Ryann had been raging uncontrollably, but when Jiang Jianming came at him with such a statement, he was momentarily unable to retort. “You…!”
Jiang Jianming raised his eyebrows indifferently and swatted away Ryann’s hand that was pressing him down. “What about me?”
He bent down to pick up the gun that had fallen to the ground, and Bang! slammed it heavily on the bedside table, “Did I use my hands or my words like you did?”
Ryann’s scalp tingled as he realized he had truly angered Jiang Jianming, and his heart instantly wavered a bit.
But His Highness refused to admit his anger was wrong, coldly snorted, and lay back in bed facing away, wrapping himself in the blanket, “It’s because you’re always getting into trouble, that’s why I need to save you… ultimately it’s still your problem…”
As he turned to lie down, Ryann finally saw the cabin window. Outside, everything was a vast white expanse, as if doomsday had arrived.
The crystal particle storm had enveloped the entire space station, turning their human fortress into a small boat amid a tsunami.
Jiang Jianming stood at the bedside, ignoring His Highness, and spoke coolly to Xie Yuduo and Sylph. “You two go ahead with your work, I’ll stay here with him.”
Sylph: “…Alright, both of you please stay calm and don’t do anything rash, especially arguing. If there’s any problem, please call me immediately.”
After only the two of them remained in the room, Jiang Jianming stayed silent for a long while, not saying anything more.
He sat at the edge of the bed next to Ryann, put on his earpiece and opened his light computer, independently beginning to give orders to the battlefield.
Ryann initially pretended to sleep with his eyes closed, but he vaguely heard the breathing between that person’s clear voice by the bed… rapid and weak, not quite normal.
The Crown Prince felt himself becoming neurotic. He couldn’t bear it anymore and was about to throw off the blanket to sit up and curse—
But when he struggled, he couldn’t get up. His body, which had only risen a few centimeters, fell back onto the bed with a muffled sound, stiff as a board.
Ryann’s eyes widened slightly.
Jiang Jianming sat beside him and naturally noticed Ryann’s movement, only giving a light glance at this moment.
While he continued giving instructions to the other end of the communication, he reached out a hand and gently patted Ryann twice through the blanket.
Their silhouettes were reflected in the window glass, which was now covered with a frost-like crystalline layer making soft clicking sounds, creating an unsettling feeling while making the room seem quiet.
After finishing this communication, Jiang Jianming coughed twice lightly, and reached into the blanket with complete naturalness, retrieving his own medicine from Ryann’s pocket.
It was at this moment that an uncontrollable wave of melancholy surged in Ryann’s heart.
He thought to himself: Soon his consciousness projection would be cut off, and then he would wake up in the cold Crystal Nest, go insane from excessive mental strain, and die from crystal particle erosion.
When he was gone, when he couldn’t stay by Jiang’s side anymore, who else would keep this person’s regular medicine close to their heart?
Who would make him go to bed when he worked late? Who would hold him while sleeping with crystal bones?
He had been thoroughly trained by him, knowing what expressions meant joy, what tones contained anger.
He knew this person would furrow his brows when having an attack, yet would straighten his thin back and walk past others with a stern face as if nothing was wrong.
He knew this person was sometimes sad, occasionally staring absently at distant skies, but if you asked him, he would just smile faintly and casually, deflecting the conversation elsewhere.
If he was gone… who would take care of such a fragile disabled human? Who could care for him as thoroughly as himself?
He hoped there would be such a person, yet didn’t believe there could be.
Besides himself, there would be no one else in the world who could love his beloved person this way.
“…Jiang.”
So when he spoke, Ryann’s vision was already blurred with tears.
A flash of pain crossed his expression as he asked in a low voice, “Without me, how do you plan to live?”
Jiang Jianming slowly put down the medicine he had taken, placing it beside the Wings of Venus.
He said wistfully. “Yes, what to do…”
“That year when Your Highness went alone to the Crystal Nest to face death, on the day when news of your death reached the imperial capital, I secretly went to the White Jade Palace.”
“That night, heavy rain was falling, and the wind brought a chill, it was very cold.”
“I knelt in the shrubbery outside the palace, in the rain, listening to the passing ministers and nobles crying out as if the sky had fallen, saying Your Highness had sacrificed yourself.”
“…”
Ryann closed his eyes, a teardrop quickly sliding from the corner of the Crown Prince’s eye, disappearing into his light golden hair, leaving a small dark mark on the pillowcase.
