The distance between the laboratory where Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai were currently located and the military headquarters wasn’t too far. Although the speed of the hovercraft wasn’t maximized, it didn’t take many minutes for Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai to return home. In fact, today wasn’t a working day at the Marshal’s residence, and except for some staff who needed to be on duty, the rest of the people were on vacation, so the place was much quieter than before. However, because of the post that Meng Jinhuai had just uploaded, in just a few minutes, the Marshal’s mansion, which had already been quiet, once again became extremely lively.
Unlike the ordinary staff on duty who only dared to discuss in private, Yu Xinran, who had received the news earlier, was already waiting in advance in Duan Hengye’s and Meng Jinhuai’s living quarters. After using this period of time to calm down, the thoughts inside her mind became clearer. Yu Xinran recalled that, in the past few months, Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai were strange. For example, although the Marshal’s Mansion had just been re-decorated once before, a few months before that, Meng Jinhuai seemed to have opened up a separate area that had been empty and made special decorations. She didn’t think much about it at the time, but now that she has thought about it, she realized that this place could really be the baby’s room.
While Yu Xinran was waiting for the two of them to come back, she also opened her light device to take a specific look. She didn’t know if it was due to psychological reasons, but the more she looked at it, the more she felt that the child in the photo looked like both Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai. However, she was still in shock, so she believed she couldn’t make a calm judgment.
Not long after, the silver-gray hovercraft stopped next to the building. The current stars, Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai, walked out of it as if nothing had happened. Immediately behind them was an apricot-colored, cocoon-shaped stroller with an automatic following function that looked very cute.
“This, this, this, this…” Yu Xinran, who had been waiting here, was full of doubts, and after seeing Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai appear in front of her, she was even more speechless for a while. However, contrary to her slightly dazed behavior, the expressions of Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai, who were walking towards Yu Xinran, were unusually calm, as if nothing had happened. The two of them even greeted Yu Xinran after seeing her, and then Meng Jinhuai asked in a somewhat puzzled manner, “Why are you here?”
What the hell? This person even asked why she was here! But Yu Xinran knew that the Marshal wasn’t joking.
Although she was a little confused by Meng Jinhuai’s question, after calming down, she reacted quickly. She handed over her light device to Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai; the light device happened to have the same picture that Meng Jinhuai had just posted.
“That… Marshal, what is this photo you sent?” After handing over the light device, Yu Xinran asked cautiously.
Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai were now heading towards the corridor, and because the light device was handed over to Meng Jinhuai, Duan Hengye directly ignored Yu Xinran and the light device that was hovering in the air. After a simple greeting, Duan Hengye and the cocoon-shaped stroller that followed behind him walked towards the room. He didn’t notice that when the cocoon-shaped object passed by Yu Xinran, it felt like her eyes were glued to it. Yu Xinran felt that her curiosity had never been this strong.
But unfortunately, Duan Hengye’s ignorance was very thorough. In Yu Xinran’s imagination, Duan Hengye would stop to ask her to look inside the cocoon-shaped object behind him, but it didn’t happen.
At this moment, Meng Jinhuai couldn’t help but frown as he was stopped by Yu Xinran, and then he looked down at what Yu Xinran had handed him. It was clear that Meng Jinhuai’s post a few minutes ago had now received tens of millions of likes. Although there was a large population in the interstellar era, such a rapid and massive accumulation of data wasn’t an effect that ordinary people could achieve. Meng Jinhuai certainly saw this number, but he didn’t feel anything inappropriate or strange about it. Meng Jinhuai only glanced lightly at the photo handed to him by Yu Xinran, then smiled and nodded, asking her rhetorically, “What’s wrong?”
“This child is?” Yu Xinran finally managed to bring up this question that the entire Star wanted to ask but couldn’t. “Oh.” After hearing that, Meng Jinhuai smiled very casually and replied, “This is Heyue.”
“Heyue?” Yu Xinran felt that the question marks on her head had now condensed into substance before falling heavily from the air. Yu Xinran had known Meng Jinhuai for more than ten years, and in her impression, the Marshal was someone who answered questions straight to the point. But now she couldn’t understand what exactly Meng Jinhuai was talking about.
