Brothers' Showdown

Liu Sui dealt with the mole outside who had been responsible for drawing him away, then strode back to the medical room with blood still staining his uniform. What he saw was his own brother holding the guide he was supposed to protect in his arms. Luo Ruzhuo rested quietly against Liu Qing's chest, her face pale, like a delicate, fragile doll.

Liu Sui's steps felt as though they had sunk into a swamp.

"Brother." He was calling out to Liu Qing, but his gaze was fixed on the hand wrapped around Luo Ruzhuo's waist. "Let me take her."

Liu Qing looked up at him without stopping what he was doing. "No need. I'm done."

The wound on the girl's finger and the cut on her wrist had been thoroughly bandaged, but Liu Qing's fingers remained on her wrist, checking her pulse.

"Do you like her?" Liu Qing asked.

The question came out of nowhere, but the understanding between the twins, one no outsider could share, allowed Liu Sui to grasp its hidden meaning at once.

"Yes." Liu Sui shifted his gaze from Luo Ruzhuo to his brother's eyes.

He made no attempt to hide it.

Even though they had spent many years apart, Liu Sui knew there was no one in the world closer to him than Liu Qing-

Because they were the only twins in the world who could share a Mental Domain, and even a Mental Entity.

Liu Sui had been born later, with a congenital deficiency, and his sentinel rank was only S. Growing up, Liu Qing had always looked after his younger brother. Whenever Liu Sui said he wanted something, Liu Qing would give it to him.

When the Firmament Squad was first established, its foundations were still relatively weak. The Sentinel Association demanded that the Firmament Squad send someone to assist them on an extremely dangerous, mysterious mission, and Liu Sui had originally been selected.

Liu Qing had stepped forward of his own accord and taken his brother's place on the mission.

Liu Sui knew how much his brother had given way to him, and he usually repaid Liu Qing's care many times over.

That was also why he didn't want to hide it from him, nor did he want to give way when it came to a guide he was attracted to.

"My mission is to protect her. I was late this time. Thank you, brother." After thanking him, Liu Sui stepped forward and reached out to take Luo Ruzhuo.

Liu Qing opened his mouth but hadn't made a move.

Just then, Luo Ruzhuo's eyes refocused on her surroundings.

She had finally managed to see most of the sentinel's tangled memories before he died, and her consciousness had just emerged from that long river of memories.

Then she discovered that Liu Qing was holding her, his long black hair falling into her lap with a smooth, satiny sheen.

And standing in front of her was another man with long, silvery-white hair.

Their black and silver hair intertwined and fell across her face, smooth and ticklish.

Two identical faces: one right beside her, the other right before her eyes.

After processing all those memories, Luo Ruzhuo's brain briefly shut down.

"...What's going on?" she asked.

The brothers silently agreed to cover up their earlier conversation.

Liu Sui apologized first.

"Sorry, I'm late." He briefly explained the situation with the mole, and the blood on his clothes showed that the other one had most likely gone down to keep this one company.

Then he told her a little about Liu Qing. Only then did Luo Ruzhuo remember that, from her perspective, she wasn't supposed to have met Liu Qing.

She had never met him, and yet he was holding her in his arms.

Luo Ruzhuo hurriedly struggled free and turned to glare fiercely at Liu Qing.

Damn handsy sentinel.

He keeps ruining things for me, too.

But when she recalled what she had seen in the memories, Luo Ruzhuo hesitated over whether to tell Liu Sui the information concerning the Firmament Squad.

From what she had seen in the memories, the assassins' objective this time wasn't just to kill her.

After all, she had only recently met the Firmament Squad, while the two moles had been there for years... However she looked at it, it couldn't be possible, could it?

Luo Ruzhuo thought for a moment, remembering that she still had to stay for a long time to treat Xianzhu, and that she had no way to explain how she knew at present.

Forget it. I'll bring it up later.

Before long, Liu Sui's optical computer rang.

"The sentinels who were unconscious have woken up too." Liu Sui checked Luo Ruzhuo's injuries once more, then, to prevent his brother from taking advantage of his absence, promptly put her in a medical pod.

Through the glass of the medical pod, Luo Ruzhuo heard him say, "I'll go deal with the aftermath. My brother will protect you outside. If anything happens, remember to contact me on your optical computer."

With that, he hurried away.

Before leaving, he stopped and glanced back at Liu Qing.

The glance was subtle, and Luo Ruzhuo, who had withdrawn her mental power, naturally didn't notice it. But Liu Qing, its intended recipient, clearly did. He raised his eyes and stared straight back.

It was as though they had exchanged some secret signal known only to the two of them.

After the contamination protection device was reactivated, the starship resumed its planned course. It would take approximately three more days to reach the Firmament Squad's base.

Over those three days, Luo Ruzhuo's life suddenly became crowded.

The first to appear was Liu Sui.

