AHDIBCB Chapter 39

“General, you… why are you smiling?”

Winter Wolf had come to deliver documents to Li Heng, but found that instead of giving any feedback on the content, the general was gazing at his communicator with a smile that could only be described as… doting.

Could it be that the communicator had new photos of the two embryo babies?

Li Heng’s expression sobered slightly. “Continue with your report.”

Winter Wolf said, “Yes, General. Based on our investigation, this student named Luo Chuanxin was also being used by Fang Jing. His father was once a somewhat well-known photographer. Later, after one of his competition entries was maliciously slandered and disqualified, he couldn’t cope and began to spiral—eventually developing a gambling addiction. At the time, it was already widely known that the Madam was planning to transfer to the medical school, so Fang Jing probably saw an opportunity to control him by using this student to keep tabs on his every move on campus. But this whole Aminanka incident was mainly related to Aina.”

Li Heng didn’t even lift his head. “Aina’s off playing ‘savior,’ isn’t she?”

Winter Wolf said, “Yes. She apparently promised Luo Chuanxin that once the task was done, she would pay off his father’s gambling debts. The money has already been transferred. Our people found that Luo Chuanxin’s father has recently returned to photography and seems to be trying to quit gambling.”

Li Heng said firmly, “He won’t quit. Even if he manages to, Aina won’t let him. Their use of Luo Chuanxin isn’t over yet—they wouldn’t let go so easily. Yuan Yi hasn’t started the new semester yet, but once he does, these people will definitely make new moves.”

Winter Wolf frowned. “Then what should we do?”

By the time the new semester starts, the Madam will be more than three months pregnant. They’ll need to be even more careful then.

Li Heng said, “Wait. Wait until Luo Chuanxin’s father picks up gambling again—then let Luo Chuanxin find out. Remember, only let Luo Chuanxin know. His father mustn’t find out, or else if he really can’t kick the addiction, that kid will be ruined for life. Assign Flight Wolf to handle this. No one else.”

Winter Wolf nodded to show he understood.

Li Heng then asked, “Fang Jing’s been locked up by Zhou Tandai lately. She’s behaving herself now, isn’t she?”

Winter Wolf said, “Our brothers in the Fourth Garrison District haven’t seen her step out again. But it looks like Zhou Tandai is up to something new. Two nights ago, a Lieutenant Colonel named Fahua Li Clive landed in the Fourth Garrison. This lieutenant colonel is currently stationed with the Air Defense Command. But after some digging, Snow Wolf discovered that before he joined the Air Defense Command, he was part of the Qiming Army.”

The Qiming Army is one of the two largest air forces in the Owanda Empire, and the commander-in-chief is Marshal Tianpei Huaman. The boundary between the western and eastern regions is marked by Huamei Star, with the western region controlled by the Qiming Army and the eastern region controlled by the Xingyan Army. The current commander of the Xingyan Army is General Jian Qingchuan, the maternal grandfather of their general.

Before General Jian, the commander of the Xingyan Army was General Li Yun, who was the general’s grandfather.

Li Heng said, “This was always going to happen. As long as we don’t mention him, he will surely switch sides. Zhou Tandai is too eager for quick success.”

Winter Wolf nodded. “Indeed. But General, there’s one thing I don’t understand. Since we know he’s like this, why did General Jian agree to your marriage with Madam? If it was just to continue your bloodline, wouldn’t Zhou Xingran be a better match in terms of compatibility?”

Li Heng said, “The old man values character. Back then, although they learned that Yuan Yi was timid, his nature was pure and kind. Zhou Xingran might seem like a high match on paper, but whether it truly was is another matter. You can tell from this situation, where Zhou Tandai didn’t hesitate to promise Zhou Xingran to his subordinate — there’s definitely something else going on. Besides, Yuan Yi is Zhou Tandai’s nephew, and it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that the Zhou family is harsh on him. It’s hard for him to have any deep affection for the Zhou family, and that makes it easier to sever ties.”

Winter Wolf summed it up, saying, “The old man has a sharp eye for people.”

Li Heng thought about his wife, who was diligently sticking tape on the windows and doors, and couldn’t help but find him both cute and amusing. However, he didn’t offer any further comment on his subordinate’s assessment.

He felt that this time, the old man had misjudged the situation because the old man could never have guessed that Yuan Yi would be such a humorous person.

While the doors were sealed, there were still other passageways in the house. The ventilation system was always connected to the outside. Although the passage wasn’t wide enough to allow a full-grown adult to easily pass through, it was enough for sending things in and out. This passageway also connected to the wardrobe.

The wardrobe held a large amount of clothing, and the ventilation was necessary to maintain the dryness and quality of the garments.

