Chapter 123

Chapter 123

Of course, Qi Wen didn’t listen to Eugene. Despite his height and strength, he followed closely until Yi Ye waved him off, causing him to obediently stay in place.

Yi Ye was pulled by Eugene all the way to a spot over a hundred meters away.

As soon as they stopped, Yi Ye pulled his hand away, frowning, "What’s so important that we had to walk all the way out here? And that phrase you used... can you tone it down in the future?"

Although he thought that with Qi Wen’s way of thinking, he probably wouldn’t understand the underlying meaning of "f*** you" and might genuinely believe Eugene wanted to fight him—after all, the old Yi Ye would have thought the same—but after experiencing Eugene’s repeated perverse behaviors, he had already equated this self-proclaimed "ascetic" with a "pervert."

"We’re not done yet," Eugene sneered. "I’ll handle Qi Wen’s slander and accusations against the Holy Church once we’re back on the main planet, but as for you, I’m not willing to wait until then to talk. Last chance—take back what you said, and I’ll pretend it never happened."

"Is one phrase really that important to you?"

No, perhaps the focus isn’t there.

But it’s because the comparison was with Bai Chuan.

Yi Ye carefully observed Eugene’s face and asked a question that had puzzled him for a long time: "What’s your beef with Bai Chuan?"

In his memory, the noble who looked down on commoners the most was Duke Jedd, but even Duke Jedd’s attitude toward Bai Chuan could be described as proper. Yet Eugene and Bai Chuan, as cousins, shared that blood relation. Besides, Eugene wasn’t fully loyal to the Pope, meaning he and Bai Chuan weren’t on opposite sides. So where did his hatred for Bai Chuan come from?

Was it because of the Pope?

"Eugene, do you hate the Pope?" Yi Ye asked.

"Stupid question," he scoffed, tossing it back, "What do you think?"

So he did hate him.

He hated the Pope and despised Bai Chuan.

In an instant, something clicked in Yi Ye’s mind, his expression darkening: "Did the Pope do something to you or someone important to you?"

"..."

A long silence stretched out, like a river frozen for miles.

Eugene stared at him without speaking. After a long time, he pressed his thumb against the firearm at his waist, gently stroking its hard surface.

"Care to explain why?"

"Ha..." Eugene tilted his head back and let out a cold laugh. "What will you do after I tell you? Help Bai Chuan kill me? Help me kill Bai Chuan, or go negotiate with the Pope? I heard you recently went to the Audria Family to rescue Kaiser. Too bad the Melville family isn’t as harmonious as the Audria Family. Even if you wanted to help, it’s out of your hands."

"Just remember this—never say I’m beneath Bai Chuan again. This is a warning. I don’t care about losing to anyone in this universe, but he will always be beneath me, even in death."

Yi Ye said calmly, "So the Pope’s your father."

"He’s not fit to be my father—" Eugene shot back, then froze. "What did you say?"

Yi Ye exhaled: "So it’s true."

"Who told you? Bai Chuan?"

"Just a guess. He never mentioned you."

Isn’t this how those cheesy drama plots go? The parents’ blood feuds spill into the next generation, pitting brothers against each other, the illegitimate child being despised by the legitimate one. Throw in a love triangle between the brothers, and it’s even more dramatic. He’d always thought it was odd that the Pope would ditch his own son but raise his nephew by his side, even granting him the authority of a bishop. But if Eugene was his son too, then it all added up.

He never thought it’d be that easy to get him to spill.

"If your hatred for Bai Chuan stems from his mother, I think there must be some misunderstanding. Perhaps we can have an open and honest conversation to clear things up, instead of an endless cycle of hatred."

"Shut up! Why the hell should I have an open and honest conversation with him? What gives him the right!"

"You wanted me to retract my comment about your lack of qualification, but aren’t you constantly belittling others too?"

"I’m nothing like him!"

Eugene’s emotions exploded. He shoved Yi Ye’s shoulders and pushed him forward rapidly: "He should have died in that filthy basement the moment he was born! Just like his mother! You have no idea. You’re an outsider, who are you to judge me here? If it weren’t for their existence, I wouldn’t be in this mess. They destroyed everything for me, ruined my family, and made her die in the most miserable way in the palace!"

