CH 21

The golden sand under the moonlight, looked as if it was covered with an infinite silver veil, quiet and cold. A military off-road vehicle was driving on the straight road, and the small animals were chased off back into their burrows, peeking out.

Lan Yu sat in the back seat of the SUV and looked out the window, next to Lu RanKong who was also looking out. He had been in this position for a long time, and in the single dull sound of the car engine, he was quietly thinking about the past.

It had been less than a month since he transmigrated, but the limelight, the big screen, the set and the flowers, all seemed like a lifetime ago. A month ago, he would never have imagined that he would now not only be acting every day, but also defusing bombs and killing people from outside the planet, fighting with cockroaches, and constantly walking on the edge of life and death.

In this strange world, using a strange identity, playing the role of a mad dog persona to pretend to be an Alpha made living very difficult ah.

Lan Yu suddenly felt his eyes become sore.

“The moon is bending, shining on the beach, the star lights are mere dots, the fishermen’s boats are returning…” A low male voice rang out beside him, and it was Lu RanKong humming in a low voice.

The song he was humming seemed to be a nursery rhyme with a smooth tune and simple lyrics, a song from some place. Lan Yu thought he had heard this song somewhere in the past, because he had only heard him sing a part of it, he could follow it in his mind.

“The moon is bending, shining on the beach, the star lights are mere dots, it’s your eyes…” Lu RanKong hummed and stopped.

The young sergeant driving the car couldn’t help but ask, “Colonel Lu, this seems to be a song from Chaya Planet, right? It has the style of Chaya Planet’s sea.” 

Lu RanKong said, “Yes…”

“So have you been to Chaya Planet? I heard that Chaya is basically covered by sea water and is very beautiful, an ideal vacation planet.”

Lu RanKong replied again faintly, “Been there…”

The sergeant saw that he seemed unwilling to talk, so he stopped talking. After a period of silence, Lan Yu heard a rustling sound coming from beside him. He looked sideways and found Lu RanKong pulling out the small jade trinket again and carefully grinding the surface with sandpaper. It was already a finished product, and the maker had taken great care to make every joint smooth and shiny, and there was no trace of filing.

The SUV was quiet, and Lan Yu fell asleep to the rustling sound, unconsciously leaning against the back of the seat.

Lan Yu was sleeping soundly when someone was chattering in his ear and his shoulder was pushed a few times, “Wake up, hey, wake up, we’ve arrived.”

In a daze, he took it as an assistant calling him to go to the set and mumbled, “Call the car and wait, I’ll sleep for another ten minutes.”

“The sergeant is also very tired, he has to wait for the car before he can go back to rest. If you want to sleep, go back to the dormitory to sleep.”

Sergeant? Dormitory? Lan Yu woke up with a jolt. When he opened his eyes, he was confronted with Lu RanKong’s enlarged face. He was shocked and reflexively shrank back, asking, “What are you doing?”

“Did sleeping make you a fool?” Lu RanKong reached out and snapped his fingers in front of his eyes, “Go back to the dorm…”

Lan Yu looked out the window and stared at the dormitory building for several seconds before he responded, seeing that Lu RanKong had already gotten out of the car, he also slowly got out. Now it was midnight, and the dormitory building was quiet, but Lan Yu’s mind was still a bit unclear, and his eyes were straight as he followed the person in front of him.

Until a long, firm finger suddenly pressed against his chest, stopping him from moving on.

“Keep your footsteps quiet, they have to wake up early for training tomorrow, don’t wake them up.” Lu RanKong said softly.

“Oh…” Lan Yu nodded his head.

Under the soft light, his eyes were clouded as if they were covered with a layer of mist. The haircut he had kept all day had fallen apart, and a few strands of hair fell softly on his forehead. His pale pink lips were a little dry and puckered, and he stuck out the tip of his tongue and licked it.

After waiting for a few seconds and noticing that the person in front of him neither spoke nor moved, he raised his eyes in confusion.

“Let’s go…” Lu RanKong turned forward, the thumping of his footsteps vibrating the building.

