The wind on Snow Star was brutally cold, piercing to the bone. All around was a stark white landscape. On a sheer cliff, seven-year-old Chu Yi leapt down, his dark eyes filled with unwavering determination.
The icy wind rushed sharply into his nostrils, bringing with it the suffocating feeling of losing breath and the weightless sensation of falling from a great height. Instinctively, he reached out to grip the cliffside.
The cliff was covered in snow and ice, sharp and slippery, and within moments, his hands were cut open as he slid down, scraping against the rock. Ice and rocks fell around him, and a winding trail of blood marked the pure white cliff until Chu Yi managed to grip onto a protruding rock and a crack, finally halting his fall, swinging precariously midair. The blood trail stopped only then.
The moment the pain shot through his hands, Chu Yi regained clarity. He looked down at the bottomless abyss below. The most eye-catching thing on his pale face was the pair of pure black eyes that remained calm under such circumstances.
Chu Yi resisted the instinct of survival and pushed his feet on the cliff. At the same time, he loosened his grip, plummeting once again.
Seeing Chu Yi falling from a high altitude on the snow, Wei’an’s big blue eyes were full of anxiety. He exclaimed and ran forward with his short legs as if he wanted to catch him.
By the time Wei’an reached the bottom of the cliff, Chu Yi was already sitting on the ground, covered in blood. He panted heavily, trying to steady himself, his dark eyes watching Wei’an as he stumbled through the snow toward him.
He failed. During the fall, his survival instinct had driven him to grab at anything he could—rocks, branches, cracks. His strong desire to survive, honed over years of struggling for survival, made it impossible for him to place his hope of survival on the pair of unfurled bone wings.
Wei’an crouched in front of him, his blue eyes misty. “Blood…it’s bleeding…it hurts~”
As he said this, he hurriedly dug out his painkiller candies in his storage space and stuffed them into Chu Yi’s mouth. “If you eat it, it won’t hurt.”
Shang You and the others also ran up and hurriedly helped Chu Yi up, arguing about whether to go to the hospital or bandage first as they supported him.
Chu Yi brushed their hands away, said sorry to them softly with the candy in his mouth, turned around, and walked towards the cliff again stubbornly and persistently.
Wei’an raised his feet to catch up, but Alhandra held his shoulder. He raised his little fat face in confusion and said in a childish voice, “Male father, Chu Yi is hurt; he needs to go to the hospital.”
Alhandra crouched down, holding Wei’an’s small hand, only letting go after ensuring it was warm.
“That’s his choice.” Alhandra patted Wei’an’s head. “We can worry, but we shouldn’t stop him.”
Wei’an’s blue eyes were filled with confusion. Clearly, he didn’t fully understand, but he obediently stayed by his male father’s side, watching his friend on the cliff with worry.
Once, twice, three times—each time Chu Yi failed, Wei’an, Shang You, Shang Yan, and the others would rush forward to help him up.
Wei’an couldn’t understand. Chu Yi was clearly in so much pain, his hands and lips trembling, so why did he keep climbing up, only to fall again?
Isn’t Chu Yi a bit silly?
“He’s not silly,” Shang Yan, who vaguely understood something, explained to Wei’an in a low voice, “I think he’s trying to force himself to unfold his bone wings this way.”
“But we didn’t have to do this when we opened our wings?” Wei’an asked, puzzled.
“Because he’s different from us.” Shang Yan gently touched his face, ensuring it was warm before continuing. “He has scales on his face, and his skin is unnaturally white. He probably has Bai race genes, which make it harder for him to open his bone wings.”
“Oh.” Wei’an nodded.
He didn’t understand the rest, but he only understood that Chu Yi was not silly.
No one knows how many times he jumped repeatedly, or how many wounds he got from falling on the cliffside.
Wei’an eventually lost count. The sun was setting, and Chu Yi was exhausted, finally plummeting straight down the cliff. Quan Yan and the others prepared to catch him with their own wings.
And at that moment, Chu Yi finally spreads his wings!
