Bugs won't hurt her.

30 star hours after the Zerg Mother rescue mission was completed, the Zerg Mother finally agreed to move to the Pompeii.

Gabriel was filled with gratitude, but he didn't forget to clear the area for Her Majesty the Worm Mother. With a few orders, the passageway leading from the mobile warship to the Worm Mother's quarters on the Pompeii was cleared. Not only had the entire escort force retreated to the perimeter, but the ventilation system within the passageway was meticulously used to completely remove any remaining pheromones.

Li'er stood on the approach bridge from the motor ship to the Pompeii, gazing out the porthole at the vast wonders of the universe. The entire universe was like a flattened sheet of deep black satin, its dazzling stars like glittering jewels dotting the fabric. Gravity swirled the lavender stardust into eddies, and an unknown source of light shone the finely shattered stars into a sheen of satin.

This was a spectacular sight that Li'er had never seen before, and it was a grandeur that she could hardly imagine even when she saw it in the square courtyard of Siyi Zhai.

Seville was very considerate and quietly stood by, quietly admiring the beauty of the comet reflected in the insect mother's blue-gold eyes.

In such a vast world, Li'er felt that she was very small and insignificant.

She was still afraid and confused. She agreed to follow Sewell not because she accepted her identity as a Worm Queen, but simply because she didn't know what to do now.

It seemed like she had no choice in life: be a skinny horse, or be a worm mother; or even be a human, or be a worm.

She turned her head away. The passageway leading to the Pompeii, a wide, smooth, silver-white interior, radiated a sense of high technology. Long strips of light illuminated every hatch, leaving no room for escaping. The high-strength floor-to-ceiling glass, which had originally offered a breathtaking view of the cosmic landscape, had been switched to mirror mode, fearing the Zerg Mother might be frightened by the Tiger Guards.

Accustomed to the dim interior of the Siyizhai where the sun sets and there is insufficient lighting, Li'er felt dizzy at the sight of the interior cabin being as bright as day in the dark environment of the universe that was equivalent to night.

She took a step forward and embarked on an unknown future.

The approach bridge to the palace was long, and the Pompeii was too large. Sewell offered to fly over with Her Majesty the Worm Queen in his arms, but Li'er, clinging to the strict rules of gender, refused.

Seville noticed Li'er's unsteady gait and the small feet exposed under her outer robe.

On the motor ship, when Gabriel and Vio were doing an external examination of Li'er, they of course saw her little feet.

But none of them thought there was anything wrong. Some myriapods had many small legs, while some flying insects had small legs.

But Sewell felt that things might not be that simple.

He'd seen numerous human books citing "upright walking" as a key symbol of humanity's entry into civilization. It was precisely because humans, unlike other mammals, could maintain balance while standing upright that they freed their hands to use tools, and these refined hand movements stimulated brain development. This positive cycle had enabled humans, despite their frail bodies, to successfully rise to the top of the food chain on the ancient Blue Planet.

But the insect mother's feet obviously made her walk a little unstable. Is this also the simulation mimicry she needs to make?

And she has always called herself a "slave"...

Seville thought it necessary to ask his family to collect some more records about human beings for him, as his current knowledge was still very limited.

When Li'er was about to be unable to walk, Gabriel, who had been following her secretly, called in a micro-robot aircraft. Of course, she herself did not dare to show up, which gave Seville the honor of helping Her Majesty the Insect Queen onto the aircraft.

Li'er sat on the flying machine, feeling quite curious. After overcoming the initial discomfort of slight weightlessness, she quickly realized the beauty of this silver-like flying machine. The small flying machine resembled the lotus pedestal of a bodhisattva in a temple. The shimmering robe spread out on the pedestal, moving without wind, and Li'er felt inexplicably relieved.

After her tense heart relaxed, a heavy sense of fatigue came over her. As she walked through the long corridors inside the cabin, seeing the same scenery all the time, Li'er finally couldn't resist the sleepiness and fell asleep on the aircraft before she even reached her bedroom.

Seville was about to carry the Worm Mother to the luxurious and comfortable bed in the bedroom, but Gabriel, with a sullen face, stopped him: "You are not yet a candidate for the King's Consort, Seville Knox. I will take care of the Worm Mother's sleeping arrangements."

Gabriel's expression was a little distorted at this moment, and the sour pheromones of jealousy would occasionally sting Sevier. "You did very well. Perhaps your family never discovered your talent before, didn't notice your gift for seducing females. They should have sent you to the Thorne family's academy sooner. You would have become a very popular housekeeper among the ladies of high-ranking families."

Gabriel's sarcastic remarks didn't embarrass Seville. In fact, the Chief Internal Affairs Officer praising you for being an excellent internal affairs officer was probably a high compliment. However, Seville had something more important on his mind.

"Lord Gabriel, may I ask on what occasion did you rescue His Majesty? What was the situation like? Was His Majesty treated unfairly?"

Gabrielle was stunned for a moment, but Sewell's serious expression made her put away her sarcasm and replied, "What we saw was very limited. But it seemed to be a lively banquet. Your Majesty seemed to be in a good mood and was smiling all the time. She was the focus of the stage, as she should be. She looked stunning—"

"What about the people around her? Are they treating her badly?"

