Chapter 55
"Okay, I'll be right there." Emilida responded, patted the heads of the two little boys in her arms, and said, "Xiuyuan, Kou Da, let's go watch TV. Her Majesty the Queen is being crowned today!"
"Mom, what is a coronation?" a boy asked.
"Stupid, Aunt Serinda is going to be the emperor!" said another boy who looked exactly like her. He immediately turned to Emrida for confirmation and asked, "Am I right, Mom?"
"Yeah, yes, Xiuyuan is really smart." Emilida kissed his cheek, then picked up another boy named Kou Da and asked, "Does Kou Da know what an emperor is?"
Kou Da checked his fingertips and said uncertainly, "He is the most powerful person in the empire, right?"
Xiu Yuan retorted, "No, Uncle Rong is the most powerful one! Aunt Serinda is so stupid. She lost to me when we played Arrow's Adventure together last time! She is not powerful at all!"
"Well, to some extent, the emperor is indeed the most powerful person in this country!" Emilida held Xiuyuan's hand and walked into the castle while saying, "Uncle Rong is the most powerful in another way. They are different."
"What's the difference?" Xiu Yuan asked unconvincedly, "After Aunt Serinda becomes the emperor, can she defeat Arrow's Adventure?"
"Well... probably not." Emilida said: "But, she can make countless people who can win listen to her!"
"Wow——" The two children opened their mouths wide with longing expressions.
When they reached the door, the man picked up Xiuyuan as well, and they walked into the living room. On the crystal screen hanging on the wall, the world-renowned ceremony in front of the Ice Palace was being broadcasted. Serinda, dressed in gorgeous attire, walked up to the stage step by step, took the crown from the golden plate held by the etiquette officer, put it on her head, then turned around and looked at everyone in the audience, as if they were also looking at them on the other side of the TV. She smiled slightly and began her inaugural speech.
Amirida's eyes were slightly dazed, and her thoughts drifted to many years ago.
At that time, she and Pari thought that the rest of the Feiyan team had been wiped out in the Pillar of Creation. No matter how they called out, there was no response. Those people whom she regarded as the pillars of her life - Rongyuan, Wandou, Noah, Yeyi, Balabi... all of them, had no news from then on. She felt as if a large piece of her soul had been dug out.
What she said and did in those days, Amirida can no longer recall now, only the boundless darkness and despair remain clearly in the depths of her memory. To this day, whenever she thinks of the past, she still feels cold all over.
Rushing into the Eagle Nebula time and again in hopeless search, and coming back alive time and time again, sometimes Emerida felt that what they were looking for at that time was no longer the unfortunate Feiyan Team, but death, in order to be buried in the place where their companions rested. From then on, Emerida and Pari rarely met each other even though they were on the same spaceship. When two equally grieving people saw each other, they did not lick each other's wounds to draw warmth, but realized the cruelty of reality more and more clearly, and roughly tore open the deepest and most painful scar, and watched the other's blood flow, and they also felt unbearable pain.
At the most desperate moment, Serinda and Isli flew across tens of thousands of light years to come to them. Amirida and the other two almost collapsed under the tragedy, and only Serinda remained rational and calm. But she did not say that it was impossible for the Feiyan team to survive in that situation, so you should stop looking; nor did she say meaningless words such as "the dead cannot be resurrected, mourn and accept the change, and look forward". The young princess just asked her guards to forcibly detain Amirida and Pari, and treat their injuries accumulated during the process of repeatedly entering and exiting the nebula with radiation and explosion aftermath . Then, she used her status as the first heir to the empire and the favor of Emperor Landia to order a million troops to launch a carpet search.
It was then that Amirida clearly felt that the girl next to her, who ate as if there was a bottomless pit in her stomach and couldn't even put on her eyebrows and lipstick properly, was really a princess and the heiress to one of the greatest powers in the galaxy.
Even now, when Serinda has become the empress of the empire, the fact that she mobilized millions of troops for an expedition due to personal relationships, which consumed huge manpower and material resources, is still the biggest stain on her when she is attacked by her political enemies. She even almost lost her qualification as an heir because of this. You can imagine the pressure she was under at the time. But Serinda said nothing, never took credit or complained to them, and withstood all the pressure alone, blocked all the gossip and right and wrong, and mobilized all the forces to search efficiently and firmly to the best of her ability.
They searched for ten years.
During that time, they supported each other, trusted each other, and went through the most difficult years together. It was Serinda who pulled Amirida and the others back from the brink of collapse when they were in so much pain that they wanted to commit suicide. After losing the protection of the most powerful person, they grew up at an astonishing speed, and everyone changed dramatically. Ten years later, they gave up the search, not only because Amirida and the others finally admitted that the deceased was gone, but also because they couldn't bear to see Serinda struggling to hold on.
Then, Serinda returned to the royal family, Isli joined the army to carry out missions at the border, and Pari disappeared without saying goodbye to anyone one evening. Only Amirida stayed at the place where the Feiyan team used to be, guarding their spaceship, day after day, waiting for people who seemed like they would never come back.