As for his task of providing mental comfort for Yuan Yi, he didn’t need to leave the wardrobe to do it.

Li Heng instructed Winter Wolf, “We need to resolve the situation with Aina completely before school starts. I won’t feel at ease with Yuan Yi going to school while she’s still a threat.”

Given Yuan Yi’s personality, it was impossible for him to completely stop his studies just because he was pregnant, so they needed to ensure his safety was fully secured.

The last incident with Aminanka had already been a sufficient reminder for him.

After Winter Wolf left, Li Heng opened a small box. At first glance, it looked like an empty container, perfectly flat, as though it contained nothing. But when Li Heng pressed his hand against the bottom of the box, a piece of color-changing soft gel at the base of the box seemed to come to life, trembling slightly. The gel then slowly gathered in the center of the box, rising up and blending with the surrounding colors, taking on the appearance of a small, soft-bodied chameleon.

It was only about the size of an adult’s palm. When still, it looked more like a toy than a living creature, but it was indeed alive — though not native to Huamei Star.

Li Heng extended his hand flat at the edge of the box, and the little gel chameleon, named Haiding, automatically hopped onto his hand.

Tonight, he was planning to take this little creature with him to meet Yuan Yi.

As they approached the ascent passage, Li Heng spoke to the little gel chameleon, “Haiding, tonight whether I can send a gift to my wife depends entirely on you.”

Haiding nodded. Li Heng patted its back, then donned a protective suit and made his way home.

While sensing Yuan Yi’s brainwaves, Li Heng removed the protective suit. By the time he got home, he was feeling fresh and clean. This time, however, he didn’t plan on leaving the wardrobe.

The tape on the wardrobe was thick and securely fastened. It would be difficult to remove it and reposition it exactly as it was.

So, General Li Heng decided to comfort his wife inside the wardrobe, while Haiding, in coordination with Xuan Ying, would deliver the items to Yuan Yi through the ventilation system.

Yuan Yi had never mentioned his favorite foods to Li Mian, but from the eating habits Li Mian had recorded, it was clear that Yuan Yi wasn’t particularly picky and would eat just about anything.

Tonight, Li Heng decided to bring Yuan Yi some food that he likely hadn’t tried before.

Xuan Ying led the way, while Haiding carried a small box of food. Upon reaching the ventilation shaft, Haiding placed the food box down and, with a quick swish of its tail, pushed the ventilation cover open, adhering it to the edge before carefully placing the food on the other side.

Haiding’s entire body was made of a gel-like substance, and it could decide whether to stick or not. Wherever it went, it left no trace behind, as the gel was a part of its own biology. It was able to glide along the ceiling, placing the food on the bedside table.

This process was repeated several times, and in the end, Haiding had delivered six small boxes of food.

After finishing, Haiding’s body had become a bit rigid. This was a characteristic of creatures from its home planet — when they exhausted too much energy, their bodies would start to harden. To reverse this, they needed to consume a special energy gel to soften their bodies.

Haiding grabbed a bottle with its tiny claws and gulped it down, the soft gel gradually returning to its pliable form. It flattened out again, just as it had when Li Heng first opened the box. Li Heng peeled it off, and Haiding transformed back into its little gel chameleon form, but it looked visibly displeased.

Li Heng chuckled. “The last task hasn’t been done yet. Help me close the ventilation cover.”

Haiding bared its teeth and stormed off angrily. After a while, it returned, carefully adhered the ventilation cover in place, and then jumped back into the box, flattening itself out again.

No matter how much Li Heng prodded it this time, Haiding wouldn’t budge. So, he simply closed the box and allowed it to sleep. He then spent some time comforting Yuan Yi before leaving.

Today, he had only seen Yuan Yi through the footage recorded by Xuan Ying, which left him feeling a bit disappointed. But upon reflection, he thought it might be for the best. That way, he could avoid letting his emotions get the better of him.

As expected, when Yuan Yi woke up, he was once again late.

Not only was he late, but he was also surprised to find that all the tape he had put up was still in place, with no signs of it being torn or disturbed. However, there were six small paper boxes on his bedside table.

The boxes gave off a cedarwood scent, but when opened, they didn’t contain cedar. Instead, they held… grass.

The grass was unfamiliar to him, six different kinds, each occupying its own box. Inside each box were transparent small spheres, with yellow-brown, gel-like material at the bottom. The grass grew on this gel. The grass appeared to be alive, very fresh, and had a gel-like texture on its surface.

This completely baffled Yuan Yi. It was beyond his understanding, so he decided to seek help from Li Mian. After removing all the tape, he powered up the device and showed it the strange items, hoping it could identify what they were.

