IPC Chapter 27: A Good Person

Interstellar Power Couple

Translator: Leslie

Quality Check: Lala

Editor: Chesh

First Published on Chaleuria

Chapter 27: A Good Person

Sometimes Lei Jue’s chest would still hurt, but true to his word, it wasn’t that uncontrollable. It was just that Xiao Lingyu still wasn’t assured enough to let him sleep alone, so once night had fallen Xiao Lingyu came to his side to guard him. He sat down on the sofa in Lei Jue’s house and fiddled with his communicator, not making a sound at all.

Lei Jue watched him for a while as he lay on the bed with his arms behind his head. “Xiao Lingyu.”

“Yes?” Xiao Lingyu turned his head. 

Lei Jue patted the space next to himself. “Look at your comm on the bed.”

“No,” Xiao Lingyu refused without a second thought. “If I get on the bed, my mind will definitely fall into the gutter.”

“Heh, and your mind hasn’t already fallen into the gutter while sitting on the couch?” Lei Jue chuckled. “It’s just two people with their own blankets, having a chat. I want to ask you about the original’s childhood.”

“His childhood? Don’t you have anything in your own memory?”

“There are some memories, but not many, and anyway, there are some spots of memory which are really strange. It very likely has something to do with ‘Plan A3’.” Lei Jue’s tone was serious, with no hint of joking in it.

In truth, when he first arrived here, he’d combed through the original owner’s memories when he heard the term “memory reparation”. At the time, he hadn’t found anything out of the ordinary, but he’d skipped over something important—memories from the original’s early childhood. This was because, typically, a person had difficulty recalling anything from before three years of age, so he hadn’t thought of remembering something from as far back as that. This time, however, it seemed like something wasn’t quite right from that scene in the dream.

Xiao Lingyu hesitated for a moment, and at last went to the closet to take out a blanket and lay down by Lei Jue’s side. He was perhaps about half an arm’s length away from Lei Jue.

“I actually don’t know much,” he said. “When Teacher Lei was instructing me that year, I didn’t know he had a son, and at that time Lei Jianying wasn’t in the position he is now. Because my dad and…”

“Either pick ‘dad’ or ‘our dad’,” Lei Jue corrected Xiao Lingyu.

“As you wish.” Xiao Lingyu chuckled. “Because dad and Teacher Lei had been in the same troop when they were younger, later on when dad remained in the Northern Ling District, Teacher Lei was sent for duty to another planet. They didn’t come back until five or so years later, so their communication with each other wasn’t as frequent as before. When Teacher Lei returned, dad had the intention to invite him to stay at Northern Ling to further his career, but he declined and went to the Central District.

“Since the Lei family resides in the Central District, dad didn’t push much more for it at the time. However, he hadn’t imagined that Teacher Lei would come to look for dad over a year after going to the Central District, saying that he wished to take a position in Northern Ling. Because at that time, dad already had command of all of the Northern Ling District’s land forces and my grandfather was still in good health, so it wasn’t a difficult thing to arrange. And so Teacher Lei was transferred to Northern Ling.”

 “Then that must be when the original was… never mind, let’s just refer to him as myself. Then that must be when I was a bit older; that much I know. I was about five when I was taken in by Lei Jianying, but I didn’t live at his house back then. I can’t recall what the place was called, but either way, all I can remember aren’t exactly happy memories. What I mainly want to know now is events from even earlier. When I napped earlier this afternoon, I had an unusually realistic dream—the kind where you feel as if you’re actually experiencing it, and I feel that it did happen. I dreamed that there were many people dressed in strange clothes being slaughtered before me, one by one. There was a young child begging for help. Oh, right, that child looked exactly the same as the child with the Lord Lyniel statue; there was a green bud sprouting from his head. I really wanted to help him, but then he was shot dead on the spot by someone.”

“You think that this dream might’ve been what the original Lei Jue feared the most when he was a kid?” Xiao Lingyu had always been able to succinctly sum up the situation with a single sentence.

“That’s right. Before my arrival, the original Lei Jue was a neurotic, jittery person. This, of course, doesn’t exclude the factor that Lei Haige had mistreated the original Lei Jue since they were little out of jealousy. But there is one more reason; because his psyche had already been really… really unhealthy in the first place, so perhaps he ended up developing a very passive, helpless personality under the Lei family’s oppression from much earlier.” 

“The people in strange clothes that you mentioned earlier, do you remember what kind of clothing they were wearing? Can you draw it?”

