CH 29

Ch29 - Proposal(?)

This wasn’t right, how did Islair know who he was?! At first sight, shouldn’t he just think why a prisoner looked so much like his ex (although Shao Ci really didn’t want to admit it, he really seemed to be)?!

Even if he knew Shao Ci, he should be shocked that a dead person suddenly appeared, right?! This scene, as though it was two friends meeting, was actually super weird!

Shao Ci was pulled into Islair’s arms. As he watched the flower petals disappearing as they landed on his body, he was completely stupefied. There were all kinds of curses in his head.

And the surrounding onlookers were also in stunned silence. At first, they all thought there had been such a spectacle because they had caught some criminal. Just as they were getting excited to see His Excellency Islair, they actually saw such an electrifying scene?! Why did His Excellency Islair hug this scoundrel! He was clearly a criminal at a glance!

This was the person who hadn’t had any ambiguity for a hundred years, His Excellency Islair who even had people thinking he was asexual. Why was he suddenly so close to a criminal?

“Please allow me to introduce everyone.” After Islair had his fill, he let go, tugging Shao Ci’s hand. When he saw the handcuffs on his wrists, he nonchalantly pressed a hand to them. The handcuffs, which were created from the new hardest alloy, deformed, then turned hot, melting into two pieces.

And when the handcuffs fell to the ground, Shao Ci’s wrists were still unharmed. It was clear how powerful Islair was from seeing how precisely he controlled his power.

Islair smiled slightly at the sea of people outside of the red carpet. He introduced, “This person is my partner. Although he’s adorable, in fact, he’s not very obedient, hmm? We were obviously about to hold our engagement party, but he ran from my side… I brought him here this time to take him away.”

Shao Ci: “Hey hey hey!” Was it really okay to be so open?! He had always been operating as the subordinate of the rebel army, did he want to whitewash him with these few sentences? Even Islair might get the public’s scrutiny.

But Shao Ci really had thought too much. The onlookers who had been drawn in by the shocking sight didn’t care about those things in the slightest.

Immediately, the crowd sucked in their breaths sharply. It wasn’t just the surrounding crowd. Even Islair’s subordinates were stunned silent.

Before this, they had absolutely no idea what Islair wanted to capture this guy for. They only knew that His Excellency Islair had told them to try not to harm him. They had thought that it was just because he was afraid if they killed him they wouldn’t be able to torture him for information… But what was up with the current situation?!

As for the people who had just captured Shao Ci, they began to worry whether they had been too rough earlier. If they had hurt His Excellency Islair’s partner, weren’t they done for?

Shao Ci: “…” Why did he feel like what these people were focusing was a bit off?!

On the other side, Islair pulled out a box, reaching out to open it. Inside the box was actually a ring.

The ring was set with a glittering gem. It looked as though there was a red-violet liquid circulating inside the gem. It was stunningly beautiful. When they saw the ring clearly, everyone around them immediately began to shriek.

“That’s a glory ruby! There are only a few thousand of them in the entire empire! One of them is worth enough to buy several planets!”

“It’s said that His Majesty Julier used a glory ruby to propose to Alifair, and they were such a loving couple. Ever since then, the glory ruby became the most precious gemstone in the empire! I never thought that I would ever get the chance to see it!”

“If someone proposed to me using a glory ruby, I would definitely faint in happiness.”

“…”

–

Shao Ci was also stunned. He never thought that it was actually such a precious gem. Wait, they seemed to be saying it was a glory ruby. If he was remembering correctly, this gemstone had a capability that was anything but reassuring.

After he thought of what it was capable of, Shao Ci unconsciously retracted his hand, but Islair, smiling slightly, wouldn’t let him pull back.

Shao Ci was about to open his mouth to reject him when Islair bent over and leaned close to his ear. “I know where your companions are hiding… If you don’t listen to me, how about my subordinates start to act?”

The warm breath ghosted onto his ear. Shao Ci’s heart tensed. Obediently, he didn’t struggle, extending a hand properly. He finally understand why those people had let off the abandoned factory so easily. It turned out that Islair had already made an agreement… When he looked at it now, this didn’t seem as random as he thought.

Islair lifted Shao Ci’s hand, his stunningly gorgeous face in the sunlight almost more dazzling than the gemstone. His golden eyes fixed tenderly on Shao Ci. “The first time I met you, I wanted to do this… Although so many things have happened, I can finally do it now.”

