Chapter 96 – I just went away for half a day, and someone is already trying to steal him away?

Translator: Rin    Editor: Mars     Proofreader: Ume

Lu Heng felt really speechless when Qiao Xi said “Are you tired of living”. He really didn’t know whether his wife was too powerful, or that he was too useless in his mother’s heart.

“Mother.” Lu Heng said disapprovingly, “I am not convinced by what you said. How am I sick of living? Instructor Jiang is not such a cruel person, and I am not that bad, am I?”

“I gave birth to you. Do you think I don’t know how incapable you are?” Qiao Xi said.

Black Eagle laughed out loud, Qiao Xi heard it and said with a sullen face: “Black Eagle, you still dare to laugh? One of you broke your promise, the other sneaked around, the royal family is embarrassed by the both of you!”

Lu Heng: “… Mother, please calm down.”

Black Eagle: “…Her Majesty, please calm down.”

Qiao Xi calmed down, said “Follow me” to Lu Heng and walked towards her palace. Lu Heng followed.

When they arrived at the palace, Qiao Xi asked what happened between Lu Heng and Jiang Li. She had also heard about Jiang Li being transferred to the military academy as an instructor, but she didn’t expect that it happened to be Lu Heng’s instructor. This little brat of hers even had this kind of interest towards him.

“It’s the literal meaning, he’s my future wife.” Lu Heng said succinctly.

Qiao Xi really never thought that her son would have a relationship with Jiang Li, and from what he said just then, it seemed that he hadn’t succeeded in chasing him yet.

Before the incident on Planet Will, Jiang Li had been living as a Beta, but he was powerful, handsome, loved and admired by everyone, and countless people had expressed affection towards him.

It was just that he didn’t accept anyone in these years. For him, the people around him are divided into three categories: superiors, subordinates, and friends.

Although Qiao Xi mocked Lu Heng, as a parent, her son was excellent after all.

However, if her son is looking for someone who is much better than him, that’s another matter.

Thinking of this, Qiao Xi frowned and asked, “Future? It’s not one-sided, right?”

“Of course not!” Lu Heng retorted. Although the relationship had not been formally confirmed, judging from Jiang Li’s reaction, he didn’t hate him and even liked him a little bit. It’s just that he was still too weak, so he had to at least win the trophy from the mecha competition before the relationship could be clarified.

“Then you didn’t use your identity to force him, did you?” Qiao Xi asked again.

“…Am I this kind of person?” Lu Heng looked at her speechlessly. Not to mention that he didn’t bother to do such things, first of all, Jiang Li was not the kind of person who would be willing to be chased by force. After all, he smashed his headboard on the first day he became an instructor and even hit Kate.

Of course, Qiao Xi knew that her son was not that kind of person, so she nodded and said, “Although I am not familiar with Major Jiang, I have heard a lot about him and admire him very much, so you remember to never force him.”

“Her Majesty, please rest assured, Master will not do such a thing.” Black Eagle said.

Lu Heng heard it reassuring himself, thinking that it was not wrong to risk the storm and free it from the basement, but the next second he heard it say: “Instructor Jiang is not someone who can be forced by a normal person. It is unachievable with Master’s ability.”

Lu Heng: “…” Shut up.

Qiao Xi’s anger towards Black Eagle still hadn’t dissipated. Hearing its sound, she said in a cold voice, “Shut up, I’ll deal with you later.”

Black Eagle: “…”

Qiao Xi looked at Lu Heng: “Tell me honestly, are you serious about Major Jiang, or is it just a whim?”

“Of course it’s serious.” Lu Heng immediately stated his position, and said with a serious expression, “If he didn’t disagree, I would have brought him back.”

Qiao Xi nodded, very satisfied with his attitude.

In the eyes of most people in this interstellar world, Jiang Li digging out his own glands was seen as no longer a complete Omega. However, Qiao Xi was not one of these people.

For her, glands and pheromones were just the catalysts of emotions, and they did not represent everything. People’s emotions should be controlled by the brain.

If Lu Heng was serious about Jiang Li, and Jiang Li didn’t object, then she would be happy to hear it. After all, in her impression, the other party was really a very outstanding person.

“Bring him home and let him meet your father if there’s a chance.” Qiao Xi said.

“Okay!” Lu Heng nodded with a smile. Seeing that her expression had improved a lot and the anger she had just dissipated, he struck while the iron was hot, “Then I don’t need to transfer schools, right? A long-distance relationship is too unsafe.”

What he said made Qiao Xi’s attention that was drawn away by Jiang Li’s matter just now come back, and she snorted coldly: “You said it as if he’s already in your hand. Put other things aside first and leave Black Eagle behind. You can then go back.”

Black Eagle whispered: “No…”

Lu Heng: “Mother…”

“I’m not joking with you.” Qiao Xi was not as angry as before. She had calmed down, but her tone was still forceful, “I won’t pursue what you did before, but I still hope you will keep your word on what you’ve promised me.”

Lu Heng had once promised her that when he grew up, he would not be admitted to the military academy, would not enter the army, and would not go out to war. She had gotten soft-hearted and agreed to him being admitted to the military academy, but at this point she could no longer let him take Black Eagle away because of being soft-hearted again.

Many years before, when her two eldest sons were still alive, her husband once said that the youngest son was also born to go to war and that he would be as outstanding and invincible as his two elder brothers.

At that time, she didn’t stop her youngest son from learning battlefield command, mecha combat, etc. She just wanted to let him do what he liked and let him fulfil his dream of having galaxy expeditions.

