Chapter 13 Green Chirp-Chirp Gui Banjing

　　After Major General Sain finished bathing Wei Yin, he carried him back to the bedroom, changed him into clean clothes, and dried his hair.
　　“Knock, knock.”
　　Major General Sain had just finished when someone knocked at the door. Charlie stood outside, pushing a small meal cart.
　　Charlie: “Major General, I juiced some of those strawberry fruits you brought back and made a few desserts too.”
　　“Mm.” Major General Sain accepted the cart and nodded to Charlie. “Leave this to me.”
　　“Yes.”
　　Major General Sain wheeled the cart back into the room. He opened its retractable cover, revealing fresh, delicate pastries and fruit juice. The strawberry-fruit juice was bottled in clear glass, showing off its brilliant red color. It was thick enough to cling to the walls of the bottle, and its clean sweet fragrance immediately filled the room.
　　Major General Sain poured a glass and brought it to Wei Yin’s mouth. Wei Yin opened his mouth and drank, moving purely by bodily instinct.
　　Seeing Wei Yin like this made Major General Sain feel terrible, and Shangyang did not feel good either.
　　Shangyang had always wished Wei Yin would be a little more serious, but not serious like this. To be honest, Shangyang would rather listen to him act stupid and spout nonsense.
　　Shangyang: “Um—”
　　Wei Yin: “I’m going to kill him.”
　　Shangyang had not expected an answer and froze. “Huh?”
　　Wei Yin: “I’m going to kill that old bastard!”
　　Shangyang: “…” Well, at least he had some energy again.
　　Wei Yin had fully come back to himself now. The shock of losing control of his bladder had been enormous, but at the time he had barely felt anything except pain. He had resisted a little while Major General Sain bathed him, but by now he had finally thought everything through.
　　At the end of the day, both he and Major General Sain were victims. Or rather, Major General Sain had probably suffered more—because in everyone else’s eyes, Wei Yin was an “idiot” who did not understand concepts like “dignity” or “humiliation.” But Major General Sain understood perfectly well that Old Mike had deliberately made Wei Yin disgrace himself in public as a slap across Major General Sain’s face.
　　And yet now Major General Sain had suppressed his own emotions and was instead taking care of the feelings of an idiot like him.
　　“Fuck, this is suffocating!” Wei Yin’s anger rebounded fiercely now that he had recovered.
　　Shangyang agreed with that much. “Based on what happened earlier, Major General Sain also has something Mike can use against him. It’s probably the medicine Mike mentioned.”
　　Wei Yin remembered that too. “If Major General Sain needs medicine, then it must be medicine for his madness. That really is a deadly weakness to have in someone else’s hands.”
　　Shangyang sighed. “The two of you really did end up as brothers in misery.”
　　Wei Yin sighed too. “Star-crossed lovers~”
　　Shangyang: “…” Fine. He had clearly recovered completely.
　　After sighing, Wei Yin asked, “Is my dependency really that severe?”
　　Shangyang had been thinking about that as well but had not dared bring it up for fear of upsetting Wei Yin. Now that Wei Yin had raised it himself, Shangyang immediately said, “We’ll only know after you stop the medication completely for a few days.”
　　Throughout the trip from Eden Planet, Wei Yin had been supervised while taking his medicine every day, so the headaches had not returned. If not for today’s deliberate show of force, he would almost have forgotten about the issue.
　　Wei Yin thought for a moment. “Then I’ll stop.”
　　Shangyang was puzzled. “How?”
　　Wei Yin: “First I’ll ‘recover’ a little in front of my Major General.”
　　Shangyang: “…Don’t overdo it.”
　　Wei Yin: “I know my limits. That old bastard hasn’t even left yet.”
　　Shangyang: “…”
　　After feeding Wei Yin two pastries, Major General Sain stopped. He brought over a chair, pulled up a book on his terminal, and began reading aloud to Wei Yin. It was not a textbook, but a storybook—a fairy tale, in fact.
　　There had been almost no childhood to speak of in the orphanage—and even if there had been, Wei Yin no longer remembered it—so the experience felt very novel.
　　Major General Sain had a beautiful voice, low and clear, with a quality that made people instinctively quiet down and listen.
　　The story soon ended. Major General Sain looked up and found Wei Yin’s focused gaze resting on his face.