It was a period of time when even the pain seemed to fade away, but it made her even more desperate. Every day was so dark and gloomy that when it ended, she couldn't even remember how she had spent that time. Her life was like a broken pointer, moving one step and then jumping back, moving one step and then jumping back, over and over again, trapped in a small grid and unable to get out.
It was not until forty years later that Rong Yuan returned.
Emilida closed her eyes, as if she saw that scene again——
He just stood there and looked at her, slowly, revealing a faint but warm smile. He was so tired, as if he would fall to the ground in the next moment; however, there seemed to be a great power in his body, supporting him to always stand like a mountain, and his straight back would never collapse. The orange-red light of the setting sun shone on his body, covering him with a light halo, making the whole person look so illusory, as if he would disappear in front of his eyes in the next second.
Amirida covered her mouth. She dared not make a sound or breathe, for fear that the slightest disturbance would wake her from this dream.
Rong Yuan said softly: "I'm back, Amy."
Suddenly, Amirida burst into tears.
From that moment on, time began to flow again for her.
It was a rare windless day on the Imperial Capital Star. Heavy snow fell from the sky, and soon a thick layer of snow accumulated on the ground. Suddenly, several deep depressions appeared in the white snow, and the snowflakes stopped falling and accumulated in the air, creating a spectacular sight.
Anyone with a little knowledge could tell at a glance that a spaceship in optical stealth mode had landed on the ground. However, what was more surprising than seeing the snowflakes parked in mid-air was that the location where the spaceship was parked was not an airport that allowed spaceships to take off and land, and it parked here without triggering any alarms, and it was obviously not detected by any radar. Considering that this was the core imperial capital of the Landia Empire, the news that a spaceship appeared here was enough to sound the alarm for the Empire's National Defense and Security Department!
The ship was no longer invisible, the hatch opened, and a tightly wrapped figure jumped out and landed on the ground. The snow immediately covered his knees. He hugged his arms and jumped twice on the spot, hissing, "It's so cold! I'm freezing to death!"
Rong Yuan stood by the door and said speechlessly: "Your clothes should have a constant temperature heating system. Did you forget to turn it on?"
"Ah, it seems to be true!" Mu Xiaohu lowered his head to study it for a while, pinched a blue cufflink and pressed it. After a while, warmth flowed through his body. He moved his hands and feet, bent over, and said happily: "Wow, I'm not cold at all. Brother Xiaoyuan, such a nice piece of clothing, are you really going to give it to me?"
"It's just a set of clothes, it's nothing." Rong Yuan said: "As for you, when you go somewhere in the future, you must check the information and be prepared in advance. Some seemingly safe environments may be deadly."
"I know. Actually, my dad told me this before, but I forgot it by mistake, hehe..." Mu Xiaohu stuck out his tongue and smiled embarrassedly. However, this smile was covered tightly by the all-round protective mask. Rong Yuan could only see the eyes behind the goggles curved into a happy arc.
So he smiled and reminded, "It's only three kilometers from here to the First Military Academy's admissions office, but it's easy to get lost on a snowy day, so remember to keep the navigation system on."
"I know, I won't forget it!" Mu Xiaohu carried a backpack that was almost as tall as him - only a small part of it was his original luggage, most of it was prepared by Rong Yuan at Alpha, covering everything from food, clothing, housing and transportation, so the capacity was naturally quite impressive. Fortunately, Mu Xiaohu was born with great strength, so he didn't seem to have any difficulty carrying such heavy things. He waved his hand and said, "Then I'll leave now, Brother Xiaoyuan, thank you for sending me here! And Alpha, goodbye, I'll text you when I get to school!"
Alpha, who was standing next to Rong Yuan, stretched out a claw (with a wrench attached to it) from its cylindrical body and waved it three times with the same frequency and amplitude as a farewell.
"Why not keep him?" Alpha asked, looking straight ahead as he watched Mu Xiaohu's back disappear completely into the snow. It had not yet learned to use the camera in its body to "look" at people while they were talking.
"There's no need." The faint smile on Rong Yuan's face disappeared, and his dull expression seemed very cold.
"You're happy when he's around you," Alpha said bluntly.
"I'd be happier if he left." Rong Yuan touched Alpha's head (the round camera) and said, "My enemy this time is too dangerous. I can't involve him."
"Okay." Alpha said regretfully, "I knew this was the reason." It shut up after saying this - in fact, it didn't have a mouth, only a vocal system installed inside its body - after all, it was not very keen on chatting.
They stepped off the spaceship, and Alpha had symbolically applied an extra layer of antifreeze oil on his joints before that. Rong Yuan, wearing a silver-gray cape and a wide hood on his head, half-crouched down and put his hands on the ground. Then, the thick snow and the hard ice layer below seemed to turn into water, and the huge spaceship slowly sank. In less than a minute, the spaceship completely sank under the ice layer, and the ground closed up. There was only a shallow dent on the snow in front of him, and the heavy snow completely buried this little trace in just a moment.
The wind started to blow, and the cold wind blew the snowflakes into the air, making their flying paths chaotic and confusing. Rong Yuan stood up, pulled his hood up, pulled up his mask to cover his mouth and nose, and said, "Let's go."
Alpha hurriedly followed him with his thin legs. One man and one machine, they walked into the snow together.
