The two of them spent the night squeezed together on this small bed.
Before six o’clock the next morning, Lu Qiao woke up groggily before the alarm even rang.
When he woke, he discovered that he was still being held in Yan Qiu’s arms.
The place where the training hall was located was already in late autumn. The weather was somewhat cool, but they had not turned on the air conditioning yet. The nights and early mornings were cold, but now that two grown men were holding each other, they were warm and toasty. Lu Qiao not only did not feel cold, he even felt a little hot.
He sleepily blinked twice. He was already too lazy to struggle out of Yan Qiu’s arms—in fact, during the several nights he had spent at the Yan residence, he would wake up the next morning to find himself being held by Yan Qiu. He had never expected Yan Qiu to be the kind of person who liked sleeping while holding something.
Lu Qiao simply stayed obediently in Yan Qiu’s arms, looking at the ceiling before turning around to look at Yan Qiu.
The man had his eyes tightly closed and was sleeping very quietly. Even his sleeping face was quite handsome, as if he had stepped out of a painting.
Lu Qiao did not know what had gotten into him. He leaned over and sniffed, feeling that Yan Qiu… actually smelled pretty good?
Just then, the man opened his eyes.
Lu Qiao quickly pulled back, coughed, and awkwardly said, “H-how are you awake so early too?”
Yan Qiu lay on his side and looked at him teasingly. “I woke up when you started moving.”
“Where did I move…” Lu Qiao was about to argue when he remembered what he had just done, leaning over to smell Yan Qiu. His face immediately turned red—what the heck? Even such a tiny movement could wake him up?!
Lu Qiao guiltily looked away, but Yan Qiu had already sat up. With a half-smile on his face, he asked in a low voice, “Smell good?”
The man’s voice right after waking naturally carried a trace of huskiness. His voice was already deep and sexy, and now it sounded even more alluring, making Lu Qiao’s face flush even more. Awkwardly, Lu Qiao said, “Doesn’t smell good. You stink!”
Yan Qiu raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced.
Lu Qiao muttered softly, “You stink!”
Yan Qiu laughed and said, “Then I’ll put on some perfume before coming next time.”
“……” Lu Qiao secretly breathed a sigh of relief and smugly said, “Oh.”
Having won the verbal battle, he glanced at the time. It was almost six. After Yan Qiu disappeared, he would also be about ready to leave, so he handed over the clothes Yan Qiu needed to change into. Pressing his lips together, he obediently said, “Then I’ll be leaving soon. See you tonight?”
Yan Qiu looked at him with amusement. “Okay. See you tonight.”
At exactly six, Yan Qiu disappeared. Lu Qiao washed up, brought his small suitcase, and waited for Song Yue. The two of them then set off for Sanguang Planet.
Lu Qiao sat in the back seat. The moment his butt touched the seat, he started knitting.
Song Yue knew that Lu Qiao had this skill, but he had not seen him use it in a long time. Curiously, he asked, “Making clothes for yourself?”
Lu Qiao gave a vague reply.
Song Yue and Lu Qiao had met at a ten-year school, but they had actually attended the same elementary school as well, only in different classes. At the time, they had merely heard each other’s names and had not interacted much. At that elementary school—or rather, on all of Sanguang Planet—the two of them were among the few students with relatively good grades. In the past two years, they were also the only two who had left Sanguang Planet to study in the First-Class Star Region on scholarships.
Lu Qiao insisted on returning to his hometown once every year, while Song Yue had not gone back for two years because he had joined the military.
“By the way, what exactly happened at your home?” Lu Qiao asked while knitting.
On the phone yesterday, the two of them had only exchanged a hurried sentence, reconfirmed their departure time, and hung up. Song Yue’s voice had sounded rather irritated, and Lu Qiao had not wanted to ask too much.
At the mention of this, Song Yue sighed and said gloomily, “My little brother is unconscious. He’s been unconscious for a whole week, and my mom only told me yesterday!”
Lu Qiao was surprised. “What illness does he have?”
