CH 14

Lan Yu’s face was sullen, but Lu RanKong didn’t notice his abnormality, he looked down and tapped on the terminal to talk, “How are you guys doing? Mn, well done, the swarm will be left to the military department, they will send Planet ships to drive out the Planet system…”

“The swarm scattered after the king ran away and they’ve already taken care of the follow-up. Let’s go, don’t dawdle anymore. The insect King must have hidden somewhere. Hurry up and find it.” After closing the terminal, he turned around and was about to leave, his words urging.

Lan Yu ground his teeth, “Who the hell is dawdling? It’s obvious that you can go ashore over there, you were the one who had to swim so long to get here.”

Lu RanKong, as if he didn’t hear, went straight ahead along the path of the lake, while Lan Yu sat on the ground in anger and didn’t move. Lu RanKong stopped and turned his head after walking out for a while and said in a serious tone, “Why do you have no discipline at all? Do you know that the big picture is important?”

“Fuck off…”

“Okay, okay, then let’s go our separate ways, I’ll go by myself—” Lu RanKong stopped mid-sentence, suddenly becoming silent.

Lan Yu began to put his head down and put on his shoes, thinking about going to the police after going out from the park, so that he could find a place to rest. Or find a hotel nearby, fill a tub of hot water to take a long soak, go to the supermarket to buy the new elegant brand of body wash. He had been in the desert and blown by the wind, so he wanted to buy a hydrating mask to put on. And to drink a cup of coffee, with a lot of milk and sugar… 

As for the half-dead insect king, let’s leave it to the police department and Lu RanKong to find it.

“K, I found the insect king’s trail.” Lu RanKong shouted excitedly.

Lan Yu didn’t take it seriously, sneering and continuing to put on his shoes.

“K, come and see, this way is full of the insect King’s blood, apparently it went ashore from here and then escaped down the path.”

Lan Yu didn’t want to pay attention to him, but as he heard that his voice seemed to be genuine, he slightly peeked over to the side. He saw Lu RanKong crouching on the ground, reaching out to scrape the grass leaves on the roadside, raising his fingers to his nose and sniffing.

Lan Yu: … 

“Come on, let’s follow the blood trail and find that rabid thing. It is now badly injured and can’t fly, so it wouldn’t hurt people. We can’t let it hide to recuperate.” Lu RanKong stood up and faced Lan Yu.

Lan Yu knew that now wasn’t the time to be angry. If there really was a trace of the king, then no matter what, they must go find it, so he silently tied his shoelaces, stood up and walked over. When he got close, Lu RanKong didn’t move, just put one hand around his chest and one hand on his chin, looking at him without speaking.

Lan Yu impatiently raised his eyebrows.

“When I said we should follow the insect king, you actually didn’t confront me. I’m surprised ah. I was mentally prepared to fight with you.” Lu RanKong spoke.

Lan Yu replied with a grim face, “Colonel Lu, why do you have no discipline at all? Don’t play with your temper now, do you know that the big picture is important?”

Lu RanKong didn’t speak again, but waved his head at the grass leaves next to him, indicating him to look. Every ten meters or so on either side of the path was a short street lamp, emitting a soft light. Lan Yu crouched to the light to check, only to see those leaves of grass, dotted with green and black sticky liquid.

When he straightened up, Lu RanKong turned around and walked forward and Lan Yu followed.

The two followed the trail, following the traces of the bug king’s blood along the way. The only sound heard in the quiet park was the gurgling and sloshing of water-soaked military boots beneath their feet.

“The insect king didn’t come rushing into town haphazardly, nor did it enter the park by mistake; it chose this route with a purpose.” Lu RanKong lowered his head and suddenly spoke, Lan Yu froze before realizing that he was talking to him.

“Why do you say that?” He asked.

“Gelded insects live on Lontan Planet and are serving the Lontan Planet people. When the Lontan Planet people were driven out of the Sasu Planet system a hundred years ago, the gelded insects stayed in our planet’s system, living on a desert planet called Cullen. Because they are still quite regular, only occasionally appearing in ones or twos, they didn’t wipe out these interstellar beasts. If they hadn’t received orders or summons, they wouldn’t have left Cullen in such a large group. Since it came to Kata Planet and went straight to this city, and also adjusted its route to rush into the park, there should be something unusual around here. Or maybe the park is a passing place for its destination.”

Lan Yu looked sideways at Lu RanKong.

