“……”
After hearing what the young man said, Tang Zhen couldn’t help but widen his eyes. He felt a question mark slowly floating above his head.
Uh…… what does…… “someone fighting with you” mean?
He found it incomprehensible. First of all, this wasn’t really a two-way fight; it was simply Jiang Jianming beating up another person. Just looking at his neat, spotless appearance should have made that clear.
Secondly, even if one had to use the word “fight,” according to normal logic, one should ask “who did you fight with?” Now changing the subject to “someone” was almost like determining that some unknown “Mr. Someone” had first attacked and bullied Jiang Jianming.
Jiang Jianming turned around and glanced far into the campus. Andrew was being helped onto an ambulance by Orlando family’s bodyguards who had arrived belatedly.
He gestured with his eyes. “Hmm, that one. He’s your brother, right?”
Ryann coldly said, “No, he’s not.”
Tang Zhen: “??”
Ah, was this something to deny?
Jiang Jianming: “You… whatever. It was this person anyway, but I’ve already taken care of it.”
Ryann stepped forward, gripping Jiang Jianming’s shoulder with one hand. “What did you take care of? What did he do to you?”
Tang Zhen: “???”
Oh, one person standing nonchalantly in front of you, another person being carried into an ambulance, and you worriedly ask what the latter did to the former.
I mean, shouldn’t we show some respect to the medical staff and security guards who rushed here with great effort!?
Jiang Jianming reached out and ruffled the young man’s hair. “Nothing much, I simply didn’t like the look of him.”
“Hmm.” Ryann, expressionlessly…nuzzled against his palm.
“I know it’s inconvenient for you,” the young man’s voice had an icy quality, yet was somewhat deep, “I’ll help you beat him up more severely when I get back.”
Tang Zhen beside them fell into deep confusion.
He pondered, was the rumored “little monster” of the Orlando family actually of this character!?
…That’s right, the young man with platinum curly hair and emerald green eyes before them was none other than Speaker Orlando’s youngest son, Ryann Orlando.
As an S-class crystal bone holder, this child had split mechs with his crystal bones even before coming of age, a complete and utter violent freak. Even more bizarre was that no one had ever seen his mother, nor had anyone heard about him having any relatives or friends. Rumors said he was an artificial child cultivated by Speaker Orlando through technological means… but no one knew the source of this rumor.
At the same time, he didn’t attend school; Orlando hired special private tutors to teach him. This meant that although Ryann Orlando appeared in the media quite often, few ordinary people had the opportunity to interact with him.
So… how exactly did Jiang Jianming become friends with this guy?
Weren’t their families political enemies?!
While Tang Zhen was still utterly perplexed, commotion had already begun around them.
This was at the military academy’s front gate, with many passing students—including those who had just witnessed the “violent incident.”
When they passed by, their expressions all uniformly turned to stone.
“Holy crap, isn’t that Senior Jiang and… and…”
“What’s going on with these two?”
“Did the senior just pat that little monster’s head just now, did he really pat it?!”
“Damn, we should leave first.”
Jiang Jianming chuckled and said “That’s bad,” yet clearly didn’t take it seriously. “Tang Zhen, don’t you have a date with Man’er tonight? Don’t be late.”
“…Hey, Xiao Jiang!” Tang Zhen called out once, watching helplessly as Jiang Jianming pulled Ryann away.
They crossed the pedestrian path in front of the military academy, then stopped briefly, bringing their faces close together and saying something. When the traffic light turned green, they crossed the road and continued forward.
Their steps were perfectly synchronized, making even their silhouettes appear well-matched—as if they had walked side by side for a very, very long time.
At the school gate, someone watched with a flushed face for a while, hurriedly took out a wrist device wanting to take a photo, but was glared back by Tang Zhen.
But regardless, the military academy forum would inevitably become lively again tonight.
The post title could be “Regarding Our School’s Male God First Beating Up the Imperial Speaker’s Son, Then Ruffling the Speaker’s Youngest Son’s Hair at the School Gate Minutes Later,” or it could be more concise and vivid like “The Orlando Family’s Complete Defeat”… who knows?
……
After leaving the military academy, Jiang Jianming took Ryann to West Galaxy Street.
He knew that with their identities, being seen together would definitely cause a commotion. But it wasn’t a big problem; after all, he was about to graduate.
Ryann wasn’t familiar with these places where young people hung out, so he obediently followed Jiang Jianming, eventually being lured to sit down at a popular tea and snack restaurant.
Jiang Jianming ordered a freshly baked apple pie and two cups of milk tea.
The glass window reflected the fashionably dressed passing crowd. The black-haired young man tilted his head and smiled. “Why did you suddenly come to school to find me today?”
