Chapter 82 If you are confused, I can hold your hand...
"Mr. Liang! Mr. Liang!"
The captain of the guards watched Liang Guanyue, who had snatched the laser gun from him without a word and was marching forward, and without further ado, he moved to stop him. However, Liang Guanyue backhandedly disarmed his restraints. He raised his gun and said coldly, "If you get in my way again, I'll kill you right here."
The chief guard said helplessly, "Mr. Liang, my duty is to protect your safety. You don't have to regard me as an enemy."
"I told you I'm not going back for now."
"Your Highness has instructed..."
"He will only listen to me." Liang Guanyue raised his head and said with ease and confidence, "He belongs to me. He has no right to send someone to control my behavior."
Chief of the Guards: “…”
"Drive, take me to the mecha storage warehouse at the military headquarters."
"Why did you go there?"
Liang Guanyue said, "Who knows what chaos is going on outside right now? Fu Yunlu has already considered District 53 a deserted city, but he chose not to abandon it and flee. That's all." He put away his gun and glanced at him. "Without a mecha, going there would only cause more trouble."
The captain of the guards asked, "Are you so confident in piloting a mecha?"
"Do you know what a tuner needs to do before modifying a mecha for personal use?" Liang Guanyue asked. "That's to ensure they're proficient in piloting it. Only by understanding every bit of its performance data can a tuner provide the optimal modification plan."
Liang Guanyue turned and continued walking. "Fu Yunlu probably didn't tell you, but my company's main business is repairing and modifying private mechas." He opened the car door. "What you need to do now is to ensure you have sufficient authorization to open the mecha storage compartment."
The captain of the guards sat in the passenger seat. He watched Liang Guanyue skillfully shift gears in the driver's seat and step on the accelerator. He hesitated and said, "How about we drive automatically—"
Liang Guanyue scoffed, "Are you saying the autonomous car is more reliable than mine? At times like these, I usually only trust myself." He then floored the accelerator, sending the car practically flying off the ground. "I'm asking if you have the authority, and you haven't given me an answer yet, little captain of the guards."
The 'Little Guard Captain' choked, then chose to get down to business, "The permissions required to open the mecha storage compartment are too high. Our only option is to rendezvous with His Highness. He's sure to have a solution."
Liang Guanyue clicked his tongue and said, "Contact him and ask him where he is."
The blood-red sky was like a damaged screen, flickering erratically. In the silence of the wide avenue, the crashing sounds of the Zerg from beyond the heavens seemed to reach Liang Guanyue's ears clearly. He exhaled, his fingers drumming on the steering wheel as he listened to the chief guard reporting to Fu Yunlu on the terminal. He reached out his hand impatiently and said, "Give me the terminal."
The chief guard was stunned for a moment, but still handed the terminal to Liang Guanyue. He heard Liang Guanyue say in a bad tone: "The protective shield has not been repaired yet?"
Fu Yunlu was also stunned for a moment, then explained, "...During the ten years that Hilda was in office, she organized a large 'pseudo-human army'. This army has the same authority as the garrison commander, and they can access most of the weapons depots in District 53."
"Where's the mecha?"
"…If an insect infestation occurs, the commander of the garrison area has the authority to activate it. Even if the Führer has frozen Hilda's authority, it will be too late."
Liang Guanyue understood: "So the armed forces of that 'pseudo-human army' are strong enough to compete with yours, and the repair process of the protective shield is being obstructed by them."
Fu Yunlu said: "That's right, all our elite troops are gathered in the Defense Monitoring Bureau. This is where the core system of the protective shield is located."
"So you were there too?"
"...I'm not here." Fu Yunlu wiped the blood from his face. The screen in the central square was showing the death of Beta, who had just been shot for openly resisting inspection. He whispered into the terminal in his hand, "I'm killing someone."
"..." Liang Guanyue was silent for a few breaths, then said, "Which testing center are you at?"
"The testing center was overcrowded, so a temporary testing point was set up in the central square. A beta just said something that caused panic among the people, so I took action."
"Fu Yunlu, there's something I don't quite understand," Liang Guanyue said. "Why are the reinforcements from the main city arriving so slowly this time?"
Fu Yunlu remained silent for a long time before he spoke again, "Based on the intelligence submitted by District 100, the extent of their Zerg contamination is far lower than expected. Perhaps the Zerg's incubation time there is too short. But District 53 is different. The bug parasitizing Hilda is incredibly patient."
