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Character ListQiao Zhiya: Half-elf, half-dwarf MC.
Chu Rong: Marshal ML.
Chu Yan: ML’s younger brother. Is the same age as MC, currently attending intermediate college.
Lin Zhen: MC’s designated teacher during his stay in ML’s warship.
Chu Huai: ML’s older brother, he’s in politics.
Gu Yan’an: Chu Huai’s wife. She’s a doctor.
Xiang Kun: Chu Yan’s mortal enemy. Xiang Hui’s younger brother. Mecha manufacturing student.
Yuan Xiu: Chu Yan’s bestfriend.
Ning Kongran: A fifth-grader at intermediate college. Ning family current heir.
Bearded Teacher (not real name): Qiao Zhiya’s Mecha teacher in VR.
Luo Li: The bearded teacher’s first apprentice. He won the online Mecha Manufacturing Contest.
Long Xuyang: Long Baorou’s younger brother. The President’s youngest child.
Princess An Lin: Imperial Princess
After leaving the cave, Qiao Zhiya immediately felt all the tiredness come to him in one fell swoop. He raised his hand and rubbed his eyes — in order to prepare enough potions, he worked nonstop all night, and even drew a magic circle. He almost hit the limit.
“Qiao, you are so amazing!” Chu Yan immediately leaned over. Seeing how listless Qiao Zhiya was, Chu Yan turned around and squatted down with his back to him, and said, “Come on, I’ll carry you out, so you can sleep well.”
Qiao Zhiya quickly waved his hand and said, “No, I can go by myself. Let’s go, Xiao Hei’s mother just promised to help us open the way. I also negotiated a deal with it. In the future, if there is a lack of Star Sand, I will use potions to exchange for it.”
“Thank you,” Lin Zhen said as he patted the youth’s messy blond hair. He then pushed him onto Chu Yan’s back. “Don’t force yourself, just have a good sleep. Just let Chu Yan carry you out, it will be safer overall.”
Chu Yan nodded in agreement. Before Qiao Zhiya could react, he carried him on his back and securely gripped him so he wouldn’t escape. “Qiao, you are so light. I don’t feel you much on me.”
Seeing Chu Yan helping him like this, Qiao Zhiya felt thankful. He no longer struggled, but thanked him with a mumble. And soon, he fell asleep.
Lin Zhen took out a blanket to wrap him up, looked back at the blocked beast lair, and said, “Let’s go, your exam time is almost over.”
The dwarven youth fell into a deep sleep, and once he woke up, he found himself in Chu Yan’s mecha cockpit. Yuan Xiu’s cheerful voice came from the mecha’s internal communicator, and occasionally he could hear a sentence or two of instructions from Ning Kongran. He privately wondered just how long he was asleep.
They continued to do the graduation’s exam tasks, and it’s only with the existence of Star Sand that he firmly believed that the previous adventure with Lin Zhen was real.
Seeing that he was awake, Chu Yan hurriedly cut off the call with Yuan Xiu, and said happily to him, “You finally woke up! Xiao Hei’s mother is so powerful, it lets a dozen or so alien beasts clear the way for us! Those nasty birds were almost wiped out by them! The smell of the beast left on our mechas also helps ward off other beasts! It’s so cool!”
“Is that so?” He sat up, emotionally infected with his enthusiasm. He looked up at the forest scene displayed on the screen, and said expectantly, “Then are we going home?
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“It’s been half a month,” Chu Yan said excitedly as accelerated the speed of the mecha. He shouted, full of bravado, “Look at how I grind Xiang Kun and the others to the dust!”
During the break, Qiao Zhiya saw Ning Kongran. However, he behaved as if there’s nothing unusual, and only greeted him with a warm smile. Qiao Zhiya smiled back at him, wanting to ask him about the ore-hunters, but swallowed his words silently. He focused himself on finishing this graduation exam.
A few days later, when it was near the deadline, the four of them left the adventure zone with treasures that far exceeded what the teacher asked for.
After a day’s rest, everyone set sail back to the Capital Planet, and the martial law on the D28 Planet was finally lifted.
Members of a certain mercenary team who had been hiding in Area B for several days came out of the adventure area in embarrassment. One of the strong men with bandages on his body roared in indignation, “That guide is a fucking scammer! Damn it, he fooled us! Let’s go, we’ll teach him a lesson!”
