Chapter 122: Two Brothers
The supposedly blessed Fu Cheng: (￣.￣)
He felt that something wasn’t quite right, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
After Shen Lu finished feeding Fu Cheng, she helped him unwrap the Light Brain’s packaging and put it on his left wrist.
The Light Brain automatically detected his biological information and powered on. Fu Cheng connected to the Light Brain with his spiritual power and began the process of re-binding it.
It went quite smoothly. After scanning Fu Cheng’s right iris, the Light Brain let out a soft BEEP.
"Welcome back, my friend. The Nova Light Brain is at your service."
Seeing that Fu Cheng didn’t need her help with anything, Shen Lu collected the dinner tray and went downstairs to get busy with other things.
Fu Cheng waited a moment. After the new Light Brain synced with the old one’s data, his messages began flashing wildly. Soon, he had 99+ unread messages.
Fu Cheng’s gaze darkened. He marked all as read and only replied to Li Zenan’s message.
Fu Cheng: I’m fine.
After sending it, he didn’t expect a timely reply from Li Zenan. The situation at the front was tense, and aside from internal military communications, the civilian signal was very poor.
But a few seconds later, a message from Li Zenan came through.
Li Zenan: ???
Li Zenan: Is that really you?!
Li Zenan: Holy shit, for real?
Li Zenan: You’re not messing with me, are you?
Li Zenan’s personality was far from the calm and steady demeanor he projected in interviews. Still, it was rare to see him this agitated.
A trace of warmth flowed through Fu Cheng’s heart as he slowly typed out a reply.
Fu Cheng: It’s me.
Fu Cheng: Are you off today?
Li Zenan: Yeah, I’m on a half-month rotation. I’m not at the front; I’m resting in the rear.
Li Zenan: I heard you were abandoned by the Fu Family. What the hell happened?
Li Zenan: If I didn’t still have four months before I can return to the Imperial City, I’d come find you right now.
Fu Cheng: Everything is fine. You don’t need to worry.
Li Zenan: You’re unbelievable. Things are already like this, and you’re still pretending everything is okay!
Li Zenan: Where are you right now? I’ll have my cousin come get you.
Fu Cheng: No need. I’m going to rest.
’I don’t want to go anywhere. I just want to stay here.’
Since Fu Cheng put it that way, Li Zenan couldn’t insist.
Besides, he didn’t even know where Fu Cheng was, so he couldn’t force the issue anyway.
Li Zenan sat in his chair, thinking it over, and finally sent a message to his cousin.
Li Zenan: Help me find Fu Cheng’s current location.
Far away in the Imperial City, Li Zexing was still asleep and naturally didn’t see the message.
When Li Zenan didn’t get a reply, he figured Li Zexing wasn’t awake and decided to call his aunt, Lin Xin.
"Auntie, I need to talk to Ah Xing about something. Could you wake him up for me?"
Receiving a call from her eldest nephew, Lin Xin didn’t dare to delay. She immediately went to her son’s room and yanked him out of his dream.
"Ah Xing, it seems your cousin has something urgent to discuss with you."
As the most promising child of the younger generation, Li Zenan was a nephew Lin Xin greatly admired.
It wasn’t that Li Zexing was bad, but in the Imperial City, the status of a soldier was naturally higher.
Li Zexing was full of morning grumpiness, but he couldn’t act out in front of his mother. He could only suppress his irritation and dial Li Zenan’s number.
Lin Xin nodded in satisfaction, tactfully left her son’s room, and went cheerfully to make breakfast.
"What? First thing in the morning, you’d better have a good reason for calling me," Li Zexing said, his tone unfriendly.
"What? If it wasn’t important, were you going to pick a fight with me?" Li Zenan replied unhurriedly, a hint of provocation in his voice.
The two cousins were both Superpower Users, but they had awakened different superpowers.
Li Zenan had awakened Gravity Control, allowing him to manipulate gravity and make objects as light as a feather or as heavy as a mountain.
Li Zexing, on the other hand, had awakened Lie Detection. To put it simply, he was a human lie detector.
In a physical fight, Li Zexing was no match for Li Zenan.
All Li Zenan had to do was increase the weight of Li Zexing’s clothes, and Li Zexing would be forced to lie on the ground and take a beating for the entire fight.
"Fine, what is it?" The two cousins had a good relationship and often bickered like this. Li Zexing knew Li Zenan wouldn’t contact him unless it was important.
Li Zenan dropped his joking tone and briefly explained Fu Cheng’s situation.
"Fu Cheng is strong-willed and refuses to accept my help, but he’s in a really bad state right now. I can’t go back, so I need you to find him and take him to the Upper City Hospital. You can front the costs, and I’ll pay you back later."
"Okay, I get it." Li Zexing ran a hand through his bangs. "You be careful at the front, too. Don’t get sent back missing an arm or a leg."
"Don’t jinx me."
"I’m just worried about you."
"Alright, I’m hanging up."
After Li Zenan hung up, Li Zexing had lost all desire to sleep. He got up, washed his face, changed his clothes, and after a moment’s thought, put on a mask and a hat for a bit of a disguise.
Seeing her son come downstairs, Lin Xin called him over for breakfast.
"I made your favorite egg sandwiches. Ah Xing, come and eat."
Li Zexing sighed inwardly. He’d never liked egg sandwiches, not since he was a child. It was just that it was the only thing Lin Xin knew how to make.
He didn’t respond, just walked over to the dining room. This hesitation made Li Long, who was sitting at the table, a little displeased.
Li Long put down his newspaper and called out Li Zexing’s name in a low voice.
"Come and eat. Your mother has been cooking all morning."
His tone wasn’t harsh, but his words were heavy with warning.
’What could Li Zexing do? It was his own father who was a love-struck fool, completely devoted to his wife.’
’In his father’s creed, his wife was the heavens, his wife was the earth. Every word his wife spoke was an imperial edict, and every one of her commands was to be obeyed absolutely.’
Li Zexing complained inwardly, but he was also quite envious of his parents’ relationship.
After so many years, it was still the same as ever.
It just made things hard on him. He felt like a third wheel.
Sitting down at the table, Li Zexing took off his mask and ate the egg sandwich that Lin Xin had been making for over a decade without any improvement.
Lin Xin smiled, satisfied. ’Nothing was more delightful than feeding someone.’
When she was pregnant with Li Zexing, she had been young and anxious all day, terrified she wouldn’t be able to raise a child properly.
Now, not only was Li Zexing tall and strapping, but he had also become a household name. Lin Xin couldn’t feel a greater sense of accomplishment.
Li Zexing choked down the flavorless sandwich, said he had to go out for a bit, and left without looking back.
Lin Xin was still holding the freshly warmed milk she had intended for her son. But since he had already left and she didn’t like milk herself, she very naturally shoved the glass into Li Long’s hand.
"Here, honey. Milk is nutritious."
Li Long: ...
’Isn’t milk something for kids to drink?’
’A grown man, over fifty years old, drinking this?!’
"Thank you, dear." Li Long went with the flow and downed it in one gulp. "It’s delicious."
’But since his beloved wife had brought it to him, he would have drunk it even if it were poison.’
Li Zexing went to his company, and his agent, Qin Shuangshu, was rather surprised to see him.
Li Zexing came from a good family and had a very flexible, relaxed contract. When he wasn’t filming or making appearances, he rarely came to the company.
"What brings you in today? I just received a few new scripts. Want to take a look?" As Qin Shuangshu spoke, he sent the newly received scripts to Li Zexing’s Light Brain.