On the other end of the call were Qin Zhen’s squad members.
The squad cared deeply about their captain, gathering every few days for a video call. These past few days, Qin Zhen’s morning sickness had been severe. Fearing they would worry, he had switched to sending text messages to report that he was safe. Today, the nausea had finally subsided, so when a squad member called, he picked up.
At first, seeing Qin Zhen eating with a face full of grease, they praised his appetite. Then, the observant Xiao Hua noticed the dark circles under Qin Zhen’s eyes and that he looked a bit thinner, so she began to probe for details indirectly.
Qin Zhen knew these brothers too well; not telling the truth would only make them worry more. Somewhat embarrassed, he informed them about the morning sickness.
He had originally thought that morning sickness, like the gestational sac itself, only damaged his dignity as a man but would be a common sight to these interstellar locals. After all, they were all war beast enthusiasts who frequented various forums. Even if they had not experienced it personally, they must have seen it happen to others.
Unexpectedly, the faces on the screen exchanged looks, and their expressions turned strange. Jiang Chang was the first to lose his restraint, letting out a laugh to tease him. “Captain, are you carrying a war beast or a baby? Hahaha! Captain, you do not actually like men, do you?”
Joking was one thing, but as he spoke, those shifty eyes looking at Qin Zhen shimmered with a mix of surprise and gossip. Qin Zhen was instantly ignited by that look. He slammed his chopsticks down and slapped the table hard.
“Who likes men? Tell me, who the hell said I like men? Every single day, which bastard is spreading these rumors?”
The teammates went as silent as cicadas in winter. After the atmosphere froze for a few seconds, Jiang Chang’s lips twitched. Xiao Hua secretly stomped on his foot, making him grimace in pain.
“Captain, do not listen to Jiang Chang’s nonsense. His mouth never has a serious moment; he cracks jokes all day long.”
“I, I am joking?” Jiang Chang began.
Just as Jiang Chang was about to defend himself, he took an elbow from Xiao Hua. Simultaneously, Xiao Hua delivered a kick that sent him flying several meters away, turning his face away from the camera’s view, and signaled to Lao Pan. Lao Pan nodded, grabbed Jiang Chang’s left ankle, and silently but decisively dragged him out the door.
“A joke?” Qin Zhen could not see any of this, but he was suspicious. “That is too much of a coincidence.”
Jia Yuzhe heard him, his eyes flickering. “Captain, what is a coincidence?”
“Nothing, nothing. I am hanging up; I have to go to prenatal class. Take care of yourselves while I am gone. Do not take missions that are too dangerous, and do not be impulsive if you get bullied. Wait for me to get back, and we will settle the score together.”
After the usual exhortations, he hung up. Qin Zhen stared at the communicator, still pondering. It was one thing for Ni Hong to mysteriously claim he liked men, but why did that brat Jiang Chang say it for no reason too? It was simply incomprehensible. As a man who had been single for thirty years and was straight to the core, how could he possibly like men?
The more Qin Zhen thought about it, the angrier he got. He picked up his chopsticks and stuffed a large piece of beef into his mouth. After just two chews, his facial muscles froze.
“Urgh!”
The door was immediately pushed open. Ni Hong frantically rolled his wheelchair inside. “Brother Qin, why are you vomiting again? Did it not just get better for a bit? Lu Yanqiu, please take a look! Brother Qin is vomiting again! Did you not say the relief would last two or three days?”
Qin Zhen clutched his lunch box, vomiting as if the world were ending. Just as one wave ended and before the next began, he grabbed Ni Hong’s arm with tear-filled eyes.
“Teacher, help me find Teacher.”
As soon as his body feels bad, he wants to see the Teacher, and he still says he does not like men? Ni Hong could not help but think.
On a distant colonial planet, it was night. Inside an inconspicuous soldier’s dormitory, the four young soldiers’ long and meticulous discussion finally reached its conclusion.
“The matter of the central officer coming down to investigate must not be told to the Captain. We discovered this investigation by accident. The officer wants to investigate Brother Qin but is deliberately avoiding us, which shows this investigation is a secret. Right now, the Captain is at the Breeding Center, and the Breeding Center is in the Central Star District. If he finds out, and in turn lets the officer know he knows, no matter the purpose of the investigation, it will not be good for the Captain or for us. Does anyone disagree with this judgment?”