His companion, who always liked to reprimand him, rarely agreed with his words. With murderous intent in their eyes, they silently planned their revenge. They’re obviously very dissatisfied with this adventure trip.
–
Two days later, on the return ship, Qiao Zhiya put down the communicator with a deep frown.
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“What’s the matter?” Chu Yan came over while eating a snack. He bumped into him, and continued, “Do you think Erge will come to pick us up? I think he will. After all, it’s been such a long time… Hehehe.” As the old saying goes, a day apart is like three autumns. These two had been apart for so many days, so that must equal to a hundred autumns or so.
Qiao Zhiya turned to look at him and shook his head. He felt downcasted, as Chu Rong hadn’t replied to his message or answered his communication requests. This was too abnormal, this had never happened before.
“Chu San1previously, I’ve translated this into English. But after much thought, it’s better left untranslated. This roughly means “Third Child of Chu family”, but like… kinda casual? It’s a common nickname., you still have time to eat snacks. Do you know that you will soon have another sister-in-law who is the same age as you?” Xiang Kun appeared out of nowhere, and squeezed into the middle of the sofa in their resting area, sneering with a raised eyebrow.
Chu Yan was taken aback. He glanced at Qiao Zhiya, then back at Xiang Kun, with a flabbergasted expression.  “Where did you get the gossip, do you want to be beaten?”
He didn’t remember saying that his Erge had thoughts about Qiao Zhiya. Yuan Xiu certainly wouldn’t say anything about it, so where did this kid Xiang Kun know, from eavesdropping?
If he eavesdropped on them, he swore he would beat him up.
Thinking of this, he put down the snacks directly. Cracking his knuckles, he had already planned several moves to rain upon this stinky nemesis.
Xiang Kun’s eyes twitched because of his provocative action, and he took a few steps back decisively. He turned up the volume of his voice, deliberately riling him up, “What’s the matter, what’s the matter, am I not allowed to say this? You go to the Starry Sky Forum to see it yourself. The Empire’s Princess has been attached to Chu Rong since she arrived in the Federation. The news of their marriage has spread everywhere. At the banquet at the Presidential Palace two days ago, your erge had a good talk with the princess. This is serious national news!”
The other teachers and students who were sitting in the rest area also overheard this. They gawked at them in astonishment. Qiao Zhiya was stunned, his heart suddenly became erratic, and he felt a sense of weightlessness.
‘Marriage? Who? Chu Rong?’
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Chu Yan’s expression changed, and he his frown deepened.
‘Imperial princess? What the hell?’
He faintly realized that something was wrong, stood up and looked at Xiang Kun and said, “Speak clearly to me. What the hell is with this mess? My Erge won’t marry her!”
“Is that so?” Xiang Kun wanted to confront him, so took a step back and said, “Don’t be complacent, wait until your erge gets married, and see who has the energy to protect you!” After finishing speaking, the teacher got up and leaned over, so Xiang Kun hurriedly slipped away.
The students around began to whisper, and glanced at Chu Yan from time to time.
Chu Yan stared at them, sat back and saw Qiao Zhiya sitting on the sofa with a dazed expression. He felt very irritated, but he still tried to comfort Qiao Zhiya. “Don’t listen to the bullshit that brat spews. Erge will never get married so randomly like that, let alone with someone from the Empire. Don’t believe that, okay?”
Qiao Zhiya returned to his senses, nodded, and told himself rationally that what Chu Yan said was right. Chu Rong is indeed not a person who will use feelings as a bargaining chip. But still, his heart still flustered in sheer panic, and he couldn’t help himself from religiously checking on the Starry Sky Forum.
The forum was divided into many sections. Before he clicked on the page belonging to the discussion about general topics, a post on the homepage stunned him in place.
[The Empire’s Princess is in love with Marshal Chu, and she claims to be in love at first sight…]
Chu Yan just saw the trending news. His face darkened, he quickly snatched the photon computer from Qiao Zhiya’s hand and turned it off. “This kind of fake news can actually be posted on the homepage. It must be the Xiang-Wei’s family’s nasty scheme! Wait, I’ll ask about the situation with Erge.” As he spoke, he was about to take out the communicator and call Chu Rong.