“Didn’t you just say to keep it down?” Lan Yu asked, lowering his voice.

Lu RanKong paused and slowed down his steps, and Lan Yu hurriedly and gingerly followed.

The two of them stopped in front of their respective doors, swiped their cards and opened the doors.

Without saying goodbye, they went back to their respective rooms.

Bang… 

The door closed… 

As soon as Lan Yu entered the room, he rushed to the bathroom, stripped himself naked, squeezed out some toothpaste, and was about to turn on the water while brushing his teeth. As soon as he put his hand on it, he heard footsteps from next door, going all the way to the bathroom.

Lu RanKong was also taking a shower.

Lan Yu didn’t want to take a shower at the same time as him, since he didn’t know if he would have another post-war celebration.

If he wanted to take a shower, he would leave first. Lan Yu hurriedly brushed his teeth and stood naked under the shower head, straining his ears to listen to the movement next door. But several minutes passed, the man’s slippers were stepping out and stepping in in the bathroom. He didn’t know what he was doing. 

After Lu RanKong entered the bathroom again, Lan Yu couldn’t resist knocking on the wall.

“Something wrong?” The other asked.

“Are you going to take a shower?” Lan Yu asked back.

There was a two-second pause, “Why?”

Lan Yu said, “If you take a shower now, I’ll take a shower later. If you still have a while to go, I’ll wash now.”

After a moment of silence, Lu RanKong said, as if drawing a breath, “Lunatic K, I know you don’t like me, but I don’t like you either. You were grossed out when I touched your hands, even wiped your hand on my sleeve. I can put up with that. But now we have to stagger our bathing times in each room? Are you looking for a fight?”

Lan Yu said, “I’m not picking a fight with you, I just can’t stand the sound of you taking a shower. Besides, I am avoiding you myself, and I didn’t ask you not to wash.”

“I haven’t even washed yet, so what sound can I make? You only think about yourself. You’re just brushing your teeth with water in there, did I say anything?”

Lan Yu knew he was in the wrong, so he stopped talking and turned on the water.

Fuck it, he’d just take a shower. If he heard him doing this and that, then he’d just plug his ears up.

In the next bathroom, a naked Lu RanKong propped his hand on the mirror and said silently to himself, I thought he was a little different today, but it was all an illusion.

On both sides of the thin wall, hot water was sprinkled from the shower heads. Lu RanKong today was very honest, and didn’t do anything else in the shower, just moved fast. Lan Yu had not even finished washing when the other turned off the water and moved out of the bathroom.

Feeling very tired today, Lan Yu was too lazy to clean up the water stains after showering, and threw his dirty clothes in the clothes basket casually, yawning then going to bed.

Just after turning off the lights and closing his eyes, Lu RanKong’s voice rang in his ears, “K, do you feel strange?”

The voice was so close that it sounded like he was talking next to his pillow, startling Lan Yu. He opened his eyes, reached out and smashed the wall beside him, and said, “Can you knock on the wall to alert me before you open your mouth?”

Lu RanKong rolled over and asked, “Why are you making so many inexplicable requests?”

As he moved, Lan Yu’s side of the bed moved with him, and he lazily replied, “I’m not…”

“We haven’t talked before, but things are strange now—”

Bang!

Lan Yu smashed the wall again.

Lu RanKong reached out and tapped his finger on the wall and asked, “Can I speak now?”

“Speak…”

After a moment of silence, Lu RanKong spoke, “Look, from the time I returned from my business trip until now, two Lontan Planet people were found in just a few days, and gelded insects also left their habitat on Cullen Planet. I find these all very strange.”

Lan Yu closed his eyes and said lightly, “It’s not two hundred people, what’s so strange about it?” 

“According to the information I know, six months ago that interstellar channel was opened, and the military information shows that only one or two came over. Could it be that we have met both of them?”

“Maybe we’re the only ones who have come across them?” Lan Yu yawned.

There was no more sound from Lu RanKong.

Lan Yu lay down for a few more moments and found that his sleepiness was gone, so he couldn’t help but ask, “Say, what do you think is strange?”

