Recap
Long Shiyu said, “You seem to always want to learn about the Throne… If you want, I can take you to see it.”
Shen Zhaomu paused for a moment, “So the Throne really exists as a physical entity?”
“It’s hard to define. You’ll see when we go. Anytime, really. After all, you’re my consort now.”
Shen Zhaomu chuckled softly, his voice slightly hoarse. “…So, what can a consort do?”
There was no response for a while.
Shen Zhaomu turned to look, and Long Shiyu had already fallen fast asleep.
Shen Zhaomu: “…”
On the first day, and already sent to the cold palace.
Long Shiyu set an alarm for 7 AM and, yawning, walked into the bathroom to brush his teeth.
Shen Zhaomu, as usual, woke up early and was already preparing to head to the association. He was a bit surprised when he saw Long Shiyu up. “How come you’re up so early today?”
“Got to work at the fruit shop,” Long Shiyu yawned again, “I promised the shopkeeper I’d work six days.”
“Keeping promises is a good thing, but are the fruits there really that good?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
“I guessed.”
Today, there was an internal meeting at the association. Shen Zhaomu changed into formal attire and was adjusting his tie in front of the mirror when Long Shiyu came over, ready to put on his plush T-Rex costume.
Shen Zhaomu glanced at him, “You’re wearing that now?”
“Yeah, I didn’t return it yesterday since I was in a hurry. Didn’t want to carry it around on the way.” Long Shiyu started putting on the dinosaur suit, and after some effort, zipped it up. The grinning T-Rex appeared again.
Shen Zhaomu straightened his clothes again. Long Shiyu looked at him and said, “…Sorry, I’ve been hiding these things from you. Are you still mad?”
Shen Zhaomu was a bit surprised, raising an eyebrow. “So you’ve finally had a conscience? If I said I’m still angry, would I get some compensation?”
“I… I can tell you a bedtime story.”
Shen Zhaomu: “…”
He really wanted to know how pure the fairy tales he used to give Long Shiyu were, that Long Shiyu had stayed on the children’s channel all this time.
Before leaving, Shen Zhaomu grabbed the T-Rex’s head and bent down to kiss Long Shiyu.
Then the shy dragon went running off, while the T-Rex head swayed humorously in the air.
At the shop, the shopkeeper looked at him and asked, “Why are you so happy today? Did you make up with your friend?”
“Yeah.” Long Shiyu nodded.
“I knew it, there’s nothing that can’t be solved by talking things out,” the shopkeeper said, clearly happy for him. “Come on, come on, try the fresh peaches we just got.”
With the cooperation of the star police, the Hunter Association had been tracking down mercenaries in Mestan for several days. Shen Zhaomu had been busy too, so when he finally had a free day, Long Shiyu was still working at the fruit shop, and the others were there as well.
Fang Qing was mumbling to himself while studying his poisons, and Song Qianqian was playing cards with Li Jianchun and Lu Shanhuai. Shen Zhaomu had just come back, sat on the nearby sofa to reply to messages, and then cleared his throat. “I need to talk to you guys about something.”
It was rare for him to speak like this, so the others all looked at him, and even Fang Qing miraculously stopped his research.
Shen Zhaomu said, “Long Shiyu and I are together.”
Everyone: “…” Then they all went back to their business.
Shen Zhaomu: “…Why is there no reaction?”
Song Qianqian flicked her high ponytail and said disdainfully, “It’s just a rotten old melon being eaten again. Who cares?”
“We really are together. I already explained the situation to you all, our identities were fake. At that time, we didn’t…”
This time, Fang Qing couldn’t hold it in anymore. “So, all the dog food I’ve been eating these past few months was wasted? You’ve been bringing that dog into the house to kill, and now you’re pretending to be innocent. You two are stuck together all day, sharing one bed… What else haven’t you done?”
“Really nothing…” Shen Zhaomu said honestly.
He was still stuck in the cold palace.
But the others clearly didn’t believe him, so they all returned to what they were doing.
After Shen Zhaomu finished up his work, Long Shiyu had just finished working at the fruit shop.
