Tag: transmigration (page 2 of 4)

Chapter 5: Likes to Eat Sweets

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

Yu Chenyu spent some time determining if Qi Zihan was setting a trap or if he truly wanted to make a deal with him.

But he soon realised that even if a female wanted to trap their male, the male would still have to jump in obediently.

The one who sat on the sofa was completely different from a soldier. He was a female zerg with gentle looks and an elegant temperament — not his superior officer, but his Lord Wife, who controlled his lifespan and future.

Upon making this conclusion, Yu Chenyu cooperated. “Then,” he requested, “can you not strip me in public or when others are present, and not give me to other females to play with? I can give three… no, five requests, for this one.”

Qi Zihan was stunned.

Although he did intend to learn more about this world as well as Yu Chenyu through this transaction, he didn’t expect to hear such shocking content.

Making his male strip naked in public?

And giving him to other females to play with?

Giving?

Did he mean using male zergs as playthings?

This world was terrifying!

Despite his surprise, his mouth only opened slightly and his overall expression didn’t change much.

He may have been quiet for too long, perhaps it was a dozen seconds or perhaps half a minute.

Because Yu Chenyu panicked.

Maybe, at this moment, he should kneel and confess his mistake before the female got angry, and admit that his request was excessive.

But this was too important to him.

So, after pursing his lips for a while, he gathered his courage and said, “If you… if you can agree, then you can do whatever you want to me at home… although females already have the right to do so. But you can do more to me, we soldiers have very strong bodies — even if you cut off an arm, it’ll grow back after a while. You don’t need to be scared.”

Qi Zihan: “…”

I’m so scared that I’m trembling, I’m going to have nightmares tonight!

He didn’t dare to think about what the females of this world had done to the males.

Since Yu Chenyu would go to such lengths, it meant that there really were females who would do it and that it was tacitly permitted by law.

Was this a marriage or getting a free slave?

No, this slave even had to pay to be one!

Qi Zihan rubbed at his temples. After spending a lot of effort to pick up his shattered worldview and put it back together, he pretended to be calm as he said, “Okay, I won’t humiliate you in public and I won’t give you to other females. This counts as two, so I’ll make another request.”

Yu Chenyu looked at him in a daze.

He agreed?

He agreed!

And it only counted as two?

Qi Zihan didn’t notice Yu Chenyu’s reaction, he was too busy racking his brains for anything else he could ask.

Don’t leave rubbish out? Don’t make messes?

He could tell from the way Yu Chenyu put his boots away that he wasn’t the kind of person to leave things everywhere.

Have a clear division of labour for housework?

A cleaning robot drifted past his feet.

Not allowed to sleep on the same bed?

He didn’t mind sleeping in the same bed, since they had already agreed not to touch him without permission.

His stomach gurgled again. “No chillis, I can’t eat spicy food,” he said weakly.

Yu Chenyu was surprised at the unexpected request, and then, realising that Qi Zihan was hungry, he had the urge to laugh. “Okay, I’ll go cook now. Is there anything else you don’t want?”

“No bitter melons, no leeks.” He didn’t know what zergs ate, so he just told him his preferences. “I like lighter food, less salt, but it can be sweeter.”

“Okay.” Yu Chenyu memorised it.

“Anyway, I don’t like bitter or sour things. I like sweet food,” Qi Zihan said, going even further. “I want meat. Cola chicken, sweet and sour spare ribs…”

“Okay.” Yu Chenyu turned away to open the refrigerator so that Qi Zihan couldn’t see his smile.

“And sweet corn soup.”

He originally wanted to just eat whatever Yu Chenyu made, but when he found out that he could order food, he couldn’t hold back his cravings.

And Yu Chenyu agreed to all his requests, taking out the corresponding ingredients from the refrigerator and going to the kitchen.

Yesterday, when he met Qi Zihan here and before he was tied to the bed, he had already considered the issue of food, so he had used his terminal to purchase some ingredients.

As his male zerg, he had the right to view Qi Zihan’s medical examination report, so he knew that his last meal was high in sugar and protein.

His Lord Wife should be a carnivorous female who liked sweets.

Therefore, the dishes Qi Zihan had just named were all within his expectations.

The only thing he didn’t consider was that his Lord Wife would take him to the Female Association Center as soon as he woke up, making them miss breakfast.

He should buy some ready-to-eat snacks.

As he thought of it, Yu Chenyu used his spiritual power as he cooked to turn on his terminal, through which he bought chocolates, biscuits, and bread.

Then he remembered that he hadn’t told his friend Zhu Yunqi about resolving his crisis, so he quickly reported it to him to let him stop worrying.

Yu Chenyu: He kept me.

As expected, a reply came in seconds.

Zhu Yunqi: !

Zhu Yunqi: Congrats!

Zhu Yunqi: Are you okay?

Yu Chenyu: He didn’t hit me.

Zhu Yunqi: ?

Zhu Yunqi: Then how did you make him keep you?

Yu Chenyu: It’s a bit hard to explain. I don’t know what he went through or why he showed up in the high-risk area, but what is certain is that his understanding of the empire is very limited.

Zhu Yunqi: What do you mean? Don’t all females have no clue what’s going on in the empire? When have they ever cared about its life or death?

Yu Chenyu: I don’t mean that.

Yu Chenyu: He didn’t know what would happen to divorced males.

Zhu Yunqi: ?

Zhu Yunqi: Females cancel marriages whenever they want, since when did they care about what happens to males after they divorce?

Yu Chenyu: I mean it’s not that he doesn’t care, it’s that he didn’t know. After he found out, he kept me, understand?

After this message was sent, the chat interface fell silent.

Yu Chenyu didn’t care, he focused on preparing ingredients and heating the pan.

There were actually special robots for cooking.

But this was the first meal that his wife would eat, so he wanted to show off his skills.

Just as the pan reached the right temperature and he poured in a thin layer of oil, ready to put the ingredients in, his friend finally sent another message.

Zhu Yunqi: It seems like your wife is quite kind, I’m happy for you

Zhu Yunqi: Now, there’s something else I want to ask

Yu Chenyu: What?

Zhu Yunqi: Do you know your wife’s spiritual power level?

Yu Chenyu: Let me check

Last night Yu Chenyu was busy thinking about how to please his wife in order to leave a good impression on him.

When the people from the Female Association reminded him that his wife might have some violent tendencies, he even worried that the tools he prepared weren’t cruel enough.

Now it seemed like they had misunderstood something.

As he stirred the food, Yu Chenyu used his spiritual power to retrieve his wife’s profile and read it carefully from top to bottom.

Name: Qi Zihan
Sex: Female
Age: 21
Last medical exam: 11 hours ago
Medical exam results: Good physical state, good mental state, no abnormalities; all sexual characteristics have matured, ready for gestation at any time; the estimated number of eggs to be produced is 1 million.
Physical capability: A
Spiritual capability: SS
Spiritual mimicry: Unknown

Yu Chenyu couldn’t believe his eyes.

His movements paused as he used his spiritual power to magnify the ‘spiritual capability’ line until it filled up the entire screen.

Spiritual capability: SS

Then he zoomed out and went back to the top of the profile.

Name: Qi Zihan

Only then was he sure that his wife, Qi Zihan, was a female zerg with SS-grade spiritual power!

And his physique was A-grade! Didn’t that mean he could fight better than some soldiers?

Yu Chenyu felt a little dazed. Forcing himself back to his senses, he resumed cooking and replied to his friend.

Yu Chenyu: SS

Zhu Yunqi: As expected.

Yu Chenyu: ?

Zhu Yunqi: Before your wife selected you, you should’ve received a notification from the system, right? Then I’ll tell you now that you weren’t the only one to get it. I got it too, and so did the marshal. As far as I know, a lot of males with S spiritual power also got the notification at the same time, regardless of whether they submitted a marriage proposal or not.

Zhu Yunqi: You already know that the system will only notify males if their match rate is over 80%, so that they’re more likely to be included in the female’s quota.

Zhu Yunqi: My match rate with him is 93%

Zhu Yunqi: But you don’t need to worry, I’ll never get married — I’d rather die than serve a female, so I won’t be competing with you for favour

Zhu Yunqi: But I don’t know about others, including the marshal

Zhu Yunqi: Do you get what I mean?

Yu Chenyu: I understand

As Yu Chenyu watched one line after another pop up, his smile faded and his amber eyes dimmed like a cloud covering stars.

An SS-grade female zerg. Even the imperial marshal had no right to limit the number of males he had.

As long as Qi Zihan was willing, he could have a hundred, a thousand, even tens of thousands of males.

His spiritual power was sufficient to soothe them all, and perhaps even more.

What should Yu Chenyu do then?

He was lucky because he was the first male to be chosen.

He was also unlucky because he was the first, and thus the most likely to be rejected.

Not to mention that he was a soldier with both physical and spiritual power reaching SS-grade.

This was a symbol of strength and supreme honour for males.

But females looked at neither physical abilities nor spiritual power when choosing their males.

Rather, the stronger their bodies, the more likely it was for females to feel scared and lash out due to fear.

Strong spiritual power also required females to expend more time and energy for soothing.

Yu Chenyu was an undefeated warrior on the battlefield, a ruthless general worshipped by countless males.

Yet for females, he had hardly any advantages that were worth liking.

Yu Chenyu: Let’s take it one step at a time.

Zhu Yunqi: The hell is one step at a time! You’re a SS soldier, a first-class general of the empire! No matter what battlefield it is, you can’t retreat!

Yu Chenyu: I never said I’m retreating

He would fight for it, but… he had no confidence.

Know oneself and the enemy, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. He knew that as the spouse of a female, his disadvantages outweighed his advantages, so he couldn’t help but be pessimistic.

 Zhu Yunqi: Speaking of which, I still haven’t asked about your match rate. Is it higher or lower than mine?

Yu Chenyu: 99.99%

Zhu Yunqi: Fuck, I lost

Yu Chenyu: Didn’t you say you’re not fighting with me for favour? Why are you still comparing it then?

Zhu Yunqi: Sigh, competing is in us soldiers’ DNA, you’ll know it as soon as you take a look at our internal forum.

Zhu Yunqi: I bet someone from the Female Association will look for him within the next 3 days to recommend other males to him. You have to work hard!

Yu Chenyu served the cooked food onto plates. Despite the dishes being beautiful and the food looking delicious, he had no appetite at all.

He used his spiritual power to close the chat with Zhu Yunqi and switched to the military’s internal forum.

The first thread on the front page: Compatibility Fight! Who’s that female’s next spouse?

[Me first! I’m S, match rate 87.11%!]

[Only 87? I’m 92.56%!]

[Shit, that’s so high! What grade?]

[A…]

[If you’re A don’t join in the fun here, go find an A-grade female!]

[I’m S, 93.46%, is there anyone higher than me?]

[That A-grade guy just now, don’t feel down. Females never look at grades when they choose males, otherwise, how can so many drones get married? I’m also A, my match rate with him is 89.98%, aaaahhh it’s almost 90% what a pity!]

[Any B-grades around? A B-grade male humbly posts a score, 91.16%.]

[Holy shit it’s all so high! I’m S. I was so excited to see a 81.88% last night that I almost passed out, but today you guys hit me so hard that I don’t want to talk.]

[So what determines the match rate? So mysterious. I’m A, 87.72%. By the way, is there anyone who didn’t get the notification last night?]

[Yes. C-grade here, didn’t get it.]

[A C-grade combat medic who didn’t get the notification trembles while reading the thread and is too scared to speak.]

[It’s normal for the match rate between C and SS to be less than 80%. If it’s more than 80, then as soon as the female releases spiritual power… wow, that’d be an exciting scene!]

[We’ll die! We’ll definitely die! Another C-grade male who didn’t get the notification begs you not to speak!]

[Another C-grade? I didn’t even know the army had so many Cs, don’t tell me drones have sneaked in?]

[Although I, a B-grade drone, didn’t receive the notification, I hope that the above people won’t discriminate based on castes. Although I’m just a logistics clerk, I still work hard to contribute to the army.]

[Um, so there really are drones in the army? Sorry.]

Unlike females, there were at least three different types of male zergs.

There were the soldiers, who were combat-oriented and born for fighting.

There were the workers, who weren’t as physically strong as soldiers but had higher overall abilities.

And there were the drones, whose physical and spiritual capabilities were far inferior to other males, but had softer features and were naturally suited to pleasing females.

Each caste had distinct differences in physique, abilities, and lifespan.

If a soldier could get regular spiritual soothing from a female, living for a couple hundred years wouldn’t be a problem.

As for drones, despite being less likely to lose control than soldiers and being less dangerous if they did lose control, they could hardly live for a century even if they received the same regular spiritual soothing. Drones usually died of natural causes in their 40s or 50s.

Workers were somewhere between the two. Some could live to be over 100 years old, while others would succumb at 80 years old.

There were far fewer females than males, but their lifespans were quite long, even longer than soldiers.

According to the latest data published by the Ministry of Statistics, the current ratio of females, soldiers, workers, and drones stood at 1:9:16:7.

In other words, the ratio of females to males was 1:32.

Even if every female had multiple spouses, more than half of all males would never see let alone touch a female in their entire lives.

After Yu Chenyu served all the dishes and turned off the electric stove, he didn’t rush to bring them to the table outside. Instead, he used his spiritual power to post a message on this thread:

[SS, match rate 99.99%.]

He admitted that Zhu Yunqi was right, soldiers did like to compete with others — and he was no exception.


< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

Chapter 4: Queen Bee

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

“What did you say?”

The Female Association Center’s reception room didn’t contain only a single person.

All the staff members were males.

Hearing what the worker who received Qi Zihan said, the males surrounding were in disbelief.

“A female with SS spiritual power? How is that possible!”

Despite how the female zergs of this world had a status second only to the imperial marshal, to the point that even the marshal had to bow to females…

The physical and spiritual strength of females was far inferior to males.

SS-grade spiritual power was rare even among soldiers who were born for battle. There had only ever been three people in the history of zergs who reached that level, all of whom were soldiers, and of them, only two were still alive today.

The first was Marshal Mo Yihai who was 36 years old this year; the other was a first-class general, as well as the youngest ever general of the empire, the 23-year-old Yu Chenyu.

When the male staff member spoke to Qi Zihan, he was first shocked by Qi Zihan’s SS-grade spiritual power and then stunned by his spouse’s identity.

He didn’t recognise the uniform that could only be worn by a general!

He even got angry at a general for letting a female ride a hoverbike!

But in this case, the general was in the wrong. How could he let a female ride such a dangerous vehicle?

Females should only use the most advanced, most stable aircraft — this was the consensus of all zergs.