After hearing Yu Xinran repeat the name, the Marshal finally stood still and nodded at her, then told her the answer that had already been guessed by many people but would still shock everyone in the interstellar era: “He’s my son.” After speaking, Meng Jinhuai turned around and headed towards the other side of the corridor, where he soon disappeared from Yu Xinran’s sight. After Meng Jinhuai left, the last words he said were still lingering and repeating in Yu Xinran’s ears and in the depths of her mind.
He’s my son…
She couldn’t believe it was true!
Yu Xinran was in charge of daily affairs concerning Southern Star, and today she was also the highest-ranking admiral of the military department on duty. So after Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai abandoned Yu Xinran and left, Yu Xinlan still had to continue working.
And this time, Admiral Yu’s job was to respond to the previous inquiries sent to the Imperial Ministry from various parts of the interstellar world, as well as the concerns of all kinds of people from different sectors of life.
After all, as an experienced admiral, Yu Xinran’s work efficiency was always very high. So it didn’t take long for everyone to see that not long after Meng Jinhuai had sent out that status, the official account of the Imperial Ministry finally reposted Meng Jinhuai’s post and attached the text, “Welcome the young master of the military department~”
This post was sent out by Yu Xinran herself; after all, it wasn’t a work-related message, so Yu Xinran even added a small wavy line as a matter of habit after her response. The wavy line’s drawing style was really inconsistent with the official account of the Imperial Ministry’s usual temperament, but at this time no one felt that there was anything strange about its appearance. This was because after seeing the little kid in this picture and knowing his identity, everyone’s hearts gently rippled like that wave number that Yu Xinran had added.
After all, without obtaining the permission of Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai, Yu Xinran, who had a strong sense of confidentiality, didn’t attach the child’s name. But despite this, this little child, whose name was still unknown and only had one photo published, had become the favorite of the entire empire and even the entire interstellar world in a short period of time.
Duan Hengye, who hadn’t gone out, didn’t know that in the course of one afternoon, pictures of his son had appeared everywhere in the entire interstellar world. He only knew… that his premonition had come true and that this little child who was still in his swaddling clothes was really a real talker.
It seemed that the environment inside the Marshal’s mansion was different. Since returning home, this child hadn’t been quiet and sleepy like other children, but he had been looking around with his big eyes open and was still babbling as he watched. Of course, children at this age couldn’t speak, but the little one wasn’t willing to accept the status quo. If he didn’t receive a response from adults after speaking for a while, he would be a bit anxious and wave his chubby little arms around, showing an aggrieved expression.
In fact, from some perspectives, Duan Hengye did seem a bit aloof; for example, he was really someone who spoke very little. But now, there was a little guy next to Duan Hengye who needed a response at any time. And the most eerie thing was that the little guy didn’t seem very interested in the response of his father, Meng Jinhuai; on the contrary, he took a glance at Duan Hengye after every sentence he said. If Duan Hengye didn’t respond to him, or if the perfunctory response caused the little guy to be dissatisfied, he would immediately pout and be on the verge of tears.
By this time, the difference in character between Duan Hengye and Meng Jinhuai had shown up. Unlike the serious and upright marshal at work, Meng Jinhuai’s playfulness was suddenly born after the little one came to this home. Meng Jinhuai didn’t fall for the little guy’s trick, and after seeing his resigned expression, Meng Jinhuai was even happier, and even he reached out his hand to gently poke the little guy’s cheek and then said, “How come you’re so sad so soon? No one is paying attention to you.” It really was childishly frightening.
Duan Hengye was different from Meng Jinhuai; he already had a preference for good-looking people and wasn’t quite able to reject cute things. In Duan Hengye’s eyes, this little guy was indescribably adorable, and when he revealed an expression of impending tears, the degree of his adorableness would instantly triple or quadruple. Duan Hengye couldn’t allow a child to cry; as long as Heyue showed such an expression, Duan Hengye would immediately cooperate and talk to him until the little guy was satisfied and continued on his next topic.
Although Duan Hengye had already felt this characteristic of his son as early as this time, he wouldn’t have thought that this would magnify in his future.
TN:
Two more chapters (◍•ᴗ•◍)