“It’s useless. He probably turned on Do Not Disturb, so he won’t answer.” Qiao Zhiya pressed his hand together, feeling light headed. His ears flattened, and the sadness on his face was obvious despite his steady voice. “We’re about to land. I’ll call him again when we get back.”
As expected, the communication he dialed went nowhere, and Chu Yan felt suffocated when he saw Qiao Zhiya’s listless look.
‘What the hell is Erge doing? Let gossip go around, and he still doesn’t answer the communication. Is he really planning to stage a bloody drama like “the original wife worked hard to find materials, but the husband spent all his time looking for the mistress”?’
Bah bah bah!
He hurriedly slapped himself on the forehead, shook his head and stopped thinking about those soap opera scenarios. He instead dialed the communication to Chu Huai, which got through quickly this time.
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“What’s wrong?”
Chu Huai’s gentle voice came over, and Chu Yan felt relieved. He quickly patted Qiao Zhiya’s shoulder, signaling him not to worry, and then asked through the communicator, “Dage, I just heard Xiang Kun say something about the Imperial Princess. What actually happened? I also saw that post appear on the Starry Sky Forum’s homepage… it’s such a mess.”
“Ah, that.”
Chu Huai’s voice didn’t change at all, as if he already knew that Chu Yan would ask him about this. He replied flatly, “The twins from the Empire came within a few days after you set off to practice, and there was some movement when they first arrived. I didn’t expect the news to spread so fast to you. The post was also made by Princess An Lin, so we can’t just remove it; instead, we are going to suppress it slowly. Don’t listen to Xiang Kun’s nonsense, it’s all just lies.”
While Chu Yan knew that such news was full of crap, he still felt glad hearing Chu Huai’s clarification.
He quickly shot a “look, it’s all okay, right?” glance at Qiao Zhiya, then ask Chu Huai a few more things about Chu Rong. After learning that Chu Rong had been hiding in the military headquarters for the past few days from the Princess, he was finally fully relieved. Seeing that the ship was about to land, he hung up the call.
“What kind of princess is this? She actually made up her own post to create a scandal for herself. This is too unbecoming for someone her status,” Chu Yan deliberately complained, pulled Qiao Zhiya up, and continued, “Let’s go, it’s time to get off the ship. We can see Erge at night.”
“Yeah,” Qiao Zhiya nodded. His expression was much better, but his heart was still a little swollen. The post haunted the corner of his mind, making his thoughts drift off from time to time.
‘Even if this princess failed, there will be other people in the future. If Chu Rong married someone else…’
He lowered his eyes to cover the sadness in his eyes, and his flattened ears never bounced back.
—When Chu Rong got married, it was probably time for him to move out of Chu Rong’s house. And now that Chu Rong’s illness has been cured, he no longer needed to share a room with him…
The students disembarked one after another, and some parents even guarded the gate outside for hours in order to pick up their children. Many happy waves and greetings were exchanged between family members.
Chu Yan’s eyes turned around in the crowd, and when he glanced at the corner, his eyes lit up. He excitedly tugged at Qiao Zhiya, who was bowing his head, and said happily, “Erge is really here to pick us up. Qiao, look quickly. This way! Erge, I’m here!”
Chu Rong, who was waiting in the corner, heard Chu Yan’s voice, and immediately glanced at their direction. His eyes fixated on Qiao Zhiya, who stood listlessly beside Chu Yan. The blond youth seemed thinner than when he left, and looked like a frost-beated eggplant. Frowning, he tilted his head and gave Fan Xiangnan a few instructions before striding over.
Qiao Zhiya was stunned for a moment before realizing what Chu Yan said, and hurriedly looked in the direction Chu Yan greeted. Then, he realized that Chu Rong was walking to them at a quick pace.
His nose felt clogged. He ran over him without an ounce of hesitation.
Chu Rong also quickened his pace, opened his arms and embraced Qiao Zhiya who was rushing over. Rubbing the golden-blond strand over, he said, “Why are you running around? What if you bump into someone.”
The empty space in his heart was finally filled. Qiao Zhiya shamelessly buried his face in Chu Rong’s shoulder’s crook. He shook his head, finding himself at a loss of words.
