Chapter 2
After sending Feng Ran home, Shen Shiqian got into the hovercar and headed back, his mind still a jumble of thoughts.
"I'm willing."
He recalled that sentence, which was not a positive or encouraging answer, nor did it contain any romantic hints; it was simply something he couldn't refuse. It reminded Shen Shiqian of a report written by the Xinhua News Agency, which described Feng Ran's early life as: "A princess walking on a tightrope."
But she's sixteen now, almost four years into the first half of her life, and she's still sitting on the tightrope. It's a strange feeling, a sense of unreal absurdity.
But at sixteen, there are still two years until the second differentiation of adulthood. They are still immature, naive, and not even fully grown up yet.
Tsk.
Because it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, Shen Shiqian had to prepare a room for Feng Ran before she moved in. The Feng family wouldn't refuse any request from Shen Shiqian; they didn't care about their daughter's feelings and only wanted to get close to him and the military. So Feng Ran would definitely move in, even if she herself was unwilling.
Although this may be a bit unfair, Shen Shiqian still wants to try to change something.
When he was traveling to the Energy Star to investigate the mechanical rebellion, he accidentally entered a black hole at a free point. He was in a daze, unsure whether he was asleep or unconscious. When he woke up, he was strangely transported back twelve years, back to the shuttle he had used to annihilate the alien races in the interstellar war and set off to return to the Imperial capital.
It doesn't seem to be a time reversal, because compared to the memories of those twelve years, the memories of the twenty-eight years before this point are clearer to him, and his body also retains some habits that he only had when he was young. In other words, he should have been reborn, but he suddenly remembered the memories of his previous life while traveling.
But after he realized that he had been reborn, the memories of the end of his previous life became clearer and clearer, as if they had happened yesterday.
The first thing Shen Shiqian did after landing in the imperial capital was to visit the Academy of Sciences. The Star Network Map researchers were startled by his sudden visit and nervously explained a lot about monitoring data to him, but they found no signs of any planet shifting.
Frustrated, he left the Star Tower and instinctively wanted to go to the laboratory, but after taking a step, he remembered that Feng Ran was still alive at this time. When did Feng Ran discover the deviation of 4601? Shen Shiqian had the idea of meeting Feng Ran at this time.
After the ceremony honoring the newly appointed marshal, Shen Shiqian and his combat troops had a leave of about half a month. Although the work would be handled on the capital planet even if there was no war, he would still be busy. He decided to meet Feng Ran and did a simple survey before the meeting.
Only then did she learn about the Feng family's arrangements for Feng Ran's marriage. Originally, the person Feng Ran was supposed to meet today was Basil Sleica from the Sleica family. They were supposed to get engaged quickly afterward, and after Feng Ran's seventeenth birthday, Basil would ask her to move into his house, and they would get married after she graduated and came of age.
However, Luo Le died a terrible death in his previous life. He and Feng Linye were almost the main targets of Feng Ran's revenge. Under Feng Ran's powerful information control capabilities, the Feng family and the Sleica family's century-old foundation could be said to have gone bankrupt and evaporated overnight, to the point that the empire's economy fell into a recession crisis because of this.
Shen Shiqian has no sympathy for Luo Le's future fate, but it is clear that the current marriage is an important turning point for Feng Ran.
So Shen Shiqian stepped in and intercepted the engagement. Of course, he could use his own methods to make the Sleica family cancel the engagement, but even if one was canceled, another would come. Feng Ran had no right to refuse. Her life in the Feng family could only move forward obediently without any room for maneuver. Of course, this was also the original wording of that report.
If Feng Ran's fans knew that Feng Ran was now going to marry him, wouldn't they want to kill him?
After all, their relationship in their previous life wasn't exactly good. That damned report was biased and even implied at the end that Feng Ran was forced to his death by him and the Empire. It also harshly criticized Shen Shiqian, and his fans and Feng Ran's fans argued fiercely about this in the comments section.
Because the people of the Empire basically only knew that they had found Feng Ran's body and confirmed her death, they did not know that Feng Ran had actually committed suicide. Especially after Feng Ran single-handedly saved all the citizens of the Empire from the disaster of a planetary collision, the Empire dared not reveal the true cause of her death.
