Interstellar Power Couple
Translator: Asuka
Quality Check: Lala
Editor: Lala
First Published on Chaleuria
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Chapter 55: Emperor
In less than two days, two rumors erupted in Casweir—the first rumor claimed that Lei Jue was in danger of losing his healing powers from overuse, while the second one claimed that he was pregnant with an ability wielding child, and that the reason he couldn’t give treatment any more was that it was too laborious.
While the first rumor was obviously far-fetched, the second one was close to the truth. But there was a reason it remained nothing more than a rumor—Lei Jue and Xiao Lingyu had not made any comments on the matter.
Before, in order to lure Di Lin out, and also because they didn’t know about the offspring fruit, they had announced that Lei Jue needed to rest because he was too spent from healing so many people, and also to prepare for pregnancy. In other words, everyone thought that Lei Jue was currently not pregnant.
But now that they had the offspring fruits, a problem arose—the offspring fruits’ gestation period was different from that of human children.
Nobody could be sure when the child in the offspring fruit would be born. Putting Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue aside, even Di Lin couldn’t say. It was just like how in other fruit-bearing plants, even if the fruits were growing on the same tree, they would ripen at different times.
Under normal development, the children of Casweir would leave the mother’s body or the surrogacy capsules nine months after fertilization. The fruit of a Golden Fruit Tree growing in the golden fruit clan’s territory, however, would usually take anywhere between two to eight months to ripen, which was a huge range. With it growing on Casweir, they weren’t sure if the environment would affect that.
Since they couldn’t say for sure, they could only give vague responses to the public and leave the rest to their imagination. They hoped to only announce the news once their kids were born. Everything would be smooth-sailing once the babies came out, unlike now, where if they were to announce that “Yes, we have a kid on the way”, they would be tongue-tied should someone ask about the due date.
As a result, speculations about them spread like wildfire. Some people even worried that Lei Jue was sick. This was very typical of the netizens; the more their questions were left hanging, the more they wanted to know.
Netizen A: They still haven’t released an official statement yet, could it be that it’s just an empty rumor?
Netizen B: But why would they be scared to admit that they don’t have a child? It’s not like it’s anything new.
Netizen C: It’s their kid, why do they have to admit to anything? It’s not like they owe it to us. Or are you guys saying that they should boast to the world about being pregnant, as a certain someone did?
Netizen D: But they’re public figures, and they have the highest ranking abilities among all elemental ability users of their generation. Now that everybody’s eyes are on them, shouldn’t they give some clarification on this matter?
Lei Jue had stopped giving treatment for seven days by now, and Di Lin still had yet to appear, but there were already over a hundred different guesses about them online. Even so, no matter how curious they were, guessing was all the netizens could do. The Parliament, however, could ask Xiao Zhicheng directly.
“Marshal Xiao, how is Lei Jue now?” Before the meeting started, a Parliament member saw Xiao Zhicheng heading over and said to him, smiling, “Rumor has it that you’re soon to become a grandfather. You’d better not hide such exciting news from us.”
“Exactly! So many people have their eyes on Little Lei Jue and Xiao Lingyu, but Old Xiao here won’t even say a word.” The leader of the Elemental User Council couldn’t resist joining in; he was very much looking forward to the birth of the next generation of elemental users.
Currently, among the top five elemental user families, only the Zhao family in the Eastern Hua District had children with abilities—a daughter with A-rank earth elemental powers, and a son with B-rank earth elemental powers. The other families had kids as well, but they either had no elemental powers, or their powers were so weak they were basically negligible. It was apparent that elemental users were decreasing with each generation. In Xiao Zhicheng’s generation, almost everyone would have one or more children in their early twenties, and more than half of those children had high-ranking elemental abilities. But now…
Most of them were still unmarried, let alone with children.
“The kids told me they wanted to just let things happen, so they won’t feel pressured. Since that’s what they want, I can’t possibly go around talking about it, can I?” Xiao Zhicheng smiled happily. “But don’t worry, we’ll hold a celebratory dinner sooner or later.”
“The rumor is true then?” Zuo Zhihuan was happy for Xiao Zhicheng. He had thought about asking before, but since Xiao Zhicheng never mentioned it, and Zuo Zhihuan also worried that things would get awkward if the rumors turned out to be false, he had kept his curiosity to himself. However, judging from the huge smile plastered on Xiao Zhicheng’s face, the rumor was obviously true.
“Congratulations, Marshall Xiao!”
“Congratulations!”