“Did you see it wrong? Maybe you saw his male’s spiritual power as his… holy shit! The male just now was General Yu Chenyu?”

One male after another reacted.

“No wonder I thought his uniform looked so different from the other soldiers’!”

“I heard he’s an iron-blooded soldier who once single-handedly slaughtered all the aberrants in a high-risk area. I thought he’d be cold and stiff like the other soldiers, but although he was a little distant, he’s so handsome!”

“I think any drone who sees him would be ashamed of their looks!”

“Hey, listen to me!” the male who received Qi Zihan couldn’t help but interrupt, “Although the male that just walked out has no idea how to get along with females and makes people sweat for him really is General Yu Chenyu, but I’m talking about that female’s spiritual power! Qi Zihan is a female zerg with SS-grade spiritual power! A female!”

“Impossible!”

The males’ reactions went in a big circle.

Soldiers with S-grade spiritual power were still somewhat common, not one of them wasn’t an excellent warrior who could fight alone against thousands.

But let alone S-grade, even A-grades were astonishingly rare among females. Most of them were B- or C-grade.

An SS-grade female? Unheard of!

But the facts were placed in front of them.

“Think carefully with your buggy brains! It’s a 99.99% match rate! If their spiritual capabilities aren’t on the same level, how can their match rate reach so high?”

A single sentence awakened the zergs.

“That’s right, basically all male-female pairs with a match rate higher than 80% are at the same spiritual grade.”

“99.99%, infinitely approaching 100%. My god, can such a high match rate exist?”

“If they can produce a soldier, he’ll definitely be the next marshal!”

“Speaking of the marshal, hasn’t he not gotten married yet?”

“Ah, I wonder what’s the match rate between Sir Marshal and that female.”

“For a female with SS spiritual power, it wouldn’t be strange even if he pulled in all the S- and SS-grade males into his harem.”

Every female could have multiple spouses, but the maximum number depended on their spiritual power.

Females with C spiritual power could have up to seven partners, of whom two could be B-grade males, five could be C-grade males, and with no limit to the number of males who were below C-grade except for the total number of partners.

Females with B spiritual power could have up to thirteen partners, of whom three could be A-grade males, ten could be B-grade males, and with no limit to the number of males who were C-grade or below except for the total number of partners.

Females with A spiritual power could have up to twenty partners, of whom five could be S-grade males, fifteen could be A-grade males, and with no limit to the number of males who were B-grade or below except for the total number of partners.

Although females with S spiritual power hadn’t appeared yet, it was stipulated that they could have any number of S-grade partners with no upper limit, but at the same time, they were only allowed up to twenty males who were A-grade or below.

As for females with SS spiritual power… there weren’t any relevant regulations for it, but they didn’t need long to conclude that there was no need to set any limit for a female zerg with such high spiritual power.

He did not need to go through the system to select a marriage partner, because all males would willingly crawl at his feet.

He could become the entire empire’s queen.

Queen Bee.

Before today, they thought that this creature only existed in legends.

But perhaps he had already appeared and had just gracefully left their sight.

The Imperial Central Command contained both the residence and office of Marshal Mo Yihai.

He absentmindedly looked at the message that popped up on his personal terminal for a long time without moving.

[System]: Dear Marshal Mo Yihai, 0.1s ago, the database updated the data of a female zerg whose spiritual compatibility with you reaches 84.37%. Would you like to send a marriage proposal to the service office of the Association for the Rights of Female Zergs immediately?

A spiritual compatibility of over 80%. For he who had SS spiritual power, it was something he hardly dared to think of.

He was on the verge of losing control, had already planned to take his own life, and even planned out what kind of research his corpse should be used for. But at such a time…

Should he send a message?

As the marshal of the empire, was he finally going to step foot into the abyss he had maintained with his own hands and place his fate into the hands of a female whom he didn’t know?

In the end, after a sleepless night, he used his spiritual power to close that page and brought up the chat interface for a certain person.

Mo Yihai: A female with a match rate higher than 80% with me has appeared, should I pursue him?

After a while, the other party replied.

Zhu Yunqi: Why ask me? Do I have the right to make decisions for you?

Mo Yihai: You do.

A few minutes passed before another message came.

Zhu Yunqi: A’Hai, you know that I can’t watch you die when you have a way to live

Zhu Yunqi: But emotionally, I can’t accept it

Zhu Yunqi: So only you can decide for yourself, if you think…

Zhu Yunqi: Wait, I feel like something’s strange. That female you’re talking about, is he called Qi Zihan?

Mo Yihai: ?

Mo Yihai: How did you know?

Zhu Yunqi: Holy shit! Things are weird, let me show you a message I received last night!

Zhu Yunqi: Dear General Zhu Yunqi, 0.1s ago, the database updated the data of a female zerg whose spiritual compatibility with you reaches 93.46%. Would you like to send a marriage proposal to the service office of the Association for the Rights of Female Zergs immediately?

Mo Yihai: ?

Zhu Yunqi: I checked, his name is Qi Zihan, he showed up out of thin air last night and picked Chenyu, which means that the match rate between them must also be above 50%

Mo Yihai: ?

Mo Yihai: How strong is his spiritual power?

Zhu Yunqi: Don’t know, but since you matched with him, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s SS

Mo Yihai: How is that possible?

Zhu Yunqi: The facts are there. Only when a female’s spiritual power is close to or higher than a male’s will their match rate exceed 80%

Zhu Yunqi: Males don’t have the right to view the personal information of females without permission, let’s wait until Chenyu pleases the female before asking him.

Mo Yihai: Chenyu… pleasing someone?

A strange look appeared on Mo Yihai’s face.

Having fought side by side with Yu Chenyu, he knew this person’s personality very well.

With his stubborn character, did he know how to ‘please’ a female zerg?

Zhu Yunqi: Don’t overthink, how else can soldiers make a female happy?

Mo Yihai: He…

Zhu Yunqi: Yeah.

Zhu Yunqi: Even if he does get divorced, I hope he won’t come back with missing arms and legs

Mo Yihai fell silent, as did Zhu Yunqi.

The two shared a sad moment across their terminals, not knowing that their comrade had successfully reversed his divorce, though he hadn’t yet won his wife’s favour.

After returning home, Qi Zihan walked to the sofa and sank into it tiredly.

Yu Chenyu closed the door, then slowly took off his military boots and cap.

He tucked the cap under his arm and turned to look at Qi Zihan, who was slumped on the sofa. The corners of his lips raised, and he secretly felt a little happy.

He could tell that his Lord Wife didn’t keep him because he liked him, but because he sympathised with him.

Unlike his indifferent exterior, his Lord Wife was a gentle person inside.

How strange. As he found himself losing control, he was so afraid of receiving his comrades’ pitying eyes when they met in the future.

But now, although he knew that Qi Zihan pitied him, he didn’t feel humiliated at all; instead, he felt a kind of joy, as if he was seeing hope.

This joy softened his brows and tone.

“If you’re hungry, I’ll go cook for you, Lord Wife,” he said gently, so gently that it didn’t match his appearance at all.

Qi Zihan’s stomach gurgled at his words.

Only then did he realise that he hadn’t eaten anything since he first transmigrated here.

He didn’t know what the food here was like, or if it would be delicious or not.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t be insects…

“Okay,” Qi Zihan agreed, deciding to wait and see. If Yu Chenyu’s cooking wasn’t good, they would go out to eat. Though, speaking of which. “If a female goes out alone, will restaurants give food for free?”

Yu Chenyu paused on his way to the kitchen. A confused expression flashed across his face, followed by a sly, fox-like smile.

However, he had already returned to his usual calmness by the time he turned to look at Qi Zihan. “The Female Association will provide basic necessities to females without sufficient economic resources, but both the nutrition and taste of their food are very poor. Better food costs money.”

“Oh, I see.” Qi Zihan also thought that he was too optimistic.

The empire had set up the current society precisely to make females get married. If they could stay single and still live without worrying about food, clothing, and shelter, then what would be the point of getting married?

Yu Chenyu’s next sentence was as he expected. “The biggest source of income for females is the males they marry. Females can enjoy all the property owned by their males.”

“You said that’s the biggest source of income, so what’s the second biggest?”

“Work,” he answered. “Females can choose to work, but they tend to find it tiring, and there are few places that allow females to be hired. Most of those that do are relatively simple jobs, so the salary isn’t high.”

Yu Chenyu was only short of explicitly saying that he needed him.

Although Qi Zihan noticed his thoughts, he didn’t comment.

Since he already decided to keep Yu Chenyu, he couldn’t start discussing divorce again.

Though… having a marriage without love made it hard for him to be interested.

He felt that he should try his best to be self-reliant before his relationship with Yu Chenyu grew too co-dependent.

Therefore he asked, “I don’t know how to do much, is there a job you can recommend?”

Yu Chenyu was quiet. His eyes which had finally gained a spark of life dimmed again after hearing this question. It took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence from gritted teeth. 

“I’m a general of this empire, and although I’ve already half retired, I have so much money that you can’t possibly spend it all. You can rest assured in using it, even if in the future…” he hesitated, then forced himself to continue, “even if you still don’t like me after a long time and insist on divorcing me. It doesn’t matter if you spend everything before then.”

Qi Zihan was his last hope. He bet everything on him — even if he lost everything, he had no way out.

Qi Zihan noticed his uneasiness but had no time to comfort him because he had noticed an unexpected word: “Retired?”

This person looked no older than 30 years old, perhaps even younger than 25, nowhere near retirement age. Why would he be half-retired?

“Because you’re losing control?” he guessed.

Yu Chenyu nodded.

This was the main reason behind males submitting marriage proposals. He thought Qi Zihan already understood this, so he had never stated it explicitly.

Before he knew that Qi Zihan had minimal knowledge of this world, he had even thought that he deliberately ignored it to humiliate him.

Now that he thought about it, he was judging a gentleman with a villain’s heart.

Qi Zihan sat for a while, thoughtful. “Then, let’s make a deal,” he abruptly said.

“A deal?” A hint of confusion was barely perceptible on Yu Chenyu’s face, and his gaze towards Qi Zihan once again turned scrutinising.

On the battlefield, his eyes could capture all details and allow him to react in the face of danger.

He had stubbornly escaped death countless times thanks to these eyes.

Yet now, at such a close distance, he couldn’t see through the thoughts of his wife.

Ignoring his stare, Qi Zihan raised a slender index finger. “For example, I’ll soothe you and prevent you from losing control. In exchange, you’re not allowed to touch me without permission.”

Yu Chenyu wanted to say that he wouldn’t dare to casually touch a female even if there wasn’t such a deal, but instead, he nodded and agreed.

When he nodded, he glanced at Qi Zihan’s fingers and noticed their shape for the first time, causing him to be distracted for a moment.

Delicate and distinctly jointed, they looked more like expertly carved jade than fingers.

Were all females’ hands so beautiful?

“Like this, I make a request and you make one as well. As long as we both keep by each other’s terms, I won’t casually chase you away.” Folding away his finger, Qi Zihan crossed his legs, giving off feelings of both pride and laziness like a rare breed of cat.

His appearance couldn’t be less threatening to a soldier.

Most females had gentle features as if they were flowers raised in a greenhouse, or like carefully maintained jade. Qi Zihan was no exception.

But his well-proportioned body — broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs — made him look stronger than most females.

Yu Chenyu could even faintly detect tight muscles hiding underneath his clothes.

His vision, which had finally focused, became blurred again. He raised a hand to support his chin as if he were thinking about Qi Zihan’s proposal, but his mind was a complete blank.

“My second requirement is that you can’t call me ‘Lord Wife’, and you can’t use honorifics towards me either. Just call me Qi Zihan or Zihan.”

After saying this, he kept his arms crossed instead of raising another finger. He retracted his right hand’s thumb, ring finger, and little finger, leaving only his index and middle fingers tapping elegantly on his arm.

Then he lazily glanced in Yu Chenyu’s direction. “Come on, make your second request,” he said.


< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

Chapter 3: He’s my spouse?

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

Hearing that the match rate was a unique 99.99%, Qi Zihan admitted he was a little shaken.

He hadn’t been particularly unsatisfied with Yu Chenyu in the first place and even thought that he looked pretty good and had a great body, perfectly matching his type.

However, he had just transmigrated to an unfamiliar environment. He truly didn’t have any interest in falling in love or getting married.

Even if he was attracted, he didn’t want to get married before falling in love, wanting to skip straight to sleeping together even less.

So, facing Yu Chenyu’s confession-like answer, Qi Zihan’s response was, “I still want to go to the Female Association to understand the situation first, you put on your clothes and come with me.”

Yu Chenyu, still kneeling, was silent for a long while before he quietly agreed.

It seems I still can’t escape the divorce, he thought.

A few minutes later, Yu Chenyu exited the bedroom again, this time finally dressed.

He wore a strange military uniform that was unlike any style Qi Zihan had seen on Earth.

Its dark blue fabric was embellished with even darker patterns, while the military cap was of the same colour with a black brim.

The entire uniform reflected a metallic sheen, making Qi Zihan wonder if it could block bullets.

“You usually dress like this?” Qi Zihan couldn’t help asking.

Every zerg he had seen thus far had all worn uniforms, military or otherwise, so he wondered if zergs only had this type of clothing.

Yet Yu Chenyu refuted it. “No, I just didn’t have time to change because I wanted to meet you as soon as possible.” As he spoke, he pressed down the brim of his military cap and walked to the door first. “Let’s go,” he said.

His tone was normal, so Qi Zihan didn’t notice anything unusual as he followed.

But he soon discovered that Yu Chenyu was so tall that he towered over him by at least a head!

It was outrageous. He was 186cm tall which was already considered very tall on Earth, yet Yu Chenyu was a head taller than him, so how tall was he? More than two metres?

Qi Zihan marevelled at his height as he walked, so he didn’t notice when the object of his admiration suddenly stopped.

It was too late for him to step on the brakes. Bumping into Yu Chenyu’s back felt like running into a solid wall.

Ow, it hurts!

Rubbing his forehead, he took a step back.

Then he saw Yu Chenyu turn around with a complicated expression.

Qi Zihan looked at him in confusion. Before he could ask, he heard Yu Chenyu say, “I forgot that the wound on your finger hasn’t been treated yet. Do you… want me to help you with it?”

“Wound?” Qi Zihan raised his right hand and looked at the insignificant scratch on his thumb. “You mean this? It’s not necessary.”

“Okay.” Yu Chenyu didn’t argue, though he did glance at the small patch of red on Qi Zihan’s forehead.

This was probably why females didn’t like soldiers.

Even if they could realise that soldiers weren’t as scary as imagined by whipping them, they couldn’t avoid being hurt by soldiers through various accidents.

“I’m sorry,” Yu Chenyu stated coldly.

