Read Novel Full Chapter 175 - Pomegranate Flavored Sentinel Gong (16)
Chapter 175 - Pomegranate Flavored Sentinel Gong (16)
Translated by Hua Li ^_~
After five wormhole jumps, the starship entered the Central Star Domain.
This time, without anyone reminding him, the first thing Commander Xiang did every morning was shave. Looking at himself in the mirror, he thought he looked quite handsome and sent his wife numerous selfies, attempting to enter his wife’s elite list of beautiful appearances.
The result was naturally frequent rejection.
Gou Liang watched with amusement and said with a smile to Xiang Muchuan: “Dad and mom, their feelings are truly wonderful.”
“No need to envy them.”
Xiang Muchuan said this while kissing his cheek.
Commander Xiang’s wife, who was on a call with the Commander, covered her mouth and exclaimed, then urged her husband like a devoted fan to turn the communication camera toward their son and daughter-in-law. She watched with a beaming smile as Xiang Muchuan and Gou Liang embraced each other. Her infatuated expression was completely different from the cold, queenly demeanor she had shown toward Commander Xiang just moments before.
Well, the world of beauty lovers is indeed that straightforward!
The news of the Xiang family’s triumphant return was not concealed. The star port was surrounded by crowds of people who came to greet them and interview them, with not a drop of water able to seep through.
Commander Xiang waved to the enthusiastic citizens, but when he mentioned that his son and the young guide had left early to prepare for the wedding, the cheers dropped several hundred decibels, causing the self-proclaimed heartthrob Commander Xiang to feel a pang of disappointment.
Turning back to complain to his wife, she honestly replied: “The thing I’m most proud of in my life is that my son looks like me, not like you.”
Commander Xiang: “…”
Seeing him with a sullen tough-guy expression, Commander Xiang’s wife quickly used Gou Liang to “wash her eyes,” setting Commander Xiang aside and continuing with her previous topic.
She was discussing wedding attire with Gou Liang. The only requirement Gou Liang had for this wedding was that he prepare the wedding clothes himself. While Commander Xiang’s wife didn’t object verbally, she secretly prepared several sets of backup wedding clothes as contingencies.
After all, the wedding was only three days away, and the matter of wedding attire could not be taken lightly.
Seeing that Gou Liang still insisted on handling it himself, she introduced him to designers and their works she had selected, wanting to give him some reference.
Just as they were getting into the discussion, the butler hurried over.
After greeting all four, he said: “Commander, Young Commander. There’s a hacker online exposing private information about Yuan-shao. Our communications team is no match for him. We currently cannot completely block the information. We can only keep deleting the messages he sends to prevent them from spreading, but we won’t be able to stop him for long.”
“What news?”
No matter how much effort the Xiang family put into public relations, they couldn’t stop public attention. Any search for “Yuan Wang” online brought up trending posts that were all character assassinations. Even Gou Liang himself had grown accustomed to it.
But a piece of news that could make the butler look this grave was definitely not just some harmless online complaints.
The butler was concise: “The informant claims that Young Master Yuan underwent genetic mapping modifications twice and participated in illegal experiments.”
“Genetic modification?”
Commander Xiang and his wife were startled.
Genetic modification was a very serious crime in the Empire, even more severely punished than abortion-related crimes.
This was because when the Free Federation rebelled, the vanguard consisted of genetically modified humans, which caused the Empire significant losses.
They were a batch of genetically modified A+ class sentinels with formidable combat power, but they had severe defects in intelligence and personality. They exhibited extremely cruel antisocial tendencies and had become killing machines. The Free Federation used them to commit massive slaughter on the Empire’s capital star, specifically targeting political figures, causing many families to be destroyed.
Even the Emperor of that era was killed by these modified humans.
Afterward, the Free Federation itself was caught in the backlash and had to discontinue the experiment, forcibly recovering these experimental subjects.
Therefore, both Empire citizens and Federation citizens were extremely secretive about genetically modified humans. The Empire’s laws explicitly prohibited any human genetic modification experiments, and any related experimental subjects were considered illegal and destroyed immediately upon verification.
If this was just a frame-up, with the Xiang family’s status, it would be a fool’s dream for someone to try to drag Gou Liang into the water. But if it was…
Thinking this, Gou Liang’s parents-in-law exchanged a glance and instinctively looked to Gou Liang for confirmation.
