Within the short one-minute walk from the dining table to the end of the corridor on the left, Lu Qiao could not imagine what might be inside that room.
He had asked that question on a whim, driven by some inexplicable impulse. When Yan Qiu took his hand, he breathed a sigh of relief, and after that, his mind had gone vaguely blank.
It was not until he stood inside that room and saw the person lying on the hospital bed, eyes tightly shut—the person familiar to everyone in the entire empire, yet perhaps now someone everyone would find unfamiliar—that he froze in place. For a moment, all he could hear was the buzzing in his ears.
Inside the room, the servant attending to them quietly left.
Yan Qiu released Lu Qiao’s hand and walked to the bedside. He flipped up the blinds above the bed, allowing the sunlight in the room to become a little brighter.
It took Lu Qiao quite a while to find his voice again. He murmured, “Marshal… Marshal Yan?”
Yan Qiu lowered his eyes, bent down, and straightened the blanket covering his father before saying calmly, “When news of my father’s death came five years ago, I told you that my father wasn’t dead.”
“I remember…” At the time, however, Yan Qiu had not told Lu Qiao anything more, and Lu Qiao had known that there were probably things he was not allowed to know.
He looked at Yan Qiu and asked softly, “What exactly happened to him…?”
Yan Qiu straightened up. “His consciousness was shattered.”
Lu Qiao was stunned. Something suddenly occurred to him, but before he could ask, Yan Qiu looked at him and confirmed his guess.
“He was the first person we know of to be attacked by mental power. The person who attacked him should also have been the first mental manipulator to break through the realm.”
—In other words, five years ago, the revolution among mental manipulators had begun with Marshal Yan being attacked?!
Lu Qiao was completely shocked by this information. He did not know what to say. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. In the end, he only murmured, “Yan Qiu…”
How could Marshal Yan’s consciousness have simply… been shattered?
Anyone capable of becoming a marshal had undergone years of training in both body and will. Their mental power basically could not be weak; it would even be among the strongest. Marshal Yan also possessed the genes of the strongest combat race, so there was no need to mention his racial talent.
For a mental manipulator to break through Marshal Yan’s defenses, their mental power had to be stronger than his. How many such mental manipulators could there be? Even if there were, they should have been at the marshal-or-general level, right?
Moreover, there were limits to the range within which a mental manipulator could unleash mental power. For example, before Yu Liang launched his mental attack yesterday, everyone around the arena, including Lu Qiao, had felt a bone-chilling sensation—the surrounding people could sense the mental power, and the range they could sense was equivalent to the maximum range of the mental power’s attack.
For Yu Liang, that range was about ten meters around him. As for the strongest mental manipulator Lu Qiao knew of, their attack range was only about a hundred-meter radius.
Could it be that Marshal Yan had encountered a marshal-level mental manipulator from the enemy within that distance at the time?
But something still felt wrong…
There had never been a clear explanation among the public about the origin of the revolution among mental manipulators. If an enemy general had unleashed such power on the battlefield, then after the incident happened, the military instructors at school should have told them about it.
As Lu Qiao thought about it, another possibility occurred to him. His hands and feet went cold.
“Don’t tell me the person who attacked Marshal Yan was…”
Yan Qiu spoke, each word striking directly into Lu Qiao’s heart.
“His adjutant.”
—Aside from the possibility that the enemy had a marshal-level mental manipulator, the other possibility was that it had been one of their own.
Someone whose mental power was far inferior to Marshal Yan’s, yet who was deeply trusted by him and was therefore allowed to enter the marshal’s consciousness. While the marshal was completely unguarded, that person broke through the realm and viciously shattered the marshal’s consciousness.
Lu Qiao’s voice was hoarse. “He was the marshal’s adjutant. Why would he do something like this to him?!”
Yan Qiu sat down beside the bed and gestured for Lu Qiao to come sit in the chair as well.
Lu Qiao stiffly walked over and sat down. Yan Qiu glanced at him and calmly asked, “Do you know Cheng Yu?”
Lu Qiao was fairly familiar with some of the famous generals and marshals in the military. He immediately said, “I do. I heard Marshal Cheng and your father were close brothers?”
