A moment passed. After Audrey listened to Kevin’s narration, he was so shocked that his throat became dry, and it seemed as if seven or eight bombs had exploded in front of him, creating a sea of stars. (TL: Pronouns of Audrey will alternate from him to her, her to him, depending on the situation, since very few only knew her true identity)
“Madam Donna Sekt!?”
“How could she…?”
Audrey pressed his temples in shock. Even though Donna and Xie Yuduo had been at odds for many years, and she had some complaints about the military, she didn’t seem like someone who could betray her country…
Kevin helplessly said, “Your Excellency…”
The silver-haired young man’s eyes darkened, and he pinched the ruby between his fingers.
As the head of a noble family who had seen many storms and undercurrents, he could sense the seriousness of the situation more deeply than Kevin.
“…It’s okay, you did well.”
Audrey closed his eyes, then quickly regained his composure. He patted Kevin’s shoulder, “Next, you immediately take this diamond to the military and explain the situation, then let them check if there is anything unusual about the diamond.”
Audrey turned his head and called out, “Horn!”
The Lance family’s butler came running at his call, “Yes, Your Excellency.”
Audrey gave Kevin a push, “Take this child to General Luther, take care of him. Also, find someone to prepare an air vehicle and four guards for me.”
Kevin’s heart was pounding, and he turned around anxiously, “Your Excellency Lance, you’re going to…”
“I’m going to find Madam Donna.” Audrey patted Kevin, “Don’t worry, I’m just going to probe the situation.”
Horn sensed some ominous premonition from his tone and looked at his master worriedly.
But years of training made the old butler refrain from asking more questions. Instead, he took the still dazed Kevin and turned to leave.
Audrey also took two steps in the opposite direction, then suddenly tightened the wrist hidden under his white silk gloves, “…And one more thing, Horn.”
The silver-haired young man coldly turned his face and said, “Don’t talk too much in front of the young lady, tell her I’ll be home late.”
****
White Jade Palace, Empress’s Bedroom.
Ever since Empress Dowager Sylph moved out voluntarily fifty-two years ago, this most famous main room in the palace had not been used for a long time.
Even so, the robots in the palace and the dedicated cleaning staff still cleaned it every day, mopping the floor, wiping the table, opening the window to air the quilt, maintaining a state that could be moved in at any time.
Now, there were finally people in this bedroom.
Prince Ryann sat on the sofa with a bland expression, his spine straight, looking straight ahead, “…So, how long are you going to be angry?”
“Angry? Do you think I’m angry with you?”
Jiang Jianming laid on most of the sofa sideways, his head resting on the crown prince’s knee, his eyes full of despair, “I’m just too tired to speak.”
Just now, that luxurious thick robe of deep red, bright gold, and snow white was draped over him like a blanket. Ryann’s palm stroked him through the robe, from his spine all the way down his waistline, over and over again.
After just coming down from above, Jiang Jianming really wanted to grab the Little Highness and teach him a lesson.
Unexpectedly, as soon as his mind relaxed, he was the first to be unable to do so, his brain was hypoxic due to extreme tension, blaming this trip for being too stimulating.
Ryann was also overly nervous about his body, Jiang Jianming was dizzy and was hugged by the prince into the bedroom where no one was oxygenating, waiting for his brain to recover, but was pressed to lie on the sofa, not allowed to get up.
“Being angry is also okay,” the crown prince who started it all said seriously, “But from today onwards, you are my crown princess, naturally also the future empress.”
“…I know.” Jiang Jianming said softly.
His mood was actually complicated now, used to worrying a lot, used to giving up a lot. Thinking about his current situation, he couldn’t bear to drag His Highness too deep.
But it’s amazing, when Ryann held his hand tightly, at the highest point where the crowd and the brilliance converged, he suddenly had a feeling… this person could lead him all the way to the end of the darkness.
Ryann also said, “Since Lin Ge is not prepared to marry an empress, you should live here.”
Jiang Jianming helplessly, “How can that work, what if Her Majesty’s heart springs up one day?”
Ryann: “Lin Ge said she won’t.”
Jiang Jianming: “…”
“Of course, there are some basic obligations of a crown princess…” Ryan said faintly, the moving palm fell on Jiang Jianming’s waist, and stopped, “You have to fulfill.”
His Highness just stilled and thought for a while, and quickly determined the scope of “obligation”.
Ryann said affirmatively, “In front of me, you have to be a little more obedient and listen to me more.”
Jiang Jianming blinked in surprise, then grabbed His Highness’s clothes and laughed.
