C21

It was 3:30 am in the morning in Southern Star, and the night was thick. Duan Hengye was not a person who slept much, he tossed and turned and somehow became hungry. After feeling the protest of his stomach, Professor Duan, who was lying on the bed, rubbed his stomach with no care for his image, and at this moment he suddenly remembered something mentioned in “Dumping Interstellar” – the living area of the marshal’s residence located in the Southern Provinces did not have surveillance.

This sentence had only been mentioned in the book, but because of his good memory and the fact that it happened to be relevant to his life, Duan Hengye had still remembered it.

……..

The marshal’s residence had many living areas, and the floor where Duan Hengye lived had a kitchen and dining room. Both he and Meng Jinhuai were very busy with their work, they didn’t stay at the Marshal’s Residence very often and when they came back, they ate in the dining room on the other floors, so the rest of the floor other than the two bedrooms had been unused for a long time.

Most of Lord Marshal’s activities were open to the public, and Duan Hengye remembered that according to the schedule, Meng Jinhuai should still be in another galaxy right now… The midnight craving for food, coupled with the fact that Meng Jinhuai was far away in another galaxy relieved Duan Hengye of a lot of psychological pressure, and after a little bit of struggling, Professor Duan put on his jacket and opened the door and walked out.

Even though the kitchen hadn’t been used for many years, Duan Hengye noticed after walking over that the robots from the Marshal’s Mansion were still dutifully adding to the ingredients here all the time.

He gathered his coat a little, then leaned over and opened the temperature bowl. Duan Hengye saw a pile of vegetables that had been cleaned and neatly placed here, and they looked very fresh on the outside. Probably because the original author had deliberately described it, there wasn’t much difference between the common fruits and vegetables in this world and on Earth. But the Marshal’s Mansion was the Marshal’s Mansion after all, and many of the vegetables in the constant temperature bowl were not very homely, and it took Duan Hengye a while to look through the tomatoes hidden inside the constant temperature bowl.

The man wrapped in his coat took the tomatoes out of the thermostat bin, then found two eggs. As someone who had been living alone since he was an adult, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Duan Hengye’s cooking skills were pretty good. He took the knife out from one side and then began to quickly process the vegetables on hand. The steps of the tomato and egg soup he was planning to make were very simple and would only take a few minutes for a skilled worker like Duan Hengye.

Probably no one could have imagined that Duan Hengye, the famous Flower of Gao Ling of Ye Tian Empire, would be tossing around cooking in the kitchen late at night… Even compared to making progress in his career, he was instead more accomplished at this time.

Skilfully putting the tomato and egg soup in the pot into a bowl, looking at the contents of the bowl, Duan Hengye somehow actually felt a little regretful – he thought that if this was on Earth, he would definitely take pictures and send them to his friends.

From the time he transmigrated into “Dumping Interstellar”, Duan Hengye’s life had been plunged into one crisis after another. And under these crises, he was too tired to cope with them, and he didn’t even have time to remember the past.
　　
　　In this night, the hunger after being busy was suddenly replaced by a sense of loss. Duan Hengye sighed lightly, then slowly tasted the soup that he had made… The taste seemed to have remained the same, but it seemed to have changed.

The silence of the night was short-lived, and before Duan Hengye could have a few bites, he then heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind him. After all, it had been a busy night, and Duan Hengye was already very tired. But the second the footsteps came, the alarm in his brain still immediately sounded, and the night snack in front of him also lost its taste in that instant.

Aside from the little kid Meng Hexian who had already been watched sleeping by the robot nanny, there should be no one else in the Marshal’s residence, right? Was it a supernatural event, or… the Marshal’s return?

Two diametrically opposed speculations popped up in his head at the same time, and Duan Hengye, who had always been very superstitious, found that he seemed to be more afraid of the second possibility than the first one. To put it in layman’s terms, the marshal was scarier than a ghost to Duan Hengye at this point.

But no matter how reluctant he was to face it, reality would not allow him to hide. Just as Duan Hengye was sitting in his original position, another chair at his side was suddenly pulled backwards. The wooden chair leg scuffed out on the floor with a sound that was neither too light nor too heavy, as if it had cut across Duan Hengye’s heart.

Duan Hengye saw with the light that a shadow had circled the chair and sat beside him.