Four flashlights illuminated four pale faces from below. Xiao Hua scanned the other three faces, and no one objected.
“I agree with this judgment, but,” Jia Yuzhe, always the deep thinker, hesitated, “what if the purpose of this investigation is harmful to the Captain? If we choose to hide it, are we not just standing by while he suffers?”
“No,” Xiao Hua dismissed his concern. “The military bans sexual harassment, but it does not ban free romance. Think about it. Under what circumstances would the higher-ups specifically come to investigate the Captain’s relationship history? And the focus is on whether the Captain frequently stays in other male soldiers’ dormitories or is close to any male soldier. These questions have already exceeded the scope of a relationship history. It is more like investigating whether the Captain is clean.”
“Xiao Hua, you are smart. You have already thought of the answer, have you not?” Lao Pan asked.
“Yes.” The flashlight beam was too pale, masking the disappointment in Xiao Hua’s expression. “I think the Captain might have been scouted by a high-ranking official of the Central Army.”
“Scouted? You mean that kind of scouted?”
“Yes, and the other party is a male officer.”
“No way! Who?”
“A male, high-ranking officer in the Central Star District. Adding those conditions together, have you still not thought of it?”
The three looked at each other and shook their heads.
“Do you not remember who Brother Qin said his childcare specialist is?”
“The Supreme Commander? How is that possible?”
“Since the start of the Beast Empire’s New Era, the entire Empire has been focused on what kind of person is qualified to be the Supreme Commander’s spouse. Noble birth, peerless grace, intelligent and poised; people have argued incessantly over these conditions, thinking that given the Supreme Commander’s status, he would not value them at all. But there is only one condition everyone agrees on.”
Xiao Hua paused. “That is that the relationship history must be blank, the body must be clean, and they must be able to bear the Commander’s successor for the Empire. Is the central officer’s investigation not targeting exactly these criteria?”
“But does the war beast not eat the gestational sac? Once the Captain gives birth to the war beast, the sac will be gone. How could he have children then?”
“It might be impossible for an ordinary person, but the Supreme Commander holds the Military Research Institute in his hands. Nothing is impossible.”
After the shock passed, the entire dormitory fell into silence. After a long while, Lao Pan said solemnly, “If it is the Supreme Commander, I agree.”
Jia Yuzhe glanced at him. “I agree too.”
Xiao Hua’s head was lowered, her expression unreadable, but upon hearing this, she nodded in agreement as well. Only Jiang Chang cried out, “Do not! What use is your agreement? The Captain has to agree! The Supreme Commander is a man, and the Captain does not like men!”
Three flashlights simultaneously shone on his face, making him squint. Poor Jiang Chang had been hanging upside down from the ceiling for hours, and his face was flushed with blood.
“He is the Supreme Commander who assists three generations of kings, second only to one and above tens of thousands. He is the Evergreen Tree of the Empire who possesses the galaxy’s strongest war beast, the Sky-Piercing Python. The Captain has no reason to refuse, and even more so, no right to refuse.”
Lao Pan tapped Jiang Chang’s face with a flashlight. “When you have thought it through and can control your mouth, we will let you down.”
The button was pressed, and white light flowed through the small patterns of the Imperial emblem on the ring’s surface. For the first time since he received it, the voice-card ring was being put to use.
However, this voice card, which could cover the entire Central Star District, did not bring back the Supreme Commander. The other end was silent. It seemed no one received Ni Hong’s distress signal.
Ni Hong did not give up, calling continuously for an hour. During this time, Lu Yanqiu urgently requested the Director’s permission to bring her own war beast in to stop Qin Zhen’s vomiting, but it was to no avail. The only hope remained the strongest war beast, the White Python, or its master.
Ni Hong said unwillingly, “Brother Qin, give me your ring. I will try again.”
Qin Zhen held down the ring on his ring finger and refused. The beef he had just eaten was entirely gone, but the nausea remained. He was still dry-heaving, but after suffering for so long, his threshold for pain had naturally increased. He had regained some of his composure.