But five years ago, news had also arrived that Marshal Cheng had died in battle. At the time, they had said that he had died after Marshal Yan’s incident. But later, Yan Qiu had told Lu Qiao that Marshal Yan had not died. Then Marshal Cheng…
“Marshal Cheng did indeed sacrifice himself, but he didn’t die directly on the battlefield.” Yan Qiu’s voice was very cold. “Before his death, he was captured and taken to the enemy camp. In the end, they found his body in the enemy camp.”
Lu Qiao’s eyes widened, and he fell silent.
Yan Qiu slowly continued, “And my father’s adjutant at the time was Marshal Cheng’s son, Cheng Yi.”
“In that battle, the initial strategic arrangement was for my father to immediately reinforce Marshal Cheng after clearing the battlefield under his command. But the situation on the battlefield changes in an instant.” Yan Qiu spoke very slowly, and Lu Qiao listened just as carefully. “Not everything will proceed according to the initial predictions.”
Lu Qiao swallowed. He could almost imagine what had happened next from Yan Qiu’s unfinished words.
“The enemy’s reinforcements launched a surprise attack. Alliance military headquarters issued an order, and my father could only remain where he was. He couldn’t reinforce Marshal Cheng, and after Marshal Cheng was captured, he couldn’t carry out a rescue either.” Yan Qiu raised his hand and gently rubbed Lu Qiao’s head. He said softly, “As a marshal, my father had to take responsibility for his actions. He also had to take responsibility for the Alliance, the Empire, this battle, and all the soldiers under his command. He couldn’t disobey orders and act on his own.”
Lu Qiao said quietly, “That man named Cheng Yi… attacked your father out of revenge?”
“By the time my father’s subordinates realized something was wrong, Cheng Yi had already ejected from my father’s dual-pilot mecha and escaped. The army was retreating at the time, and the situation was chaotic. They didn’t have time to stop him. In the end, they could only review what had happened through the recorder inside the mecha.” Yan Qiu paused. “He should have lost control of his emotions and gone into a genetic rampage while arguing with my father.”
Yet the target of the attack had been very clear, and so had the target of his anger.
Even though Cheng Yi, while conscious, would never have done anything detrimental to Marshal Yan, when he lost control of his emotions, all his mental power followed his instincts and surged toward one clear target.
At that moment, he truly wanted Yan Qiu’s father dead.
Lu Qiao frowned. “He’s a soldier. Before entering the military, he should have known that anything terrible could happen on the battlefield. And the order came from Alliance military headquarters. How could he blame Marshal Yan—”
“When emotions erupt, no amount of reasoning is useful,” Yan Qiu said calmly. “What’s more, my position is different from his. I don’t want to make any judgment about his actions. There is only one thing that is absolutely clear—”
“He hurt my father.” Yan Qiu’s voice remained calm. “I will find him. Even though, as the first mental manipulator to break through the realm, he still has no ability to repair a shattered consciousness, wherever he belongs, it should be a military tribunal.”
Lu Qiao looked at the man in front of him, unable to describe what he was feeling.
Everything involving Cheng Yi concerned both family and a soldier’s responsibilities. In many circumstances, the two were at odds with each other. It was simply too complicated to discuss, and Lu Qiao could not figure it out himself. His mind was a complete mess.
But in the end, Yan Qiu’s calmness slowly passed on to him.
Indeed, they did not need to make any judgment about Cheng Yi’s actions. They only needed to make their position clear.
—They could sympathize with Cheng Yi’s circumstances, but they also had to make him pay the price for what he had done.
Perhaps emotions that had spiraled out of control and the power unleashed during a genetic rampage were extremely difficult to control.
But Marshal Yan had remained asleep like this for five years, and might even remain asleep forever. If what happened had occurred during an actual engagement, the consequences would have been even more devastating.
This was not something that could simply be erased with the words, “I didn’t mean to.”
The room fell silent for a while.
After a moment, Lu Qiao asked, “Then after Cheng Yi broke through the realm, other mental manipulators also broke through one after another. What exactly caused this chain reaction, like a domino effect? Do you know?”
Yan Qiu shook his head. “Not yet.”
In that case, all the major powers, including the Galactic Empire itself, should be very interested in Cheng Yi. Presumably, everyone wanted to capture him.