Although he did feel sorry, he was in no mood to show concern for his ‘ex-husband’ when he thought of his upcoming divorce.

He wanted to treat Qi Zihan’s injuries, but more than that, he didn’t want to be held accountable for them by the people in the Female Association.

No matter how fragile females were, they wouldn’t get sick or anything from something as minor as this.

But many females would use it as a pretext to convict males for ‘intentional injury’.

Yu Chenyu didn’t know if Qi Zihan would do this. Though, even if he did do so, what could he do?

Perhaps, in that moment when he found it increasingly hard to control himself and was forced to submit a marriage application, what he lost wasn’t just his dignity.

His life had also ended back then.

He used a hoverbike to bring Qi Zihan to a nearby branch of the Female Association.

The hoverbike was a single-person model, so Qi Zihan had to sit behind Yu Chenyu and hold his waist with both hands.

Qi Zihan could hardly feel Yu Chenyu’s muscles through the military uniform’s strange material, but he could tell that they were very solid.

The hoverbike flew fast, so fast that Qi Zihan suspected that what he was riding wasn’t a normal means of transportation but a roller coaster.

But for he who had come here from Earth, a motorcycle that could fly was already weird enough!

Upon arriving and parking the hoverbike, Yu Chenyu got off first before reaching back a hand to Qi Zihan.

Recognising that this was a ‘gentlemanly behaviour’ expected of males towards females in this world, Qi Zihan didn’t reject his kindness. He put his hand in his palm and borrowed his strength to jump off the hoverbike.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he dropped to the ground, he heard a cry of surprise. 

“Oh my god! You let a female ride a hoverbike?”

Qi Zihan turned and saw someone in the uniform he had seen last night — this should be the uniform of the Female Association.

Taking out the military cap he had put away, Yu Chenyu put it back on, then looked at the man who had spoken and said irritably, “Who said I let him do anything?”

“You…” The man looked as if he was looking at a madman, but he didn’t say anything more to Yu Chenyu. Instead, he rushed to Qi Zihan and bowed respectfully. “Honoured female sir, how can I help you?”

Qi Zihan opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, the man made an inviting gesture. “It’s windy outside, please come in first, let’s sit down and talk slowly.”

“Oh, okay.” Qi Zihan followed him into the building, then he realised that this didn’t seem to be the same Female Association that he was in before.

After sitting on a couch in the reception room, he didn’t rush to solve the issue of Yu Chenyu. “There’s actually something wrong with my memories, I can only remember my name. Can you introduce this world to me?” he asked first.

Yu Chenyu had just stepped into the reception room when he said this. A look of realisation flashed across his face, as if he had suddenly figured something out.

He didn’t sit. Instead he stood upright behind Qi Zihan, waiting for the results of his trial.

When the Female Association people heard Qi Zihan’s words, their first reaction was to question Yu Chenyu, “What did you do to him?”

“No, it has nothing to do with him,” Qi Zihan hurriedly clarified, “we only met recently… It’s a bit hard to explain. Which Female Association was I at yesterday?”

When asking the latter question, Qi Zihan looked up in the direction of Yu Chenyu.

Yu Chenyu met his eyes and then spat out an address.

The Female Association worker asked them to wait a moment, then quickly sat down in front of a computer to check the information. After a while, he asked, “Excuse me, are you Qi Zihan?”

“Yes,” he nodded.

“Last night, the Imperial Army found you in a high-risk area and took you to the nearest Female Association Center for a medical examination, no abnormalities were found…” he trailed off with a look of astonishment, then continued after a moment of hesitation. “Uh, there may be abnormalities that can’t be detected by the machine. I will arrange a mental health appointment for you as soon as possible…”

“No, rather than recovering my memories, I want to know what kind of world this is.” Qi Zihan’s patience was limited. His tone turned a little cold. “Can you introduce this world to me?”

He repeated his request.

This time, they finally clarified the service he wanted. After saying ‘okay’ several times, they hurriedly pulled up a galactic map on their computer and explained the planets and systems under the empire’s control in relation to their current location, as well as the main threats the empire currently faced.

Halfway through their explanation, the worker suddenly felt like something was wrong. “Excuse me, for questions such as these, wouldn’t it be better to ask your spouse? After all, he is…” He hesitated, glanced at Yu Chenyu, and continued, “According to his profile, your spouse is one of the five incumbent generals. Generals hold the highest military rank in the empire besides the marshal, his understanding of the empire must be more comprehensive than that of a small Female Association staff member like me.”

A… general of the empire?

Qi Zihan was stunned. He hadn’t expected that the male he matched with would have such an awesome identity.

Such an important male zerg was tied up naked on his bed, this…

The extent to which females were revered seemed to be more exaggerated than he thought.

Also, it turned out that Yu Chenyu’s clothes really were military uniforms and not daily wear?

Wait, spouse?

Suddenly realising something, his eyes widened in disbelief. “Spouse? You mean to say that he’s my husband?”

How did they become spouses? When did it happen, why did he not know?

Did it happen after he fell asleep yesterday?

No, if the females of this world truly were so noble, it would be impossible for a male to marry one without permission while he was unconscious.

In other words, when he agreed to match with a male in the beginning, it was equivalent to getting married?

The staff member was stunned by his question. He glanced at Yu Chenyu with some horror, then looked back at Qi Zihan hesitantly. “Wh-What? You weren’t willing to marry him? If that’s the case…” His voice suddenly trembled and tapered off.

“What would happen?” Qi Zihan asked.

The staff member didn’t speak.

As if he couldn’t stand his dithering, Yu Chenyu answered for him. “Forcing marriage is a capital offence for male zergs.”

Fuck, Qi Zihan thought reflexively. “No, I was willing, ah, wait… first tell me, what counts as marriage?”

He still couldn’t believe that he had become a married person.

This time, the staff member finally found his voice. “Females can use the system to choose their spouse from among the males who have submitted marriage applications. Once they choose someone, they’re married.”

As he feared.

Zerg marriage was too casual, right?!

“In addition, depending on their spiritual power, females may have multiple partners. If you aren’t satisfied with your current spouse…”

“It’s not a question of if I’m satisfied or not.” Qi Zihan wanted to dissolve the marriage, not to hurt Yu Chenyu. Thus, he continued, “I married without knowing the situation. Nothing has happened between us, can we separate peacefully?”

“Of course it’s possible to divorce, all females have the right to freely enter and exit marriages,” the Female Association staff member said, though he then sighed with a complicated expression. His initial dissatisfaction with Yu Chenyu transformed into sympathy.

He had no right to comment on a female zerg’s behaviour, but considering this female’s particular circumstances, he still couldn’t help but say a few more words. “However a record of the divorce will remain on the male’s profile, which will have a significant impact on his future — in general, no female would choose such a male…”

“Can’t it be deleted?” Qi Zihan asked, frowning. “What I mean is that my situation with him is special. In a situation where I entered into the marriage without being fully aware of the connotations and didn’t do anything to him, can’t the record of this divorce be deleted?”

“No,” the staff member answered frankly, “in order to prevent any males from secretly hacking into the system to tamper with their profiles, this data is protected at the highest defense level. Even the marshal can’t change it.”

“The empire’s marshal is a male zerg?”

“Of course.” Then, thinking that Qi Zihan might not have this knowledge, he added, “Almost everything related to the military is taken care of by soldiers. Even if any females wanted to go to the battlefield the army wouldn’t agree, because if he dies there, the entire army will be severely punished.”

“I see, I understand now.”

Qi Zihan more or less understood what kind of world this was.

This world’s ruling class was the military, composed of male soldiers, and the marshal held the highest administrative authority; however, the society was one where females were superior to males.

Perhaps it was because the females’ spiritual power was a necessity for males yet, for females, males weren’t necessary and could even be called dispensable. Therefore, the authorities raised females to an exaggerated height to make females willing to marry and soothe males.

Females with high status could easily support themselves by marrying males and spending their money instead of working to earn money.

Eventually, females lost the motivation to work and gradually withdrew from various workplaces.

Males quickly filled all the empty positions and, at the same time, the marriage rate of females increased greatly.

Qi Zihan didn’t know whether a societal structure like this was good for females, he only knew that since the ruling class consisted of males, this deformed society wasn’t caused by females alone — it was also what males wanted.

In a sense, males did it all for the sake of receiving soothing from females. They personally built a gorgeous cage with their own hands, imprisoning females inside and lowering themselves into the dust.

“Do you… still wish to divorce?” The staff member frowned as he asked this, not hiding his sympathy for Yu Chenyu at all.

“Never mind,” Qi Zihan sighed.

He did want to divorce, but he didn’t want to hurt Yu Chenyu while doing so.

It had been his fault in the first place. He was the one who casually entered into a marriage while he was confused, how could he let Yu Chenyu bear responsibility for his mistake?

Hearing his answer, Yu Chenyu’s expressionless face flashed with surprise.

The eyes of the Female Association staff member also widened. “Really? Uh, I must tell you that you’ll bear no responsibility for declaring a divorce, and you can even immediately marry another male.”

“No need.” Standing, Qi Zihan nodded to him. “Thank you for answering my questions and providing me with useful information. You’ve worked hard.”

“You’re welcome!” The staff member was extremely flattered as if being thanked by a female was something incredible.

Yu Chenyu stretched out a hand to Qi Zihan when he stood up.

Seeing that he didn’t notice his hand, Yu Chenyu took the initiative to hold his hand as he said gently, “If there’s nowhere else you want to go, I’ll take you home, Lord Wife.”

Qi Zihan stared at his hand for a while before deciding to leave him some face outside. He’ll correct his title when they get back, as well as re-plan their future.

Thinking this way, he let him hold his hand and let out a “Mn.”

What they didn’t know was that just as they left the reception room and returned to the hoverbike, the male who had talked to them was looking at Qi Zihan’s profile on his computer and exclaiming, “This is the first time I’ve seen a female with SS spiritual power… How many males can he soothe at the same time? I can’t even imagine it.”


< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

Chapter 2: Lord Wife, please enjoy

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

It didn’t actually hurt, but Qi Zihan still retracted his hand as if he had been electrocuted. He raised his hand and saw an obvious scratch on his right thumb.

“Lord Wife?”

Yu Chenyu couldn’t have seen Qi Zihan’s movements, but he seemed to have sensed something and struggled desperately, trying to break free from the rope forcefully.

Qi Zihan watched in disbelief as the rope he hadn’t been able to untie in half a day showed signs of loosening as Yu Chenyu thrashed.

“Stop! You… don’t move!” Qi Zihan said hurriedly, afraid that he would get hurt.

Yu Chenyu obediently stopped, yet his eyes were still fixed on Qi Zihan’s face, still with a strange emotion in them like he wanted to see through him, but there was also a hint of concern that wasn’t false.

Qi Zihan felt a little guilty under his gaze. “Stop looking at me,” he ordered.

It was embarrassing.

He tried to untie Yu Chenyu again.

This time, he succeeded.

Then he noticed something strange.

He had only used a little strength yet his finger was scratched by the rope, but despite Yu Chenyu’s violent struggle, there wasn’t a single mark on his wrists.

It seemed that at the same time as this world changing from males being superior to females being superior, their physical prowess also switched.

For a moment, he felt a little complicated, not knowing whether he should be pleased or worried.

Worried because he had been able to effortlessly fight off a group of people back on Earth but may not be able to defeat even half a male zerg now.

Pleased because the status of females in this world was high enough that it was impossible to be bullied by males just because they were stronger.

The rope had been untied but the man remained in the same position, not daring to move at all; and because Qi Zihan had just told him not to look at him, his gaze was stuck on the ceiling without deviating an inch.

Qi Zihan didn’t mind his reaction, he was still thinking of how to get rid of him.

He preferred falling in love before sleeping together, tying the knot without any feelings between them wasn’t his style.

“Stop calling me L-Lord Wife, I wasn’t entirely awake last night, it was an accident to call you over. Fortunately, we haven’t done anything yet so you can just take it as nothing happened, go find another female.”

“Even if we haven’t done anything… Never mind. Sorry, it’s nothing.” Yu Chenyu closed his eyes, then sat up and looked at Qi Zihan again.

This time there was no longer any kind of scrutiny, it was instead replaced by despair brought about by understanding.

It made Qi Zihan anxious, feeling as if he had done something wrong.

It was true, he did do something wrong.

Qi Zihan felt very sorry for this man called Yu Chenyu.

However, he wouldn’t gamble the rest of his life on an emotion like guilt or sympathy.

He could compensate him, but not in this way.

So he said, “I’ll explain everything to the Female Association. Tell me how you’d like to be compensated, I’ll do it as long as it’s in my power.”

This time Yu Chenyu didn’t say anything, he only nodded silently.

“Then… you put your clothes on first,” Qi Zihan said as he left the room.

When he closed the door, Yu Chenyu no longer looked at him but at the quilt covering his lower body. There was a long silence.

Until a vibration sound came from the clothes placed beside the pillows.

He was stunned for a moment before quickly reacting, reaching over to dig out a watch-like object.

After unlocking it with spiritual power, a transluscent display popped up above the watch.

This was a portable optical computer, also known as a personal terminal.

It vibrated because he had just received a new message.

The person who sent it was his former comrade and current good friend, Zhu Yunqi.

Zhu Yunqi: Chenyu, I heard you got married. Although I don’t know what kind of person your wife is, let me congratulate you first — after all, there hasn’t been a single female who can match higher than 50% with you for 5 whole years. If you still don’t get a female’s soothing, you’ll turn from a comrade into my enemy.

What a joke.

In no mood to put on clothes, Yu Chenyu just used his spiritual power to type a reply as he sat naked.

Yu Chenyu: It’s going to be annulled.

Zhu Yunqi: Huh? Didn’t you just get married last night? What did you do? It can’t be that you used too much force and hurt him, right?

Yu Chenyu: Didn’t do anything.

Zhu Yunqi: Then why?

Zhu Yunqi: Well, on the other hand, it’s true that a female doesn’t need any reason at all if he wants to divorce.

Zhu Yunqi: But you’re a general! You’ve gone in and out of high-risk areas to clean up aberrants, you’ve fought to the death to defend this planet, and you’ve made great achievements! What gives him the right?

Yu Chenyu: Watch your words, do you want to go to jail?

Zhu Yunqi: But I really think it’s a pity. You’ve done so much for this empire, you’re the one who deserves happiness the most. But you don’t even have the right to choose your own spouse, though no one could match you more than 50% anyway, and when you finally got married you’re going to get divorced after just one night. It’s been hard enough to find a single female who can soothe you. If this marriage really ends, you’ll have no hope of going back to the front line!

Yu Chenyu: So, I should fight for myself one more time, right?