　　Major General Sain looked delighted, but he was composed enough to keep his reaction restrained. He simply looked gently at Wei Yin. “Do you like listening to stories?”
　　Wei Yin did not speak. He only continued watching Major General Sain intently.
　　For some reason, being looked at like that filled Major General Sain with tenderness and sadness. He thought for a moment, pointed to himself, and said, “I am Lanser Dagobert Sain.”
　　Wei Yin blinked.
　　Seeing that, Major General Sain repeated it twice more. After the second repetition, Wei Yin’s tightly closed mouth opened and he said, “Lan… ser?”
　　Major General Sain froze, then was overjoyed. Looking at Wei Yin, he nodded. “Mm. Lanser. I’m Lanser.”
　　Wei Yin seemed not to understand why Major General Sain was so happy. He looked at the Major General, then slowly shifted his gaze to the terminal.
　　Major General Sain noticed and smiled. “You want to hear more? Then I’ll tell you another story.”
　　Major General Sain had probably grasped Wei Yin’s apparent condition by now. He chose another fairy tale, and sure enough, Wei Yin listened with great interest.
　　At first Wei Yin was only pretending, but later he genuinely got absorbed in the story. Eventually he fell asleep while listening—his body really was not strong at all.
　　After suffering so much during the day, Wei Yin slept deeply. But later he still had a nightmare. In the dream, an enormous monster seemed to be staring at him from above, completely covering him beneath one claw, capable of taking his life at any moment.
　　Wei Yin jolted awake from the terror of imminent death.
　　When he opened his eyes, he discovered that the moon was already high in the sky outside. The flying cars that had packed the courtyard were long gone, and the dining tables on the lawn had been cleared away. He was in the bedroom. The chair Major General Sain had used earlier still stood beside the bed, but he was alone in the room.
　　“Bang!” A sudden massive crash came from a building not far away.
　　Wei Yin opened the window and leaned out to look. The distant building was brightly lit, and its exterior actually looked metallic. While Wei Yin watched, another impact sounded. This time he saw it clearly: one section of the wall suddenly bulged outward, then quickly smoothed back into place.
　　Wei Yin was stunned. “Yangyang, what is that?”
　　Shangyang: “Some kind of new alloy, probably.”
　　Wei Yin: “What’s inside?”
　　Shangyang: “…Your Lanser.”
　　Wei Yin froze, then slowly understood. “He’s having an episode?”
　　Shangyang: “Probably. That alloy should have the ability to block consciousness-cloud effects, but you were still affected from this far away. You can imagine what things are like inside. But his spirit form hasn’t escaped, so the situation is probably still controllable.”
　　Wei Yin: “Didn’t that old bastard say he would send medicine?”
　　Shangyang: “I don’t know either. After you fell asleep, I slept too.”
　　Wei Yin frowned deeply and stared at the strange building in the distance. In the brief time he watched, several more sections of the wall bulged outward with bangs. One bulge was even human-shaped. Although each protrusion quickly smoothed away, more appeared in the next second.
　　Wei Yin watched for a while. For one instant he even thought the whole building might be smashed apart, but it was not.
　　“Forget it. Let’s sleep.” Wei Yin looked away.
　　Shangyang: “You’re not watching anymore?”
　　Wei Yin lay back down and stared at the holographic starry sky projected across the ceiling. “Mm. Watching makes me feel miserable.”
　　Shangyang fell silent too.
　　A while passed, but Wei Yin still could not sleep. His ears were full of the distant banging. Only after more than an hour did the sounds gradually quiet. Wei Yin sighed and finally closed his eyes.
　　The next morning, Wei Yin woke groggily and, the instant he opened his eyes, unexpectedly saw Major General Sain.
　　Major General Sain was still dressed casually, but there were many new injuries on him. Medicinal bandages covered both hands, bruises marked his face, and there were probably even more injuries hidden beneath his clothes.
　　“Good morning, Wei Yin.” Major General Sain acted as though nothing was wrong. He smiled in greeting and helped Wei Yin sit up.
　　Wei Yin sat at the edge of the bed with bare feet on the carpet, staring without blinking at Major General Sain’s injuries. There was even a trace of panic in his eyes.
