Gu Xinghuai looked up in surprise, his big eyes turning around uncertainly. He instinctively apologized to his mother.
“I… I didn’t mean to…”
“Fine. I’ll let it slide this time.”
Lu Yan put on an air of rare generosity as she forgave her young cub.
“Next time you see Mommy, you have to come over and hold my hand right away. Understand?”
Gu Xinghuai obediently nodded despite his confusion.
“Mm…”
Using the excuse of wanting the child to accompany her for lunch, Lu Yan took him to another quiet dining area.
Only after Gu Xinghuai finished the last sip of milk from his cup did Lu Yan casually bring up the subject as though it had just occurred to her.
“Butler Chen said you’ve been attending the children’s modeling training camp these past two days. He also said you’re really good at controlling and assembling models?”
Gu Xinghuai nodded solemnly.
But Lu Yan deliberately looked him up and down with a skeptical expression.
“I don’t believe you. Unless you operate one for me yourself!”
And so, half an hour later…
As Gu Xinghuai’s family member, Lu Yan entered a miniature control booth specially designed for young cubs.
The identification door chimed with a crisp, mechanical announcement—
“Accompanying guardian: Gu Xinghuai’s mother, Lu Yan.”
Gu Xinghuai knew that Mommy had only come to accompany him because she doubted his abilities.
But when he heard the identification system announce that she was his mother, he still couldn’t help feeling secretly delighted.
The base of his tail tingled faintly, and his little white lion tail nearly popped out from excitement.
However, this time, the little cub firmly remembered the lesson from the last time he’d accidentally revealed his beast ears and made Mommy angry.
He kept both little hands behind his back the entire way, pressing them tightly over his bottom.
Only after he had properly settled into his seat at his own control station did he secretly let out a sigh of relief.
Gu Xinghuai’s little fingertips lightly pressed the control buttons, his movements practiced and serious.
Before long, within the simulated starry sea, a silver-white flagship model, reduced to scale, slowly sailed out.
Turning, cruising, avoiding simulated obstacles, and making a precise docking maneuver—every movement was executed flawlessly.
In front of the simulated control panel, the little boy’s expression was focused and calm.
Only when he had safely docked the flagship model right in front of Lu Yan’s seat did a trace of nervousness appear on his delicate, pale little face.
He straightened his tiny back and began explaining to Lu Yan in his clear, childish voice.
“This is Flagship No. 7. It’s my favorite…”
He hesitated for several seconds.
In the end, afraid of making Mommy angry, he didn’t dare finish the rest of his sentence.
What the little cub didn’t know was that Lu Yan was desperately suppressing the urge to shower her precious baby with praise.
Listening to Gu Xinghuai stumble through his explanation, she merely gave a faint nod with the tip of her chin, deliberately maintaining an indifferent expression as she spoke arrogantly.
“It’s all right. I can only say that it’s worthy of being the little baby I, Lu Yan, gave birth to.”
Although Mommy’s tone was still neither warm nor cold, the little boy could nevertheless hear a hint of encouragement in her words.
His soft, chubby lips curled upward despite himself. He lowered his head shyly and answered in a soft voice.
“Mm.”
During the rest of the modeling class, Lu Yan sat beside him and watched.
At first, she found it quite interesting.
But as she continued watching, her eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep with her head resting beside the control station.
After Gu Xinghuai finished operating the entire sequence, he turned around, wanting to show Mommy how well he’d done.
But he found that she had already fallen asleep beside the control station.
The little cub immediately held his breath, not daring to move a muscle.
He quietly propped up his little chin and watched her for a while. Then he couldn’t help tilting his head slightly and resting it against the edge of the table as well, his white eyes staring intently at Lu Yan.
For the first time, he was able to look at his own mother so boldly and from such a close distance.
Mommy looked so gentle and beautiful when she was asleep.
She was nothing like her usual cold and fierce self.
Gu Xinghuai stretched out one tiny finger, wanting to gently touch Mommy’s soft hair.
But his fingertip paused in midair.
Afraid of waking her, he ultimately withdrew his hand.
It seemed that simply being able to look at Mommy from this close was already enough to make him happy.
·
Gu Chenyu returned to the core military base the following afternoon after finishing his military affairs in Y-Zone.
