CH 59

Return (1)

[The ship has completed the wormhole transition, navigation parameters are normal.]

[Current coordinates of the ship: (xx, yy, zz)]

With the electronic sound broadcast of the starship, Jiang Jianming felt his consciousness returning slowly.

[The engine is normal, the communication is normal…all systems are normal.]

The unique soft sound of pumping water came from his ears, and he closed his eyes, feeling that the liquid surrounding him was being quickly sucked away. His fingers moved, and there was a cold and hard surface under his body. This was the single-person pressure relief chamber built into the small starship.

[The slow pressure fluid has been drained, and the vital indicators of the occupant are normal. Please lie still for a while until the dizziness disappears, and then get up slowly.]

There was the faint sound of footsteps, and someone squatted down in front of him.

Jiang Jianming raised his hand and touched the switch on the top, but the hatch was pulled away from the outside first.

Before he was blinded by the glaring light, his eyes were covered by a warm palm. At the same time, the oxygen mask covering the mouth and nose was also removed.

The expected cold voice came, “Are you awake?”

Jiang Jianming didn’t answer, he first pulled the palm from his eyelids, and then slowly opened his eyes.

—Sure enough, he first saw the edge of the pressure relief chamber, and then saw the gray metal ceiling of the passenger pressure relief room.

And Garcia, who was bent down from the side, lifting his clothes again, whose actions were now very familiar, “The wound……”

“It’s already healed,” Jiang Jianming lazily shook his head and a few drops of pressure relief fluid dripped from his black hair, “It’s been almost half a month, please don’t always………….umhp.” 

His lips were covered.

Garcia wiped his face with a towel. “Be quiet and lie down with your eyes closed for five minutes before getting up.”

“……”

Jiang Jianming closed his eyes helplessly.

He was too lazy to reason with His Highness, the three-year-old little prince.

The starship sailed smoothly in the universe, with its engine speed decreasing from superluminal to the speed of light. Through the window of the passenger pressure relief room, groups of small red, white and purple halos could be seen, moving slowly in the distance.

They have already moved away from Alien Alpha Star and the universe where Alien Alpha Star was located, as they headed towards the territory of the New Human Interstellar Empire.

Garcia wiped off the residual pressure relief fluid in Jiang Jianming’s face and hair, and put the towel aside.

“When we first met,” he said suddenly, “I didn’t know you were a disabled human.”

“Yes.” Jiang Jianming remained lying on his back, he opened his eyes, and his gaze drifted towards the person beside him, feeling a little bit upset. At that time, Garcia was still extremely indifferent to him, but now he was exactly the same as the Little Highness Ryann back then. So much so that, sometimes it even went beyond being just exactly the same.

Garcia: “When you first went to Beta Fortress, the starship you took transitioned without injecting pressure relief fluid?” 

Jiang Jianming thought for a while and said seriously, “But it’s not really uncomfortable, it was just like getting motion sickness.”

Garcia’s face darkened slightly and he stopped talking.

Of course, he couldn’t believe Jiang Jianming’s nonsense. He only knew that this person had endured the pressure of two high-dimensional transitions in less than a day in a short period of time.

When he tried to imagine the consequences, there would be a tingling pain in his chest, as if his heart had been grabbed by invisible fingers and was being pinched inch by inch with its nails.

The flow of time was an everlasting one-way direction, and what had been damaged couldn’t be restored.

This was the truth His Royal Highness wouldn’t fail to understand, but when he looked at Jiang Jianming, he still couldn’t restrain himself from imagining–

If I could have met this person earlier, would I be able to make him suffer less?

The small starship was the military version of the Silver Big Dipper, which fully achieved a fully automated intelligence driving. In addition, they also have a Super S-class intelligence, Seth Henry, thus not needing for the passengers to do anything.

Xie Yuduo also asked if he wanted to equip them with some frigates, but the two didn’t ask for it, thus the major general didn’t force it either.

Therefore there was no other person on this ship at all, it was a real two-person world.

“I must tell you, there are many disabled people in the empire, many.”

