“I know, but things on Imperial Star are urgent…”
Lu Yan had only gotten halfway through her explanation when that familiar numb, prickling pain suddenly shot through her fingertips again. She hurriedly cut herself off, then glared at him with her glistening eyes.
“Why do you talk so much? Just stay here and wait for me to come back. Don’t ask anything else!”
After saying this arrogantly, Lu Yan suppressed the reluctance in her heart and left the terrace corridor.
On her way downstairs, she passed Gu Xinghuai’s little room.
She had originally wanted to come up with some excuse to take one last look at her baby before leaving.
But seeing the door tightly closed, she guessed that the little guy was already asleep, so she had no choice but to give up on the idea.
The night sky above the starfield fortress was vast and lonely, with heavy nebulae hanging in the distance.
A spaceship trailing a faint purple glow swept across the sky above the manor before disappearing into the night.
Only after that faint purple light had completely vanished did Gu Chenyu finally withdraw his gaze.
He turned and walked toward the little room, gently opening the door.
Just as he expected, he saw this scene.
Gu Xinghuai was hugging a little white lion plushie. His small face was tightly scrunched into an expression of cold, stubborn composure, lips pursed as he silently stood on the cushioned bay window, staring out at the direction where the spaceship had disappeared…
Gu Chenyu walked in and lifted the little cub, dressed in fluffy cartoon pajamas, down from the bay window.
This time, the little cub didn’t even hold onto his stuffed animal.
He buried his head in his father’s arms without saying a word.
Gu Chenyu’s brows furrowed slightly. He gently patted the little cub’s trembling shoulders and said in a low, steady voice,
“She had something urgent to take care of, so she had to return to Imperial Star for a while. She’ll be back in two days.”
Gu Xinghuai still didn’t say anything.
He simply rested his little face against his father’s chest, his soft fingers clutching his father’s clothes tightly.
Before long, a patch of fabric was soaked through with tears.
Gu Chenyu didn’t say anything about it. He simply lowered his head and silently wiped the tears from the little cub’s face. His usually cold voice had softened considerably.
“Do you want Daddy to hold you while you sleep?”
The little cub didn’t even lift his head. He gave a muffled little “Mm” and hugged his father even tighter.
·
Around dawn, Lu Yan’s spaceship arrived at Imperial Star.
On the way back, she had already asked Rosen to retrieve the military academy’s surveillance footage.
Sure enough, Lu Chi had disguised himself as an instructor, slipped past the security team, and secretly left the academy.
The moment she landed on Imperial Star, Lu Yan went straight to the apartment where Lu Chi had lived in her previous life.
She pressed the doorbell.
Not long after, the door opened.
Lu Chi appeared before her.
Unlike his arrogant and domineering older sister, Lu Chi had been frail and frequently ill since childhood. His skin was unnaturally pale from years of rarely seeing sunlight.
His slightly long hair fell beside his eyes, partially concealing his cool green gaze. His lips were pale, making him look like a clean-cut, gentle young man.
But only his older sister knew that beneath that harmless exterior lurked all kinds of dark, obsessive, and twisted thoughts that could never see the light of day.
The young man was dressed in a clean white hoodie and black pants. When he saw Lu Yan standing outside the door, his eyes narrowed slightly.
His voice was cold.
“Lu Yan, what are you doing here?”
Lu Yan’s expression was icy as she got straight to the point.
“Where did you put Chen Ziyi?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Lu Yan couldn’t be bothered to play dumb with him. She simply shoved him aside and walked straight inside.
“Lu Yan…”
“You’re young, yet instead of learning anything proper, you’ve already learned how to imprison people?”
She didn’t stop walking, her voice cold and severe.
“Do you have any idea that if this gets reported to the royal family, you’ll be expelled from the academy?”
Lu Chi followed behind her. Hearing this, he dropped the pretense as well, a mocking smile curling at the corner of his pale lips.
“Wasn’t it ridiculous enough when you chased after Colonel Gu’s starship for that piece of trash Cheng Linzhou a few days ago? What right do you have to lecture me about behaving properly?”
Lu Yan’s footsteps halted at those words.
She turned around and sternly scolded him.
“Watch your manners!”
Lu Chi assumed she was angry because he had insulted Cheng Linzhou. He raised an eyebrow and was about to continue his sarcastic remarks.
But in the next second, Lu Yan seriously corrected him.