Li Mian had been “deactivated” for two days, wandering into the smart light. It couldn’t speak, nor could it clearly understand what had happened in the past two days. But it didn’t recognize these plants; it truly didn’t recognize them, not pretending.

It scanned the image and searched online for matching results. The answer it found was: It can confirm that four of them are plants from Blue Gel Star, which are actually edible grasses. Their mucus is very sweet-smelling and can be eaten.

“Food?”

“Mm.” Li Mian said, “Brother Yi, who sent these?”

“Um… a friend sent them. But do you really think these can be eaten?”

“I’m not sure, after all, I’ve never eaten them either. Didn’t your friend tell you? But since they were sent, they should be for you to eat, right? They were delivered right to the bedside.”

The problem is, would I dare to eat them?

Even without two little ones in his belly, he still wouldn’t dare to eat something he had never seen before.

His intuition told him that the unseen guest didn’t mean him any harm, but who can be sure these days? Sometimes, one has to consider the worst-case scenario.

Or could it be that this person is trying to tell him something through these?

For example…

Yuan Yi asked Li Mian, “If someone wanted to convey a message to you using grass, what would you think?”

Li Mian quickly searched and then answered, “Are you being too hasty in your actions? You’re so poor you have to eat grass? Are there any recent movements that I should be told about? Someone is treating human lives like grass? There’s no beautiful grass in the world? I think… uh, Brother Yi, you get what I mean.”

Yuan Yi lightly flicked Li Mian’s forehead, “You little thing, you’re quite naughty.”

Li Mian said, “Brother Yi, you understand it, you’re the naughty one!”

Yuan Yi: “……”

Yuan Yi said, “Can you line up all these plant names and see if you can extract one or two complete sentences?”

Li Mian said, “I tried, but no, it’s like trying to make a donkey’s lips match a horse’s mouth.”

And it knows that it’s not about extracting any sentences at all; it’s just a gift the master gave to his wife, food to be delivered. But it can’t say that outright, or else it would be suspected.

Yuan Yi arranged the little grasses in a row. After opening the transparent lids, he could smell different fragrances from each one. To be honest, the smell really made him hungry, but after going through the Aminanka incident, his sense of vigilance was stronger than ever. He couldn’t bring himself to eat them. And to be fair, these little things looked like mini landscapes on the table, quite cute.

He wondered if they would die if left like this.

He couldn’t figure it out. Since the items could be delivered, why not leave him some written message? Or was it because they were worried about being discovered, it wasn’t safe?

Yuan Yi thought for a moment, then came up with an idea he might try—tonight, no matter what, he wouldn’t sleep.

Having slept well for so many days, an occasional day of staying up wouldn’t hurt. Besides, it was summer, it got dark late, and light early, with only about eight hours in between. In the first four hours, he wasn’t particularly tired. This was a result of waking up late these days.

This time, he decided not to lie in bed. If he got sleepy, he’d do something else to pass the time.

After nightfall, Yuan Yi locked the door, then took out several blankets and laid them on the floor. However, the floor area was large, so it couldn’t be fully covered.

Li Mian asked, “Brother Yi, what are you doing?”

Yuan Yi said, “Preventing falls.”

A few times before, he had stayed up in bed, but he suddenly got tired and fell asleep, and if that happened while walking, it could be a bit unsafe.

Yuan Yi said to Li Mian, “Tonight, you stay in this bedroom, keep the camera aimed at me and filming. All the way until 8 AM tomorrow, don’t miss a second. Can you do that?”

Li Mian said, “Of course, no problem.”

Otherwise, it would also have to keep filming. Aside from the master wanting to watch, there’s another reason—it had to monitor Yuan Yi’s vital signs at all times while working to ensure he remained in good health.

That night, Yuan Yi tried to stay as far from the bed as possible. He asked Li Mian to tell him stories, either about Li Heng or something else, just to keep him from sleeping.

Li Mian, knowing the reason, still asked, “Brother Yi, why don’t you want to sleep?”

Yuan Yi said, “I have something I need to confirm. You can tell me stories, or find an interesting movie to watch, either works. If I fall asleep, come over and wake me up. Don’t slap my face. Actually, slapping the face might work better.”

Slapping the face would be more sensitive, making it easier to wake him up.

Li Mian asked, “Should we prepare some late-night snacks in advance? Otherwise, it would be too much trouble to go out and get something when you’re hungry later.”

Yuan Yi said, “You’re right, you reminded me.”

Yuan Yi quickly took advantage of the time, while it was still not too late, and went to the kitchen to slice some marinated goose, and also warmed up some lotus leaf pancakes. Roast duck can be wrapped, so of course, marinated goose can too.