It wasn’t until her two sons died in battle that she realized that things changed. She was not careful and she would never see them again.

Thinking of how her two sons were brought back by their subordinates, images of their battle uniforms soaked in blood came up. Before heading out to battle, her sons hugged her as she said to them that she would wait for their triumphant return. However, they came back to her with their eyes closed, no longer able to open them.

For a long time, she had dreamed that the next person to fall would be Lu Heng. She was anxious, restless and even afraid. She couldn’t bear the pain of losing a loved one again, so she could only use her own method to force him to break his initial dream.

Her husband once said that her actions undoubtedly broke Lu Heng’s wings, suppressed his potential before he had grown up, and turned someone extremely talented like him into a mediocre person.

Of course, she understood all those. She gave birth to her son, and she knew very well how outstanding he was. He should have stood at the top and looked down at everyone. It’s just that as a mother, emotions overwhelmed rationality, and she didn’t want her youngest son to follow the old path of her eldest sons.

Even if he would resent her for it in the future.

Lu Heng fell silent, and his gaze landed on the black ring on his index finger. After a while, he still shook his head at Qiao Xi: “I’m sorry, Mother, I can’t give it to you. Please forgive me.”

Qiao Xi’s hand clenched tight instantly. Judging from Lu Heng’s attitude just then, she had expected it, but she couldn’t help feeling disappointed when he refused again. She then looked straight at Lu Heng: “Lu Heng, are you so determined to confront me?”

When she said this, she felt more chills than disappointment. She couldn’t help thinking of her two sons who died young, and her voice trembled a little.

Hearing the tremble in her words, Lu Heng felt pain in his heart. He reached out to shake her hand: “Mother, don’t be sad, I didn’t mean that…”

“Shut up.” Qiao Xi shook off his hand, “Now that you’ve grown up, I can’t control you anymore, can I? You don’t even listen to me, why do you care if I’m sad or not? Why don’t you just…”

“I care.” Lu Heng interrupted her in a low voice, “If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have locked Black Eagle in the basement back then. Mother, do you know what Black Eagle is to me?”

Qiao Xi turned her head away in silence, and Lu Heng continued: “For me, it is not just a mecha. After the eldest brother and the second brother left, it is the belief left by my two brothers. I can only feel a little at ease when it’s here, and I have not been happy for so many years.”

Qiao Xi was shocked and turned to look at him: “Are you blaming me?”

“No.” Lu Heng shook his head. “I just want to tell you that I don’t want to be an unsuccessful person. I want to be like my two brothers. When danger comes, I can stand up to protect you and this country.”

In Qiao Xi’s impression, when Lu Heng had first received Black Eagle, he had excitedly pulled her to look at it. Lu Heng then pointed to Black Eagle and said that when he grew up, he and Black Eagle would protect her.

There was no use crying over spilt milk. Qiao Xi suppressed the soreness in her heart: “I don’t need your protection, you just need to protect yourself well.”

“But I want to protect you.” Lu Heng said seriously, “I also want to protect Father and Brother, and now I have another person I want to protect.”

“There are so many guards in the Empire, we don’t need you. As for Major Jiang, he is better than you, so don’t even think about protecting him.” Qiao Xi still stood firm.

Lu Heng knew that the matter would not be easily solved, so he changed his method and retreated as a way to proceed: “Mother, why not this, I still have five years in the military academy. I will go to school first, so you can think about it slowly, okay? Keep Black Eagle with me first, it is also for my safety. After all, it is quite dangerous for us to go out for actual combat training.”

As soon as he said it was dangerous, Qiao Xi frowned and became angry again: “I told you not to pursue this and you didn’t care!”

“Her Highness, please don’t worry!” Black Eagle quickly stated, “I will definitely protect Fourth Prince.”

Qiao Xi snorted coldly, looking into Lu Heng’s expectant eyes. Her ears were full of the words “I have not been happy for so many years” just now, making it hard for her to reject. In the end she could only say ruthlessly: “Get lost, it’s annoying to look at you.”

“Okay!” Lu Heng immediately got up to leave once he heard this and finally remembered something, “Mother, look, I’m going to have a wife soon. Brother is already in his thirties and still single. Shouldn’t you be taking care of it too?”

Qiao Xi: “…”

These words hit Qiao Xi’s inner worries, and she said angrily to the maid: “Call Third Prince here!!”

On the way back to the palace, Lu Heng ran into Lu Qi who was rushing over. Seeing his bitter face, he felt very happy. He thought: Who allowed you to act like “Brothers are birds in the same forest, but they fly separately when disaster comes”. Now you know where you did wrong, right?!

Although Qiao Xi didn’t explicitly agree to Lu Heng’s proposal, she didn’t refuse either. Lu Heng returned to the military academy that afternoon.

As he arrived in Area D, it happened that everyone was resting at break. There was only one adjutant on the training ground, and there were no figures of Jiang Li and Joel.

Lu Heng was eager to share with Jiang Li how his mother was already half-persuaded so, he asked the adjutant about Jiang Li’s whereabouts and went to find him.

Jiang Li was on the back hill of the training ground. Lu Heng saw him leaning against a tree just as he reached there. He was overjoyed and quickened his pace. As he got closer, he realized there was another person there. It was one of the two Alphas that came to look for Jiang Li with Joel previously.

Seeing the other party, Lu Heng paused, just in time to hear the other party say: “Major, I admire and like you very much. After I come back from this mission, can you give me a chance?”

Lu Heng: “…”

I just fucking went away for half a day, and someone is already trying to steal him away?