Bang… 

The next wall was slammed on.

Lan Yu curled his fingers and knocked on the wall, and continued to ask, “Tell me.”

“Not interested, don’t want to talk about it. Go to sleep.”

The sound of lights being turned off and the rustling of the covers came from next door.

Lan Yu hummed, stopped asking questions, and also turned off the light to sleep.

In the quiet darkness, Lu RanKong seemed to remember something, turned on the light, lifted the quilt and got out of bed. He walked naked to the bathroom without a single piece of fabric, picked up the dirty field clothes by the sink, and pulled the small crossbow out of his pocket. He took the small crossbow back to the bedroom, pulled open the bottom compartment of the bedside table and carefully put it in.

The drawer was full of knick-knacks, carved wooden horses, wire-wound guns, tin kites… He looked at it for a while and put a small ceramic cup that was pressed down on the top, before closing the drawer gently.

The next day, Lan Yu woke up at nine o’clock and slowly made himself breakfast and a cup of coffee. The whole building was quiet, so after enjoying his breakfast, as he sat on the balcony, squinting his eyes in the sun.

Knock knock knock… 

There was a knock on the door of the room.

“Who is it?” He asked in a cold voice.

“Kong Fei…”

“What is it?”

“Colonel K, the Major General has informed you to go to the headquarters.”

“Got it…”

It looked like he was called to go to ask about the insect king and the Lontan Planet people. Although he didn’t know how long it would take to investigate again, there was a great probability that his rest today would be ruined. He quickly changed into his uniform, meticulously buttoned each button, looked into the mirror just right for his cap, adjusted his facial expression, and left the door with a sullen face.

The headquarters was on the east side of the barracks, and Lan Yu had been here twice, walking in the long corridor, and from time to time, soldiers clutching papers stopped to greet him. He didn’t look away, but the corners of his mouth pursed into a cold arc, as he walked straight to the general command room at the end of the passage.

Beep… 

The automatic identifier at the main entrance passed and the silver-white metal door opened. Lan Yu saw a familiar person sitting against the sofa at the first sight of the door opening.

Lu RanKong was also here.

His gaze flickered, and only then did he see Major General Liu Deng, who still had a smile on his face, sitting behind the wide desk across from him. The expressions and postures of these two men were relaxed, and it was clear that they were having a pleasant conversation.

It was good that it’s nothing serious, Lan Yu secretly sighed with relief.

“K, you’re here.” General Liu continued to smile.

Lan Yu stood straight and gave a military salute.

General Liu said, “The reason I informed you two to come, besides asking about yesterday’s situation, is because I also want to set an important task for you.”

Lan Yu’s heart thumped when he saw him put away his smile and showed a serious look.

“You two encountered the Lontan Planet people twice and killed them, this matter has been known to the military department for a long time, and, there is a new task to be given to you to complete.” General Liu stood up, came around from behind his desk, opened a metal door next to him, and said to the two, “Go in, someone is waiting for you.”

Lan Yu stood still, and only when he saw Lu RanKong get up from the couch did he lift his steps to go inside. Just as they stepped through the metal door, there was a click behind them and the door closed.

Inside, it was pitch black and nothing could be seen.

Lan Yu blinked in the darkness, but sensing that the person beside him didn’t move, he also calmly waited. With a few swishes, the lights suddenly came on, illuminating the entire room. Inside the empty room, a man who was sitting on the back of a chair with his back to them, slowly turned around.

Lan Yu: I have also shot this scene before.

The person who appeared in his eyes was a female officer, stern and cold-looking, with a skirt-style military uniform showing off a perfect figure and long legs folded, and was coldly eyeing Lu RanKong.

Lan Yu stared from the corner of his eyes at Lu RanKong beside him looking at her, the expression also flashed a trace of dismay.

These two knew each other.

