Chapter 93: The Past

“I don’t dare to make promises.”

“I’m afraid you’ll experience the same disappointment as I did.”

“All the expectations, all the happiness, suddenly become like an illusion, a beautiful thing that disappears in an instant.”

“That feeling is too painful.”

Jiang Miao remembered now. The woman and her partner had been together for seventy years, passing away one after the other. At that time, He Yan had asked her, “Does seventy years count as forever?” Then he had said those words.

He couldn’t promise because he was afraid of causing disappointment, fearing that beautiful things would disappear in an instant.

Jiang Miao even recalled the sadness she felt when He Yan told her these things and the sadness she felt for him because of his own sorrow.

A surge of indescribable emotions welled up in her heart.

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Tl byed’v vsze bla obs lmynvzu vbyv osxyd oyp, pyukdt, “R’zz vlzz usw obld vbl vkxl kp aktbv, sjyu?” yp kq bl bye psxl wdprlyjyczl alypsd.

Lso, alnyzzkdt vblpl xsxldvp, lhlauvbkdt xyel pldpl.

Kkydt Ykys xshle bla zkrp, cwv kd vbl lde, pbl pyke, “R dlle vs alpv.”

Tl Zyd’p lulp, obknb wpwyzzu pbsdl zkjl czynj tlxp, ekxxle.

Kkydt Ykys byaeldle bla blyav yde pyke, “El’zz vyzj vsxsaaso kq vblal’p yduvbkdt lzpl.”

Tl Zyd dseele, “Gzaktbv.”

Kwpv yp bl vwadle vs zlyhl, Kkydt Ykys pweeldzu nyzzle swv vs bkx.

“Ebld oyp Swk Swk pldv yoyu?” pbl ypjle.

He Yan froze.

“Twenty-six days ago,” he said, quickly adding, “The people escorting him all have experience in childcare.”

Jiang Miao stood at the door, looking at him coldly, and then slapped her hand on the button to close the door.

He Yan stood outside, hanging his head, and helplessly scratched his hair.

But being on the same spaceship with He Yan for twenty-four hours a day, no matter if she wanted to listen or not, He Yan managed to find ways to slip bits and pieces of his past into her ears.

He Yan’s biological parents were researchers in related fields such as archaeology, geology, space botany, and space biology. The couple shared similar interests and believed that the vast universe was not inhabited only by the Abraxas and other sub-human races. Before Earth humans colonized this place, various legends and relics proved that there had been more advanced and intelligent races here.

When He Yan was just beginning to speak, he was already following his parents on a spaceship, traversing the universe in search of traces of ancient, highly intelligent life forms.

The tragedy struck at a black market.

Space pirates raided the place, and in the crossfire, He Yan’s parents were killed. He was only six years old then, and because of his small size, his mother had hidden him in a nook, which spared him from the bullets.

But he lost his parents, and their spaceship was stolen amidst the chaos.

The black market was in a lawless region, outside the jurisdiction of any political entity. He Yan wandered there for two years until he encountered a kind person who took him to the nearest civilized star, where he was sent to an orphanage.

“I was strong and injured other kids who tried to steal my food. So, the orphanage put a gravity limiter on me,” He Yan said.

He mentioned these things while Jiang Miao was in the cockpit studying the star map.

Jiang Miao tried not to show any emotion, but she couldn’t help feeling moved.

In this life, she was born to Zhang Ya, a successful woman, and lived a prosperous life both before and after adulthood. Even in her previous life on ancient Earth, she came from a middle-class family and had never encountered someone with a background like He Yan’s.

Orphanages and such had always seemed like something from novels or movies, distant as another universe.

And gravity limiters… Before He Yan’s incident, even though Rui Rui was only seven months old, Jiang Miao and He Yan had already discussed gravity limiters.

Children don’t know their own strength, and on a standard gravity planet, a careless move could be fatal. For a child like Jiang Rui, living on a standard gravity planet and not yet aware of his own strength, wearing a gravity limiter daily was necessary to prevent him from hurting others.

“It’s too pitiful, like handcuffs and shackles, feels like a prisoner,” Jiang Miao had complained back then.

What did He Yan say then? Jiang Miao recalled that he had just smiled faintly, lowered his head to play with Rui Rui, and said very softly, “Yes.”