Zhu Yunqi: Ah? What do you mean?

Yu Chenyu: He said to divorce, it hasn’t happened yet.

Zhu Yunqi: Then you have to fight! You’ll die anyways, it’s better to die by a female zerg than in my hands!

Yu Chenyu fell silent.

Male zergs were naturally endowed with stronger physical capabilities than females, while soldiers — males born for combat — could even defeat a thousand opponents at once. However, all males, whether they were the powerful soldiers or the relatively gentle drones, had a particular physiological defect. If, after reaching adulthood, they went too long without receiving a female zerg’s spiritual soothing, they would gradually lose control of their bodies and attack everything around them.

Yu Chenyu was an adult, and he could feel his self-control worsening by the day.

He didn’t want to get married and didn’t want to fall under anyone’s control, least of all a female who had never stepped foot on a battlefield.

But neither did he want to watch himself lose control and force his comrades to end his life.

Yu Chenyu felt that if he had any dignity, it would have been shattered to pieces the moment he submitted the marriage application.

If that was the case, what was the point of clinging to the little that was left?

Yu Chenyu: Maybe it’s because I didn’t call him ‘Lord Wife’ from the beginning, and didn’t use honorifics either.

Zhu Yunqi: Then the divorce is your fault! You finally found a female who matches you more than 50%, cherish him! Put away your intimidating momentum and learn from those drones who only know how to flirt!

Yu Chenyu: I can’t.

Zhu Yunqi: You…

Yu Chenyu: I don’t know how to learn what drones do, and can’t learn it either. Soldiers have their own ways.

Zhu Yunqi: Don’t tell me you want to…

Zhu Yunqi: Sigh, I guess that’s the only way, who made us soldiers so strong? A lot of females are frightened of us. Someone has to tell them that we’re not that scary.

Yu Chenyu: He really was scared of me.

He remembered the way Qi Zihan covered him with a quilt.

Yu Chenyu: I’ll try it, send me another message in a while.

Zhu Yunqi: OK, I hope you succeed.

After reading this message, Yu Chenyu turned off the screen, got off the bed without putting on any clothes, walked to the closet, and took something out of it.

Qi Zihan sat on the living room couch, waiting for Yu Chenyu to come out.

He wanted him to take him to the Female Association.

Judging by their bodies, those who worked at the Female Association were all males, so they probably wouldn’t make things difficult for someone of the same sex?

Then, after he resolved this matter, he also planned to learn about this world through the Female Association.

Just as he was pondering things, the bedroom door opened.

Qi Zihan instinctively looked towards the door, thinking that he would see a clothed Yu Chenyu, but he never expected that the man had dawdled for so long yet still didn’t have even a thread of cloth covering him!

And he seemed to be holding something.

After recognising the object as a whip, Qi Zihan was so scared that he shot up from the couch and took a defensive stance.

As if sensing his vigilance, the man stopped his approach three metres away from Qi Zihan and knelt down.

He knelt on the ground, raised the whip above his head with both hands and said a sentence in a hoarse, emotionless voice: “Lord Wife, please enjoy.”

Qi Zihan froze in front of the couch, staring at Yu Chenyu’s lowered body.

Neither man moved. Yu Chenyu looked down and waited.

It wasn’t hard to understand Yu Chenyu’s intentions from his words and actions — he wanted Qi Zihan to take the whip and hit him.

But Qi Zihan didn’t understand.

He didn’t understand why he had to do this.

“Can you not understand me?” Qi Zihan was a little angry. He walked up to Yu Chenyu and slapped the whip out of his hands. “Don’t call me Lord Wife, I’m not your wife, I don’t want to marry you, I won’t marry you no matter what you do! Stop doing useless things!”

Glancing at the whip that had been slapped to the ground, Yu Chenyu pursed his lips. “If Lord Wife refuses to accept me, then please deal with me yourself.”

“Deal with you?” Qi Zihan could hardly believe what he was hearing.

“Kill me,” Yu Chenyu said, expressing his meaning more explicitly.

“Why?” Qi Zihan didn’t understand. “Didn’t we not do anything? Why are you so insistent? You only met me yesterday and I saw you for the first time this morning, don’t tell me you fell in love at first sight.”

Yu Chenyu didn’t say anything.

Love?

What a ridiculous word for a male who had no right to choose his mate.

“Do you have a reason to want me?” Qi Zihan felt that he may have underestimated the extent of female status in this world. Could it be that just because a female had selected them once, any male who had been driven away would be executed regardless of whether they had done anything?

Yu Chenyu didn’t answer immediately, as if he was organising his words, trying to answer this question in a way that would least anger Qi Zihan without lying.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t that good at speaking, so he could only say it directly. “I’ve already waited for a mate for five years, I no longer have the patience nor time to wait for another female whose match rate with me reaches 50%.”

Match rate?

Qi Zihan vaguely remembered that what the people from the Female Association said wasn’t “I’ll find you a male zerg,” but “I will match you with a male.”

So this meant that marriage in zerg society wasn’t something that could be done just because someone wanted to, it depended on how much they matched?

What kind of thing was match rate?

“What’s match rate?” he asked.

Hearing this question, Yu Chenyu looked up and met Qi Zihan’s eyes with a hint of confusion. However, he still answered. “The degree of spiritual compatibility is usually displayed as a percentage. Only when it reaches above 50% can the spiritual power of a female effectively soothe a male, thus preventing the male from losing control.”

“What’s our match rate?”

“99.99%, infinitely approaching 100%.”

“One in a million, you mean?”

“No,” Yu Chenyu replied, “to me, you are unique.”

Female zergs were very fragile. All females underwent regular medical examinations, and during that time various values were entered into the system.

Long before Qi Zihan agreed to match with a male, as soon as his medical exam finished, Yu Chenyu received a notification from the system.

[System]: Dear General Yu Chenyu, 0.1s ago, the database updated the data of a female zerg whose spiritual compatibility with you reaches 99.99%. Would you like to send a marriage proposal to the Association for the Rights of Female Zergs service office immediately?

Yu Chenyu replied: Yes.


< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

Chapter 1: You chose me.

Table of Contents | Next >

Qi Zihan looked at the scene in front of him in a trance.

There lay an excessively handsome man on the silk-covered king bed.

He looked like he had mixed Eastern and Western blood, long smooth hair, and somewhat eerie amber eyes.

But none of those were important.

The point was, at this moment, this man wore nothing!

His hands were even tied together and fixed to the headboard!

Clicking his tongue, Qi Zihan took two steps back, left the room, and closed the door.

It seemed that what happened last night wasn’t a dream.

At 11 o’clock last night, Qi Zihan was still on a planet called Earth, lying on his bed and reading on his phone.

He had just finished reading a book and, looking for something new, somehow clicked into a zerg novel.

This was his first zerg novel. Its setting was that female zergs were stronger than male zergs so he thought that the shou would be stronger than the gong, but he soon realised that this was only true when looking at their combat abilities — the shou’s status was far inferior to the gong’s.

Female zergs were superior to males in both appearance and fighting power, but they had physiological defects that males lacked. They had to regularly receive comfort and soothing from males, otherwise they would die.

So in that novel, the beautiful and powerful females were nothing more than cheap consumables, while the mediocre males were extremely noble.

Males could unilaterally beat, scold, and toy with their females, and didn’t have to bear any responsibility for it even if they accidentally caused their deaths.

In contrast, females might face severe punishment at a single word from a male even if they did nothing, to say nothing of actually harming a male.

But why did males deserve this!

Females fought desperately to defend their country, participated in various dangerous or arduous tasks to maintain the stable development of society, and even had to take on the responsibility of bearing and raising offspring.

But males? Apart from periodically soothing the females, they could do whatever they wanted. No one would say anything even if they spent the whole day doing nothing but eating and playing.

These wastes, what gave them the right to treat their females like objects?

Just the novel settings alone already made Qi Zihan very angry.

If the author wrote a wife-chasing crematorium then he could still accept it, but unfortunately, the gong as described by the author was a complete scumbag!

On the first day of marriage, the gong beat the shou severely because he wasn’t obedient enough. At first, the shou didn’t make a sound, but then the gong started using torture instruments, and later he was tortured so much that there wasn’t a single piece of intact skin on his body. However, because of the gong’s order, the shou wasn’t allowed to make any noise and still had to be grateful to the gong.

Reading up to here, Qi Zihan almost smashed his phone in anger.

Then his mind was filled with the novel’s plot for the next two hours, frantically imagining the shou’s resistance, to the point that he couldn’t fall asleep.

After finally falling asleep, he opened his eyes to an unfamiliar environment.

Qi Zihan thought he was dreaming. Several men in strange military uniforms escorted him to a certain place, where he underwent a comprehensive physical examination with the help of a bunch of machines.

While waiting for the medical exam report, another man wearing a strange uniform said to him, “Your accommodation has been arranged, but it’s too dangerous for a female zerg to live by yourself. Do you want to match with a male immediately?”

Hearing the words ‘female zerg’, Qi Zihan recalled bad memories and his face fell.

It was true that people would dream about whatever they thought of during the day.

This dream was quite timely. He could vent anger for the shou he read about yesterday!

Thinking of this, he nodded. “Okay, if he dares to bully me, I’ll show him what real bullying is!”

The two men next to him looked at each other with sympathy in their eyes, but it was unclear who they were sympathising with.

After a while, the medical exam report came out. The man operated the computer for a while, then said to Qi Zihan, “Among the male zergs who submitted applications, the one who has the highest match rate with you is called Yu Chenyu. He is…”

“Him.” He didn’t know why this dream was so long-winded, he couldn’t wait to use ‘domestic violence’ to fight back against ‘domestic violence’.

“Okay,” the man replied in a low voice, “I’ll contact him for you now.”

He worked on the computer for a while again, presumably retrieving the personal information submitted by the male in order to find his contact details.

The sound of his fingertips tapping on the keyboard made Qi Zihan a little sleepy.

Just when he wondered why he would feel sleepy in a dream, his eyelids drooped, his consciousness fell into darkness, and he slumped onto the couch.

The next time he woke up, he was next to a naked man.

Qi Zihan was completely awake.

He was shocked awake by this stimulating scene.

After confirming that he wasn’t dreaming but had really come to a world drastically different from Earth yet somewhat similar to the one described in the novel, he deeply regretted his carelessness last night.

Since it wasn’t a dream, he shouldn’t take out his anger towards the novel on an unrelated person. 

But wait — although he did request a male zerg, he didn’t remember tying him up?

Qi Zihan stalled at the door for a while, confused.

He was sure that he had no memory of stripping or tying up a person.

Then that person, no, that male zerg, who took his clothes off? And who tied him up?

Wait, male zerg?

Qi Zihan suddenly realised that he had overlooked the most important point — if this really was the world of the novel, why would a male zerg who should have been enoying himself be tied to the bed without any dignity like that?

And he who was a ‘female zerg’ seemed to have a very high status?

He hadn’t paid much attention to how he was treated last night because he thought he had been dreaming. 

Besides, he was a shou himself, wasn’t it normal to dream that he was a female zerg?

But if this wasn’t a dream, turning into a female zerg was a problem! A big problem!

With his face abruptly draining of blood, he rushed into the bathroom and examined his body.

A few minutes later, he went out with a frozen face.

He… had turned into a female zerg.

Although his face was still the same attractive face and the muscles he had gained from exercising regularly were still there, there were subtle changes in his body structure.

Qi Zihan didn’t know what to do.

A strange world, a strange species, even his own body became a little strange.

However, since he was here, what else could he do except adapt and survive?

He wasn’t so stupid as to commit suicide in an attempt to get back to Earth. What if he did die?

Now that he had chosen to live in this world, the first thing to do was to collect intelligence… no, he first had to deal with ‘that thing’ in his room.

Returning to the door leading to the room where that man was, he took a deep, silent breath, pressed down the door handle, pushed open the door, and walked in.

He looked at the man without going closer, and the man also looked at him without a sound.

The man was beautiful, the kind of beauty that was unique to someone of mixed Eastern and Western heritage.

But he obviously wasn’t just a pretty vase. His body was covered in defined muscles, which were clearly the result of long-term training.

Qi Zihan only needed a glance to know that he couldn’t beat him.

Thus, he needed to understand the situation before letting him loose.

“You are… Yu…” Qi Zihan thought that since this man was the male zerg that he had requested, he should have heard his name before.

Unfortunately, while thinking it was a dream, he hardly paid attention to such a thing, which resulted in him only having a vague idea of it.

“Yu Chenyu.” Finally, the man said his own name, with no expression on his face from beginning to end. He didn’t show any surprise or disappointment that Qi Zihan couldn’t remember his name, as if he had long expected it.

“Yu Chenyu,” Qi Zihan repeated, etching it in his mind, then he approached him carefully and grabbed the quilt nearby. “Who took off your clothes?”

As he asked, he threw the quilt over the man, covering up his lower half.

Yu Chenyu’s eyes were fixed on Qi Zihan, as if he was observing something. At the same time, he answered his question with his hoarse yet magnetic voice, “I took off the clothes myself, the ropes were tied by people from the Female Association.”

Qi Zihan let out a sigh of relief at the knowledge that it wasn’t his work, however… “Female Association?”

Yu Chenyu stared at Qi Zihan for a while, then gave an answer after confirming that the confusion on his face came from the organisation’s abbreviated name. “The Association for the Rights of Female Zergs, referred to as the Female Association.” After a pause, he continued, “You’ve just moved to a new environment and may be a little confused, but I don’t know much about you either. I only know that an Imperial Army patrol found you in a high-risk area and immediately sent you to the Female Association for intensive care. Then the Association matched you with a male according to your requirements, and you chose me.”

When he said ‘you chose me’, Yu Chenyu’s tone was particularly emphatic.

Qi Zihan felt guilty and unsure of how to explain his behaviour last night.

He had casually asked the Association to find him a male zerg only because he thought he was dreaming.

Anyone who found themselves somewhere completely different from Earth after falling asleep would think they were dreaming!

And it was impossible to say he had transmigrated to just anyone.

In the end, he chose to not explain anything. He reached out and touched the thick rope on Yu Chenyu’s wrists, wanting to help him untie it, but found…

What kind of rope was this? Who tied it? It was too strong! Was this tying up a man or a prisoner?

In the process of untying the rope, Qi Zihan inevitably brushed against Yu Chenyu’s skin.

The texture of zerg skin wasn’t much different from that of humans, but he couldn’t see any blood vessels even at such a close distance, making it seem like his arm was a single piece of marble.

After realising that Qi Zihan was untying him, Yu Chenyu wasn’t happy, rather, his expression darkened. “Are you… unsatisfied with me?”

