FT DR Chapter 30: A Dream and an Adventure

Chapter 30: A Dream and an Adventure

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Wu Chenghe panted heavily as he finally made it to the door of Chen Miaomiao’s ward. He knocked for a while, but there was no response, so he decided to push the door open.

Chen Miaomiao was half-lying on the bed, his injured leg suspended in the air. He was wearing headphones, crying sorrowfully while singing something. However, due to his choked breath, it was difficult to make out the lyrics.

“Miaomiao!” Wu Chenghe shouted loudly, “Chen Miaomiao!”

Chen Miaomiao turned his head, abruptly stopping both his singing and crying. He looked at Wu Chenghe in horror, unable to catch his breath, then let out a huge burp.

“What’s wrong with you?” Wu Chenghe was unnerved by his gaze as he approached. 

Chen Miaomiao suddenly realized what was happening and exclaimed, frantically manipulating his personal terminal. He hurriedly closed the holographic screen and removed his headphones, nearly falling to the ground in the process. 

Wu Chenghe rushed to support him, placing a pillow behind his back. “Be careful, your leg is still broken!”

“I learned from you!” Chen Miaomiao’s voice trembled a bit, tears still wet on his face as he forced out a pitiful smile. “You… you woke up? I went to see you yesterday, and you were still asleep. The doctor said your brain was injured, and didn’t know when you’d recover. I didn’t expect you to recover so quickly; you can even walk now.”

Wu Chenghe also found it strange. After being attacked by that guide, he was in great pain. But after the pain passed, his consciousness seemed even stronger. Did he have an “auto-Buff after being attacked” aura? Did he gain exp?

“I’m fine, much better now,” Wu Chenghe handed him a tissue. “What were you doing? I knocked on the door, but I didn’t hear anything.”

“Oh, nothing, just fooling around,” Chen Miaomiao laughed awkwardly, wiping his nose. He accidentally moved his left hand a little. Earlier, he had just put his personal terminal on standby mode, not turned it off. A slight movement caused it to restart, projecting a three-dimensional holographic screen in mid-air, while his headphones simultaneously played a mixture of crying and singing.

Wu Chenghe looked at the holographic screen, slightly stunned. It seemed like a live broadcast from Gabriel’s largest public square, where thousands of people were gathered, seemingly attending some kind of gathering. They were all dressed in black, holding white roses, crying and singing a mournful song. Some girls were already crying so hard they couldn’t stand, supported only by the crowd around them.

“What… are they doing?” Wu Chenghe hesitated to ask. Then he noticed at the forefront of the crowd, under the memorial wall to the north of the square, there stood a life-size statue surrounded by white roses, along with wreaths, crosses, fruits, and paper-made bottles of liquor, a combination of Western and Eastern customs, quite spectacular.

Wu Chenghe carefully examined the statue and immediately understood what was going on—it was a life-size statue of Jin Xuan, and the people crying and singing were his fans.

The president had issued an obituary, confirming Jin Xuan’s death. His fans, having lost such a great idol, naturally organized a mourning event. Just now, Chen Miaomiao was crying and singing, and he didn’t even hear Wu Chenghe knocking on the door. Perhaps because he was injured and couldn’t attend the event in person, he participated through the virtual network to express his grief for his idol.

“Senior, are you okay?” Chen Miaomiao noticed Wu Chenghe’s expressionless face and vacant eyes, pulling on the corner of his clothes anxiously. “Do you… do you not know about King…”

Wu Chenghe’s heart sank. He whispered, “No, I already know.”

“Oh, oh.” Chen Miaomiao didn’t care about closing the holographic screen anymore. He grabbed Wu Chenghe’s hand urgently, “Senior, don’t be too sad. Your head has just recovered; you can’t be stressed. Take care of yourself.” As he tried to comfort Wu Chenghe, he began to cry again, “Wuwuwu… I’m so sad too. This morning, the president issued an obituary, and they organized a mourning event. My mom didn’t want me to go, Wuwuwu… King was so good to me, why did he have to leave so young? Wuwuwu…”

Wu Chenghe was already feeling uneasy, and Chen Miaomiao’s words made him feel even more awkward. He patted his head and said, “Stop crying.” He wanted to say something more, but he felt choked up and couldn’t say anything.

“Many fans in our fan club want to commit suicide. The police have intervened. Wuwuwu… If my mom hadn’t stopped me, I wouldn’t want to live either. Let me follow King! Wuwuwu…”

If he agreed to that, he’d be damned! Wu Chenghe was amused by his anger. He handed him a tissue to wipe his tears. “Don’t say stupid things. We’ve struggled so hard to survive; is it just to commit suicide at a time like this? Have you forgotten about your family’s three generations of only sons?”

