CH 34

Assessing Meritorious Service (2)

Garcia’s mind went blank.

The disabled human in his arms had already fallen asleep again, and his shallow breathing fell on his chest. As a sense of deja vu came over him, he stiffened once more.

…..Why?

……How did things turn out like this??

This situation was a bit too different from His Royal Highness’s expectations. Garcia stood there stiff for a full minute before slowly casting his gaze down. His Adam’s apple moved and looked at Jiang Jianming’s eyebrows again.

…. A disabled human being, is this what they look like?

Garcia thought hesitantly in his heart: Remnant humans……maybe they are such delicate creatures? Perhaps their psychology is a state….where they need enough comfort at any time?

For example, asking someone to hug you while you sleep.

But……His Highness frowned displeased—but that should be a problem that disabled humans themselves need to solve.

Delicate creatures wouldn’t survive in the distant interstellar space. Here, no one would pamper others, and no special care would be given.

Therefore, he had no reason to be used as a home pillow and be hugged by Jiang Jianming.

What’s more, it’s not Jiang Jianming who was hugging him now, but he was being forced to hug this person, and bearing his weight.

Garcia decided to put the body in his arms, down.

Then do what he didn’t finish just now—wake up this mischievous disabled human being, carry him back to the treatment area, and put him inside the treatment cabin again.

Afterwards, return to his residence with peace of mind. 

It was in a high-end dormitory area on the first floor, different from the dormitories of ordinary officers, and no one would dare to be so presumptuous there.

****

On that long night, the numbers on the electronic clock on the wall of the dormitory beat silently.

Light clouds covered the twin blue moons of Alien Alpha Star, and then dispersed after a while.

Half an hour passed.

Garcia still stood there expressionless.

An hour passed.

Garcia held Jiang Jianming and sat down on the bedside carefully.

He casually pulled the quilt over, straightened it, and then wrapped the disabled human being sleeping in his arms with it. 

“……”

With a cold face, His Highness Garcia quickly found a reason for not letting go, and chose the most convincing one among them.

His Highness seriously thought to himself: Since this is a disabled human….well, let’s just say it is their “second nature”.

If the hug disappears, maybe he will feel uncomfortable, feel ill, and even……..feel pained?

Garcia quietly looked at the pale young man sleeping peacefully in his arms.

………And Jiang Jianming, he is a remnant human who has just escaped from a dying state, if he let him suffer……..

It may damage the body, which will lead to an easier death next time. This definitely must not happen. The details of this person have not been found out yet, and he will not allow him to just die.

With this, which at least sounded decent, even if the reasoning was not straightforward, but was nonetheless dignified and imposing, His Highness decided to take a lenient step back.

Now, Garcia could frankly hold the soft disabled human being in his arms and coax him to sleep.

“…….”

His Highness raised the corners of his lips vaguely, a little pleased.

However, it’s a pity—

—The person being held was not happy, not at all.

In fact, Jiang Jianming woke up a long time ago, and expressed the same inner confusion as the Little Highness just now.

……Why?

…..How did things turn out like this??

It was true that he was physically and mentally not yet fully recovered. The reason why he returned to the dormitory from the treatment area was to avoid his body’s dependence on the treatment cabin.

But the negative effects were also consequential, such as slower senses and thinking than usual.

Especially prone to drowsiness, experiencing vertigo when falling asleep, and not easy to wake up.

But who would have thought that things would turn out like this?

Garcia’s arm was still around his back, Jiang Jianming gritted his back teeth lightly, closed his eyes and didn’t dare to open them, while feeling like the hairs on his back were about to explode. At first, he really mistook Garcia for Ryann in his dream-like state, but when he realized what he had spouted, he woke up immediately. 

It was so embarrassing that he simply closed his eyes and waited for Garcia to throw him back on the bed.

—But unexpectedly, he was then hugged more comfortably in Garcia’s arms.

Jiang Jianming’s heart was so messed up that he couldn’t understand anything: What’s going on, he’s unable to just open his eyes just like this, is it possible that Garcia isn’t awake either!?

I don’t want to ask why you groped into my dormitory bed in the middle of the night, but you, a dignified prince,  why are you sweetly deceiving others!?

Also, how could this person call his last name so smoothly, with the same intonation as those years, can you blame him for becoming absent-minded!?

Unfortunately, at present, the situation was difficult to overcome. Jiang Jianming was angry and felt funny, but he could only continue to lie in Garcia’s arms and pretend to sleep.

The dormitory was so quiet that even the breathing of two people could be heard clearly. Jiang Jianming eventually felt drained and weary. As he continued to pretend to sleep, he really fell asleep again.

Just like that…..all night.

****

Until the twin blue moon disappeared, and the sunlight of the star illuminated the clouds of the Alien Alpha Star, and fell into the corner of the First Fortress of the Silver Big Dipper, plating a layer of sequins on the dormitory area of the officers in adaptation period.

Dawn had come.