In the evening, they wore the same white pajamas and chatted in bed. Jiang Jianming was leaning on the outside, he had just finished taking a shower, and his blown-dry hair still carried a hint of moisture. The night light by the bedside used a gentle orange light tracing the end of the eyes of the young man who seemed to be smiling but not smiling.

The bed in the room was big enough to squeeze three or four grown men, and it was more than enough for the two of them to lie together.

On the other side, Garcia hugged the quilt coldly. “……”

What’s with this tone that’s used in scaring children?

Jiang Jianming: “They are all undomesticated, they will walk on the street at will, and no new humans are raising them. This is a very natural thing, and they are also natural people who enjoy equal rights with new humans.”

Garcia said impatiently, “I know.”

“In most cases, disabled humans can live as comfortably as new humans, because there are no alien creatures and space pirates within the empire. Moreover, new humans will be arrested and jailed if they release crystal bones in public. You should pay attention to this too.”

Garcia snorted.

Jiang Jianming shook his head helplessly and stopped talking.

After about ten minutes, the prince turned over and leaned over again, his eyes flickering, “…..Talk a little more.”

The quilt also rolled over with him, his toes touched Jiang Jianming’s ankle, Garcia simply hooked the remnant crystal human’s calf with his feet, touching it as if urging him.

Jiang Jianming sighed, and patted Garcia’s head, “You should read the book, I can recommend a list of books for you.”

Garcia: “Not enough time.”

In a few hours, they would already enter the territory of the empire.

Jiang Jianming: “What do you want to hear, do you want to learn about the general knowledge of the empire? Let me think……regarding the issue of race, there are great differences between different star cities, and I can’t finish it in one or two sentences. Aslan is considered a good place for disabled people. For example, if you bully me on the street, there will be the patrolling police to stop you.”

Garcia put the quilt on Jiang Jianming’s body, half-squinting his eyes. “I don’t think anyone can stop me.” He leaned closer as he spoke, and his platinum curly hair covered most of the pillow domineeringly, as if to realistically demonstrate what “bullying” should be.

—For example, on this big bed that should have been very wide, it had suddenly become so crowded that there was no room for the disabled human to sleep.

This was a night that would be spent in the universe. There were only the abominable new human and the pitiful disabled human inside the small starship. The latter would be doomed to have no way of seeking help and to only swallow their grievances.

“If you want to listen to the class, please be quiet.” Jiang Jianming pulled the quilt absentmindedly, and slapped the prince on the waist, “…but there is also one thing, there are very few cases of intermarriages between disabled humans and new humans. Even in Aslan, interracial relationships hardly get any blessings from around.”

Garcia abruptly raised his face, “Why?”

“It’s a bit funny to say.” Jiang Jianming bent his lips.

“Not all new human beings can perfectly control the crystal particles in the body like you. Some new human beings will…..well, on a newly married wedding night, in that happy event inside the bridal chamber, they would lose control and release crystal bones because they were too excited.”

“Once the crystal particle disturbance of the crystal bone can’t be contained, the disabled human on the other side will be miserable. It is not impossible for a happy occasion to turn into a funeral instead.”

Garcia’s face changed color, “There’s such a thing?”

Jiang Jianming: “Mn.”

“That kind of new human, it is because their ability and determination are not enough.”

The prince immediately came to a conclusion, “I won’t be like that.”

Perhaps Garcia’s expression was too arrogant, but the focus of his arrogance was obviously not right—Jiang Jianming couldn’t help lowering his head and laughed.

The lines outlining the young man’s facial features suddenly came alive under the light, like a goldfish jumping in a quiet ancient well, becoming very vivid.

Garcia stared at him.

The waist that had just been slapped began to burn inexplicably.

Jiang Jianming hastily cleared his throat to cover his laughter, “Cough…..The essence is caused by the excessive gap in natural strength. Some timid disabled people don’t want a spouse who can put themselves to death at any time, and some honest new humans don’t want to be watched by the Remnant Crystal Human Race Protection Association every day whether they did domestic violence.”

“Remnant crystal race is a common term for disabled people. Don’t you think this name is really nice? The Remnant Crystal Human Race Protection Association is……”

For some reason, His Royal Highness was unusually quiet for a long time, and he also did not interrupt with that strange temper of his. He was simply lying on the side of the bed listening to Jiang Jianming talking. His lips were pursed quietly, and the dark-haired youth’s face was reflected in his emerald green eyes.