“You’re right…” Chen Miaomiao sniffled, wiping his nose and hiccupping. Then he looked up at Wu Chenghe, suddenly asking, “Senior, why aren’t you sad at all?”

Wu Chenghe clenched his jaw for a moment, not saying anything, and poured a glass of water for Chen Miaomiao. Chen Miaomiao suddenly became excited, grabbing his arm and saying, “Senior, are you so heartless? King was so good to you. Even if you didn’t like him, you shouldn’t be so ruthless. If it weren’t for him sacrificing himself to let us escape first, how could he have died? Before he left, he entrusted me to speak more good things on his behalf, to make you like him more… wuwuwu… King is so pitiful, so many people are crying for him, but his most beloved person can’t even shed a tear for him, wuwuwu… Senior, I hate you, I no longer believe in love!”

Wu Chenghe was getting a headache from his antics. Despite feeling like he was being stabbed in the heart before coming here, listening to Chen Miaomiao’s nonsense made him feel a bit awkward. After a pause, he said, “Stop crying. There’s something I need your help with.”

“What is it?” Chen Miaomiao stared at him accusingly, his face clearly expressing “unfaithful man.”

“I want to go to the asteroid,” Wu Chenghe couldn’t explain the entanglement between himself and Jin Xuan to him, so he decided not to explain. He lowered his voice and said, “I don’t have a starship, and I can’t ask my dad for one. So, I have to ask you. Can you get a starship from the Third Army? I don’t have a license, so it’s best if it’s an intelligent starship, or one with intelligent robots to drive it.”

Chen Miaomiao looked at him in shock, his mouth hanging open. After a while, he let out a loud hiccup and asked, “What do you want to do? You’re not planning to go to the asteroid to die for love, are you? Senior, I misunderstood you. You are truly devoted and righteous! But you can’t do this; King wouldn’t want you to die.”

“Shh!” Wu Chenghe covered his mouth. “Keep your voice down. I’m not that idiotic. I just feel like I should go find him. His body hasn’t been found yet, so maybe he’s still alive.”

Chen Miaomiao pushed his hand away and whispered, “Senior, calm down. Thousands of people haven’t found him. What can you do alone? Besides, the environment there is too harsh. There’s no oxygen, and no one can survive for more than three days. If something happens to you there, your dad will definitely kill me, and he might even kill my mom, my dad, and my whole family.”

Wu Chenghe knew that what he was doing wasn’t very rational, but for some reason, he felt like Jin Xuan was still alive. There seemed to be a voice in his mind constantly calling him, urging him to go to the asteroid and look for him.

“I don’t know, but I have to go see for myself. I’m not willing to accept it.” Wu Chenghe said, “Can you help me? I can’t find anyone else. All the ships entering and leaving Gabriel Military Harbor are monitored by my dad’s secretary. Unless it’s from the Third Army.”

Chen Miaomiao was infected by his serious attitude and began to consider the feasibility of this matter. After a long time, he said, “Okay, I can help you. But Senior, I want to go with you!”

Wu Chenghe refused categorically, “No, your leg isn’t healed yet, and the environment on the asteroid is too complex. You wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

“You’re crazy,” Chen Miaomiao said firmly. “If you can go, why can’t I? I can use assistive equipment instead of my injured leg.”

“No, if something goes wrong, your leg will be useless, and you’ll be disabled for life,” Wu Chenghe had to scare him. “Prosthetic legs are ugly. Do you want to wear one for the rest of your life?”

Chen Miaomiao wasn’t afraid of death, but he was extremely afraid of being ugly. After hesitating for a long time, he said, “Okay, then I won’t go. But you must keep in touch with me at all times and let me know your whereabouts.”

“Of course,” Wu Chenghe agreed immediately. In case something happened to him, someone had to be there to call for help.

Chen Miaomiao was extremely proactive. Using tactics like throwing tantrums and threatening to do something drastic, he managed to persuade his mother’s secretary to arrange for a smart starship for him. He also got Wu Chenghe a pass from the Third Army. By noon that day, after Wu Chenghe finished his lunch, he embarked on the journey to the asteroid.

Hannibal was busy with official duties, so he wouldn’t be able to come see him until the next morning. Ava, too, was dismissed by him under the pretext of wanting some time alone. Wu Chenghe calculated that by the time they realized he was missing, he would have been on the asteroid for several hours.

The military smart starship traveled extremely fast. Four hours later, Wu Chenghe entered the orbit of the asteroid. The wreckage of the Grasshopper Space Station still floated in space, resembling a desolate tomb. He sent a probe down to scan it, but as expected, there was no sign of life. Since Jin Xuan had landed on the asteroid in a damaged lifeboat, Chen Miaomiao had provided him with a military search map. It indicated the location of the lifeboat’s crash. 