“It’s so late, aren’t you still sleeping?” Meng Jinhuai said as he sat on the chair. He was still wearing that iconic black uniform and looked like he had just recently finished his mission.

Sh*t! Why was Meng Jinhua back? Wasn’t he working in another galaxy, and it was over so soon? Despite being very good at playing it cool, at this moment, Duan Hengye’s expression management was out of control. He saw his own embarrassment reflected in Meng Jinhuai’s eyes.

Meng Jinhuai said in a seemingly casual manner, “Originally, there were still a few days before the mission could be completed, but I wanted to come back more often to keep you company, so I ended my work early.” His tone was just as gentle as ever.

Duan Hengye wouldn’t know that the very night he caught a glimpse of him operating the armor, Meng Jinhuai had already informed his subordinates to compress his business trip as much as possible.

Although his heart was still beating wildly on reflex, Duan Hengye was still constantly comforting himself inside his head – although the original owner hadn’t cooked in front of him, he hadn’t clearly expressed that he wouldn’t either, so it shouldn’t be a big deal if the other party found out now… right?

“Mhm,” Duan Hengye endured the instinct to continue asking questions or spouting off, and instead nodded his head and said, “I’ll… go rest right away.”

“Okay, you’re recovering from a serious illness now, so you must take good care of your body and not stay up late again.” Meng Jinhuai was concerned. After saying that, he really looked at the rest of the domestic night snack like an ordinary man who had discovered his spouse’s new skills, “It just so happens that I didn’t eat dinner either, can I try it?” Meng Jinhuai asked to Duan Hengye.

You’ve asked, can I still say no? Duan Hengye nodded his head in resignation, and then saw Meng Jinhuai stand up and walk over to the table him to serve out the remaining tomato and egg soup.

Duan Hengye, whose back was turned to Meng Jinhuai, didn’t know that just as he turned around, the corner of the Marshal’s mouth suddenly and unconsciously lifted into a small curve. If there hadn’t been the last incident of discovering his S-class spiritual energy, Meng Jinhuai might have been shocked by Duan Hengye’s abnormal actions. But after a few days of digestion after that incident, Meng Jinhuai seemed to have accepted the fact that Duan Hengye might be different from what he thought.

So at this late night, the marshal vaguely discovered that perhaps his spouse was an interesting person.
　　
　　……
　　
　　The reason why Duan Hengye cooked by himself was not only because he didn’t want to wake up the robots, but also because the taste of the world he used to live in was somewhat different from the Star Age. But what hadn’t occurred to him was that Meng Jinhuai seemed to particularly like the taste of the late night snack that Duan Hengye cooked according to his old tastes.

This wasn’t a perfunctory compliment, but a visible surprise and affection.

He was really not afraid that he would poison him – after the end of the dreadful supper, looking at the back of Meng Jinhuai who went into the other bedroom, Duan Hengye thought so.

Probably because the large stone in his heart was removed, Duan Hengye’s sleep was unexpectedly sweet, and even his biological clock lost its effect. Only after the three satellites outside the window had completely disappeared and the world was bright again did Duan Hengye sit up from his bed. He habitually turned on his light brain before washing up, wanting to take this time to browse through the new information received from An Luo and the Institute.

But before Duan Hengye could open the message board, the morning news drew all his attention.

After seeing the headline, Duan Hengye immediately sat up straight and rubbed his eyes hard. He saw that the headline of the morning news read like this, “The 25th of this month is the first anniversary of the marshal and his spouse’s marriage, at that time, all the marshal’s sub-division stars in Ye Tian Empire will have a grand celebration, and the marshal and his spouse will also attend…”

Would there be a great celebration for all the Marshal’s stars in the Ye Tian Empire? What was this about?

Duan Hengye hesitated for a moment, but finally clicked on the detailed news. After reading the news, he finally realized one thing clearly. Although the technology of this era was very advanced, the society was still under the rule of the pitiful feudalism. As the marshal of the Empire with many stars – a truly privileged class – Duan Hengye’s birthday and even… his wedding anniversary were all sabbaticals on the planet he was directly in charge of!

What was it like for tens of billions of people to take a holiday together to celebrate your anniversary? Duan Hengye thought that he would soon be able to answer this question.

It was the nineteenth day of the current month of the astrological calendar, and there were still six days left before the Marshal’s official business.