Under countless eyes, Islair slowly slid the ring inch by inch onto Shao Ci’s finger with extreme focus. The holographic projection was still projecting the romantic flower petals. If you ignored the manacles locked tightly on Shao Ci’s ankles, it was simply a perfect proposal.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Everyone surrounding them was crazy with envy. They looked over, their eyes sparkling, shrieking constantly. They might not forget what happened today for a lifetime.

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So although many girls dreamed of this gem, many couples didn’t want it. Otherwise, in minutes it would expose their true emotions… Shao Ci was worried about this now!!

And as soon as this precious glory ruby ring slipped onto Shao Ci’s finger, its radiance began to dim.

It was lucky everyone else was far, and the sunlight was strong, otherwise if everyone saw the glory ruby ring actually began to dim during the proposal, then wasn’t it just openly proclaiming Shao Ci didn’t have any thoughts towards Islair?

It was broad daylight and there were so many people still there, but Shao Ci’s heart turned cold. He was nearly scared into kneeling. He raised his head, only feeling that Islair’s tender smile was like ice.

“N-no way, if things continue like this, I’ll die,” Shao Ci scrambled to think of something happy. When he thought about how this ring was worth several planets, and how he had risen from the working class to a rich, influential person in a day, his mood suddenly improved.

Under the influence of Shao Ci’s emotions, the gem that had turned dim returned to its original brilliance.

Islair’s eyes turned warm again. He lowered his head, planting a gentle kiss on the ring and smiling slightly at Shao Ci. “Welcome back.”

The pitch of the surrounding shrieking increased by a good amount. It was nearly enough to deafen, but to Shao Ci, it was like a sound coming from another world. It was as though he, pulled in by Islair, was isolated in another world.

It wasn’t that he had suddenly gained literary talent. It was that Islair, someone with strong blood and formidable strength, had his own aura. He could subtly isolate a world’s temperature and sound. It was quite a useful skill, otherwise Shao Ci would be ready to have heatstroke under the sun.

Shao Ci looked at the ring on his finger with some sadness. Everything had happened too quickly. He hadn’t even thought of a method to refuse… He felt that as long as things continued like this, his life would take a very bad turn!

Ugh, the news that Islair actually had a partner would probably spread around the entire empire by tomorrow. He didn’t know what Pei Fan and the others would think about this… Forget it, no matter how he thought, he couldn’t go back to that place anymore anyways.

–

Islair’s personal airship was extremely large, and the interior was also decorated lavishly. The facilities made it seem like a small town. Everyone they met bowed their heads in greeting one by one.

Soon, the two of them arrived at a large bedroom. The bedroom even had a swimming pool, and it looked like a lounge. The bed placed inside was frighteningly large.

After they arrived at the bedroom, Islair finally let go of Shao Ci’s hand. Shao Ci immediately retreated several steps.

“You don’t need to be so flustered. Why don’t you sit down and take a break? I’m guessing you have plenty to tell me.” Islair sat down at a table. An android maidservant at the side immediately began to steep a cup of hot tea.

In any case, Shao Ci couldn’t escape. He could only sit across from Islair. He said, struggle in his voice, “…About that, in fact, I want to say, haven’t you gotten the wrong person…”

“Nope.” Islair laced his fingers together under his chin, looking at Shao Ci with a slight smile. He said, “I don’t know whether you realized it yet. In these few days, I’ve always been watching you.”

Shao Ci: “Huh???” Fuck, what kind of scary words were these.

“A few weeks ago, on the mining planet, I already noticed you.” Islair said, “After testing the leftover genes on the mining planet, I discovered it really was you. Moreover, at some time I didn’t know about, you genes already evolved. It was probably because of what happened before…”

Shao Ci: “…” He couldn’t use the status of a lower class Zerg as an excuse anymore!

It was obvious that Islair didn’t want to talk more about what happened with Schezar. He continued, “After that, I was always secretly watching your movements. Until today, when my preparations were absolutely safe, I finally got you back at my side.”

It really was that crappy mining planet’s fault! Shao Ci immediately thought of the door that he had accidentally pushed open.

Shao Ci spoke again. “But… the difference between me and the person you’re looking for should be pretty big, like… like the difference between being alive and being dead… And so on… Are you really sure you don’t have the wrong person?”

Hey, he ate his lunchbox right in Islair’s main hall back then. This wasn’t some supernatural story where the dead could be revived.

“About this… you’re clearer about it than I am, aren’t you?” Islair said quietly, “Back then, when I woke up from my bed, I heard the news of your death. Back then, I really thought I lost you forever. But, just a few days later, your corpse disappeared.”

Shao Ci’s expression immediately turned ugly. “!” Hey, system, you come out for me, didn’t you say it was a duplicate? You didn’t really just take the old body, did you?

