Interstellar Power Couple
Translator: Leslie
Quality Check: Lala
Editor: Lala
First Published on Chaleuria
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Chapter 54: Child Fruit
Carrera was first to notice that Little Odd Flower was shedding petals like mad again, but since Xiao Lingyu had told her before entering the golden fruit that he would not be able to receive messages once he was inside, she didn’t immediately notify him of this incident. Thus, it was only when Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue exited the fruit after spending the night there, that they noticed all of Little Odd Flower’s blossoms were gone. Now, Little Odd Flower looked like it did before its flowers had bloomed. The only difference was the addition of a big primary fruit.
Apart from being larger than usual, and the addition of the primary fruit, Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue didn’t notice any other abnormalities in Little Odd Flower.
Carrera did not either. After the flowers had fallen, small, round fruits had appeared where the flowers used to be. However, they were not as large as the primary fruit, and they dotted the entire tree, so she did not classify it as an abnormality. She thus did not report this to her master when she found out he already knew that the flowers had fallen.
As a result, Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue assumed that, on their first time sleeping inside the primary fruit, apart from feeling great, nothing else had changed.
However, among the thickets of heart-shaped, lobed leaves, two gleaming fruits had begun to enter a new stage of growth.
Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue were standing on top of the protective barriers when Xiao Lingyu got a call from his third brother. “Third Brother, you were looking for me?”
Since he couldn’t be contacted while inside the fruit last night, Carrera had handled all incoming calls for him. Now, seeing that his family was calling him, of course he had to reply.
“Yeah. Are you and Little Jue on a mission or something?” asked Xiao Linghua. “Why did Carrera say you guys were busy and that you weren’t available to pick up calls?”
“We were busy sleeping, that’s why I didn’t answer,” Xiao Lingyu said breezily, the corners of his lips unable to stop themselves from quirking upwards. “Do you need anything?”
“I do, but why do I sense that you seem to have more pressing matters than me?” Xiao Linghua instantly sensed that something was off, living up to his name as a brother who had grown up with Xiao Lingyu. “When you say ‘busy sleeping’, is it the kind of ‘sleeping’ that uses up a lot of energy?”
Xiao Lingyu coughed. “Uh, right.” Then, laughing, he said, “In the future, if Carrera’s the one answering at night, leave a message and I’ll contact you later. Let’s talk about your matters first.”
“Mine’s not a big deal compared to yours!” Xiao Linghua’s voice was a pitch higher, probably out of delight for his brother. “Oh right, have you told grandma and mum and dad? They’re sure to be happy. No wait, of course you haven’t told them yet. You’re so emotionally constipated, you’re definitely uncomfortable with telling them yourself! I’m gonna tell them, hanging up now.”
“But what about your…”
“I just wanted you to help me upgrade the butler’s programming; it’s not urgent.” Once Xiao Linghua had finished speaking, he cut the call and eagerly went off to herald the news to the rest of his family.
Lei Jue and Xiao Lingyu gave each other a look, catching the hints of laughter in the other’s eyes.
Today was the same as always. Two hours after morning training, Lei Jue would go to the medical bay to treat injured soldiers from all over the nation. Usually, Xiao Lingyu would stay with Lei Jue the entire time after finishing his own training, but today, Xiao Lingyu left the medical bay for 15 minutes in the middle of the session with Lu Xian. At that time, there had been more people in the bay than usual, so Lei Jue hadn’t asked more about it, but he knew that something was definitely up..
That time when Lei Jue had participated in the friendly joint training with the Western Moon soldiers, an odd alarm had rung from Xiao Lingyu’s communicator. He hadn’t said anything about it then but had shot a look at Lu Xian as he passed by, so Lu Xian had taken Si Qing and left. The primary fruit had ripened after that incident, so he hadn’t had the chance to tell Lei Jue, but something of note had indeed happened yesterday, aside from the primary fruit ripening.
Lei Jue asked Xiao Lingyu during lunchtime. “Lu Xian was looking for you?”
“There was a problem with the group of people that came over for healing yesterday,” said Xiao Lingyu. “Someone had gone near the weapons depot during your battle with Bullethead. I had Lu Xian go over and check it out. The person was from the Western Moon District. Since there were guards around constantly, he wasn’t able to enter. However, the mere fact that he went there in the first place is suspicious.”
“And what happened after that?”
“Lu Xian got Yu Le and the others to dig up info outside. They don’t have anything yet, but we can be sure this person was definitely transferred here from the Central District half a year ago.”
“You suspect that he might be connected to Lei Jianying, or the people behind him?” Nowadays, whenever Lei Jue heard ‘Central District’, the first thing that came to mind was the people that had opposed him in parliament.
“We’re not excluding that possibility. Yesterday, the person attempted to attack the firewalls set up by Carrera near the weapons depot, but was unsuccessful. For now, we can assume that he either knew about Little Odd Flower, or he didn’t know but suspected that there was something there and wanted to confirm it.” Xiao Lingyu let out a sigh. “Because I insisted that the guards be people I trust, once Little Odd Flower was moved in, only we, Lu Xian, and the others have been there. If someone were to know about this, then they might indeed be suspicious of us.” However, they couldn’t just hire people outside of their circle either.
