For a long period of time, Jiang Jianming could not wake up from his unconscious state.
His consciousness seemed to be sunk into the deep sea, or stuffed into a freezer. He forgot who he was and didn’t know why he was in this state.
Occasionally, in his confusion, he thought, “Am I already dead?”
But a dead person shouldn’t be able to contemplate questions like “am I dead or not?” Unable to figure it out, he gave up thinking and continued to sleep. Having been tormented by illness for too long, now that those symptoms had finally faded, he just wanted to sleep.
This went on for a long time. Gradually, during the intervals of sleep, he recalled fragments from before losing consciousness.
The boundless night sky was studded with stars. He saw a huge black pit at his feet, and the pile of bones within it.
The crystal disorder patients had died in twisted forms, with thick crystal particles solidifying on their remains. Starlight flickered on the crystal edges, which should have been beautiful, but he felt… nauseated.
Someone came, a child who had just been infected with chronic crystal disorder. Fearing the future pain, the child decided to end their life early.
But looking at the terrifying huge pit, the child became more afraid, trembling and crying continuously.
He was already struggling to breathe, but still used his barely audible voice to persuade the child to hold on a little longer.
“A medicine will be developed soon, really,” he said with a weak smile.
“I won’t be able to wait… but you can wait a little longer and see.”
He persuaded for a long time. Later, he was in so much pain that his mind became foggy and he didn’t know what he was saying. Anyway, the result was good – he convinced the child to go back.
When he gripped the gun again, he saw a distorted spherical space unfold at the edge of the night sky.
So he waited a little longer.
The result seemed to have frightened those two quite a bit. Ryann didn’t dare wait for the mecha to land and jumped down in mid-air, leaving Lin Ge slapping the control panel in tears in the wind. “You little bastard, I don’t know how to fly this thing, ahhhh——”
He couldn’t remember clearly what happened after that. He only remembered the vast starry sky and the falling youth, platinum curly hair like a river of silk, crystal bones like magma falling in reverse from the sky dome, enveloping him, swallowing him.
The bandage on Ryann’s face came undone during the fall. Half of the youth’s cheek was actually in a crystalline state, and bleeding. Three emerald green eyeballs were squeezed together in a triangular shape, reflecting the stunned face of the black-haired young man on the ground.
Jiang Jianming: “…”
Ah, this.
Being stared at by 1+3 bloody eyeballs like that, even someone with a calm personality like Jiang Jianming didn’t know how to respond to this situation for a moment.
Fortunately, Ryann didn’t intend to let him respond. The golden crystal bones directly scooped Jiang Jianming up from the ground, and the next moment he felt a coolness on the back of his neck.
It seemed he was given an injection.
As the cool liquid was pushed into his body, Jiang Jianming opened his mouth to speak, but before he could make a sound, he swayed and fell backwards powerlessly, fainting within the massive crystal bones.
— When the pain that had been continuously stimulating his nerves disappeared, the patient who was already extremely weak lost consciousness without any resistance.
****
Blue Mother Star City.
In the center of the area designated as Zone A, stood the official residence of the city’s ruler.
At the end of winter that year, a royal starship from Yongle Garden Star City escorted a young royal to this place, to become the nominal lord of this declining star city.
It was said that this youth was the illegitimate son of Odin I, and was still several months short of turning fifteen years old.
It was said that this little highness had a cruel and cold temperament, was moody, and had an extremely poor relationship with the second emperor. Not only had he never participated in political affairs before, but he also had no support from any noble forces.
Even more absurd was the rumor that after arriving on Blue Mother Star, the prince did not go to the official residence first, but personally went to the dirty wild area to gather a group of beautiful women for his own pleasure.
When the rumors reached the official residence, the officials of Blue Mother Star City shook their heads and sighed.
This human mother star was indeed going to be abandoned.
Little nurse Maria was one of the few people who knew the truth.
There were no beautiful women for pleasure at all. What His Highness Kaios brought was clearly a dying human with crystal disorder.
