Chapter 102

Xia You handed over the items left by the cloaked figure to Uncle Zhou. Uncle Zhou only took the badge, seemed lost in memories for a moment, then smiled and pinned it to Xia You's chest.

Xia You, puzzled, asked, "Uncle Zhou?"

Uncle Zhou smiled, "It's something I let go of in my youthful recklessness. Wear it; it might come in handy."

He had killed and saved countless people during his time in the Federation Testing Base. Even he couldn't remember all of it. However, he did remember wearing this badge, unsure of how it ended up with that little hamster.

"How is he doing?" Uncle Zhou, wiping the crystal glass in his hand, asked calmly.

Xia You candidly reported the situation, emphasizing the severity of the hamster companion beast's condition.

"If... if I'm not mistaken, he might..."

Xia You paused, swallowing the words "be dying" before they could leave her lips.

Uncle Zhou's response was nonchalant, "It's alright. Birth, aging, sickness, and death are natural parts of life."

Seeing a hint of melancholy in Uncle Zhou's expression, Xia You changed the subject to the couple, Senqiu and Yinwei.

Listening, Uncle Zhou paused in his actions, recalling for a moment, then said, "Oh, that beautiful little snake?"

"Beautiful... little snake?"

Xia You choked up.

Uncle Zhou laughed heartily, "At that time, I was about to bomb the control room. His all-white appearance startled me, and I reflexively shooed him away. Thankfully, he wasn't hurt."

Xia You: "..."

Maybe it's best not to share this with the two brothers who see the eagle boss through rose-colored glasses.

Xia You and Uncle Zhou talked extensively about her recent encounters, the noticeably thinner Tang Gao upon her return, the thrice-as-chubby La Tiao, and her intentions to change Lu Yinghuai's treatment approach.

Uncle Zhou remained cheerful and unflappable, "The side effects of the treatment only lasted about a month on Tang Gao. He indeed lost weight, but by his own account, he feels much better and less weighed down than before."

"Young Master Sun hasn't actually gained much weight. He's just been indulging in his meals lately, even adding two extra meals each day, so he looks a bit puffier."

"As for the sir..." Uncle Zhou smiled, extending his hand to lightly touch the family head's ring Xia You wore, "Xia You, even if the sir is the Empire's Marshal, no one can decide his fate over you."

Xia You lifted her hand to touch the ring.

She always felt this ring was too heavy, so she often wore it with the family emblem turned inward, leaving only a plain band visible on the outside.

However, this morning, before leaving the Marshal's mansion for the hibernation center, His Highness painstakingly adjusted the ring for her.

The golden emblem shone brightly on Xia You's pinkie, radiating a strong presence.

His Highness had said something similar to Xia You while they were in the protected area.

[Should my condition deteriorate or experience unexpected changes that require alternative medical procedures or changes in psychic treatment, Xia You, as my legal spouse and the current head of the Lu family, has the right to decide all treatment plans concerning Lu Yinghuai.]

At that time, though Xia You was intelligent, she was slightly naive. She felt honored by His Highness's trust and didn't realize the weight of the authority bestowed upon her.

Uncle Zhou reached out, ruffling Xia You's hair with a smile, "Do you need my help?"

Xia You bowed her head, her left hand caressing the ring on her right pinkie.

After a moment, she looked up with a gentle smile, "Uncle Zhou, could you please dig a pond in the garden for Miss An?"

Uncle Zhou chuckled, "It'll have to be a big one."

"Huh?" Xia You tilted her head in confusion.

Miss Capybara didn't seem that large.

With a sigh of experience, Uncle Zhou explained, "In our household, if one child jumps into the water, many others will surely follow."

***

That day, Xia You was squatting in front of the capybara, holding an orange and a tangerine. In a nearby gazebo, An Qi was lounging and sunbathing.

The red panda next to Xia You rapidly typed out, [Put the tangerine in! Definitely the tangerine. You can fit several if you go from largest to smallest.]

Holding one of each, Xia You presented them to the capybara to choose, "No, we made a deal. Whichever one you choose is the one we'll name. If you don't choose either, we'll think of another name."

Even though some time had passed since the news of the Inspection Team Captain's death in the line of duty, An Qi remained secluded in the Marshal's Mansion, venturing neither far nor frequently, spending her days eating, sleeping, and sunbathing. Her companion beast impeccably mirrored this laid-back routine, even skipping meals and naps.

Tang Gao persuaded Xia You to give the capybara a name, as addressing a companion beast by its formal name felt somewhat odd.

As Xia You happened to be holding an orange at that moment, Tang Gao immediately performed a capybara "tangerine push" demonstration for her.

This led to a debate between Tang Gao and Xia You over naming the capybara either "Tangerine" or "Orange," leaving the final decision up to Miss Capybara.

Miss Capybara slowly opened her eyes, glancing at Xia You and the little panda, her expression clearly unimpressed.

Both Xia You and Tang Gao eagerly watched the capybara, focusing on her black paws.

The capybara's tiny ears fluttered a few times. Without lifting a paw, she leaned her head towards the hand where Xia You held the orange.

Xia You burst into laughter, "See! I told you, Miss Capybara definitely prefers the name 'Orange'!"

With that, she ceremoniously placed the orange on top of Miss Capybara's head.

She then peeled the tangerine in her other hand, distributing some slices to both Tang Gao and the newly named Miss Orange.

Tang Gao, feeling a bit miffed, stretched out his fluffy tail, only to scrunch up his adorable face in reaction to the sour tangerine in his mouth.

In the pavilion, a drowsy An Qi, basking in the sun, turned over, burying herself in a soft blanket.