Ryann didn’t answer the question. “Have you decided where you’re going after graduation?”
Jiang Jianming: “I’m joining the military. I’ll probably still go to the frontline. Major General Xie Yuduo of the Silver Big Dipper First Corps is willing to accept me directly, which will make the process much more convenient.”
Ryann was silent for a moment, then suddenly raised his emerald green eyes and said softly, “I don’t want to be separated from you. Wherever you go, I’ll go there too.”
Jiang Jianming made no comment, just inserted the straw into the milk tea and stirred it, making a clinking sound against the glass.
Actually, he thought Ryann was more suited for politics, but… well, it wasn’t a bad thing to accumulate some experience in the military.
“…Jiang.”
Ryann reached out to cut a piece of apple pie and suddenly said, “Last night, I had a very long dream.”
He looked at the fruit filling and honey flowing out and spreading on the white porcelain plate. “In the dream…”
“We met hundreds of years ago.”
“You were a non-crystal person suffering from chronic crystal disorder.”
Jiang Jianming, who was about to extend his fork, paused slightly and looked at Ryann with surprise.
He couldn’t help but smile. “Me? A non-crystal person?”
But the smile that had just appeared quickly faded. He saw undisguisable sadness spreading across Ryann’s face.
Since knowing him, this was the first time Jiang Jianming had seen this temperamentally cold and arrogant young man show such an expression, and it was merely because he had an absurd dream.
…Jiang Jianming felt a stab of pain in his heart.
Two centuries after the Crystal Particle Battle, the human empire no longer had non-crystal people, only differences in crystal bone class levels. In other words, non-crystal humans had already essentially become extinct.
Of course, the officials didn’t like this statement; the media more commonly used the phrase “humanity has finally completed this thorough evolution.”
As for crystal disorder, that was a condition one could only read about in history books.
He sighed lightly, trying to use banter to dispel this indescribable heavy atmosphere. “Well, it seems I’m quite delicate in your subconscious. Shall we practice together tonight?”
“No,” Ryann’s voice grew lower, his eyes becoming slightly wet, “…no. You were still as strong as you are now, just suffered a lot.”
Jiang Jianming was startled and instinctively stood up. Unexpectedly, Ryann suddenly reached across the table at this moment and accurately grasped his wrist.
“You…” he stumbled a bit from the pull and sat back down.
Ryann’s body temperature was always a bit higher than his, with very warm hands.
But today they were somewhat hot.
The two remained frozen in an odd and ambiguous posture, their breaths mingling in midair. The wind chimes at the restaurant entrance rang at this moment, and the passing footsteps made Jiang Jianming’s heartbeat subtly quicken.
“Jiang, before I said I had something to tell you after your graduation.”
Ryann, with reddened eyes, enunciated each word distinctly, “There are still two months until graduation, but I don’t want to wait anymore.”
Jiang Jianming: “Ryann?”
“Shh, listen to me.” Ryann put his hand into his coat pocket and took out a small box.
Even though he had rehearsed countless times in front of a mirror, his movements were still stiff when opening the box.
Ryann trembled as he took a breath.
Since having that dream, he had been continuously anxious, his chest feeling as if it would burst from the panic of potentially losing something.
Even though he knew that in this world, Jiang Jianming was a high-level crystal user just as strong as himself, with a complete family and considerable power. But perhaps in another parallel timeline, if they had been born a few hundred years earlier…
The ones in the dream might be the real them, and their current selves just a dream.
But even so… whether it was a dream or an illusion, whether it was a flower in the mirror or the moon in the water, he didn’t care.
Ryann opened the box; inside lay a dazzlingly brilliant diamond ring.
Extreme nervousness made his brain burn; he almost bit his tongue when he spoke. “Please… w-would you… date me?”
“……”
Sudden silence fell between the two.
Time suddenly flowed as slowly as a vast river. Ryann felt all the cells throughout his body automatically heating up. So hot, his pulse violently striking against his eardrums, the young man’s jaw trembling slightly.
If he doesn’t agree, Ryann thought almost self-destructively, then I’ll ask again tomorrow.
“Ah… huh?”
After a few seconds of silence, Jiang Jianming made a confused sound, “Of course we can, is that something you even need to ask?… Or rather, I thought we were already dating.”
“And Ryann,” he patted the tense wrist across from him, reminding him not very tactfully, “rings are given during proposals.”
“Is that okay? Then, let’s get married directly… if you don’t mind.”
Ryann suddenly stood up, slapped the table with one hand, his eyes gleaming. “I’m already of age, we’re both at the legal marriage age, now let’s go out and it’s just a ten-minute air vehicle ride to the civil affairs bureau—”
“…That, there’s no need to rush so much.”
