MPWATMBC Chapter 84

The situation has developed to its current stage, and the person who followed Bilbo Gustav to poison Qin Feng’s room more than seven hundred years ago is already emerging. Both Ryan and Auston know the answer in their hearts, but they are at a loss as to the “formula” for deducing it. That person seems to have been invisible throughout all the events, leaving no trace.

But Ryan believes that “geese leave sounds as they pass, and people leave traces as they go” — there must be something left behind in the corners of history, quietly lying dormant, waiting to be discovered.

Ryan and Auston never expected, however, that before they could find any traces, the “trace” would reveal itself. This was probably thanks to today’s advanced entertainment industry. There are always people who cannot resist acting eccentric and unique in entertainment to attract attention.

Neither Ryan nor Auston pay attention to entertainment news, and they only found out after it hit the headlines.

In the study on the first floor, books surrounded the room from all sides. Sitting in the middle seat, one could smell the faint fragrance of book ink. Ryan sat here with Tuantuan, reading books to instill an appreciation for them early, fostering an interest in reading — after all, some things should start at a young age. Tuantuan pressed his little chubby hand onto the book, refusing to let his father turn the page. The beautiful and bright sunflower pattern on the page attracted his gaze. His little hands, small as they were, had five dimples on the back. Don’t be fooled by their size; they had surprising strength. Without exerting some effort, Ryan couldn’t move them away for a moment.

In front of a child, even the strongest man would turn soft around the fingers, and Ryan was no exception. He had to give up the idea of continuing to read and instead began to study the child. Tuantuan was seven months old now; his black hair was soft and smooth, inherited from Auston, and his bright black eyes sparkled with light. The little guy loved to laugh, and when he did, it revealed the fact that he had grown a few teeth.

Pinching Tuantuan’s earlobe, the bored Ryan placed his hand on the child’s belly. The belly was the best to touch — it felt incredibly soft, like a glutinous rice dumpling full of a milky fragrance. Tuantuan was a good-natured child; as long as things didn’t go too far, he wouldn’t have much of a reaction.

Ryan’s fingers hovered in the air, and he couldn’t help but gently pinch Tuantuan’s chin to check his newly sprouting teeth. Tuantuan’s lower gums had grown two small rice-grain-like teeth, tiny and very cute. The upper gums were a soft pink, faintly whitish where new teeth were starting to emerge. Impatiently, Tuantuan pushed his dad’s hand away. “Ah ah!” He made small, protesting sounds, as if urging, Have you seen enough? If you have, let go!

“You’re growing well. I’ll reward you with a carrot to gnaw on later.” Babies with teeth liked to chew on things. Ryan figured it was like puppies who loved to grind their teeth on chew sticks. Tuantuan didn’t know how to use teething toys — he’d just end up with a mouthful of drool. In the end, after consulting with mom and dad, Ryan decided to peel carrots for Tuantuan to gnaw on. The core of the carrot was sweet, and Tuantuan really liked the flavor inside.

Seeing that his dad still wouldn’t let go, Tuantuan unhappily pouted his little mouth. When he saw his papa coming over, he stretched out his small hands toward him, looking aggrieved. He even knew how to “complain” now. “Ah ah ah…” It was as if he were saying, Daddy hurt me, I’m upset, I want Papa to hold me.

Auston clearly wasn’t on the same wavelength as his son. He gently patted the child on the forehead, sat down beside Ryan, and showed him the latest news. “Take a look at this.”

“What?” Ryan looked up and saw the page open on the personal terminal. He immediately felt speechless. “I thought we’d have to find some evidence to confirm it. I didn’t expect it to be exposed in this way. Not everyone can inherit the good genes of their ancestors — children still need proper teaching.”

To shake off his papa’s hand, Tuantuan kept nodding his little head, which, in the adults’ eyes, looked like he was agreeing with them.

“Look, even our Tuantuan is smart. He knows what’s good.”