Xiao Zhicheng accepted their congratulations as he walked and saw Feng Qingyuan, the vice party leader and a few others coming over from the other direction. Feng Qingyuan’s expression was grim. Although there was not enough evidence to prove that Lei Jianying had anything to do with Lei Jianwei and his fallen comrades, Lei Jianying had still been found guilty of embezzlement during the investigation, and had been removed from his position and placed under investigation. As Lei Jianying’s in-law, Feng Qingyuan was obviously displeased right now. If Lei Jianying went down, it would be a huge blow to their party, and on top of that, it was now common knowledge that Lei Haige would be sent to the Planet of Darkness after his child was transferred to a surrogacy capsule.
The Feng family had experienced more humiliation this year than in the past decade combined!
“I heard that Yu Fenglai visited the Feng family yesterday, but the old Master Feng refused to see her,” After the vice party leader, Feng Qingyuan and his party entered the meeting room, Si Wannian whispered to Xiao Zhicheng. “It looks like Master Feng will not meddle in this affair.”
“He couldn’t meddle even if he wanted to.” Xiao Zhicheng frowned. More of Lei Jianying’s crimes had been uprooted in this investigation than he had predicted, and the progress was faster than expected too. Although the relevant units had yet to publicly announce the investigation results, he knew that the findings were more serious than what many had thought they would be. Even if Lei Jianwei’s case was overlooked, Lei Jianying would not be able to rise again. Xiao Zhicheng was curious though; his side did not have that much power over this case, so who exactly was it that wanted to put an end to Lei Jianying as soon as possible?
Xiao Zhicheng looked over at Party Leader Li, seated far away at the head position with a calm expression, as well as the grim-looking vice party leader was sitting directly opposite of him, talking to Feng Qing Yang about something. But it was to no avail.
With this, it meant that Yu Fenglai had officially reached a dead end. She couldn’t even ask Lei Jianying what she should do next, now that Lei Jianying was locked up and she couldn’t see him.
The same applied to Lei Haige as well. In the past, he had never once given way in an argument with Feng Gu, because both their families were of similar social standing. However, right now, he had no choice but to softly beg Feng Gu to appeal to the old Master Feng, and ask him to use his connections to see if he could do anything. The old man had held quite a lot of power in the Parliament before he had retired, if he did something now it would definitely be better than nothing.
In the past, Feng Gu might have at least listened. However, anyone with eyes could see that things were looking pretty bleak for Lei Jianying; no one would dare involve themselves in the mess.
“It’s useless even if you beg me. Grandpa won’t intervene in this issue,” Feng Gu snapped impatiently. “If he could, he’d have butted in long ago.”
“Then do I just stand by and watch my dad be locked up without doing anything? How could you say that?!” Lei Haige trembled in anger. “Feng Gu! Do you even f*cking think of me as family!”
“I’d have shooed you out the door a long time ago if I didn’t!” Feng Gu suddenly shouted. “Do you know how much humiliation you’ve brought me? I used to think that you were just spoilt and ill-tempered, but I never knew you were so vicious!” To think that he had decided, after much frustration, to try and make this relationship with Lei Haige work. He had even had a child with Lei Haige. In the end, however, this fellow turned around and repaid him with a slap to the face.
After the video of Lei Haige beating up Lei Jue at school leaked, Feng Gu fell into utter dismay. He had never known that Lei Jue had had to go through so much to meet with him.
When he attended a friend’s party yesterday, someone had mocked him, “Oh Young Master Feng! No wonder Lei Jue threw you to the back of his mind the instant he met Xiao Lingyu. Liking you meant putting his life on the line!”
Feng Gu was almost choked on his anger.
“Yes, I’m vicious, but what about you? Didn’t you dump Lei Jue for me for the sake of material gain? And you call me vicious, hah.” Lei Haige’s gaze turned disdainful. “You want nothing more than to return to when you first met Lei Jue, don’t you? Let me tell you, it’s impossible! Lei Jue belongs to Xiao Lingyu now, and who knows, they might actually have a child. Lei Jue will never belong to you! Never ev—“
Smack! Feng Gu slapped Lei Haige’s face without hesitation. “Lei Haige, I’m warning you, you better shut the hell up! If it weren’t for our child, do you think you could be standing here talking to me right now?” With that, he turned around and stomped away, leaving the new house he shared with Lei Haige for the Fengs’ main residence. Although he had left because he didn’t want to see Lei Haige, he had never imagined that his grandfather would tell him to get a divorce.
“The eldest grandson of our Feng family must have an untarnished history,” Old Master Feng said, “A person as vicious as Haige is not qualified to conceive my great-grandson.”