Lu Qiao had recovered by now. He asked softly, “Is it really okay for you to tell me all this…?”
When he had mentioned this room at the dining table, he genuinely had never imagined that he would see Yan Qiu’s father here.
“It’s fine.” Yan Qiu did not seem to care much about it.
Lu Qiao pursed his lips and promised, “I won’t go around telling people! But… you deliberately kept this from me five years ago, didn’t you? And now I can know about it… Why is that?”
Could it really be because he had become a marshal and now had the authority to make decisions? Lu Qiao secretly wondered.
Yan Qiu looked at him meaningfully and said, “Some things have changed over the past five years, so you can know now.”
“What changed?” Lu Qiao asked in confusion.
Yan Qiu did not answer. Instead, he stood up and said, “Go outside and finish the rest of your milk.”
Lu Qiao froze for a moment, immediately distracted. “Do you think I’m a child!” He followed him out.
Before closing the door, Lu Qiao took one last look at Marshal Yan sleeping on the bed…
Once, Marshal Yan had also been someone he admired, and even more so, a hero in the hearts of countless people.
Yet now, this hero had become so thin…
Lu Qiao could not help thinking again of that night five years ago.
At that time, they had been participating in the final competition before Yan Qiu entered the military.
When the tragic news of Marshal Yan arrived, Lu Qiao had been eating dinner in the cafeteria at the competition’s accommodation site. The moment he heard the news, he immediately lost his appetite. The entire cafeteria fell silent.
Lu Qiao’s father had died on the battlefield, so from a very young age, he had known that becoming a soldier was not some heroic game. The battlefield was a serious place, a place where lives could disappear in an instant.
Whether someone was a person he admired or not, once a soldier went to the battlefield, there was always a possibility that they would never return.
And at that moment, the person who would not return had become Yan Qiu’s father.
That brave great marshal… and Yan Qiu’s father.
Lu Qiao was sad and grieved, but he had experienced this kind of grief before. Therefore, he did not cry. He was not someone who liked to cry in the first place.
Yet after sitting blankly in the cafeteria for quite some time, an emotion finally surged up that he could no longer suppress…
Unlike the sorrow brought by a soldier’s sacrifice, he experienced another kind of sadness, one that was completely unfamiliar.
He stood up in a daze, wondering where Yan Qiu was at that moment.
Before dinner, Yan Qiu had hurriedly left with Ji Zhuyun and the others. Had people from the military specifically taken him away to tell him the tragic news?
Then where was Yan Qiu now?
Had he returned?
Or… would he come back at all?
Lu Qiao was extremely anxious. He wandered around like a headless fly. He wanted to call Yan Qiu, but was unsure whether he should.
In the end, he threw caution to the wind and sat down beside the landing pad outside the dormitory, waiting there until late at night…
Late that night, an aircraft landed, and a familiar figure appeared before him.
In truth, Lu Qiao could no longer clearly remember what had happened during that short period, because he had been in a daze the entire time. His condition seemed even worse than Yan Qiu’s, despite Yan Qiu being Marshal Yan’s son.
He only remembered Ji Zhuyun and the others looking at him in astonishment, then meeting Yan Qiu’s cold gaze.
In the end, Yan Qiu brought him back to the room without saying a word.
After the door closed, the man pulled him to his side. His fingertips gently brushed across the corners of Lu Qiao’s eyes as he asked in a low voice, “Lu Qiao, what are you crying about?”
Lu Qiao trembled slightly at the time and avoided his gaze. His voice was choked with emotion.
“Your father…”
“This isn’t the first time you’ve heard news like this.” Yan Qiu’s voice was calm.
Some major military news spread extremely quickly among military academy students, and Marshal Yan was not the only general who had sacrificed himself in recent years.
Lu Qiao was somewhat annoyed. “I know! I can’t cry every time a soldier dies. If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to join the military at all!”
Lu Qiao had long since developed an immunity to such news. Even if the person who sacrificed himself was his idol, he had already learned how to hold back his tears.
But this time, he simply could not stop them—
“This time, it’s because—because—”
Lu Qiao widened his eyes, able to feel his tears falling.