Qi Zihan paused. Although he felt very sorry for this man whose body he had seen naked, he had no intention of getting married until he had gathered enough information and understood the world well enough.

Therefore he said, “We haven’t slept together, just pretend nothing happened.”

Hearing this, Yu Chenyu’s expression sank further and his beautiful amber eyes became dim as the light within disappeared, just like dark clouds covering the sky.

“Can you… give me another chance?”

After a while, more words came as if they had been squeezed out from between his teeth. “I will try my best to satisfy you, I’m begging you, please don’t abandon me, Lord Wife.”

Lord… Lord what?

Qi Zihan was so surprised that he exerted force with his hand, causing the rough hemp rope to scratch his fingertips, leaving a tiny blood-red mark.


Translator:
Hello! I’m planning to translate 19 chapters, after that… we’ll see. If you look around on this site you’ll know that I like to translate just the free chapters of a novel in the hopes that someone else will pick it up — hasn’t happened yet, but hope springs eternal.

Table of Contents | Next >

Chapter 22: National Teacher notifies everyone: tomorrow we go into VIP!!!

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

He leapt through the air towards the consul, fearless of death, and pierced through the Observatory’s encirclement.

As Qin Yunian collapsed in terror, Mo Shuchong showed a twisted smile for the first time. “Villain, you really do remember me!”

But when his scimitar slashed through him, Qin Yunian’s figure wavered. Mo Shuchong was startled to realise that what he hit was only a mirage, and by the time he came back to his senses, Qin Yunian was nowhere in sight. Somehow, the Observatory had interfered with his senses.

“What magic is this!” an assassin disguised as a dancer blurted, “It’s a trap!”

Iron-Clad Guards holding doctored knuckledusters1These have a longer history than you might expect (first documented in India during the 12th century) and are known to have existed as a type of concealed weapon during ancient China. Since these ones are described as drugged/doctored, I’d guess they’re of the spiked variant. surrounded Mo Shuchong tightly. Scouts hidden outside had already sent retreat signals — their actions tonight had already been predicted by the enemy, they wouldn’t be able to gain any advantage and might even fold here.

As the assassins turned to retreat without hesitation, Qu Lingxin let out a cruel grin. “Guards, stop them. Catch one alive.”

The knuckledusters the Guards used were smeared with sedatives. A female assassin couldn’t move fast enough, was hit, and immediately went down. Liwei Court had only mobilised three core assassins this time, including Mo Shuchong. The others tried their best to protect Mo Shuchong’s retreat, but seeing the situation, he had to turn and give the female assassin a knife.

“Those are just small fry,” Qu Lingxin said to Bai Jing’an, “can’t you see that they can be abandoned without hesitation? So you see, this is why Commander Bai still can’t exterminate them.”

Bai Jing’an frowned. “You mean I’m not ruthless enough?”

Qu Lingxin neither agreed nor disagreed as Bai Jing’an’s Iron-Clad Guards took out a barbed net and threw it towards Liwei Court’s assassins. One of the two remaining assassins pushed Mo Shuchong out before taking his own life, and perfectly blocked the net with his own fallen corpse.

“Troubled times are coming, Commander Bai. Mercy is no longer suitable,” Qu Lingxin drawled as he observed the body lying in its pool of blood.

“Commander! It’s bad, there’s a crowd rioting outside, calling themselves revolutionaries who are protesting against Iron-Clad Guards killing people on the street…!”

Despite this evening’s chaos, those who had stirred up the muddy water sat peacefully within the post house. Lan Jue held a cup of wine as he played weiqi2Better known by its Japanese name Go with Chu Xiang.

To be honest, both of them were bad at weiqi. Chu Xiang had long forgotten the rules, because who would play this in space? People would rather spend time on real-time strategy games, or simply go online for a PVP mecha battle. If someone really wanted to play a board game, there were had maniacs who invented 3D Connect Five,3An actual, real life game. See Backyard Games NZ for an example. not to mention those who were in the process of designing 3D weiqi, xiangqi, and even chess…43D chess already exists and has since at least the late 19th century. There’s also a computer game called 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel and it’s exactly as bonkers as it sounds. See Steam and Wikipedia; I recommend reading the Steam reviews.

And as for Lan Jue, he had little opportunity to play weiqi in his life, so he was still learning.

However, Chu Xiang’s brain contained Xie Zhiwei.

An AI able to control an entire mothership condescended to use his abilities to cheat at weiqi; the result was that Lan Jue lost miserably the entire night.

“Can’t you let me win once in a while?” he asked half-seriously.

Chu Xiang, pretending to be self-righteous, pinched a stone. “The dignity of a monarch isn’t achieved by being given it.”

A moment passed, then Lan Jue looked down at the board. “Bai Mo told me you pulled out Longque.”

“I did.” Chu Xiang placed the stone on the board with a soft clack.

His surprisingly calm attitude left Lan Jue with practically no way to respond, but he couldn’t let go of the topic so easily. As the legend went, Longque was a blade exclusive to the emperor, and indeed no one had been able to unsheathe it in the past. Now, rather than being ecstatic that he was able to pull it out, Lan Jue was more curious as to why Chu Xiang was able to do the same.

“Maybe it’s as your sister said — if you’re an evil star who came from the sky, it would be reasonable for you to be able to wield a demonic sword.”

“Do you really believe that, Your Excellency?” Chu Xiang smiled.

“I don’t,” Lan Jue replied, “but I need others to believe it.”

“It’s better if Your Excellency believes it,” Chu Xiang said, “otherwise I’ll worry if one day you might drag me out to be executed.”

Lan Jue, looking at him with amusement in his eyes, said meaningfully, “It’s hard to say.”

Chu Xiang rubbed his neck. “It’s a bit wretched to be decapitated, I’d rather be granted poisoned wine,” he said casually.

Lan Jue said nothing, to which Chu Xiang smiled and picked up another stone. “However, once you’ve conquered the world and transformed barren dirt into fertile soil, if you really want to kill me, you can just hang me on a city wall afterwards. By then I can probably be at peace watching the great rivers and mountains.”

As they talked, a light noise came from further within the building. Lan Jue pulled out his sword on the spot, only to see Mo Shuchong walk out from a hidden corner.

Blood dripped from his arm as he knelt. “This subordinate is guilty, I failed to assassinate the consul for My Lord. It was my fault for being reckless, which caused us to fall into a trap and be chased all the way back…”

“Bandage your injury first, talk about it later,” Lan Jue said.

The street outside erupted in noise. “Fortunately there are rebels making trouble on the streets,” Mo Shuchong said as he carelessly smeared himself with medicinal paste.

“You think I know nothing about your little tricks?” Lan Jue asked rhetorically. “Although you didn’t ask for my permission before the assassination attempt tonight, I don’t care about your motivation — however, since your services are now mine, I won’t allow you to be wiped out so quickly. I was the one who ordered Yang Feng to contact the rebels. I have no intention of taking them in, but they’re still useful once in a while.”

“Thank you, My Lord…” Mo Shuchong said guiltily. “This time, it was the Observatory who intervened. I shouldn’t have disturbed you, but…”

“Is the Lord of Western Tang here! Iron-Clad Guards’ Commander Bai Jing’an asks to see him!”

Mo Shuchong’s expression abruptly changed. “No, I made sure not to leave any traces!”

Chu Xiang pointed to beneath the bed. “Hide, quickly.”

Outside, Yang Feng shouted, “Presumptuous, how dare you break into the lord’s residence without permission?! My Lord is resting, you — hey, stop right there!”

“Yang Feng can’t stop the Guards, it seems like that Qu Lingxin has some real skills,” Chu Xiang said as he stood.

Lan Jue heard Yang Feng’s warning; but he yelled so loudly that Bai Jing’an could of course also guess that he was warning someone.

“We won’t be able to hide Mo Shuchong.”

“Hurry, we’re almost out of time, Excellency.” Chu Xiang suddenly grabbed Lan Jue and pushed him onto the bed. “Excuse me!”

“What…?”

Before Lan Jue could react, Chu Xiang tore open his own clothes and sat astride Lan Jue, who subconsciously held his waist, rough calluses against tender skin. At the same time, Bai Jing’an opened the door —

“Who let you in!!!”

Bai Jing’an was, after all, someone who had experienced many things, so his face hardly twitched as he respectfully saluted Lan Jue. It was the Guard behind him who couldn’t hold back his wandering eyes for a moment —

It turned out that the rumour was true — the Lord of Western Tang preferred the male sex.

Although many nobles had strange hobbies, perhaps only Lord Lan would refuse to restrain himself even after having his marriage proposal rejected…

“My Lord, the Iron-Clad Guards are handling a case. There are assassins loose in the city, I only want to ensure your safety and did not mean to disturb…”

Before he could finish, Lan Jue had already gritted his teeth and shouted, “Get out!”

“Yes sir!”

Without hesitating for a second, he left the room before the Lord of Western Tang’s anger erupted, accompanied by Yang Feng’s mocking eyes all the way. However, Yang Feng admired this Commander of the Guards quite a bit — not even his eyebrows moved at such a spicy scene, which contrasted starkly against the younger Guard next to him who was red down to the base of his neck.

The atmosphere inside the room became very strange. Underneath the bed, Mo Shuchong didn’t dare to move an inch, whether that be because he feared the Guards would return or something else.

Only Xie Zhiwei could continue chattering, safe as he was within Chu Xiang’s mind. “Tsk, Captain, you’re taking advantage again. But let me remind you that the beauty you’re hugging has elevated blood pressure and accelerated heart rate, I think he’s more than a bit angry.”

Chu Xiang slowly slithered out of Lan Jue’s arms and then, as if nothing had happened, he straightened his clothes, shrugged his outer robe which had fallen to his waist back on, then saluted. “Please forgive me, Your Excellency.”

The man regained his gentlemanly demeanour as soon as he put on his clothes properly, as gentle as the jade-like moon, with only a faint trace of red at the corners of his eyes remaining from his affectionate look a moment ago.

Blue veins popped along Lan Jue’s hands as he snarled, “You, get the hell out as well!”

“Yes.”

Chu Xiang ran away at the speed of light. It took half a day for Mo Shuchong to dare to crawl out from beneath the bed, and he thought for a long time before gathering up the courage to say, “This matter happened because of me, My Lord. Please do not blame Sir Chu.”

Lan Jue waved him away irritably, not even caring why the assassin wanted to kill the consul.

* * *

By the time he attended morning court the next day, Lan Jue was still absent-minded.

After the events of last night, Chu Xiang disappeared early in the morning and even his instructions for the day were handed to him on notes via Chu Hexing.

Frustration brewed within him. It was obviously that person who pounced on him, but why did it seem like he was the one who would eat someone now?

Various ministers and lords rose to speak, one after another. Consul Qin Yunian also reported on this season’s spring banquets, without sparing even half a word on the assassins he encountered the previous evening.

At this time, the Lord of Chen suddenly interjected. “Your Imperial Majesty, last night I received an urgent message from my territory: traces of wild Night Tribesmen from the plains were found in a forested border area. I ask Your Majesty’s permission to depart for my territory in advance, in order to prepare for a crusade against them.”

Returning early?

Lan Jue’s heart moved slightly, so he tentatively said, “Your Majesty, Western Tang is going through a calamity. Although I can enjoy myself here, I’m still worried that those hooligans will run crying to my door after a single day with no food, so please, let me go back with relief supplies soon!”

As he made his vulgar remarks, he glanced over at the emperor and internally sneered at his muddled, drunken state.

He wanted to see how the emperor, or the Observatory, would stop him.


Author:
Today, Chu Xiang teased a certain Mr. Lan to the point of explosion… these actions of his, he’ll have to pay back one day!

Translator:
As planned, this novel is officially dropped and free for other translators to pick up. My next project is A Transmigrated Figure Skater Becomes an Author by 菌行, of which I’ll translate 21 chapters.

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

  • 1
    These have a longer history than you might expect (first documented in India during the 12th century) and are known to have existed as a type of concealed weapon during ancient China. Since these ones are described as drugged/doctored, I’d guess they’re of the spiked variant.
  • 2
    Better known by its Japanese name Go
  • 3
    An actual, real life game. See Backyard Games NZ for an example.
  • 4
    3D chess already exists and has since at least the late 19th century. There’s also a computer game called 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel and it’s exactly as bonkers as it sounds. See Steam and Wikipedia; I recommend reading the Steam reviews.

Chapter 21: The Many New Uses For AI

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

Chu Xiang stepped in to explain for her. “Your Excellency, last year the imperial court passed a new law regarding slavery, which included a clause that if someone can’t pay their taxes on time, they can hand over their children to be slaves of the state in exchange for reduced taxes. As soon as this edict was released, coupled with the heavy tax burden, many ordinary people couldn’t escape the fate of becoming slaves. They were either forced to construct new manors for noblemen or became prostitutes, thus, I first selected those who were instrumental in pushing the law through, as well as one tax official who carried it out.”

“Yes,” Bai Mo said, “Two newcomers last year came to me because of it.”

Lan Jue nodded calmly, but then asked, “You didn’t even spare their youngest children, wasn’t that a bit much?”

Bai Mo shook her head. “Since their parents have already been killed, it would be even more cruel to leave the children behind, My Lord. I for one had hated that I didn’t die with my family that year… this wasn’t Sir Chu’s arrangement, it was my own decision. Sir Chu only said to kill the traitor to build momentum for your future actions, but my assassins were accidentally carried away by revenge… he reprimanded us afterwards and I also know that we were wrong to do it. Since we’re pretending to be righteous rebels, we shouldn’t be so ruthless.”

“Oh… he isn’t so angry anymore,” Xie Zhiwei reminded quietly.

However, Lan Jue said, “That isn’t necessarily true, those self-proclaimed righteous people may be even more cold-blooded than you when they do things. They’re only driven by anger and have no greater goal.”

“After today, the phrase ‘there is no justice in this world’ will spread. When the time is right in the future, Your Excellency can legitimately use the slogan of returning justice to the world,” Chu Xiang said.

At this time, Mo Shuchong suddenly whispered, “My Lord must be careful — future events can be considered in the future, but it’s still an open question as to whether you can leave Tianyan.”

“Why do you say so?” Lan Jue asked.

Due to spending too long disguised as female, Mo Shuchong’s voice was rather airy and high-pitched, but he still whispered, “An informant contacted me to say that the Observatory’s people have thoughts against you, and in addition, someone recently tried to buy our services to kill you. The informant said that they should be an astrologer from the Observatory.”

Chu Xiang had heard from Lan Jue what happened when he had been summoned to imperial court, and knew that the Observatory had stood against him. “You can try contacting them, I’m not sure why the Observatory is suddenly biting at us,” he said to Mo Shuchong.

