Chapter 79
The moment he heard that voice, Jinwen lost consciousness.
It felt as though he had a very long dream. His cold body was wrapped in something soft and warm, and he could not help curling up, desperately hoping the other party would not leave…
If this was death, then he wished this moment could last forever.
Clearly, heaven had not heard his prayer. When his awareness returned, Jinwen could distinctly feel that his body had been moved somewhere else. He was lying on a bed. Pain still spread through him, but it was no longer as intense as before. He could sense someone applying medicine to him, and there seemed to be many instruments making noise nearby…
The smell of disinfectant was also very strong. It felt like a hospital.
Jinwen knew he was still alive. This place was probably Junk Star.
But that voice he had heard before, that voice that had made him want to cry… was it only a hallucination at death’s door?
That had to be it. They said that when a person was about to die, they would see the one they most wanted to see.
Only this time, someone had dragged him back from the gates of hell.
Jinwen could not open his eyes at all, and even lifting a hand was extremely difficult. Fortunately, he could still hear, so he could at least judge his surroundings through sound.
But for a long while, other than the hum of the instruments, he barely heard any human voices. Only now and then he caught a few sentences that sounded like a doctor passing knowledge on to a student.
Although he could not see his own condition, from how he had felt before losing consciousness, Jinwen could guess that he was absolutely in critical condition now… or perhaps already paralyzed.
That thought filled him with sudden terror.
To become crippled at a time like this would be even worse than death—unable to do anything, only waiting for both his home and himself to perish. It was torment of both body and mind!
No! Absolutely not!
He had to stand up… he had to find that emperor of Junk Star!
“H-he just moved a finger!” the one who sounded like a student cried out in surprise.
A few seconds later, someone pried open his eyelid and looked. “His condition is much better than yesterday… very good. As long as he regains consciousness, that’s fine. The worst would be if he stayed asleep the whole time. Watch his condition carefully these next few days.”
“Understood.” Cool, soft tentacles, like those of an octopus, pressed at various places on his body while checking him. “These wounds are really terrifying… It’s a miracle these few are still alive.”
These few?
Jinwen’s heart shook. Could it be… could it be that the two people escorting him had also survived?!
“It’s not a miracle,” the doctor said. “If he hadn’t wrapped their bleeding wounds in silk in time, they wouldn’t have survived under normal circumstances…”
Silk…
The person who saved him?
Jinwen’s awareness quickly became hazy again. He did not have enough energy to remain awake and thinking for long. Before long, he sank into unconsciousness once more.
…
Before the castle surrounded by farmland stood a small, upright figure.
At the moment, Yomi was waiting for someone.
A few days ago, Satan had called to say he would be coming over from Pearl State today.
On the phone, Satan said he missed his son, but in truth, Yomi knew this visit had something to do with Anxius.
Some time ago, after receiving a message from Brule, Anxius had secretly gone to Snar Star. Yomi had also seen that message; it was related to internal issues on Snar Star. Snar Star was currently at war with the Phizhi Star people, the situation was grim, and the royal family was in total chaos…
Before leaving, Anxius had stared at Yomi the entire night, and the next day, after holding him and kissing him for a long while, only then did he depart.
Before he left, he made a phone call to Pearl State.
Yomi had asked nothing, but he understood perfectly well. Anxius was not at ease leaving him on Junk Star, yet neither was he willing to bring him back to dangerous Snar Star. So, he had contacted Satan.
It was the first time Anxius had ever used a pleading tone, asking him to come protect Yomi until he returned.
Satan had naturally agreed with great enthusiasm.
While waiting for Satan, Yomi could not help pacing around the flower garden in front of the castle with his hands clasped behind his back, occasionally bending down to pull out a few weeds.
This castle had begun construction two years ago. Back then, Anxius had said that if he was to be the future Little Sheep Emperor of Junk Star, then he absolutely had to have a castle. Now everyone had moved in, while the old villa had been converted into Yexi’s hospital.
In that hospital now lay the three pitiful people he had rescued two days ago.
That matter itself was a long story.
After Anxius left, Yomi felt that he had to stand on his own and take up the responsibilities of a good emperor, so every day he had gone around busily with his two secretaries—the elite interstellar mercenaries.
Two days ago, Yomi happened to be at a remote livestock farmer’s place, checking on a sow giving birth. After confirming that both the mother pig and piglets were healthy, he had finally relaxed—only to hear a thunderous crash from the distance.
Everyone had thought it was an earthquake. Fortunately, one of his secretaries used a telescope to scout it in time and reported that an unidentified flying object had crashed.
Once they heard it was not an earthquake, everyone else let out a sigh of relief.
