Chapter 9: That Name Has Magic
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Among all the reports about Zhou Yunchen, his origins had always been a favorite subject for the media. A poor boy born on a remote planet, he had lost both parents to savage beasts from another world. From that moment, he had resolved to enlist in the military. By sheer effort and skill, without any background or patronage, he had earned admission to the Federation’s premier academy—Morningstar Military Academy. Through unmatched mecha expertise, brilliant strategic command, and countless battles fought across the stars, he had risen to power. He became a fleet commander, the youngest General in Federation history, and a hero venerated by the masses.
To the public, he seemed destined to soar like an eagle across the heavens. Every hardship was but a trial for a heroic figure who would inevitably prevail, inspiring tears from those who watched his epic unfold.
Only Zhou Yunchen knew those tears were wasted. He was not the perfect hero the world imagined. If asked who truly deserved those flowers and accolades, only one figure came to his mind: Lu Yao. The true, flawless genius.
Lu Yao’s parents had both been soldiers, dying heroically in battle against the beasts. From then on, his focus had shifted to mecha. He had entered the Federation Central University with the top scores, earning degrees in physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, and artificial intelligence while still in his early twenties. He had then pursued advanced study in mecha design at Morningstar Military Academy, winning numerous awards in design competitions.
Later, the Federation’s Mecha Research Institute had appointed him as their first Omega Chief Engineer. At least half of the combat mecha currently in service had once passed through his hands. Lu Yao’s brilliance silenced every doubt about his age, temperament, or gender.
Zhou Yunchen still remembered with piercing clarity the day he first saw him. Lu Yao stood on the podium in the pure-white uniform of Morningstar Academy. Beneath the great vaulted dome of the hall, sunlight from New Blue Star—the heart of the Federation—streamed down through the skylight, gilding his cold, composed face until it gleamed.
It was like sunlight flashing off the edge of a glacier: sharp, pure, carrying a chill that warned others to keep their distance, even as it compelled them to look up in awe.
His voice had been clear and cutting, free of emotion—neither proud nor timid. His cadence was steady, unhurried, as natural as a young star leaping into orbit, radiating a blue-white brilliance too fierce to stare at directly.
In that instant, everything else blurred. Time and space themselves seemed to dissolve until Zhou Yunchen saw only Lu Yao, who now commanded his breath and his thoughts.
He had fallen in love at first sight. Yet at that time, Zhou Yunchen had been nothing like the rising star people later imagined. He had been a destitute youth from the outer systems. Joining the military had been his only chance to survive. Perhaps he had some talent for piloting mecha, but the barren resources of the frontier could never nurture a true expert. His grades and combat performance upon entering Morningstar Military Academy had been abysmal.
He had not been a star. At best, he was a drifting shard of dry ice in the void, bound to evaporate the moment he strayed too close to real brilliance. Still, one strange consolation remained: most things did evaporate near a star.
During their academy years, many had dared to pursue Lu Yao, and all had failed. Details remained unknown, but every rejected suitor gave him a wide berth afterward, trembling if they accidentally crossed his path.
Zhou Yunchen had not feared Lu Yao’s glacial expression, but he had never dared approach. He simply did not believe he was worthy.
That fleeting glimpse of love, buried in his youth, had driven him to a frenzy of study and training. He hurled himself into mecha piloting, then into battles across the stars. With each victory, each medal, each round of promotion, he felt he was one step closer to Lu Yao.
The public imagined he fought for humanity’s survival or the honor of the Federation. In truth, he fought for Lu Yao—for his own heart.
By the time Zhou Yunchen entered the core of the Federation’s military and political power, everything he had once yearned for seemed within reach. If he wanted, he needed only to tell the quartermaster that he required a TL01 mecha designed by Chief Engineer Lu. The quartermaster would nod, promise delivery in three days, and make it happen.
Zhou Yunchen had paused, then raised the stakes. He wanted TL01/01, the prototype that Lu Yao himself had personally modified and tested. The quartermaster still smiled and said, “No problem, General Zhou. I’ll have it sent to you.”
If he wished, Zhou Yunchen could have obtained Lu Yao’s private contact information, or even asked the director of the Research Institute to invite him to dinner. He could not compel the Chief Engineer to do anything, but at last, he had the right to stand before him and speak as an equal. The star’s light would no longer burn him.
Yet, at that moment, Zhou Yunchen had plunged into a new pit of doubt. If his lifelong goal had been to climb high enough to stand beside Lu Yao, what did it mean now that he had reached it? What value did it hold?
The Federation spanned dozens of star systems beyond the galaxy, with a population exceeding a hundred billion. Generals and fleet commanders were countless, joined by marshals, governors, tycoons, and world-renowned scientists.
Lu Yao had never accepted any of them. Why should Zhou Yunchen believe he might be different? Rank and title meant nothing in this. Zhou Yunchen had not fallen in love because Lu Yao was Chief Engineer, and Lu Yao had no reason to accept him merely because he was a General. He was still just one among billions. To Lu Yao, he was no one special. Not even worth noticing. Until the Central AI gave him a reason.
