CH 20

The whole night was quite chaotic making his nerves and spirit tensed. When he reached Qi Qing’s side, Ji Xingjue’s spirit relaxed. Before reaching the Marshal’s Mansion, he fell asleep with his head tilted in the passenger seat while wrapping in the coat.

His sleep was very calm, with his eyelashes gently drooping, casting a small shadow under his eyes, and a small amount of slightly longer black hair stuck to the snow-white cheeks, which made him look obedient and soft.

Qi Qing watched him silently for a moment, before leaning down, carefully holding him in his arms, opened the door and entered the house.

After the little robot recharged obediently, it squatted foolishly at the door waiting.

As soon as the door opened, a familiar weight came on Qi Qing’s feet. “Welcome home, Papa!”

The eyelashes of the person in his arms moved, and Qi Qing hissed in a low voice, “Be quiet.”

The little robot immediately covered its mouth, looked up at Ji Xingjue in his arms, and whispered eagerly, “I want to sleep with Mama!”

Qi Qing raised his eyebrows and quoted a rejection. “No.”

The little robot was shocked. “Papa, why?”

“There is no why, no means no.”

Relying on his height and long legs, he got rid of this stalker bug in two steps, holding Ji Xingjue steadily back to the guest room, and gently laying him on the bed.

Suddenly out of his embrace, Ji Xingjue curled up a little nervously, while pulling the coat to cover himself tighter.

Qi Qing’s fingertips stiffened.

Out of a certain weird mentality, he did not take off the uniform coat Ji Xingjue was wearing, and directly lifted the quilt over him.

The little robot sneakily followed up, trying to bypass Qi Qing’s sight and climbed onto the bed, but was caught by Qi Qing even without him looking back, and took it out of the room.

Seeing that the door was closed, the little robot became angry. “Papa, why, don’t let me sleep with Mama?”

Qi Qing sneered, “Is it your turn?”

The little robot tilted his head, looked at him suspiciously for a moment, and suddenly realized. “Because Mama doesn’t allow you to sleep with him, so you don’t allow me to sleep with Mama.”

It came to a reasonable logical analysis conclusion. “Papa, you are jealous of me!”

Qi Qing paused for a while, gave its head a flick, and his face was cold. “Do you want to be demolished?”

The little robot couldn’t resist the power, and angrily retracted its short legs and mechanical arms, and even its ears were also retracted, then swishing into a ball, twisted away and refused to pay attention to him.

Ji Xingjue didn’t sleep too deeply. He woke up for a moment when he was picked up and put down, but being enveloped in the breath that eased his mind, he fell asleep in a daze.

Who knew how long it took, he heard a faint rumbling sound, and immediately opened his eyes.

In the dark room, when the vision was blocked, the hearing was more acute.

Ji Xingjue opened the quilt and found that Qi Qing’s coat was still on him. He was stunned. Before he could think about it, he jumped out of the bed barefoot, walked to the window, and opened a curtain to look out.

From a distance, he saw a military suspension car drive into the Marshal’s Mansion, and Qi Qing walked into the car surrounded by a few people. 

He squinted his eyes and saw that they were from the Ministry of Security.

People from the Ministry of Security came to find Qi Qing in the middle of the night?

It seems that Yser’s matter was indeed very involved.

It stands to reason that no matter how the investigation was done, it was impossible to find any clues.

Suddenly, an overly beautiful face flashed across his mind as he smiled and said, “Teacher, you are wrong.”

“—It’s us that are the same kind.”

[T/N: my guess; being a genius.]

Ji Xingjue’s fingers tightened.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He closed the gap between the curtains, tightened the coat and sat by the table, before turning on the optical computer, and tapped on the keyboard casually, while occasionally refreshing the page and paying attention to the movement outside the window.

Unfortunately, the sky got brighter, and even after he hit the last key, Qi Qing still didn’t come back.

Ji Xingjue rarely felt this irritation.

He glanced at the screen interface, calmly got up and turned it off. After washing up a bit, he found the little robot squatting by the door when he went out, and it had automatically shut down with low battery.

Ji Xingjue was slightly startled. He didn’t expect the little robot to accompany him all night through the door.

He picked up the little guy amusedly, found a charging port to plug it in, and touched the two bunny ears.

He still had to discuss with Qi Qing, at least change the battery for this little guy.

Suddenly the doorbell came from outside.

Ji Xingjue squinted his eyes, using the terminal to connect to the defense system to scan his eyes, and it was Damel, Qi Qing’s adjutant, who came.

As soon as the door opened, Damel clapped a salute. “Good morning, Ma’am. There’s some work that needs Marshal to stay behind, so he sent me to deliver you breakfast and send you to school by the way.”

Ji Xingjue humbly refused, “There’s no need to send me to school. I still have the ability to walk independently.”

Damel said solemnly, “Excuse me for not being obedient, Ma’am, this is the order of the Marshal.”

Ji Xingjue knew the tempers of these soldiers very well, and he was willing to accept it. “Then sit down and have breakfast together.”

After breakfast, Damel dutifully drove Ji Xingjue to school, and saluted again. “After this, this subordinate will also guard your safety.”

Ji Xingjue raised his eyebrows in surprise. “When did I become so expensive?”

“In the Marshal’s mind, you have always been very precious.”

