Lu Zeyan was busy with the affairs of the crown prince. Lu Zeyin barged into his office and closed the door behind her.
"Brother, did you find the whereabouts of Chenchen?"
"I'm afraid not. Not yet. I am doing everything in my power to find him."
"Damn. He won't die, right?"
"He won't. Even when his people defected to the enemy, it's still impossible for them to be capable enough to kill him."
"I really want to kill them all."
"Me, too."
"Chenchen is like a younger brother to us. We watched him grow up. We carried him wherever we went. And we supported him when he went to war."
"I really want to kill Damien Mevil!"
"Let's find evidence that they defected to the enemy. This way, we could help Chenchen!"
The door opened with the entry of the empress and the emperor.
"Mother..."
"Father..."
"Chenchen is safe."
Lu Zeyan felt relieved. He was so worried that he did not sleep just to find the whereabouts of Jing Yichen. It could be said that Jing Yichen was Lu Zeyan's small tail. He would follow Lu Zeyan wherever he went, even in official meetings. Lu Zeyan could even rank closer in Jing Yichen's heart compared to his brothers.
Lu Zeyin had a smile on her face. Jing Yichen was also very close to her. She was the one to take care of the child when no one else was available in the family. It could be said that she grew up feeding him all kinds of food and reading all kinds of stories. Sometimes, she even felt that she was becoming Jing Yichen's nanny.
Jing Yichen and the twins have a full twenty-year age gap, and that made them take care of him more.
The emperor and empress only have six children.
Among the children, Lu Zeyan and Lu Zeyin were the youngest. In the interstellar era, interstellar people live for a long time. People also practice a monogamous marriage. Lu Zeyan and Lu Zeyin's brothers and sisters were already accomplished people, and some married into other kingdoms.
The position of the crown prince eventually fell on Lu Zeyan's head. Lu Zeyin acted as his right hand, and the two controlled the positions well. To them, Jing Yichen was the child who relieved their stress. He was a sunny boy with dimples showing when he smiled. He was also their lucky charm.
But they also knew the hardships he would face when he grew up. They just weren't expecting the harshness of the environment that shaped Jing Yichen. He became less sunny and more serious.
He also became busier than them.
"Did he tell of his whereabouts?"
"He did not say his location. But he reported that he is safe."
"Did he have enough food to eat and clothes to wear?" Lu Zeyin asked.
"What's with your expression? You look more like a worried mother to her son than his real mother!"
"You know, Aunt Mila would never show how much she cared about her son because the Jing family never allows their people to show weakness."
"Thankfully, my mother isn't like them."
The empress chuckled and said, "Wrong. Your father loves me. We want love to flourish in this kingdom. Anyway, Jing Yichen was rescued by his fiancée."
"I am going to be an aunt?" Lu Zeyin clapped her hands excitedly.
"Lu Zeyin! Your wild thoughts are everywhere!" Lu Zeyan reprimanded.
"Is it wrong for me to wish for cute babies?"
"Why don't you make your own babies?"
"No way! My husband is fighting on the battlefield! How can I disturb him? It's better for him to stay there for eternity."
"You should really fix your relationship with the Admiral."
"I don't care!"
Back in Bimu, Jing Yichen was slowly collecting the footage of his accident. It was not the first time for him to hack systems, but he hacked the warship of the third fleet.
He could not believe that all his access on the ship was erased by his former team, however, he was fortunate enough to collect the traces of people tampering with several information in the system. The root of their defecting was their pride and insecurities. It was also the first time for him to confirm that they had been breaching the data of the ship.
Even the research of the third fleet was also handed over by its members to the pirates. Before the data in his hands was submitted to the royal family, it would undergo several tests. Then he would personally check the resources, afraid of other people's calculations. Yet he never found the people responsible for every failed data collection.
I trusted them...
Jing Yichen smiled bitterly.
A little girl could save him from a barren planet without knowing his identity. She was a passerby willing to bring him back to life. A little girl, by any means, brought him out of the quagmire secretly. She fed him and made sure he was safe.
"She did not even want me to accompany her. I guess she was afraid of trouble knocking on our doors. She might be afraid that my enemies would come and attack us. She was vigilant, and she didn't want to take any risk."
Jing Yichen vowed to himself as the sun rose outside the window.
He would do everything in his power to protect the little girl and wait for her to grow up. He would clear the path for her to walk unhindered by the darkness of being his future wife. He would hide her traces and make sure to keep her updated on his whereabouts.
He had no experience in a relationship, but he wanted to try to be a better person who could provide for the other. He wanted to be the man right for her, just like how he sees the emperor's care for the empress. Growing up, the emperor became his role model in the absence of his father, while the empress became much closer to him than his mother.
"I wish I could visit them."