To be honest, she had never seen a patient so badly mistreated. Emaciated to skin and bones, his body covered in scars, years of chronic crystal disorder had weakened most of his organs, and the doctor didn’t even dare give him a nutrition injection.
Chronic crystal disorder developed to his level would normally only mean waiting for death. But His Highness Kaios brought the latest developed medicine, three injections each in the morning and afternoon.
Maria witnessed with her own eyes the values symbolizing the degree of crystal particle disorder gradually decreasing, feeling like she was witnessing history.
Later she learned that this precious life-saving drug was named crystal particle tranquilizer.
From deep winter to early spring, for two months, the patient remained unconscious.
He was too weak, struggling countless times on the brink of death, as if he might quietly breathe his last at any moment. The medical staff had to monitor the instruments around the clock, ready to resuscitate at any time.
His Highness Kaios would stay in the ward for a long time every day, and occasionally bring another black-haired girl to visit.
When they were alone, the little nurse would be sent out, so Maria could only secretly guess at the relationship between the three in her heart.
One night, Maria inadvertently heard His Highness Kaios standing by the bed, hoarsely murmuring, “I’m sorry, I was late.”
The youth frowned, holding the patient’s pale fingers, and after a long while said in a low voice, “I will make it up to you, you must wake up…Aslan.”
In the season when the primroses withered, the patient’s vitality finally stabilized somewhat, becoming aware of his surroundings, transitioning from deep coma to light coma.
The doctors who once disdained to treat disabled humans couldn’t help but admire his strong will to live, saying that a patient with chronic crystal disorder developed to this stage who could still be so tenacious in willpower was rarely seen in their lifetime.
His Highness Kaios simply moved into the ward.
Maria felt that this young prince was very different from the rumors outside, at least not as cruel as some noble gentlemen she knew.
He was just a bit antisocial and strange. He could often spend half a day standing at the head of the bed, watching the motionless patient.
The emerald green eyes were cold, carrying an imposing aura that didn’t match his age. Maria was a little afraid of him.
When Zone A officially entered early summer, Maria finally saw this patient’s eyes.
Black, deep. With a hint of haziness from just waking from a long sleep, like mist that would disperse with a gentle blow.
“Aslan?”
His Highness the Prince noticed the change in the patient before she did. The youth suddenly bent over the bed, his behavior somewhat nervous, “Are you awake!?”
He held the pale face of the disabled human, forcing those unfocused eyes to look at him, “Don’t be afraid, it’s me—look at me, do you recognize me?”
But the disabled human was clearly still in a weak state, as if half-asleep and half-awake, drowsily half-closing his eyes and leaning his face into the prince’s palm, unable to speak.
His Highness coaxed him anxiously for quite a while, but the person gave no response and soon fell unconscious again.
For Jiang Jianming, the semi-drowsy state continued for some time.
For a long time, his mind wasn’t clear, and he didn’t know what had happened to him.
Perhaps because he had never slept in such a soft bed in his life, never been covered with such warm blankets, and never been cared for so meticulously.
Not to mention those high-tech instruments and pain-relieving sedative drugs he had never seen before.
There was no hunger, no cold, and no need to worry about being bullied tomorrow. The pain had decreased significantly, no longer coughing up blood until he couldn’t breathe, no longer passing out from pain only to wake up in pain again.
It felt too unreal. It didn’t feel like he had been saved from death, but rather like he had died and gone to heaven.
He indulged in his drowsiness unusually, sleeping through one day and night after another.
Ryann watched over him every day, stroking his forehead and speaking softly to him.
It seemed as if he had endless patience, or perhaps just being able to personally care for the disabled human on the sickbed was enough to satisfy this young prince.
Until one clear morning after rain, the awakened disabled human gazed out the window hazily for a while, then turned his head on the pillow.
He struggled to extend his thin fingertips, ruffled the hair of the little prince sleeping by the bed, and called out His Highness’s name.
Ryann woke with a start, stunned for two seconds. The next moment, he swiftly leaned over and tightly hugged Jiang Jianming’s neck.