He was snuggled up in their room, carefully placing the 1800 credits in a new treasure chest for the evil dragon. He hadn’t gotten the old chest from Star City yet, so he was using a candy tin for now.
He hadn’t decided what to buy for the princess with that money.
After all, he couldn’t afford anything too expensive, and anything too cheap wouldn’t feel meaningful. Unlike him, Shen Zhaomu didn’t have such a strong passion for food, so inviting him to a candlelit dinner might work.
Long Shiyu started to miss the treasure vault again. He wondered when Shen Zhaomu would be done with his work and take him to find that small planet.
Shen Zhaomu walked in and asked, “Do you have time today?”
“Yeah, where are we going?”
“To Nancy Hospital.”
It was the last place Shen Xing had stayed before her death.
The Alliance’s public hospital was bustling with people. The old site of Nancy Hospital had been hidden deep within this area and had been turned into a nursing home.
Between the hospital and the nursing home, there was a large garden with beautiful scenery. If they didn’t take a vehicle, it would take over half an hour to walk through.
Long Shiyu’s gaze fell on the flowers, as if searching for something.
Shen Zhaomu coughed lightly and said, “You’re not allowed to pick the flowers here.”
“Okay…” Long Shiyu replied, sounding a little disappointed.
With no time pressure, they slowly walked through the garden.
Long Shiyu said, “This place reminds me of the Sky Garden in Tower Step.”
“It’s somewhat similar, but the variety of plants here is far inferior.”
“By the way, what’s become of the Sky Garden now? Is Yang Zhiming still at Tower Step?”
“The Alliance has taken over the management of it. I haven’t really looked into the specifics, but the stealth systems and the robot designs there are very valuable. After further research, it might turn into a tourist destination.” Shen Zhaomu said, “Yang Zhiming is still tinkering with the Xijia project. He told me a while ago that the dwarves actually have a lot of ‘divine birds’ like Xijia, just much smaller in size.”
As they continued walking, they eventually arrived at the nursing home.
Mestan was economically prosperous, with high taxes. The government had provided significant subsidies to the nursing home. The environment was elegant, with a few elderly people, accompanied by robots, quietly basking in the sun. There were two old men playing chess, surrounded by a group of people pointing and commenting, which made their necks go red in anger.
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In the distance, it seemed like a group of elderly people were having a meal, holding bowls of porridge and snacks, creating a lively scene.
Shen Zhaomu said, “Every Sunday, regardless of whether they’re residents here, anyone over 70 can come and get free food.”
Long Shiyu’s eyes lit up. “I have several seventy years old, how many portions can I get?”
Shen Zhaomu: “…” He quickly pulled Long Shiyu into the nursing home.
The receptionist saw them and asked, “Who are you looking for?”
“We’re not looking for anyone,” Shen Zhaomu showed his hunter’s badge, “We’d like to investigate something.”
The receptionist looked startled. “Do we have any strange beasts here?”
“No, it’s unrelated to that. Do you still have records of Nancy Hospital?”
“…Nancy Hospital? Well… I don’t think so.” The receptionist took a moment to recall and looked puzzled. “I’m not sure, but maybe there are some old files in the archive room, located in the west building’s basement.”
With the badge, they had no trouble moving through the nursing home. They passed long hallways, with light white curtains swaying in the breeze, and saw a few elderly women dancing downstairs.
They descended the stairs and entered the dimly lit archive room. A wooden table was illuminated by a faint light, and an old man sat in a chair, dozing off, snoring loudly, with his bald head reflecting the light.
Shen Zhaomu approached him. “Hello.”
No response.
“Hello,” he raised his voice slightly.
The old man slowly woke up in a daze, blinking his eyes. “Wh-what’s going on?”
Shen Zhaomu showed his hunter’s badge again. “I’m looking for records from Nancy Hospital.”
“Nancy… Hospital?” The old man seemed groggy. He tapped his head and thought for a moment before saying, “I think we still have some. I’ll go look for them.”
Such old records had been shoved into the farthest corner. The old man rummaged around for nearly half an hour before finally opening a small room at the back of the archive.