“I don’t know. My mom has already taken my little brother to see three doctors, and none of them can figure it out. They only think it’s Genetic Disorder Syndrome,” Song Yue said. “But he’s different from you back then. You fell unconscious because you had a fever, and the fever was caused by your genetic outbreak. But his genes already underwent an outbreak long ago. So how could he become unconscious just because of Genetic Disorder Syndrome?”
Unconsciousness was not a symptom of Genetic Disorder Syndrome, so this really was strange.
Song Yue continued, “They don’t have an aircraft. If they want to come to the First-Class Star Region for treatment, transferring between express trains the whole way would take two or three days. So I told them to wait until I went over and saw the situation before setting out. After all, I’m flying an aircraft. From Sanguang Planet to Central Star, the straight-line distance only takes seven hours.”
Lu Qiao nodded. So that was how it was.
“But, Lu Qiao…” Song Yue’s voice became serious again. After a pause, he hesitated before asking, “Do you remember Genetic Induction?”
Lu Qiao froze. He sat up straight and slowly said, “Yeah. I remember.”
Song Yue lowered his voice. “Don’t you think my brother’s situation is quite similar to those people whose Genetic Induction failed back then? And according to what my mom told me, including my brother, there are already six people nearby who have developed the same condition. Since when did Genetic Disorder Syndrome start occurring this frequently? I suspect it’s very possible that someone has secretly started doing that kind of thing again.”
Lu Qiao thought about it, and he too became suspicious.
Genetic Induction was exactly what its name implied. Like Genetic Closure, it was a form of genetic therapy, except the latter was used to close specific genes, while the former was used to awaken specific genes.
Most people would never experience a secondary genetic outbreak in their lifetime. If their Level-1 gene happened to be an unremarkable gene belonging to a disadvantaged race, that individual would face tremendous pressure in both daily life and society.
For people born on Fourth-Class Stars, lacking a powerful racial gene practically meant that they were destined to never amount to much in their entire lives.
Therefore, thirty years ago, on Sanguang Planet and the surrounding Fourth-Class Stars, a group of underground doctors had secretly begun performing Genetic Induction, a medical procedure explicitly prohibited throughout the entire Alliance.
The administration of these planets was also extremely chaotic. The authorities turned a blind eye to it. As a result, many people underwent this treatment in hopes of gambling on a better future. Some successfully underwent induction, while those whose induction failed would fall into comas. Their conditions after waking varied greatly. Some even lost their Level-1 genes, while others suffered so much physical pain that they could not live normal lives at all.
Lu Qiao’s father had not gotten involved because his genes were already quite good. One of his father’s brothers, however, had undergone this treatment and successfully induced a Combat Race gene. He later joined the local military. Of course, when he applied, he only said that his secondary gene had awakened. Everyone back then did the same thing.
However, less than two years after Genetic Induction became widespread, one of the Fourth-Class Stars in that region attracted the Empire’s attention and was subjected to a major cleanup. The administration of Sanguang Planet naturally could no longer focus on the immediate underground profits. Before the Empire’s attention shifted to them, they took action and completely cleared out all those underground clinics. In all these years, nothing like what had happened thirty years ago had occurred again.
Lu Qiao asked Song Yue, “Do your brother and those other unconscious people have any overlap in their movements before they fell unconscious?”
Song Yue shook his head and said, “They themselves would obviously know that this is illegal. If they really went to undergo Genetic Induction, how could they tell us where they went? None of the families know where they went before falling unconscious. Even the location-tracking function on their terminals was turned off.”
Deliberately to this extent?
That really was suspicious.
Lu Qiao frowned and asked, “Did your parents report it?”
“They did. It was useless,” Song Yue said irritably. “You understand the situation there too. It’s been like this for so many years. Fourth-Class Stars are remote, and unless a central administrative official happens to pass through and personally encounters something like what happened back then, normally no one will bother with them. And don’t you remember who the current director of the Sanguang Planet administration is?”
Lu Qiao remembered.
It was the father of one of the school bullies at their elementary school.