…
Everything after that improved. Soon, Lin Ge was also brought over to keep him company. The little girl wore a somewhat cool black eyepatch, and that day she excitedly held up a bowl, saying, “Dawn, look, it’s the first time this old lady had clean meat porridge!”
“And rice, look at this rice, it’s freshly cooked, it’s steaming! Look, look!”
“Hmm, but what if food that hasn’t been eaten by others is poisoned? Um, can this really be eaten?”
“I mean, that little bastard won’t trick me, right? What would happen if I can’t pay for this meal after eating it…”
Jiang Jianming lay on the hospital bed. “Lin Ge, be quiet.”
Ryann, standing beside with a gloomy face, got up, his crystal bones picked up the little girl, and threw her out of the ward along with the box of food.
Jiang Jianming watched helplessly as these two made a fuss, but couldn’t help smiling weakly.
Ryann didn’t like the hustle and bustle of people coming and going, so he arranged a very quiet ward for him. Apart from those intelligent instruments and robots, only a young nurse named Maria took care of him.
And there was Ryann himself… Jiang Jianming now knew that the prince’s real name was Kaios.
He once doubted whether the 1+3 eyeballs he saw before falling unconscious were an illusion, as His Highness gave no explanation about it.
But that was all unimportant…at least Jiang Jianming felt it was unimportant. This child who constantly talked about destroying humans, it was understandable that he had some issues.
What was more incomprehensible was the little prince’s daily routine.
Logically, Kaios should be governing this vast star city, but at least from what Jiang Jianming saw, this child spent every day in his hospital room doing nothing, just observing him.
Sometimes when he woke up, his gaze would turn and immediately meet those emerald green eyes.
The handsome youth would either be standing by the bed looking down, or sitting in a chair with his head turned, his gaze always fixed directly on him.
To be honest, it was a bit eerie, a bit sinister, not like a normal person, but more like some beast eyeing its prey.
Jiang Jianming gradually began to feel uncomfortable. One evening, he couldn’t bear it anymore and struggled to prop himself up on his elbow, “…Your Highness, are you really that free?”
Ryann, sharp-eyed, quickly leaned over and supported his shoulder, “What are you doing? You need to lie down.”
The little prince forcibly pressed him back onto the pillow. Seeing him breathe rapidly due to the change in position, he flicked out his crystal bones to grab the oxygen mask from the bedside.
“No need,” Jiang Jianming turned his head to avoid it, panting slightly, frowning, “Your Highness, I can’t just lie like this forever, and you can’t keep staring at me lying here forever.”
“?”
Ryann was puzzled. “Why not?”
Jiang Jianming raised his eyebrows seriously and asked softly, “You saved my life, gave me conditions I never dared to imagine before… Maria said I was in a coma for two to three months, the medical expenses during that time…”
Ryann interrupted. “If you know you were in a coma for so long, you should also remember that the doctor told you to rest and not talk too much.”
Jiang Jianming had no choice but to be concise. “I just want to know, what value can I provide to repay you in the future?”
In a sense, this statement was quite arrogant.
A low-born, terminally ill disabled human from the wild area, daring to offer value to a powerful new crystal human, a prince who lacked nothing, with such a neither humble nor overbearing attitude.
Most people hearing this would probably laugh at his presumptuousness.
Unexpectedly, Ryann didn’t catch this meaning at all, and simply frowned and asked, “Repay? What do you need to repay?”
Then he immediately said decisively, “Of course you don’t need to do anything, just stay by my side and watch me. Isn’t that what we agreed on initially?”
“…”
Jiang Jianming was left speechless.
…
The next morning, when Ryann entered his hospital room, he brought a special gift.
A plump, round, and glossy red apple, presented on a white porcelain plate with gold-trimmed edges, looking like a work of art.
“It’s not specially prepared for you.”
His Highness Kaios snorted lightly, the young man’s upturned eyelashes glinting. He chose his words carefully, “But if you forgive me for being late, and are willing to stay by my side from now on, I’ll allow you to eat it.”