“Colonel K, Colonel Lu, I am Jiang Zhi, the deputy chief of staff of the Third Army in Sasu Planet, and have come to Kata Planet specifically to convey the secret mission assigned to you by the military department.” The female officer across the table introduced herself. She stood up from her chair and slowly walked forward, “There were other suitable candidates for this mission, but you two captured two Lontan Planet people in just a few days. Therefore, the military department temporarily decided to change the personnel for the mission to two.”

Lan Yu had a bad feeling. He glanced at Lu RanKong beside him without moving a muscle, but found that his face was light and expressionless, and then quietly withdrew his eyes.

He expected him to oppose this task with him, but he guessed that wasn’t possible.

“You two have fully demonstrated during the first two captures of the Lontan Planet people—”

“The content of the mission…” Lu RanKong suddenly spoke up and interrupted Jiang Zhi’s words.

Jiang Zhi paused and said, “The felons of the Sasu Planet system are serving their sentences on the Desolate Planet, this should be clear to you.”

“QuYa Prison…” Lu RanKong said.

Jiang Zhi nodded and said, “Yes, the QuYa Prison on QuYa Planet. It’s a place of exile for felons, the most solid natural prison. In all these years, not a single prisoner has been able to escape from there—”

“The content of the mission…” Lu RanKong interrupted again faintly.

Jiang Zhi’s face sank as she gave Lu RanKong a cold look before continuing, “Just the week before, a very strange green liquid was found in the Alpha cave of the QuYa Prison—”

“Lontan Planet people…” Lan Yu whispered.

Jiang Zhi closed her mouth and turned her head to look at the corner without speaking. The moment she turned her head, Lan Yu saw the Alpha gland patch on the back of her neck.

A few seconds later, she turned back and continued, “The prison sent the green fluid specimen for testing, and the result was that it’s a Lontan person’s blood, which was spilled on the ground just a day before it was found.” She paused here to make sure no one interrupted before continuing, “It’s not clear why the Lontan Planet man was there, still wounded and bleeding, but just the day before, there happened to be a team of prisoners digging in the Alpha cave, and the Lontan Planet man would have been among them.”

“Does the military department want us to go and get that Lontan Planet man out?” Lu RanKong asked.

“Yes…”

Lu RanKong looked at Lan Yu and asked, “Does K want to go and torture the prisoners severely to force that Lontan Planet person to confess?”

Lan Yu had been standing upright, and when he heard this, he only glanced to the side out of the corner of his eye.

Jiang Zhi shook her head and said, “You know very well that this is impossible.”

“Then the meaning of the military department…”

“It’s for you two to pretend to be prisoners, to approach that team of prisoners who were digging that day, and to find out that Lontan Planet man, furthermore also find out why he is staying in prison.” Seeing that the two were silent, Jiang Zhi suddenly softly added, “You can refuse this mission.”

Lan Yu abruptly looked at her and found that she was looking at Lu RanKong.

Refuse it! Refuse it! Refuse it and we both won’t have to go!

His face remained bland, but his hand slowly clenched.

“I think K is enough to carry out the mission alone, and I have full trust in his ability.” Jiang Zhi spoke again.

Lan Yu only felt a blackness before his eyes.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to refuse, he heard Lu RanKong suddenly say, “I’ll accept the mission and go with K to QuYa prison.”

Lan Yu didn’t even know how he managed to maintain his expression and calmly left the room.

Behind him Lu RanKong and Jiang Zhi’s whispered conversation came into his ears intermittently.

“I took this job to see you. I took the starship to Kata Planet for a few days, because you said you were not going back even when you had vacation. Uncle didn’t say it, but I know he misses you…”

“I’m not going back, so don’t speak for him…”

Lan Yu didn’t have the heart to think about what the relationship between these two was, his mind was letting out a wail and rolling on the ground with his arms around the brown bear GuGu.

He was going to be a prisoner.

To live in a dark prison with a group of Alpha inmates, eating and living together. They would be crowded together in the showers, they’d have to watch each other pee, put up with all kinds of unknown smell and cockroaches in the corner, and the sound of grinding teeth dreaming at night.

No, I can’t live with those prisoners, absolutely not. Even if, when I refuse this task, my position is demoted from Colonel, I’ll do anything else.