“Yeah, I can.” Lei Jue reached for his photon computer and dragged it over. Opening the drawing app, he drew an approximation of the clothing. “It looked like this.” It was remarkably similar to the clothing that the Miao people[1] at Mount Fanjing had worn; the only difference was the lack of silver accessories. 

 Xiao Lingyu stared at it for ages, and realized that he had never seen anyone on Casweir ever clothed like this before. He’d also never seen such clothing on the few other planets with human settlements he was familiar with. He saved the drawing, making plans to look for some friends to question, but when he’d finished saving it and turned his head around, he saw Lei Jue flashing a wicked smile at him.

“What’s that for?” Xiao Lingyu always felt that whenever Lei Jue had such a smile, someone was about to suffer.

“I originally thought of sending a video to Lei Jianying once I’ve recovered, but I really don’t want to see his dumb face, and of course I don’t want to hear his ugly voice, so why don’t we post something for fun?”

“What kind of post?” Xiao Lingyu had been sensitive to this kind of thing recently. Because his image as “scum” was deeply imprinted within people’s minds, with him being in possession of such a national treasure as Lei Jue, he was being lambasted really hard right now.

Lei Jue didn’t say anything, getting off the bed to look for a traditional pen. Nowadays, most people use light pens or memory pens. With the exception of artists and calligraphers, there weren’t many people who still used traditional pens, but he liked the sensation of writing and drawing on paper, so when they’d been purchasing the necessities for the wedding earlier, he bought some pens and paper.

And so, over half an hour later a roar filled with unbridled fire and brimstone resounded through the Lei residence, which had been already had an exceptionally stifling atmosphere before. “Is this what you meant by ‘you will definitely be able to see him tomorrow’? Huh?!”

Lei Jianying violently smashed the photon computer into the ground. He wanted to tell himself that of the two pairs of feet in the post, neither pair was Lei Jue’s but a picture of the two’s faces followed the photo of the two’s feet, which were covered in drawings of tortoises. It had to be Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue, he’d recognise them even if they turned to ashes! How could this not infuriate him?

It was supposed to be in the bag; he’d even thought of countermeasures for the problems he might face afterward, yet the most crucial stage hadn’t succeeded!

Lei Haige glared at the post that Lei Jue had posted, his face darkening. Wei Li didn’t dare make a sound with this development.

“Jianying—” Yu Fenglai said after she’d been silent for what seemed like ages, “—say, do you think that we might have made a mistake that year? That Lei Jue actually is that child—”

“Hold your tongue! He is not!” Lei Jianying rushed to silence Yu Fenglai.

Yu Fenglai glanced at Wei Li. Knowing that she was the one who’d said the wrong thing, she could only quiet down.

Lei Haige didn’t understand what his parents were talking about. He had a mind to ask them, but upon seeing his father being in this angered state, he continued keeping his lips sealed as well.

The house was momentarily as silent as if all the air had been sucked out of it. A beat later, Lei Jianying tamped down his rage and sank onto the sofa. He asked a question, one that might seem like a question meant for others, yet also seem rhetorical, “Just where in the plan did we go wrong?”

Wei Li looked at Lei Jianying carefully. “General, I suspect his elemental ability has awakened some self-regenerating properties and destroyed ‘Plan A3’ from within his body. After all, no one has ever implanted this kind of plan into a wood ability user’s body before.”

This was the only reason that seemed plausible to Lei Jianying after he’d pondered and ruminated over the problem for ages. He gestured at Wei Li to signal that he was to return first, then shot a glare at Lei Haige. “Why haven’t you left yet?”

Lei Haige asked, “Dad, just now, what was the thing mum said you two were wrong about? Lei Jue was what kind of child?” 

For some reason, Lei Jianying’s expression grew colder after he heard those words. “These aren’t things you should concern yourself with. What you should be doing now is to hurry up and find Feng Gu. You’ve only just gotten married, yet you live apart; what do you think it looks like to other people!”

Things were alright up until this topic was brought up. The moment it was mentioned, Lei Haige became blind with fury and retorted, “Are my feelings more important, or are other people’s views more important! You tell me to go back day in and day out, but why don’t you get Feng Gu to just come and pick me up?! The way I see it, you don’t even care about me. No matter how you slice it, all you want is a water elemental grandchild!”