[When all is said in done, duplicating a body requires a large amount of energy, and the energy used to allow the host to come a hundred years into the future was already mostly used up… In any case, it can still be used after being repaired.]

There was a clearly a big problem, okay! And don’t make his body sound like some robot!

“Although I don’t know how you did it.” When Islair spoke, his voice was completely calm. “But it was obvious that you were cheating me. You used a fake death to escape from my side. Since then, I was always searching for you, but no matter what, there wasn’t any news.”

Shao Ci: “…Ahh, it was hard on you.” You didn’t find anything because I was dead, okay!

“I never thought that you would appear again,” Islair said. “Moreover, you actually relied on the rebels. It seems that even though you’re no longer a lower class Zerg, you still think the same way as them… But did they really take you as a comrade?”

It’s coming, the villain’s favorite weapon of sowing dissension. But Shao Ci didn’t have much of a way to respond.

“Uh, maybe…” Shao Ci’s response wasn’t very lacking in confidence, because he knew that despite that some people thought of him as a comrade, even more people had no way to understand why a noble Zerg would be with them.

Problems like this existed even in the original novel. Later, Pei Fan’s subordinates split clearly into two groups of noble Zergs and low class Zergs. If it wasn’t for Pei Fan, these two organizations would have broken apart long ago.

But Shao Ci didn’t have much sincerity. His goal in joining the rebels was just to make it convenient to be at Pei Fan’s side, that’s all.

“So, like I’m saying, you aren’t suited to be at that kind of place at all. It would be better to stay at my side.” Islair smiled slightly. “Look, didn’t I let that bug go this time? I know crystal clear where they’re hiding. I let them go just as if I hadn’t seen them at all.”

“Why?” Shao Ci didn’t really understand. “Those people are rebels who want to resist the empire… You can obviously catch them. I can’t run away anyways.”

“This all depends on you,” Islair said slowly. “If those people are willing, they can also throw off the identity of a fugitive, returning to the life of a normal person… But if they’re determined to stay with their life, I won’t be lenient.”

Those are the protagonist’s subordinates. Of course their thoughts won’t change…

“Then what do I need to do?” Shao Ci said, feeling a bit perturbed. “After all, you let them off.” After all, Islair didn’t do things out of kindness.

“The thing you need to do is just stay at my side.” Islair reached out to cover the hand Shao Ci was wearing the ring on. He gazed into Shao Ci’s eyes, like the first time they met, his golden eyes sparkling. “I won’t care about anything that happened before. I won’t ask about them, either. Although I can force you to stay, I really still hope you can stay out of your own will.”

Under his stare, Shao Ci had no way to reject him. He could only nod. He felt that Islair was somewhat different from the past, but he couldn’t figure out what was different.

After getting Shao Ci’s approval, Islair immediately let out a much more genuine smile. He pushed the tea cup in front of Shao Ci. “Don’t worry. This time, I definitely won’t do something like in the past.”

At night, when Islair wasn’t paying attention, Shao Ci tried to take off the ring, but the ring that had slid onto his finger so easily was abnormally tight. No matter how much force he used, he couldn’t take it off.

“Ah…” Shao Ci was completely discouraged. As expected, if the ring Islair gave him could be taken off so randomly, it wasn’t like a gift from him.

–

Just as expected, in the next few days, the news about Islair had pretty much made its way around the empire. Regardless of if it was on the television or on the news, and even on the printed news that was exclusive to higher class Zerg, the most important headlines all featured the picture from the port that day.

And overnight, Shao Ci had become the person that all the teenagers envied the most. Countless people wanted to unearth his past, but they couldn’t find anything. They could only continuously imagine how Shao Ci had captured Islair’s heart.

Soon after, countless news exploded on the internet, saying that Shao Ci was some person from the imperial family who happened to meet Islair in the imperial palace. There were also people who said Shao Ci was a soldier and met His Excellency Islair while patrolling the battlefield. There were all kinds of guesses, but a few people saying that Shao Ci was actually a lower class Zerg were completely ignored.

And when the rebels saw the news, they were stupefied. They didn’t know how to react. Regardless of how they looked at it, the person in the news was the Shao Ci who was with them from dawn to dusk. What was going on here? Were they dreaming?

After taking in the news, everyone began to worry about whether their identities would be exposed. One by one, they began to curse Shao Ci, saying Shao Ci was definitely a mole sent by the empire.

Only Pei Fan was completely calm when he saw the news. He said calmly, “Everyone knows very clearly what Shao Ci did after he came to us. Besides, he was caught by the military because he was protecting me. This shouldn’t be as straightforward as we think it is. They might be using this method to divide us.”