Before Gou Liang could respond, Xiang Muchuan immediately denied it: “Xiao Keng’er has never participated in such experiments.”
Having already achieved spiritual fusion with Gou Liang, no one in this world was in a better position than him to clear Gou Liang’s name.
Hearing this, Commander Xiang and his wife were reassured. Seeing their son open a terminal to deal with the malicious hacker, they had the butler release the allegations.
—— They wanted to see what that informant could conjure out of nothing.
Meanwhile, Xiang Muchuan quickly locked onto the mysterious hacker and began decrypting the other party’s firewall.
【Xiaosi: Ma-master, I can’t hold on much longer.】
【Gou Liang: Has Benjamin received the message?】
【Xiaosi: He just received it.】
【Gou Liang: Hold on a bit longer… Remember to move faster when you escape, good.】
【Xiaosi: QAQ.】
Meanwhile, on the pirate starship.
Benjamin, who intercepted the hacker’s big expose, was also opening the video.
“Speak up. Who do you want to report?”
“Yuan Wang.”
The previously indifferent Benjamin immediately perked up hearing this keyword.
He had only been curious about what news could cause the Xiang family to react so dramatically, but he didn’t expect the person being exposed to be his little darling. This was interesting indeed.
This was a video captured by surveillance, filmed forty-one days ago in the afternoon in an interrogation room on a prison planet in the Twelve Star Domain.
The informant was a bald old man in a gray prison uniform. Even after so many years, Benjamin recognized him at a glance.
This old thing was once a fairly renowned psychologist on Blue Water Star. Benjamin hated those eyes of his that claimed to see through people’s hearts. What left a deep impression on Benjamin was Kenny’s unknown evil deed—he would hypnotize his clients before they died to uncover secrets that should have been taken to the grave.
He had once laid hands on “Kemi” when he was dying, but was counter-hypnotized by Benjamin, who extracted quite a bit of information from him.
This old pervert had also hypnotized female patients multiple times to engage in sordid acts. Although Benjamin hadn’t paid attention to his recent circumstances, seeing him reduced to a prisoner didn’t surprise him at all.
At this moment, he was reporting others’ crimes in an attempt to reduce his sentence.
“Yuan Wang? Which Yuan Wang are you talking about?”
Upon hearing who Kenny wanted to report, the interrogator’s tone changed.
Old Kenny nodded and said: “The second young master of the Yuan family on Blue Water Star. I didn’t expect him to actually awaken and become Young Commander Xiang Muchuan’s 100% matching guide. But there’s something I hope you can report to the Xiang family to keep them from being deceived.”
“What is it?”
The interrogator was somewhat moved.
Benjamin was also interested, but when he heard Kenny’s next sentence, his face suddenly changed.
Only hearing Kenny say:
“Yuan Wang is not an ordinary person. He is a genetically modified human.”
Jack Litt, who was assembling a laser gun nearby, suddenly looked over, and the interrogator in the video was no less shocked than they were.
“What?!”
The interrogator’s face went pale. “You can eat anything, but don’t speak carelessly. You say Yuan Wang is a modified human—what evidence do you have?”
Kenny said confidently: “I used to be a psychological advisor to old Mr. Yuan. Before he passed away, I hypnotized him and heard him say with his own mouth that Yuan Wang had been genetically modified by someone called Kemi!”
When Benjamin heard him accuse Yuan Wang, he had already suspected as much.
But hearing it from Kenny, he still frowned tightly—old Mr. Yuan had possessed no small number of secrets about him. If those secrets that should have been buried with the old bastard were also known by this privacy-violating old thing… Benjamin immediately arranged for someone to dispose of this hidden danger.
Jack, seeing him with a grim expression, secretly wondered if Kenny and he had some history, since a single sentence could provoke the other party so much.
Meanwhile, Kenny in the video was still fearlessly speaking, pouring out “Yuan Wang’s secrets” without end.
“Yuan Wang was originally mute. He could only speak after his genetic map was rewritten. However, he is also a failed product among genetically modified humans. Besides being able to speak, he has many post-modification sequelae, such as stuttering, an ugly appearance, emotional numbness, delayed intellectual development…”
Kenny said: “But after Kemi’s death, Yuan Wang received a huge shock. Old Mr. Yuan gradually discovered the differences between this grandson of his and other genetically modified humans.”