Shen Shiqian and Feng Ran had the most direct confrontations, earning them the nickname "arch-enemies." However, subtly, Shen Shiqian wasn't particularly warm towards Feng Ran while she was alive. After all, even the most extraordinary criminal is still a criminal, and he never treated anyone specially—a principle consistently upheld by the empire, and also by himself. Even though Feng Ran was indeed the most troublesome person he had ever dealt with, he remained steadfast and never wavered in his stance.
Until the criminal commits suicide, the genius is crushed.
The Empire never believed that a born rebel as wicked as Feng Ran would realize her mistakes and repent to the point of committing suicide. The Academy of Sciences, on the other hand, felt sorry for her astonishing talent and ability, and was more inclined to believe that she had been ambushed and ended up in this state because she was unaware of it.
But no one investigated who could have plotted against Feng Ran. The corpse was left in the central laboratory for autopsy research because of some secret and dark thoughts.
Shen Shiqian would often go to the laboratory to take a look. Although the scientists couldn't figure out anything, they could restore Feng Ran's body to its state before it was damaged by the toxins.
It was an unhealthy body with many ailments. What shocked everyone was the tightly stitched heart. No one in the empire could perform such a difficult surgery. Feng Ran truly deserves to be called a genius. The scientific and technological knowledge she possessed was arguably twenty years ahead of the empire.
Shen Shiqian also looked at the heart covered in marks on the model. He knew that was the fatal wound he had inflicted. During an siege, he aimed at her heart and fired that shot. At that time, he thought Feng Ran was doomed. Even though the Empire's order was to capture her alive, Feng Ran still managed to escape thanks to her suddenly awakened superpower.
He couldn't quite describe the feeling. Feng Ran was very beautiful. Her mother was once a wildly popular Omega in the empire. When she first started working as a criminal, she was surrounded by wanted posters, yet she still managed to gain fans because of her looks, which speaks volumes about her charm. Shen Shiqian remained unmoved when he confronted her, but after she died, he found her heart exceptionally beautiful.
Until 4601 hurtled straight toward the Imperial main star, everyone panicked like ants on a hot plate. Surprisingly, they all began to recall the good news of a dead man, a man who had been gradually branded a criminal. Everyone realized that Fengran was a necessity of the times and irreplaceable.
So after the final footage ended, the Empire remained silent for a long time. However, the report on Feng Ran written by the New Lianhua News Agency reignited public opinion as soon as it was published. Amid the uproar of the people, Shen Shiqian, as the "executioner," chose to seek the truth for himself.
What truth is she seeking? The report actually explained it very clearly: Feng Ran's unfortunate life, the reasons for her rebellion and escape, and the evil she committed because of her misfortune that is insignificant in the face of her magnificent greatness. But Shen Shiqian just wants to know the truth about those evils.
Shen Shiqian comforted himself, thinking that marriage was also part of the search for the truth. Besides, Feng Ran was a genius that the era needed, so he began to seriously consider what kind of room a little girl would like.
/
When Feng Ran arrived home, Qin Xin was waiting for her downstairs. Feng Linye had returned from fooling around with his cronies and was loitering near the stairs, clearly quite interested in her marriage, though his concerns were probably more peculiar and troublesome.
"Ranran, come here quickly, how was the meeting?"
How warm it is, she thought to herself without much feeling. In her memory, Qin Xin was only this warm towards her when her father needed to play the role of a happy and harmonious family in front of outsiders; most of the time, Qin Xin always called her by her full name.
Feng Ran obediently moved a little closer. "It's good. Mr. Shen hopes I can move in with him so that we can develop our relationship."
Qin Xin smiled broadly and adjusted her clothes for her. "Really? Then it seems you really like me."
Feng Ran wouldn't think that way. That person's acting skills were far worse than Qin Xin's. Although she couldn't see through Shen Shiqian's thoughts, she clearly showed that she wasn't interested in her.
Feng Linye gripped the stair railing and leaned half his body out from upstairs: "Hey! Did you tell him about arranging for me to go to the Capital Military Academy?"