Everyone quieted down after they heard them. After so many experiences, they had unconditional faith in Pei Fan’s words. They would never question him. After all, Pei Fan saved them from those awful circumstances.

Even if Pei Fan’s words had plenty of holes, they weren’t aware of it.

After he finished speaking, Pei Fan turned and left the room. After closing the door, his expression turned dark. His hands clenched tightly, nearly clawing his palms bloody.

“Sooner or later… we’ll meet again.”

–

Shao Ci returned to the capital planet after a hundred years. Looking at the familiar planet from a distance, he remembered all kinds of annoying things that had happened here.

During the tens of days on the airship, he took the time to sneakily get online and search for news about Schezar, but he couldn’t find anything. Even if news about the emperor was more secret, it was impossible not to have a single trace. It was as though Schezar had completely disappeared.

But there was no news about Schezar’s death. It seemed that Schezar shouldn’t have died, but how could there be no news about the magnificent emperor of the empire? He had no idea what had happened.

If he had known that he would return to this place, Shao Ci wouldn’t have been so clear-cut when he died at first. He would have listened to what Schezar had to say before he died…

And Schezar knew how to randomly get bigger and get smaller. Before, Shao Ci thought that he did it with the power of the holy stone, but when he thought about it now, he didn’t have any need to get smaller.

In short, Shao Ci was too lazy to think more about the things he couldn’t understand.

The biggest difference between the current Islair and the one of the past was that he finally stopped obstructing Shao Ci’s view of other people’s faces. He also never restricted Shao Ci’s actions. As long as Shao Ci was still in the scope of Islair’s control, he was free to do whatever he wanted.

When Shao Ci cautiously asked, Islair just smiled. “I believe you, and I also believe in myself. If I’m at your side, why would you look at other people?”

Shao Ci: “…” That really was right. Islair had the looks. Only someone who had problems with their eyesight would like other people.

“Could it be that I’m wrong?” When Islair saw that Shao Ci was still silent, his eyes turned cool.

Shao Ci hurriedly said, “No, no, I was just thinking you’re exactly right.”

“I’m sure that nothing like before will happen again.” Islair gripped Shao Ci’s hand, fixing a warm gaze at the ring on his finger. After seeing it flash with brilliance, he finally continued, “Besides, I won’t let that kind of thing happen again.

Shao Ci was given a huge fright. He had trained himself into thinking happy thoughts as soon as he was close to Islair, all because Islair liked looking at that ring. It was how he hadn’t caused something horrible like turning evil because of the ring turning dim.

After they got off the airship, Islair took Shao Ci into a new manor. It was as though he abandoned the old manor because too many unhappy things had happened there.

There were several retainers in the manor. There was also an elderly housekeeper. Because Islair had already taken control of his family’s power, there was no one else who could order him around anymore, and he had kept these retainers.

When they saw Shao Ci, everyone’s eyes filled with respect. They saluted him openly. The housekeeper also looked over with gratification. He was someone who had watched Islair grow up, and he thought Islair would be alone for his entire life. Now, he finally had a partner. It didn’t matter what this partner was.

Shao Ci: “…” The plotline of an internal power struggle that he had been promised didn’t seem like it would appear.

Islair brought Shao Ci to a room by the master bedroom that was decorated about the same. He said, “Xiao Ci, this is the room you’ll be staying in for the time being. What do you think? If you’re not happy with it, I’ll get you a new room.”

“Huh? I have my own room too?” Shao Ci wasn’t able to respond for a moment.

“Although I really want to live with you, we need to pay more attention before we’re married. If we do something on accident, it’ll be a bother.” Islair looked troubled. “So I just prepared another room. Just endure a bit before the wedding, okay?”

The person who needs to endure is obviously just you… Shao Ci was happy enough to cry. If he really slept with Islair, he felt like something terrible would happen.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the system had kindheartedly stopped issuing healing tasks for the last ten-odd days, Shao Ci wouldn’t even know what to do at night.

After rushing to finish his dinner, Shao Ci got ready to go to bed. Islair even specially gave him a goodnight kiss. “Have a good rest. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

Shao Ci went to sleep, his mind at ease, but he dreamed of the flower garden from that year.

quick note, I’ve been kinda busy lately and lots of you guys have been leaving nice comments so I haven’t been responding to comments TvT I really appreciate everyone’s comments and it makes me excited to share this novel with everyone! So even if I don’t respond, I’m not ignoring you and I’m really really thankful for you taking the time to comment