“His personality is also very strange, but not aggressive—just excessively cold and unwilling to get close to people. More importantly, he doesn’t have intellectual problems. Quite the contrary, he is so intelligent but lacks the ability to express himself, so he appears to be half a beat slower than others in everything he does.”
Kenny recalled: “Yuan Wang has tremendous talent in pharmacy. Old Mr. Yuan once secretly used a medicine Yuan Wang had used for testing. It was a disguise medicine with very powerful effects—it could reshape a person’s appearance into someone else’s in just one or two minutes, almost perfectly. At that time, Yuan Wang was only twelve or thirteen years old, which shows how successful his modification was.”
Hearing this, Benjamin was extremely surprised.
Yuan Wang could be said to be his most successful modification product, but also his most failed one.
He wasn’t like those other modified humans—short-lived and violent. But his bland, unremarkable appearance was truly disappointing.
He hadn’t expected that after he left, the aftereffects of the genetic modification would manifest…
Stroking his chin, he was even more curious about what his personally crafted little darling had grown into now.
“After that, old Mr. Yuan kept researching Yuan Wang’s genetic map, trying to replicate such genetically modified humans, but failed.”
Seeing the interrogator’s impatient expression, Kenny quickly got to the point: “The important thing is that before old Mr. Yuan died, he also discovered that Yuan Wang was conducting secret experiments trying to modify his own genes!”
“Old Mr. Yuan observed in secret and accidentally discovered that he even had telekinetic abilities.”
Kenny said excitedly: “After that, old Mr. Yuan locked him up, trying to figure out how he developed such abilities. Although he didn’t succeed, he discovered that Yuan Wang’s second self-modification was successful—he even changed his own face—”
“Is that all you wanted to say?”
The interrogator impatiently cut him off: “Fine, I understand the situation you’re reporting.”
Old Kenny, knowing human nature well, could tell at a glance that he didn’t believe what he was saying and anxiously said: “Commander, everything I said is true, believe me—”
“You’re serving a life sentence precisely because you’re too good at lying. You’d better shut up.”
The interrogator cut off the conversation with a harsh tone.
At this moment, the person assigned to dispose of Kenny reported back.
It turned out the old guy had died a month ago, shot dead on the spot during an escape attempt. Not only that, but the prison guard responsible for interrogating him also died in the chaos.
Wasn’t this too much of a coincidence…
While pondering this, the terminal emitted a sharp alarm!
Benjamin was startled and immediately cut off the investigation.
Jack, who had been pondering how credible it was that Yuan Wag was a genetically modified human, suddenly became alert: “Someone traced us here?”
“It should be the Xiang family following this video virus. To be safe, we leave immediately.”
Benjamin put away his usual smile, detached the terminal and tossed it into space through the garbage chute. He immediately left the Nelson Star System with Jack at high speed.
“It’s him.”
Xiang Muchuan, who had successfully infiltrated, had already captured images of Benjamin and Jack during their brief exchange.
Commander Xiang saw the disfigured person in the screenshot and his face changed at once. He stepped forward in disbelief to look closer, then said solemnly: “These are scars that only space erosion could leave. This person is indeed Jack Litt.”
He had previously thought it was merely a rumor that S-class sentinels could walk alone in space, but it turned out to be true.
Xiang Muchuan had already contacted Yao Zicong, who was stationed on Nelson, and asked him to immediately go to the address he had located to capture Jack. However, he also knew that given the other party’s sharp reaction to cutting off communications and infiltrating, the possibility of them waiting to die in place was extremely low.
“Lock down all star ports on Nelson. Find Jack Litt at all costs.”
“Yes, Young Commander.”
After receiving the order, Yao Zicong couldn’t help but curse: “Damn it, this kid’s got some luck. We still can’t kill him!”
Xiang Muchuan then sent the screenshot to Yao Zicong and had him investigate who the person with Jack was.
At this moment, Gou Liang spoke: “I, I kn-know him.”
Xiang Muchuan and Commander Xiang were momentarily stunned and looked over.
“You, you d-don’t remember?”
Gou Liang immediately transmitted information through spiritual resonance to Xiang Muchuan—that the other person was the male guide they had encountered at the lingerie shop on Free Star.
This was unexpected for Xiang Muchuan.