None of them cared much about the unidentified object; some even assumed it was pollution secretly dumped from another planet.
After all, the mountain whales would deal with it.
Yomi was not so carefree. He immediately piloted a small aircraft over to inspect the site.
The crash site was in a valley. It had not caused a major fire, but the flying object had broken apart.
While carefully controlling the aircraft and observing below, Yomi confirmed there was no danger, then landed nearby on a flat patch of ground. He put on his turtle armor, furrowed his brows, and went with his secretaries to investigate.
The two elite mercenaries had abundant battlefield experience. They quickly concluded that the flying craft had been attacked by a warship.
Meanwhile, Yomi, who had been preparing to go inside and see whether there were any weapons worth scavenging, suddenly discovered that there were actually people inside!
Only, all three were covered head to toe in black soot, and because there were still hidden flames inside the wreckage, they were practically being roasted alive…
Yomi screamed in fright. He and the secretaries hurried to put out the flames, then dragged them out.
At the time, Jinwen had nearly been smoked into grilled fish. Yomi had no idea that this “grilled fish” was actually an old acquaintance. All his attention had been on their injuries.
Aside from himself and the secretaries, the only others around were the nearby farmers who had rushed over to help. There was no professional doctor at all, and Jinwen’s injuries were by far the most severe. During the crash, his limbs had been pierced by many sharp fragments of wreckage, and the places where he bled looked like bloody holes.
If the bleeding could not be stopped in time, then before Yexi and the others even arrived, he would die from blood loss.
To buy time, Yomi transformed at once into a large, round cocoon!
The thick, soft silken threads wrapped tightly around those wounds… the silk turned red, only to be covered again and again by more white silk, until the wounds were bundled up like steamed buns.
Everyone around him also hurriedly tore off their clothes to help stop the bleeding, until finally no more blood seeped through…
Cocoon-Yomi held on until Yexi arrived.
Yexi and Lynn quickly bandaged and operated on the three injured men, which more or less saved their lives. But they were still in danger, so after bringing them back, they were placed in the ICU set up within the hospital.
That very day, the “grilled fish’s” face was cleaned off.
Only then, when Yomi went in with Karl to visit, did he realize that one of the men lying inside was actually Jinwen.
The son of the Snar Star marshal, and someone who had even taken part in a reality show with him…
Yomi was stunned for a very long time.
It had been more than three years since he had left Snar Star, and though he still had not returned, he had already met an old acquaintance from Snar Star first… Yomi was filled with mixed emotions.
Lynn had followed Yomi’s variety show, so of course he also recognized Jinwen. He told Yomi that traces of anesthetic were found in Jinwen’s system, so he had probably not boarded the ship willingly.
One of the secretaries added, “The other two men in the wreck were found shielding him. This doesn’t look like a kidnapping.”
“It really isn’t a kidnapping,” Karl said thoughtfully. “They’re all military personnel from Snar Star, and Jinwen’s weapon wasn’t taken away. There was also gold in the ship’s safe. They were probably on a mission… only the ship was hit by enemy fire.”
Yomi: “…A mission?”
Karl nodded. “Given Snar Star’s current state, they wouldn’t have any spare strength to deal with other planets. In my opinion, he could only have come to seek aid…”
“You mean he came to Junk Star for help?”
“That’s very likely. Over the past two years, in order to stockpile money and weapons, His Highness has kept taking mercenary jobs on other planets. Perhaps… Jinwen thought that if he had enough money, he could hire us for support. We’ve kept such a low profile these past few years that ordinary people would never think of Junk Star. They must have run into serious trouble.”
And that serious trouble naturally had to do with Phizhi Star.
However, Yomi did not have many thoughts on the matter for now. Since Jinwen had not yet woken up, he had no way of knowing what to do. They could only wait until he came to, then see.
As he was thinking that, the sound of cars approaching came from the distance. One of the secretaries ran over to say that people from Pearl State had arrived.
The moment Yomi heard that, he hurried out.
He ran through the main gates to the broad road, only to see a grand convoy of vehicles pulling up and stopping along the roadside ahead.
Yomi immediately began hopping up and down, waving enthusiastically.
But his expression changed at once.
Because the one who stepped out of the vehicle, besides Satan, was someone he never would have expected to see.
With both hands full of gifts, Satan jumped out and, while glancing at the newcomer, shouted, “Little Sheep baby, this old man came from Pearl State’s spaceport. He had your documents and said he was your grandfather, and insisted I give him a ride! You know him?”
Yomi froze.
The next instant, he rubbed his eyes—and then rubbed them again. Yet Brule had already strode up to him, squatted down, and easily lifted him up. Smiling warmly, he asked, “Does AAA Farm accept advance reservations for goats? Can I reserve this one?”
