Chapter 185
On the day Orr was imprisoned, Lady Assai and Jeram bought a luxurious banquet and opened a bottle of expensive wine to celebrate, as soon as Orr died, all of the Assai family inheritance would belong to them. Old Assai tried his best to defend it, but he couldn’t defend against having a moronic son.
But after drinking only half the bottle, they heard the sound of a suspension vehicle docking in the driveway. Because all the robots had been sent back to the factory for maintenance, to prevent another rebellion from occurring, only the mother and son were living in the huge Assai estate. Lady Assai waved, telling her son to go and see who was outside. Jeram folded his napkin and walked up to the door to look outside, but his annoyed expression immediately turned disbelieving. Is that man the polite, gentle and prudent Orr? Has he gone mad? No, shouldn’t he be in Kavala? Why is he back?
Outside, a man wearing a military uniform was helping a boy out of the car, then the man pressed him into the front of the car and covered him with frantic kisses, his big hands probing into the boy’s clothes, exploring up and down. The boy looked startled for a moment, then he gave a most enthusiastic response, constantly changing the angle of the kisses, unable to settle on a type. His legs were tightly wrapped around the man’s waist, repeatedly clamping, his golden peach eyes slightly misty and flushed, like he was about to melt at any second. They were kissing so intensely, but they never closed their eyes, they gazed deeply at each other, as if they couldn’t see each other enough, a string of silver escaping from between their attached lips, the picture was very obscene but strangely beautiful.
Jeram felt the air heating up, making his nose and eyes almost burn up. He’d never seen such a passionate and unrestrained Orr. The boy pressed onto the front of the car seemed to feel a little tired, his legs wrapped around Orr’s waist loosening slightly. Orr gave a dissatisfied grunt, then hitched the boy’s thighs up higher, and impatiently started pulling open his shirt.
When the boy’s round white shoulders were exposed to the open air, Orr finally seemed to realize that there was a third person on the scene. He immediately pulled the boy’s collar back in place, took off his uniform jacket to wrap him up, then turned to look at the spectator.
Jeram’s line of sight briefly touched his face before looking away, unconsciously backing up. Bluntly put, Orr made his heart tremble in fright. The other man’s eyes had turned pure black, like a bottomless abyss, and because of his irritation over the interruption, the white part of his eyes were bloodshot, at first glance, he looked inhuman, like an extremely hungry beast whose feeding time was disturbed. Jeram even suspected that the other man was debating whether or not to pounce on him and rip him to shreds.
When Orr started walking closer, the surrounding air gradually grew heavier, until it was impossible to breathe. Is this man really Orr? Jeram was deathly pale, he stammered, “B-big brother, h-how did you come back?”
The man was very busy, even looking at him was a waste of time, let alone replying. He flung the boy over his shoulder and strode into the living room, followed the spiral staircase up to his bedroom, then slammed the door shut. The teenager kicked up a fuss at first, but he conceded after three consecutive spanks, and even raised his head in greeting to the shocked speechless Jeram and Lady Assai as they passed by.
The door was slammed shut, and judging by Orr’s already lust warped expression, it’d be a long time before they came back out.
“What the hell’s going on? How did he come back?” Lady Assai kicked passed her chair and anxiously ran out into the living room, due to her extreme shock, her usually elegant and gentle voice resembled a screech.
“Joe must’ve bailed him out. Fuck, I forgot that Joe was interested in him!” Jeram’s forehead veins bulged in anger, he paced back and forth in the living room.
“Who’s Joe? We had several influential families band together to deal with him, yet he has the ability to protect him? What’s his identity?” Lady Assai was astonished to know that Orr still had such a powerful person around him.
“He’s the information and cybersecurity expert the military hired, he’s the one who made the virus that destroyed the Queen, and now he’s responsible for rebuilding a more secure Star Network for the Empire. All the officers say that his authority is comparable to the Marshal. Of course it was easy for him to bail Orr out. Damn it, how did I forget about him?!” Jeram yanked his hair in frustration.
