Chapter 2 Cognition
"Get married?!" Ke Qiao felt as if struck by lightning. Countless possibilities flashed through his mind just now, but he had never thought of marrying someone else. He gradually began to guess why the original owner kept trying to hurt him: the original owner, Chris, might not want to get married.
Seeing Ke Qiao's shocked expression, Mrs. Nar was afraid that he would do something stupid again under the stimulation, so she quickly walked over to him and comforted him, "There's no rush for this matter... Take care of your health first and go back to school."
Ke Qiao closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and his voice trembled slightly: "Is there no room for negotiation on the matter of marriage?" He had just digested the shock of time travel, and suddenly he was told that he might have to marry a stranger whose gender he didn't even know. This was really hard to accept.
Mrs. Nall hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not have the heart to immediately cut off Corris's hope. She only said vaguely, "I will discuss it with your father again."
"I want to ask, why do I have to get married? Why do I have to marry that Nula guy?" Ke Qiao's face was gloomy and unclear. He looked up at Mrs. Nar, his eyes full of confusion.
The moment her eyes met Corris's, Mrs. Nar subconsciously thought she was facing her son who had not yet lost his memory, and she involuntarily took a step back, but quickly regained her composure.
"...Chris, this isn't something you and I can decide. Your engagement concerns the entire Nar family!" Mrs. Nar saw that Chris was beginning to lose control, so she adopted a firmer tone. "Your father will tell you why. He and the entire family need you to complete this matter."
"Also, it's Admiral Nuhra. You'd better recognize him." Mrs. Nar's usual smile slowly faded, replaced by a tight pursed mouth and a sharp gaze. The veil of tenderness between mother and son was shattered in vain. When faced with matters of vital interest, Catherine Nar was not afraid to show her cold side, even when facing her son.
Kojo did not retreat, but looked directly at Catherine Nar, his pupils flashing with sparks and his face expressionless.
As someone who had traveled through time, he felt no fear of the original owner's parents. Most of the time, Ke Qiao would choose to observe the Nar couple from the sidelines, carefully reacting appropriately. Now that Mrs. Nar had shown a less than friendly side, there was no need for him to continue pretending to be an obedient son and continue the scenes of loving mother and filial piety with this "mother."
The Nars weren't as devoted to their son as they'd initially appeared to be. Although Ke Qiao didn't have most of the original owner's memories, he could discern some clues from their brief time together, guessing that the original owner's relationship with his parents wasn't anything close to harmonious.
"...I'm tired, I want to rest first." Ke Qiao didn't want to argue with Catherine anymore, and coldly ordered her to leave.
The uneaten food was absorbed and melted by the liquid metal tabletop, leaving no trace. Kojo lay back on the bed, turning his back to Mrs. Nar, who was beside him, and covering most of himself with the quilt, as if refusing to talk.
Mrs. Nar hesitated to speak, but ultimately chose to leave. The door to the ward closed automatically, leaving a slight sound, and the room fell silent again. After a while, Ke Qiao slowly climbed out of bed, picked up the terminal, and began to browse the Star Network aimlessly.
The Starnet boasted a wide variety of content, but even the most interesting content had become dull after Kojo's intense daily surfing during his hospitalization. Kojo sighed and was about to close the terminal when he suddenly remembered Lady Nar's request to get to know Admiral Nuhra, the so-called marriage partner.
After a moment's thought, Kojo typed Nuhra's name into the terminal's search bar. Hitting the search button, a flood of information flooded in, mostly graphic reports, mixed with numerous discussion threads from StarNet users.
He flipped through the pages briefly, finding nothing of interest, and ultimately chose to click on Nuhra's official profile on the military website. As soon as Kojo clicked on the page, he was face to face with a high-resolution, full-face portrait of Nuhra.
The man in the photo had thick, curly brown hair and a bronzed, radiant complexion. His long, drooping eyebrows complemented his upturned eyes. His tall, hooked nose and naturally upturned mouth added a touch of untamed wildness to his delicate features.
The most attractive thing is Nuhra's golden brown eyes, which are calm yet a little cunning, like a honey-colored vortex.
"..." Ke Qiao was a little blinded by the high-definition enlarged version of the gorgeous face. He silently moved the terminal a little further away and decided to read Nuhra's resume first. He stretched out his hand and slid it towards the huge holographic screen projected by the terminal, and clicked to play Nuhra's resume.
Nuhra's story is nothing short of legendary. In his early years, struggling financially, he became a pirate, robbing the rich and helping the poor in the frontier systems. As his pirate gang gained influence in the frontier systems, they became a thorn in the side of the Imperial military... Yet, as the leader of the pirates, Nuhra resolutely led the majority of his team to join the current Emperor, Clarence.
