IPC Chapter 44: A Group of Young Masters Playing Dress-Up

Interstellar Power Couple

Translator: Linn

Quality Check: Leslie

Editor: Chesh

First Published on Chaleuria

Chapter 44: A Group of Young Masters Playing Dress-Up

Little Odd Flower had just exceeded 1.33 meters in height, measured from the soil. It was about two meters tall, including the pot, and was one meter in diameter at its widest point, and thus could still fit into the aircraft. However, it was a little difficult when this big fellow named Xiao Lei was involved. In the end, with no other better option, Little Odd Flower was covered with a protective cover, reducing its volume and masking most of its fragrance, allowing it to fit in together with Xiao Lei.

For the first time ever, Xiao Lingyu found it slightly cramped in his aircraft. He hugged Lei Jue, who was sitting on his thighs, with Xiao Lei on their left and Little Odd Flower on their right. Including Curly and Loquat, who had insisted in following, it had completely become a full-family house-moving.

Lei Jue could feel something poking his bottom. He wanted to move to the left, but Xiao Lei was there; if he moved to the right, he was afraid that he would accidentally break Little Odd Flower’s leaves. In the end, he could only lean back. 

“You’re a horny rascal.” Lei Jue found it to be fascinating that Xiao Lingyu could get hard even in such a situation.

“Well, you’re the one who kept moving your ass. Can’t you settle down more quietly?” Xiao Lingyu had almost had his sanity consumed by lust. The aircraft was actually flying very smoothly, but because it was probably uncomfortable for Lei Jue, he kept fidgeting, igniting the flame of passion in Xiao Lingyu,  until he had finally turned around and straddled Xiao Lingyu’s lap.

“So you want to enter a pointless argument over whether you’re the one getting hard first, or that I’m the one who moved first?” Since there was nothing else to do, Lei Jue played with the buttons on Xiao Lingyu’s shirt. “Sigh! Seriously, I’m kinda worried that that member of yours will be crippled by the time Little Odd Flower is fully grown. Say, how many times do you get hard in a day?”

“You know, your mouth will eventually bring you trouble one day!” Xiao Lingyu fiercely bit Lei Jue’s ear. “You minx!”

“Oh? You said so yourself, okay? You’d better not make me wait too long!” With that, Lei Jue moved again, successfully making the rod beneath his ass harden a little more, riling up its owner.

All of a sudden, with an abrupt ‘pop’ sound—a very faint one—the button on Xiao Lingyu’s shirt was ripped off by Lei Jue.

Xiao Lingyu became speechless.

His sturdy chest became exposed. Lei Jue cheekily reached a hand to poke his chest, but Xiao Lingyu quickly grabbed his hand. “Stop messing around…” The refusal contained a trace of suppression and forbearance, with absolutely zero deterrent force.

Smiling, Lei Jue peeped at Xiao Lingyu then slightly tilted his head, giving a little lick on the place where he had poked.

Then, just as Xiao Lingyu was debating with himself whether he should push this little minx in his arms away or allow him to continue, a louder ‘pop’ sound resonated. To their right, Little Odd Flower’s protective cover had burst open. Perhaps because it had sensed the ambiguous aura in the air or something, the leaves began flashing with a vibrant green light and frantically growing. The trunk and the branches didn’t fall; instead, just like the magical plants depicted in a fantasy movie, they began ceaselessly growing.

Xiao Lei had often been in the same room with Lei Jue and Xiao Lingyu recently, so it had already seen Little Odd Flower’s crazy growth and was no longer surprised by it. Curly and Loquat, on the other hand, were completely taken by shock, unable to understand what was going on as they kept scrambling closer in an attempt to get into Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue’s arms, both of whom were holding their breath and staring at Little Odd Flower. They knew that they should find a way to stop it at this moment, but neither of them made any noise at all.

After breaking away from the restraint of the flowerpot, Little Odd Flower began growing aggressively, soon taking up the space on the top of the aircraft that was originally very limited already, before it finally stopped. Maybe because the ambiguous atmosphere between Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue had dissipated, or maybe it just sensed that there was no longer any room for it to grow.

Xiao Lingyu took a deep breath, only to find that he had been holding his breath all this while. He was practically huddled together with Lei Jue and the other three right now.

“How should we get out later?” Lei Jue looked at Little Odd Flower’s current state. He felt that they might not be able to get out from the aircraft’s exit.