Auston ignored Ryan’s silly dad-like reaction, because he thought so too. He took Tuantuan, who was reaching his small hands out, from Ryan’s arms and smiled as he said, “Our child must be raised properly in the future. We can’t allow descendants like that to appear. Because of Li Shunmeng’s video, the investigation team has already obtained the Prime Minister’s warrant to enter the Li family. This time, the matters of the past have finally come to an end.”

Tuantuan settled down contentedly in his papa’s arms, his two little hands clasped together, tightly closing his mouth and refusing to let anyone see. He could feel the vibrations of his papa’s body when he spoke, and this sensation gave him a deep sense of security. With peace of mind, he turned his head to look at the pictures in the book — yellow flowers, red flowers… In a child’s eyes, the more colors there were and the brighter they appeared, the livelier it seemed.

The two adults continued their conversation about the news. Ryan lightly touched the holographic screen projected in mid-air. The embedded video within the text started to play. On-screen was a young man in his early twenties, dressed in avant-garde clothing. His hair was dyed fluorescent pink, and various trinkets jingled and clattered with his every movement. Behind him was a black flag with a large skull emblem, the symbol of a trendy online community known for gathering young people who flaunted their individuality and self-expression.

“I am me, and I am not me. Heh, guess who I am.” Li Shunmeng pointed dramatically at himself, tilting his head with a look that was both cool and arrogant as he stared at the camera, his gaze full of disdain. “I’m stinky Li Zi, haha. As for who Li Shunmeng is? Never heard of him.”

Ryan: “……”

Auston: “……”

The two of them truly couldn’t understand the current trends among young people. Did calling yourself Stinky Li Zi really make you unique?

Skipping over large sections of pointless self-praise and flaunting wealth, Li Shunmeng pulled out an oil painting, pointed at the person depicted, and said: “Do you know who this is? Li Minghao! He’s my great-great… I don’t even know how many greats-grandfather. I’ve read a lot of books about him. The books always describe him as an upright and honest man, someone without any scheming, a mirror for Emperor Qin Feng, pointing out all the emperor’s flaws. Nonsense!”

Ryan chuckled lightly. “In this aspect, he’s quite similar to Li Minghao — both are blunt.”

“But one is truly blunt, and the other is fake-blunt.” Auston disliked anyone who had ever hurt Qin Feng Anderson, because that equaled hurting his Ryan.

Ryan said, “I don’t like Li Minghao because he was too fake. He used a false sense of frankness to hide his true nature, and he was very self-centered. If he gave advice, others had to accept it; if not, he believed his opinions were being rejected. He was like a fox wearing a cowhide, eyes red with stubbornness. If his suggestions weren’t accepted, he’d act like he would ram his head into a pillar.”

The reputation of a generation’s loyal advisor came about this way.

Ryan continued, “Once someone is in a high enough position, there will always be one or two people like this — people who use me to achieve their own ambitions. If it’s not Li Minghao, it’ll be Wang Minghao or Zhang Minghao. I thought keeping them around wouldn’t affect the bigger picture. But looking back now, I was being naive. People you dislike should be kept far away.”

“At that time, you had too much to consider. You had no choice.”

“So, let’s just live this life freely and unrestrained.”

The video continued playing. After proudly recounting the glorious deeds of his ancestors, the silly kid Li Shunmeng puffed up his chest and declared in an arrogant tone: “The greatest thing my ancestor did wasn’t being a praised advisor, but teaming up with Bilbo Gustav to poison Emperor Anderson. Haha, bet you didn’t expect that!”

Ryan nearly burst out laughing. “The way kids these days show off their individuality is quite something. Is it like doing bad things and then taking a selfie with the evidence to post on social media, proudly telling the public, ‘Yeah, that was me!’”

“There really are people like that,” Auston replied. “That’s why the police specifically monitor social media platforms. Every year, they solve several cases this way.”

“…This behavior is like pirates announcing responsibility for certain events, except the pirates do it to show their strength, while these kids are just being juvenile and brainless.”

