Chapter 19: Garbage Star
Ge Xiu leaned against the wall of the isolation chamber, put his chin on his knees and scanned his diagnosis results in a glance.
Lulai stared fixedly at him.
His eye sockets were deep, his high and sharp brow bones cast deep shadows and his thin lips were pressed tightly. Although there was not much change in expression on his face, it gave people an illusion of cold and gloomy mood inexplicably.
Hall was talking in a low voice with the doctors of four or five main ships outside the isolation cabin. Everyone looked solemn. The sound insulation effect of the cabin door was very good. Through the thick glass, only their their lips could be seen opening and closing without a sound.
After a few minutes, they ended the discussion, Hall opened the door and walked in.
Even though he tried his best to hide it, the atmosphere that couldn’t be regarded as relaxing still followed him and spread into the isolation cabin.
At this time, Ge Xiu already finished reading his diagnosis. He stretched his legs, put the light screen on his knees and said lightly:
“Okay, I get it.”
His attitude was too unaffected, as if what he read just now was not his diagnosis report, but the recipe for dinner today.
Hall hesitated for a while, and then said carefully: “Don’t worry, the medical equipment on the main ship cannot be regarded as the most advanced in the entire galaxy and the current medical and technological progress is amazing. No disease is really incurable…”
Ge Xiu nodded carelessly, not even listening: “Oh.”
Hall choked. The completely indifferent appearance of the other party made him feel unnecessary so he had to swallow the rest of his words into his throat.
Ge Xiu sat up, his bare feet dangling by the bed, bones under his thin skin protruding, so fragile as if they could break in one touch.
Lulai remained silent.
His gaze fell on Ge Xiu, restrained, powerful, in his dark blue eyes there seemed to be a storm condensing.
But it was very condensed, as if a certain complex and unpredictable emotion got stuffed into a tough and rigid shell, without revealing in the slightest.
Ge Xiu didn’t seem to notice his strangeness.
Or even if he noticed it, he didn’t care.
His eyes wandered aimlessly in the interior of the isolation cabin and paused for a few seconds in several corners of the room without a trace. There was a monitoring instrument in the isolation room that could observe and track the patient’s physical signs in the isolation cabin at all times. He frowned, withdrew his gaze and then pulled his special protective suit with a bit of disgust, as he complained:
“This suit is too weird.”
He swayed his feet:
“So, when can I get out of this box?”
Hall hesitated: “This…”
Ge Xiu blinked and said nonchalantly, “Anyway, in my current situation, there’s not much difference between staying here and staying outside, isn’t it?”
That’s…
Hall looked at Lulai, who had remained silent from beginning to end, asking for help.
Lulai’s voice was cold and indisputable:
“No.”
Ge Xiu’s complexion collapsed: “Why?”
Lulai bent down and slowly took the light screen away from his knees without a trace of hesitation showing unshakable determination:
“If you have any needs, you can contact me through the smart brain, and I will try my best to satisfy them.”
Ge Xiu quickly grabbed his wrist with his cold fingers, his finger bones protruding under the pale skin, as he clenched his wrist tightly. With an emotionless smirk on his face he asked lightly:
“You wouldn’t want to put me under house arrest, right? —-s i r?”
His last two words were light and slow, each syllable rolled from the tip of tongue and swept across his teeth. It sounded unpredictable.
Lulai’s movement stopped, he raised his eyes to look at Ge Xiu who was close at hand. The cold expression on his face softened a little and he sighed:
“Your body needs real-time supervision.”
He straightened up, but he didn’t take his wrist from Ge Xiu’s palm, just stood closer to the bed.
Lulai hesitated, raised his hand and pressed it on the back of Ge Xiu’s furry head and rubbed it, but he was mercilessly avoided by the other party.
The touch of the boy’s cold fingers disappeared from his wrist.
He paused, retracted the palm of his hand that was still in the air and finally took a deep look at Ge Xiu, then turned and strode out of the isolation cabin.
Ge Xiu stared at Lulai’s back with a sullen face, his dark eyes squinted slightly, his expression indistinguishable.