“I listened for a few minutes then left, planning to return to the military academy. But I left in such a hurry, I hadn’t brought an umbrella. I thought about buying a coat by the road and hailing a car or air vehicle, but then realized that wouldn’t work – if the Empire investigated later, they could track my movements through payment records.”
Jiang Jianming sighed. “So I walked back.”
Looking back now, that was already long ago.
Yet everything still felt like yesterday. Facing death now, today’s overwhelming crystal particle storm seemed just like that year’s torrential rain curtain.
“Your Highness also knows my luck has never been very good. Halfway there, the road ahead was closed due to an accident, so I had to take a detour.”
“Lightning flashed and thunder rolled across the sky as I walked in the rain for most of the night, until I was nearly unconscious from the cold. It was then that I looked at the gray, rain-soaked streets and thought: This is how the world will be from now on.”
At this point, Jiang Jianming paused. He reached out to wipe away the tears from the corner of Ryann’s eye, his gaze quietly fixed on the silver-white gun on the table.
“I’ve already experienced being a widow, and it wasn’t pleasant at all. I don’t like it myself, and I’d hate even more for Your Highness to suffer. If we have a choice this time, let’s live and die together.”
Ryann’s heart suddenly jolted, and he turned to grab Jiang Jianming’s wrist. “You’re not allowed!”
Before he finished speaking, the room violently shook, and a sharp cracking sound came from the porthole.
Jiang Jianming’s expression changed abruptly as he turned his head. “No good, the window…”
The alloy glass, made of special materials and installed with a crystal-blocking barrier, had developed a visible crack in its outer layer!
Screams came from outside the room as the crystal particle concentration suddenly rose another level!
Ryann gritted his teeth and lifted himself up, yanking Jiang Jianming into his arms and suddenly extending his crystal bones to wrap tightly around him. “Don’t move!”
…It was still too late. He heard a suppressed groan of pain as the body in his arms first tensed and trembled, then went limp within his crystal bones the next second.
Ryann’s blood instantly ran cold. He didn’t dare look down at Jiang Jianming’s condition, only struggling to raise his arm toward the window, his fingers clenching fiercely in the air as hatred born through his teeth. “Get… out!!”
A brilliant crimson-gold explosion erupted outside the window, temporarily dispersing the incoming white crystals.
“Jiang!” Only then did he release his crystal bones, anxiously cupping the face of the person in his arms, “How are you? Did it hurt just now?”
“No…”
Jiang Jianming’s face was deathly pale, eyes closed as he panted shallowly, barely able to form complete words, “Out… outside…”
Outside was chaos, with the sound of people running back and forth and shouts rising and falling. The recent attack had affected the entire space station, and the soldiers were panicking.
Ryann held Jiang Jianming as they walked out. When they left the room, they saw crystals had formed on the steel pillars throughout the space station, and blinding white light shone through the row of portholes.
Outside the space station, battleship silhouettes were barely visible, like debris struggling in giant waves. Countless gun ports fired simultaneously, countless missiles were launched into the crystal particle tide. But that white light only drew closer and denser, blocking out the starlight in the universe.
A stretcher rushed past the two of them, with a dying soldier lying face-up, his pupils beginning to dilate as he squinted, mumbling softly. “Snow… is it snowing…”
In the Crystal Nest, there was neither snow nor sunshine.
More soldiers stood in silence, their eyes carrying hatred and fatigue, along with something akin to despair.
Anyone could see that under such an assault, the space station wouldn’t last until the Pangu’s Axe finished recharging. Once this fortress collapsed, if they were to continue fighting, they would have to use human lives as walls of flesh and blood.
Ryann tightly gripped Jiang Jianming’s wrist as they walked forward along the corner by the porthole, against the flow of running people.
Ryann asked in a low voice. “How long until the Pangu’s Axe finishes charging?”
Though it was very noisy around them, that not-so-loud voice clearly reached Jiang Jianming’s ears.
He lowered his pale face, squinting at his wrist device, and said between shallow breaths. “Still about two days and four hours plus a bit more.”
Both fell silent for a moment.
Ryann looked ahead and said calmly, “You understand the logic better than I do. My consciousness projection is about to break, might as well use up this Base Body early.”
“…”
“Would it buy about a day and a half? Is that enough?”
“…”
“Jiang?”
“…Mm,” Jiang Jianming’s eyes were completely dark as he said softly, “I’m listening, what did Your Highness just ask?”