An eight-year-old He Yan, wearing a gravity limiter, felt like he was in handcuffs and shackles. His extraordinary strength was restrained, so when bullied by the older kids, he could only fight back with the force allowed by the limiter.

This “allowable force” was set to match the strength of children his age on a standard gravity planet. Because of He Yan’s previous aggressive behavior, the nuns at the orphanage, feeling uneasy, had even increased the restrictions on him.

At eight years old, He Yan could only muster the strength of a six or seven-year-old due to the gravity limiter. In the jungle-like environment of the orphanage, this placed him at the bottom of the hierarchy.

During his two years in the orphanage, He Yan became a silent, emotionally reserved child, with an underlying fierceness in his eyes that made others fearful.

When he was ten, despite his striking appearance, the nuns hid him in the backyard whenever foreign guests visited, preferring to present the well-behaved, articulate children in clean clothes.

He Yan had no interest in these foreign guests. To keep him quiet, the nuns gave him two extra pieces of fruit bread, which he ate contentedly in the backyard—at that time, being full was enough to make him happy.

However, through the not-so-high wall, He Yan heard a familiar accent that he hadn’t heard in a long time.

All humans in this part of the universe descended from the same colonial group that left Earth six thousand years ago. Despite the subsequent division into the Gita and Nash republics and several neutral forces represented by the Xingluo Free Zone, the official language for the entire region remained Chinese, in both spoken and written form.

Yet, as distances grew, accents and writing evolved slightly.

Listening through the wall, He Yan heard the accent from Nash. He froze, a piece of bread still in his mouth.

He knew the other side of the wall held foreign guests, but he hadn’t realized that “foreign” referred to his homeland.

The ten-year-old boy, with his sharp mind, recognized that this might be a life-changing opportunity he couldn’t afford to miss.

The guests toured the orphanage, posed for plenty of photos to satisfy the journalists, and donated a large sum of money. As they were about to leave, they heard someone singing from the other side of the wall.

It was a well-known children’s song from the Nash Republic.

The guests halted their departure, expressing a desire to meet the singing child.

“She was my adoptive mother,” He Yan said quietly. “She heard about my situation and took me back to Nash, giving me a home.”

“She was old enough to be my great-great-grandmother and wanted me to call her grandmother, but I asked if I could call her mom. She smiled and agreed.”

His voice, deep like a cello, resonated with years of suppressed sorrow.

Jiang Miao wanted to reject listening to him, but she couldn’t interrupt such profound emotions and remained stiff as she heard him out.

“Children who grow up with their parents often don’t realize the value of a peaceful and stable life. Only those who have lost their parents, experienced wandering, and felt utter loneliness understand how precious and necessary it is to have a family and loved ones,” he said.

Jiang Miao couldn’t help but glance at him.

He Yan’s eyes were even shaped differently from Yan He’s. His eyes were elongated, with the corners slightly upturned, giving occasional fleeting glances that carried an indescribable allure.

He Yan hung his eyes low, his long eyelashes trembling slightly.

That trembling struck a chord deep in Jiang Miao’s heart—she was a rational person, not unfeeling, quite the opposite, she was inwardly soft-hearted. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have wanted to have a child in a society like Nash’s, nor would she have wanted to build a family of her own.

She already knew that the elderly foster mother had passed away later, but she still couldn’t help but ask, “How long were you with her…?”

He Yan smiled bitterly. “I went to her home, and eight months later, my foster father passed away. Then, four months after that, she followed.”

Jiang Miao fell silent.

When He Yan lost his parents at the age of six, happiness was suddenly shattered. The young child wandered in the lawless territory for two years, and then in the ruthless orphanage for another two, until the foster mother appeared.

Had she made very beautiful promises to him?

Because only shattered promises of such beauty, where happiness once again dissipated like bubbles, could make a young boy no longer dare to expect tomorrow.

“What about your foster brother…?” She asked softly, then hesitated, afraid to ask further.

“Oh, don’t misunderstand.” He Yan seemed to wake from a dream and hurriedly said, “He was good to me. He’s a soldier. My foster mother had three sons and two daughters, with only one son and one daughter not entering the military. All the other children joined the military, so I…”

“That’s good.” Jiang Miao let go of her heart, nodded, and said lightly, “That’s good. Cherish what’s in front of you, live well. Even if you don’t dare to expect the future, please don’t casually ruin someone else’s expectations for the future.”