In the moonlight, his hair was wetly stuck to the back of his head, revealing his full forehead. Such a hairstyle was very ugly, but his silhouette was fully revealed, with deeper eyebrows and a straighter nose, which dropped a shadow on his cheeks.

Lan Yu had to admit that although this man was annoying, he was handsome, making him look at him several times in a row.

Lu RanKong also noticed his glances and looked back at him.

Lan Yu instantly averted his gaze and said coldly, “So much nonsense. Why don’t you hurry up and find it?”

“Is this called nonsense? You’re a military lunatic, and you don’t have anything in your head. I’m imparting knowledge onto you in a painstaking effort, understand?”

“Fuck off…”

“What else can you say besides ‘fuck off’?”

“Fuck off…”

The two argued and bickered all the way to the edge of the park without realizing it, and the blood disappeared by the time they got here. In front of them was a row of tall iron fences and they could see the villa roofs and lights coming through the shadows of the dense trees across the street.

Under the streetlight, there were a few drops of green slime hanging on the rusty iron fence. Lu RanKong looked closer, stretched out his finger to it and said, “There’s some blood of the insect king on the fence, it must have tumbled over from here.”

Lan Yu saw his finger about to touch the slime, stepped back, disgusted and looked sideways at it, askance.

Lu RanKong’s eyes, after seeing his movement, stopped his hand to look at him, then inexplicably asked, “What are you doing?”

Lan Yu frowned and said, “You know that it is the blood of the insect king, but you still want to touch it with your finger. Do you want to put it under your nose and smell it next?”

“Nonsense, why do you think I’m going to touch it? It’s just a gesture.” Lu RanKong looked surprised and withdrew his finger, “And who said I have to smell it?”

Lan Yu looked at him quietly, his eyes were sharp with insight.

Lu RanKong continued to focus on the fence, and after a few seconds turned his head abruptly, annoyed, “It’s not my fucking habit, okay?”

Lan Yu snickered, ignored him, and began to look for doors and gaps to get inside. He surveyed his surroundings and saw what appeared to be an iron gate not far away. He was about to go over to see if the door was locked, when he heard a soft thud behind him.

Lu RanKong stood on the lawn inside the fence, patted the dust on his hands, looked around warily, and said, “Let’s split up and look for it. You go left and I’ll go right.”

He took a few steps to the right before realizing something was wrong and looked back at Lan Yu, who was still standing in the same place, surprised, “What are you dawdling about? Do you still want to find a door to walk in?”

Lan Yu had to hold the iron fence with both hands and leap up to the top with force, and then flip over. The villa area was built next to the central park, which was built on a large plot of land, and covered a wide area, so it was obvious that the people who lived in it were all rich and famous.

The two soon found the blood of the bug king on a lawn and followed it. Through the fragrant heather forest, around the fountain with sculptures, when turned to the back of a villa, they suddenly stopped in unison.

Under the bright but not blinding street light, they looked around for the king. It was lying motionless on the stone fence outside the villa, it’s eyes looking at a wigwam built there. A leaf fell on its wing, but slid down with a roll by a gust of wind.

The sound of green slime dripping down the stone fence was loud.

Lu RanKong gestured and the two men drew their daggers and approached slowly and vigilantly. When walking to the side of the insect king to see clearly its current appearance, both breathed a sigh of relief and put the dagger back.

The gelded insect’s bowl-sized eyes had lost their light, and were now akin to two gray pebbles. Its legs were hanging limply and the neck pierced by Lan Yu had a large hole, still gurgling out green blood.

It was obviously already dead.

“Tossed from noon until now, chased so hard, and now it’s finally settled.” Lu RanKong kicked the insect king’s corpse with his leather boots, “Let’s leave the rest to the police department.”

“Then you inform the police department, I don’t care.” Lan Yu relaxed and shouted ‘cut’ in his heart, then pressed his right shoulder, moving his arm while walking along the fence to the front of the villa.

“Yes, gelded insect… It’s the villa area near the park, and it’s already dead…” As Lu RanKong spoke into the terminal, the conversation drifted into his ears.

This family in the villa wasn’t asleep yet, and didn’t notice the movement outside. The ground floor was dark, only a few windows on the second floor transmitted light.

Lan Yu looked at the row of Chinese white jade stone fences 1 that were stained green with insect blood and thought to himself that they would be busy for a while if they wanted to clean it up tomorrow. As he was thinking about it, he noticed that Lu RanKong had already ended the call and was looking down at the insect king.