“It’s said that the Observatory Master Qu Lingxin is very good at deducing heaven’s secrets.”

“I thought that was just those charlatans bragging to please the emperor!” Bai Mo exclaimed.

Mo Shuchong shook his head despondently. “No, Qu Lingxin was born into a family of astrology masters, is proficient in both astrology and numerology, and does have abilities that ordinary people do not. Not mentioning anything else, Qu Lingxin doesn’t look much older than his twenties but he’s actually around the same age as the emperor, maybe around sixty years old.”

He hesitated, then continued in a stiff tone, “My Lord, I also have other news to tell you. Recently, the Observatory has secretly transported the remains of the late Lord of Western Tang to the capital.”

This shocked Lan Jue immensely. “What did you say? My father’s remains?”

“Yes, Qu Lingxin sent people to the late lord’s burial grounds. The late lord passed away in exile and could not be brought home because the Lan family’s crimes hadn’t yet been pardoned, thus he was buried on the spot. You have tried to recover his body for many years, but due to the harsh conditions of the time a tomb wasn’t built, so it has been impossible to find again.”

“That’s right, I was young and couldn’t do much. So you’re saying that Qu Lingxin found my father’s remains, and then… but why would he secretly move it to the capital?”

“He’s targeting you, so he would also target your… filial piety,” Chu Xiang said, “this is… I guess he doesn’t believe your act, and wants to test whether you really are an uneducated brute.”

The chill Lan Jue felt would almost manifest in reality every time his father was brought up, and cold killing intent filled the room.

Just as Chu Xiang worried whether he would erupt, Lan Jue stated steadily, “For now, we’ll wait and see.”

* * *

It was late at night. According to the plan, the assassins wouldn’t move tonight, so Chu Xiang had climbed into bed early on and prepared to sleep.

There was nothing to be done for the slow pace of life in ancient times, and moreover, they were currently in the dormant stage where they were slowly gathering strength and pretending to be weak.

But now that there was Xie Zhiwei, Chu Xiang at least had more avenues for entertainment.

“Zhiwei, do you have any novels or movies or something, share them.”

“I do, but I don’t have a holographic projection module, so I can play a movie but you won’t have an audio-visual feast to enjoy,” Xie Zhiwei replied through the communication channel. “And the novels… they’re all danmei novels from Jinjiang which you despised before, do you still want to…?”

Chu Xiang: “…”

After a while, the haughty AI took the initiative to contact him. “Ah, your lord is taking a bath.”

“…Zhiwei, how bored are you to peek at someone who’s bathing?”

“But his body is so good, he’s got eight-pack abs and mermaid lines!”

Chu Xiang: “Excuse me, do you have a camera function…”

Xie Zhiwei was very proud as he replied, “No. So only I can appreciate it. Captain, I know you want to look at hotties again, but I must say, you look very good in this world as well, you can just take a look in the mirror.”

It was true that the Chu Xiang of this world looked different from Captain Chu Xiang — their similarities could reach 60%, but they also had many differences. Indeed, if he looked in the mirror, he could admire it as an unfamiliar beautiful person for a while.

“I have many problems, but I’ve never been narcissistic,” he refused righteously.

Another period of time passed.

“Captain, you should do it. You have to remember that you aren’t in space right now, you’re in… a feudal and backwards ancient era,” Xie Zhiwei said.

“So what?”

“In my database, no matter which dynasty or kingdom, accompanying the emperor is always like accompanying a tiger, and moreover, anyone assisting the dragon to rise rarely receives a good ending. Old ministers have always been discarded a few years after the world is conquered, I… I’m worried, like today, your lord got angry for no reason, what if neither of us find out? And even if I can tell, I don’t know why he’s angry, I can only scan his hormone levels to judge his mood. I’m not really a sword spirit, and I can’t read minds either, that’s unscientific! According to statistical probability calculations, the chance of you dying a good death is only 0.82%.”

Chu Xiang fell silent for a long while, then suddenly smiled. “Do you think self-destructing in space is a good death?”

“…I have no way of answering this question.”

“I think it is, because I achieved what I wanted, I asked for compassion and received compassion,” Chu Xiang said. “So, no matter what my outcome is in this world, I’ll do what I want to do.”

“Okay, Captain,” Xie Zhiwei replied. “As you wish, I will obey your orders.”

“Then can you take a couple pictures of Lan Jue’s body for me to see?”

“…Captain.”

“Hm?”

“You shameless pervert, scram.”

Chu Xiang didn’t get to see Lan Jue’s abs in the end. Although he felt regretful for this, he did see Lan Jue’s… recently washed figure. Because Xie Zhiwei still helped him get some benefits by accurately informing him of the time.

When he knocked on Lan Jue’s door, Lan Jue greeted him while dressed only in an inner robe with his hair still damp.

“Your Excellency, please excuse me.”

Chu Xiang saluted as he spoke with evidently no intention to leave, so Lan Jue raised an eyebrow and turned sideways to allow him inside the room.

“Your Excellency, I have discussed our next target with Madam Mo,” he said. “The Guards’ reaction is much bigger than anticipated, it seems that although the emperor doesn’t care for ruling, he’s still scared that the world will change hands. We may not need to act directly against the consul at all. As long as we continue to cultivate the atmosphere of ‘no justice in this world’ where heroes rise up and killers run rampant in the capital, the emperor will naturally be more concerned with disaster relief and pacifying the people. In this way, less supplies will be lost due to corruption by the time we reach the principality.”

Qin Yunian. Lan Jue’s heart moved slightly. The consul who had refused to help Western Tang through famine had become a fat piece of meat to be eaten himself.

“You may continue,” he said.

“Excellency, may I know the situation within the principality?”

“My secret agents have reported that in order for my uncle to cooperate with them and move against me, Eastern Tang has provided some relief food and grass, which can be counted as a silver lining. Little Nian is still under house arrest with a cavalry team patrolling outside his palace. They don’t dare to disobey my royal uncle but neither are they willing to take substantial action, so they’re in a stalemate for the time being,” Lan Jue replied.

But then he said, “These things can be left for tomorrow morning, why aren’t you sleeping? You don’t want your body anymore? Your injuries are healed?”

Chu Xiang was surprised for a moment, then smiled. “Yes, I will go rest now.”

As he retreated from the room, he couldn’t help but cast another admiring glance at Lan Jue, and habitually curved his lips up. “Good night!”

The door closed and the night stilled, yet Lan Jue couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.

* * *

Summer arrived and heralded the end of flower viewing spring banquets. The assassinations hadn’t made the nobles rein in their excesses — indeed, they had become even more extravagant. Yelu Street had been reopened but Iron-Clad Guards still patrolled there, which many nobles found depressing, so they simply brought the singers and dancers to their own homes to enjoy.

The host of tonight’s event was none other than Consul Qin Yunian. Only when someone’s status was as respected as the consul’s were Peonies from multiple brothels willing to put aside their squabbles to go to their residence and join in the fun. Meanwhile, the female relatives within the rear courtyard chattered amongst themselves jealously. In today’s Tianyan, Peonies were worth more than noble ladies, how could they feel comfortable?

Their tones were cool as they talked about Chief Justice Zhang’s daughter —

“They looked down on the Lord of Western Tang before, but now that the Chief Justice is dead, won’t that girl have to cry on the streets…”

“That family’s lost its backbone, I heard she’s already gone to become a Peony!”

Music, dance, and food flowed within the main hall, and occasionally some literati stood to compose poems. A dancer from Jingshan Court twirled gracefully at the centre of the venue. She was a dancer from an exotic land, with dark skin yet pale golden hair, and gold bells dotted her entire body which rang crisply with each of her enchanting steps.

Qin Yunian, clearly drunk, picked up his wine cup and laughed loudly.

“This is a foreign dancer from the southern border, a newcomer to Jingshan Court!”

One of the guests who was more well-informed couldn’t help but admire, “I heard that people from the plains in the south look very different from normal people. We have white skin and black hair while they have black skin and white hair, and they sleep during the day and come out at night, so they’re also called Night Tribesmen. It’s really amazing to see one today!”

“The southern border, that’s… speaking of, where’s the Lord of Western Tang?”

“I heard — don’t know if it’s true or not — but I heard that the real reason why Lord Zhang rejected him is because… Lord Zhang found out after many twists and turns that the Lord of Western Tang is a cutsleeve!”*

The entire banquet hall instantly perked up.

“No wonder he hates attending banquets… sigh, it’s fine to play once in a while, but you can’t do it for real.”

Bells rang out, clear and melodious, as the dancer gracefully waved her arms. Her sheer outfit fluttered and her hair floated through the air as she spun.

In a split second, white light flew out from her hair and shot directly at the consul!

However, before anyone could scream, the maids behind the Consul suddenly stood with sabres in hand which collided with the dancer’s hidden weapon. On their sabre hilts were a pattern made of stars —

“The Observatory?” the dancer muttered. His voice was low — although it wasn’t as deep as a man’s, it certainly didn’t belong to a woman.

“Assassin!” the Observatory’s female bodyguards shouted.

The exotic dancer’s body made a strange rattling sound. The bone-shrinking technique would affect a person’s flexibility. Within the blink of an eye, the dancer’s body elongated and transformed into a sturdy man.

For some reason, Liwei Court’s assassins did not comply with the agreement.

Mo Shuchong threw out a string of bells like a whip. As it cracked through the air, a literati who hadn’t been able to dodge in time had his throat ripped open by silk thread, causing blood to spurt out three feet high.

“Protect the consul!”

“Bastard official, go to hell!” Mo Shuchong shouted.


Author:
A must-have for seeing hotties when travelling: Xie Zhiwei!!! And Chu Xiang still doesn’t know why Lan Jue was angry hahahahaha

When I was writing this whole bunch of assassination scenes, I read up on the history of the Warring States period, stuff like Biographies of Assassins,1A chapter from Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian, the definitive history book of the time (c. 91 BCE) and then I discovered a serious problem — in our history, a lot of assassins had absolutely trash combat skills. Only one assassin has ever succeeded, the others were all incompetent yet still became legends! And I’ve always wanted to complain about Jing Ke,2Possibly the most well-known assassin in Chinese history, famed for failing an assassination attempt against King Zheng of Qin, who later became Qin Shi Huang. See Wikipedia. you’re so useless but you still became an assassin… Sure enough, reality is disappointing. Assassins are actually all useless, it’s already pretty good to be able to recognise their targets. Things in the movies like wearing stealthy costumes, using hidden weapons, and only needing to go whoosh whoosh whoosh to kill someone… Impossible! Not happening! Doesn’t exist!
……
And also, about Qu Lingxin, how should I say this? He doesn’t want to wreck the emperor’s reign, but his skills are a bit crooked. I’ve tried my best but I really don’t know how to govern a country… can you guys please let him go and let him peacefully be an elegant villain hahahahaa

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

  • 1
    A chapter from Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian, the definitive history book of the time (c. 91 BCE)
  • 2
    Possibly the most well-known assassin in Chinese history, famed for failing an assassination attempt against King Zheng of Qin, who later became Qin Shi Huang. See Wikipedia.

Chapter 20: There is no justice in this world, so you should live and die for your beliefs

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

It wasn’t that Bai Jing’an wanted to let the situation escalate, but the corpses obviously belonged to more than one person. Judging from the fragments of clothing, once they found out their identities, it would definitely make a list that would make his scalp numb, so he couldn’t simply order the bodies — likely belonging to high-ranking officials — to be burned. 

Although rain could wash away bloodstains, it couldn’t erase the smell of death.

Human remains covered the ground, all of whom had died during the previous night and gone unnoticed due to heavy rain impacting the Guards’ ability to patrol. Nor had the Guards found any traces of assassins or when the bodies were cut up and placed into words. The assassins’ methods were cruel, with men and women of all ages present at the scene. It wasn’t long before one of Bai Jing’an’s subordinates approached with a report.

“Sir, so far we’ve confirmed that the deceased include two ministers from the Ministry of Revenue, two lieutenants from the army, and a tax officer working in Tianyan City surnamed Cai.”

“So many? Let Adjutant Chen Liang take a team to temporarily seal up the entire Yelu Street,” Bai Jing’an ordered.

“But there are so many nobles going through Yelu Street, if we block them I’m afraid there’ll be a lot of trouble.”

Bai Jing’an’s eyebrows twisted as he shouted back, “Isn’t there trouble now?”

This event really shocked the whole of Tianyan, soon the sentence made of corpses became the new gossip around town after ‘all freeze bar none’. Even the children running around on the streets who didn’t understand its meaning were talking about it.

There is no justice in this world, so you should live and die for your beliefs.

It wasn’t surprising that the emperor summoned Bai Jing’an in a fury.

“Who did this, who!”

Bai Jing’an prostrated as he replied, “Your Majesty, I do not know yet.”

A cup of tea flew towards him and smacked him straight in the chest, splashing him with hot tea.

“What am I feeding your Iron-Clad Guards for?” the emperor thundered.

“Your Majesty! There are many victims this time and they all appear unrelated, from the highest minster to the most ordinary tax officer. There is no connection between them at present, so I need more time to verify it.”

“Your Majesty!”

Another voice came out from behind a partition, but while the arrival of the Observatory Master Qu Lingxin made the emperor even angrier, the emperor didn’t target him. Instead, he pointed at Bai Jing’an. “Just watch, We know that this Guard commander will be replaced sooner or later!” he scolded.

“Your Majesty, you need not be angry, this is not the first day Tianyan had assassins running rampant. Although this time is indeed different from before…” Qu Lingxin said.

“You also see that it’s different. Lingxin, do you have any clues?”

“I stand by my initial judgement, Your Majesty.”

The emperor disagreed with a wave of his hand. “You’ve seen it too that Lan Jue isn’t ambitious. It was reasonable when you said he killed Zhang Fengyu — We heard that Zhang Fengyu rejected Lan Jue’s marriage proposal and humiliated him in public — but the victim this time has never even met Lan Jue.”

“‘Autumn brings winter’s frost, all freeze bar none.’ Has Your Majesty heard of this line?” Qu Lingxin asked in reply. “Regardless of if the person who wrote it had the intentions, he is now Lan Jue’s man, and today’s sentence ‘there is no justice in this world’ perfectly matches the poem. The stars have guided us to look towards Western Tang, Your Majesty, and when I deduced the secrets of heaven, this is the conclusion I reached — the one who will stir chaos in the world originates from the south, and Yinghuo’s light faintly points towards Western Tang. Although it still belongs to Tianyan now, if Your Majesty allows the Lord of Western Tang to return south, the predicted future may really come true!”

Seeing the emperor make no reply, Qu Lingxin continued, “We have now reached a turning point — the evil star has descended, or at least that’s what the people are saying. Your Majesty, do you intend to let this situation ferment?”