He was too far gone, forcing Yi Ye to keep retreating. Yi Ye said in a deep voice, "Eugene, that’s not what I meant."

Behind them was a hill of piled-up scrap metal, with several large iron nets with sharp ends stuck in the gaps, directly facing Yi Ye’s back.

But neither of them noticed.

Eugene’s gaze was tightly fixed on Yi Ye’s face. His mind was a whirlwind, like a raging beast, breathing fire, and tearing at his nerves with sharp claws.

He couldn’t see the shape of the beast, but over the years, it had often gone mad in his mind. It gave him crippling headaches, like he was dying, so he had grown accustomed to numbing himself with cigarettes and various sedatives. He lived in a constant state of madness, sometimes laughing like a madman, even terrifying his teachers and the school principal.

He’d even kill, burning prisoners in the imperial prison, watching them writhe in pain, listening to their desperate pleas and cries before death, to silence the monster in his mind. But now, the monster was taunting his nerves, staring at him with a face that looked like his own but was dark and twisted, trying to incite him to vent his rage through killing again.

Yi Ye kept trying to reason with Eugene in a low voice, but Eugene’s eyes were filled with chaos, his reason overwhelmed by emotion, unable to hear anything. Yi Ye frowned and looked around, noticing that Qi Wen in the distance had sensed something was wrong and was rushing over. Yi Ye felt relieved, thinking that as long as they could temporarily control Eugene, everything would be fine.

He was forced to keep retreating.

He didn’t resist, letting Eugene’s immense strength grip his shoulders, the pain spreading.

But in a direction Yi Ye couldn’t see, the sharp iron nets glinted coldly less than half a meter away, getting closer and closer.

Suddenly, a stone underfoot tripped Yi Ye. He lost his balance and fell straight back.

Qi Wen noticed the sharp wires and suddenly shouted, "Yi Ye!"

A muffled sound of flesh being pierced followed, but the blood was so vivid that it could be clearly seen even from over ten meters away.

Qi Wen stopped in shock.

But the blood wasn’t the youth’s.

…

Yi Ye looked up, the face close to him pale and lifeless.

Eugene had one arm wrapped around his waist, while the other hand was pierced through the palm by two thick wires. Blood trickled down his wrist, pooling on the ground.

Eugene closed his eyes and regained his senses, quickly glancing over Yi Ye’s back to confirm there were no wounds, then looked down.

His wounded hand trembled slightly, but he acted as if nothing had happened, his voice hoarse and strained: "Yi Ye, I’ve never been the same as Bai Chuan."

Before Yi Ye could respond, Eugene let go of him. He yanked out the two wires from his palm, blood gushing out like a small stream: "But forget it. It doesn’t matter whether you take back those words or not. They mean nothing to me."

He felt like a fool. He was a bishop, revered by every believer in the Holy Church. Yi Ye didn’t even remember saying those words, yet he, like a fool, had held onto them for so long and had a breakdown over them. It must be the sedatives and cigarettes, damaging his brain.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt like a clown. He casually grabbed a handkerchief from his pocket, crumpled it into a ball, and pressed it against the bleeding wound. He pushed past Yi Ye and walked off.

He hated Bai Chuan, but at some point, he realized he hated Yi Ye even more.

"Eugene."

Yi Ye abruptly called him back.

Eugene tried to keep walking but found himself rooted to the spot. He gritted his teeth and snapped coldly, "Yi Ye, you should shut up when I've finally calmed down."

"I wasn’t planning to say anything."

He walked over, took Eugene's hand, and folded the handkerchief into a strip and wrapped it around his hand. "I just wanted to remind you, there's rust on the wire. Remember to get a tetanus shot when you get back. Also, your bandaging skills are pretty terrible."

Eugene: "..."

Yi Ye held his hand for a while, then said softly, "I’m sorry for bringing up your past without understanding it."

"...Does that mean you’re taking back what you said?" Eugene pursed his lips.