“I think this is all the information we could find. I’ll give you access.”
The old man fiddled with the terminal and granted them access to the files, then returned to his chair to resume his nap.
They couldn’t take the materials with them, so Long Shiyu fetched two chairs, and they sat together in the dim room, carefully looking through the files. Shen Zhaomu searched for “Shen Xing,” and sure enough, relevant records appeared.
According to the hospital’s records, Shen Xing had visited three times in total. The first time was for severe frostbite and fractures—likely when her spaceship encountered an accident in space, and she had no choice but to come to Mestan to heal and prepare for a new journey.
However, things didn’t go as planned, and Mestan turned out to be the final stop in her journey.
With today’s technology, frostbite and fractures were minor issues. She was only hospitalized for three or four days before she left.
The second visit showed a diagnosis of neurasthenia and suspected depression.
“The patient has been under long-term stress and pressure, cause unknown, recommended to undergo psychological treatment.”
“The patient’s spiritual condition is very unusual, as she seems to respond to sounds at different frequencies. No direct connection to her spiritual stress has been found. It is possible that the noisy environment is the cause.”
The prescription indicated anti-anxiety medication.
The test results showed Shen Xing’s reactions to different sounds, including sources beyond the human hearing range. It was hard to imagine what the world sounded like to her—it must have been chaotic and overwhelming.
The final visit was for a serious injury, with the diagnosis clearly stating it was caused by a strange beast.
It was in the year 2125.
Shen Chaomu subconsciously deduced the time. The time he saw in the light rain was 2144. He was 23 years old at that time, which means he was 4 years old at this time. He checked the alliance records and did not write down this time, there were any strange beasts in Meistan.
No matter what, he is a member of the Shen family, and he can travel alone in space for so long. Shen Xing’s strength is definitely not an idle generation. Even if her mental state is extremely poor, it is hard to imagine any ordinary strange beast that can seriously injure her.
The elder of the family told him before that Shen Xing’s last record was in Nancy Hospital. He also thought that she finally died of illness here, but after turning over the information, he saw Shen Xing’s discharge record.
At that time, Shen Xing’s injury had not healed, and she had to change dressings and check-ups every once in a while, but she insisted on being discharged.
The doctor couldn’t persuade her, so he could only ask her to inform the hospital of her next itinerary according to the laws of the alliance, so as to ensure that she could find other hospitals in time. Shen Xing did list the itinerary, and soon received the schedule given by the hospital: They listed the number of days and the addresses of the hospitals they should go to.
This schedule is still preserved today.
For the first two items, other hospitals have confirmed the arrival of patients on the schedule.
Until the seventeenth day.
She never appeared again after that.
According to the itinerary, Shen Xing should have gone to the Xino area.
Long Shiyu asked: “Do you want to go there and have a look?”
“Yeah.”
They took the air train to the Xino area.
This feeling is very strange. It was the first time that Shen Chaomu looked for traces left by a person in this way, not a strange beast. After so many years, the traces she left are so ethereal, there are only a few lines on the medical records, no one knows what kind of life they carry behind them.
In the car, the skylight streams through the large windows.
Shen Chaomu suddenly asked: “Is the person Buck mentioned me?”
He was referring to the Shen family member who died protecting Akasa Mo.
Long Shiyu was stunned for a moment.
Then he whispered: “…Yes, I was too weak at that time.”
“Then you looked for me for a long time?”
“Yes, I’ve been looking for you. But I’m not good at finding people, and I don’t know if you will come back, or when.” Long Shiyu said, “In the end, you found me.”
For a while, Shen Chaomu was speechless.
As a human being, he couldn’t imagine what the concept of searching for nine hundred years was like.
But Long Shiyu’s attention was no longer on this, he asked: “Do you like candlelight dinners?”
After thinking about it, this gift is more romantic.
Shen Chaomu was originally lukewarm to this kind of thing. But the silly dragon was thinking so hard about it, he could see it at a glance. He said: “I like the kind I eat with you.”
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The author has something to say: Daily whimper (1/1) I like to eat with you, and then eat you ——The inner activity of the little princess in the cold palace
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