　　“It’s all right. I bumped into something by accident,” Major General Sain explained. Then he knelt on one knee beside the bed, lifted Wei Yin’s foot onto his thigh, and put a sock on him.
　　The warmth of his fingertips brushed Wei Yin’s foot as the soft sock slowly slipped over it, like a tiny heater wrapping around his skin and making him want to narrow his eyes in comfort.
　　That warmth traveled all the way into Wei Yin’s heart. He had never imagined Major General Sain would personally put his socks on for him. Forget the Major General—even among ordinary couples, how many people cared for their partners in such minute detail?
　　Wei Yin lowered his head and looked at Major General Sain kneeling before him. The Major General’s head was bowed, allowing Wei Yin to see the whorl at his crown and the line of his profile. Just behind the cheekbone on one side was a small purple bruise.
　　Wei Yin stared at it for a while, then reached out and gently touched the bruise.
　　Major General Sain froze and looked up at Wei Yin.
　　Wei Yin looked heartbroken. “Lanser, hurts.”
　　“Lanser doesn’t hurt.” Hearing Wei Yin’s words, Major General Sain was delighted—this proved Wei Yin possessed ordinary knowledge and intelligence, and that saying his name earlier had not merely been “parroting.”
　　Major General Sain took Wei Yin’s hand and smiled. “These injuries will be gone by this afternoon. Let’s wash up and have breakfast. There are freshly picked strawberry fruits. Yesterday you only had the juice and didn’t get to eat the fruit, remember?”
　　Wei Yin seemed immediately distracted by the mention of strawberry fruit. He blinked, anticipation filling his eyes.
　　Major General Sain smiled again. After helping Wei Yin get ready, he brought him downstairs.
　　But the moment they reached the lower floor and Wei Yin saw other people, he returned to his wooden-puppet state. Major General Sain thought for a moment, then had Charlie and everyone else leave.
　　Sure enough, as soon as only the two of them remained, Wei Yin’s expression changed. First his eyes shifted around to confirm no one else was present. Then his gaze landed on the strawberry fruit in front of him. He did not reach for it, but instead turned to look at Major General Sain.
　　Major General Sain picked one up and handed it to him. “Go ahead.”
　　Wei Yin accepted it. Because he had gone so long without moving on his own, his motions were a little stiff. Afraid of dropping the fruit, he held it in both hands, brought it to his mouth, and took a forceful bite.
　　The strawberry fruit was too soft. With the way he lunged forward and bit like a chick pecking grain, juice immediately smeared all over his mouth.
　　Major General Sain gave a low laugh and picked up a napkin to wipe the juice away. Meeting Wei Yin’s bewildered, innocent eyes, his smile became even more genuine. “It’s all right. Keep eating.”
　　Wei Yin tilted his head, then extended the fruit toward Major General Sain. “Lanser, eat.”
　　Major General Sain froze. Two seconds later, he lowered his head and took a bite from the fruit. When he looked up again, even his eyes had softened. “Delicious.”
　　Wei Yin blinked, pulled the fruit back, took a bite himself, then offered it to Major General Sain again.
　　The two of them finished one fruit that way, taking alternating bites.
　　Shangyang: “…Do you really have to do this?”
　　Wei Yin: “Childlike. Pure. Kind. Understand? Director Yang, we have to be professional.”
　　Shangyang: “My titanium-alloy bird eyes can barely endure this.”
　　Wei Yin: “It’s fine. Go blind a few more times and you’ll get used to it.”
　　Shangyang: “…”
　　Author’s Note:
　　————————
　　I told you Film Emperor Wei is an idiot optimist with zero stored negative emotions. ╮(╯▽╰)╭
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　　[Easter Egg]
　　When I write the Major General taking care of Film Emperor Wei, it isn’t only because I want them to be all sweet and sticky together. (Fine, I do have a little selfish motive there.)
　　The serious reason:
　　As written in the novel, the Major General never treated Wei Yin as a chess piece or an object from the beginning. Once he noticed that Wei Yin might actually possess awareness, he became even more careful and protective.
　　On top of that, Wei Yin called his name during the day, which achieved a milestone. The Major General personally takes care of him like this because he does not want Wei Yin to become distant and unfamiliar with him again.
　　What does all this prove? It proves the Major General loves raising-simulation games. (Serious face.)