— She may be lazy, but she's not foolish. Can't she distinguish between nudging one item and a bunch?

Xia You patted the sulking Tang Gao and then the wonderfully tactile orange, looking toward the entrance.

Today was the day for Hot Strip and White Tiger to go for their check-ups at the hibernation center, and His Highness had also gone.

Xia You, holding both the little panda and the capybara, noted that Orange remained as emotionally stable as ever, letting Xia You pat its head without reacting.

While Tang Gao sat on the sofa beside Xia You, he remained engrossed in his research. After Xia You's petting obscured his screen a few times, he handed over his bushy tail for Xia You to play with.

The improved hibernation chambers acquired from Zhuo Xi were limited in number. Each had slightly different settings, leading to varied side effects.

Upon obtaining one of these hibernation chambers, Tang Gao had been analyzing its data for days. Suddenly, he exclaimed in surprise, his tail tip retracting sharply.

Xia You looked down, "What happened?"

Sugar Cake furtively switched the screen, flicking its large tail.

It's just... well, the modified hibernation pod that Xia You brought back has some rather toxic side effects.

Sugar Cake dared not think: what if he hadn’t been brought back by that marten, and Xia You had gotten news of the modified hibernation pod from somewhere else and used it on the Marshal—

Despite being the warmest part of midday, Sugar Cake shivered.

From the look of Marshal and Xia You, it's clear that their relationship isn't what he previously thought; he's caught them in intimate moments several times.

They haven’t seen each other for so long, and the Marshal has even experienced a hibernation. On their reunion, they'd surely have some deep confessions... what if the Marshal couldn’t stand firm after emerging from the modified hibernation pod—

The Marshal would probably want to send him to the reserve and slap him silly!

Startled by his own assumptions, Sugar Cake felt a chill run down his spine. Drooping his ears, he decided to erase the previous program entirely, rewrite it, and then take a trip to the base workshop to have the engineers make the necessary modifications.

The little panda sat on the sofa, its paws moving so fast they were a blur.

The orange cat lounged next to it, squinting its eyes, looking very much like a capybara pillow.

Meng Wenxuan, looking drained, floated out with a cup in his hands, exuding an aura of someone recovering from a severe illness but hanging on.

When Xia You shared her hypothesis about the psychic disorder with Meng Wenxuan, his reaction was as expected by Lu Yinghuai. Without asking any questions, he simply took on the project, and swiftly cleared the complicated initiation process within days.

Meng Wenxuan originally wanted to take a sample of Xia You’s psychic energy. However, under the watchful, smiling gaze of Wei Cheng, he reluctantly abandoned the idea—but Wei Cheng secured all the speculations and research data on the zombie virus from the Imperial Research Institute.

The Empire's understanding of the zombie virus, which nearly caused human extinction, is limited, but the emergence of the virus also, in some ways, hastened humanity's journey to the stars.

Hence, even now, some scholars remain intrigued by the zombie virus that led to the ecological collapse of Blue Planet; it's just that such research projects are hard to initiate.

After passing evaluations, Meng Wenxuan quickly assembled his research team. However, due to the unique nature of the Blue Planet base, he could only participate in the research process online.

So tiring.

But Meng Wenxuan would be even less willing to leave the glittering research center of Xia You for another planet.

Watching Meng Wenxuan with his unsteady steps and dazed eyes drift back to his room, Xia You spent a few seconds pondering Meng Wenxuan’s companion creature.

Given how Meng, the medical officer, stays up late, could it be a nocturnal creature?

Xia You sat on the sofa for a while longer, feeling restless. After some thought, she stood up and headed towards the underground hibernation chamber.

On the day he returned, Xia You inspected everything immediately.

The hibernation chamber was still so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Everything remained the same as when Xia You left, as if he hadn't been away for more than three months.

Xia You walked over to the hibernation pod, looked down for a moment, then leaned comfortably against it and slowly sat down.

With his arms wrapped around his knees, Xia You rested his chin on his knee and closed his eyes, sending out a psychic tendril to probe into Lu Yinghuai's hibernation pod.

Hm?

Xia You, controlling the psychic tendril, gently prodded the fingers that Lu Yinghuai had pressed to his left chest.

He recalled that, when he left, His Highness's posture wasn't like this... right?

With a glimmer of hope, Xia You tried poking Lu Yinghuai's hand from every angle with the tendril but received no response.

Xia You felt a momentary disappointment, and the tip of his tendril drooped, noticing a chubby little tendril trying to squeeze out from between His Highness's fingers.

Xia You: "?"

He sensed the little tendril's urgency to get out but its inability to do so, and he was puzzled.

The psychic tendril, connected to the main body, hovered in mid-air, tilting its tip slightly.

Can't get out?

Wasn't it the small tendril that moved His Highness's hand to the other side?

How could it possibly lock itself in?

As Xia You pondered this, he guided his psychic tendril closer to Lu Yinghuai's fingers, intending to lift the fingers and free the pitiable trapped tendril.

Just as he was lifting Lu Yinghuai's index finger, the hand, which shouldn't have shown any reflex, suddenly twitched, trapping Xia You's psychic tendril within its grasp.

Xia You: "!!!"

Inside the hibernation pod, the psychic tendril, held in Lu Yinghuai's hand, remained stiff, allowing the movements of Lu Yinghuai's fingers.

He'd squeeze and release, squeeze again, then release, and even rub the tip of the tendril with his fingertip.

——It was uncertain whether the action was deliberate or inadvertent.

Outside the hibernation pod, Xia You's eyes widened at the long-lost subtle sensation of his psychic tendril being grasped. Quickly realizing something, he abruptly turned and pressed himself against the surface of the pod.

His eyes sparkled with pure joy.