Now he just wanted to find a hotel to take a shower and sleep, so he asked aloud, “Are you going to wait here? I’m leaving…”

Lu RanKong gave no reply and Lan Yu also no longer wanted to spend time with him, so he simply turned around and left directly.

Just two steps away, he heard his sudden voice, “K, come over. There is a problem.”

Lan Yu didn’t slow down his pace, “If it’s not dead, kill it. Do you still need me to teach you how to do it?”

The person behind him didn’t make a sound, so after taking two steps forward, Lan Yu couldn’t help but turn back, just in time to see Lu RanKong holding up the stone fence with one hand, long legs flailing as he easily flipped into the garden.

“What are you doing?” He asked in shock, “Are you addicted to climbing over fences?”

“I think this is fishy. This family might have a problem.” Lu RanKong looked over at him and waved his head at the house next to him, “Flip in and let’s go check it out.”

“What could be wrong with them? No welcome? Didn’t bring out tea?”

Lu RanKong seemed to be thinking for a moment and asked, “Remember the part where I started to give you a piece of my mind?”

“You’ve been talking nonsense all the way, so how do I know which paragraph you’re talking about.”

“Just the one that imparted knowledge to you.”

“Was there this nonsense? I don’t remember…”

Lu RanKong beckoned to him, “Come in and I’ll tell you again.”

“Not interested…”

Lan Yu turned around to leave again, so Lu RanKong hurriedly said, “The gelded insect came here from Cullen Planet, it should be ordered or summoned by Lontan Planet people. It just went straight to this villa area, and tried to climb into this house, what do you think the reason for it is?”

Lan Yu paused, remembering the green skinned man who was shot dead in Cactus Plaza a few days ago.

“You’re right, just like the bomb maniac we killed a few days ago, there must be a Lontan Planet person in this villa too.” Lu RanKong lowered his voice as he added, “The insect king could sense the presence of the Lontan Planet person, and it rushed to ask for help, only to be stabbed by us and die before it could get into the villa.”

“It wasn’t us, it was me. I was the one who killed the Lontan Planet man, and I was the one who stabbed the insect king.” Lan Yu corrected his wording with dissatisfaction.

“Why are you still bothering with this at this time? Isn’t the point that there are Lontan Planet people in this villa?”

“What if it’s the insect king who ran away in a panic? And it’s dark, it’s blind, so it just bumped around?” The military had already obeyed the order to kill the insect king and Lan Yu didn’t want to care about the Lontan Planet people, just wanted to find a hotel to rest.

Besides, today’s scene had ended, and he already said cut.

“There is no night and day in the eyes of the gelded insect, and this interstellar beast is extremely obedient to orders, without the call of Lontan Planet people, it is impossible to run so far, and single out this house.”

Lan Yu tilted his head, indicating that he was listening.

“Lontan Planet people are very cunning, I need your help.” Lu RanKong said.

Lan Yu’s face gave a stubborn refusal, “You are more cunning than the Lontan Planet people. You don’t need help.”

Lu RanKong looked at him steadily, unable to see the look on his face with the light at his back. Finally waved his hand and said, “Then you go, I’ll be fine by myself.”

Lan Yu really turned around and left. He walked alone on the path through the forest, the heather forest beside him rustling in the night wind, casting a mass of swaying shadows. Looking ahead at the darkness of those teeth and claws of the shadow of the trees, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, a little afraid.

Reason told him that even if ten ghosts appeared out of nowhere, he would be fine with K’s ability to beat them to death.

——The world was full of ghosts, and big cockroaches and green skinned corpses.

Heh, all fears are conjured up by people’s imaginations… then he scared himself.

Five seconds later, he began to turn his head and walk back, his steps getting faster and faster, as he finally trotted over.

Lu RanKong looked up at the second floor of the villa, ready to follow the outer wall and flip into the balcony. His hand was just on it when he heard Lan Yu’s cold voice, “Are you trying to burglarize the house?”

He turned around abruptly and saw Lan Yu standing outside the villa’s closed iron gate, looking at himself through the wispy carved gap.

“It’s none of your business if I’m burglarizing or doing anything else.” He finished without a smile and continued to climb up.

Beep… 

The piercing, shrill doorbell rang sharply, one after another, cutting through the quiet night.

“Who is it?” There was a click in front of the villa’s iron door, and the visual call opened.

“Inspection, open the door.” Lan Yu said.

“Fuck you!” Lu RanKong looked at the second floor and then in the direction of the iron gate, slid down the wall quickly, ran through the garden and flipped out.