In the video, to substantiate his claims, Li Shunmeng casually produced evidence that had been hidden behind the painting. This oil painting, which had hung in his family’s grand hall for over 700 years, was crudely torn apart, revealing a letter written by Li Minghao himself. After completing such a significant deed and wiping clean all traces of evidence, Li Minghao had been overwhelmed with a sense of accomplishment. It was truly a shame, and somewhat lonely, that such a great feat couldn’t be made public for the world to applaud. To relieve this feeling, Li Minghao wrote a letter behind his self-portrait, detailing his motives, the entire process of his actions, his psychological state at the time, and the joy of achieving his goal.

Ryan commented, “Li Minghao’s painting is decent. Oh, he even painted Qin Feng for me, but it was far too righteous and imposing. It failed to capture Qin Feng’s true essence, so I just put it away when I received it. I didn’t expect Li Minghao to be so petty, gradually accumulating resentment toward Qin Feng bit by bit until he couldn’t take it anymore and decided to team up with Gustav to take him down. Tsk tsk, you really never know when you’ll offend a petty person right next to you.”

“Tyrell’s diary was forged by him,” Auston said. He had already paused the video and saved a screenshot of the confession letter behind the painting. Enlarging it to isolate the text made it easier to read. Li Minghao wrote that he had intentionally allowed Tyrell to discover him, setting him up to take the fall. The reason behind this? A failed romance.

It was mentioned earlier that Qin Feng had taken a photo with eight companions. At that time, he was new to the political scene, making friends with a group of “like-minded” people. These friends supported and helped each other, eventually creating the empire’s brilliance. The only woman, Lannister, liked Tyrell. From Li Minghao’s confession letter, it can be seen that Lannister repeatedly rejected his proposals and chose to love Tyrell without hesitation, even though Tyrell didn’t accept Lannister’s feelings. Li Minghao felt betrayed and insulted, so he decided to eliminate Tyrell. Li Minghao had been planning everything for a long time.

Ryan was bewildered. “I didn’t know they had such a complicated web of emotions. Tyrell later got married and lived a happy life with his wife. Lannister found a tall, blonde, and blue-eyed officer. Li Minghao seemed to have an arranged marriage by his family and lived decently too… Uh, I really, really didn’t notice so much entanglement between them.”

Ryan had no idea about things happening right under his nose, and once again, he silently mourned for his slow reactions for two seconds.

“Forget it, no need to dwell on it. Apart from me, they’ve all passed away. Thinking more about it won’t help.” Ryan squeezed Tuantuan’s little hand. “Right, son?”

Tuantuan raised his other hand and slapped his father’s face, making a small sound of protest, blocking his view of the book.

Ryan touched his nose. “I’ve been rejected by my son.”

Auston leaned down and kissed Ryan on the face. “I don’t reject you.”

“Since you’ve kissed the left cheek, the right cheek should be kissed too.”

“Okay.” When there were no outsiders around, the reserved Auston wouldn’t shy away from showing intimacy. He obediently kissed Ryan’s right cheek. Feeling his clothes being tugged, he looked down and saw Tuantuan puffing out his cheeks, looking at him expectantly. Auston smiled and picked up Tuantuan, giving him a big kiss, which made the child giggle. “Of course I wouldn’t forget you, my darling.”

Tuantuan smiled with squinted eyes.

• ··

Due to Li Shunmeng’s actions, everything Li Minghao did was laid bare for all to see, and the events from 700 years ago were completely uncovered. The truth had been revealed, and in the process, a conclusion was also reached by Ryan and Auston. Life goes on, and there’s no need to dwell on the past. During his vacation, Auston followed General Tolkien’s advice—to carry out a thorough eradication of the pirates. However, the plan didn’t go smoothly. The first difficulty arose in finding the Red Spider’s secret base. General Tolkien could only determine a rough range but couldn’t pinpoint the exact location, so as not to alert the enemy. The secret investigation would take too much time.

