After all, when it came down to it, Nan Yu's engagement still hadn't been dissolved.
No matter how uncomfortable it made them feel, they had to wait until it was officially canceled before discussing anything else. It wasn't that they were being overly rigid—it was simply how things worked in the Empire. If someone was still bound by an engagement yet developed emotional feelings for someone else, or even became physically involved with another person, they would be condemned.
Neither Nan Yu nor Yu Lanfeng could afford to bear that kind of disgrace.
Although Bai Zhouyun had already done something so shameless, neither of them wanted to become someone like him. At the very least, they intended to uphold the basic principles of decency.
Yu Lanfeng set the file in his hand aside.
"Finished?"
Nan Yu stretched his arms and legs, and his joints let out a series of fragile cracking sounds.
"Yeah. I'm done with today's work. But now that I think about it, this hospital really doesn't have many Mental Power Users."
"Oh, right. Did you get anything out of that doctor you captured earlier?"
He shouldn't have anything to do with the Mental Power Users who caused Lan Feng's critical condition... right?
Yu Lanfeng shook his head.
"No. After he was captured, I had someone interrogate him first. In the end, he only managed to say one person's name before he died."
Nan Yu blinked.
"Did your people use too much force?"
Yu Lanfeng replied calmly,
"No. Someone had implanted something troublesome near his heart. I should have examined him beforehand. Otherwise..."
Nan Yu sighed.
"Fine."
The man was already dead. There was no point dwelling on him any longer.
"What name did he mention?"
Yu Lanfeng answered,
"He said... Ye Xing."
The moment Nan Yu heard those two words, his pupils contracted violently.
Yu Lanfeng immediately noticed the change in his expression.
"What's wrong? Do you know that name?"
Nan Yu abruptly came back to his senses.
The current him shouldn't know.
But the Nan Yu from his previous life did.
During his years on the run, he had met an Ability User named Ye Xing.
Back then, Ye Xing had asked Nan Yu to remove his Mental Contamination. As payment, he had agreed to shelter Nan Yu and help him evade pursuit for a while.
Nan Yu had accepted.
That was why, even after everyone had betrayed and abandoned him, he had still managed to survive for such a long time.
A large part of that was thanks to Ye Xing.
Eventually, however, Ye Xing had something else to deal with and had to leave.
Nan Yu could only continue his journey alone once again, hiding everywhere he went.
To be honest...
He had always been a little afraid of Ye Xing.
How should he put it...
Ye Xing treated everyone with exactly the same attitude.
The only distinction he made was whether someone treated him well or badly.
If someone was kind to him, he would repay that kindness.
If someone treated him badly...
He would repay it twofold.
Or tenfold.
Or a hundredfold.
While traveling with him, Nan Yu had once personally witnessed him attack a Mental Power User.
Actually, that Mental Power User had provoked him first.
He had simply looked down on Ye Xing and the dirty, disheveled Nan Yu following behind him, declaring that they weren't worthy of entering the shop.
Then he ordered the Ability Users accompanying him to throw them out.
Ye Xing didn't react on the spot.
He silently led Nan Yu away.
Just as Nan Yu thought they were leaving for good, Ye Xing instead took him into a dark corner nearby and quietly waited.
That day they remained hidden in the shadows for a full three hours before the Mental Power User finally came out of the shop.
At first, Nan Yu thought Ye Xing merely wanted to teach them a lesson.
But he never expected...
Ye Xing followed them to a deserted area, directly used his ability to blast their hovercraft out of the sky, killed the Ability Users inside on the spot after capturing them, and took the Mental Power User away alive.
After bringing him somewhere else...
Ye Xing tortured that Mental Power User to death right in front of Nan Yu.
Throughout the entire ordeal, the man's curses, screams, and agonized wails echoed endlessly in Nan Yu's ears.
Even now, whenever he closed his eyes, he could still see the horrifying image of Ye Xing torturing him.
In the end...
Not even a complete corpse remained.
At the time, Nan Yu had found it difficult to understand.
It had only been a few insulting remarks.
After forcing them out of the shop, those people hadn't even attacked them.
Why had Ye Xing gone so far...?
Later, after staying beside Ye Xing for a longer time, Nan Yu gradually overheard bits and pieces of rumors in the places Ye Xing frequented.
Apparently, that Mental Power User had bullied Ye Xing for many years.
That incident had merely been the moment Ye Xing finally reached the limit of his patience.
Of course, after killing a Mental Power User, they couldn't possibly remain on that planet.
They left overnight.
Afterward, no one ever came after them.
Only then did Nan Yu slowly let down his guard.
As for how powerful Ye Xing actually was...
He wasn't some overwhelmingly invincible expert.
The real reason Nan Yu feared him was because he had personally watched Ye Xing brutally torture and kill a fellow Mental Power User.
The reason Nan Yu hadn't remembered someone like Ye Xing after his rebirth until now...
Was probably his body's own form of self-protection.
It simply refused to recall those memories.
Seeing Nan Yu remain silent, sitting blankly on the sofa, Yu Lanfeng grew worried.
"What's wrong? Is he some ruthless criminal?"
Nan Yu finally snapped out of it and shook his head.
"Not exactly... No... That's not really it either..."
He scratched his head in frustration.
"I don't even know how to explain it. I just... I've heard that name before, but I don't think he should have enough status or influence to interfere with your legion."
Yu Lanfeng looked at him.
"Can you tell me who he really is?"
Nan Yu had no idea how to answer.
Up until now, aside from that one legion mission earlier, he had never left the Capital Star.