“……”
“Can I?”
“No. I’m not a goat, I’m the farm owner.” Yomi pouted, his big eyes brimming with moisture.
“All right then.” Brule laughed. “It’s been so long. The farm owner has grown taller.”
Yomi’s eyes turned red. “…Only by two centimeters. After that I stopped growing no matter what.” Wanting to reach 1.8 meters was truly so difficult. It was not the sort of thing effort alone could solve.
Brule burst out laughing. He set the little person down and, clearly amused, used his arm to measure the height of the shy boy with his lowered head.
Over there, seeing the warm exchange between them, Satan resisted the urge to rub the sheep and instead directed people to carry the gifts into the castle.
Soon, only Yomi and Brule were left by the roadside.
Once the excitement of reunion had passed, Yomi suddenly remembered the important matter at hand. Standing on tiptoe, he leaned close to Brule’s ear and quietly told him about Jinwen.
Brule was somewhat surprised, then followed Yomi to see Jinwen.
The one lying inside really was Jinwen.
After the two of them came out of the sickroom, Karl and the others, having heard the news, also rushed over, all of them visibly stunned by Brule’s arrival.
They exchanged glances, seemingly unsure what to say.
It was Yomi who spoke first. Looking up at Brule, he asked, “Should I lead troops there to reinforce them?”
Though he hated and despised Snar Star’s emperor, the people of Snar Star were innocent… In Yomi’s eyes, he had always felt that he had received much kindness from them. When he had first arrived with nothing at all, the ones who supported and encouraged him had all been those people of Snar Star.
That planet had given him far more happiness than pain.
But as soon as those words came out, everyone was struck dumb.
Yomi, leading troops to provide reinforcements?
Everyone broke out in a cold sweat.
Brule faltered for a moment, then let out a laugh. Stroking Yomi’s head, he said, “For now, there’s certainly no need for you to personally take the field. Before coming here, I had already contacted Anxius once. He already knows the situation. In his eyes, the S-class mechs of Phizhi Star don’t count for much at all. What we need to worry about now is Phizhi Star, and the royal family of Snar Star… We just wait for news.” Anxius would take revenge, but he would also protect Snar Star.
Yomi frowned, still very worried.
Karl comforted him. “During this time, I’ll keep relaying all information about Jinwen to His Highness. He’s gone through countless battles. Trust him—nothing will happen.”
Letting Yomi run to the battlefield was like tossing a little sheep straight into a pack of starving wolves. Just thinking about it was terrifying.
But Yomi still could not help being troubled. He worried about Anxius, and he worried about the innocent people of Snar Star. Yet he also knew that worrying solved nothing, so to stop himself from brooding, he found things to occupy himself with every day.
During the next few days, aside from going to visit the “grilled fish” patients, Yomi began studying military strategy in earnest.
To be honest, Yomi firmly believed he was capable of leading troops into battle, for the following reasons:
A year ago, when the castle had finally gotten interstellar internet, he and Anxius had played many interstellar warfare simulation games together. He had never lost once. More than that, in those games, his tribe had already become number one on the whole server.
In Yomi’s opinion, this not only proved his natural talent for battle, but also demonstrated that he possessed a rich background of battlefield commander experience.
Thinking that, Yomi immediately opened his communicator and logged into the game. First he fed the pigs in his tribe, then, satisfied, he directed the NPCs to start planting crops.
The moment he logged in, battle requests began flooding the side of his screen nonstop.
Sigh, too many people wanted to challenge him!
Now that Anxius was away, Yomi solemnly rejected every single player’s challenge request one by one—this was something Anxius had instructed him to do. After all, with his little brothers not around, if the boss rode out recklessly by himself, it would be all too easy to fall into an enemy trap.
This was a multiplayer game. One had to value teamwork. Yomi would never let competitiveness get the better of him. He would not fall for such tricks~
Having rejected all the players to his heart’s content, one of them apparently grew annoyed and sent him a private message:
It was a screenshot of Yomi’s various number-one achievements in the game’s business and management rankings, and beneath the picture was a contemptuous emoji.
Yomi looked at it, confused, and sent back a scratching-head emoji.
Only when everyone was well-fed and well-watered could there be a bright future. Of course even a war game had to be managed properly too~
After feeding the pigs and planting the fields in the game, then directing the NPCs to do fire drills, plant flowers and trees, and organize activities to improve his people’s happiness, Yomi in real life also felt a faint sense of happiness. Holding a teacup in both hands, he took a sip of hot tea, then opened the strategy forum for the game and continued updating his popular thread about all kinds of strategic insights:
“My Imperial Arts of Rule.”
