Feng Zhao’s mind was an absolute mess, completely filled to the brim with the five words “Li Yixing is pregnant.” He couldn’t even bear to look at the holographic sandbox projection in front of him.
Half a month ago, he had woken up in this old, rundown villa in the eastern district of Kenli Star, only to discover that he had somehow ended up in the lair of space pirates.
The leader of this gang of space pirates was named Wang Shengxiang. Upon seeing that he had woken up, Wang Shengxiang was so excited that he became incoherent, shouting orders left and right and declaring that he wanted to contact the Alliance or the Oga Empire to trade him for some valuable mecha.
Feng Zhao quickly pieced together the current situation from the fragmentary words of the people around him. The war between the Alliance and the Oga Empire was nearing its end, and both sides had dispatched ambassadors to conduct peace talks, with a ceasefire agreement set to be signed in a matter of days. As for his current whereabouts, Kenli Star was one of the strongholds of the space pirates. The man spitting flying foam in front of him, who had a seven- or eight-year-old child riding on his shoulders, was the gang leader himself, and he was absolutely furious after suffering a crushing defeat in a turf war against other pirate factions.
Handing himself over to the Oga Empire was out of the question, and sending him back to the Alliance was also impossible.
There were internal problems within the Alliance. If not for a traitor, according to the original plan, the Fuxi battleship would never have suddenly malfunctioned and become completely surrounded by the Oga Empire’s fleet.
The Oga Empire had originally intended to capture him alive. However, after he initiated the self-destruct sequence and rammed toward their flagship in a desperate attempt to drag them down with him, the Oga Empire panicked so badly that they hastily fired six consecutive high-energy particle cannons, blowing the Fuxi to pieces midway.
As for the video message left for Li Yixing, although Feng Zhao and Li Yixing were at each other’s throats, Feng Zhao knew that Li Yixing was absolutely loyal to the Alliance. Moreover, Li Yixing was undoubtedly the smartest person in his circle, and belonging to the Security Department meant it was professionally relevant. Leaving the mess in his hands was simply the most appropriate choice.
He had managed to escape alive from the Fuxi with the utmost difficulty, and until he figured out what was wrong with the Alliance, he would never go back there to walk straight into a death trap.
Therefore, Feng Zhao used every ounce of persuasion to make Wang Shengxiang abandon that idea, claiming that he was merely a deputy squad leader who couldn’t be exchanged for anything substantial. He even promised Wang Shengxiang that if he kept him around, he would guarantee that the eastern district would achieve total victory in subsequent turf wars against the other districts.
Wang Shengxiang hadn’t believed him at first, but with a dead horse treated as a live horse, he reluctantly decided to keep Feng Zhao.
Thus, Major General Feng transformed overnight from a high-ranking Alliance officer into the deputy to a space pirate leader. No sooner had he crawled out of the rejuvenation pod than he was leading the eastern district’s pirates into half a month of continuous warfare. The pirates in the east lacked discipline, used a chaotic assortment of weapons, relied mostly on unorthodox guerrilla tactics, and were constantly filled with hot-tempered brawlers prone to violence. Dragging along an unhealed concussion, Feng Zhao served simultaneously as a drill instructor and a commanding officer, reorganizing the eastern pirates into disciplined squads. He rose earlier than the chickens and slept later than dogs, but ultimately managed to lead the eastern pirates to beat the southern district black and blue, successfully retaking the territory that originally belonged to the east.
When he finally got half a day off and opened the terminal of his newly purchased wrist-comms, he was left dizzy and disoriented by the news bulletin released by the Alliance Gazette.
Feng Zhao read the Alliance Gazette over and over again at least ten times, still unable to believe that the headline stating, “Late Major General Feng’s surviving spouse, Li Yixing, announces resignation due to pregnancy,” was actually true.
With a mixture of shock and suspicion, Feng Zhao stared at the report, his mind racing. What kind of sheer lunacy was going on over at Nuwa Star? Li Yixing used a gestational sac to get pregnant and give birth to a child carrying both of their genes?
Has everyone lost their minds?
