Chapter 91: I Once Loved You Silently, Hopelessly
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Lu’la bounced on the ground, the leaden floor reflecting cold lights. Slime’s round, large eyes looked at Lin Xu, “Mr. Lin, can you please return it to me…”
The medal had just been placed in a transparent nitrogen-filled box to prevent further oxidation. Lin Xu’s eyelashes fluttered as he withdrew from the cold, calculating thoughts, “Lu’la…”
“Lu’la!” Lu’la knew humans always couldn’t tell slimes apart.
“Lu’la, I want to exchange this with you,” Lin Xu asked, “Do you want anything in return?”
“Well…” Lu’la pondered. At this moment, Lu’la approached Lu’a, sticking tightly to Lu’a. The two tender yellow jelly-like things seemed to stick together again, starting a quiet exchange of what they wanted. For a slime, a metal medal was nothing but novelty and beauty. Lu’la and Lu’a didn’t mind exchanging it with Lin Xu.
After a while, Lu’la nodded to Lu’a, ending the discussion. It bounced in front of Lin Xu and said very seriously, “We want a luxurious slime greenhouse that can accommodate six slimes.”
“Alright.” Lin Xu probably guessed that a slime greenhouse was a kind of commercial slime residence. Imperial had a complete slime service industry chain, so finding it should be easy. “But there’s no slime greenhouse on the starship right now. When we return to Capital Star, I’ll prepare a greenhouse for you.”
“Hooray!” Lu’la and Lu’a stuck together into a ball, rolling on the ground. “Lada and Kaka are going back first. We’ll tell them that we also have a greenhouse!”
Just as Lin Xu and Heinrich were about to leave with the cloud-shaped medal, Lu’la jumped up and only let Lin Xu go after signing a commitment letter.
The door of room 010 closed automatically, and the corridor of area H was filled with cold white light. Blackie and Snowy smelled the scent of other creatures from area H and slipped out of Lin Xu’s room, squatting in the corridor and watching Lin Xu and Heinrich.
“The assassination at the Ancient Earth Natural Science Museum banquet…” Heinrich also thought of this matter.
“Maybe Marianna knew something.” Lin Xu looked down with his eyes slightly lowered, looking at Heinrich’s broad shoulders. He had never understood why anyone would want to assassinate Marianna; she was so good and gentle. What threat could she pose? But now, he had a guess.
“Ancient Earth has been discovered, and what Marianna knew may be confirmed. The mastermind is afraid.” Heinrich said.
“You’re on the assassination list too.” Heinrich reminded Lin Xu.
“I am her closest student.”
Marianna has brought many graduate students, but only Lin Xu has almost become her family and was even designated as her heir. At the same time, Lin Xu also studied ancient Earth, and various factors added together would easily make the mastermind think that Marianna and Lin Xu had exchanged secrets about ancient Earth history.
“What about Ryan?”
Heinrich’s reminder made Lin Xu look up for a moment, his eyes like the sharp edge of ice, he was in the bureau, emotionally disturbed and restless, almost forgetting another variable in the story. Yeah, what about Ryan?
“Ryan and I weren’t familiar with each other’s mentors at Capital Star University. He interned at the Ancient Earth Natural Science Museum and was randomly assigned to me.” Lin Xu said, “Besides Ryan, I have two other interns under my command, and they weren’t targeted for assassination.”
“Did Marianna tell you anything?”
“No.”
“Or maybe some of Marianna’s actions made them think you and Ryan knew about this.” Heinrich said, “Do you have any impressions?”
Lin Xu frowned and thought. After graduation, he had few meetings with Marianna, but he had always kept in touch with her on StarNet. As long as it wasn’t a rest day, Ryan would be working under him. Lin Xu, who worked at the Ancient Earth Natural Science Museum, was reticent and rarely communicated with Ryan on a daily basis, but he would definitely answer any doubts he encountered in work and study. Similar discussions guided a lot, and Lin Xu couldn’t think of any particular ones.
Heinrich didn’t urge him, handed the metal medal to Zhou Pingbo for basic testing, and had dinner with Lin Xu before catching Ryan wandering around Ika’s studio. When the two entered the studio, Ika was dealing with daily work on one side, explaining various electronic instruments in the room to Ryan, who was too curious to look away, as if dealing with children.
When Heinrich’s voice sounded, he didn’t care, his eyes still stuck to the countless screens emitting blue light, until he heard another person’s footsteps beside Heinrich and suddenly turned his head.
“Dr. Lin.”
Ika added in the next sentence, “Marshal.”
Lin Xu said, “I’m looking for Ryan.”
Ika nodded, moved the chair, and gave Lin Xu a passage to bypass and pull Ryan out of the instruments roaming. The robot pushed out several stacked boxes as seats for the three.