"Probably not. She also has servants in human society. Servants look after her when she bathes, and even when she goes on stage she doesn't need to walk by herself; the servants carry her up."

It was precisely because of his gratitude for the care that the Ancient Blue Star humans had shown the Worm Queen that Ryan, when he intervened to rescue her, tried to minimize the situation and not affect any of the Ancient Blue Star humans present. Of course, the brief earthquake caused by the fluctuations in space and time was beyond their control.

Sewell felt a little relieved, but there seemed to be a voice deep in his mind telling him that something was wrong.

"If possible, I'd also like to see the footage recorded by the rescue ship's positioning observation device."

-

Li'er had the most comfortable sleep of her life.

The soft bed was not affected by the pain of the strange flesh scars on my back, and the air was always filled with a pleasant sweet fragrance.

But she dreamed of the Four Arts Hall again. That summer night, her sisters were all screaming.

There are snakes.

A emerald green bamboo snake, thicker than her hand, hissed and spit out its tongue as it swam towards them from under the corridor.

Even the dignified teacher mother was afraid of this poisonous snake.

Anyone who gets bitten will probably fall down in a few steps.

In the chaos, she didn't know who pushed her and she staggered a few steps to the front of the snake.

She was finished. Li'er closed her eyes and waited for the snake to sink its fangs into her skin and inject its venom into her body.

But the imagined tragedy didn't happen. A centipede, thicker than her thumb and longer than her forearm, appeared from nowhere and tightly wrapped around the snake. A mantis clamped down on the snake's tail, and a beetle pressed against the snake's belly scales.

She ran back to the crowd and watched the fierce fight between insects and snakes in the courtyard. The snake rolled violently, shook off all the insects on its body, and fled in a panic.

The mother, the teacher, was sweeping up the bodies of the insects that had been crushed to death by the snakes while chanting, "Amitabha! The Dragon Boat Festival is really full of strange things! The insects and snakes are fighting so fiercely! I am really surprised."

As the mother was muttering about spreading more realgar, another voice floated in from the sky: "You are the insect queen... the insect queen pheromones on your body... your natural attraction to the insect race..."

She revisited this long-lost memory. Could it be that these insects were saving her?

Li'er opened her eyes.

The first thing he saw was the dark blue velvet curtains covering the bed, dotted with diamonds and resembling a galaxy of stars. Gabriel, who had been spying from the shadows the previous day, had noticed that Her Majesty the Worm Mother seemed to enjoy the beauty of the universe, and had ordered them to be replaced overnight while she slept.

Li'er sat up, hugging the silky, soft quilt. A small, silver, beetle-shaped robot floated into the tent. "Your Majesty! You're awake!"

Taking into account that the Insect Queen might not be able to accept the beetle form for the time being, this robot was processed into the shape of the aircraft that the Insect Queen rode last night: a circle of inverted petal-shaped wings was welded on the chubby body, so that it now looks like a flying pineapple with large leaves.

It turns out that cute things that are round and lack sharp edges are always easier for people to accept. Li'er looked at the robot spinning and tumbling, not seeming frightened. So the robot continued, "Your Majesty, do you want to get up now? Do you need to wash up immediately? What would you like for breakfast? May I summon the housekeeper?"

Internal Affairs Officer sounds like a very important official. Li Er whispered, "Slave... I, I can do it myself."

Under the guidance of the mechanical pineapple, she learned how to use the bathroom facilities in the Worm Mother's terrifyingly large bathroom and simply wash herself. The mechanical pineapple projected instructions for using the bathroom facilities in mid-air, startling Li'er. Only then did she realize it was just like the shadow play of a village opera, only without the curtain, and she finally calmed down.

While the Worm Queen was resting, Gabriel had already urgently recruited a construction team to replace the bathroom fixtures with cub-sized ones. But the decor hadn't been changed yet. Li'er stood before the oversized bathroom mirror, which reflected her in every detail, and met her own turquoise eyes.

After Seville revealed her identity as a worm queen to her, everything seemed to make sense.

She had never seen anyone with eyes of her color. Even the knowledgeable Mother Jin said she had never seen such eyes.

Mother Jin said, "I've seen foreigners with green and blue eyes, but I've never seen eyes like yours. Eyes like yours are the gilded color found on the utensils favored by the nobility. It's a pity you have such a lowly fate..."

Cheap life. Cheap life.

She had heard this for twenty years.

But suddenly one day, someone told her that she was a most noble person, no, a bug.

So far, she had only seen three Zerg. The purple-eyed one, the young Master Seville with his warm smile. The other two were yesterday's monsters: a black-clad monster with eight onyx-like eyes and six arms, and a pink-haired monster with silver eyes and a mantis-like right hand.

Maybe they're not monsters, they're bugs.

Bugs and insects shouldn't hurt her.

After finishing a sweet, exquisite breakfast made of who knows what, Li'er said to the robot, "I...I want to see the young man with purple eyes from yesterday."