Seeing that he liked to eat it, Professor Jian had bought him two more. He liked to wrap some shredded cucumber with the marinated goose meat. The cucumbers here were different from the ones he had eaten before, and there were many new varieties. One kind had white skin and was called white jade cucumber. It was especially crunchy, and you could hardly see any seeds. He liked to wrap it in pancakes.

Yuan Yi also made himself a cup of fruit tea, the light kind. It was late, and he didn’t want to eat anything too high in calories.

Professor Jian came out upon hearing the noise, saw that he was preparing goose meat, and asked with a smile, “Are you hungry again?”

Yuan Yi said, “A little. Mom, do you want some?”

Professor Jian said, “I won’t eat. Looks like you really like this marinated goose. After you’re done, I’ll go buy some for you. But it’s already night, don’t eat too much, or it might upset your stomach.”

Yuan Yi nodded, holding the plate and returning to his room.

He realized he didn’t even need to wait until later; he was already starting to feel hungry.

He sat beside the round table, put on gloves, and slowly rolled the pancake, as if making a piece of art, patiently passing the time.

Li Mian said, “Brother Yi, is this marinated goose really that delicious? I’ve noticed you rarely eat the same thing for multiple meals in a row.”

Yuan Yi said, “Mm. The fibers in goose meat are actually quite coarse, but this marinated goose, I don’t know how they made it, the meat is tender and the flavor is good. But it’s probably because of the pregnancy. I never used to particularly like meat, but recently I’ve been craving it more. By the way, I’m also craving sausages.”

“Sausages? What kind of sausages?”

“Dried sausages, some are sweet, some are spicy. But I’m not sure if they have them, I didn’t see any at the supermarket. I also want to eat donkey meat kebab… but forget it, this isn’t something to talk about at night.”

Just talking about it made him crave it, how is that possible?

Li Mian sent everything to Li Heng.

Li Heng immediately ordered someone to find it, pack it securely, and send it over.

Three hours later.

Yuan Yi had already finished the lotus leaf pancake rolled with marinated goose. He was walking on the floor while listening to medical knowledge. Originally, he asked Li Mian to tell him a story, but recently, due to this unseen guest, he had already spent quite a bit of time on other things, so he still had to make time to do useful things.

While Li Mian was projecting essential medical knowledge for Yuan Yi, he also casually chatted with him.

Li Heng arrived while Yuan Yi was silently memorizing and having Li Mian check it. He waited until he was sure Yuan Yi was walking on the thick blanket before using his mental power to affect him…

One second, Yuan Yi was still awake, the next second, he started feeling drowsy.

He suddenly realized something was wrong, but it was of no use. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Li Mian still helping him change the projection content. His whole body gradually softened, and he sat down on the ground before falling onto the blanket.

It wasn’t a complete fall, nor did he bump into anything. There wasn’t even any sound. It wasn’t the kind of sudden loss of consciousness, so there was a bit of a buffer.

He simply couldn’t wake up, and as soon as he lay on the blanket, he fell asleep in the next moment.

It seemed like he was still in a deep sleep, with no independent thoughts in his mind.

Li Heng came out of the cabinet and placed the food he brought onto the table. He had also worn the isolation suit today, but he still went to take a shower before gently picking up Yuan Yi and carefully carrying him to the bed.

He held him horizontally in his arms, then gently placed him on the bed and covered him with the blanket.

This was the first time he had held an omega in his arms, and it felt very strange. It was a different kind of satisfaction than after winning a victory.

When he set him down, they were so close to each other that his breathing momentarily became a bit erratic.

Li Heng immediately straightened up to calm himself, then gently stroked Yuan Yi’s cheek.

At that moment, Li Mian said: “Master, the grass you sent, Brother Yi doesn’t dare to eat.”

Li Heng said: “If he doesn’t want to eat, then he doesn’t have to. It’s fine to just look at it.”

Li Mian asked: “But you always come and go without a trace. Will he be afraid?”

Li Heng smiled and said: “I’ve been sensing his brainwaves every day, and I’ve never sensed any fear. He’s very brave. If he were scared, I wouldn’t come.”

Li Mian said: “That may be true, but Master, you…”

Li Heng: “Hm?”

Li Mian: “You just smiled so greasy.”

Slap!

The next second, Li Mian was slapped and sent to face the wall.

Li Heng: “Come on, I’ll give you a chance to rephrase.”

Li Mian flew back with a swoosh, clinging to Li Heng’s leg with all his might: “I used the wrong word just now, it’s doting! Definitely doting!”

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