“It’s okay, it can be unfolded.” Xiao Lingyu wasn’t worried about this, but slight regret was apparent on his face. “I knew I should’ve bought a bigger aircraft!” 

“You’re greedy! This is already an accidental delight, okay?” Lei was forced to tilt his neck and rest it on Xiao Lingyu’s shoulder. “How much longer until we arrive?” He couldn’t even see the aircraft monitor now.

“We’ll be there soon.” Xiao Lingyu’s expression changed to ecstatic joy. His tone was also very light, as though he had just sensed that a beautiful life was coming.

Just like this, the family finally arrived at their new home. At this moment, the ‘black rice bun’ slowly split itself in two, and Xiao Lingyu directly let Carrera pilot the aircraft into the interior. Afterward, the aircraft unfolded like lotus petals and Xiao Lingyu directly carried Little Odd Flower, that was more than twice as large as when they first departed, to the ground.

Lei Jue disembarked and saw that Lu Xian and the gang were here too. There was even an engineering robot next to them.

When Lu Xian and the gang saw Little Odd Flower, they said, “What a nice smell!”

Xiao Lingyu carried Little Odd Flower to the center and let the engineering robot dig a pit, preparing to plant it. To his surprise, Lei Jue suddenly stopped him. “No need to dig it.” Lei Jue pointed at Little Odd Flower’s roots and showed all of them that Little Odd Flower was fiercely digging into the ground itself. “It’ll take root on its own.”

Lei Jue helped prop up Little Odd Flower. “Guys, make some space for me.” With that, he closed his eyes and began providing it with life energy. His hand rested on Little Odd Flower’s trunk, as if he could clearly feel its growth direction and its network, like they were originally one. He could even feel a kind of hysterical joy emanating from Little Odd Flower, and these emotions also successfully affected him.

Little Odd Flower absorbed the life energy and unbridledly extended its roots, soon successfully drilling all of them into the ground. It resembled a child who had just been released from a cage and gave off a feeling of uncontrollable joy.

Even Si Qing, who rarely showed his emotions, couldn’t help but contort his face a little, let alone the other three people. If it grew like this every day… 

“Are you sure it’s a tree?” Qi Yu couldn’t help but look at Xiao Lingyu. There was no fire without smoke, and this was just too peculiar. 

“Which part of it doesn’t look like a tree at all?” Xiao Lingyu asked.

“Every freaking part!” They had never seen any tree that could grow at such frenetic speeds before!

“Relax, it’s only a tree. It’s just that it grows slightly faster in the early stages.” Lei Jue finally needed to raise his head to look at the topmost part of Little Odd Flower. It must be at least three meters tall now. He had initially thought that it grew quite well in the flowerpot, but now that he had planted it in the soil, he realized that he had been putting Little Odd Flower in a bind all this while. Look at it now! The veins of the leaves were colored with a bright green brilliance and vitality, making him feel like the air around it was much purer than other places. 

For some unknown reason, a hint of worry flashed across Lu Xian’s eyes. “I think we must be more alert.”

Even though he knew that the thing that could make Xiao Lingyu seek refuge here wouldn’t be something ordinary, such a special thing would certainly attract attention. Then again, if nobody paid attention to it, Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue would never have hidden it here in the first place.

“My dad has given an order that nobody is allowed here without his permission,” Si Qing said. “The safety net and alarm system have all been upgraded to the highest level, and Lei Jue’s enlistment procedures have been completed as well.” Because they rarely stayed in the army, it seemed to outsiders like they were nothing but a bunch of idle army descendants, but in fact, all of them had military ranks, except for Lei Jue, which was why he needed to have one too. Fortunately, Lei Jue had a special healing ability, so with his clean background, he was fully qualified to join the army and be a part of its medical branch.

“Then is this the place where we’re going to stay?” Lei Jue looked around. There was no bed, no blanket, and no daily necessities at all. Didn’t they say they were going to arrange for a dormitory for them or something?

“Yes, here,” Xiao Lingyu chimed in. “Si Qing, activate the other three layers of protection.”

Si Qing nodded, then fiddled with his communicator. Right away, Lei Jue heard the sound of large machinery running. As soon as the sound resonated, two transparent glass panes above of their heads seamlessly joined together, looking like a Taichi diagram with a circle on each block.

Just when Lei Jue found this design to be very interesting, one of the circles slowly fell down. It turned out that it was actually a smart elevator.