His Royal Highness Garcia, who had been sitting on the bedside all night, suddenly lowered his eyes and looked at the disabled human being in his arms. 

He pursed his lips, patted Jiang Jianming’s shoulder lightly, and said in a deep voice, “Open your eyes, you’re already awake.”

Before Jiang Jianming opened his eyes, the corners of his lips curled up helplessly.

His Highness’s sense was as keen as ever. He did wake up, he just didn’t want to face this embarrassing situation……

Unable to do anything about it, Jiang Jianming could only open his eyes resignedly.

He raised his face from Garcia’s arms and blinked, “Your Highness, good morning.”

Garcia, however, did not loosen the arms holding him, and continued to stare at him from a high position.

The profiles of the two were illuminated by the light coming from the window, and the upper and lower eyes met in that peaceful sunlight.

A few seconds later, a faint smile appeared in the eyes of His Royal Highness, and he snorted softly, “Cunning.” 

Jiang Jianming: “?”

Garcia thought to himself: What a cunning disabled human being, he pretended to be asleep in order to trick him into hugging him for a while.

But surprisingly, he was not angry.

Garcia helped Jiang Jianming up, and carefully pushed him to the head of the bed to lean against.

“You are a remnant……..human race,” Garcia raised his chin seriously, and asked in a straightforward manner, “Why are you in Silver Big Dipper?”

Jiang Jianming smiled……He was sure that Garcia’s first reaction just now was to say “disabled human race”.

In this era, there were really only a few new human aristocrats who would change the way they were addressed in order to take into account the psychological feelings of disabled humans.

He shook his head, and said gently, “Is His Highness feeling embarrassed as he remembers fighting with this disabled human in mechas?”

As soon as these words came out, Garcia’s expression changed obviously and complicatedly.

He understood what Jiang Jianming meant in an instant.

On the surface, this statement was superficially a ridiculous joke, if a fool listened to it, he might think that this person was guilty and wanted to avoid answering. 

But the real meaning is: I used to fight mechas with you, Your Highness, and you didn’t even realize that I was a disabled human being. Why can’t I join the Silver Big Dipper?

But Garcia remembered that day, the pale young man frowned in the cold wind and coughed faintly, with unbearable pain in his expression.

Yes……At that time, the person in front of him clearly said that he was a disabled person.

The prince tightened his lips, lowered his eyelashes more or less helplessly, clenched his fingers for a moment, and said quickly in a low voice, “That was indeed my mistake in judgment, I am very……sorry.” 

The long platinum hair scattered on his shoulders was hit by the light due the movement of his lowered head, which was dazzling for a moment.

Jiang Jianming’s breathing became disordered.

……In this world, there was absolutely no one who could resist the aura and beauty of His Royal Highness within a distance of one meter.

At this moment, Jiang Jianming stared at Garcia’s curled eyelashes dyed gold by the fine sunlight, and suddenly remembered his conclusion 3 years ago.

When he would talk to His Royal Highness in a serious way back then, Ryann would only smile slightly, squint his eyes and lean over to hug him, and would bite the back of his neck lightly and affectionately. He would then laugh, scold and push him away, and Ryann would purse his lips and then stare at him, with eyes looking a little displeased and aggrieved.

Thus he came up with one more conclusion.

Most of the time, the aura of His Royal Highness would always overwhelm his beauty. Only when this dignified prince was scolded by him, or felt guilty, would a gap be poked out on his cold and arrogant aura that looked down on everything.

Only then did he realize in a trance that this godlike and radiant prince was just a young man who was 1 year younger than him, and there would be times that he would be at a loss, feel wronged and act like a baby.

But at this moment, times have passed and circumstances have changed.

Jiang Jianming felt the accelerated beating of his heart, and thought to himself in a daze: 

……It’s over.

After three years.

He was once again attacked by His Royal Highness’s beauty.

Jiang Jianming’s Adam’s apple moved silently, he fixedly looked at Garcia and said, “It’s okay.”

Three years ago, he was used to facing His Highness at close range every day, and he had already developed considerable immunity to this beauty’s critical hit.

Now that they had reunited after a long separation, he found out that his immunity had weakened and was unable to hold back a little bit.

But it seemed that there was no need to “hold back”.

This guy had already groped the head of his dormitory bed late at night, and hugged him all night. Moreover, he was already magnanimous enough not to pursue his case. What’s wrong with “not holding back” a little now?

Jiang Jianming figured it out on his own, suddenly “evil comes from the gallbladder” and quietly stretched out his hand—

(t/n Evil comes from the gallbladder is a Chinese idiom, which means that when you are extremely angry, you will be so bold that you can do anything.)

“I don’t mind, Your Highness.”

Under the early morning sun, the face of the black-haired young man was illuminated clearly and brightly, which actually had a kind of otherworldly hue.

He stretched out the hand that belonged to a remnant human being, and his fingers landed on the top of the head of His Royal Highness, and quickly rubbed the soft platinum curly hair.