As the outpost detachment's adjutant, he still had a great deal of follow-up work to handle after the protection device was repaired, keeping him so busy he barely had a moment to stop. But no matter how busy he was, Luo Ruzhuo always found Liu Sui showing up at mealtimes.

He appeared at the door of her cabin, carrying several food trays.

Luo Ruzhuo had intended to refuse, but the food Liu Sui brought... was tastier than what the robot delivered when she ordered.

Unable to betray her stomach, she took a bite of the authentic Beijing zhajiang noodles and the accompanying roast duck pancakes. The noodles were springy and coated in a rich sauce, filling her mouth with its savory flavor. The roast duck was crisp, and the pancakes had thoughtfully been filled with sweet bean sauce, scallion strips, and cucumber strips. It tasted just like what she had eaten before the apocalypse.

After finishing, Luo Ruzhuo looked at him in surprise.

Liu Sui was looking down at the to-do list on his wrist-mounted optical computer. Sensing her gaze, his fingers paused. "Does it taste wrong?"

"It tastes exactly right." Luo Ruzhuo had wanted to ask for a while. "Why do you know how to make ancient Chinese food?"

And with such authentic flavors, too.

There was little expression on Liu Sui's face, which was as impassive as the rest of him. "My brother and I are orphans. The person who adopted us was a chef at an ancient Chinese restaurant. We learned a little growing up."

Luo Ruzhuo was no longer surprised. She had also wanted to ask where he found the time to make such complicated food, but looking at his aloof face and the densely packed task list on his optical computer screen, she swallowed the question.

The second person to appear was Liu Qing.

By the time Luo Ruzhuo noticed him, he had already been standing in the corridor outside her cabin for two hours.

"What are you standing here for?" Luo Ruzhuo frowned, her already poor impression of him growing even worse.

"I'm sorry." Liu Qing handed her a chip. "That day... I didn't mean to."

He spoke slowly, like someone who had spent a long time in seclusion and rarely communicated with others. "...You looked awful at the time. I thought you were feeling terrible."

"This is a summary of my combat experience."

At that, Luo Ruzhuo's eyes lit up.

Leaning against the door, she looked the man up and down. He had the same face as Liu Sui, but a completely different bearing.

Liu Qing had a stronger presence than Liu Sui. Though they looked alike, their builds were somewhat different. Perhaps because he had spent years fighting contamination in the field, his muscles were especially solid, full of coiled power.

Luo Ruzhuo recalled Liu Qing's fights against the contamination and the mole: precise, ruthless, without a single wasted movement. Every strike was a model of violent artistry. Combat skills of that caliber were indeed worth learning.

Luo Ruzhuo promptly took the chip from Liu Qing's hand. "All right, I accept your apology."

She paid back every slight, but she also believed in exchanging benefits. Luo Ruzhuo would not refuse anything that could improve her strength.

Later, because there were things on the chip she didn't understand, Luo Ruzhuo took the initiative to seek Liu Qing out several times.

Once the training pod's door closed, Luo Ruzhuo understood that even free sparring practice didn't come easily.

Liu Qing didn't go easy on her because she was a guide. Every move he made precisely exposed a weakness in her attacks. After several sparring sessions, Luo Ruzhuo finally found an opening in Liu Qing's defenses on her eighth attempt and used leverage and strength to flip him over.

The third person to appear caught Luo Ruzhuo somewhat by surprise.

The cabin door opened, and the person who entered wore a modern Chinese-style outfit embroidered with bamboo. A gentle, courteous smile on his face, he was none other than Lin Sheng, whom she hadn't seen in a long time.

"I heard you were injured." He looked somewhat apologetic. "I'm sorry, I've been very busy lately... I failed in my duty to protect you."

"That was never your responsibility," Luo Ruzhuo said mildly.

Lin Sheng had previously hinted that Luo Ruzhuo shouldn't come. She had come of her own accord.

"Regardless, I wasn't there. This is some nourishing soup I simmered. I'd also like to apologize to you on behalf of the entire logistics detachment."

Lin Sheng then gave her a general explanation of why he hadn't appeared for so long.

The reason was simple: because of the incident in which the moles caused them to stray into a contamination zone, Captain Xianzhu's aberration had worsened again.

They had been run ragged lately, contacting personnel at the base to reinforce the cage while trying every possible way to reduce the captain's contamination.

"At present, the captain..." Lin Sheng opened his mouth and ultimately decided to tell Luo Ruzhuo the truth. "His appearance has completely transformed into that of a dragon."

"His aberration rate has reached 80 percent. Only some of his internal organs haven't completely transformed."

To be honest, with an aberration rate that high, Lin Sheng and the others had already given up hope.

But no matter what, even if Xianzhu truly transformed into a monster, they would still take him to their destination.

The cage made of that special material was both a way to protect the guide and a hope for curing the captain.

It was also the grave Xianzhu himself had built for himself.