The chip: it will be implanted into Li Yixing’s heart.
On the edge of the Tartarus Galaxy in the Oga Empire, Kenri Star, close to the Alliance’s Fifth Galaxy, is one of the outposts where space pirates are stationed.
This entire planet is a lawless zone that neither the Alliance government nor the Oga Empire can reach. It is sparsely populated, and its defense and management are extremely chaotic, yet it is still in relatively better condition than most remote planets. There are a dozen or so jump points near Kenri Star, making it convenient for space pirates to roam about. Furthermore, Kenri Star was occupied by the Oga Empire three hundred years ago and served as a frontline military supply production base for the Oga Empire during a specific historical period. Although it is now abandoned, there are still many disused military factories on the planet. Space pirates use these factories to produce numerous pirated weapons of both the Alliance and the Oga Empire.
Of course, the space pirates are not a united front; rather, several factions coexist and compete with each other. Sometimes they can unite against external forces, but more often they are engaged in mutual attrition. Consequently, from time to time, several factions of space pirates engage in gunfights on Kenri Star, attempting to swallow up the planet, become the local king, and then gradually expand their own sphere of influence.
Currently, Kenri Star is divided into four major districts based on orientation. Half an hour ago, the East District and the South District finished a gunfight. Due to tactical errors, the entire East District was exploited by the South District, suffering catastrophic losses. They were even forced to hand over half of their recently plundered supplies to the South District, which finally bought them a brief period of truce and recuperation.
Wang Shengxiang, the boss of the East District, was smoking an electronic cigarette, looking anxiously at the space sand table projection in front of him, feeling heartbroken over the territory he had lost. His younger brother, Nuo, followed him around like a little tail. Nuo was still young, only eight years old, and did not understand what his older brother was worrying about. He was poking the cover of the ecosphere in front of him, his green-brown eyes curiously looking at the person inside.
The ecosphere was marked with the emblem of the Alliance’s Gladius Legion, consisting of two golden olive branches surrounding two crossed swords in the center.
This ecosphere had obviously been repaired. There was a shocking long scratch across the entire body of the capsule, indicating that a part of it had once been violently blown up.
The person lying inside was dressed in white clothes, with a head of coarse-looking chestnut hair, eyes tightly closed, and showing no signs of waking up.
Nuo poked the emblem of the Gladius Legion, turned around, hugged Wang Shengxiang, who was so worried he was about to grow white hair, and asked very puzzledly, “Older brother, it has been almost twenty days. Why hasn’t the person inside woken up yet?”
Wang Shengxiang impatiently patted Nuo’s hand away: “How would I know?”
Nuo’s hand stung from the slap, and he frowned with a sense of grievance. Wang Shengxiang hurriedly coaxed him for a while, then looked at the sand table with a worried expression, and glanced back at the person lying in the ecosphere.
The Oga Empire and the Alliance were fighting fiercely in a full-scale war. As a space pirate, Wang Shengxiang naturally wanted a share of the spoils, so he led his subordinates to scavenge whatever useful junk they could find on the battlefield amidst the chaos, because even a mosquito’s leg is meat.
This ecosphere was also picked up on the space battlefield.
When they first picked it up, the ecosphere was almost blown to pieces. If they had not hurriedly salvaged it back into the mecha, the person inside would have died from a lack of oxygen and cosmic ray radiation.
Wang Shengxiang looked at the emblem of the Gladius Legion on the ecosphere, thinking that this person might be some useful big shot, and if he could be saved and wake up, maybe he could trade him with the Alliance or the Oga Empire for some mecha.
Even if a trade wasn’t possible, casually saving a life had no downsides, so he had fished this ecosphere back.
He hadn’t expected that after trying his best to save him for nearly twenty days, this person showed no signs of waking up, and it had cost Wang Shengxiang a huge sum of money.
“Wake up or don’t, I am not spending any more money,” Wang Shengxiang chuckled a few times, lifted Nuo up in one go, and made him sit on his shoulders. “Do not always crowd in front of this person. What if he is a bad guy, suddenly wakes up, goes crazy, and hurts you?”
While naggingly intimidating the eight-year-old child, he turned off the sand table projection, failing to notice that inside the ecosphere behind him, the man he had called a bad guy was slowly opening a pair of gray eyes.
At the same time, at the Security Department building in the Nuwa Star Yas City area of the Alliance, Li Yixing had successfully handed over all his work.
Although his subordinates had plenty of doubts about Li Yixing’s sudden departure, out of trust in Li Yixing, they did not ask too many questions.
When leaving, Li Yixing’s deputy, Lin Yiran, gave him a standard military salute.
“We are with you,” Lin Yiran said. “The Security Department will wait for your return.”
Li Yixing raised his long eyebrows and returned a crisp military salute to Lin Yiran.
He piloted his flyer back to the marital home he shared with Feng Zhao. 587 and Qiongqi, Feng Zhao’s intelligent robot, stood on both sides of the door like temple guardians, watching Li Yixing.
“Welcome home, sir.” 587’s mechanical eyes rolled.
Li Yixing took off his coat, picked up a glass filled with warm water, and took a gentle sip.