“K, RanKong, do you two have any more requests? Tell us now.”

General Liu’s voice woke him up, only to find that Jiang Zhi was no longer there, and he and Lu RanKong were sitting side by side on the couch.

“I have no requests…” Lu RanKong said.

General Liu looked at Lan Yu again, “How about you Colonel K?”

Lan Yu sulked and didn’t say anything, General Liu didn’t rush him and waited with a smile on his face. A few moments later, Lan Yu spoke, “I only have one request.” 

“Speak…”

“I want to live in a separate cell.”

The corners of Lu RanKong’s mouth twitched, “Separate cells… Separate felon cell.”

“Yes, I am a felon.” Lan Yu quickly replied.

General Liu frowned slightly and said, “But your mission is to get close to those prisoners.”

“I’ll use the release time to approach them.”

“That’s…” General Liu was a little hesitant.

“I’m afraid that if I live with the other prisoners, I can’t help but get a few killed.” Lan Yu hands on his knees, back straight, gaze straight ahead, voice calm as if talking about pinching a few mosquitoes to death.

“Mn, I’ll contact the prison to see if I can get you a separate cell.”

Although Lan Yu didn’t change anything on the surface, he breathed a long sigh of relief in his heart. Rather than accept living with other prisoners, or refuse the task to be demoted as punishment, this was already the best result. If the problem of the cell was solved, then it didn’t matter that he had to pretend to be a prisoner.

It was not like he hadn’t acted as one before.

Lu RanKong asked, “So when do we leave?”

“In three hours, someone will take you to the airport and take the starship there to the prison in QuYa. No one else on the prison side knows your true identities except the warden, so if you need to, you can contact the warden directly.” When General Liu finished, he picked up the cup of tea in front of him and took a sip, then said seemingly without thinking, “I found that you two aren’t curious about this, and are very calm ah. The Lontan Planet people and such things, there’s nothing you want to ask me?”

Lan Yu simply didn’t know what to ask, so he didn’t make a sound, but Lu RanKong spoke, “Yes, I am also wondering about it. After all, I have only heard of Lontan Planet people before, but recently encountered two. Is it a leak left from the past?”

General Liu put down his tea cup and looked at the window. The red gold velvet curtains draped there, fluttering slightly in the wind. He said, “They came six months ago.” 

“Six months ago?” Lu RanKong jumped up from the couch in shock and covered his mouth again, “Isn’t that when the interstellar passage closed? How did they get here?”

Lan Yu remembered the insider information he had told himself before, saying that the interstellar channel had been opened six months ago and an unknown number of Lontan Planet people had come over, and now this pretentious look was obviously an act.

But the expression and body were too fake, too pompous. As a professional, he could recognize it at a glance, and only General Liu, a middle-aged Alpha of military origin, thought it was true.

But when General Liu looked over, he also adjusted his expression, confused with surprise, mixed with incredulity, and even breathed rapidly with his nose flapping slightly.

——With only a slight show, it was more than a hundred times more real than Lu RanKong’s.

“This is a military secret, as the matter is very important. It had never even half-leaked to the public, and this time also because you two are going to carry out the task, I made an exception to tell you.” General Liu’s face was gloomy, “Six months ago the interstellar channel was forced open by a Jia beam cannon.”

“Jia beam cannon…” Lu RanKong muttered repeatedly, and asked, “The interstellar cannon is easy to get, but the activation requires the interstellar crystal, and that crystal is very rare. In the entire Empire, only the royal military treasury has them. To open the interstellar channel they need a lot of those interstellar crystals, so where did it come from?”

General Liu shook his head and said, “I don’t know, in fact, the royal military’s treasury isn’t missing any crystal.” Seeing Lu RanKong lost in thought and not speaking, he added, “Well, now is not the time to consider this issue, your main task is to go to find out that Lontan Planet man, and to figure it out, you have to go mix into that prison.”

“Understood…”

General Liu ordered a bunch more things, stood up and extended his hand to the two, saying, “I look forward to your good news.”

