FT DR Chapter 19: Unlucky Fate

Chapter 19: Unlucky Fate

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

The sky was bright, with fine rain still drizzling. Marlow went to school, Hannibal kissed his wife goodbye, saw her off on the transport to the military station, then drove to Wu Chenghe’s apartment. The heavy rain in the early morning washed away all the odd smells, leaving the air unusually fresh. When Hannibal got out of the car, he deliberately stood at the door for a moment. Apart from a faint smell of vinegar, he sensed nothing else.

Opening the door and entering the house, the living room was tidy and clean, the floor spotless. Connected to the dining area, a bar counter displayed a plate of fruits, still damp with water droplets, evidently just washed.

“Charlie?” Hannibal called out, somewhat puzzled as the situation wasn’t quite as he imagined.

No one answered. Hannibal quickly went upstairs, opened the bedroom door, and found his young son lying on the big bed, covered with a quilt, eyes fixed on the ceiling, motionless, as if struck by something significant. His complexion seemed fine, without signs of serious illness, and he was neatly dressed in pajamas.

“Charlie?” Hannibal called softly, approaching the bed and gently asking, “Marlow said you’re sick. How are you feeling? Have you seen a doctor?”

Finally, Wu Chenghe’s frozen expression softened slightly. His pitch-black eyes flickered, pupils slowly contracting. Seeing Hannibal, especially his imposing black-chestnut eagle perched on his shoulder, Wu Chenghe couldn’t help feeling emotional. Choking back tears, he shook his head and said, “I’m fine.”

Even though my quantum beast is a physical QQ chat bubble and comes with a mocking function.

“Oh, what’s wrong?” Hannibal was surprised to see him looking so vulnerable, quickly sat beside him to comfort him, “Is it very uncomfortable? I’ll take you to see a doctor. I should have come to see you last night, Marlow told me too late. I thought you didn’t call me, so I thought it wasn’t urgent.”

“No, no need to see a doctor. I just caught a chill, a good night’s sleep will fix it,” Wu Chenghe tried to adjust his depressed mood, making himself appear stronger so that Hannibal wouldn’t worry too much. “You’re busy, I can take care of myself. I’m… I’m fine now. I’ll rest for a few days and be able to go to school without going to the hospital.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Hannibal touched his forehead and gently tapped his own against it, saying, “Looks like you have a slight fever. Did you take any medicine? I should have some fever-reducing medicine in my medicine cabinet. Shall I get it for you?”

“No need, I’ve already taken some,” Wu Chenghe forced himself to shake off the impact of the caterpillar incident, comforting himself that at least the caterpillar could lurk easily. Right now, it was lying on his earlobe in invisible mode, even Hannibal, leaning against his head, couldn’t see it.

If the Light Bulb hatches into a big golden retriever like Jin Xuan’s, then that would really suck. Imposing black-chestnut eagles are useless for him. The ones that can’t be found even with a lantern are the truly stunning ones!

Thinking this way, he didn’t feel so depressed anymore. Propping himself up with a pillow, the optimistic little guide sat up and said, “You don’t need to go to work? I’m fine, you can go on with your business. Don’t worry about me.”

“I’m not going to work this morning. I’ll stay home with you,” Hannibal pressed him back down onto the bed, saying, “I’ll make some nutritious food for you to eat. Just lie down.”

After a day and night of turmoil, and successive blows from the punk and the caterpillar, Wu Chenghe was indeed tired and hungry. Seeing Hannibal’s tender care made him feel particularly close. Rarely, he played the role of a delicate child, “I want something sweet.”

“Alright,” Hannibal, delighted by his childishness, kissed his forehead ¹and reassured him, “Sleep for a while, you’ll be fine soon. I’ll add lots of sugar for you, it’ll be sweet.”

“Mmm.” Wu Chenghe nodded obediently and lay down. 

Hannibal went downstairs, his black-chestnut eagle still slightly excited, not following the owner out but circling around the bedroom, even stopping at the bedpost to search around, not sure what it was looking for.