“You! Listen to what nonsense you’re spewing!” Lei Jianying stared Yu Fenglai down. “The prodigal son you birthed will be the death of me. Feng Gu is the eldest son, and also the strongest elemental ability user in the younger generation of his family. Do you or do you not know what Old Feng wants the most, Lei Haige? What good will it do you to continue living here in this house!”

“Even so, you can’t possibly have me take a back seat in everything, can you? What right do you have!”

“You!”

“Alright, alright, please don’t fight anymore. It’s only morning, what are you two squabbling for?” Yu Fenglai brought a jacket for Lei Jianying and said, “Hurry and apologize to your father; what son would speak to his father that way? Your father still has to go to work. You’d better not let him go in with a belly full of anger.”

“Then just let him!” Lei Haige scrambled up the stairs two at a time after he finished speaking. With a ‘bang’, he closed the door and didn’t come down again.

“Haige, you’re not going in for work today again?” Yu Fenglai shouted from downstairs.

Lei Haige didn’t even give her a reply. He felt annoyed when he laid his eyes on his colleagues in his unit. Even though they felt fearful or avoidant on the inside, on the surface they still had to pretend as though nothing had ever happened at all. He felt disgusted, seeing those kinds of faces.

Of course, the person he thought the most loathsome right now was Feng Gu. Feng Gu’s thoughts of winning back Lei Jue’s affections were almost spelled right on his face, yet he’d never once thought about his treatment of Lei Jue earlier on. Why would Lei Jue even deign to humour him?

Lei Haige took out his communicator. The more he thought about it, the more muddled and upset his thoughts became.

Feng Gu wasn’t much better than him. After the video of Lei Haige ordering Emily to attack Lei Jue was spread, everyone came to hate on him and scorn him, regardless of whether they had a grudge against him or they simply wanted to hop on the bandwagon. The ugliest of words were slung at him, but it wasn’t like he could do anything against them, and with this incident, the rest of the Feng family’s reputation was dragged down. However, the most unacceptable thing wasn’t this, but Lei Jue’s words that he’d heard from his father, saying that Lei Jue’s memory had been wiped by the Lei family. When he recalled Lei Jue’s attitude that time when they were at the pet hospital in Bulacca City… wasn’t that proof that Lei Jue recognized him?

But if Lei Jue was still able to remember some things, what did that mean? It meant that the Lei family had only erased Lei Jue’s memories of him!

Feng Gu went back and stared at the two pairs of feet in that post like the masochist he was. At last, he opened only the photo with Lei Jue’s feet and enlarged it. After that, he remembered the incident at the pet hospital. The more he thought about it, the more things didn’t seem to add up.

When he returned home, he’d thought that Xiao Lingyu had most likely recognized him from that time, but that was under the assumption that Lei Jue still remembered him. But today, knowing that Lei Jue didn’t remember him, then…

Then did Xiao Lingyu truly recognize him, or was that simply pure coincidence?

Feng Gu rubbed his temples. The more he thought about it the more frustrated he felt. He was unspeakably irritated, especially when he thought that Lei Jue most likely was rolling in the sheets together with Xiao Lingyu. His displeasure toward Lei Haige could not be erased even if he wanted it to be.

Logically speaking, he knew he shouldn’t be thinking this kind of meaningless thing at this time; he should be trying to get along well with Lei Haige. At the very least, they should first focus on bearing a powerful elemental ability user and strengthening his name in the Western Moon district. But emotionally, he wasn’t the least bit willing at all.

What reason was there for such a perfect person as Lei Jue to belong to Xiao Lingyu?

That Xiao Lingyu had lovers everywhere! Could he really make Lei Jue happy?

The answer was, he really could.

Once Lei Jue had fallen asleep, he dreamed of the nightmare he had earlier in the afternoon. This time, he didn’t shed any tears, but since he could still feel some of the emotions from the memory, it still felt somewhat uncomfortable; his chest hurt, too. However, he still didn’t skip out on his morning exercise.

Xiao Lingyu didn’t sleep in this time, instead getting up to accompany Lei Jue to run a few laps around the perimeter of the house. Xiao Lingyu’s face was still the same after the run, while Lei Jue was sweating lightly, but since Lei Jue had natural self-regeneration abilities, he quickly recovered from it. Once the two of them re-entered the house, they both returned to their own quarters to shower and change their clothes before coming down to eat breakfast, which had been prepared by the robot chef.