—Because besides being the hero he admired, Yan Qiu’s father was also Yan Qiu’s father.
Yan Qiu had lost his father.
Lu Qiao had long been accustomed to the sadness that the sacrifice of soldiers brought him.
But the other sorrow that surfaced in his heart at that moment was something he was experiencing for the first time in his life.
Yesterday, at the hospital, Yan Qiu had asked him what exactly he had been crying about that night five years ago.
—It was because of you.
Lu Qiao could clearly hear the answer in the depths of his heart.
—On this night five years ago, I was sad because of you.
At that moment, noticing that Lu Qiao had stopped, Yan Qiu turned sideways and said, “Let’s go.”
Lu Qiao withdrew his gaze from Yan Qiu’s father and turned to the man standing before him.
That night, he had cried terribly. In the end, this man had comforted him and whispered in his ear that Marshal Yan was not dead, telling him to stop crying.
Yet while Lu Qiao breathed a sigh of relief, he still continued crying like a broken faucet, blankly shedding tears for half the night. Eventually, he cried himself to sleep directly in Yan Qiu’s room.
Even thinking about it now made him feel extremely embarrassed.
Lu Qiao was very glad that Yan Qiu’s father was still alive.
And now, he could not help thinking…
The door closed.
Yan Qiu took Lu Qiao’s hand again and glanced sideways at him.
“What are you thinking about?”
Lu Qiao lowered his head, then raised it again and said to him, “I was thinking, if only I could help your father wake up.”
His Level Three genes were also from the consciousness race. If only he could have some kind of breakthrough, that would be great.
Unfortunately, the possibility was far too small.
Yan Qiu was stunned for a moment, then smiled.
Of course… Lu Qiao would never tell this man the truth about why he had cried five years ago.
After all, no matter how he thought about it, it was simply too strange and embarrassing!
Lu Qiao asked, “If a shattered consciousness can be repaired, can the person wake up?”
Yan Qiu replied, “That’s only a theory. At present, no mental manipulator is capable of doing it. The most powerful mental manipulator beside Luo Ye is still attempting it. While considering other methods, we speculated that Cheng Yi, as the ‘first person,’ might be in a special situation and perhaps possess the ability to accomplish this.”
The two of them talked as they returned to the living room. Yan Qiu pressed Lu Qiao down into a chair and ordered him to finish his milk.
Lu Qiao muttered complaints under his breath, but obediently drank it down with several loud gulps.
Outside the corridor, Lun En smiled and said to Sai Er, “…That’s Yan Qiu’s answer. I guess the person he wants is Lu Qiao. Although an adjutant still has to pass an assessment before taking the position, he probably wouldn’t have said that if he wasn’t confident. What about you? What are you planning to do?”
Sai Er withdrew his gaze and smiled at Lun En.
“I’m still planning to give it a try. After all, until the very end… no one knows what will happen. Maybe I’ll succeed.”
Lun En burst out laughing. “All right, all right, go ahead and give it a try. Wow, I’m going to be jealous of Yan Qiu. He’s really a hot commodity!”
Sai Er smiled without saying anything.
After breakfast, Lu Qiao changed into the clothes the butler had prepared for him and followed Yan Qiu, Lun En, and Sai Er to the military.
After boarding the aircraft, Lu Qiao could not help trying to cling to Lun En again.
Unfortunately, the aircraft had rows of two-person seats. In the end, Yan Qiu had to pull him over beside himself with a stern expression, like he was carrying a chick by the scruff of its neck.
Lu Qiao leaned toward the front row and proudly advertised himself to Lun En.
“I can make merchandise! I’m really good at making clothes. I embroidered chibi logos of several idols on T-shirts before, and I designed all of them myself!”
Lun En became interested. “Oh? Did you make one of me too?”
“Yes, yes!” Lu Qiao nodded.
Lun En asked, “What about Yan Qiu’s dad?”
“Yes, yes!” Lu Qiao continued nodding.
Lun En gave a mischievous grin and asked with very ill intentions, “Then did you make one of Yan Qiu?”
Lu Qiao paused and turned to look at the man beside him.
The man had been sitting there with a stern expression, looking out the window the entire time.
At some point, he had turned his head back and was staring directly at him.