This matter really was becoming troublesome.
By the time the two arrived at Sanguang Planet, it was already noon. Song Yue planned to go to the Planetary Administration Bureau after checking on his younger brother. Lu Qiao thought about it and decided to go along to take a look at the situation.
The two first went to Song Yue’s home.
Song Yue’s parents had not been able to sleep properly for many days. Their complexions were terrible. The moment they saw Song Yue, they looked as though they had seen their savior, tears already falling from their eyes.
Song Yue and Lu Qiao hurried into the bedroom to take a look. Song Yue’s younger brother was lying on the bed, receiving an IV of nutritional fluid, completely motionless.
Song’s mother grabbed Song Yue and choked out, “Can you report the situation here to your superior? The Brian family doesn’t care at all!”
Brian was the surname of the head of the administration and his family.
Song Yue and Lu Qiao exchanged a glance.
Although Song Yue was now a First-Class military officer, directly reporting matters concerning his hometown to his superiors in the military… Not to mention that the military did not normally concern itself with these matters, no one seemed to do things this way either. It was somewhat inappropriate.
Lu Qiao, meanwhile, was thinking that if this really involved Genetic Induction, perhaps he could trouble Yan Qiu if there was no other choice.
Song Yue thought about it and gritted his teeth. “I’ll go look for the Brians first. We’ll see what happens after I talk to them.”
The situation was still unclear, so they could not make any plans yet.
Thus, Lu Qiao and Song Yue left the Song residence and immediately went to the Planetary Administration Bureau.
Song Yue had a First-Class military officer ID, so entering and leaving the administrative authorities of Third-Class and lower stars was unrestricted. Therefore, even though the Brian family liked putting on airs, and the staff in the administration bureau all wore impatient expressions, the two still smoothly entered Brian’s office and met both the elder and younger Brian.
The elder Brian was over fifty, his plumpness clearly evident, his face shiny with oil.
The younger Brian was the school bully from the elementary school Lu Qiao and Song Yue had attended. He was now twenty-four years old and had a sharp, weasel-like face. The moment he saw Lu Qiao, his eyes lit up. He stepped forward and said, “Lu Qiao? You’re Lu Qiao?”
Lu Qiao only stayed for a few days whenever he returned each year, at most meeting one or two friends. He rarely encountered anyone else, so it really had been many years since he had seen younger Brian.
The way younger Brian looked at him was greasy and disgusting. Lu Qiao found it unpleasant and did not want to bother with him.
Song Yue noticed it too. He shifted slightly to block Lu Qiao from view, endured his discomfort toward the father and son, and said, “I’m here to talk about the situation in District Three.”
District Three was the area where Song Yue and Lu Qiao lived, and it was also the area where the six unconscious people were located.
“I don’t know whether the administrative officer of District Three has reported this, but six people there have already fallen unconscious for unknown reasons. We suspect that there may be an underground clinic performing Genetic Induction.”
“Genetic Induction?” Elder Brian sat in the office chair behind his desk and raised an eyebrow. “Who would dare do that nowadays? You’ve got it wrong, haven’t you? Six people unconscious? Are you sure they didn’t just catch the flu and develop a fever?”
Younger Brian laughed.
Song Yue’s expression darkened. “There are no symptoms whatsoever. They’re simply unconscious. The doctors who examined them said it was Genetic Disorder Syndrome, but how could six people in one district develop Genetic Disorder Syndrome within a few days? And Genetic Disorder Syndrome can’t even cause unconsciousness!”
“How many people live in one district, Song Yue?” Elder Brian leaned against the desk and tapped his fingers on it. “What percentage do these six people account for? Just these six people, and you dare say someone is performing Genetic Induction? Your parents reported it to the district administrative officer, and when they got no response, you came to me to talk about it, right? But doesn’t the district administrative officer’s lack of response prove that there’s no situation at all? Song Yue, Song Yue, if everyone made a mountain out of a molehill like you, we’d be worked to death around here!”
The father and son wore mocking expressions, completely disregarding Song Yue’s status as a First-Class military officer.