From her son’s explanation, Lady Assai became fully aware of what kind of character that handsome young man was. Although humanity just experienced an AI rebellion, advanced science and technology was inseparably integrated into society by this point, they were unable to completely leave the network life. Without the Star Network, schools, governments, hospitals, factories, almost every sector would be paralyzed. So rebuilding a more secure Star Network system, allowing human life to go back to normal, was a top priority.
The boy developed a virus to destroy the Queen, his strength could clearly be understood. His current position was comparable to the original IT father, Dr. Wilson, he not only determined the societal development process, he could influence the supreme ruler’s decision making. It was easy for him to save Orr.
Lady Assai exposed an unprecedented apprehensive expression, and ordered her son to quickly notify Kane and the other ally families. They couldn’t give Orr a chance to stand back up, otherwise, only God knew what misfortunes would befall them in the future. But before the phone could connect, the sounds of suspension cars pulling up to the house echoed, followed by a series of heavy footsteps.
“Marshal, what brings you here?” Jeram looked carefully at the visitors, and he and his mother quickly came forward to greet them.
“Where’s Orr?” The Marshal, followed by the four Admirals and many white coat wearing military doctors, stepped in. This lineup was very tremendous, causing Lady Assai and Jeram to panic, but also faintly hope that Orr was in big trouble.
“Orr and Joe went upstairs, I’ll go call them down for you.” Lady Assai gave an elegant smile.
“No, I’ll go.” The Marshal led the mighty group of people upstairs, but seeing the discarded pieces of clothing littering the aisle, his serious expression gradually turned embarrassed. Finally, when he walked up to the door and saw a pair of briefs hanging on the door handle, he completely gave up on calling them out and turned around, coughing dryly, “Orr and Mr. Zhou seem to be preoccupied, we’ll go wait for them downstairs.”
The other men exchanged a meaningful glance.
Jeram and Lady Assai invited the group of big-shots into the living room, entertaining the guests while trying to probe out their purpose for coming. But the men were solemn and silent, they seemed to be concerned about something, yet also excited, the atmosphere was very heavy. Gradually, the mother and son lost the courage to keep talking, and waited in apprehension.
Zhou Yun Sheng and his lover frolicked between the sheets until late into the night before stopping for a little rest.
“Why did you insist on returning to the Assai estate?” Zhou Yun Sheng covered his belly with the quilt, lazily half leaning against the headboard, one hand gently stroking his lover’s sweat drenched hair. Then he seemed to think of something, and asked in an expectant tone, “My love, do you have a name?”
“I didn’t want to see that idiot Orr end up with nothing. Dead, his reputation ruined, and even his inheritance stolen away, his life can’t be so much of a failure.” The man grabbed the boy’s wrist, turning his head to kiss his slender fingers one by one, purring happily, “I love hearing you call me ‘my husband’ or ‘my love’, when you call me in that teasing voice, my heart starts to tremble.”
Zhou Yun Sheng laughed cheerfully, hugged the man’s head and firmly kissed him, then said with finality, “Then I’ll continue calling you Zhao Xuan, it complements my name nicely.”
Zhao Xuan naturally had no objection. His sweetheart was Chinese, he liked Chinese names, so he naturally liked them too. But he wouldn’t tell him, Wilson had actually given him a code name, Little D. It was a foolish name, even more foolish than Orr Assai, and revealing it now would certainly destroy the atmosphere. He hugged his lover, trailing gentle kisses on him, from his eyes to his nose, to his lips, then down to his graceful collarbone, wishing he could use his lips to worship every inch of his body.
Zhou Yun Sheng stopped teasing, his eyes misted, concentrating on the pleasure. He thrust his hands into the other man’s hair and lazily opened, “I don’t think Orr is a murder, he’s the type that’s destined to be murdered instead. Did he tell anyone about the memory loss from his coma episodes?” If not, the Black Hand behind the scenes wouldn’t have set up this game, no evidence made the crime more difficult to overthrow than Orr himself admitting guilt.
Orr’s database was very low-end, Zhao Xuan could read it at a glance. He paused his kisses, and after a cursory glance, he sneered, “Orr that idiot, he confessed everything to Nan Qing.”