Their genetic match rate was ninety-five percent. Under the Federation’s Marriage Matching Act, they had to become mates. When the results arrived, Zhou Yunchen had been on the front lines, fighting a swarm of beasts. The Central AI had used its highest authority to breach military comm restrictions and deliver the message.
At the time, several S-class beasts were closing in on the Distant Star. As the AI informed him that he had been mandatorily matched to an omega, Zhou Yunchen clenched his teeth and drove his photon blade into the abdomen of a giant arachnid. Heat seared through its carapace, melting its egg sac into tar-black sludge.
In that moment, he considered turning back to New Blue Star and carving the damned Central AI into pieces. Then came the voice, flat and mechanical, reciting the name of the omega he had been paired with: “Lu Yao, native of New Blue Star. Identity: Chief Engineer, Federation Mecha Research Institute—”
It was like a tidal wave crashing into his mind. His thoughts blanked out. His finger slipped on the energy trigger, overloading the ion cannon to maximum capacity. A torrent of blue fire erupted, consuming the remaining two S-class beasts and blasting them straight into the gravity well of the nearby red giant. In seconds, the nuclear furnace vaporized their bodies.
When the cannon’s glow faded, the ancient star’s blood-red light spread across the vacuum, illuminating Zhou Yunchen’s stunned face. He and Lu Yao—ninety-five percent compatibility. They were to be married.
Until every last alien beast on the battlefield had been wiped out, Zhou Yunchen finally realized that the message he’d received was no joke.
His aide, Zhao Minghe, was the second to learn of the match notification. He noticed that General Zhou seemed completely overtaken by the news of his impending marriage. The General ended the grueling campaign at record speed, hyperdrive jumping more than ten times in just five days. He returned to New Blue Star with only three days left before the registration deadline.
The Central AI had already provided Lu Yao’s contact information. By all rights, the two of them should have met before the marriage registration, but Zhou Yunchen had been tied up with a military debrief, unable to step away.
Not until the second-to-last day, in the early hours of the morning, did he receive a message from Lu Yao. For that, Zhou Yunchen skipped the final day’s military meeting entirely and went straight to the marriage registry.
Lu Yao was waiting for him. The thought nearly drove Zhou Yunchen insane. A guilty thrill twisted inside him. The registration went smoothly and quickly. Moving in together afterward did as well.
Lu Yao remained cold and distant. Zhou Yunchen didn’t mind. Lu Yao had always been like this. He would never ask him to change. Once they were home, Zhou Yunchen told Lu Yao about the requirement for a mark inspection under the Federation’s marriage laws.
It was the boldest attempt Zhou Yunchen had ever made. Lu Yao did not refuse. At first, everything went smoothly—until he collapsed onto the floor, wracked by violent spasms in response to the alpha pheromones.
Seeing the one he loved most writhing in agony because of his actions, Zhou Yunchen felt his throat, his heart, and even his lungs seize tight, as though they were being plunged into acid, churning every organ in his body. Panic twisted with guilt.
He would rather that the joy of the match had never happened. He would rather Lu Yao’s gaze had never fallen on him, than see him suffer for it. Later, Zhou Yunchen searched for every possible way to bypass the inspection—even hacking into the Central AI—but none of it worked.
The only option left was to stay away from Lu Yao. If hundreds of light-years and billions of stars kept them apart, the mark would never need to be carried out, and Lu Yao would not have to suffer. That was why, after three years, they remained strangers.
A high compatibility rate never meant destiny. It was nothing more than a statistical stroke of luck that bound him to Lu Yao in marriage. Human beings, inheriting old patterns of thought from myth and superstition, always sought stable cause and destined fate. Even in the face of cold, absolute rational numbers, that belief still arose from time to time—stirring emotions, distorting perception.
Zhou Yunchen despised the foolish joy he had felt the moment he’d first heard of the match. What reason had he ever had to believe that a single probability score would make Lu Yao accept his love—or worse, love him in return?
He had no answer. The only reference he could find was cats. Lu Yao liked felines. Even the long-extinct snow leopard, preserved only in images, had his affection. What status, power, wealth, or wisdom did a snow leopard ever have? None.
Lu Yao liked snow leopards simply because they were snow leopards. Even if he could never see or touch a living one, never gain anything in return, he still loved them. Zhou Yunchen grew increasingly envious of that vanished creature.
Perhaps the Villeau civilization—so fond of granting human wishes—had heard the secret buried deep in his heart. They granted it, and turned him into a great snow leopard.
Zhou Yunchen himself could not say whether it was the instincts of his new body that made him lose control, or whether, freed from human restraint, he simply dared to be bolder. Either way, he did something he would never have dared in his human form—
He pinned Lu Yao to the ground.
Author’s Note:
Zhou Yunchen: Excuse me, is my destined spouse truly destined?
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