The elevator was a large disc with amazing load capacity. After it landed on the ground, a chest-high guardrail was automatically raised around it. They opened the guardrail and stood on the elevator, stamping twice on the center to make it slowly rise again. By the time they had completely arrived at the Taichi board above, all they could see below them was a layer of pitch-black ground.

However, you would be totally wrong if you thought that this was the end to it.

There were another two layers of protection on the Taichi board. One of the layers, as Xiao Lingyu informed Lei Jue, was a light-condensing layer that would act as a medium to gather light for Little Odd Flower, while the other was a bomb-proof layer. Usually, the three layers of protections would be turned on, but when it was safe, the bomb-proof layer and the Taichi board could be removed to gather light for Little Odd Flower.

Later, some mechas came over to ship a lot of weapon boxes and several white boxes, which took up about a third of the area, making this place look like an armory on the surface. After the mechas left, Si Qing pressed two buttons on the white boxes, which then automatically unfolded to become a sturdy, simple multifunctional room in a swift motion. There were lamps and beds inside, as well as tables and chairs. In short, apart from being unable to use fire, all of the household accessories were basically complete.

“The three-layer protective panel can only be opened by us, and only when two or more of us are present. Not only that, but an alarm would also be immediately raised if there’s an attack, so we can participate in training like normal,” Si Qing said. “After we come back from training, we’ll take turns in groups of three to guard this armory until it can be fully disclosed.”

“Thank you.” Xiao Lingyu nodded. Even though Little Odd Flower had involved some secrets of the past, it couldn’t be said to be a private matter between Lei Jue and him, but the specific purpose they wanted to achieve after hiding it here was still closely related to the two of them. Because of this, it could be said that Si Qing and Lu Xian were indeed helping them, to some extent.

“Tsk! Why are you so polite with us?” Lu Xian asked. “Anyway, that’s all for today. If there’s any news from Wei Li, Yu Le and the gang will pass it to you. From tomorrow onward, we’ll return to our normal military life.”

“Ah, we get to live a life that sees the sun again!” Qi Yu stretched. It was about time! He finally no longer needed to worry about having his identity exposed anymore.

“Who’s the guard today, then?” Che Heng asked.

“We’ll all be here today. From tomorrow onward, just check the prompt on your communicator,” Si Qing explained. “Also, the equipment and supplies have been issued, but Lei Jue’s clothes must be ordered because there’s no ready-made ones in his size. Everything else is available.”

“Just do as you please. Since I’m to be a military doctor, is it appropriate for me to stay here with you guys?” Lei Jue wasn’t sure if there was an infirmary here.

“You can roam around however you like, as long you make sure you’re reachable when you’re needed to treat the wounded,” Si Qing answered. “My father specifically approved it.”

“Then I have to thank Uncle Si tomorrow.” Lei Jue smiled.

“He usually doesn’t work here. The highest commander here is Colonel Cheng He—” Si Qing was still speaking, when a noise from the door interrupted him. 

Upon hearing it, they walked out and saw that it was Colonel Cheng, the one who Si Qing had just mentioned.

Cheng He was tall and thin, with extremely sickly-looking pale skin. However, his face, with features as sharp as though chiseled by a knife, had a cold and menacing aura on it. He brought with him two subordinates to meet the group of ‘young masters playing dress-up as soldiers’ who had popped out of nowhere, and finally fixed his eyes on Lei Jue.

“Welcome,” he said briefly with a blank expression. 

A thought rose in the five young masters’ hearts right away: What the hell did you mean by that?!

Even though they were mentally prepared, and knew that other people would surely think that they were merely fooling around after they came here—for this was the image they had been portraying to the outside world—they couldn’t help but be washed by a wave of irritation when they were really being ignored.

Lei Jue could sense the vague feeling of annoyance around him even without touching anyone, so it meant that all of them must be feeling rather aggrieved right then. However, at that moment, an even more upsetting situation took place.

“Are all of you done unpacking?” Cheng He asked. His tone was plain and the way he spoke was also calm, but his eyes were so sharp that they looked like they had been soaked in blood. For this reason, looking at him while listening to the way he spoke would give off a very contradictory feeling.

“Yes.” They nodded in unison.

“Then go participate in the night training,” Cheng He commanded. “Company D of Central Training Ground, 20 kilometers weighted run. Complete the course and you can come back after that.”

“Is Lei Jue going too?” Qi Yu asked.

“Isn’t he part of our battalion?” Cao Hua frowned, tilting his head to look at one of his subordinates. His tone remained calm, but his next sentence would drive one crazy. “Boy, you’re not awake yet? Double the training load.”