Zhou Yun Sheng nodded, even more convinced that Orr wasn’t a murderer. But Nan Qing’s corpse wasn’t fake, it even passed the DNA, blood type and other identifying tests. If he was still alive, then where did his corpse come from? A conjecture flashed through his mind. He quickly pushed his lover away and called out 008’s 3d control panel, then started searching for related clues on the Star Network.
“Baby, are you suspecting that the dead Nan Qing is his clone?” Zhao Xuan used his spirit to directly invade 008, which allowed him to find relevant information faster than his sweetheart could. Human cloning technology was forbidden in Asaph Galaxy, once it was discovered, the sentence was life imprisonment, and the clones would be destroyed. But there was a biotech company under the Celayan family’s name, it was easy for them to secretly manufacture and store a clone.
“Yes.” Zhou Yun Sheng nodded, then scoffed, “The Celayan family thinks that they’ve covered their backs, but they’d never expect that after the Queen developed wisdom and emotions, she started privately collecting the deeply buried secrets of many influential families in order to control humanity. After I took control over her, I transferred out all of these documents. These are all the under the table business dealings of the Celayan family.”
“Is it this one?” Zhao Xuan called up a document, it exposed how the biotechnology company cultivated a clone for each member of the Celayan family. If one of their organs failed someday, they could pluck out the corresponding organ from the clone and transplant it. They also cultivated human organs in large quantities, and sold them on the interstellar black market. The Celayan family’s wealth reeked of the rotting stench of corpses.
“Perfect, this is the document. With it, we can overthrow the previous evidence and defend you from the point of view of a doubtful crime, then we can slowly wheedle out Nan Qing. The Star Network is currently destroyed, it might not be easy looking for a person in the vast sea of stars, but that doesn’t matter, we have plenty of time.” Zhou Yun Sheng printed a gentle kiss on his lover’s forehead while explaining. The sufferings that Orr endured were actually happening to his lover, how could he not feel upset?
Zhao Xuan felt him obviously cherishing him, and his heart heated up. He kissed him back, and hugged him tightly, hating that they couldn’t stay connected forever.
Zhou Yun Sheng placatingly patted his lover’s back and asked, “Since you needed time to upgrade, why did you wake up so early? If you’d stayed asleep, I could’ve had people protect you, then so many dangerous things wouldn’t have happened.”
Zhao Xuan rubbed the boy’s tender cheek with his stubble, and murmured, “You were in the outside world with the Queen, how could I relax? Even if my body had to be temporarily hosted by Orr’s memories, I could at least wake up in time to protect you from danger.” And reality proved that his decision was correct. He’d never set out to save mankind, but he couldn’t tolerate his lover being in even a little bit of danger. If the salvation mission had failed, with the Queen’s powerful computing power, it wouldn’t have been difficult for her to find out who was opposing her. She would’ve sent a steady stream of robotic raiders to his sweetheart’s location until she killed him. As long as he thought about that scene, even if he was in danger of permanently crashing, he had to wake up in time to block all the disasters.
He paused for a moment, then chuckled, “I knew that once I’d woken up, you would’ve stayed by my side, even if that person wasn’t really me. Baby, you really love me, I can feel it.” He covered the boy’s chest with his burning palm.
“And you love me even more. Thankfully the world has you!” Zhou Yun Sheng never knew he could be so sentimental, but he couldn’t control the flushing of his eyes and the acidity of his nose. He quickly buried himself in the crook of his lover’s arm, his scalding hot tears staining his bronze skin. Although his lover didn’t say it, he knew that if he was in danger, he would protect him at all costs. So he chose to be hosted, instead of lying dormant, even if that could lead to him completely disappearing.
Zhao Xuan pinched his jaw and raised his tear stained face, looking at him resolutely for a long while, then he finally laughed, affectionately kissing away the tear drops hanging on his cheeks and jaw.
“Baby, how can you be so cute?” He sighed contentedly.