The pirate Red Spider’s secret base was hard to locate, but military preparations could begin right away. Joint operations involved too many broad and far-reaching matters; no preparation would be excessive. “Before the army moves, provisions must be prepared.” Just like in ancient military campaigns, once full preparations are made, they could act immediately upon discovering the pirate’s secret base, catching them off guard.

Their biggest advantage right now is that the pirates still don’t know they are aware of the base’s location. By catching them off guard and taking the initiative, they can maximize their gains. To achieve this, their actions must remain secret.

Time quietly passed by, between the tense work deployment and the leisurely, warm life. By the time Ryan had completed the neural centers for all three beast-type mechas, only the assembly was left. Tuantuan had already turned twelve months old, with just one day left until his first birthday, and one month remaining before Ryan and Auston’s vacation ended.

“Today’s work ends here. Everyone has worked hard these days. I’ll give you three days off, and after three days, we’ll assemble the mechas here.” At the control console of Laboratory C001, Ryan stood up, clapped his hands twice to draw everyone’s attention, and said loudly, “Without everyone’s wholehearted participation, the creation of the beast-type mechas could not have been completed so quickly. To make three beast-type mechas in less than a year, your abilities have truly impressed me.”

The people below looked pleased with the praise and proud of completing the task. To make three new mechas in less than a year, especially the technically most difficult beast-type mechas, would become a milestone record at the Empire Mecha Research Institute. It would be written into the Empire’s history, and everyone present would have their names recorded in the annals.

In the past, those who were unknown in the research institute, who had their talents overlooked, who had given up on themselves and lived passively, had now experienced a second spring of their careers. People like Leonard from the materials synthesis group and Jasmine from warehouse distribution, now walked out with their heads held high, admired and respected by others. And all of this was thanks to the gentle young man at the control console.

Energetic Leonard stood behind the workbench, and not far behind him, at the door, stood Jasmine in a red wrap dress with a lab coat over it… It wasn’t just them, many, many others had also changed because of Ryan’s presence.

Ryan looked at the crowd, feeling the trust and confidence in their eyes. He smiled and said, “Shouldn’t there be applause now?”

The crowd paused for a moment, then laughed, and amidst the laughter, applause rang out. The applause, which started off gently, grew more passionate as it went on. Who wouldn’t want to achieve success, to have their name engraved in history? And now, they had done it!

Ryan raised his hand to quiet them. Once the applause faded, he commanded, “Everyone, disband here, and gather again in three days. Let us witness the arrival of the miracle.”

After three days of rest, the mecha components that were made separately would be assembled, which was the most critical and challenging step. As Ryan put it, making the parts was easy, but assembling them was difficult. Although there was strict oversight, and after each component was completed, he would personally inspect it to ensure it was ready before passing the inspection, no one would know the final outcome until the very last step. Even someone as mentally strong and confident as Ryan couldn’t guarantee success.

After three days, let’s wait and see.

After watching everyone leave with meaning, Ryan stepped down from the control console. The vast laboratory, now filled with many mecha components, seemed cramped. Ryan walked around the room, checking everything once more before heading to the door. Before stepping out, he turned and looked back, smiling calmly and composedly, then officially left. The door of the laboratory slowly closed behind him, reinforced with multiple passwords, and only he would be able to open it when he returned in three days.

In contrast to the project team he led, the progress on the five hundred mechanical mechas was slow, or rather, it could not be called slow—it was just the old pace of the previous mecha research center, which, in Ryan’s view, lacked work efficiency. However, he did not intervene rashly, quietly watching the progress of the project.

“Executive Director.”

“Hello, Executive Director.”

“Are you going out, Executive Director?”

“Is the Executive Director heading home after work?”

“……”

“……”

As Ryan walked, he encountered staff members who greeted him, and he responded with a smile to each of them. With his solid abilities, Ryan had gained everyone’s trust and secured his position as the head of the Mecha Research Institute. However, no one noticed that Ryan’s position was still that of Acting Executive Director—he had never been officially confirmed.