She finished speaking, closed the star chart, and went back to her room.

Jiang Miao had always been someone who looked forward to “tomorrow” every day.

The person who shattered her expectations, who disappointed her, was none other than He Yan.

To regain her trust in him would not be an overnight matter.

He Yan could only smile bitterly.

But the journey was long, and as they spent day and night together, bit by bit, although they couldn’t get close, Jiang Miao gradually became less guarded and less resistant towards him.

Occasionally, she would soften.

Once, He Yan almost kissed her. But at the last moment, Jiang Miao turned her head away. He Yan only kissed her hair.

Even so, he was content, holding her tightly in his arms, reluctant to let go.

He dared not employ his usual tactics with women on her.

He understood Jiang Miao. If she were to perceive his manipulative tactics during this phase, she might never trust him again.

He Yan didn’t dare.

The journey was quite peaceful; they didn’t dock anywhere along the way. The ship’s exterior was disguised as an ordinary cargo ship, but in reality, it used military-grade engines. While it couldn’t match the speed of warp engines, it was comparable to a regular warship. After more than twenty days, they successfully reached the border.

“When you need it, put this on.” He Yan took out two small boxes, giving one to Jiang Miao.

Jiang Miao asked He Yan about the blockade across all of Gita. What should they do if they encountered border patrols?

He Yan’s solution was simple: “Disguise as a smuggling ship.”

Jiang Miao: “…”

“Yes, it’s a complete blockade. That’s an order from above, well, fundamentally speaking, it’s an order from ‘Li Ping’s brain’,” He Yan said, “But when there’s a policy…”

“There’s always a countermeasure,” Jiang Miao finished for him, then asked, “So…?”

“Whether it’s the border military or the central garrison, officers are treated very well. But the lower-ranked soldiers don’t have it so good,” he said, “That’s where earning extra income comes in.”

Jiang Miao, a law-abiding citizen for two lifetimes, found it difficult to accept such matters, but she knew that if they wanted to avoid complications on this journey, she had to listen to He Yan.

He Yan opened the box, revealing not just a genetic disguise agent, but also a soft mask-like material that adhered to the face… like a face mask. Upon application, there was a brief cool sensation, quickly warming to match the skin temperature, without any further sensation, almost as if it had grown onto the face.

This thing was not unfamiliar to Jiang Miao — its academic name was humanoid collagen disguise material.

Whenever the National Security Bureau needed agents to disguise themselves as someone else for an operation, they mostly used this kind of material. Applied to the face, it completely transformed the appearance into a different face, with expressions that were not stiff at all but rather vivid. Unless someone was an exceptionally experienced agent, it was difficult for ordinary people to tell at a glance that it was a layer of fake mask.

For Jiang Miao, however, this was an essential material for the annual masquerade ball with her colleagues.

At the Doctors’ masquerade ball, people didn’t dress up as ghosts or cartoon characters; instead, they were required to dress up as their colleagues. Besides masks, the doctors also showcased their skills, using various techniques to conceal their true physique.

Once, Jiang Miao dressed up as Tanaka. As soon as she entered, she saw a “Jiang Miao” confidently walking past her, twisting her slender waist, which gave Jiang Miao the chills.

During the final unveiling stage, those who hadn’t been guessed correctly had to go on stage one by one to remove their masks. The “Jiang Miao” who went on stage revealed himself to be a young male assistant.

Of course, there were also those who didn’t dress up at all, boldly attending the ball with their real faces. Of course, no one could figure out who they really were.

When one such person proudly unveiled himself on stage and admitted he was himself, angry doctors started throwing the humanoid collagen disguise materials they had removed from their faces at him.

The clever doctor fled with his head in his hands. Later, the rule “not allowed to attend without a disguise” was written into the rules of the ball.

However, the following year, someone made a mask modeled after their own face and wore it over their face, boldly attending the ball with “their own face”. This led to the rule “not allowed to use one’s own face, not allowed to impersonate oneself by any means” being added to the ball’s rules.

Approaching the border, He Yan handed Jiang Miao a pre-shaped disguise material.

“Just in case,” he said.

The so-called “just in case” was for the worst-case scenario — encountering border patrol troops who boarded the ship for inspection.

Jiang Miao felt that He Yan was definitely a jinx. The day after he gave her the mask, they were discovered by a patrol boat of the border troops.

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