Given Li Yixing’s personality, even if Feng Zhao died in the void of space, Li Yixing would still strictly abide by the terms of their political marriage to maintain the marital bond and play the part of a widowed mascot. But that didn’t mean for a single second that Li Yixing would ever agree to get pregnant and bear a child for him!
They weren’t actually sweet-childhood sweethearts deeply in love with each other like the Alliance Gazette made it out to be, as everything was merely an act performed under the glare of the cameras.
Li Yixing must have been coerced.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this was the handiwork of the Davis family and the Feng family. Were their brains kicked by a donkey? How could they possibly pull off something so inhumane and utterly irresponsible? But knowing Li Yixing’s personality, he was definitely not a soft persimmon to be kneaded at will. This pregnancy was most likely just an expedient measure, the child wouldn’t actually be brought to term, and the ultimate outcome would likely be a miscarriage.
Yet regardless of how the child turned out, the fact that he was pregnant was undeniable! The Alliance Gazette was run by the Alliance government, unlike the sensationalist tabloids like the Oasis Evening News, and ninety percent of the news it published was verified by the parties involved.
With a look of complex hesitation, Feng Zhao stared at the report. The report stated that the gestational sac and embryo, which had been cultured for five days, had already been successfully implanted into Li Yixing’s abdominal cavity yesterday afternoon. Staring fixedly at those words, Feng Zhao could already vividly picture what would happen if he ever crossed paths with Li Yixing again, as Li Yixing would probably twist his head right off his shoulders.
Just imagining that scenario made Feng Zhao wish he could crawl right back into the rejuvenation pod and stay in a coma for a few decades.
Before, their mutual bickering could at least be chalked up to settling personal scores and harboring grievances, but now, factoring in Li Yixing’s forced pregnancy, Feng Zhao felt like his death warrant had just been signed.
Meanwhile, as soon as the news of Li Yixing’s successful pregnancy broke, public opinion completely exploded. The poignant, star-crossed love story of Li Yixing and Feng Zhao was already flying into every household like swallows in springtime.
Lothar Davis and Feng Zhiyu, who had both been kept completely in the dark, absolutely flipped out the moment they learned the news!
Inside the Davis family villa, Lothar Davis tearfully interrogated his parents: “How could you possibly do this to Yixing? Making him bear a child for someone he doesn’t even love! This is going way too far!”
“I thought that once Feng Zhao died, I might finally have a chance, but you people had to stick your oars in again! Do you really resent my happiness that much? I clearly love Yixing so much, yet you’re forcing us into this corner!”
“Shut up!” Stan Davis’s voice cut right through Lothar’s weeping. “Since when were you and Li Yixing an ‘us’? Your one-sided delusions are utterly laughable! The fact that he would rather bear a child for a man he doesn’t love than be with you already speaks volumes, doesn’t it?”
“Lothar, dial back your young master temperament! Even wishful thinking has to have a limit!”
Stunned by Stan’s harsh words, Lothar broke down completely, wailing loudly. Luo Taylor rushed over to pat his back in distress, not forgetting to shoot a fierce glare at Stan Davis in the process.
Playing the classic good cop, bad cop routine, Luo Taylor spoke in a soft, soothing voice to comfort Lothar: “It’s alright, my baby. This just means you two weren’t meant to be. If you really like Li Yixing that much, we can always find someone who looks like him with a better personality.”
“How is that the same?” Lothar sobbed. “Yixing is Yixing, no one can ever replace him.”
Driven utterly frantic by the howling noise, Stan Davis finally gave Lothar a swift kick, which abruptly cut off the crying. Looking at Lothar and recognizing his own green eyes staring back at him, Stan couldn’t help but wonder how he had managed to raise such a useless disappointment despite his own brilliance throughout life.
In a few months, he would have to discuss it with Luo Taylor and use an incubation pod to have another child, one they could raise properly.
While the Davis household was in complete chaos, the Feng household was no better.
Li Yixing was still at the Institute of Life Sciences and had not yet returned. At the dinner table, only Feng Tingsong, Feng Zhiyu, and Fang Shengwan were present. Feng Zhiyu’s face was dark as a thundercloud, while Fang Shengwan sat on pins and needles, knowing full well that his youngest son was furious over the situation regarding Li Yixing. In an attempt to appease him, Fang Shengwan picked up some food and placed it on Feng Zhiyu’s plate.