During that period, Lu Xian and Qi Yu had both contacted Xiao Lingyu once to tell him who He Yunshu had met in the entertainment sector, both before and after she had met up with them, who she had contacted, which personnel at the simulation fight joint were suspicious, and so on and so forth. Once they’d finished, Lu Xian detected with his keen senses that the atmosphere at the breakfast table where Lei Jue and Xiao Lingyu had been sitting at was unusually different, so he quipped, “Ah, man, the smell of spring is truly in the air!”

Xiao Lingyu wrapped Lei Jue in an embrace when he heard those words. “Are you jealous? Then you should hurry and find one too.”

Lu Xian schooled his expression into one that was more serious. “It’s more like I have to find one. If I put it off again, my dad’s going to whoop me.”

Lei Jue knew that the only reason Xiao Lingyu insisted on accompanying him was to prevent certain situations from happening to him. It was because of this that the task of investigating the incident had fallen onto the shoulders of Lu Xian and the others. He smiled and thanked him, while casually bringing up that he would treat them to a meal the next time they were free.

Lu Xian and Qi Yu had less shame than the priss, Si Qin, so they agreed to the suggestion without so much as pretending to be courteous, and mentioned that they hadn’t seen Lei Jue and Xiao Lingyu’s new house yet.

After Xiao Lingyu cut the call, he asked Lei Jue, “Is there anywhere you want to go?”

Lei Jue said, “Let’s return to mum and dad’s place for a bit; I want to bring Loquat and Curly over.”

Xiao Lingyu knew that Lei Jue liked animals, so naturally, he didn’t object to this.

The two of them went home together. Lei Jue chatted with Granny for a while before taking some bird feed to the few stubborn snow-capped jadewings, which were still refusing to leave his aircraft. He stared in helplessness at the way they were tightly lined up together overhead, then went back inside the house. A thought struck him, and he restored Granny’s vision before they continued their conversation from before.

 Seeing how Lei Jue and his grandmother were getting along like a house on fire, and how Lei Jue’s situation seemed to be stable, he mentioned to them that he would be going out for a while.

Lei Jue had a mind to ask Xiao Lingyu about that, but he also worried that it might be because of a problem that wasn’t convenient to be revealed to granny, so he didn’t say anything. However, when he used the couple tracking app to check Xiao Lingyu’s location after he waited till granny had tired out from the chit chat and fallen asleep, it turned out that Xiao Lingyu had gone to the mountains at the back.

“You went to the mountain and didn’t bother waiting for me?” Lei Jue said. “And I had wanted to see whether I could visit Blackfur, too.”

“I did want to bring you here, but if we go together it won’t be fun anymore. Wait for me; I’ll be back home in a flash.”

Lei Jue pouted and muttered, “What’s he hiding?” He then went outside to look at the birds in the aircraft. He thought it would be a problem if those white-headed birds continued to stay there, because they would lay eggs when spring came to propagate their next generation, but this would require proper nests.

However, just as he was wondering whether he should go online to see if he could order some custom-made nests for them, the sound of loud, guttural whirring could be heard from the sky.

An entire tree was dangling from the bottom of a gargantuan transport aircraft, its roots still covered in snow and earth. What other tree could it be but the kind that the jadewings in his aircraft were originally roosting in?

“Aren’t you worried that you’ll kill the tree by transporting it like this?” Lei Jue was amazed with Xiao Lingyu when he saw that tree. Did he seriously just do that?!

“It’s so that you’ll stop fretting about their living conditions.” Xiao Lingyu gestured at the snow-capped jadewings with his chin, a hint of warmth in his eyes. “In any case, don’t they still have you? I’m sure that the tree will certainly live on, and the jadewings will go back, too. They know you’ll return to this place anyway.

“You’re right.” Lei Jue watched as Xiao Lingyu brought over half the household robots as they searched for a place in the yard to replant the tree. Suddenly, he burst into laughter.

“What are you laughing at?” Xiao Lingyu asked.

“I’m laughing at you… for being such a good person.” Having said those words, Lei Jue slowly walked forward, placed a hand on the tree, and did his best to pump as much vital energy into it as he could. Meanwhile, Xiao Lingyu was struck dumb by two sentences from Carrera.

“Sir, you seem to have a fever; your body temperature is abnormally high. The heat is focused primarily on your face.”

Xiao Lingyu’s embarrassment gave way to anger. “Shut up!”

 

 

[1] The Miao are one of the 56 ethnic groups in China.