Lan Yu and Lu RanKong shook hands with him separately, and then stepped back half a step and gave a military salute, “Promise to complete the mission.”

Walking out of the general command room, the two walked side by side in the passage.

Lu RanKong suddenly laughed and asked, “K, is the thing you care most about being able to stay in a single room?”

Lan Yu cautiously replied, “I like the quiet…” After saying that, he turned his head to look over and his eyes let out a brilliant light, “So you can’t make a bit of noise even if you take a shower.”

“A single room is that important? You don’t even care about the difficulty of this task, or whether you will be in danger and so on.” Lu RanKong said a little helplessly.

“It’s all important…” Lan Yu said.

Walking out of the command building, Lan Yu saw Jiang Zhi waiting there at a glance, probably staying here to talk with Lu RanKong. He was about to walk away directly when he heard Jiang Zhi say, “Colonel K, Colonel Lu, please stay.”

Lan Yu was a little confused, but stopped.

Jiang Zhi came forward and said to the two of them, “Let’s go sit in the officer’s cafe over there?”

Lu RanKong hesitated for two seconds and looked at Lan Yu, “Sit down?”

Lan Yu, guessing there were some mission details to discuss, agreed.

The officers apparently preferred recreation rooms like chess and gym. The cafe was empty, with just a few sofas and a long table with a half-dead bottle of flowers. The waitress was a Beta lady who put down three cups of coffee and disappeared, and Lan Yu didn’t see either Alpha add a piece of sugar.

“This mission isn’t very dangerous, you two can rest assured of this.” Jiang Zhi stirred the coffee with a small spoon, “I want to tell you that this Lontan Planet person must be found.”

“What if we can’t find it?” Lan Yu couldn’t help but ask.

“If we can’t find it, all the prisoners who went to the mine that day will be executed.” Jiang Zhi said calmly.

“How many prisoners were there?”

“Not many, only six.”

Not many? Only six?

Lan Yu was inwardly shocked, so he glanced at Lu RanKong and found that he looked bland, as if he thought such a result was normal.

After Jiang Zhi finished, she took out a sheet of information from the bag beside him and handed it to them, saying, “This is the information of those six suspicious prisoners, you take note of it.”

After reading the information, Lan Yu couldn’t help but ask, “But what if the Lontan Planet broke away from the original host and entered the body of someone else before executing them?”

“If that happened, the original host would be able to get control of the body and could report back to the prison in time. Or the spiritual domain had been invaded for so long that the host’s spiritual body had disappeared and the Lontan Planet person’s body would die after detaching. But none of that is happening now, so the Lontan Planet person is still inside one of those six prisoners.”

“That is to say, the Lontan Planet Man doesn’t know that he has been noticed yet?” Lan Yu asked.

“Yes, so it needs to be captured and, more importantly, figured out why it’s there.”

Lan Yu pondered the difficulty of the task and asked, “What if it can’t be caught and it notices and simply switches to another person?”

Lu RanKong stared at the coffee cup in front of him without making a sound, and Jiang Zhi pursed her bright red lips and said softly, “Then the entire prison of thousands of prisoners will have to die.”

Lan Yu hastily picked up his coffee and took a sip, as a way to hide his expression. Even if he was a movie star, he couldn’t manage the shock on his face at that moment. If he and Lu RanKong failed in their mission, and didn’t find or catch the Lontan Planet man, then thousands of people would be executed.

Lu RanKong suddenly said coldly, “This is his order, right? Human life is nothing, the important thing is to eliminate the root of the problem forever.” 

Lan Yu saw his hand on the table from the rim of the cup, gripping it tighter and tighter, the back of his hand was bursting with veins.

Jiang Zhi put down the spoon in her hand and said in a serious tone, “Colonel Lu, you should know clearly the horror of the Lontan Planet people. If you let them slip away, you never know who the next host will be. The Sasu Planet system can’t afford another catastrophe, and as a soldier, you have to distinguish between what is more important and what is less important. If you don’t want to go, I can ask—”

There was a bang, and Lan Yu, who was shielding his face with his coffee cup, was shocked and almost spilled his coffee.