Although they had anticipated this situation before coming, when Lu Qiao and Song Yue actually faced the two men, they were still furious.
“What if someone really is performing Genetic Induction?” Lu Qiao spoke up. “If you don’t take it seriously and the matter becomes serious, once the higher authorities find out, I’m afraid it’ll be difficult to clean up.”
As soon as he said this, the smiles on both Brians faded somewhat.
Lu Qiao was also very direct. He said coldly, “The district administrative officer hasn’t responded. Whether that’s because they’ve investigated the situation and decided there was no problem, or because they simply didn’t take it seriously and did nothing, you know perfectly well.”
Everyone knew what the administration of this planet was like. Yet before coming, they had still hoped that Elder Brian would take it seriously. After all, if the administration could not take the lead in cleaning things up, and everything had to bypass them and be reported to higher authorities, that would be too ironic.
But reality was heading precisely in the worst possible direction.
The elder and younger Brian exchanged a glance. Elder Brian sneered, while younger Brian spoke with a smile, “It’s not impossible to investigate. I can help look into it. But Lu Qiao, you’ll have to come with me.”
Lu Qiao and Song Yue’s expressions darkened.
Song Yue immediately said, “If you’re going to investigate with someone, shouldn’t I be the one to go with you? My brother is one of the six unconscious people!”
Younger Brian said lazily, “No. I want Lu Qiao to come with me! Speaking of which—Lu Qiao, you’ve become quite a bit prettier than when you were little.”
He looked Lu Qiao up and down with a lecherous gaze.
Elder Brian chuckled as he lit a cigarette, making no attempt to stop him.
Lu Qiao’s face turned ashen. In all his life, he had never been looked at by a man with such a gaze.
This wasn’t about wanting to cooperate at all. It was—
Song Yue grabbed Lu Qiao’s hand and turned around. “Forget it. We’re leaving.”
“Hey, why leave?” Younger Brian’s eyes flashed. He licked his lips and actually took several steps forward, reaching out and grabbing Lu Qiao.
Lu Qiao’s pupils contracted sharply. He immediately turned around and shook off his hand—if this guy continued being so disgusting, he really was going to beat him up right here!
However, before he could speak, Song Yue had already warned him first. “Watch yourself. Be careful Marshal Yan Qiu comes looking for you!”
Both the elder and younger Brian froze for a moment, and then—
They both burst into laughter!
“Yan… Yan Qiu?” Elder Brian’s face flushed red as he laughed so hard he could barely speak. “Hahahaha, Yan Qiu? You’re talking about that Yan Qiu, Marshal Yan?”
The father and son looked at Song Yue as if he were an idiot, their shoulders shaking with laughter.
“Marshal Yan is going to come settle the score with me?” Younger Brian pointed at himself, laughing so hard he trembled. “Song Yue, did you stay in the military so long that you went stupid? If I hit on a man, Marshal Yan is going to come after me? Hahahahahaha!”
When Lu Qiao heard the words “hit on a man,” he was just about to roll up his sleeves when his terminal received a video call.
Song Yue glanced at it, saw the caller’s name, and angrily grabbed Lu Qiao’s hand to help him answer the call.
Lu Qiao was startled.
However, the holographic screen had already unfolded, and the handsome man’s striking face appeared on it. He spoke gently, “Have you arrived?”
“Yes, yes, we have. Something came up, and I forgot to tell you.” Lu Qiao quickly replied.
Before leaving, Yan Qiu had told Lu Qiao to let him know when he arrived, but Lu Qiao had been thinking about Song Yue’s situation and forgotten.
Before the elder and younger Brian could react, Song Yue squeezed over and aggressively complained to the man on Lu Qiao’s video call, “Marshal Yan, someone here wants to hit on Lu Qiao!”
The mocking laughter of the elder and younger Brian abruptly stopped.
Lu Qiao: “……”
On the video, Yan Qiu’s expression darkened.
He spoke in a calm tone, his voice icy cold.
“Who?”