“Grandpa…” Feng Gu was stunned. “You mean…”
“That child will soon be transferred to a surrogacy capsule anyways. If something were to happen then cause the process to fail, you’d be able to start afresh again.” Old Master Feng looked somber. “In times like these, it’s best to harden your heart. As for Haige—he won’t come back after he goes to the Planet of Darkness.”
In the end, after some deliberation, Feng Gu gave a slow nod.
His grandfather had agreed before that he should make his relationship with Lei Haige work, but his stance had taken a completely different turn now. It was apparent that Lei Jianying had no hope left.
At the thought of his unborn child, still just an embryo, Feng Gu couldn’t help feeling despondent. Even so, not letting his child ‘come out tarnished’ was still more important to him.
He still couldn’t let go of his resentment for Lei Haige.
Or rather, he knew that the person he should loath more was himself, but putting the blame on someone else felt better. What else could he do? A cure for regret didn’t exist. And, just like Lei Haige had said, he could not turn back time, and Lei Jue could not be his again.
At the thought of Lei Jue, a wave of irritation surged through Feng Gu again.
Lei Jue felt irritated too. While he knew that his baby was not in his stomach, the public didn’t. As of now, he was banned from vigorous exercise, he couldn’t operate any mech, and he was treated like he was made of porcelain whenever he went out. Basically, he was not allowed to do anything anymore. Even Xiao Lingyu didn’t dare to act too casual with him now; if he did, he’d receive a ton of glares for it.
“I think we might as well just sleep in the primary fruit.” Xiao Lingyu, fully naked, held a sweat-drenched Lei Jue in his arms. Smiling, he planted a kiss on Lei Jue’s cheek. “I couldn’t even dream of doing this before, and yet I can do it every day now. What bliss!”
“Aren’t you worried about more offspring fruit popping up? You might have a platoon of pale chubby children running after you calling you ‘Daddy! Daddy!’ in the future… Urgh, that’d be a nightmare.” Lei Jue poked Xiao Lingyu’s firm chest. “Why don’t we head to the mountains tomorrow? There are ice snakes there right? The kind that’s even more venomous than Blackfur. I’ve seen some photos online, the snakes are fully white, but their eyes are ice-blue. I’m sure they’re cute.”
“…It can kill someone with just a bite. You’re the only one who’d think that they’re cute” Xiao Lingyu stretched out his long legs and curled them around Lei Jue’s. “But if you really like them, I’ll take you out to capture one tomorrow.”
“Really?”
“Mmm, but I have one condition. Also, we’ll go in secret. Otherwise, I might be the public enemy number one if somebody saw me taking you—who should be pregnant—to go catch ice snakes.” Xiao Lingyu felt terrified just from the thought.
“What condition?” Lei Jue asked.
“Why don’t you take a guess?”
Lei Jue glanced at Xiao Lingyu. A smile formed on his lips, and he gradually sat up in Xiao Lingyu’s arms. He scooted back a little, and with his arms against the wall of the fruit for support, he spread his bended knees, fully displaying himself in his state of undress. He grabbed Xiao Lingyu’s hand, and slowly guided him to the slightly opened valley…
Xiao Lingyu’s eyes darkened, and his breathing turned heavy.
Fortunately, Little Odd Flower didn’t produce more offspring fruits like Lei Jue had said, or else, with how often they did it after opening the proverbial floodgates, they might not have enough eyes to watch over the kids in the future even if the entire Holy Eagle Mecha Corps was recruited for it.
The next day, just as he had promised, Xiao Lingyu took Lei Jue to the mountain to catch ice snakes. But before they could even find one, Xiao Lingyu was sent back rolling from Luo Yuling’s berations, “What do you think you’re doing, how can you act so reckless in this situation? Go back now and watch the kids. Do not let my grandkids leave your sight!”
If it weren’t for how inconvenient it would be for them, Luo Yuling and Grandma would have come to look after the kids themselves.
With no better option, Xiao Lingyu returned to the corps with Lei Jue. They had already moved the multi-purpose room underground, and so now even when they slept they were there. Nowadays, looking up and checking whether the kids were fine had become their most frequent activity.
Right now, the two fruits above their heads were like two emperors they had to wait on, hand and foot!
One afternoon, after Lei Jue ate a very sumptuous ‘pregnancy meal’, he sat in his chair as usual, about to ask Carrera to measure the growth of his kids, when his communicator suddenly beeped. He lifted up his wrist to check and, surprisingly, it was his aunt Yu Fenglai, who hadn’t contacted him in ages.