Lu RanKong kicked away the chair behind him and walked outside with a big stride, leaving through the door quickly.

Lan Yu looked at Jiang Zhi and saw that she was sitting still, but her face was hard to read, so he gently put down the cup in his hand and prepared to say goodbye and go back to the dormitory.

“Colonel K,” Jiang Zhi suddenly spoke.

“Ah…”

After a few seconds of silence, Jiang Zhi said, “This mission, please take more care of RanKong. Although he is smart, he is really impulsive, and will do things according to his own preferences, not quite according to the rules—”

She said up to here before suddenly closing her mouth.

Lan Yu understood that she remembered who she was talking to, remembering that K was even more unreliable.

“Forget it, you go.” She waved her hand perfunctorily.

Lan Yu grabbed the military cap on the table and put it on, then said to her, “Goodbye…”

Jiang Zhi didn’t make a sound, still looking at the coffee cup in front of her. Lan Yu took a few steps and then turned back and said, “I will take care of your cousin.”

“You know he’s my cousin?” Jiang Zhi was a little stunned.

“Guessed…”

“How did you guess?”

“With my observation and judgment.” Lan Yu finished and turned to stride away.

You called someone uncle, I am not deaf. These Alpha, regardless of gender, are stupid.

Lan Yu walked towards the dormitory, his heart gradually turning heavy at the thought of being a prisoner.

“K.”

As he took out his room card and opened the door, he heard someone calling him. Lan Yu turned his head and saw Chen YuTan standing at the door of 304 and was looking at him worriedly.

“K, are you sick? You don’t look well…” Chen YuTan said.

“It’s nothing…” Lan Yu returned in a low voice and swiped his card to open the door.

Chen YuTan said enthusiastically, “If you encounter any trouble, you can look for me, or at least help you think of something.”

Lan Yu gently nodded his head, entered the room, and closed the door. He stood against the door for a while, then slowly walked over to the bed and collapsed straight down. Pulling the brown bear over and wrapping it in his arms, he lamented, “Gu Gu, I don’t want to go to prison, I don’t want to go…”

Knock knock… 

The wall was knocked on twice.

“Don’t cry, even if you call out dad, you have to go.” Lu RanKong’s lazy voice came from beside his ear.

Lan Yu stiffened, forgetting that the walls weren’t soundproof and that his self-talk had been heard next door. The bed trembled slightly; it was Lu RanKong who was turning over and getting up, “Clean up well, I don’t know how long it will take to come back this time.”

Lan Yu was full of frustration, lying in bed without moving, hearing the sound of clanking and dragging coming from next door.

After a while, he couldn’t resist knocking on the wall and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I’m putting those materials in the house so they don’t get blown by the wind and sun.”

“Do you mean the pile of crap on the balcony?”

“What crap? Those are all useful materials, so precious that money can’t even buy them.”

Lan Yu snickered and said, “Remember to put away your shaggy slippers and dry socks too.”

“Don’t bother…”

After lying down again for a while, Lan Yu finally got up, no longer reluctant. Things had happened, and he could only face it, there was no other way. He stood in front of the bathroom mirror and carefully removed the Alpha gland patch on the surface and the Omega gland patch hidden underneath, revealing an area of white skin.

In the middle was a slightly raised, soft Omega gland.

He looked in the mirror for a moment, then picked up the new patch and carefully applied it, then retrieved the pheromone blocker and inhibitor from the dark closet and administered one of each. It was impossible to get these in prison, so he had to be prepared in advance.

He dragged a large suitcase out from the bottom of the closet and put his pajamas and underwear inside, asking under his breath, “What did you bring?”

“Bring? What are you thinking? You’re going to jail, not on vacation.” Lu RanKong said from next door.

Yeah, it’s not like you’re going out to shoot a movie, you can’t bring anything.

Lan Yu frustratedly took the things out and put them back in place, and the case was re-stuffed. He took out a large Ziploc bag from the cabinet, packed the doll brown bear carefully and put it on the pillow. He opened the refrigerator, the leftover cake inside was put in a plastic bag.