Hall turned his head and glanced at the closed compartment door, hesitated for two seconds, finally made up his mind, turned his head to look at Ge Xiu and said,
“I know it must be very uncomfortable for you to stay here all the time, but captain is also doing this for your good…I can’t say too much now, but what I can tell you is that the captain accelerated the expansion and warfare, almost twice as fast as the original plan – medical facilities on the main ship are not advanced enough, but the research institute set up in the Alliance has reached the most cutting-edge medical technology in the Interstellar.”
He nodded briefly at Ge Xiu, then turned and left.
Gazing at the empty compartment, Ge Xiu rubbed his messy hair irritably, and threw himself onto the hospital bed.
Ge Xiu wasn’t surprised that there was a problem with his body.
Prior to this, he had always had a great time playing, but he didn’t think the referees would be so friendly as to let him stay in every world for one or two hundred years, easily eliminating 1156 points of evil. When facing the situation where the punished person was out of their control, they must have created some countermeasures to forcibly make changes when they find out their intention wasn’t achieved as planned – and the failure of his body’s organs just proved this.
Ge Xiu thought for a while without moving. His eyelashes moved, he lifted his gaze uncontrollably, and once again, it swiped towards several medical detectors in the corner of the room.
His face seemed paler than before.
It seemed like something restless was stirring under his skin.
Ge Xiu frowned, took back his gaze, turned over and curled himself up again.
·
Sure enough, as Hall said, Lulai accelerated the pace of expansion.
If he used to be a strategist who worked step by step and accumulated a lot of resources, he is now a sharp-edged and ambitious militant.
Lulai Sivir was worthy of being called the God of War in the Alliance. As the former first marshal, his control of the Alliance army is terrifying and shocking. He was well aware of every defensive weakness and tactical policy of the Alliance and even familiar with the combat style of each general as well as the the configuration of the troops – after all, they were once his subordinates and students, political enemies or opponents. They never won ten years ago, and now it is even more impossible to get back in the slightest. This sheer repressive force was extremely frightening.
Under Lulai’s ruthless and brutal attack, the Alliance army almost collapsed.
This bloody marshal that once made all the enemies of the Alliance frightened finally pointed the sharp blade at their own chests.
The plans made by Ge Xiu before were also well used in the following specific tactics. The Alliance’s hypocrisy and ruthless exploitation of the secondary galaxies were revealed, showing their true and vicious face. The light of rebellion was like a spark thrown into wastelands, spreading rapidly and engulfing the original order established by the Alliance. At first, it was the commercial fleet that overwhelmed the galaxy, then the outer galaxies that rose in succession, then wandering free fleets and finally were the mineral planets and energy planets controlled by the Alliance’s iron fist.
The resistance of the mineral and energy planets was the biggest blow to the Alliance. This cut off the source of fuel and materials on which they depended for survival and maintenance, so they began to control even more strictly, but the rumours that spread around were as unstoppable as a pandemic and the reign of terror was like a catalyst for rebellions.
The Alliance now had both internal and external troubles.
However, Lulai’s side was also struggling. After all, after a long period of expansion, the Alliance’s control over their territory has reached an extremely advanced level. In fact, was actually controlled by few biggest families that divided the power between each other. Although they have now achieved a short victory, to shake its roots would require a longer period of tug-of-war.
As the absolute leader of the entire operation, Lulai’s was extremely busy with military affairs. There was a vast sea of problems waiting for him to deal with them, except for basic patrols, he rarely left the decision-making area at the top of the main ship, but he showed no signs of being overwhelmed.
It was as if under his human skin the skeleton, muscles and even the brain were constructed mechanically, driven by the energy. They were always running at an astonishingly high speed, and they seemed to never stop to rest.
However, what everyone did not expect was that Ge Xiu was unexpectedly cooperative and obedient during this period of time.
——After all, his criminal record was really unforgettable.