Wu Chenghe’s skill in ignoring things had reached perfection. He wasn’t worried at all that the black-chestnut eagle would discover his secret. The caterpillar was lying on his earlobe, transparent and covered by hair. If it could be found, it would be a miracle.

After about fifteen minutes, Hannibal came up with a tray. The black-chestnut eagle shook its feathers in frustration, flew back to his shoulder, but its golden-ring eyes still stared in Wu Chenghe’s direction.

“I juiced some fruits for you and got fresh milk pudding,” Hannibal, not very skilled in cooking, could only prepare some semi-finished products.

“Oh, thank you.” Wu Chenghe’s stomach growled, sitting up to eat. Hannibal sat down on the sofa chair by the window and suddenly asked, “Has anyone visited?”

“Hmm?” Wu Chenghe paused, then denied, “No one.”

I don’t want anyone to know that I’m a guide, and especially not that there’s a punk who has figured out my identity and is chasing after me. Did this leave no trace? Why would Hannibal ask?

“I saw freshly washed fruits. Since you’re sick, I thought someone might have come to visit you,” Hannibal observed his son’s expression calmly.

Wu Chenghe was an expert in controlling micro-expressions, showing no flaws, “I bought them the day before yesterday. I wanted to eat them in the morning, so I washed a few, but then I fell asleep and forgot about them.”

“Okay, perfect for juicing,” Hannibal didn’t press further, opened his personal terminal, connected it to the house’s control system, scanned the access records and the door access monitoring of the past twenty-four hours, confirmed that no strangers had visited, and felt relieved. He said, “Rest well. I’ve already asked for leave from your teacher. Don’t rush to go to school. Take care of your health.”

Wu Chenghe nodded in agreement. He was indeed very weak. Although he looked good on the surface, his senses hadn’t fully recovered. His vision and sense of smell were intermittently chaotic. For example, right now, he felt a mouthful of sweetness and then blandness when eating the nutritional supplements.

Moreover, his head still ached occasionally, and he could sometimes “hear” the surrounding people’s thoughts, especially Hannibal’s, which seemed particularly noisy and seemed to be engaged in intense mental struggles, making him very nervous.

Forcing himself to finish eating, Wu Chenghe was exhausted and quickly fell asleep under the covers. Hannibal cleaned up the tray, returned to the bedroom, dimmed the lights, and leaned against the bed, watching him intently.

His youngest son was obviously exhausted, pale-faced, lips colorless, experiencing who knows what in his dreams, with delicate eyebrows slightly furrowed, looking deeply troubled. Hannibal stroked his soft hair, gently pushed his head aside a bit, carefully examined his neck, then lightly held his arm, looking at the inside of his elbow and back of his hand, gently rubbing his thumb over the vein. He found the spot accurately. The puncture marks were already healing. His technique was excellent, without any bruising or piercing.

What a delightful little guy, like his mother, delicate and lovely, yet inheriting resilience and composure from his father. In any adversity, he could protect himself firmly.

“He’s too perfect, like delicate porcelain. Only I can protect him, only I can shatter him.”²

***

Wu Chenghe entered a leisurely recuperation period, with Hannibal visiting him every other day. During this time, he restocked the small medicine cabinet once—Wu Chenghe wanted to prepare recovery medicine for himself, fearing Hannibal’s suspicion, so he went through a lot of trouble to make other medicines as a cover, wasting a lot of raw materials.

With the indulgence of his father, Wu Chenghe recovered quickly. Although he was still underage, the guide’s abilities were just heightened senses and enhanced consciousness for him. The former could be adapted to, while the latter required long-term training to fully control. But perhaps because of his past life as a doctor, this didn’t seem difficult for him.

Besides Hannibal, there was another unexpected visitor who came to him promptly every day.