“Next time, call Gu Chenyu your brother-in-law!”
Lu Chi: “…”
His expression turned strange as he stared at Lu Yan, clearly at a loss for words.
He had just been about to ask whether his sister had taken the wrong medicine today when Lu Yan turned around and purposefully pushed open the door to his study.
“Lu Yan!”
Lu Chi hurriedly moved to stop her, but it was already too late.
Inside the study.
Chen Ziyi sat at the desk with red-rimmed eyes, her wrists locked in shackles. A densely packed set of study materials was projected onto the light screen in front of her.
Lu Yan’s mouth twitched.
“…Lu Chi, you locked her up in here just to make her tutor you?”
Before Lu Chi could answer, Chen Ziyi was already struggling violently against the restraints. With tearful, reddened eyes, she glared at Lu Yan as she entered.
“Lu Yan… I knew it! You were the one who told Lu to kidnap me and bring me here, weren’t you?!”
Lu Chi gave a soft “Tsk.”
He leisurely walked behind Chen Ziyi. His features were refined and gentle, but his voice carried a sickly, clinging obsession.
“Teacher Chen, my sister isn’t exactly a good person either. But don’t you think… if she were the one who kidnapped you, would you still be sitting here completely unharmed?”
As he spoke, he leaned down slightly, his breath brushing against the side of her neck as he chuckled.
“Teacher Chen loves teaching other people so much. Wouldn’t it be better if you only taught me?”
Chen Ziyi stubbornly turned her head away.
“Student Lu, please show some self-respect!”
“…”
Lu Yan watched from the side, utterly speechless.
Finally, she could take it no longer.
She strode forward, grabbed her obsessive little brother, and yanked him aside. Then she reached into his pocket and pulled out the key.
Lu Chi looked up in surprise.
“How did you know—”
“Shut up.”
Lu Yan grabbed Chen Ziyi’s hand and was about to unlock her shackles.
But Chen Ziyi resisted with a look of stubborn indignation.
“Lu Yan, I don’t need you to save me!”
“Don’t think you can make me grateful to you just by doing this. And don’t think that if you do this, Linzhou will fall for you…”
The last sentence made Lu Yan’s scalp crawl with disgust.
She immediately looked up and issued a harsh warning.
“I’m warning you, I have a husband and a child. Say one more thing like that, and you can stay here and wait for your precious Linzhou to come rescue you!”
Chen Ziyi froze.
She looked at Lu Yan suspiciously, unable to figure out what trick Lu Yan was playing this time.
After hesitating for a moment, Lu Yan asked coldly,
“Made up your mind? Do you want me to save you, or do you want to wait for Cheng Linzhou to come save you?”
A few seconds later, Chen Ziyi weighed her options and finally turned her head away, squeezing two reluctant words through her lips.
“…You.”
Lu Yan gave a derisive little laugh and finally unlocked the shackles around her wrists.
Chen Ziyi stumbled to her feet. Even though Lu Yan had just freed her, she still warily took half a step back.
“Lu Yan, I don’t know what you’re trying to do this time, but I won’t be grateful to you.”
“Whatever.”
Lu Yan had only come here to save her idiotic little brother. She had never intended to redeem her reputation as the vicious woman.
Chen Ziyi pressed her lips together.
Her kind-hearted heroine persona immediately kicked in again.
She turned toward Lu Chi and spoke gently.
“Student Lu, I know you weren’t the mastermind behind this. It was Lu Yan being overbearing and vicious. I won’t blame you for what happened.”
Lu Yan: “…”
Lu Chi, however, clearly fell for it completely.
He stared straight at Chen Ziyi’s gentle, pure expression, the obsession and possessiveness in his eyes growing increasingly intense.
He kept staring until Chen Ziyi’s face began to heat up under his gaze. She grabbed her backpack and turned to leave.
Only then did Lu Chi suddenly snap back to reality.
He was just about to chase after her when Lu Yan lazily stretched out a hand and blocked his path.
Lu Chi couldn’t take it anymore.
He raised a hand and reached toward her forehead, looking at her as though she had gone completely insane.
“Lu Yan, what the hell did you eat today?”
The moment he finished speaking, Lu Yan slapped his hand away.
She was just about to say something when the star ring around her wrist suddenly rang.
She lowered her eyes to glance at the caller ID.
Her expression froze slightly.