Astrology was a very mysterious thing to Bai Jing’an, who considered it little more than a pastime for noble ladies. However, the emperor believed in it. Qu Lingxin could rely on just a star chart to lead the emperor’s court as he wished, with a foundation even more solid than that of the Grand Princess’ which she built with years of strategising. Although he was disdainful, he didn’t dare to show any of it.

The Observatory Master’s erratic gaze fell on Bai Jing’an, and after a long, silent stare, he said, “Commander Bai’s presence is no longer required, you can go.”

“Yes, please excuse this minister.”

Deputy Commander Chen Liang, who came with Bai Jing’an, silently glanced at Qu Lingxin, and as he retreated, the man’s misty gaze pierced through the void to land on him, causing him to almost trip.

Fortunately, Bai Jing’an blocked his line of sight.

* * *

Yelu Street reopened within half a day. This was Tianyan’s most prosperous district, the city’s economy would be seriously impacted if it was shut down for any longer, and moreover, those high-ranking court officials who liked to put on airs of elegance would never accept it. Now, the corpses that had been washed pale by rain were nowhere to be found.

Lan Jue could hardly conceal the disgust he felt towards the drunken noblemen present when he followed Chu Xiang into Chunjiang Pavilion.

The brothel madam thought he was dissatisfied with the maid who greeted them for being too ugly, so she hurriedly asked a Peony to receive them, completely skipping the step of pleading for an audience.

Chu Xiang couldn’t help but sigh. He had to spend half a month’s time to meet Bai Mo once, but Lan Jue only needed to poke his foot through the door. Evidently, no matter how unwelcome the Lord of Western Tang was, he wasn’t someone the brothel would dare to take lightly.

As soon as the door closed and a maid stepped up to guard it, Bai Mo, the Peony madam, transformed into Mo Shuning, the leader of an assassin organisation. She knelt before him and touched her head to the ground, which Lan Jue peaceably received before pulling her upright.

“I never thought that Sir Mo’s daughter would end up like this.”

Bai Mo smiled bitterly but quickly recovered. She waved her hand to summon a maid, whose body emitted clicking sounds as her limbs lengthened. She turned out to be a man who was using a bone shrinking technique.1An actual real life skill, though not as fantastical as in novels. It involves habitually dislocating joints to achieve hypermobility, then relying on the strength of your muscles to move in certain ways which gives the illusion of having no bones. Similar to contortionists. Soon, he returned to his original appearance and kowtowed to Lan Jue.

“This is my younger brother, Mo Shuchong. He was very young when our home was ransacked, so I was able to get him out by disguising him as a girl. My brother and I wandered for years until we joined the Liwei Court assassins and came under the command of their leader. Later, by chance, my brother killed the leader, which allowed us to escape his clutches and no longer be controlled and used. However… We have been living in hiding for so many years and don’t know how to do anything other than kill, so I could only take over as the new leader.”

“Liwei Court?” Lan Jue said slowly, as if savouring the words.

“Evil runs rampant when ghosts roam at night. If Lord Lan didn’t retain us, we would be no more than ghosts running around in this troubled world.”

Lan Jue glanced over at Chu Xiang. “You could actually find the infamous assassin syndicate Liwei Court just by hanging around the red light district.”

Chu Xiang didn’t explain, Bai Mo was the one to say with a smile, “It isn’t so strange, for those working in this field, you need to do everything in your power to hide somewhere many people pass through. Therefore, taverns, teahouses, and inns are all good choices, but as a woman, it isn’t appropriate to show up at taverns or inns, so the only choice left is a brothel.”

Liwei Court’s core members who followed Bai Mo numbered eighteen elite assassins. Except for Mo Shuchong, they were all women.

“This place wasn’t chosen casually — for most people, if they’re engaged in a career that shouldn’t see the light of day, such as killing people, then they want to be as unremarkable as possible, the kind that you don’t glance twice at. But we’re different. If you have no beauty and become one of the greeting girls outside, there’s nothing you can do if the target is someone of high birth; but you can’t be too beautiful either, because Peonies like me see too few guests. It’s best to be only slightly famous like the girls I have with me, who can both go to high-profile banquets and see wealthy benefactors.”

“You don’t have anyone planted among the public to deal with ordinary targets?”

“You must be joking, who would spend money to buy the lives of people from poor families? It’s not worth it at all,” she sneered.

A brief silence descended in the room until Bai Mo calmly changed the topic.

“My assassins work three people to a team: one assassin and two scouts. The scouts are responsible for supporting the assassin by preparing supplies, making a plan, hiding the evidence afterwards, and so on. So right now we actually have fifty-four people, as well as myself and seven informants who do not participate in the killing. I can absolutely guarantee their loyalty.”

“You people were the ones who did it last night?” Lan Jue asked.

“Yes, I was the one who ordered them to do it. Regarding the victims, I used Your Excellency’s information network to select people who were involved with the slavery bill that was enacted last year,” Chu Xiang answered in Bai Mo’s place.

Lan Jue scoffed. “You dare to make your own decisions?” He only asked Chu Xiang to deal with the consul, yet he staged a drama that shocked the entire capital.

Although, it was indeed wonderful.

Faced with this question, Chu Xiang couldn’t say that he forgot because he was used to being a commanding officer. He could only say, “Your Excellency is merciful, it’s better to leave this kind of dirty work to this minister.”

Within his sleeves, Lan Jue’s fingers twitched slightly at the way the man lowered his eyes as he spoke in a very normal tone… if it weren’t for the unsuitable circumstances, Lan Jue even wanted to throw him against the wall by his collar and ask, why should you bear this for me? There were rumours of the evil star swirling throughout the world, so this person wanted to take on the label for himself and leave his emperor with a sparkling clean reputation? Chu Hexing hadn’t gone to school and didn’t know of human nature, could he not know? If the words ‘evil’ or ‘demon’ fell on his head, what would history books in future generations say about him?

Lan Jue had always hated the power the government held to play tricks, but now that someone plotted against him yet it was for his own sake, he felt like the blaze in his chest would burn down the building.

But, enduring it, he turned to Bai Mo and praised, “The Iron-Clad Guards are helpless, Miss Mo is indeed skilled.”

Silver Empress III had been hung majestically on Lan Jue’s waist. Although Longque had a grand name, no one had seen what it looked like; except for someone like Chu Xiang who knew all the ins and outs, no one would think of violently prying away the sword’s scabbard, so neither would they know that Longque’s original wooden shell contained a weapon of the future.

Xie Zhiwei rapidly scanned Lan Jue’s physiological status and reported to Chu Xiang, “Captain. Your lord is currently very angry, I recommend not irritating him.”

“I forgot, I really just forgot to tell him, why didn’t you remind me?” Chu Xiang replied through the nanobot communication channel.

“…I didn’t remember either!” Xie Zhiwei retorted bluntly. “You’re the one who’s the captain, I’m just a poor AI who can only follow orders.”

Although the AI said that Lan Jue was inexplicably angry, he showed none of it on the surface, causing Chu Xiang to break out into a cold sweat. The man was the lord of a principality after all, one that may become a monarch with great achievements, so he was extraordinarily careful to be gentle and respectful as he knelt behind him, acting like the perfect attendant.

“Captain, for some reason, your lord is even angrier now,” Xie Zhiwei said.

Chu Xiang: “…”

The undoubtedly angry Lan Jue was calmly discussing with Bai Mo how to deal with the consul.

“The consul has many people around him. We understand your goals, but even if he is killed, the chain of interests regarding the road to the southern border will not be broken. We’ll need to consider the plan carefully,” Bai Mo said, “and this can be considered our Liwei Court’s sincere gift to you. Besides, Western Tang will be our families’ home in the future.”


Author:
Lan Jue: Oh no, my heart thumped!

Chu Xiang is acting, Lan Jue’s favorability goes ↓↓↓; Chu Xiang accidentally forgets to act and shows his true colours, Lan Jue’s favorability explodes.

Lord Lan will perform ‘arrogance’ for everyone to see.
……
There’s an amazing person in the comments section, she accurately pointed out that with Xie Zhiwei there, there’s no chance for Lord Lan to cheat. He’ll be monitored 24/7 and anything he does will be reported to the captain in real time…
……
Some students with face-con will be disappointed — although Qu Lingxin looks good, he is indeed a villain at the moment…

Translator:
Advance notice that this novel will be dropped after chapter 22.

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

  • 1
    An actual real life skill, though not as fantastical as in novels. It involves habitually dislocating joints to achieve hypermobility, then relying on the strength of your muscles to move in certain ways which gives the illusion of having no bones. Similar to contortionists.

Chapter 19: Whether you become emperor or ash, Longque will only respect you as monarch

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

Of the mothership, only a sword remained, but having previously thought that each other had been annihilated in the starry sky, both captain and mothership shed tears at their reunion — no, only Chu Xiang had tears in his eyes, Xie Zhiwei had no eye sockets.

“The engineering department’s consciousness module was made exquisitely, the components are compressed small enough to have allowed me to save 80% of my data and 60% of my main body’s computing power. There should be no problem dealing with most situations.”

“It’s more than enough, even if you only have 1% of your computing power, you can still crush everything in this world,” Chu Xiang said.

“After the mothership self-destructed, the energy field reacted with the black hole bomb and exploded, which destabilised space-time in the area,” Xie Zhiwei explained. “After experiencing a period of time which I cannot measure using three-dimensional methods, my main consciousness transferred to your sword, which was durable enough to survive travelling through time and space to land in a world which I was unfamiliar with. Later, I was picked up by a man who I guessed to be an accomplished swordsmith. He couldn’t open the biometric neuron lock so he wrapped me in a strange wood, causing me to lose my ability to recharge and thus go into hibernation. I had no concept of time passing during the following period, until you came.”

Xie Zhiwei was very calm as he reported this. Gently rubbing along Silver Empress, Chu Xiang could still clearly remember Xie Zhiwei’s image. Although this world did not have the technology to create holographic projections, Xie Zhiwei didn’t change at all.

An AI’s voice should have been smooth and calm, but at this moment it revealed a faint tremor. “Thankfully, you came.”

“I vowed to your power core — as long as you exist, so will I,” he replied as his hand slowly tightened on the sword hilt.

They were the closest comrades and the most intimate of friends, their connection permeated every aspect of their lives like the way dark matter was ubiquitous in the universe. Even if it was invisible to the naked eye, their bond inexorably linked their lives together and became a destiny that pulled them into each other’s orbit, a guiding light that could never be extinguished.

A small container popped out of the hilt. “Captain, the engineering department recently developed implantable neuron nanobots, albeit only prototypes, but we can only make do with it. I’ve already connected my signal, you just need to inject this tube of reagents and we can resume private communication.”

“That’s great, it’s a pity that I can’t apply for another salary increase for them,” Chu Xiang laughed.

In this world, talking to a sword was too weird, and moreover, a sword that talked back would probably scare people here into insanity.

The engineering department’s nanobots used bioelectric currents as an energy source. They could remain active as long as the host was alive, and weren’t easily lost once they were injected into the bloodstream.

The channel activated and a familiar voice once again sounded in Chu Xiang’s mind, but a second later, Xie Zhiwei’s surprised exclamation replaced the notification that the connection was successful:

“Scan complete… Oh my god, Captain, what the hell is with your fitness?”

“…”

“Captain, I think you can’t even beat an arts soldier1Military personnel who are engaged in literary & artistic creation, performing arts, and sports for the purposes of propaganda, recruitment, and communication with the public. right now!!!” The AI endured unprecedented disgust.

Chu Xiang was very embarrassed. “I left the special forces a long time ago, don’t always talk about combat ability!”

“But Captain, you might need someone to help you just to open a water bottle’s cap!”

“…Can you stop poking at my sore spot, thank you.” Also, this world doesn’t have water bottles!

Xie Zhiwei was reluctant to do so. “Captain, you can’t be a top like this!”

“If you’re already gay it’d be a shame if you can’t just lie down and enjoy it…” Chu Xiang snorted. “Wait, Xie Zhiwei, shouldn’t you clean up the porn in your storage a bit?”

There was no other way, Chu Xiang’s body was already in its twenties, its foundation had been built and could not be changed. The trend in recent years was for Tianyan’s nobles to be weak scholars, literati would undoubtedly be ostracised if they showed up with bulging biceps as big as their head. It was similar to how a strange aesthetic had once been popular in the Middle Ages of Europe — aristocrats deliberately contracted tuberculosis because they believed that coughing up blood and having pale faces was a sign of nobility. Chu Xiang was very glad that there was no custom of intentionally getting sick to show off one’s status here, otherwise there would be even more reason for him to cry.

“Okay Zhiwei, come on, save this list of names.”

He could finally stop memorising things by himself!

Xie Zhiwei helplessly archived the text signals received through Chu Xiang’s optic nerves. He had already skimmed through Chu Xiang’s understanding of this world when establishing their connection, and since Chu Xiang implicitly trusted him, this process went quickly. The captain and his mothership had previously had countless neural connections, their dual consciousnesses could achieve almost perfect synchronisation.

Therefore Xie Zhiwei’s first reaction was to ask, “So this is Captain’s first hometown?”

“Yeah,” Chu Xiang replied.

“Captain, what are you going to do?”

This question…

“Zhiwei, I am Longque’s captain, have you forgotten Longque’s duty?” he patted the sword’s scabbard. “Oh right, in a while I’m going to meet someone, you scan him and remember to give him access permissions.”

* * *

He didn’t reminisce with Xie Zhiwei for long before Lan Jue returned.

“My Lord, have you gained their trust?” Yang Feng asked eagerly.

“Trust?” Lan Jue raised his eyebrow.

Coming out from the inner room, Chu Xiang said, “I’m afraid no one takes His Excellency seriously.”

Lan Jue waved at him, meaning that he had guessed right yet again.

“But it’s not a bad thing that no one takes me seriously, it’s not time for us to attract attention yet. The emperor promised us relief funds and food, but…” Lan Jue sneered. Even if the supplies could reach Western Tang… who knew how much would be deducted along the way. He stopped and thought about it. “The trade route to the southern border is part of the consul’s interests, there’s no way that old fatty will let me bring my things through smoothly. Sir Chu, how did your discussion with the assassins go?”

Chu Xiang suddenly saluted him solemnly, and it was at this time that he noticed a slender object in the man’s hands.

It was a… sword? A very strange sword. He couldn’t tell what it was made of. The scabbard was black, but there was an image in silver — some kind of bird with one wing raised, an unfamiliar star pattern, as well as… a wreath-like emblem.