Wu Chenghe was speechless about Jin Xuan. He had tried many methods to try to stop the punk from approaching him, but to no avail—this guy was simply impenetrable. Kind words asking him not to come, he wouldn’t listen; scolding him to leave, he would threaten to call the police; locking the door to keep him out… well, he could pick locks at full skill level, easily cracking any high-end encryption lock, and even gave you a tutorial on why your firewall was ineffective, “Your firewall sucks. Let me write you a new one. I guarantee no one in the entire Gabriel Military Harbor can crack it.”

“Can you make something that you can’t crack?” Wu Chenghe asked sincerely.

“I’m afraid not,” Jin Xuan thought seriously for a moment and replied, “Such a thing probably doesn’t exist.”

Wu Chenghe was helpless, but fortunately Jin Xuan wasn’t too annoying. Every time he came, he brought some delicious food, helped clean up a bit, and then spent the rest of the time sitting quietly by his bedside doing academic work.

Indeed, Wu Chenghe was astonished to find out that this guy was actually a double Ph.D. holder, studying both “Interstellar Strategy” and “Artificial Intelligence.”

Rogues aren’t scary, but rogues who are also scholars are terrifying. When Wu Chenghe saw Jin Xuan’s fingers flying over his personal terminal, modifying a paper titled “The Application of Alien Scorpion Neuronal Intelligence in Four-Dimensional Warfare,” he completely lost his three views—this character setup was totally unscientific! What happened to the punk image?!

But Jin Xuan still looked like a qualified punk on the surface—he would diligently style himself every time he came to chase after Wu Chenghe, sometimes with a ponytail, sometimes with big waves, sometimes with a spiky haircut… and his ragged T-shirts always had different totems printed on them.

“This is the logo of the Universal Environmental Protection Organization. The one with the crossed-out ‘To punish and enslave’ from yesterday is a slogan against the hegemony of the Voyager Army,” Jin Xuan patiently explained to him. “I have a small-sized one, want me to give it to you?”

Wu Chenghe firmly refused. It wouldn’t do to wear anti-dad T-shirts at home all day.³

Besides his clothing, Jin Xuan’s accessories were also unbearable to look at. For example, the bullet on his ear. Wu Chenghe had suggested he remove it, but he disagreed, saying it was modeled after the bullet used by Hitler to commit suicide, marking the end of the previous era of dictatorship and expressing his opposition to Hannibal’s military dictatorship.

Wu Chenghe had no idea that punks could be so profound. He also asked about the tattoos on his body—Jin Xuan’s entire upper left body was covered in thorned roses, from the collarbone to the navel, including the entire left arm, all tangled thorns and blooming roses. Wu Chenghe even suspected that this guy had been to prison and tattooed a map on his body for escape.

Jin Xuan explained, “This is the mark of our family. My, great, great, great… the ancestor was seriously injured in the alien landing battle over four hundred years ago. After healing, he tattooed the thorned rose on the scar. Later, this tradition was passed down.”

Wu Chenghe then learned that the Jin family was actually a prominent family in the Dunkirk Federation, producing two star generals, one president, one Nobel laureate, and three Olympic champions… Interestingly, their family also produced great chefs. That Nobel laureate was a master chef in the culinary world, and his bronze statue was still placed at the gate of the Federal Culinary Academy.

In short, this family was too eccentric and brought absolute huge troubles. In the end, Wu Chenghe came to a conclusion—he had bad luck.

Soon Jin Xuan also felt that he had bad luck. He was surprised to find out that his future father-in-law was actually Commander Hannibal Simpson. Why were these two people father and son? He struggled with this thought. The style was completely different…

Author’s Note: “To punish and enslave,” the logo on the police car “Barricade” from Transformers, originally an Autobot, later defected to the Decepticons, in movie one, he once chased after the protagonist Sam, but was defeated by Bumblebee.

This is a metaphor. The Voyager Army was originally part of the Federation but, due to its ambitions, began to betray the human creed of peace. Jin Xuan opposes this.

Punks are very passionate and have strong beliefs, but just because they have a rebellious personality, their way of expression is different. With time and guidance from Doctor Wu, he will slowly grow into a reliable top.