Back in the lingerie shop, his mind had been entirely on Gou Liang. As for the male and female guides competing over special lingerie, he hadn’t given them a second glance, so he hadn’t recognized Benjamin.
But after being reminded by Gou Liang, he immediately recalled being sold out to Jack by old Mike, and immediately had someone bring old Mike in for interrogation and contacted the professor to verify this person’s identity.
Seeing him arrange everything in an orderly manner, Commander Xiang brought up the matter of the video and asked Gou Liang what he thought of Kenny’s claims.
Gou Liang thought for a moment and told them: “I d-don’t kn-know how Grand-Grandpa K-Kemi he-healed me.”
He paused, then continued: “I, indeed, have the ab-ability to m-modify genetic m-maps. But I d-don’t remember, m-modifying myself.”
He looked at Commander Xiang’s wife and Commander Xiang, then looked toward Xiang Muchuan and calmly analyzed: “If, what he s-said, is tr-true. I, m-might, have l-lost my, m-memory, during Grand-Grandpa’s exp-periment.”
“It doesn’t matter. This isn’t important.”
Xiang Muchuan touched his head to let him relax.
Commander Xiang’s wife said softly: “When Mr. Kemi was treating Xiaowang, he was only two or three years old. It’s normal not to remember. It’s what happened afterwards…”
Seeing Gou Liang looking at her anxiously, Commander Xiang’s wife quickly changed the subject: “Xiaowang, you don’t need to feel pressured. We accept who you are now.”
Even if Gou Liang had truly undergone a second genetic modification, as long as it didn’t affect his health, the Xiang family didn’t mind.
After all, Xiang Muchuan had already achieved spiritual fusion with him. They were completely transparent to each other, and his parents had confidence in their son’s judgment and Gou Liang’s character.
Commander Xiang then asked: “What he said about telekinesis…”
Before he could finish, they saw a vial of medicine suddenly appear in Gou Liang’s hand, and the couple opened their eyes wide in surprise.
Xiang Muchuan explained for him: “Yuanwang has a special spatial domain. The last time Walker attacked him, he escaped precisely because of this. In his memory, this object came from Kemi’s belongings and has nothing to do with genetic modification.”
Seeing that Xiang Muchuan had everything figured out, the Xiang couple didn’t ask further questions. They only cautioned Gou Liang not to randomly expose the existence of the space in front of others and to be more careful about everything.
Gou Liang took the advice to heart.
Ten minutes later, old Mike, who had been given a truth serum, revealed the existence of Benjamin.
“Benjamin?”
Commander Xiang took a moment to remember who this person was.
Old Mike had known Benjamin for over fifty years but didn’t know much about him, only that he was someone with considerable power in the Federation.
By a lucky coincidence, he had once recognized his elusive boss impersonating Benjamin, the guide son of the Federation Prime Minister, and became more cautious. After secretly investigating for several years, he learned that the Prime Minister’s son Benjamin had suffered a serious illness when he was thirteen. Death had already been pronounced, but miraculously he survived and awakened as a guide.
Old Mike had some inkling of his boss’s methods and believed he had replaced Benjamin at this point, not knowing that he himself was the Prime Minister’s uncle.
From this perspective, the One-Eyed Pirate Group was merely Benjamin’s improvisation, but from just this tip of the iceberg, it was clear this person was not easy to deal with.
Commander Xiang sighed: “It seems he should already be an S-class guide. Tsk tsk, really hiding his strength well. Are guides these days all this capable?”
“Ahem.”
Commander Xiang’s wife from the other end of the communication gave him a look.
Commander Xiang laughed awkwardly. By heaven and earth, what he meant was absolutely not derogatory.
Forgive his ignorance—he never expected to meet two S-class guides all at once. His daughter-in-law’s talent and youth went without saying, and look at this one, who became a pirate captain instead.
Only the system, having seen through the vanities of the world, expressed: Two Benjamins combined don’t have as much drama as his dear master (:зゝ∠).
Gou Liang, who had accomplished three things with one arrow, hid his merits and fame, and offered it a composed smile.
Two days later.
Xiang Muchuan updated his star blog with behind-the-scenes footage from their freshly shot wedding photos.
Xiang Muchuan: Looking forward to spending every second of the future with you. 【Behind-the-scenes holographic video】// @Yuan Wang V: 00 days 13 hours 27 minutes 10 seconds.