There was no way someone like him should have encountered Ye Xing.
So how was he supposed to explain it?
Wait...
The StarNet!
He could simply say they had met through StarNet.
That would make everything much easier to explain.
Yet the moment his eyes met Yu Lanfeng's worried gaze...
For some reason, the words he had prepared simply refused to leave his mouth.
"I... I..."
If he couldn't lie...
Then what was he supposed to do?
Yu Lanfeng gently held his hand.
"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to."
Nan Yu looked at him in surprise.
"You... don't mind?"
Yu Lanfeng nodded.
"That's right. I pushed you too hard just now. That was my fault."
After all, he hadn't become a Marshal for nothing.
He had seen Nan Yu's reaction clearly.
That split-second expression...
It was unmistakably the look of someone consumed by overwhelming fear.
Yet he had continued questioning him.
Nan Yu had fallen silent, clearly unable to explain himself.
There was obviously something hidden beneath all this.
Yu Lanfeng was now absolutely certain.
This man called Ye Xing...
Was not a good person.
At the very least, whatever Nan Yu had experienced while he was with Ye Xing had definitely not been pleasant.
As for what exactly had happened...
He no longer intended to ask.
Slowly, he drew Nan Yu into his arms.
Nan Yu didn't resist at all.
The sudden flood of memories had genuinely frightened him.
Now, resting in Yu Lanfeng's embrace...
He immediately felt much better.
The sense of security Yu Lanfeng gave him was overwhelming.
After about two minutes, Nan Yu awkwardly pulled away.
"Um... I'll go wash up and sleep first. You should get some rest too. You're exhausted every day..."
Before he even finished speaking, he hurried into the bedroom.
As usual, Yu Lanfeng put away his work before lying down on the sofa inside the lounge.
This was how they had originally slept.
Only later, to avoid making Nan Yu feel embarrassed, had he started sleeping in the guest bedroom or on the living room sofa instead.
But tonight...
He felt he absolutely had to stay here.
Otherwise, he was afraid Nan Yu wouldn't be able to sleep.
After washing himself thoroughly in the bathroom, Nan Yu suddenly realized...
He had forgotten to bring his pajamas inside.
There wasn't even a bathrobe left in the bathroom.
Only a towel.
He assumed Yu Lanfeng wouldn't be in the bedroom anyway...
So...
He didn't even bother wrapping himself in the towel before opening the bathroom door and walking into the room.
Only...
The moment he stepped out...
He saw someone lying on the sofa.
He was so startled that his entire body jolted violently.
He spun around and tried to run back into the bathroom.
But perhaps because he panicked too much, his direction was slightly off.
With a loud thud—
He smashed his forehead straight into the doorframe.
The sound was so loud that even Yu Lanfeng, who had been pretending to sleep with his eyes closed, immediately opened them.
He sat upright, about to ask what had happened...
Only to see Nan Yu crouching by the bathroom doorway with both hands covering his forehead...
Completely naked.
To be fair...
At fifteen or sixteen years old, Nan Yu's skin really was unbelievably smooth.
No, no!
Yu Lanfeng immediately forced those thoughts away.
He hurried to the wardrobe, grabbed a bathrobe, walked over, and draped it around Nan Yu before carefully helping him to his feet.
"Are you alright?"
Nan Yu's forehead hurt so badly that his vision had become blurry.
He could barely even stand steadily.
That collision had been far harder than he expected.
Wrapped in the bathrobe, he sat on the bed.
Only after two or three minutes did he finally lower his hands and look up at Yu Lanfeng.
Those moist, watery eyes looked almost...
For some reason, Yu Lanfeng felt inexplicably guilty and hurriedly looked away.
"Does it still hurt? Should I rub it for you?"
By now he had more or less pieced everything together.
After finishing his shower, Nan Yu had discovered there were no pajamas or bathrobe inside, so he intended to quickly come out and get one.
Since Yu Lanfeng hadn't been sleeping in this room for the past several days, Nan Yu assumed tonight would be the same.
That was why he had come out like that.
But the moment he stepped outside, he saw Yu Lanfeng lying on the sofa.
Panicking, he tried to retreat into the bathroom...
Only to slam straight into the doorframe.
Nan Yu held it in for a long time before finally squeezing out a single word.
"...It hurts."
For a Mental Power User, the head was both the most important and the most fragile part of the body.
At the same time, it was also the strongest.
An injury there was genuinely difficult to endure.
His slightly trembling hands tied the belt of the bathrobe tightly.
After all...
He wasn't wearing anything underneath.
The robe covered his shoulders, but the front had been hanging open before.
Even though they were both men...
He still felt embarrassed.
His head continued throbbing, especially the spot where he had hit his forehead.
When he touched it, it already seemed swollen.
Yu Lanfeng found a bottle of medical spray and applied it several times.
The pain eased somewhat.
Still, perhaps because the impact had been too severe, Nan Yu's head continued to throb every now and then.
Only after lying in bed for nearly two hours did he gradually fall asleep.
Looking at Nan Yu, who was still sleeping with his delicate little brows tightly knitted together, Yu Lanfeng couldn't help smiling helplessly.
When he walked over to the bathroom door, he looked at the place Nan Yu had collided with earlier.
The doorframe itself was perfectly fine.
The unfortunate one had been Nan Yu.
Judging from the way he reacted...
It really had hurt.
After Nan Yu fell asleep, Yu Lanfeng spent some more time gently massaging his forehead.
Only after Nan Yu's tightly furrowed brows finally relaxed did Yu Lanfeng return to the sofa and go to sleep.