A pair of bone wings, as black and sharp as any female Zerg’s, full of an intimidating aura as soon as they stretched open.
He only stayed in the air for a moment, and the next second he flew straight into the sky against the cliff that made him bloodied, soaring into the sky, flying higher than the cliff, high enough to touch the sun and the moon at dusk.
Wei’an raised his head and stared blankly at the scene, an emotion he didn’t understand welling up in his little chest.
Alhandra stroked his head, a hint of satisfaction in his voice. “See? He broke free from his cocoon!”
Chu Yi returned from circling in the sky, landing exhausted in the snow. Covered in blood, his clothes were torn, but in his pure black eyes, the lifelessness and heaviness were gone, and were as pure as the night at this moment, clean and bright.
…
On the way to their residence on Snow Star, Wei’an made a point to sit beside Chu Yi, shoving a handful of pain-relieving candies into his mouth. With a bit of curiosity in his eyes, he asked, “Does it hurt?”
With his cheeks puffed out with candy, Chu Yi nodded, “It does.”
Wei’an scrunched up his little face. “I feel pain too.”
At Wei’an’s words, Chu Yi visibly tensed, holding his battered hands away, worried. “Where does it hurt? Did you get hurt?”
“No,” Wei’an pointed to Chu Yi’s hands, his nose wrinkling, “I feel pain just looking at your hands.”
Chu Yi sighed in relief, hiding his hands in his sleeves. “If you can’t see them, it won’t hurt.”
Wei’an tilted his head and stared at his face. He was as strange as his older brothers, not fearing pain at all.
Cen Wei, who he didn’t know when he moved over, lazily put his chin on Wei’an’s shoulder, squinted his eyes, and began dozing off.
Quan Yu, who saw this scene from the side, gave up struggling with himself and ran over and squeezed into Wei’an’s arms, refusing to leave.
Wei’an happily hugged Quan Yu, rubbing his little face against him.
Chu Yi watched this scene quietly from the side. As he watched, he grew increasingly drowsy and eventually leaned against the window to rest.
With Cen Wei on his left, Chu Yi on his right, and Quan Yu in his arms, Wei’an puffed his cheeks and shook his feet. They were really not afraid of crushing Wei’an!
Unknowingly, as he slept, he leaned against Wei’an’s other shoulder.
Watching this, Papar Xing smiled warmly, capturing the scene on camera.
The next second, Shang You, Shang Yan, Krillochuan, and Naiman all rushed over, making funny faces behind Wei’an, asking Papar Xing to take a picture of them too.
After taking a few photos, Quan Yan, Quan Ci, and Quan Fan also came over, poking Wei’an’s unresponsive face as they snapped pictures.
Wei’an wasn’t upset at all, smiling with crescent-shaped eyes as he cooperated with them.
Seeing them taking photos, Alhandra, Shang Ying, Cliff, and other Zergs got interested and joined in.
Finally, Papar Xing simply enabled the selfie feature, joining the photo-taking group himself.
Back at the residence, after being treated, Chu Yi saw a photo taken while he was asleep, with him leaning against Wei’an’s shoulder while drooling. He froze, his face gradually turning red inch by inch.
Seeing his face flushed as red as blood, Wei’an thought of how red his own face was when he had a fever. He quickly jumped up from the carpet, turned his head, and shouted, “Male father, Chu Yi has a fever!”
Embarrassed by the crowd’s attention due to his ‘fever,’ Chu Yi spread his bony wings to hide himself, refusing to come out no matter how much Wei’an called.
Papar Xing chuckled, patting Wei’an’s head, and explained when he saw Wei’an’s puzzled gaze, “It’s because he is shy.”
“Oh,” Wei’an nodded in sudden understanding, realizing that Chu Yi was so easily embarrassed!
The night sky of Snow Star was the most splendid and clear, just like the pure snow that could cleanse the soul and soothe unhealed wounds.
After a good night’s sleep, Wei’an, feeling full of energy at dawn, put on his soft yellow, fluffy little duck outfit and waddled outside on his short legs.