Ryann stopped asking and walked silently for a few seconds before raising his emerald eyes, “What did you mean by what you said in the room earlier? Want to die with me?”
Jiang Jianming: “I said live and die together. It’s supposed to be something tragic yet righteous, how did Your Highness make it sound so petty?”
Ryann squeezed his wrist bone and said, “Nonsense, you don’t understand, living and dying together is different from dying for love…”
“—Your Two Highnesses!”
Suddenly, there was commotion ahead. A man in Golden Sun Wheel uniform rushed before them – it was Major Zheng Yue.
“So you two are here… the situation isn’t good, the space station can’t hold much longer!”
Zheng Yue had already used up his Base Body, and now wearing heavy armor and panting heavily, he had clearly just retreated from the battlefield, “Colonel Lin Zhi said we might need to abandon part of the structure, we’ll escort you to the core area…”
Ryann nodded. “I know, I’m going to solve this problem.”
Zheng Yue froze. “Huh?… S-solve it?”
Before Zheng Yue could ask further, Ryann had already pulled Jiang Jianming through the automatic door and walked ahead.
Outside the open-air starship port was a bleak sight. The shield could no longer completely block the crystal particle invasion, and the ground was covered in frost-like whiteness.
Broken battleships lay askew in corners, thick smoke rising from their scorched damaged parts, while their gun ports were covered in thick crystals as technicians rushed to repair them.
Through the porthole, on the platform above the gangway, stood the silhouettes of several generals.
“Major General Xie, you can’t go!”
Lin Zhi stood before Xie Yuduo with reddened eyes. “Listen to your subordinate, please retreat for now! The space station can’t be protected anymore, if we continue holding on, all the soldiers will die here!”
Xie Yuduo angrily replied. “At this rate of attack, one step back means retreating all the way, and when the crystal particles rush into Imperial territory, all of humanity will die!”
Jin Min: “But you still can’t go out now!”
Xie Yuduo argued heatedly, directly raising his arm to push Jin Min away. “Get lost! My soldiers are still stuck in the Crystal Nest, and you’re telling me not to go!?”
Lieutenant General Tang’s face was grief-stricken, while Celine stood in silent contemplation with closed eyes.
The final counterattack from the Crystal Nest’s mother nucleus had completely exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Now the Imperial army was in a dilemma, but regardless of the final outcome, devastating sacrifices were unavoidable.
Suddenly, footsteps came from behind. Everyone turned to see Ryann holding Jiang Jianming’s wrist, climbing the gangway step by step.
“Stop arguing,” Ryann spoke, “I won’t allow a retreat.”
Amidst everyone’s varied expressions, the Crown Prince lifted his beautifully contoured chin, “Open the starship port’s access, I’m going out.”
Everyone was shocked, but their first glance was toward Jiang Jianming.
“Your Highness Ryann,” Celine hurriedly said, “The crystal particle concentration outside is already very high, if we open the access, the damage to the disa- cough… to non-crystal humans would…”
Ryann’s expression remained blank. “It doesn’t matter.”
Jiang Jianming smiled with curved brows, saying gently: “Listen to His Highness, if he says it doesn’t matter, then it doesn’t matter.”
“Also,” he added, “Help me connect to the Imperial Military Command, I have something to say to Commander Chen.”
“Little Excellency?” Xie Yuduo’s face turned pale, an ominous premonition rising from somewhere, sending a chill up his spine.
Logically, things couldn’t get worse than the current situation, but he felt something was off about the two Highnesses, and they were unusually in sync about it.
Lin Zhi said hesitantly, “Little Excellency, but in the current situation, communications…”
Jiang Jianming interrupted. “I know it’s difficult, but I truly have something important to say.”
“If it’s impossible to connect to the Empire from here, then have a small group of technicians make an independent jump for some distance and use a bridge relay method to connect, is that feasible?”
Lin Zhi immediately realized the importance and bowed solemnly. “Yes! This subordinate will arrange it right away.”
Jiang Jianming nodded, suddenly noticing the warmth that had been holding his wrist was gone.
Ryann had walked two steps forward, facing him while standing with his back to the starship port’s access.
Crystal bones slowly extended from his back, like a single wing burning with flames, reaching out toward Jiang Jianming.
“Will you see me off?”
Jiang Jianming reached out his hand, his fingertips touching that crimson-gold crystal bone. “I will.”