But he unexpectedly didn’t cause any accidents, but stayed in the isolation room obediently. Except for the occasional bizarre and unsatisfiable requirements, he could be almost regarded as an impeccable patient. And Lulai always had extraordinary patience and indulgence towards him, except for the fact there was no room for negotiation on letting him go, he couldn’t refuse any his requests.
The isolation cabin was expanded to the size of the captain’s cabin at the fastest speed to prevent Ge Xiu from getting bored.
All his resource allocation and living treatments were something that only the captain could enjoy.
Any rare and interesting trophies captured by the fleet going out to fight would always be sent to Ge Xiu’s room as soon as possible.
This caused some strange rumours to spread secretly on the main ship, but Lulai’s attitude towards this was extremely ambiguous. He seemed to resolutely put an end to the spread of the rumours, but did not impose any substantial punishment on the spreaders. This was very unusual in terms of his previous iron-blooded style, and to a certain extent, it made this kind of rumours more authentic.
As the other protagonist of the rumours, Ge Xiu was unexpectedly silent.
He transformed the isolation room several times as big as his second working room. His material desires were almost pitiful, and the scope of his high-standard life was limited to those high-quality candy of various colours and sizes. The rare trophies in the isolation room were completely divided and given away or disposed of in accordance with the rules of “useful” and “useless”.
The useful ones were disassembled and studied, and then re-created, while the useless ones were simply thrown away to his subordinates, who were taken out to divide up at will.
As for rumours about Ge Xiu…
he neither admitted nor denied it, but was more like of sheer ignorance and carelessness.
This has made a group of gossiping crew members who weren’t busy feel a strange sense of uncertainty.
Their relationship was vague and chaotic, and almost no one can give an accurate definition. It seemed like Schrodinger’s cat, where they wanted to see whether the creatures inside was dead or alive. There was no possibility other than opening the box, but no one dared to open the lid, as if there is an unspeakable and unknown disaster hidden in it, which once released would swallow all the existence.
At this time, Lulai was standing outside the expanded compartment.
Now the war was rapidly spreading, but it didn’t seem to affect the medical area where Ge Xiu was located. The environment here was quiet and peaceful, like a completely isolated paradise island.
Lulai had a straight back, palms behind him, his whole body was like a powerful gun, and his tall and straight figure was as sharp as a cold weapon.
His face was calm, his eyes dark, as if waiting for something, as if he was just silently indulging in his thoughts.
It wasn’t until two minutes later that he moved suddenly, steadily raised his hand and pushed open the hatch, and strode in calmly.
As if the stagnation and hesitation of those few minutes had never happened before.
In fact, this is the second time Lulai has stepped into this place since he left here that day-he hadn’t walked in front of the medical area before, but he never chose to walk into it once.
It’s because of busy official duties.
After all, there are countless documents in his captain’s room waiting for his discussion and approval, and the strategy of key battles waiting for him to formulate.
……Is it really?
The small voice asked in his heart.
Lulai didn’t want to think about it.
Perhaps it was because he was worried that once he started to delve into it, something that shouldn’t have been opened will come out, which made him instinctively hope to avoid and alienate.
The isolation room has been transformed beyond recognition. Numerous pieces of ornaments and machinery are stacked on the ground. The walls are inlaid with a few huge tool tables. Several unused finished products are flashing blue light from time to time in the corners of the room. Alloy , Circuit boards, chips, stacked messily in every corner of the room, almost breathless.
Lulai’s gaze flicked across the decoration of the isolation cabin, and finally—as if he made up his mind—landed in the center of the room.
Ge Xiu was sitting cross-legged on a hospital bed that was twice as spacious as before, reading something with his head down.
There was a strange magnetic field around him, it seemed that no matter where he is, he would always catch everyone’s sight and attention to him, not to leave ever again.
It was like gravity.
This metaphor flashed in Lulai’s mind.
When he looked up and saw him, Ge Xiu was taken aback for a moment, then slowly raised one eyebrow, revealing a puzzled expression:
“Why are you here?”
His tone really wasn’t polite.