He laughed for a long time before saying, you are really cute.
Ryann didn’t understand what he was laughing at, but it was a good thing that Jiang Jianming was no longer depressed and no longer angry.
So His Highness’s expression also became cheerful, pulling Jiang Jianming’s fingers playing with his own dress to his lips, and kissed the fingertips.
At this time, the door was knocked.
This was the empress’s bedroom, outsiders have no authority and couldn’t get close at all, Ryann looked at Jiang Jianming with an inquiring look.
The latter immediately sat up, “It’s Miss Diana from the Lance family, she said she has something to find me, I let her come directly.”
The door opened, and Diana carefully lifted her skirt and walked in. She was startled when she saw Ryann, and quickly slipped to the corner like a little rabbit, “Your, Your Highness…”
Jiang Jianming beckoned Diana to sit down, “Don’t be afraid, no one wants to eat you, what are you looking for me for?”
Diana sat down hesitantly, whispering, “The information you asked me to keep an eye on last time…”
Ryann sharply turned his head, “What?”
Jiang Jianming first frowned, and then was shocked to remember – that day after consulting the information in the library, he had asked Diana to help him pay attention, during the Holy War, was there any unusual information about crystal particles or alien creatures!
He suddenly leaned forward, “What’s the matter!”
Diana hesitated and glanced at His Highness the Crown Prince next to him.
Jiang Jianming hooked Ryann’s arm and pulled him over, “It’s okay, let His Highness listen together.”
Diana nodded, her expression a bit excited, “Well, I really found a very unusual phenomenon, how could you guess it?”
As she said, she inserted a chip she brought into her wrist device, and a light blue virtual screen popped up. Diana brushed the screen long so that Jiang Jianming and Ryann could see clearly.
“What I found is actually related to Crystal Chaos.”
Speaking of her own professional field, Diana was not shy and stuttered, and said seriously, “First confirm one point, you should have a basic understanding of the Crystal Chaos Tide.”
“I know.” Ryann responded, frowning at Jiang Jianming, “Why are you looking at this again?”
The so-called Crystal Chaos Tide, in a broad sense, referred to the disaster of a large-scale outbreak of Crystal Chaos disease; in a narrow sense, it specifically referred to the desperate era that had continued for nearly forty-six years since the seventh year of the old imperial calendar.
In that era, Crystal Chaos disease was like a demon that didn’t know when it would come, hovering around everyone.
Even if they did not enter areas rich in crystal particles, the crystal particles in the human body would spontaneously transform from an orderly state to a chaotic state. When this chaos exceeded the threshold that the human body could withstand, it became acute or chronic Crystal Chaos.
Also, because Crystal Chaos was contagious, chaotic crystal particles would affect other orderly crystal particles, thus forming a vicious cycle, year after year.
…That was the real hell.
No one knew whether they could see the sun tomorrow when they closed their eyes and went to sleep tonight.
No one knew whether they had contracted a deadly disease by the time they finished eating the meal in front of them.
Patients with acute Crystal Chaos would die in severe pain. And patients with chronic Crystal Chaos suffered more mental torture: they have to face the approaching death.
But the physical torture would be lighter, they would choose to end their lives before the condition deteriorated completely, to avoid the endless pain in the late stage.
Until the 54th year of the old imperial calendar, the first generation of crystal particle tranquilizers was developed, which finally put an end to this crazy era.
“…Crystal Chaos Tide.”
Jiang Jianming’s heart sank inexplicably, “What’s the problem?”
Diana twirled her silver hair adorned with a diamond hair accessory, her fingers danced on the screen, and rows of new windows and data charts popped up.
“Well…where to start, let’s look at this first.”
She dragged one of the windows. That was a monotonous line chart, which didn’t even mark what the horizontal and vertical axes represented, but it could be seen that the data showed an accelerating upward trend.
“—The death data of Crystal Chaos?”
Jiang Jianming and Ryann looked at each other and almost said it at the same time.
Obviously, both of them had seen this chart countless times and even memorized the image in their hearts.
“Yes.” Diana nodded and poked the screen twice.
The axes and scales emerged. This was a statistical chart of the number of Crystal Chaos deaths between the fifth and fifty-sixth years of the old imperial calendar, that was, the Crystal Chaos era and the two years before and after it.
Obviously, the later the year, the more serious the Crystal Chaos, and the faster the number of deaths increases.
“Next, we need to look at this.”
Diana dragged out another window, explaining with her soft and glutinous voice, “His Highness the Crown Prince should know that our new empire has always attached great importance to the issue of Crystal Chaos, and there will be statistics on the number of Crystal Chaos patients every year.”
