*This chapter takes place after the end of the w*ar.
*The two worlds have different flow of time.
Shortly after the end of the Stellar Expl*osion, the other countries that had joined together to fight against the Ye Tian Empire had finally fallen into a complete decline. It must be said that the Ye Tian Empire had been suppressed for too long this time, and after the w*ar ended, the entire empire was thrown into a frenzy.
For a while, not only did many companies and organizations in the Ye Tian Empire take a vacation, but different celebrations appeared on all planets, and naturally, Southern Star, where the military headquarters was located, was also like this. However, the people who were still indulging in the revelry didn’t realize that the Imperial Ministry, which should have been the most excited about this, was silent instead.
Although they did follow the usual practice of making announcements to the public as well as giving vacations and awards to those who participated in the war, Meng Jinhuai himself and the two admirals didn’t appear in any of the unusual celebratory activities.
It wasn’t until Meng Jinhuai was absent from the large-scale celebrations organized by the Ye Tian Empire “due to personal reasons” that a part of the population finally realized the strangeness of the situation.
…… In fact, not only did Meng Jinhuai not participate in the festival, but Duan Hengye also seemed to have not appeared for a very long time.
After discovering this, those people immediately turned on their light devices and then carefully inquired about the news of the recent period. After checking, these people realized that the last time the military department mentioned Duan Hengye, it was about him piloting a mecha into a stellar explo*sion.
However, according to reason, Meng Jinhuai had now escaped. That didn’t prove that Duan Hengye successfully reached the mecha Nanwei and gave the mecha the program maintenance it needed. In that case, what could have happened to him? If nothing had happened, why wasn’t there any news about Duan Hengye?
In recent times, many of the military’s senior personnel haven’t made any public appearances. Some of the people who thought of this didn’t reveal their findings in the first place but instead kept them in their hearts for the time being. After all, they understood the empire, so they knew how important Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai were to the empire. If anything really happened to Duan Hengye, it would be a huge loss for both the Ye Tian Empire and the entire interstellar world.
Therefore, subconsciously, they were still willing to believe that Duan Hengye was fine.
However, as time passed day by day, the Empire’s revelry finally came to an end, and many of the organizations that had previously taken a holiday for this reason resumed their work one after another. Among them, although the Ye Tian Imperial Mecha Research Institute wasn’t on vacation, it had now also finally left its special vacation state. It was also at this time that the general public of the empire finally realized that perhaps something big had happened.
Duan Hengye was a person who loved to work, but the official website showed that he hadn’t returned to the institute on time this time around. Not only that, after the institute ended its wartime status, the authority to handle all things was still in the hands of Vice President Su Mingge, with no intention of it being handed back.
……
In one of the military buildings in Southern Star, unlike other rooms that had been carefully decorated, this room located at the end of the corridor had all white walls, and its bare appearance was a bit frightening. However, if there was nothing in the room, it would be fine, but if one walked in a little bit, the fact that there was a hospital bed placed inside the room would be clear. And behind that bed, there were several silver-white instruments.
The instrument wasn’t placed there alone; from its inner extension of a number of wires, the other end was fixed on the body of the man in the bed.
If the man lying on the bed was awake now, he would definitely think that this room looked like an intensive care unit on Earth. Unfortunately, however, he was still asleep, and not many people in the interstellar age had ever seen such a setup.
“Duan. Is this Duan Hengye?” The man, dressed in gray and with long hair, stood at the door for a while but dared not come in. His eyes widened as he looked at the hospital bed ahead. After a while, he slowly asked the person standing on the side.
“Hmm…” After hearing his words, the person next to him instinctively bit his lip and continued, “Mr. Su, Professor Duan just came out of the nutrition warehouse, and his condition isn’t very good.” In fact, as a colleague of Duan Hengye, the person who came here already knew that “Duan Hengye’s condition wasn’t very good.” But despite some psychological preparation, he was still frightened when he saw the man lying on the hospital bed from afar.
“After such a long period of time, hasn’t his condition recovered a bit?” Su Mingge still didn’t dare approach the hospital room. He stretched out his hand to hold the door frame and then asked the person beside him with a hesitant expression. At this time, the person he asked—that was, Duan Heng Night’s assistant, Ye Pu—suddenly let out a long sigh, and the man gently shook his head and said to Su Mingge, “No, in fact, Professor Duan has already recovered a lot. But… when he’ll be able to wake up… we can only wait until after this round of treatment is over.”