To put it plainly, the voice card was just a walkie-talkie. Since Ni Hong was right beside him, what was the difference between Ni Hong calling or him calling? The Teacher had not responded to Ni Hong, so he would not respond to him either.
There were many reasons for the lack of response. Maybe he was busy, or maybe because the voice card was used so rarely, the Teacher did not have it on him. After all, he was the Supreme Commander, responsible for the safety of the entire Empire. How could he be at someone’s beck and call?
However, Qin Zhen realized there was another more likely reason: a test. Whether the one who could stop the vomiting was the Teacher or the White Python, they were both brought by the Teacher. If stopping the vomiting were truly necessary, why did the Teacher not help immediately? Why did he wait until Lu Yanqiu spoke before reluctantly stepping in?
In the Teacher’s eyes, stopping the vomiting was not mandatory. Therefore, this lack of response was more like a silent test, a test of whether his will was strong enough and how much pain he could endure to become stronger. When Heaven is about to confer a great responsibility on a person, it must first exercise his mind and fatigue his bones. This was one of the tests he had to endure on his path to becoming a protagonist.
Yes, that must be it.
“Little Ni, go back. You need to rest too. Go back and sleep. I am fine now.”
Qin Zhen forced down the rising nausea. He then looked at Lu Yanqiu. “Lu Yanqiu, you should go too. You are a doctor and have your own students to look after. Do not waste too much time on me.”
“But,” Lu Yanqiu started.
Looking at his face, which was both pale and flushed with a sickly glow, and his eyes, which were wet and red from vomiting, neither of them felt at ease.
“No buts. I want to sleep for a bit. I cannot sleep with you here.”
Qin Zhen firmly pushed them out, his steps steady. He even forced a big smile. However, as soon as the door closed, he slid down the door panel to the floor, his hands tightly covering his mouth. Physiological tears brought on by the suffering swirled in his eyes.
Gestating a war beast was truly hard work! He had not even started showing yet, and it had already taken half his life.
A test was a test, but Qin Zhen was no brute. He was not stupid enough to rely solely on willpower. Often, solving a problem required brains. He leaned against the wall and walked into the bathroom, turning the faucet to the maximum and bringing his nose close.
The smell of water vapor! The water resources at the Breeding Center were already the cleanest and clearest in the Empire, but it did not smell concentrated or fresh enough to provide even a hint of relief. Qin Zhen wanted to step directly into the shower and let the water completely envelop him. But he could not; he still had a fever. Doing so would only make things worse.
Maybe it was because there was not enough water vapor. He thought to himself and began to circle the room. Foot-soaking tub, trash can, tooth mug, flower vase, pen holder; every container that could hold water was brought out, filled to the brim, and scattered around the room.
Still not enough. He then took all his unused clothes and every bath towel and soaked them, spreading them everywhere. The area around the bed, in particular, was tightly surrounded.
Drip, drip, drip. These wet items did not make the smell of water vapor in the air much stronger, but they did soak the floor. Puddles of water gradually spread, connecting to each other, finally forming a stream that slowly spread toward the door.
In the corridor, Ni Hong and Lu Yanqiu had not left. Lu Yanqiu was the first to notice the water seeping out from under the door. Not knowing what was happening inside, she wanted to knock, but Ni Hong stopped her.
“Brother Qin is probably crying a river,” his eyes were also red. “Anyone would be heartbroken, sad, and aggrieved when ignored by the person they like.”
“Are you saying these are Qin Zhen’s tears? That is a bit of an exaggeration.”
Lu Yanqiu could not stop worrying, so she took out her communicator and contacted Qin Zhen. Fortunately, he picked up quickly. The attempt to create the smell of water vapor had failed, and Qin Zhen was rolling on the bed in agony. The sudden sound of the communicator gave him a flash of inspiration, and he thought of a second method.
“Lu Yanqiu, I am fine, really fine. I am exhausted and going to sleep now!”
He hung up hurriedly, opened his photo album, and entered his private folder. He randomly opened a high-definition image and stared at it for a few seconds. Then, he brought the screen close to the tip of his nose, closed his eyes, and with great anticipation, as if tasting the finest delicacy, he took a deep, deep breath.