“Ordinary people can’t see this kind of data, I asked my brother to help me, and it took a lot of effort to get it.”
“If these data are made into a chart…”
She tapped the screen quickly, “Look, it’s like this.”
A very long line chart appeared, Diana selected a certain area, which was from the first year to the twelfth year of the new imperial calendar.
Then cut, drag.
The expressions of Jiang Jianming and Ryann changed drastically.
Diana pasted this small line chart to the front end of the first one they saw, the old empire Crystal Chaos death line chart.
That was the time from the outbreak of Crystal Chaos to the official outbreak.
The trends of the two lines almost completely overlap.
In an instant, Jiang Jianming’s ears buzzed, and he felt that the blood all over his body had frozen into ice.
He pinched his palm incredulously, “How is it possible, at least after the second Holy War, the resources of the real crystal ore for manufacturing tranquilizers were sufficient…why is the patient data still rising!?”
Ryann turned his head to look at him, talking to himself, “Now in the books of the empire, the victory of the second Holy War in the fifth year of the new imperial calendar is regarded as the turning point for the reduction of Crystal Chaos. The chief taught me the same three years ago.”
The crown prince pointed at the chart, “But the real turning point is the twelfth year of the new imperial calendar, not the fifth year.”
Jiang Jianming hoarsely said, “When ordinary people are in it, it is difficult to accurately perceive when a disease that has lasted for hundreds of years specifically began to disappear, so…”
Ryann squinted his eyes and said coldly, “So the emperor is lying, she wants to hide something from the people.”
Diana raised her face, her eyelashes trembling like butterfly wings, and her delicate face clearly showed confusion.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but,” she said tremblingly, “that year might… actually be just one step away from the second outbreak of Crystal Chaos Tide.”
Just one step away?
At the beginning of the establishment of the new empire, it was only one step away from the hell that had been sealed in history?
For a moment, Jiang Jianming’s heart was pounding like a drum. Amid the push and pull of the stormy waves, he suddenly wondered: what was the missing step?
Looking at the line chart of Crystal Chaos patients, the number of patients was clearly suppressed after the seventh year of the new imperial calendar, so the variable occurred in this year. And that year…
The room was so quiet it was frightening, as if even the flow of time had stopped.
Until his hand was held. Jiang Jianming turned his face and saw Ryann’s calm emerald eyes.
“At that time, the tranquilizer had not been developed to the second generation. Only one major event happened in the twelfth year of the new imperial calendar.”
The crown prince said solemnly, “The fifth time, that is, the last Holy War.”
Jiang Jianming clenched his back teeth—
At first, he just wanted to find out why the Great Emperor and Ryann of that year were desperate to rush to the Crystal Nest, in order to prevent the Silver Big Dipper from turning into a contraction strategy…that’s all.
Who would have thought that what was inadvertently uncovered was a more mysterious corner of history.
If what Diana said was true, at the beginning of the establishment of the New Empire, the second Crystal Chaos Tide had already shown signs of an outbreak, and the gates of hell were slowly opening.
And at that time, Emperor Kaios led two hundred thousand elite empirical people to the Crystal Nest.
The Great Emperor didn’t come back, and neither did the two hundred thousand people.
Then, the Crystal Chaos Tide stopped!?
“Not only was it the last Holy War, all the expeditionary fleets that were speculated to have possibly reached the Crystal Nest,” Ryann said meaningfully, “were all annihilated, very tragic.”
“Do you think,” Jiang Jianming’s throat was so dry that it was difficult to speak normally. He stared straight at the crown prince with his deep black eyes, and finally turned to Diana, “What does this mean?”
“I really don’t know…” Diana rubbed her arms hard, pursed her lips and hugged herself. Her expression was blank, that was the instinctive unease after pushing open an unknown giant door by herself.
“How could this be?” She murmured softly, “Why has no one ever mentioned it before, doesn’t the empire know? Her Majesty…”
Ding ding ding——
The abrupt ringing sound rang out, startling Diana.
Jiang Jianming’s gaze fell on his wrist device, he took a deep breath, cleared his throat, “Sorry, I need to take this communication.”
“——Jiang!”
The charming face of Bei Man’er appeared on the other side, she had a thin layer of cold sweat on her forehead, and she spoke hastily.
“I saw Kevin being taken by a few Golden Sun Wheels to find Old Marshal Chen, the atmosphere is not right, it seems like something has happened! Where are you now?”