"I’m only apologizing for bringing up your family issues." He smiled, "But you don’t have to accept it. Whether an apology is accepted is up to the person."

"..."

Eugene’s breath hitched for a moment, and he reluctantly looked away.

"But there are some things I still stand by and won’t change. Maybe when you're in a better mood, we can talk again."

"No way—"

"Before this, I also thought it was absolutely impossible for you to intentionally hurt yourself." After tying a bow on his hand, Yi Ye let go, "Shoving me straight into the wire, letting me bleed, you’d probably feel better, wouldn’t you? After all, I always say things you don’t like to hear and do things you don’t like to see."

Eugene pursed his lips, instinctively retorting, "So you do get it. Yeah, I should’ve let you bleed more, so you'd know what pain is."

"So why didn’t you, then?"

Eugene opened his mouth, not knowing how to answer.

But Yi Ye didn't press further on the matter.

At that moment, Qi Wen hurried over to see what was going on. Yi Ye waved his hand, "It’s nothing, just a typical spat between teammates. Let's go, back to camp."

He wiped the blood from his hands, adjusted his backpack, and turned to head back the way they came.

Qi Wen quickly followed, glancing back at Eugene, who stood still, staring at the bow on his hand.

"Cadets! Let’s move."

Eugene looked up, shot him a dark glare, and shouldered past him rudely to follow Yi Ye.

Qi Wen: "..."

Back at the camp, no one brought up the real reason Eugene got hurt. They just passed it off as an accident.

The geological simulation wasn't completely over yet. Both team leaders were busy analyzing the data and didn't bother with the trivial matters among the young people, waved him off to go take his antibiotics and consider the matter closed. Half an hour later, the geological simulation finally ended. Yi Ye secretly glanced at the resulting model, which looked no different from the geology of an average city. Both team leaders looked disappointed, staring at the 10% increase in the detector's readings without any joy of progress.

In the evening, the sun set on Blue Flower Star, and the mountains in the afterglow resembled paper-cut silhouettes, rising and falling.

Yi Ye sat on a rock, thinking about what Eugene had said.

It seemed that the story between him, Bai Chuan, and their parents must be particularly complex and tragic, making the whole family's personalities strange. In the original plot, could Bai Chuan's death also be related to this background?

"Hey, idol!"

Qi Wen's voice interrupted Yi Ye. The tall guy held two packs of instant rations, one with rice and the other with biscuits, asking which one he wanted.

Yi Ye chose the former without hesitation. As he waited for the rice to heat up, he hugged his knees and pointed into the distance.

"Qi Wen, what does that cloud look like to you?"

Qi Wen said, "It looks like a cloud!"

Yi Ye: "..." He thought, 'How dumb.'

"It totally looks like a chicken leg."

He was really craving chicken leg rice.

"Oh, wow, it does look like a chicken leg!" Qi Wen slapped his head, suddenly realizing.

He couldn't come up with any fancy descriptions of the sunset clouds, so he just squatted beside Yi Ye, pointing and agreeing enthusiastically. Normally, this would be boring, but he thought the idol was cool, so if the idol said it was interesting, it was.

"Hey, idol, figured out who you're bunking with tonight?"

Yi Ye made a puzzled sound.

"We only have five tents, all paired up. You might have to bunk with two of us."

"I'm cool with anything, not picky."

"I wanted you to bunk with me, but my tent's a bit..."

"What's wrong?"

Qi Wen looked around, leaned in, and pointed to a tall guy with a brown crew cut nearby. "That's my tent mate. He's from the Central Corps, and he snores like a freight train."

Yi Ye said, "That bad?"

"Yeah, so if you want to sleep, idol, better not bunk with me."

Yi Ye gave Qi Wen a sympathetic look and patted his shoulder.

"Any other tents? What about Bai Chuan's?"

"You could, but..." Qi Wen hesitated. "His tent mate might not be your type."

"Who?"

He pointed to the guy who just finished his antitoxin shot, sitting on an oil barrel looking like he wanted to 'end the world.'

Yi Ye: ...

Great, the two brothers who wanted to kill each other were going to sleep in the same tent.

Maybe he should just run away?