These things would spoil over time, so he used his fingers to scrape off the top layer of cream, raising it to his mouth to eat, but the rest could only be painfully thrown into the garbage.

Next door, Lu RanKong squatted on the floor with a heartbroken face, looking at the can of paint in front of him that was still half full.

He had asked someone to get this stuff from the underground market, and it would become lumpy after a few days of opening, so he couldn’t use it by the time he came back and he could only throw it into the trash.

The two of them each cleaned up, sealed what could be sealed and what couldn’t, was disposed of, and then, they walked out of the room at the same time.

They each looked at each other’s garbage bags and weren’t in the mood to talk.

Downstairs was a military SUV with a driver standing by the door. Seeing the two coming downstairs, the driver hurriedly pulled open the car door. Lan Yu got in first, sat down and noticed that Lu RanKong hasn’t followed.

Looking out of the car window, he found him walking to the right, and Jiang Zhi was standing under a tree on his right, looking at him.

Lu RanKong walked up to Jiang Zhi, reached out and put his arm around her shoulder and patted it.

Jiang Zhi pushed him away, rubbing her eyes, saying something.

Lu RanKong kept nodding and said a few more words, before turning around and walking to the SUV. Lan Yu was afraid that he would find he was peeking, so he hurriedly withdrew his eyes and leaned back in his chair as if he was resting his eyes.

Lu RanKong got into the car and sat next to Lan Yu, then the driver started the vehicle and moved towards the outside of the barracks.

Half a long time later, Lu RanKong suddenly spoke out, “Jiang Zhi is my cousin.” 

“I know…”

“You know?”

“With my observation and judgment, I guessed it.” Lan Yu still had his eyes closed.

Lu RanKong looked at him and suddenly laughed, turning his head to look out the window again, the gloom on his face cleared away.

As the SUV drove on the road to the shipyard, Lan Yu began to look out at the flashing dirt mounds and stared blankly.

“Who is Gu Gu?” Lu RanKong asked, breaking the silence.

“Huh?” Lan Yu was still a bit lost in thought.

“Gugong? Auntie? GooGoo?”

Lan Yu understood that he was asking about the self-talk in the dormitory just now.

“Ah…” Lan Yu changed his words at the edge of his mouth, “It’s my Omega called Gu Gu, I was talking to him on the terminal just now.”

“You actually have an Omega?”

“Why can’t I have one?” Lan Yu asked rhetorically.

“Which Omega is so daring?”

Lan Yu sneered, “There are a lot of Omegas who like me. Have you forgotten what happened on the bus before? Those two Omega students even wanted to come to the barracks to find me. But I have Gu Gu, so I’m not interested in the others who are throwing themselves at me.”

“When did you meet that Omega?”

Lan Yu gave him a wary look and said, “What’s it to you?”

“Just asking…”

“Don’t want to say…”

“Fine, don’t say it, I’m not interested.” Lu RanKong leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

An hour later, the SUV parked in the huge shipyard and Lan Yu looked at the starship rising and landing overhead, a little excited. The crew drove him and Lu RanKong to the northeast corner of the field in a field car and boarded a massive starship.

“I’m the vice captain of the airship. Please follow me, you two.” The vice captain stood at the entrance of the ship and said courteously.

Maybe he was taking them to the VIP cabin?

Lan Yu followed behind Lu RanKong and walked along with the vice captain to the back. Along the way he tried his best to restrain himself from looking around like a hick and trying to touch everything. Through the long passageway and down the elevator, he finally reached a humble hatch. The door was narrow and low, and the paint was stained.

This didn’t look like a VIP cabin… 

The vice captain opened the door and said, “This is according to the requirements of the military department. The ship will soon depart, I hope you two have a good trip.”

Lan Yu took a look, the room was cramped and small, since there were already two ion gun-wielding soldiers sitting inside.

In the center of the room, there was a large iron cage.

The author has something to say: 

Lan Yu: I’m going to be a prisoner, I’m under pressure from my profession.