Alhandra caught him by the back collar and lifted him up, “Do you know where we’re going today?”
“Yes” Wei’an wiggled his little hands and feet under Alhandra’s grasp. “We’re going to the egg nursery to guide the little cubs in hatching.”
He mimicked breaking out of an egg with his hands, his chubby, milky white cheeks shaking.
One of the males on Snow Star had an accident and was temporarily unable to guide the cubs hatching this month. Snow Star was originally planning to rearrange the schedule for males to guide the hatching of the eggs. As it happened, Alhandra learned about this and thought it would be a good opportunity to train Wei’an, so he took on the task.
They set off in the morning sunlight, arriving at their destination around noon.
This egg nursery was different from the last one Wei’an had seen, which was nestled in a forest. This one was carved from a massive, naturally formed ice crystal, incredibly beautiful and majestic.
Guiding the cubs to break out of their shells is the male’s responsibility in the Zerg race. No male zerg shirks this responsibility. Although some males dreaded it, and even though this will shorten their lifespan, they still take up this responsibility without hesitation. There is no perfunctory aspect to this responsibility.
Inside the egg nursery were thousands of incubation rooms, each containing hundreds or even thousands of fully developed eggs waiting to break out of their shells.
Holding his male father’s hand, Wei’an entered the central incubation room, and his chubby little face instinctively grew serious at the sight of the neatly arranged eggs. He needed to look like an older brother.
Shang You and the others instinctively put on serious expressions as well. Although they hadn’t been to an incubation room before, they had all learned and seen what the eggs looked like when they broke out of their shell in the kindergarten.
These were all cubs younger than them, so they had to act mature, otherwise they will be laughed at.
Cen Wei immediately found a place to sit, looking as if he could never get enough sleep.
It was also the first time for Quan Yan and the others to come to an egg nursery,the moment they entered, they instinctively focused on Wei’an who standing in the center, held by Alhandra.
At the age of four and a half, Wei’an, who was still a baby, took on the responsibilities of a male for the first time on this day.
Alhandra stood by his side, ready to step in should anything go wrong.
Following the actions he’d seen from Uncle Papar Louke, Wei’an closed his bright blue eyes and, as his male father had taught him, extended his spiritual power.
Those small, plump tentacles, invisible to females but clearly visible to males, extended outward and split into thousands of fine threads of spiritual power.
They landed on each egg in this incubation room, on every egg in each incubation room of the egg nursery, and even on Quan Yan, Quan Ci, Quan Fan, Quan Yu, Cen Wei, Shang Yan, Chu Yi, and the females gathered outside the nursery waiting to take their cubs.
The females gathered outside the egg nursery seemed to sense something, suddenly looking up toward the nursery.
Quan Yan, Quan Ci and the others also sensed something, staring intently at Wei’an who was standing in the center.
Even Cen Wei, who had been dozing in the corner, opened his light purple eyes and looked in Wei’an’s direction.
At the same moment, the EY in their bodies and in the eggs were being extracted at an extremely fast speed.
In just a moment, the Zerg source within them became as calm as when they were first born.
The females outside the egg nursery were shocked and confused. How had the restlessness of their Zerg source suddenly calmed down?!
Quan Yan and the others, who understood what all this was about, were speechless for a moment.
The sunlight outside the window was reflected by the ice crystals and fell on Wei’an’s face. With his eyes closed, his chubby face was expressionless. He was obviously wearing a cute cream-yellow duck plush clothes, but at this moment he became indifferent, as ethereal and distant as moonlight.
“Crack!”
“Crack!”
The sound of eggshells breaking echoed one after another. As one female after another broke out from the eggs, as their vibrant eyes opened one by one, as they were given life and granted the right to live, an immense sense of awe filled Chu Yi.
It was awe for life itself, and awe for the male’s incredible power.
His heart beat loudly, and for the first time, he understood why the Zerg gene contained such a deeply ingrained instinct to protect males.
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Thank you. This story is adorable.