ABFMV Chapter 16 Part 2

The corner of Qiye’s mouth curved. “I’ll show you again next time when no one’s around.”

“Deal.”

Truthfully, she’d been itching to touch those wings from the start, but hadn’t dared with him being the “villain.” Now that he’d offered—well, how far off could she be from getting her hands on them?

He walked slowly, every step steady, so smooth that she felt no jolt at all in his arms.

A walk that should’ve taken just over ten minutes stretched into more than forty.

Just as they neared the barrier, a group with headlamps came rushing toward them.

Linlang focused and recognized a few faces—they looked a lot like the Xu family’s guards.

 

In the middle of the guards was Rong Ruyue, hiking up her skirt as she ran toward them, flanked by Lu Xiao and Miel.

Everyone froze, staring at each other in mutual shock.

Xu Linlang looked at the three who shouldn’t even be here: “?”

Rong Ruyue, Lu Xiao, and Miel, on the other hand, stared at Xu Linlang in Qiye’s arms: “!”

The scene was unbearably awkward.

Rong Ruyue shoved aside the guard in front of her and rushed toward Linlang. “Baby, you’re hurt?! The monitor suddenly showed you used a dose of nanomedicine—did you run into danger?”

Linlang snapped back to herself. “On the way, I was attacked by a beast. He was badly injured saving me, so I used the nanomedicine on him.”

The moment Ruyue realized the one seriously injured wasn’t her daughter, she pressed a hand to her chest and let out a sigh of relief.

Her eyes swept briefly over Qiye. She thanked him politely, then reached her hands out, signaling for him to hand Linlang over.

But Linlang refused first. “Mom, no need. I’m not a kid anymore—it’d be embarrassing to still be carried around by you.”

Ruyue shot her a glare. “And being carried around in a man’s arms isn’t embarrassing?”

Linlang: “…”

She could only watch as her mother took her from Qiye, then had one of the guards retrieve a smart wheelchair from her storage space and helped Linlang into it carefully.

Glancing once more at Qiye’s face, Ruyue leaned closer to her daughter and whispered, “Nothing is going on between you two, right?”

Linlang: “Of course not.”

(And if there was, the blame lay squarely with Marshal Xu’s ridiculous arranged marriage! Outdated traditions ruining lives—betrothals decided before birth should have been outlawed ages ago!)

But Ruyue looked at Qiye a few more times, uneasy. The boy was far too good-looking, and the fact that he’d brought her daughter back in his arms didn’t sit right.

“Madam, I don’t think things are that simple. He’s the wanted fugitive Qiye—the Zerg’s son.” Lu Xiao stepped forward, speaking directly to Ruyue.

The moment Linlang heard that, she knew things were going south. She quickly made a hand signal, pressing two fingers into her palm to tell Qiye to run.

But Qiye acted as if he hadn’t seen, staying rooted where he was.

Linlang nearly choked with frustration. Wasn’t this walking straight into death?

Had her butterfly effect somehow flapped away the villain’s IQ too?

Ruyue’s brows arched slightly. “The Zerg’s son?”

Something clicked, and she turned to Qiye. “Are you Miro’s child?”

Unflinching, Qiye answered, “Yes.”

Ruyue’s eyes sharpened. “Even though your father was the Marshal’s old comrade, when it comes to matters of the Zerg, the Marshal’s household cannot protect you.”

At her signal, the guards closed ranks around Qiye, cutting off all escape.

He didn’t so much as flinch. “Madam, a child born of a Zerg and a human isn’t necessarily Zerg. You know my father’s hatred for them—my bloodline and my spirit belong to the Empire, not the Zerg.”

Ruyue frowned. She had never heard of a Zerg intermarrying with another race, so she couldn’t be sure whether their offspring would fully inherit Zerg traits.

Still, there had been cases of a Celestial and a human producing a child who turned out purely human, with no Celestial traits at all. Hybrids were rare and unpredictable.

After a moment’s thought, Ruyue gave the order: “Confine him in the Lilan Military Academy’s dungeon for now. Then summon Academician Chu Shao immediately to run a genetic test.”

The words genetic test made Linlang rub at her temples. This was as good as finished.

Qiye’s DNA definitely carried Zerg genes, and Chu Shao was the Empire’s top geneticist. If he confirmed it, Qiye would be eliminated by the military without question.

And then came another blow. After the guards led Qiye away, Lu Xiao bowed and said, “Madam, every soldier the military has sent after Qiye so far has come back with no memory at all. That’s highly abnormal.”

Linlang’s headache only grew worse.