Why was this?

Was there someone obstructing him, or was Ryan’s ability still not up to the requirements for the position?

Neither. It was Ryan’s own decision.

As for the reason, one could only say that Ryan’s heart was not in it.

The next day was Tuantuan’s first birthday. Like the full moon celebration, Ryan and Auston decided not to make it too extravagant but to invite some close friends over.

On the way home, Ryan stopped at a pastry shop and bought some traditional Chinese pastries. After Tuantuan had tried the lotus seed pastry once, he became obsessed with these cute little treats and asked for them every day. But he could only have a little, as his two fathers controlled his sweet intake. Returning home, Ryan, holding the pastries, walked through the small grove and first saw Da Fu excitedly running toward him. Then he saw Auston bending down to support Tuantuan, who was walking with soft, weary little steps like a cute puppet on strings. But he was walking happily, and the whole house seemed filled with his joyful laughter.

“Tuantuan, look, who’s home?”

“Ah da.” At this age, Tuantuan could already make sounds that resembled words, though they were hard to understand. It usually required a translator-like dad or papa to figure out what he was saying.

For example, right now, he was calling for daddy.

When Ryan first heard Tuantuan call him, he couldn’t help but cry. The excitement in his heart was indescribable, especially since it was his first time being a husband and a father after being alone for centuries.

Tuantuan made two “ah ah” sounds, his little feet adjusted direction. He was telling Auston that he wanted to go toward daddy. Ryan quickened his steps, walked over, kissed Auston first, then squatted down and gave Tuantuan’s chubby little face a kiss. “Tuantuan, do you miss daddy?”

Tuantuan squirmed, making an urgent sound from his mouth, “Ah ah~” His focus was clearly on the pastries Ryan was holding. Evidently, his craving for the treats outweighed his desire for daddy.

Ryan, somewhat disappointed but amused, smiled and scolded, “Heartless little thing.”

Auston asked, “What did you buy today?”

Ryan: “……” He looked at Auston with an injured expression. “Don’t you miss me?”

Auston paused for a moment, then quickly said, “Of course, I do.”

“……Oh.” Ryan exaggeratedly clutched his chest. “I’ll just take my walnut crisps, water chestnut cake, and sachima… and leave.”

Tuantuan suddenly threw himself into Ryan’s arms. He was still a little dazed; daddy’s embrace came so suddenly that he didn’t react in time. Meanwhile, Auston, who had arranged everything, stood up, stretching his back and cracking his joints. “Then leave the pastries, and you can happily return to your room.”

The biggest change in Auston’s life nowadays was his mindset. He would occasionally make small jokes, do playful little actions, and unintentionally give Ryan affectionate gestures… These changes were things he wouldn’t notice unless he paid attention. Ryan really liked these subtle changes in Auston. He never stopped the softening transformation, as they made him seem even gentler.

“Sigh, then I’ll wander the world with Tuantuan in my arms.” Standing up while holding Tuantuan, his view suddenly broadened, as the resistance of being off the ground disappeared. The small hand that had been rejecting relaxed, and he lay on his daddy’s chest, enjoying the scenery he never got tired of watching.

Auston took the pastry box from Ryan’s hands. It was quite heavy, probably because there were many different kinds. “Then I’ll take the pastries to the restaurant and enjoy them slowly.”

“Huh?” Tuantuan heard the familiar word — pastries — and immediately stopped paying attention to the scenery. He turned his head to look at papa, his little greedy cat nature fully revealed. His round, shiny eyes seemed to say, “Don’t forget about me when you’re eating pastries.”

Auston curled his finger and lightly scratched Tuantuan’s little face. “Got it, we won’t forget you. We’ll leave a little bit for papa.”

Tuantuan smiled and nodded, as if he understood.

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Hello! I still missed the time, but anyways it’s better to be late than never. I hope you all like this novel. Stay safe! Love you all!!!