When the couple were tired enough to go downstairs to search for food, it was already three in the morning, and the Marshal and the four Admirals had fossilized. Hearing the two pajama clad men shuffling down the stairs, they turned around, their stiff necks issuing audible creeks.
“You’re still here? Do you want a midnight snack then?” Zhou Yun Sheng raised an eyebrow.
The Marshal and company unconsciously stared at the red marks dotting his neck, the densely packed marks spread down to his collarbone, and presumably, his chest and so on were in a similar situation. The two’s previous activities were obviously intense, like a few lifetimes worth condensed into a few hours.
Five hours and twenty-four minutes, he really was the first evolution of the super race, his endurance was very alarming. The Marshal glanced at his watch, his expression was solemn, but his thoughts were very vulgar. He nodded, and warmly said, “We don’t need a midnight snack, but a pot of coffee would be nice. You… …” There was a strange pause for a moment, then he continued, “You must be tired.”
“Nope, I feel great, never so wide awake.” Zhou Yun Sheng laughed cheerfully, red lips and dazzling white teeth, his fresh spring flush made the others feel dizzy.
Zhao Xuan’s eyes darkened for a moment, using his tall figure to block the boy, he pinched his butt and murmured, “Just heat up a quick pot of instant coffee and make something for you to eat. Don’t worry about them.” Then he printed a quick kiss on the boy’s tender cheek.
Zhou Yun Sheng pouted, then kissed him back and headed into the kitchen.
Zhao Xuan walked up to the sofa and sat down, then fixed his eyes on the Marshal and company.
The Marshal was even more surprised, and the medical experts gasped. On the way, they browsed through Orr Assai’s information, and knew exhaustive details about his physical data, but the current Orr was completely different from his information, like two different people. He was taller, his silk pajamas sketched out the explosive power of his large muscles, and his pale brown eyes had turned a pure black, like some kind of cold, inorganic gem, reflecting a sharp light. His facial features were still as handsome as before, but his contours were more profound, making his whole temperament change from gentleness into aggressiveness. Currently, he was like an unsheathed sword, with the powerful momentum to sweep away Assai Galaxy. He was just sitting there, his eyebrows slightly raised, but a powerful pressure was gushing out, making it feel impossible to breathe.
In the process of human evolution, one’s physique, hair color, eye color, and even the facial features could undergo some kind of change. This was a common pattern in the medical records, and has even become a staple of humanity’s evolution. The previously skeptical about the super-race medical experts were now convinced of the warden’s and the military investigators’ reports, if not, they couldn’t explain Orr’s sudden transformation.
They wanted to take him into the laboratory and research him for a long time, in order to find a way to promote human evolution. But they knew that that was impossible, currently, the Empire was in dire need of a super soldier. Because of the war, the Empire was now sitting on the largest wealth in the Asaph Galaxy, but had lost the ability to protect it. The Federation and the other enemy forces would never let this opportunity slip by, a fierce battle was imminent. In the previous war, four of the Empire’s five 3S level warriors were devoured by the Queen, leaving only one, the Old Marshal, and he was already 278 years old. But three of the Federation’s five 3S level warriors survived, the oldest being only 250 years old. When weapon power and equipment were equivalent, the strength of the warriors could fundamentally determine the war’s outcome.
Once the Empire and the Federation went to war, the Empire would no doubt be defeated. The civilians might not sense the approaching crisis, but those in charge have not been able to relax for even a second. When they were already planning for the worst, Orr Assai appeared, like a beam of light suddenly appearing on an endless night, making people unconsciously rush towards it.
If he really was the first evolution of the super race, there was no doubt that he would become the Empire’s most powerful weapon. Forget about him being convicted of killing a small celebrity, even if he killed the king, parliament and the military board would unconditionally pardon him, and try their best to restore his reputation. As for whether or not he could be controlled, this was a question the military and parliament didn’t dare think about. So what if they couldn’t control him? No one could kill him. If he left the Empire because of persecution, an even faster and more complete destruction would be awaiting the Empire.
So except for appeasing and enticing him, they wouldn’t use other means on him.
“Your eyes are discolored.” The Marshal suppressed his frantic heartbeat and pointed to his own eyes.