Feng Linye just finished his college entrance exam in June. He applied to the Capital Military Academy, but his score was not high enough and he was rejected. Knowing that the newly appointed Grand Marshal wanted to marry his younger sister, he naturally thought he could take this opportunity to pull some strings. Even when he was out having fun, he didn't forget to send messages to Feng Ran to put pressure on him.
Feng Ran: "If I had told you on our first meeting that you would never be able to go in your life..."
Qin Xin glared at her angrily: "How dare you talk to your brother like that?"
Feng Linye's probing revealed his hopeless stupidity. He was actually satisfied with this and snorted coldly, mocking Feng Ran as if he had the victory in his grasp: "Looks like he doesn't like you that much after all."
Shen Shiqian's conditions are too good in every way. Even for someone like Feng Linye, it's a case of marrying up to someone of higher social standing, which makes Feng Linye a little envious and at the same time feel a sense of crisis. If Shen Shiqian really likes Feng Ran, Feng Ran's status will instantly transform into that of a marshal's wife, immediately surpassing him, the eldest son of the Feng family, by a large margin. So it's better if he doesn't like her. He can't stand seeing Feng Ran living a better life than him.
Qin Xin kept a straight face and didn't say anything this time, so Feng Ran naturally had nothing to say either and ignored them as he went back to his room.
Feng Ran was very irritable. She couldn't figure out Shen Shiqian. Compared to a playboy like Luo Le who wore his heart on his sleeve, marrying someone as deep and thoughtful as Shen Shiqian would make her feel even more uneasy. She hated the unknown. She lay on the bed, staring wearily at the ceiling.
"Tong, does Shen Shiqian have any compelling reason to marry me?"
The screen on the computer on the table flickered. The built-in artificial intelligence had thoroughly investigated all of Shen Shiqian's information. This idol of the Empire's military enthusiasts, the youngest marshal in history, and an incredibly powerful and aloof beauty, had no passive reason to marry Feng Ran. The reason he chose Feng Ran was unknown, but it was clearly not because he liked her.
"Master, my emotion module has just been updated, and the existing database cannot calculate his behavior matching pattern, so I cannot analyze what his subjective purpose is in wanting to marry you."
A headache, a fine, dense pain, gnawed at Feng Ran's brain, forcing her to pause her thinking about the matter. The pressure on her nerves was mostly a sharp pain, occasionally accompanied by dizziness and a feeling of lightheadedness. In severe cases, she would even lose some of her senses. Each time, Feng Ran carefully controlled and alleviated the pain by releasing her mental energy just before reaching the limit of her endurance.
However, the effect was minimal. In order to appear as a decent and normal person, she maintained her mental energy coverage for more than sixteen hours a day, ever since she first awakened her mental energy. The overdraft and depletion accumulated over time and became quite serious.
But if she doesn't do this, she'll be locked up again. She can no longer distinguish whether the pain or the abandonment is more painful, since for some reason it has now turned into a situation where she suffers from both.
The Feng family environment was cruel for Feng Ran. Feng Linye was Feng Ran's half-brother. Qin Xin was Feng Xiqiao's second wife after Feng Linye's birth mother died. Although she was called a second wife, she was actually just a mistress who took over. However, Feng Xiqiao didn't really like this mistress. He was interested in the beauty and status of the popular Omega, which could bring him fame. After the remarriage, he pretended to be affectionate for a while, and then focused his energy back on his frail eldest son.
To win Feng Xiqiao's favor and avoid criticism, Qin Xin treated Feng Linye like her own son, doing everything she could to be good to him. However, Feng Linye, perhaps having overheard the gossip from the nannies when he was young, always had an awkward attitude towards Qin Xin. Then, with Feng Ran born, fearing his sister would steal his parents' attention, he began deliberately sowing discord among his family members.
From as far back as Feng Ran could remember, Feng Linye had been sick from time to time. The whole family was always busy taking care of him and worrying about the young master's health. At that time, Feng Ran stood by and watched, feeling confused.
But Qin Xin never listened to her. She only taught her not to make her father and brother angry. Her brother often sulked and would tease Feng Ran to vent his anger. Qin Xin pretended not to see it, which made her feel very wronged.