“Didn’t someone at parliament mention Lei Jianying might be connected to my father’s mission all those years ago? What about that?”
“None of the people sent on that mission are here anymore. To be precise, they were already gone by the time your father came back from Maikalun. The highest-ranking officer in charge of keeping tabs on the mission was also sentenced to death for crime two years ago.” In other words, no one could prove that Lei Jianying was behind those people’s deaths, and those in the know were highly likely to be in cahoots with Lei Jianying.
“Say, if I were to get Big Sis to put me in a hypnotic trance, do you think I might remember something?” Lei Jue said after some thought. “I think the person who slaughtered the guards of the Golden Fruit clan might still be alive, but my memories are hazy. I can only remember that he was huge and that he wore a black helmet, but not anything else.”
“We could ask her, but the answer to that might come to us soon.” Xiao Lingyu thought that Di Lin might know more about this than Lei Jue, because Di Lin had been there when the guards were massacred, and since Di Lin was older, his memories of the incident were likely clearer than Lei Jue’s. He probably didn’t tell Lei Jue to protect him. After all, he was definitely going to take revenge on the people who killed his clansmen and his family, but if there was a chance of failure because the target of his vengeance was too powerful, it was better not to involve his nephew in this.
“Are you talking about Uncle?” There was a strong tacit understanding between Lei Jue and Xiao Lingyu. Lei Jue could pick up on Xiao Lingyu’s thoughts with just a hint.
“That’s right, I have a feeling that your uncle has been watching over you.”
Lei Jue agreed, but if Di Lin wouldn’t show himself voluntarily, it would be difficult to find him. This uncle of his was quite incredible too; there weren’t many who could evade Xiao Lingyu once he had his eyes on them. Until now, only two people were capable of that: one of them was Wei Li, and the other was Di Lin. Wei Li probably had help hiding, but Di Lin was likely doing so on his own.
However, no matter how well he hid, it was always possible to lure him out.
The next day, Lei Jue, as usual, treated the patients who had made appointments. However, he wouldn’t be accepting any appointments in the near future. The reason he gave for this was that the high influx of patients recently had exhausted him, and since he was about to have a child, he needed ample amounts of rest. The actual reason, however, was to see whether this would pique Di Lin’s attention.
Lei Jue had already helped many people over these past few days, so now that he said he wanted a break, no one could deny him. There were so many people hoping that he and Xiao Lingyu would have a child soon, so most wished him well.
Now, even Lei Haige didn’t dare make a peep, because there was ample evidence to prove that he had attacked Lei Jue. The court had already made the decision. As soon as his child could be transferred to a surrogacy capsule, he would go to the Planet of Darkness and labour there for five years as re-education. Although a few still called Lei Jue inhumane for separating a water-elemental child from its parent right after its birth, they were taken down as quickly as they popped up by the majority of people. Most importantly, those who had originally believed that Lei Haige had only ordered Emily to attack Lei Jue once had seen the video that was published on the intergalactic court’s website, so they found out that it wasn’t the only time that Lei Haige had assaulted Lei Jue.
So, if they wanted to speak up for Lei Haige again, they had to first consider whether they even had the right to do so.
This day, Lei Jue finally had some free time. To make the act more convincing, Xiao Zhicheng had even let grandma and Luo Yuling come visit Lei Jue, because Lei Jue was still newly-enlisted personnel, and thus wasn’t allowed off the base without a special reason for half a year.
Of course, this was just an excuse. The real reason for the visit was that grandma and Luo Yuling’s were curious about Little Odd Flower’s growth and wanted to come see it for themselves.
Lei Jue and XIao Lingyu thus brought the two curious family members down to the lowest floor of the weapons depot. Grandma raised her head to look up at Little Odd Flower. “Can this tree really bear my great-grandchild?”
Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue nearly did a spit-take at those words, even if they spoke the truth.
“It should be able to, but your great-grandchild isn’t here yet. Grandma, be patient. Let things take their natural course,” said Xiao Lingyu.
“Alright, alright. If there’s no child, then so be it. As long as you and Little Jue are doing well.” Grandma patted Lei Jue’s hands. “Then we shall leave first. This is my first time exercising my special privileges too.” She hated people who used the privilege their powers bought them to get their way!. However, if it weren’t for her son’s express approval, she wouldn’t have been able to enter the storehouse with her grandson-in-law.
“Little Jue, don’t feel stressed over this.” Luo Yuling was already happy that her son and son-in-law were able to achieve what they had already, she didn’t dare hope for more.
“Relax, mum, we’re not in a hurry,” said Lei Jue. “We’ll just let nature take its course.”
Just as he finished speaking, a special alert tone rang out from Xiao Lingyu’s communicator.
Xiao Lingyu skimmed the screen without much care, and his eyes suddenly widened.
Carrera had sent him a picture of Little Odd Flower, where two small, round fruits were hiding. The larger of the two was already the size of an infant’s fist.
“Babe, come over here!” Xiao Lingyu grabbed Lei Jue, who had been chatting with his mother, and showed him the communicator. “What do you think this is?”
Lei Jue raised his head to look at the spot where the two child fruits were growing. All he saw was a cluster of leaves. Despite this, he still turned to grandma and laughed, saying with certainty, “Grandma, we were wrong. Your great-grandchild is on their way.”