“That’s how they are.” Zhao Xuan replied indifferently.
“Is anywhere else on your body abnormal? In order to ensure your health, we want to help you undergo a physical examination, and of course, we want to test your spiritual and physical power.” The Marshal cautiously raised a requirement. He clearly felt that Orr’s temperament had undergone a fundamental change, before, he was very gentle and courteous, but now, he was wild and uninhibited. But that wasn’t surprising, after evolution, the subject’s temperament was always more irritable than ordinary people’s.
“Sure.” Zhao Xuan knew what they wanted, but it coincided with his plans. Mankind, who just experienced an AI rebellion, was now conscious of the dangers of advanced technology, and his sweetheart could manipulate any kind of machine, in other words, his existence was more threatening than the Queen’s. The Marshal dragged him into the army, probably with ideas about controlling him. But if his actions went beyond their tolerance limits one day, an assassination would waiting for him in the near future.
Because of this, Zhao Xuan now really needed power. Only by becoming the strongest presence in the Empire, and even the Asaph Galaxy, could he protect his loved one. He knew that his sweetheart hated being restricted, so he would do everything he could to let him keep his freedom.
The Marshal didn’t think he’d agree so straightforwardly, overjoyed, he immediately stood up and said, “The Assai family’s underground training ground is rumored to be very full featured, can we borrow it?”
“One sec.” Zhao Xuan walked into the kitchen, catching sight of the boy preparing some fried eggs after washing out the pot of instant coffee, he walked up behind him and wrapped his arms around his lean waist, nibbling on his earlobe, “Baby, I want to be the Imperial Marshal, do you want to be my first lady?”
Zhou Yun Sheng turned around and gently patted his cheek, teasing, “Sounds good, but before that, you should eat dinner. You’re human now, not data.” He switched off the electric stove and slid two perfect sunny side up eggs onto a plate, then pushed it towards his lover.
Zhao Xuan grinned, his eyes full of happiness. He ate half, and fed the other-half to his sweetheart, finished, he wrapped his arms around his lover and kissed him for more than ten minutes before reluctantly letting go. Then he turned around and waved at the Marshal, “Come on, let’s go test.”
The Marshal had thoughtfully shifted his gaze away as soon as the two people embraced. He’d thought the two’s relationship was just Joe carrying a one-sided torch for Orr, but now, it seemed that Orr was burning even brighter. Whenever he looked at the boy, his eyes were as deep as the ocean, the boundless love surging inside was frightening. He was now beginning to suspect Orr’s motive for killing Nan Qing, was it rejected love? Did Orr really love Nan Qing?
But whether or not Orr killed him, the military board and parliament would completely erase this stain on his reputation. And if Kane Celayan was dissatisfied? Who cares!
Jeram and Lady Assai still didn’t know what all this was about, they followed the crowd into the underground training ground, uneasy. They constantly felt that what happened next would change their lives forever.
Zhou Yun Sheng packed the dishes, and lazily sat on the living room sofa, continuing to use 008 to search for Nan Qing’s whereabouts. Although more than half of the Star Network was destroyed, more and more people were starting to log on, he should be able to find traces of Nan Qing’s activities. He quickly browsed each suspicious page, then suddenly paused on one frame. It was a man’s head shot, he was smiling and looking into the camera, he was very attractive, especially his peach blossom eyes. They were watery and misty, very charming, capable of captivating anyone.
Zhou Yun Sheng stared at the photo for a while, but his expression wasn’t stunned, he was scowling. He analyzed the photo, and the result was that this was a composite photo, it was a mix of all of Nan Qing’s and his face’s outstanding features, becoming a more perfect and delicate face. If Nan Qing was playing dead, he certainly couldn’t keep his 100% identifiable face, so plastic surgery was necessary. But he was vain, obsessed with appearances, he’d never make himself ugly.
Zhou Yun Sheng had reason to believe that this was a private mark-up of the plastic surgery’s results, so he’d contact the hospital and send this to the cosmetic surgeon. Following this trail of clues, he wouldn’t even need a few days to catch him.