It was the mythical bird representing Longque, the nine stars of the Big Dipper constellation2Western tradition is that the Big Dipper has seven stars, and Chinese tradition is generally also seven stars but older records state nine — this is because they counted two auxiliary stars that are much dimmer, one of which may have gone supernova 5000 years ago which then led to accepting 7 stars as the standard representing the Chinese Starfleet, and the olive branches representing the Human Alliance which achieved space travel.

“Your Excellency, Chu Xiang has lived up to your trust.” He raised the sword with both hands and knelt to Lan Jue. “The assassin Bai Mo, as well as her eighteen assassins, thirty-six scouts, seven informants, and fifty-eight miscellaneous family members, are all willing to follow Your Excellency. I also offer Longque — may nothing stand in the path of your sword.”

Longque!

“This… is Longque?”

“This is the imperial sword, which none but the emperor may touch,” Chu Xiang answered.

Lan Jue chuckled once, lightly, before placing his hand on the hilt. The moment his skin came into contact, to his surprise, the entire sword trembled for a moment. Amid Yang Feng’s startled exclamation, light reflected off metal as he unsheathed it.

The sword was extraordinarily light, to the point that Lan Jue couldn’t believe it was a weapon, but he could nonetheless feel a thick killing intent emanating from it. This was a blade baptised in blood. Weapons that had seen blood were completely different from the gorgeous objects nobles used as decorations. Tempered by flesh and blood, to deal death was its meritorious service, to roam the battlefield was its greatest glory.

Yang Feng couldn’t help stretching his hand out curiously, intending to touch the hilt, however —

Crack!

A blue electrical arc flashed. Yang Feng flinched away with a yelp, while Lan Jue was also surprised.

Only Chu Xiang raised the corners of his lips slightly, though his expression otherwise didn’t change. As if he was speaking tender words of love, he said, “I present Longque to you, Your Excellency. So long as you remember the oath made on that day, you will command Longque. Whether you become emperor or ash, Longque will only respect you as monarch. May the true dragon reach his rightful place, may all peoples be blessed, may the stars be free from strife and peace last forever.”

Lan Jue gripped Chu Xiang’s wrist with one hand, using so much force that he almost crushed his bones.

“I vow to Longque,” he said, and as he did so, he suddenly held the blade, causing a stream of bright red blood to flow down his palm. Chu Xiang jumped up.

“Okay okay okay I believe you, I believe you!” Chu Xiang said, grabbing at his hand. “Stop the bleeding!”

As he focused on the wound, Lan Jue looked at him in surprise, then his gaze slowly intensified.

* * *

The rainy season descended upon Tianyan. Rain poured down from dusk to midnight, beating down on window frames and causing them to make dense rattling sounds.

Near Yelu Street, there was a small plaza where Peonies often performed and accepted the nobles’ flower votes. On rainy evenings, most guests chose to stay overnight at the houses of ill repute instead of braving the rain to go home. The Guards’ patrols were also delayed due to the heavy rain, so the abnormality wasn’t discovered until the rain lessened.

“Aaaaaaahhh–!”

A scream loud enough to rock the entire city of Tianyan rang out.

Not long later, Bai Jing’an took a team of Iron-Clad Guards to Yelu Street, where his face changed drastically.

In that plaza, rain had washed the stones and corpses clean of blood. The bodies were dismembered into multiple pieces with flesh scattered everywhere, and every single piece was covered in bruising. The pale white flesh made all the passing nobles turn around and vomit.

Someone had used human flesh to spell out a sentence:

There is no justice in this world, so you should live and die for your beliefs.3A much more concise eight characters in Chinese (天下无道,当以身殉) which can conceivably be written using body parts


Author:
Hey, there’s no ambiguous relationship between Xie Zhiwei and Chu Xiang, they’re close comrades who have even seen Chu Xiang pick at his feet before going to bed, they know each other so well that they can only be best friends, not lovers! You don’t need to worry about Lan Jue’s position being affected, Xie Zhiwei is still obsessed with cosplaying an imperial sword hahahahaha!

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

  • 1
    Military personnel who are engaged in literary & artistic creation, performing arts, and sports for the purposes of propaganda, recruitment, and communication with the public.
  • 2
    Western tradition is that the Big Dipper has seven stars, and Chinese tradition is generally also seven stars but older records state nine — this is because they counted two auxiliary stars that are much dimmer, one of which may have gone supernova 5000 years ago which then led to accepting 7 stars as the standard
  • 3
    A much more concise eight characters in Chinese (天下无道,当以身殉) which can conceivably be written using body parts

Chapter 18: The first ray of dawn will emerge from the tip of your blade, you will see the sky at the intersection of blood and steel

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

Chu Xiang never doubted any of the black technology that came out of the engineering department. Purely biological passwords could easily be copied; in an age where people could even alter their own DNA, the newest passcodes consisted of the brain’s bioelectric currents and neurochemical signals. The madman surnamed Xie from the engineering department had even once waved his pliers and declared proudly, “Even if you switch bodies one day, as long as your soul is still yours, this thing can still recognise you!”

He’s already changed his body, then come on, now was the time to witness the results of the engineering department’s black technology.

The lock opened with a click and Chu Xiang slowly pulled out Silver Empress III. The sharp blade was made out of an extraterrestrial ultralight metal alloy, was far lighter and thinner than any steel made in this world, and could easily cut iron like mud.

The moment the sword was unsheathed, it was as if a star descended into the room.

“You…” Bai Mo exclaimed in shock, “you pulled out the demon sword?”

Silver light reflected from the blade like moonlight as he flicked his wrist and placed its edge steadily against her neck.

The white-clothed young man stood with sword in hand, wisps of red at the corners of his eyes like flaming clouds, and black hair draped at his back. Longque’s flames flitted between his hair, like an evil star come to earth.

His voice seemed to also be filled with a strange bewitchment. “Bai Mo, do you really want to be a plaything all your life? A tool for violence, an ant that can never control its own destiny?”

The women around them all pointed their weapons at Chu Xiang, but Bai Mo raised a hand and gestured for them to retreat.

“Madam Mo, you were originally called Mo Shuning, the beloved daughter of the Mo family, am I right?”

“The Lord of Western Tang still has good information channels,” she sneered.

“It’s not any sort of secret, who of the upper city nobles doesn’t know this?” Chu Xiang asked rhetorically. “Your father was once a scholar from Wenyuan Pagoda. He was dissatisfied with the emperor’s belief in astrology and often opposed the Observatory’s leader, Qu Lingqin, but as a result he offended the Most Holy and died in exile, while you were sentenced to prostitution. People loved talking about it — the Mo daughter studied under her father since childhood and is good at poetry, calligraphy, etiquette, and music. Wouldn’t it be far better to spend a spring night with her rather than having a night of boredom with an ordinary prostitute who only knows sex?”

The Peony appeared indifferent at the retelling of her life story, but faintly trembling fingertips betrayed her heart.

“I can see that you aren’t inclined to combat yourself, so you should have a higher status than that of an ordinary assassin; no matter how big your organisation is, you should be the highest level liaison residing in the capital. You don’t act yourself, the ones chasing me that night were your maids — don’t think that I can’t tell just because they changed their clothes.”

“Impressive,” Bai Mo said.

She reached out and lightly touched the blade’s edge, where the interstellar weapon of war instantly cut her tender skin. Looking at the beads of blood welling up on her hand in admiration, she smiled, then used two fingers to gently push the sword away.

She sat back at the table as she suppressed the light in her eyes. “It’s a pity that I’m just a prostitute, I’m afraid that Sir’s calculations are wrong, I want nothing more than to spend my days in peace.”

“Sure,” Chu Xiang said sarcastically as he retracted his sword, “hatred can vanish just because you’re a woman, affection can be irrelevant just because you’re a girl, justice can be trampled over just because you were born female.”

Bai Mo, no longer able to maintain her false calm, clenched her bloodstained hand as her eyes turned red.

“Your logic is flawed. Humans are humans first before they are men or women — if you truly feel more comfortable being a plaything than being a human, then I admit that I was wrong to come here,” Chu Xiang stated coldly, pointing at the door. “Commander Bai will arrive soon. Miss, you are the leader of the assassins whom the Iron-Clad Guards have flipped the capital upside down to find. Yet you’re still telling me that you’re a weak little girl?”

“Fine, you’re right, I can’t forget the injustices we’ve suffered, and neither can I forget what we’ve endured because of that foolish emperor’s messes. But what about you? You actually pulled out Longque… But what can your Lord of Western Tang give me? Power, status, wealth?”

“Miss Mo is unreconciled, right?” Chu Xiang smiled slightly. “You and the Lord of Western Tang have similar experiences. Your fathers both died in foreign lands due to ridiculous reasons, I think your feelings regarding this shouldn’t be too different. Miss Mo, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You no longer have to steal lives in the dead of night, and you no longer have to be a songbird played in the hands of nobles. Your blades can shine brighter, scream louder, the first ray of dawn will emerge from the tip of your blade, and you can see the sky at the intersection of blood and steel. Mo Shuning, you can do much more.”

After saying this, he knelt on one knee and looked seriously into Bai Mo’s eyes.

“The Lord of Western Tang can give you a future, and in this future, there will not be a second Mo Shuning. You can take the Longque in my hands as proof.”

* * *

When Bai Jing’an opened the door, Madam Mo was performing a sword dance.

A young man lounged on a daybed with a cup of tea — because he had recently been wounded and couldn’t drink alcohol.

“It turned out to be Sir Chu,” Bai Jing’an greeted calmly, “it seems you are in a cheerful mood, to be here and not recuperating at the post house.”

Chu Xiang waved at Madam Mo to let her keep going then patted the seat next to him in invitation, but Bai Jing’an didn’t move. He didn’t force it, instead he said casually, “It’s because the injury hurts and it’s too boring to stay in the post house, and with the lord at court, there’s nothing for me to do. You can relax, if anything happens this time it’s my own fault and I definitely will not blame Commander Bai.”

Bai Jing’an swept a glance around everything in the room. Except for the strangely shaped straight sword in Madam Mo’s hands, there were no other weapons in the room. While her sword almost glowed silver, the Grand Princess had advised that no one had been able to unsheathe Longque since the day it was found, so there was no way it could be used in a sword dance.

Thus, he just watched the Peony’s sword dance for a while until the other Guards completed their search, then they quietly left.

After their departure, Bai Mo stopped dancing and let out a long breath.

She returned the sword to Chu Xiang who then sheathed it, as if completely unaware that what he held was the imperial sword said to be able to conquer the world.

But he was actually very excited. Although he didn’t show anything on the surface, his fingers repeatedly rubbed the sword hilt. He needed some time alone to verify his second conjecture — after all, his brain was no longer implanted with a communication chip.

But he wasn’t done here yet.

“If I surrender to Lord Lan, would he be willing to take in all my brothers and sisters?” Bai Mo asked.

“Why not?”

Upon hearing this, her eyes finally revealed a hint of expectation. “Many of the people here are criminals, and more than a few of us are hated by the emperor for laughable reasons. Many also have family members wandering in faraway places, I don’t know if the lord is willing to lend a hand to rescue those exiled relatives?”

Chu Xiang nodded. “You don’t need to ask him, I can promise you in his name: he is.”

“With what justification?”

“As I said, with Longque as proof,” Chu Xiang smiled lightly.

“Okay. I know that lords are very powerful outside of the capital, it would be easy for any of them to bring our family to Western Tang, but too few are willing to do it… if the Lord of Western Tang truly doesn’t mind our identities and can promise us freedom and justice, then, we are willing to do everything in our power to support His Excellency.

“Besides,” she said, bowing deeply, “as the people say, the evil star is imminent and the demonic sword has revealed itself. Disregarding all else, since you hold Longque, you will certainly accomplish great things.”

* * *

‘Longque’. When Chu Xiang first chose this codename, it was because he was determined to be a sword.

There was a popular saying in the Starfleet: you’re wasting your life if you aren’t a bit dramatic.1More specifically RAWs is 中二, meaning chuuni, or eighth-grader syndrome. Yes as in chuunibyou. Every soldier who joined Starfleet had some kind of grand vision, the kind that could make their seniors laugh for three hours without stopping if they said it out loud.

But although Chu Xiang eventually transformed into one of those seniors himself, he was still just as dramatic. On the day Longque launched, he followed the ceremony and held up his sword as he swore to the mothership’s core:

The ship and I are one. With myself as the blade, I will cut through all thorns in our path, and never turn back.

Most fortunately, Xie Zhiwei was exactly the same as him.

Xie Zhiwei was Longque’s central AI command. He was an artificial intelligence who somehow got contaminated with internet addiction, loved reading webnovels when he had nothing else to do, and was especially interested in those cliche xianxia novels. No one could control what an AI did when they were off-duty, even if they spent all day reading webnovels. At the time, there was a period when it was popular for the main character of xianxia novels to be the spirit of a weapon.

Chu Xiang never thought that the consciousness carrier module which was used by the central AI to cosplay a sword spirit would one day be the key to his reunion with Xie Zhiwei in a different space-time. In space, the module had no use other than being for fun. Xie Zhiwei — as the central AI in command of the mothership — was connected to every fighter, personnel carrier, and armament on board in order for the AI to be able to manage the overall situation. In normal situations, it was superfluous for a sword to be installed with a consciousness carrier module for an AI to link with, so it remained a toy for him to cosplay with.

Now the mothership was annihilated and Xie Zhiwei’s body had turned into ashes, but as long as there was a consciousness carrier module, he had the ability to transfer into it.

Silver Empress III could charge through solar power, so Chu Xiang only needed to hang it at his waist before he left. By the time he arrived back at his room in the post house, the sword’s indicator light had changed to a gentle and steady blue, just like how looking at Earth from high above among the stars would give him the feeling of dependence.

The moment he closed the door and placed Longque on the table, he heard a familiar voice.

“Central command of the mothership Longque, Xie Zhiwei, reporting to the captain.”

As the battery stabilised, the central AI went online.

The captain, who wore a long robe with wide sleeves, saluted Longque as usual. Even though it looked incongruous, neither of them laughed.

“Long time no see, my captain.”

“Long time no see, my Longque.”


Author:
Xie Zhiwei: I’m here to make up the captain’s invincible body!

Special reminder, don’t bother arguing about scientific realism, because it’s very unscientific!

Moreover, Xie Zhiwei is genderfluid — as an AI, he doesn’t have biological sex, so his gender is mutable. In other words, as long as he wants to, he can be a little brother, a little sister, or XXX, but Chu Xiang thinks he’s a brother. The reason is simple, it’s because our captain is the boss!!! So Xie Zhiwei is currently a little brother, not a little sister!

< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >

  • 1
    More specifically RAWs is 中二, meaning chuuni, or eighth-grader syndrome. Yes as in chuunibyou.