Lulai’s looked calm and unpredictable, and he didn’t seem to have any intention of pursuing his attitude. He just took a few steps forward slowly, while letting the sterilization instrument above his head scan his whole body up and down, he looked at Ge Xiu quietly.
For a whole month, the fine meals and recuperation programs planned and calculated by professional nutritionists did not play a role in the slightest.
Compared to the last time they met, he seemed to be even thinner.
A pair of pitch-black eyes looked extraordinarily large, and the cheekbones were showing under the pale skin, like a pair of wings about to fly away.
Before, it could only be regarded as malnutrition, but now it was almost shocking.
Although Lulai has been entangled in military affairs during this period, he did not miss the daily reading of Ge Xiu’s health report – no matter from the monitoring value or the therapy feedback, everything wasn’t optimistic, although the doctor on board had used his lifelong knowledge to try and cure him, but nothing seemed to be able to stop Ge Xiu’s five internal organs and organs from malfunctioning, as if they were irreversibly weakened and ruined.
Lulai looked at him.
Ge Xiu’s face still has that innocent and playful look, like that of a careless child observing the world intently.
But there was nothing interesting enough in this world that could make him willing to stay.
Lulai calmly suppressed the strange feeling in his heart, nodded at Ge Xiu briefly as in a greeting and then said concisely:
“I believe you are paying attention to the latest developments.”
Ge Xiu stretched out his body, slender ankles stuck out of the isolation suit and a casual smile appeared on his face:
“After all, I’m stuck here and there’s nothing else to do, right?”
He put the electronic screen on his lap and the latest battle report was displayed on it. There are Alliance’s fleets and Lulai’s fleets on it. The most vivid and conspicuous is a heavy starship under Lulai that had unexpectedly abandoned its tactical stronghold in eastern part of Alliance. In turn, they captured a medical research institute just two light years away, and the so-called tactical experts of the Alliance were racking their brains to analyse the enemy’s action intentions from this move – from the General Directorate of War to the every single character, from metaphysical meaning to subconscious.
Ge Xiu glanced at the light screen on his knees: “So are you really a “weird soldier who is particularly obsessed with surgery”?”
He read the epilogue of one of the editions in a deliberately exaggerated and false tone, with a trace of gloating and laughter in his voice.
Lulai’s expression remained unmoving and he raised his eyebrows:
“What do you think?”
Ge Xiu didn’t get much pleasure with his provoking from his expression and he couldn’t help but curl his lips boringly.
He fell back on the bed and said lazily:
“So, how do we get there?”
Lulai lowered his eyes and watched his movements and there was a softness in his voice that even he didn’t notice:
“Wait for a moment for Hall and the medical staff to bring the isolation transportation equipment and then he will take you to the coordinates of the medical research institute, where you will get a comprehensive examination and treatment.”
Ge Xiu suddenly sat down. He titled his head and asked:
“So, are you actually here to say goodbye to me?”
Yes.
The syllable suddenly got stuck in Lulai’s throat.
At this moment, the sound of the door opening of the isolation compartment behind broke the sudden heavy atmosphere in the air. Lulai turned his head and saw Hall and several other doctors who were responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of Ge Xiu coming in, a hude isolation transport device was pushed in behind them, wrapped in a special glass was a soft bed inside, like a strange crystal ball.
To say goodbye. It pressed almost visibly on them in the room, like an insurmountable abyss.
No one knew what disease Ge Xiu is suffering from and no one knows whether his physical condition could survive to the end of the war and Lulai was dragged in the whirlpool of events, unable to leave the command seat all least until the dust settles.
This separation may mean farewell.
The emotions on Lulai’s face were dull and the light golden eyelashes concealed the blue eyes, like golden sunlight across the deep sea.
He put his hands behind his back and his broad shoulders were taut, restraining the powerful force in his body.
His face seemed to be covered by a granite mask, cold, indifferent and indestructible, not letting anyone could spy on the thoughts and emotions surging inside him.
The doctor pushed the isolation transport bed to the side of the bed, Ge Xiu glanced at the transparent isolation transport cabin, his face sank.