“Ah… Marshal, Professor Lin!” Ryan jumped out of Ika’s instrument heap, with a few cable lines wrapped around his head and neck, and the insulation material of different colors on the cable lines made Ryan look like a colorful fool.
“Sit down, I have a question for you.”
Ryan, who had been struggling to untangle the cables, obediently sat down beside Lin Xu and Heinrich. Ika seemed dissatisfied with Ryan’s demeanor towards Lin Xu and came over to help him untangle the cables that were wrapped around him. Ryan repeatedly whispered his thanks.
“Ryan.”
“Yeah?” Ryan immediately sat up straight.
Avoiding the slime and G398 star incidents, Lin Xu got straight to the point. “A year ago, did we discuss anything about Marianna?”
“Professor Perser? No…” Ryan hesitated for a moment. He knew Marianna’s death had a significant impact on Lin Xu and carefully considered his response, “But I attended a special lecture on Ancient Earth poetry by Professor Perser. She was so eloquent and inspiring to me.”
Lin Xu remembered that lecture. He hadn’t attended it personally, but Marianna had asked him to help revise the manuscript. The lecture mainly covered Romantic poetry of ancient Earth, with nothing historically sensitive enough to provoke Imperial’s higher-ups.
“Professor Lin, is this related to… the previous assassination?” Ryan asked cautiously.
Lin Xu nodded coldly, “I have two other interns under me, and they are all safe, no accidents. Do you think there’s anything special about our relationship?”
Ryan’s inhaling action choked suddenly, and he dared not look at Heinrich beside him. What could be special about his relationship with Professor Lin… Did he particularly respect and honor his teacher?
“I… I…” Ryan struggled for a while and finally blurted out, “I co-authored a paper with you, they didn’t.”
Lin Xu glanced at him, slightly puzzled. “Is that so? When?”
Even Ika looked over.
“Well, not exactly.” Ryan covered his face, unable to stop using honorifics, “I was inspired by you to write it. I asked if I should put your name as the second author, but you said there was no need, so I just thanked you in the acknowledgments.”
“Which paper?”
“It’s called ‘The Tragic Transformation—from Ancient Greek Tragedy, Romanticism of Ancient Earth, Old World Poets to Contemporary Techno-Impotence Poetry’.” Ryan wanted to bury himself now. He still remembered how Lin Xu had been silent for a long time after reading it, then told him it was well-written but suggested not to write like that next time. Then he added that he shouldn’t worry, that the journal he submitted to would accept it.
Ryan couldn’t tell if this was sarcasm or comfort. Lin Xu struggled to recall, finally remembering some details. Ryan seemed to have shown him this paper, which was passionate in its writing but utterly nonsensical in content. But it wasn’t Ryan’s fault; there was just too little historical and cultural data from ancient Earth left by Imperial, and Ryan couldn’t find suitable references.
After that, Lin Xu gradually guided Ryan towards the direction of artifact restoration. He handed over a replica of the triumphal arch customized by the Hill Family for Ryan to practice on. But judging from the results… Ryan was a passionate and thoughtful child.
Lin Xu wanted to sigh, but looking at Ryan’s embarrassed and pitiful appearance, he asked as gently as possible, “What did you write in the acknowledgements?”
The main text might have been nonsensical, but precisely because of its simplicity and nonsense, it didn’t stray beyond the usual scope of ancient Earth literary studies, preventing Ryan from catching the attention of a mechanized bullet. The issue could only arise from connecting him with Lin Xu in the acknowledgments section.
“I… I was inspired to write this article after seeing two poems you translated,” Ryan said, “One was, ‘If life deceives you, don’t be sad, don’t be anxious.’” He paused, “The other was, ‘I have loved you silently, without hope, but may God bless another who loves you as I do.'”
Ryan glanced at Ika, still expressionless, but Lin Xu’s furrowed brow made him more nervous. “Professor Lin, is there a problem?”
“Nothing, just that you got the order of the lines from the second poem wrong,” Lin Xu waved dismissively, easing his frown, “Why did you place these lines in the acknowledgments?”
Ryan carefully replied, “I reviewed the full text you translated, but you mentioned you had transcribed it from memory. I attempted to trace its source but couldn’t find it, so I didn’t include them in the main analysis, just mentioned you and these two poems in the acknowledgments.”
“The first poem’s original was given to me by Marianna for translation, only the upper part, but I… I accidentally came across works of this poet myself, completed the lower part, and transcribed another for her.”
Ryan cautiously asked, “How does this relate to the assassination?”
Lin Xu looked at him directly, “I don’t know. The author of this poem had been dead for two hundred years when the Ark Fleet set sail.”
He remembered Marianna handing him the upper part of the poem, saying it was something she had accidentally obtained. Was this accident related to the bodies on G398? Where is the remaining part?
