Early the next morning, the door chime rang and the ward door slid open.
Milton Collins stood in the doorway, his military uniform pressed razor-sharp. In his hand was a clothing box so exquisitely packaged it could have gone straight into an advertisement—while his expression was cold enough to freeze the entire medical floor.
Gu Qing lifted his eyes and found it rather amusing.
“General,” he said gently, a trace of teasing at the corner of his lips, “is this a gift of clothes… or a death sentence?”
Milton ignored the jab. He set the box down on the table and spoke in his usual flat tone. “You are temporarily under my guardianship. Until your identity is verified, all your medical and living expenses will be covered by me.”
“Guardianship?” Gu Qing paused, dark eyes widening slightly, like a harmless little animal suddenly lifted out of its cage.
Milton remained unmoved and added coolly, “According to the Male Protection Association’s regulations, any foreign male insect without an identity record must be placed under supervision until verification is complete, to prevent accidents.”
The words were impeccably official, but Gu Qing caught the subtext immediately:
I will be watching you. Do not try anything.
Gu Qing nodded and smoothly sat up. “I see. Then… I’ll have to trouble you to take good care of me, General.”
—Flawless acting, even tinged with a hint of weakness.
Inside his sea of consciousness, the little silver orb was laughing itself into a roll.
Wow wow wow, you’re way too good at this! Want me to add a ‘boohoo I’m so pitiful’ filter for you?
Gu Qing expressionlessly flicked it into the corner of his consciousness.
This general was clearly suspicious of him. If he did not dispel that wariness soon, future plans would become extremely inconvenient. After all, a severely injured male insect in strange clothing who had appeared on a desolate planet—nothing about that was normal.
—In that case, continuing to play weak was the optimal strategy. No one ever suspected someone who looked like a stiff breeze could knock him over.
At that moment, Milton suddenly raised his hand and tapped his light-brain.
A beam of silver-white light unfolded in his palm, as if space itself had been sliced open. The next second, a brand-new black metallic case dropped quietly beside Gu Qing.
“This is…?” Gu Qing raised an eyebrow.
“A storage device,” Milton replied evenly. “Since you don’t have any personal belongings, I prepared one for you. It contains basic clothes and medicine. F-rank male insects have fragile bodies—bump into something and you’ll get hurt. You… should find it useful.”
The last sentence was spoken lightly, but Gu Qing still caught the extremely well-hidden, almost imperceptible concern beneath it.
Gu Qing reached out and brushed his fingertips against the device—and his divine sense slipped inside.
His brows twitched, just barely.
—The storage capacity was larger than any mid-tier spatial treasure he had seen in the cultivation world. And within it was an exceedingly subtle fluctuation of energy.
Surveillance.
It would log every item placed in or removed, categorize them, and even flag minute discrepancies in weight.
Gu Qing mentally commented: this general really was guarding against him down to the bone.
But he did not mind. He had nothing to hide.
Without exposing anything, Gu Qing looked up, his tone gentle and obedient. “Thank you, General. You’ve gone to a lot of trouble.”
Milton turned his face slightly aside and gave a low “Mm,” then added flatly, “With this, your daily life will be… more convenient.”
But the real meaning—
Gu Qing understood perfectly.
—I will be watching.
The Heavenly Dao’s little orb immediately shrieked inside his consciousness:
Ahhh, a gift! Isn’t this exactly the kind of tsundere couple interaction where someone pretends to be cold while secretly taking care of you—
Gu Qing flicked it away. “Shut up.”
But he’s really nervous about you!
“That’s good,” Gu Qing replied calmly. “The more nervous he is, the easier it is for me to keep pretending to be weak.”
…Your heart is black.
Gu Qing could not be bothered to argue. He simply pressed it back into the deepest corner and sealed it there.
After changing clothes, he accompanied Milton to the medical level. Officially it was for rehabilitation checks; in reality, Milton was probing his background. Their conversation was polite, like a diplomatic exchange, but every sentence concealed sharp edges.
“You say you don’t have a light-brain because of amnesia?” Milton asked, flipping through provisional files while glancing sideways at him.
Gu Qing nodded gently. “Yes… a lot of things in my head are blurry. Only my name remains.”
“But you operate a light-brain very quickly.”
“Instinct, maybe… I might have used one a lot before?”
Milton gave a cool “Mm,” his suspicion clearly still climbing.
Soon they arrived at the examination room. Gu Qing cooperatively removed his outerwear and stepped onto the scanning platform, faintly revealing long lines and the contours of his shoulders and back. Behind the glass wall, Milton stood with arms crossed, expression unreadable, violet eyes slightly narrowed.
As Gu Qing settled in, he spoke softly to the little orb in his consciousness:
“My body was already damaged during tribulation, then torn apart again by spacetime turbulence. My meridians are shattered—far weaker than a normal insect. These machines can’t detect cultivation, so they’ll only see…”
Ding— Scan complete.
The examiner stared at the data pad, voice trembling. “This… this is impossible…”
Milton snapped his head around. “What happened?”
“Gu Qing’s physical rating is F.”
“F?”
“…Yes. Far below the male insect average. Low bone density, fragile muscle fibers, weak mental strength… He’s basically someone who could sprain an ankle just by walking, fracture a bone if he falls, and in the worst case even the fabric of his clothes needs to be carefully selected!”
The examiner added shakily, “We recommend clothing made from Cloudsoft Beast belly fleece. That fur grows specifically for cubs—super, super soft. Market price is over ten million star credits per bolt…”
Milton: “……”
Gu Qing could tell the general was starting to question reality itself.
Inside his consciousness, the Heavenly Dao orb was laughing hysterically.
Hahahahaha, F-rank! Glass-insect level! Is there anyone who’s ever pulled off a scam—cough, cough—an act as successfully as you?!
Gu Qing exhaled softly, satisfied. Excellent. Even this icy general was starting to get confused.
On the other side of the glass, Milton looked back and forth between the scan results labeled “Fragile Constitution” and the tall, upright figure beyond the platform, and for the first time began to doubt his own judgment.
Had he really overthought it?
Was that ancient clothing some kind of family heirloom? Was this man truly just a fallen male insect, rather than an infiltrator or bait sent by another faction?
After several seconds of silence, he spoke in a low voice. “Synchronize this report to the Male Protection Association for record. And—replace all of his clothing with the highest-grade Cloudsoft Beast fabric.”
The examiner looked shocked. “That’s a standard only high-tier male insects receive…”
Milton said nothing. From the corner of his eye, he glanced at Gu Qing, who sat quietly, expression gentle, a faint smile at his lips—like someone waiting for something, or… someone who had already known the outcome.
A dull, inexplicable heaviness pressed against Milton’s chest.
Gu Qing… just who are you, really?