After hearing this, Su Mingge finally slowly loosened his grip on the door frame and then walked towards the ward. Right now, Duan Hengye’s physical condition was still in a state of secrecy, but as Duan Hengye’s colleague and the vice president of the research institute, Su Mingge naturally knew a lot more than the general public. So he knew long before he came to Southern Star that Duan Hengye had suffered a considerable number of injuries. And the wounds caused by the two shockwaves before and after were not on the surface of the skin but in the internal organs.
Although the medical level of the interstellar era was very high, it was mainly reflected in the gene editing technology’s ability to stifle diseases as well as the nutrient warehouse’s ability to heal external injuries. So it was really difficult to treat someone like Duan Hengye, who injured his internal organs. Just before Su Mingge came to Southern Star, Duan Hengye had just finished a round of simple treatment inside the nutritional warehouse, but it was obvious that this round of treatment didn’t achieve great results.
Now that Su Mingge had walked over to Duan Hengye’s hospital bed, he saw that, after being bedridden for many days, Duan Hengye’s entire body had become somewhat uncharacteristically thin. The man’s features on the hospital bed were still so perfect, and even now there were more points of sculptural, sharp beauty, but this wasn’t what Su Mingge wanted to see.
Although Duan Hengye’s personality couldn’t be said to be lively, there had never been a time when he was this dead. After seeing the man lying on the bed with no reaction at all, as well as the huge and constantly flashing instrument behind him, Su Mingge couldn’t help but fall silent. Only after a long time did Su Mingge speak to assistant Ye Pu, who was standing on the side: ”Tell me the truth: what kind of state is Duan Hengye in now? Do the experts in Southern Star really not have a prediction for the time of his awakening?”
“Uh…” In fact, because he often followed Duan Hengye to work at the research institute, Ye Pu and Su Mingge’s relationship was quite good. So after hearing the other party’s obviously serious question, Ye Pu couldn’t help but show a hesitant expression.
Before Ye Pu could think of a good answer to this question, the sound of footsteps once again came from the doorway. The two of them coincidentally turned around to look, and then they saw Meng Jinhuai, who was walking this way. Although the w*ar had ended and even the revelry had stopped one after another, the daily work of the military department definitely wouldn’t end there.
Theoretically speaking, the military department was still quite idle at the moment, but at this moment, Su Mingge clearly saw a thin slice of ebony under Meng Jinhuai’s eyes. After seeing Meng Jinhuai arrive, Ye Pu gently bowed towards him. The visitor hung the military jacket that was resting on his arm just now on a hanger to the side, then stood by the bedside as well.
Meng Jinhuai’s expression was very serious, and unlike Su Mingge’s impression of him being gentle and courteous, there wasn’t a trace of a smile on his face today. For a time, the already quiet ward was even more devoid of sound, and the other two people standing there even became cautious about breathing.
At this time, Meng Jinhuai finally spoke.
“Ah Heng’s current state is very bad.” He said.
No matter what, Su Mingge didn’t expect that what Meng Jinhuai opened his mouth to say would actually be such a sentence. Obviously, just now, he still wanted to know the state of the person in the hospital bed at this time, but after Meng Jinhuai really told him about it, Su Mingge didn’t know how to answer. Su Mingge looked sideways, only to see that this tall man in front of him was full of fatigue and was a different person from the Imperial Marshal from before.
Su Mingge thought for a moment, and in the end he decided to tell Meng Jinhuai about the recent bout of events: “Marshal, now that the Institute has officially begun to work, so many people have discovered that… Prof. Duan didn’t come back to work as scheduled.” In fact, this matter was also known to the Ministry of the Army, and Su Mingge’s implication was that now Southern Star might need to properly publicize Duan Hengye’s status to the outside world.
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinhuai nodded. As a marshal, he certainly knew what kind of messy rumors would arise in the stars if Southern Star kept this matter a secret. “I know.” After saying that, Meng Jinhuai slightly bent down, then reached out to gently caress Duan Hengye’s forehead as he said to Su Mingge, “After the first round of treatment, Ah Heng received a comprehensive medical checkup, and the results will come out soon.”
“Hm.” Su Mingge’s expression also became serious.
Meng Jinhuai stood straight again and said to Su Mingge, “When the results come out, the military department will officially announce Duan Hengye’s status to the public.”
Su Mingge didn’t know what kind of mood Meng Jinhuai was in when he said this. He only knew that, as a mere “listener,” his own heart was hanging high because of Meng Jinhuai’s words. Duan Hengye had to be fine, ah!