“Zhiyu, eat some vegetables,” Fang Shengwan coaxed. “Don’t wear such a gloomy face. You’re going to be an uncle, you should be high on life about it.”
“Happy, heh,” Feng Zhiyu’s eyes instantly turned red. “How do you expect me to be happy? Happy that the person I love has to have a baby with my older brother?”
“Bang!”
Feng Tingsong slammed his bowl down hard against the table surface. “Is that any way to talk to your father?”
Fang Shengwan’s eyes welled up with red as well as he turned to Feng Zhiyu. “Zhiyu, your fathers only did this for your own good.”
“For my good! For my good! You always claim everything is for my good, but have you ever once considered my feelings?” Feng Zhiyu abruptly stood up, glaring at his two fathers as he shouted at the top of his lungs, “Don’t think I don’t know what kind of schemes you’re both harboring! You just wanted to consolidate a political marriage while cutting off my chances once and for all! Well, I’m telling you right now, it’s not going to happen!”
Fang Shengwan’s eyes widened in shock as he stammered, “What do you mean by that?”
“What do I mean? Heh…” Looking at Fang Shengwan, Feng Zhiyu let out years of accumulated grievance that finally boiled over completely because of this single incident.
“Dad, did you really think that making him pregnant with my brother’s child would solve everything? No!” Feng Zhiyu’s voice rang out with unyielding resonance. “I’ve gone along with you my whole life, giving up so many things just to keep your spirits up, but I won’t give up this time!”
“So what if Li Yixing is carrying my brother’s child? Since my older brother is already dead anyway, the child is part of the Feng family’s flesh and blood in the end! What difference does it make whether the child calls me father or calls my brother father?”
These words dropped like a thunderclap on flat ground, leaving the two fathers of the Feng family completely stunned and charred outside!
Fang Shengwan grew so short of breath with agitation that his trembling finger pointed straight at the bridge of Feng Zhiyu’s nose as he cried out, “You, you! Must you always go against your fathers like this?”
While using one hand to support his partner’s back, Feng Tingsong raised his other hand and delivered a fierce slap across Feng Zhiyu’s face: “Feng Zhiyu! Have you completely lost your mind?”
Seeing his son struck, Fang Shengwan cried out in terrified dismay: “Feng Tingsong! Why on earth did you hit him?”
“I can only assume you’ve spoiled him rotten into this lawless wretch! Letting his brother’s child call him father? How could he even utter such a morally bankrupt and unprincipled thing?”
“And pray tell, Father, are you moral yourself?” Holding his swollen cheek, Feng Zhiyu raised his voice in back-talk against his father for the very first time in his life. “You cheated on Shengwan-dad while he was pregnant.”
“You!” Flush with a mixture of blue and red rage, Feng Tingsong delivered another vicious slap to Feng Zhiyu’s other, undamaged cheek. Both sides of Feng Zhiyu’s face swelled up high.
Shrieking in renewed panic, Fang Shengwan suffered an overwhelming wave of agitation and promptly fainted dead away! The artificial intelligence housekeepers hurriedly fished out sedative injectors to administer to Fang Shengwan while hastily placing an emergency call to Sacred Heart Hospital to demand immediate medical assistance!
Without sparing another glance toward either of his fathers, Feng Zhiyu turned and strode straight out the door.
He was going to find Li Yixing.
He would bring him home, and this time, come hell or high water, he was going to be with Li Yixing!
Meanwhile, the collapsed Fang Shengwan miraculously revived, struggling to swat away the injection needle of the AI housekeeper as he used his last ounce of strength to scream after Feng Zhiyu: “You are not allowed to leave! Dad forbids you to leave!”
Regrettably, his cries could not call Feng Zhiyu back. Coldly watching his younger son’s retreating silhouette, Feng Tingsong activated his communicator and summoned the guards.
He would never allow Feng Zhiyu to go find Li Yixing, as doing so would ruin the entire plan!
The guards swarmed forward to box Feng Zhiyu in, blocking any further advance. With swift and practiced movements, they pinned both of Feng Zhiyu’s arms behind his back and, amidst his desperate screams, drove a needle of sedatives straight into his neck.