When Feng Ran was a child, she often got hurt because her older brother, Feng Linye, wanted to "take care" of her. She would accidentally burn her hand with hot tea, fall down the stairs, or bump into the edges of furniture. These low-class pranks only subsided after Feng Ran's first differentiation.
Because she had differentiated into an Alpha, her pheromone level was even higher than Feng Linye's. If she were to bleed and release her pheromones, Feng Linye would ultimately be unable to withstand the pressure and would collapse to the ground in fear of her. But because of this, she was relegated to sleeping in a remote attic, which she was happy to do alone rather than bother those people.
When Feng Ran is alone, she likes to study things. Her attic is filled with electronic devices. She disassembles and modifies them, having a great time playing with them. She even made a sensory connector that can connect to virtual online games. However, Feng Linye later cut two wires off the connector, causing her to have her visual and auditory nerves damaged by an uncontrolled, excessive current when she put it on.
She was deaf for two years until she awakened her mental powers and used them to perceive things instead of hearing, at which point she was able to behave like a normal person and was released.
Feng Ran's memories of those two years are extremely vague. Just trying to recall them evokes a deep sense of fear and repulsion—darkness, nausea, disgust, and despair. It's to the point that just thinking about them makes him feel like he can't go on living.
Feng Linye would not admit that it was his prank that made his sister half-crippled. His family covered for him, saying that Feng Ran was just reaping the consequences of his own lack of skill. Qin Xin seemed heartbroken but didn't say anything.
If word got out that a high-level Alpha had been reduced to a cripple, Feng Xiqiao would be vilified. So, it was only natural that they restricted and guarded Feng Ran, keeping her out of the public eye, burying the truth at home, and not even letting her go to school.
This family is very good at acting. Their close and harmonious demeanor at business events and gatherings often makes other guests envious, and they can easily come up with nice words of blessing.
As a child, Feng Ran was often deceived by Qin Xin's superb acting skills, believing that Qin Xin was her mother, and that a mother should love her child and would not harm her. Until she saw Qin Xin's previous film and television dramas, where she looked at the male lead with the same affectionate gaze, she felt a dry bitterness in her heart.
Feng Ran liked going to school because her classmates' acting skills were so poor that she could understand them at a glance. They approached her affectionately with ulterior motives, which was still more endearing than her cold and indifferent family members.
After nearly causing a major disaster, Feng Linye was probably warned by Feng Xiqiao and finally restrained himself. His position as heir was now so secure that there would be no more turbulence. So, apart from occasionally making sarcastic remarks to Feng Ran, they began to ignore each other peacefully.
"If you don't know, you don't know."
It couldn't be worse than at the Feng family's house. Feng Ran curled up and changed her position. Her eyes were stinging and itchy. Exhaustion made her drowsy, but the pain kept her awake.
She reached for the terminal on the bedside table, opened the star map monitoring system, and squinted at it. She quickly located the abandoned mineral planet with a semi-active interior. The deviation in its orbit started from the tilt of its rotation angle. The extremely cold storm had penetrated nearly a hundred kilometers into the planet's interior. Feng Ran wondered groggily, "When will we finally collide?"
When Feng Ran first discovered the anomaly of this star, she calculated its deviation path out of curiosity, and the fact that it would collide with the Empire was beyond her expectations.
However, its current deviation is still very slow, so slow that the Empire cannot detect it yet, considering it an honest and dull planet. But in just nine years, its core will undergo a huge thermal change, breaking free of gravity like a wild horse and heading towards a more distant part of the universe. The first obstacle on its path will be the Empire's home planet.
But once it begins its wanderings, the Empire will quickly and precisely capture it, using the fifteen years it spends on the road to devise ways to resolve the crisis.
Feng Ran wasn't that concerned about the empire's safety. She even thought that she might have already kicked the bucket due to severe nerve damage before the planetary collision occurred. She preferred to observe the events from an inquisitive, bystander's perspective.
Planetary orbital deviations are not uncommon; asteroids in the outer reaches of galaxies often wander around. However, collisions of medium-sized planets are extremely rare, perhaps only once in a century. Even though it is a devastating disaster, Feng Ran is indifferent, thinking that everyone is doomed to die, and despair is palpable.
This is fine too.
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