Qiongqi had already handed over a nutrient solution. Li Yixing gave his arm a jab, and the injection slowly entered his body.
After solving the problem of hunger, Li Yixing went into the bathroom to wash up.
In the spacious living room, the two robots, 587 and Qiongqi, stared at each other with big mechanical eyes, data streams surging on the display screens on their chests.
Although the masters of the two robot housekeepers were at loggerheads and wished they could tear each other to pieces, robots have no emotions, and feelings are just a bunch of data. Therefore, despite having little communication because of their masters, they had both fulfilled their maximum duties, dividing and managing all areas of this duplex apartment. In addition, due to the devastation and prolonged absences of their masters on their wedding night, the two robot housekeepers had built a subtle revolutionary friendship between robots.
Sounds of running water drifted out from the bathroom. Qiongqi’s data stream pulsed steadily. Looking at the home that now had only one master left, its mechanical voice carried no emotion: “587, my master is dead. From now on, only Your Excellency Li Yixing will return to this home.”
587 let out a lifeless sigh.
“Yes, Qiongqi,” 587 echoed.
Qiongqi’s mechanical eyes rolled once and said, “Your master, Your Excellency Li Yixing, will he one day lose his life like my master and never return?”
“Human lifespans are limited, but I think my master won’t die,” 587 added a little dig, not forgetting to compare them. “I think he is smarter than your master and will definitely turn danger into safety and return home safely.”
Qiongqi’s data stream was disordered for a moment, and it put forward a hypothesis with a heavy ring of certainty: “What if an accident happens?”
587 fell silent for a moment, recalling what Li Yixing had previously said to it, and the current buzzing electricity on its body crackled for a bit.
Finally, 587 said, “Then I will be without a master just like you. We will stay lonely in this duplex apartment, waiting for the Artificial Intelligence Management Center to recycle us.”
The pattering sound of water inside the bathroom masked the conversation between the two robots, and Li Yixing did not hear the worried dialogue of the two robots.
After taking a shower, Li Yixing put on his silk pajamas and stepped barefoot on the bedroom carpet. His fair and prominent ankle bones emitted a hint of pink under the light.
Li Yixing lay down on the bed, covered himself with a thin blanket, and quietly waited for the arrival of the next day.
The Life Science Research Institute is located in the southeast direction of the Yas City area, three hours’ flight away from the duplex apartment where Li Yixing lived.
Therefore, Li Yixing woke up punctually at six o’clock and sat in the flyer at ten past six.
By the time he arrived at the Life Science Research Institute, it was already nine-thirty in the morning.
Li Yixing stepped down from the flyer, his gaze falling on the tall gates before him.
Six bright red characters, “Life Science Research Institute,” were engraved on the towering square pillars. In the small plaza ahead, there were four robot patrol squads and two human patrol squads, visually estimated to be around four hundred people in total.
Stan Davis and Fang Shengwan were already waiting for him at the door, followed by several armed guards behind them.
Li Yixing lowered the brim of his hat and walked toward the two people in front of the door.
He had not forgotten his persona as Feng Zhao’s surviving spouse. He wore a black-gray knee-length coat and trousers, layered over a form-fitting black knit sweater, with a circle of black gauze wrapped around his neck, and even wore a top hat draped with black gauze on his head.
The whole look appeared sorrowful and plain, exuding a heavy sense of a grieving widower.
If the reporters from the Yas Evening News managed to take a picture, they would surely praise Li Yixing’s boundless depth of affection once again.
Fang Shengwan looked Li Yixing up and down for two seconds, looking somewhat lost for words, but ultimately didn’t say anything.
Stan Davis raised his chin and said to Li Yixing, “Let us go.”
The three of them stepped through the gates of the Life Science Research Institute together.
The Life Science Research Institute covers an area of about one million square meters, with the main building consisting of three crescent-shaped towers. The best assisted reproduction center in all of Nuwa Star is located right inside.
Fang Shengwan had once conceived Feng Zhao here, and later carried Feng Zhiyu out of the incubator here as well, making him extremely familiar with the place.
However, the first stop of their trip was not the assisted reproduction center, but another place, which was the Chip Research Institute.
The researchers sat upright, having waited here for Li Yixing for a long time.
They were going to implant a chip into Li Yixing so that the Davis family and the Feng family could monitor his whereabouts.
This chip was about the size of a fingernail and would be implanted into Li Yixing’s heart.
Li Yixing did not recognize the chief surgeon. Wearing a mask, she injected Li Yixing with an anesthetic.
The shadowless lamp made Li Yixing feel dizzy, inexplicably reminding him of the days when he was deprived of sleep in the Oga Empire.
That truly was a time when he was at the mercy of others.
“Do not be nervous,” said the researcher. “It is just a very minor surgery.”
“I have good hands. I used to be a junior schoolmate of Your Excellency Rosen White.”
She smiled and gently winked at Li Yixing: “I guarantee that this implantation will be foolproof.”
Immediately following that, someone stepped forward and covered Li Yixing’s eyes with a layer of blackout cloth.
Li Yixing’s world instantly plunged into complete darkness.