ignoring the little merman’s gaze fixed on him, he rose and left the living room.

But the smile on the man’s face disappeared without a trace the moment his back was turned to Lin Xiaodong.

It’s impossible to find, he thought.

Gu Xi’s mood became uncontrollably irritable. He had been studying Lin Xiaodong’s condition for nearly half a month and had even specifically set up a research group for it, but no matter what records they looked at, there was nothing relevant. Even if there was, they were mostly ephemeral legends and fabrications.

Humanity’s understanding of the merman race was laughably shallow.

Feeling the mother worm in his body, which had been quiet for many days, seemed to have a tendency to make a comeback, Gu Xi, standing before the stove cutting tomatoes, took a deep breath and steadied himself. He pushed the glaring bright red from the battlefield in his memory to the back of his mind and lowered his head, silently continuing his actions.

If it really doesn’t work…

Then he could only go find that person.

“I knew you would come find me again.”

In the bright enclosed room, Lu Xing “looked” at the man standing before him with a beaming smile, speaking in a brisk voice.

“Since you know why I’m here, then let’s be straightforward,” Gu Xi said indifferently. “Tell me everything you know about the mermaids.”

“Are you commanding me?” Lu Xing sat upright in his chair, tilting his head. “But look at me now, I have nothing left. A person with nothing has nothing to fear. What else is there to worry about?”

Gu Xi’s gaze darkened.

“What do you want?”

“I want… hmm, let me think,” Lu Xing lowered his head and took a sip of the hot tea beside him, the smile on his face deepening. “Wealth? I don’t care for it. Power? I’ve already had it. Freedom? It sounds enticing, but for me, it doesn’t seem that important.”

He lowered his eyes and feigned contemplation for a moment, then looked up, smiling at Gu Xi: “As I thought, I still want to see him one more time, alone.”

“Impossible.” Gu Xi refused flatly, his voice cold and hard. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Then we have nothing left to talk about.” Lu Xing raised an eyebrow. “I won’t see you out.”

Gu Xi stood on the spot, his gaze as cold as if it were frosted over.

Lu Xing met his gaze. The natural suppression of the mother worm over the brainworms made the young man’s already pale face turn even whiter, and a thin layer of cold sweat uncontrollably broke out on his forehead.

But he still bit his molars hard, not letting out a single sound. Instead, he hooked his lips into a smile at the man before him in a provocative way, as if wordlessly mocking Gu Xi’s helplessness.

“Marshal, please don’t…”

The attendant nearby walked over tremblingly and said.

Although Lu Xing had been rescued and had been recuperating for a period, his status was, after all, the former Crown Prince of the Empire. The slightest oversight could trigger a public opinion disaster. Thus, they could neither let him die nor let him live as freely as before. He had an attendant looking after him at all times, which on the surface was for care and consideration, but in reality was for surveillance—something that everyone in the military tacitly allowed.

The winner takes all, and it was no more than that.

After being stopped by the attendant, only then did Gu Xi withdraw his gaze.

He glanced at Lu Xing with a look devoid of any emotion, said nothing, and turned and left directly.

Once the man had left, only then did Lu Xing’s tense body relax.

The young man slowly exhaled a breath of foul air.

Until now, his hand resting on the table was still trembling slightly.

Although he had lost the upper hand in the confrontation, Lu Xing still firmly believed that Gu Xi would definitely agree to his conditions.

Because he had no choice.

However, despite Lu Xing being mentally prepared, when he heard Lin Xiaodong’s voice ring out in his ears again, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of complex emotion in his heart.

It could probably be called… “joy.”

“Long time no see.” The little merman said. “What’s wrong with your eyes? Can you not see?”

“Hmm.” Lu Xing answered gently. “But it’s okay. Some things are better left unseen.”

He let out a sigh, saying with some regret: “It’s just a pity that I can no longer see how you look when you smile.”

Lin Xiaodong thought this guy is still so restless even while blind, with one sweet word after another. No wonder he charmed the inexperienced Noah so thoroughly back then.

He hadn’t intended to come, but Lu Xing had a Good Person Card fragment here. To complete the mission, Lin Xiaodong could only endure it for a bit.

“You’ve lost so much weight,” his voice carried a hint of concern. “Are they not letting you eat well?”

Lu Xing suddenly burst into laughter.

“That’s not the case. Gu Xi isn’t so low as to mistreat a prisoner,” he made a joke. “But as you know, I’m a blind person now. Even if I’m hungry, I can’t find food. I can only wait until mealtime to fill my stomach.”

After he finished speaking, Lin Xiaodong suddenly went silent.

Lu Xing was a bit confused. He heard a rustling sound coming from in front of him. Before he could even ask what was wrong, the little merman suddenly grabbed his hand and placed a small object in his palm.

Lu Xing felt it; it seemed to be a lollipop?

“This is my favorite flavor. I couldn’t bear to eat it.” In the darkness, that soft voice said to him, “If you’re really hungry, then use this to tie you over.”

The young man was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head, slowly clenching the candy in his hand.

“The things I did to you before,” he whispered, “do you really… not hate me even a little bit?”

Lin Xiaodong first shook his head, then quickly remembered Lu Xing couldn’t see, and spoke up: “I don’t hate you.”

“…Why?”

Lu Xing truly couldn’t understand the merman’s way of thinking.

If he had suffered such betrayal, he would definitely spare no cost to retaliate, to let that person also taste the flavor of being failed, deceived, and having their sincere heart trampled upon.

But why was it that Lin Xiaodong, from beginning to end, had never been disappointed in this world besides being sad?

“The Queen told me everything about your past.” The little merman said in a low voice. “Although you’re a liar and those nobles are all bad people, you’ve already been punished. And the person who truly should hate you is not me.”

“He never once forgave you. I think that’s probably retribution.”

Lu Xing’s Adam’s apple rolled up and down.

“You’re right,” after a long while, he only answered in a raspy voice, “it is indeed retribution. My retribution.”

“Ding, Good Person Card +1.”

Lin Xiaodong smiled with satisfaction.

As if feeling his words had been a bit harsh, the little merman also apologized to him very embarrassedly, though his tone was somewhat more casual than before: “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I made you sad, didn’t I?”

Lu Xing remained silent and shook his head.

He fumbled and slowly unwrapped the lollipop in his hand, putting it into his mouth.

Seeing the young man’s suddenly contorted expression, the System couldn’t help but ask: “What flavor did you actually give him?”

“Cucumber durian flavor,” Lin Xiaodong hummed, taking it for granted, “not even a dog would eat it.”

System: “…………”

You’re the ruthless one.