He frowned in disgust, his face was full of rejection: “Do you want me to come in here?”
The doctor was taken aback, glanced at Lulai standing beside him in fear and then nodded hesitantly. “That…Yes, only in this way can we ensure that your body will not be infected during the process…”
Ge Xiu laughed shortly: “Am I more likely to be infected here than on the garbage star I left before?”
The doctor choked: “This…”
Ge Xiu squinted his eyes, and there was an unconcealed contempt in his voice: “Or, have you already confirmed that my physical condition was caused by an infection?”
Sweat dripped from doctor’s forehead: “…this…”
They couldn’t even diagnose the illness, let alone find out what caused Ge Xiu’s organ failure. Not to mention source of infection, there wasn’t even a trace of damage caused by intrusion on his body so they had to be as cautious as possible.
Ge Xiu raised his eyebrows:
“Since I came back, I have been very cooperative, right?”
This… is true.
In the next second, he saw Ge Xiu curl up his lips with a bright smile on his face:
“If you really want to put me in this thing, I’m not so sure.”
He blinked, and there was a hidden danger flowing in his dark eyes, but his voice was soft and innocent:
“So, you don’t want to see me being uncooperative.”
The doctor sweated more on his forehead, and he turned his head to ask for help the Lulai, who had an unpredictable expression,
Lulai lowered his eyes, no happiness or anger was visible on his face. He pondered for a few seconds, then slowly said:
“It’s okay, let him go.”
The isolation bed was pushed out.
Lulai stepped forward and bent down, moving one hand over Ge Xiu’s thin spine, and the other hand under his legs, as if carefully holding up a feather. He hugged him almost without any effort.
Ge Xiu blinked and realized afterwards that he seemed to be suddenly lifted into the air and his smile froze.
That…
actually he can walk.
After all, failure of the five internal organs is not a broken limb.
However, he raised his eyes again to look at the man’s sharp jaw curve and then looked around at the dumbfounded onlookers. His gaze stayed for a moment on Hall’s face who looked as if he saw a ghost and finally decided to say nothing mischievously.
He leaned his head against Lulai’s strong and warm chest with peace of mind, squinted his eyes and watched with interest the various facial expressions of the crowd.
From the medical area to the ship loading area, all the people along the way had a frightened expression. They either tripped with their left foot and fell flat with their right foot in a trance or they were bewildered and walked the wrong way. On the contrary, the culprits, Lulai and Ge Xiu, had calm faces, as if everything was ordinary and right, and there was nothing to be surprised about.
On the way, Ge Xiu’s evil taste was greatly satisfied.
Until he was put on the cockpit seat and then carefully fastened with safety protection devices.
Ge Xiu smacked his lips and sighed.
Pity.
Such a funny expression can’t be appreciated for a little longer…Really a waste of money*.
He yawned, squinted his eyes sleepily and a bit of physiological tears clouded his eyelashes-since his organs began to fail, he easily became sleepy.
Ge Xiu leaned on the back of the ship’s chair and blinked sleepily. Lulai’s tall and straight figure became a little blurred in his vision.
In the next second, the shaking sensation of the ship’s engine starting was transmitted – the starship took off.
Wait…
Ge Xiu was taken aback.
No, the starship took off?
He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Lulai sitting beside him: “…Why are you still here?!”
Lulai lowered his eyes and a secret smile flashed quickly through his eyes, but his voice was still calm and steady as he said in a business-like manner:
“You are right, I really don’t want to see you being uncooperative – so it’s safer for me to send you to the medical clinic myself.”
Ge Xiu: “…”
He saw a vague reflection of his face in the porthole behind Lulai.
Expression as colourful as the people before.
-Gah!**
*暴殄天物 [bào tiǎn tiān wù] idiom meaning spending money like water
**actually spelled ”gan”, a sound of annoyance used in sentences like ”you are so annoying, gan!”
Bamboo has something to say: yawn. I’m sleepy.
Heed my words, the only one who can get out unscathed from messing up Ge Xiu plans is the Lulai Sivir guy!