“…” Ji Xingjue didn’t bother to pay attention to this sentence, “Is this also your Marshal’s order?”

“Yes, Ma’am.” 

Ji Xingjue exhaled, not wanting to make it difficult for him. “Okay, but don’t get too close to me, it will scare the students.”

Qi Qing had been in the limelight these days and most people in the Imperial Capital were staring at him. The police came to the door in the middle of the night, and naturally they couldn’t hide from those eyes.

As soon as he entered the school, Ji Xingjue realized that he had more eyes attached to him.

The atmosphere during class was also quite weird, which was not as lively as it used to be.

Ji Xingjue didn’t care either. After the class, he came out and saw Damel, who was waiting loyally outside the classroom. He was quite uncomfortable. “When I work, you can find a place to rest.”

Damel gave him a stern look. “This is not in line with the Marshal’s order.”

Ji Xingjue felt helpless. “Let’s go, I have to go to Song Mei’s office to find a storage device.”

Song Mei has not returned to the office for a long time, and it was messed up inside. Those who didn’t know might think that he had been ransacked.

The two of them rummaged in this rubbish dump for a long time, and they heard faint voices from outside.

“Hey, do you know Yser?”

Ji Xingjue’s movements stagnated.

Another dull voice said, “I know, the one who entered the professor’s laboratory to participate in the project in his freshman year and skipped to third year, tsk tsk, those whom the Gods love die young.”

“I heard that it’s not that simple. The police got the cloud data from VANTECH Company. In Yser’s diary, he was threatened by his mentor to ask for chip data in detail. This is likely to be a murder!”

“My God? Isn’t his mentor Ji Xingjue? Isn’t the news fake?”

“It can’t be faked. VANTECH is the largest terminal cloud server company in the Empire. They have assisted the police with many cases. Their company’s firewall is so powerful, and they still pay a lot of money for the Empire’s hacking attacks. You see, how do they still have it after so many years? Unless Ji Xingjue is able to break the firewall and prove that the data may be fake…”

Once the conversation faded away, Damel frowned. “Ma’am, the Marshal and I believe you.”

Ji Xingjue burst into laughter. “That’s terrible, your Marshal doesn’t believe me at all.”

Before Damel could say anything else, he shook the storage device in his hand, opened the door and went out first.

The two went downstairs. They crossed the long corridor, and stepped into the forest path. Just as they stepped into the trail, a familiar voice came from the front. “Teacher!”

Ji Xingjue paused. “Your Royal Highness Harlem? Why are you here?”

The Third Prince Harlem walked in a hurry and quickly toward Ji Xingjue. He looked at him up and down, and breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ve already understood the relevant situation. Don’t worry, I will ask them to find out the facts and return you innocent!”

How come these few people believe in his innocence so much?

Ji Xingjue was quite surprised, and kept nodding. “Then thank you, Your Highness.”

Harlem glanced at Damel, who was standing upright next to him, and lowered his voice, somewhat disbelieving and distressed. “His Excellency Marshal…sent someone to keep an eye on you?”

This was a big misunderstanding, and Ji Xingjue was about to explain. There was a slight commotion not far away, and faint exclamations of students were heard.

Immediately, a military suspension vehicle descended from the sky and landed in front of the three in a posture that absolutely did not comply with the “Imperial Suspension Vehicle Air and Ground Safety Rules.”

The car door popped open, and a few people came down first, standing in a row without squinting eyes, and finally came down a blond man with an arrogant face.

Seeing him, Harlem’s face changed slightly, and he subconsciously stopped in front of Ji Xingjue. “Second brother? What are you doing here?”

The person who came was the second prince, Deen, who was in charge of the Imperial Ministry of Security.

Although Harlem was usually humble and had no intention of fighting for the throne, Deen had always regarded him as a thorn in his eyes. He took two steps forward with a smile that wasn’t like a smile. “I should ask you this sentence, Harlem.”

His gaze fell on Ji Xingjue in the back. “Long time no see, Professor Ji.”

The Empire had its saying: “One would rather offend a person of the Third prince than a dog of the Second prince”.

This Prince was someone whose mind was too narrowed to the point of making people click their tongue in astonishment.

He beat him a few times when he was a child, and he was still a capable man who could bear grudges to this day.

Ji Xingjue walked out of Harlem’s protection, smiled and asked, “Your Royal Highness Deen is here to look for me?”

“You should be very clear in your heart.” Deen snorted from his nose and waved his hand without blinking. “Guards, take away this Imperial traitor who colluded with the Star thief!”

People from the Ministry of Security came up, Harlem’s expression was completely difficult to look at. Before he could say anything, Damel first stood in front of Ji Xingjue. “Your Highness Deen, when did my Ma’am become a traitor to the Empire?”

Deen’s eyes narrowed. “Damel? Did Qi Qing send you to keep watch at Ji Xingjue? Then you should know what good things your Ma’am has done.”

Many students gathered around, watching from a distance, not daring to approach, confused and perplexed.

Ji Xingjue glanced at the crowd, and easily spotted the young girl hiding in the crowd with hatred in her eyes.

He sighed silently in his heart, and said lightly, “The conviction is not achieved by just one mouth. Since His Royal Highness Deen said so, I will take this trip with you.”