Afterwards, he led his team as a general to be stationed in the trade galaxy, responsible for maintaining the trade security between the empire and other political systems, and made great military achievements... And Nuhra, who has such rich experience, is only 35 years old and is one of the youngest generals in the empire.
After carefully reading Nuhra's resume, Kojo could understand why the Narr couple were so determined to marry Chris to the admiral.
According to the memories of the original owner, Corris, although the Nar family was an old noble family with many connections in the military, a field that successive imperial rulers valued most, their power had declined in recent years, and the Nar family's influence in the military had also gradually dwindled.
The most obvious change was the shrinking profits of the Nar family's various businesses in the trade systems. When the old emperor was still alive, the defense of the trade systems was usually handled by senior generals of the old aristocracy, led by the Nar family. For many years, they controlled the important trade routes between the empire and other interstellar political entities and profited from them...
However, with the new emperor's ascension to the throne, the military leadership, under the joint control of the new emperor, Clarence, and Chancellor Amiya, saw a surge in young figures. Some were sons of fallen nobles, some were civilian officers who had previously served on the front lines of the Imperial Army, and some, like Nuhra, were former enemies of the Imperial Army. In short, these new leaders shared a common characteristic: they lacked traditional aristocratic backgrounds and were directly promoted by the emperor.
The presence of these new military elites more or less threatened the established aristocratic forces, and the aristocratic circles of the capital planet were bustling with activity for a while. Whether they were prominent nobles or newly ascendant minor nobles, they all tried their best to establish connections and negotiate cooperation... but the results were not very good.
From this we can see that Admiral Nuhra, who has no traditional aristocratic background, has made great military achievements and is a resident of the trade galaxy, is indeed a very good choice for the current Nar family and a target that must be won over.
This also brings up another question: Why do the Nars think that such a good thing as marrying Nuhra will fall on Chris?
While browsing Nuhra's information, he had also gained a general understanding of his relationship status. Nuhra, who was currently single, was definitely not short of people. Kojo, who considered himself ordinary, couldn't understand why the Nars were so sure that Chris would stand out from the crowd.
Besides, Nuhra was able to transform himself from a pirate in a fringe galaxy into an admiral of the empire. Naturally, he was not an ordinary person. Why would the Nar family approach him?
Ke Qiao frowned slightly. He currently had too little useful information and couldn't make an effective judgment.
However, as an ordinary college student who had just traveled through time, Ke Qiao had no way of understanding these complicated things. The only thing in common between him and the original owner, the deep-minded and extreme-behavior Corris, was their face.
Ke Qiao simply stopped thinking about it. He temporarily closed the terminal and placed it on the bed. He slowly got out of bed and stretched gently, preparing to stretch his muscles.
His peripheral vision inadvertently caught sight of the floor-length mirror next to the coat rack. He paused, turned around, and stared at the pale-faced young man in the mirror. Although their faces were almost identical, the temperament of the original owner was completely different from Ke Qiao's.
Although the original owner, Chris, graduated from a military academy, he was rather thin and frail, with an unhealthy pallor. He had long, thin eyebrows, slightly droopy almond-shaped eyes, a high nose bridge, and pale, thin lips. His first impression of him was aloofness and melancholy.
Although the modern Ko Qiao has similar features to the original owner, he usually pays attention to exercise, and most of the time his mentality is calmer than this Coris, and his overall temperament is more sunny and friendly.
Ke Qiao stared at the mirror, lost in thought, then gently extended his fingertips to touch the cold, smooth surface. His fingertips were now tightly connected to the reflected Corris, as if the two Corris were in contact through the mirror... This strange thought gave him an inexplicable shudder.
Kojo blamed his discomfort on the sickly appearance of the person in the mirror. Although he had never paid much attention to appearance, he didn't like the state that Corris presented. He secretly decided to pay more attention to himself in the future, at least to look less sickly.
Now, Ke Qiao has gradually gained a sense of reality about time travel, even though he doesn't know whether the real owner of this body will come back one day, and he can't accept that a straight man who has lived for more than 20 years may have to marry another man... But he still has to live his life, even if it means living as another person.
Kojo, no, now it was Koris who sighed with true emotion, feeling that the future was bleak.
At this moment, the terminal, which had been silent for a long time, made a few muffled sounds. Kris was brought back to his senses. He walked back to the bed slowly and fished the terminal out from under the covers. Two messages popped up on the page:
【Father: You must be discharged from the hospital the day after tomorrow.】
Father: There will be a military dinner the night after tomorrow. Nohra will be there.
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