Wu Chenghe changed into a specially made combat suit and said to himself, “Let’s go!”

The little Lightbulb wriggled on his ear, indicating that it was ready too—though it was very arrogant and sarcastic, it inherited a lot of Wu Chenghe’s personality traits being his quantum companion.

Wu Chenghe understood its thoughts through mental connection and smirked, “Finally decided to get to know that big golden retriever?”

The little Lightbulb wriggled awkwardly for a moment, then started massaging his hand. It seemed to enjoy expressing its affection in this way.

“Let’s find them first,” Wu Chenghe said. In truth, he didn’t have much confidence, but he had to try. He thanked Chen Miaomiao profusely in his heart for being so meticulous and generous, providing him with all these magical tools even though he had only recently transmigrated and was a bit of an old-fashioned person.

With so many observation screens, Wu Chenghe struggled to make sense of them all. After more than an hour, his eyes were tired. Suddenly, one screen caught his attention—it showed a steep cliff with black withered vines growing on it, their tendrils swaying in the wind like flickering flames.

This scene was eerily similar to the one he had seen in his dreams. Wu Chenghe enlarged the screen and examined it carefully, becoming even more convinced. He headed towards the direction indicated by the probe. After about two hours, the ground vines began to grow unusually thick. The tread of the vehicle on his right got stuck, and he couldn’t drive any further.

It had been exactly twelve hours since he left Gabriel, and Hannibal would finish work in four hours. No matter how bold Chen Miaomiao was, he wouldn’t dare to lie to Hannibal. In other words, someone would come to take him back soon.

Wu Chenghe gritted his teeth, packed a large backpack, and decided to search for Jin Xuan on foot.

It was pitch black outside. Wu Chenghe wore a night vision helmet and struggled to climb over vines thicker than his body. Soon, he was panting heavily—having been bedridden for eight days, his body was extremely weak, and although the gravity here was low, it was still a challenge.

After crawling for several hours, Wu Chenghe was about to reach the cliff when he suddenly noticed a tiny metal wire stuck in a crack in the ground.

Jin Xuan’s earring! Wu Chenghe’s heart was filled with ecstasy. The earring used to be a loop, but now it had been straightened into a line, its tip stuck in the vines.

“Jin Xuan!” Wu Chenghe shouted through the helmet’s speaker, but there was no response. He racked his brains, and suddenly his eyes lit up—the earring was stuck diagonally, with the tail pointing in one direction. Could this be a marker left by Jin Xuan indicating his location?

Wu Chenghe became excited, took a sip of water, and walked in the direction indicated by the earring. As expected, half an hour later, he found another earring, also stuck diagonally on the ground like a signpost.

Filled with hope, Wu Chenghe continued forward and found a cluster of giant vines twenty meters high, with more than a dozen black bullet holes distributed about one and a half meters from the ground, as if there had been a gunfight here. He searched around and found several rows of bullet holes. In an inconspicuous gap in the ground, he even saw a few dried bloodstains.

What happened here? Was he ambushed? Wu Chenghe was puzzled. Following the direction of the bullet holes, he walked laboriously, shouting Jin Xuan’s name. After walking for who knew how long, he suddenly slipped and fell, rolling down a slope formed by vines for seven or eight meters.

His knees were in excruciating pain, and his ankle seemed to be twisted. It took Wu Chenghe a long time to climb up from the ground. He was about to find some spray in his backpack to treat his injuries when he suddenly froze—less than twenty meters ahead was a steep cliff, covered with twisted vines, their fine tendrils swaying in the wind.

It was the place he was looking for!

“Jin Xuan!” Wu Chenghe rushed to the edge of the cliff, shouting hysterically, his voice echoing faintly below, gradually dissipating. 

Just when he thought no one would answer him, a low muffled roar came from the abyss, “Roar—”

That was the unique sound of a Barbary lion!

Wu Chenghe was ecstatic. At this moment, the little Lightbulb on his ear also wriggled, its body stretching and shrinking, then suddenly jumping onto the back of his hand. Wu Chenghe looked down and saw it turn into a dialogue bubble, with letters appearing on its semi-transparent body and a large bold arrow pointing upwards, “Goooooo →”

Wu Chenghe was speechless. Who gave you the authority to give orders? Who’s the master here?

The reprimanded quantum beast unhappily retracted the dialogue bubble, but soon it started to knead his hand in an attempt to appease him.

Why was it so infatuated with that stupid lion so quickly? Wasn’t it very disdainful before? Wu Chenghe suddenly had a feeling of “women being outgoing,” feeling slightly annoyed.

 

 

 

 

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