The students, teachers, and parents around were all stunned, and they always felt that this scene seemed odd. It was normal for brothers to hug after a long absence, but why was it not Chu Yan and Marshal Chu hugging, but the Native Boy? And the hug itself was very… intimate…
Chu Yan looked at the two hugging each other, and couldn’t help but look at the stupid crowd around him. He ran over with a loud voice, upped his dramatics, and performed a very convincing “a youth missing his elder brother” shout: “Erge!! I won first place! I want a reward!”
Xiang Kun, who stepped out after he heard this commotion, looked over and just saw the scene of Chu Rong letting go of Qiao Zhiya and hugging Chu Yan. His face immediately wrinkled in displeasure. After scanning through the crowd, he only found the Xiang family’s housekeeper, and none of his family members. He went to the housekeeper, and was led away from the crowd quickly.
After getting in the hover car, Chu Yan sat in the front row on the grounds that he wanted to tell Fan Xiangnan about the adventure. He thoughtfully left the back row for Chu Rong and Qiao Zhiya to catch up. He even raised the curtain separating the front and back row, giving them extra privacy.
‘I’m such a thoughtful brother,’ Chu Yan mused.
Fan Xiangnan turned his head to look at him, and he smiled back, humming a little tune and pretending not to understand his schemes.
After the curtain was raised, Chu Rong hugged Qiao Zhiya, who was sitting silently with his head bowed. He moved the youth into his lap. With a frown, he wiped the youth’s face, and said, “Why are you crying? Don’t think you can fool me by lowering your head, I know you’re trying to wipe your tears. What’s the matter, were you bullied on the ship?”
Qiao Zhiya shook his head, feeling a little worthless. He simply buried his face on his shoulder again. With the stuffed feeling in his chest, he simply blurted out: “Why haven’t you responded to my messages?”
“You cry because of this?” Chu Rong laughed angrily at him. He felt that his attempt at fattening this Bald Chicken was in vain, as he just lost weight so easily. He put his arms around Qiao Zhiya’s body, patting his back. He explained, “There is someone who has been bothering me for the past two days. I can’t just ignore them, so I turned the communication to Do Not Disturb. Later, I will open a special channel for you, so you can contact me no matter what mode I set… Well, I was negligent this time, and I forgot to tell you in advance, don’t cry.”
It turned out to be like this.
Qiao Zhiya tilted his head and rubbed against his neck. After feeling it was enough, he finally stopped. He tried to straighten out his expression, but it wasn’t a clean success. “Is the person who bothers you the Imperial Princess? She, she…”
“What about her?”
With Qiao Zhiya’s current mood, Chu Rong had a faint guess as to why. His frown loosened, and his tone raised a bit. He raised his hand to brush away his bangs, and looked at him straight in the eyes.
–Ah, so the Bald Chicken was jealous.
It improved his mood somehow.
“Qiao Zhiya, what are you thinking about now?”
‘Thinking of what?’ Qiao Zhiya stared blankly at him. His heartbeat suddenly became a little faster, all the messy emotions floating in his heart were gone, only shyness and belated reunion joy remained. He buried his head in his arms again, shook his head, and said in a low voice, “It’s nothing. Chu Rong, I brought you back the Star Sand. It’s a lot. I also met Xiao Hei. That snake is very cute, it’s a pity you didn’t see it.”
Speaking of the Star Sand, Chu Rong suddenly remembered Lin Zhen’s report about the whole situation. His hug tightened, and he started to pat Qiao Zhiya’s head. He let out a long sigh, and said, “I know… you have worked hard. Mn, if you like Xiao Hei, I’ll take you to see it when I’m free.”
“Good.”
Qiao Zhiya nodded. He tilted his head and smelled the familiar scent of Chu Rong. His heart was finally at ease, and his eyelids started to droop.
In the end, the sleeping Qiao Zhiya was carried down by Chu Rong. He hadn’t had a good rest during this time, and now he returned to the familiar embrace, he completely relaxed, and fell asleep directly.
Seeing this, Chu Yan laughed. Instead of showing off the light bulbs on the car’s front row, he immediately left the car with Qiao Zhiya once they arrived at their destination.
1previously, I’ve translated this into English. But after much thought, it’s better left untranslated. This roughly means “Third Child of Chu family”, but like… kinda casual? It’s a common nickname.