Instead of going to the command building to deal with the follow-up work as he normally would, he went straight back to the detached apartment at the base.
The door opened automatically after recognizing his iris.
A top-tier Beastman’s sense of smell was several times sharper than an ordinary human’s. Therefore, the moment Gu Chenyu stepped inside, he immediately knew that Lu Yan had already left.
It was only natural.
Lu Yan had never really intended to stay.
She couldn’t possibly have endured staying here.
Leaving was the right thing for her to do.
Gu Chenyu remained silent, calmly raising a hand to loosen the collar of his military uniform slightly. He was just about to turn and head to the study when the bionic robot Millie suddenly ran out of the charging room.
“Colonel! You’re back! Madam told Millie to tell you that she went to the children’s modeling training center to find Young Master!”
Gu Chenyu paused slightly and raised his wrist ring, intending to contact Lu Yan.
At that exact moment, he received a message from the training center informing him that the training camp had ended half a day ahead of schedule.
Gu Chenyu didn’t think much of it and decided to go directly to the training center to pick them up.
He had just reached the ground floor of the apartment building and was heading toward the parking area when a base guard suddenly approached to report.
“Colonel, Madam Gu is here. She says she has something important she’d like to discuss with you in person.”
Gu Chenyu’s gaze turned cold.
“I know.”
He didn’t allow her into the base.
Instead, he went straight to the parking area, boarded a small spacecraft, and flew outside the base gates. The spacecraft hovered there as he descended the automatic boarding ramp.
The moment Mrs. Gu saw Gu Chenyu step off the spacecraft, she hurried forward.
“Chenyu—”
“You have two minutes.”
Mrs. Gu froze for a moment before hurriedly recounting the entire story of how she’d gone to the training center to see the child and happened to run into Lu Yan, embellishing the details as she went.
The more Gu Chenyu listened, the darker his expression became.
Especially when he heard that she’d gone to the training center without permission, his gaze turned frighteningly cold.
“Who gave you permission to go there and disturb the child? No matter what Lu Yan is like, she’s Gu Xinghuai’s biological mother. Whether she and I eventually divorce or not, she has the right to see her child.”
Mrs. Gu hadn’t expected Gu Chenyu to still defend Lu Yan.
Unwilling to accept this, she hurriedly said, “Even so, Chenyu, don’t you find it strange? Lu Yan has always hated the Beastman genes in you and the child. Why would she suddenly come all the way to the frontier to see him?”
“Maybe she can’t even tolerate the child’s existence anymore because she wants to be with that doctor surnamed Cheng! That’s why she traveled all the way to the frontier! You need to hurry and bring the child back. What if she really does something to Xiaohuai behind your back?—”
The more Mrs. Gu spoke, the more agitated she became.
Before she could continue, Gu Chenyu interrupted her coldly.
“Your two minutes are up.”
With that, Gu Chenyu directly closed the cabin door and piloted the spacecraft away.
Just as the spacecraft swept over the military base, the wrist ring in Gu Chenyu’s hand suddenly rang.
Gu Chenyu lowered his eyes to glance at the incoming call and answered.
A few seconds later, Lu Yan’s voice came through the communicator, mixed with the noisy sounds of the surroundings.
“Gu Chenyu, are you done with work and back at the base?”
Gu Chenyu answered simply.
“Mm.”
Lu Yan seemed to realize how noisy it was around her as well. She walked a few steps away and deliberately lowered her voice, secretly telling him:
“I got lost.”
Gu Chenyu paused.
His voice dropped as he asked, his emotions impossible to read.
“Where are you?”
“Um…”
On the other end, Lu Yan moved her wrist ring slightly away and turned around. With an expression like she was interrogating someone, she questioned her baby.
“Gu Xinghuai, where are we?”
Gu Xinghuai stood properly beside her with his backpack on, his little hand tightly holding hers.
Hearing Mommy’s question, he raised his young face slightly and answered seriously.
“Frontier Spaceport, 36L.”
Lu Yan straightened her expression.
“Mm, correct. As expected of my son.”
Then she immediately turned her head and repeated the answer her baby had given her, speaking imperiously to the man on the other end of the call.
“Frontier Spaceport, 36L. Come pick me up and the baby right now!”