Lin Xu felt buried under a pile of questions, spanning three thousand years of time and millions of light-years of distance, making it difficult to make sense of it all. But the assassination plot of the Imperial high command was real. While the Abyss Fleet had not yet reached the Imperial center, a gloomy suspicion had once again shrouded everything.
Navigating through the silent and deserted cosmos, Heinrich could use his authority to eliminate potential threats within the Abyss Fleet. Once back in the Imperial, the temporarily concealed Sword of Damocles would reappear. The hidden intent to kill was as terrifying as death itself; it would come, but no one knew when.
–
After a few more days, the Abyss Fleet and the Elam Fleet entered Imperial territory, and the StarNet signal was restored, albeit with a slow loading speed.
A civilian ship accompanied by escort ships waited in the fleet’s passage, adorned with a white bird pattern on its hull and the inscription in Imperial language: “White Bird Shipping Company is at your service.”
The Nature’s Evolution rose above the fleet’s overall plane. After slowing down, a shuttle slid out of the wide-open hatch, similarly decorated with a white bird pattern, and sped towards the civilian ship amidst its dark blue exhaust flames.
The civilian ship activated docking mode and successfully connected with the shuttle. Nearly a hundred starships adjusted their formation and speed for this docking, until the light that had scattered into the dark space through the open hatchway vanished as it closed, and the ship departed from the fleet’s sailing range.
The Abyss Fleet and the Elam Fleet accelerated again, majestic and vast like a steel torrent in silence, heading towards Crescent District, the political, cultural, and economic center of the Empire.
After separating from the fleet, the White Bird ship made two jumps. When the temporal and spatial conditions stabilized, Godric sat on the sofa with a clear glass of chilled blueberry wine, taking a breath.
Inside the ship was not the typical compartment structure but a vast space transformed into a comfortable living room.
Money could do a lot of things. In addition to turning a private ship into a space villa, one could also integrate oneself into an Imperial survey team and take a tour of ancient Earth before returning ahead of schedule.
Godric sat in the brightly lit living room, facing an infinite galaxy beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. Two intelligent androids, one male and one female, dressed as attendants, respectfully and gently brought hot towels and water for Godric.
“Mr. Chapman, the bathroom is ready. Would you like to take a bath now?” the female android asked, bowing.
Godric first glanced at the terminal information with a worried expression, then handed over the empty glass, “No need, you can leave.”
The two androids stepped back and left. Godric wiped his face with the hot towel, feeling the tension in his muscles ease. He then initiated an encrypted communication after waiting extra moments due to the poor signal in this part of the galaxy.
The communication screen enlarged in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. After a few seconds, the loading completed, and a silver-haired man appeared on the screen. He sat in front of a desk, seemingly interrupted from his work by Godric’s call, and asked somewhat annoyed, “Godric, what’s the matter bothering me when I’m busy?”
“Largo, my dear Largo, I need your help.”
The man on the screen bore the marks of time and trials on his face, his military background evident from his stern demeanor, yet he wore a military uniform not belonging to any Imperial forces.
Facing Godric, he seemed unwilling to keep up appearances, snorting coldly, “Speak. Isn’t it another mess in Imperial?”
“No, it’s not a mess. I just thought of buying that mecha you used to pilot, Bard, but the Paris family refused me. I want you to help me.”
“How can I help, dig up corpses to go back?”
“No, no need for that. Just tell me some secrets of the Paris family, and I’ll go threaten them. Don’t worry, I’ll pay generously. You know I’m a generous person.”
“I know you like to throw money around,” Largo said, “but what do you want with Bard? You don’t know how to pilot a mecha.”
“Gift it.”
Largo glared in resistance.
Godric explained, “Give it to His Majesty. He really likes Bard.”
Largo looked at him, feeling speechless. “Alright, alright, I know you’re a fanatic. Come here, listen…”
If any member of the Paris family were here, they would probably cry out in disbelief that Largo Paris, who had died thirty years ago in the Battle of Marquee, was still alive! But here, all that was present was Godric, who was full of thoughts and preparations to gift something to His Majesty.
After a conversation, Godric satisfactorily obtained what he wanted. He prepared to return to the Capital Star and personally visit the main estate of the Paris family to buy back the favored mecha for His Majesty. He also planned to remember to send the deciphered version of His Majesty’s edict to the Whisperers and the Alliance.
Next, he swiftly dialed another communication, this one requiring an even longer wait. A few minutes later, the communication connected, the image still shaking as if the other party had just found a suitable place to establish contact. Godric noticed three stars on the blurry shoulder epaulet.
“Colonel Chen Jinshan, promoted again? Congratulations, now I should call you Colonel Chen.”
“What’s the matter?” Chen Jinshan, having just recovered from his exercise, spoke with a hint of sternness in his tone.
“The Abyss Fleet passed by G398. His Majesty knows what happened there.”
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