This night would be spent in the universe.

Inside this small starship of the Silver Big Dipper.

On this bed……

Garcia suddenly thought to himself: The person beside him is like the only quiet and gentle star in the universe.

But why would he think so, it shouldn’t be.

He was clearly accustomed to seeing stars.

Clouds of dust and gas that formed stars under the gravitational collapse, with planets orbiting the stars and satellites orbiting the planets. Burning fire clusters, dead ice cubes, dull rock masses….these were the real faces of the so-called stars.

Poetry, painting, artistic rhetoric, these were just dreams of human fantasies. And this cruel world may be watching these naive creatures dreaming with mocking eyes.

But….

“This association was only established in recent years, but there are many factors left over from history behind it. The name disabled human beings began to circulate during the base melee period…”

Garcia’s right hand, which was hidden under the quilt, suddenly bent unconsciously, it was an action of catching something. 

Only that, he simply felt that Jiang Jianming was like a gentle star.

Making him want to catch it.

“In this way, the old imperial code officially established the dual class division system of ‘new humans and disabled humans’, ‘nobles and commoners’. This is because even if two new humans with high-level crystal bones intermarry, the child born may be a disabled human, so……”

Catch him and make him completely his own.

“…By the way, do you not know much about the aristocratic power in Aslan yet? This question is also more complicated. The current imperial nobles are roughly divided into three classes, the first class is……”

“So, there is actually a sense of fragmentation inside the empire. On the one hand, people are eager to pursue the progress of civilization in this peaceful and prosperous age, at least to restore to that level of the late period of the old Blue Mother Planet; on the other hand, some outdated and unequal systems are still unable to be abolished..”

That faint, gentle voice circulated in this bedroom. He didn’t know when, but Jiang Jianming had immersed himself in it.

He hadn’t talked to anyone for such a long time like this, mainly due to a lack of target audience. In the past, when Ryann was still there, they could always talk for a long period of time, but after the Little Highness left, he became more and more taciturn.

Jiang Jianming didn’t think it was because he was beaten into being “autistic” or something, it was just that there was no need to say so much. And today…today, since Garcia wanted to hear him, that’s why he’s saying so much.

Until a certain moment, his shoulder suddenly sank slightly.

Jiang Jianming turned his head. In the dimness, by the light at the bedside, he saw Garcia resting on his shoulder with his eyes closed, breathing long, with deep eye sockets and curled eyelashes that were particularly clear.

He fell asleep.

Jiang Jianming, recalling the disordered manner on the way he spoke later on, suddenly felt a little guilty.

That seems to be beyond the scope of general knowledge. For Garcia, who has no basic knowledge, it should be similar to listening to heavenly scriptures………………….

Jiang Jianming rubbed the prince’s hair, pressed the back of the prince’s head, making him lean into his arms.

Only then did he suddenly realize that he still had one important thing to do.

At least before arriving in the Imperial Capital, he had to confess his identity to Garcia—this seemingly unknown, but in fact known to all the real high-level officials in the empire—the identity of the so-called former crown princess.

Forget it, let’s do it tomorrow.

Jiang Jianming hugged Garcia and laid down slowly.

The latter only slept peacefully and was not awakened by his movements.

After a while, the night light in the bedroom went out. After a few quilts rubbing against each other, everything became quiet.

However, reality, this damned thing always went against one’s wishes, or perhaps any existing plan was just destined to be broken.

In short, the next day, when they just woke up and finished washing, the starship received messages from other external sources.

After reading the message, Jiang Jianming and Garcia looked at each other, and both of them saw some solemn emotions in each other’s eyes. 

——Although at this time, the two of them still did not know yet, what kind of experience was hidden behind each other’s “solemn emotions”.

Twenty minutes later.

In the vast expanse of sea, the docking of two starships was successful.

One was a small military starship of the Silver Big Dipper; while the other starship belonged to the largest top-secret scientific research institute in the empire today, the Black Shark Base.