Liang Guanyue said, "So that's why you're so anxious to send me back." He paused, looking up at the sky. "The head of state's reply to you is probably not about sending reinforcements, but rather that if the situation worsens or becomes uncontrollable, the troops sent will conduct an indiscriminate cleanup of the entire fifty-third district to prevent infection from endangering other areas."
Liang Guanyue said coldly, "In other words, the outcome of the discussion between the main city's representatives and the head of state is to abandon the hopeless 53rd District."
Fu Yunlu sighed deeply: "You guessed right again."
Liang Guanyue asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Whether or not a large-scale test can detect the parasitic state is not important. What's important is that I want to make the Zerg parasitic on humans panic. I want to force them to reveal their true form and attack me—"
Liang Guanyue laughed. "So you came to the busiest central square and shot a beta with your own hands, even though he might really just be a stupid human who didn't want to cooperate with the test." He said with a hint of sarcasm, "Brother, your method is really amazing."
"I know this method may not work, but I don't have any other options." Fu Yunlu said with a wry smile, "It hasn't been that long since we discovered the possibility of intelligent Zerg evolution. This is all I can do now. There's no turning back."
Liang Guanyue suddenly asked, "Don't you know you're a sitting duck?"
“…”
The silence from the other side made Liang Guanyue extremely irritated. He insulted Fu Yunlu over and over again: "Idiot, I have never seen anyone more stupid than you!"
Fu Yunlu hummed softly.
Liang Guanyue was even more annoyed: "You are stupid enough to show your righteousness when you should sacrifice others! You are stupid enough to do disgusting things when you should be a good person! You always do it at the wrong time-"
Fu Yunlu whispered, "Guan Yue, I really, really want a chance... to return to the main city and stay by your side. I also don't want to abandon District 53. Others might think District 53, which has been under the invisible control of the Zerg for ten years, is truly beyond redemption. Everyone can think so, but I can't."
Liang Guanyue stopped talking.
"It's shameless to say that you're willing to come back to accompany me. For a moment, I don't know whether I'm more happy or more worried." Fu Yunlu smiled and said, "After this is over, can't we live together? There are many things I can do, and I can learn if I don't know..."
Liang Guanyue turned her head and cursed. Fu Yunlu smiled and said, "Don't curse me. I know you don't want to. I won't say it again."
Liang Guanyue was speechless for a moment, then suddenly said, "Fu Yunlu, if you want to expose all the dormant Zerg, there's another method that's a hundred times more effective than just using you as a sitting duck."
Upon hearing this, the captain of the guards next to him couldn't help but look at Liang Guanyue. Under the dim red light, Liang Guanyue's emerald green eyes were as cold as snake scales. He proposed his method more ruthlessly and cruelly than anyone else.
"That is, all of us will become living targets for the Zerg."
Fu Yunlu's pupils constricted, he pursed his lips and did not answer immediately. He understood what Liang Guanyue meant, and he even had this idea, but he rejected it immediately.
Liang Guanyue said calmly, "Why do the Zerg parasitic on humans continue to disguise themselves? It's because their most important supporter, Hilda, was captured alive, and after the lesson learned from the 100th Administrative District, they dare not act rashly even under large-scale inspections."
"Their odds of winning aren't good enough. To raise the stakes and tip the scales of victory, we need to give them another backer."
"Gradually withdraw the elite troops defending the Defense Monitoring Agency. Have Hilda's troops open the shield and let in the insects reveling outside."
Liang Guanyue concluded: "This is my method."
“…Guan Yue.”
"You don't dare to gamble? Or do you want the entire 53rd District to fall and eventually be wiped out by the incoming reinforcements?" Liang Guanyue chuckled. "The commander of the administrative district's garrison has been parasitized and controlled by the Zerg for the past ten years. During this time, he even created his own army. No matter which district they are from, I'm afraid no one wants the ticking time bomb of 53rd District to exist."
"……I know."
Liang Guanyue said without question: "Use my method."
“…”
After a long pause, Fu Yunlu finally seemed to have made up his mind. He spoke in a hoarse voice, "This isn't your method, it's mine. I proposed the idea, I decided to use it, and I let the Zerg in. This was the decision of Fu Yunlu, the internal investigation officer of District 53. It has nothing to do with you, Liang Guanyue. Do you understand?"
Liang Guanyue frowned and asked, "What do you mean? Do you think I'm afraid of taking responsibility?"
"You're just an ordinary person...who lost both parents when you were young, has to support yourself, and only graduated from university a few years ago when I dragged you into a series of royal family affairs." Fu Yunlu said, "Ordinary people have their own responsibilities. I shouldn't and can't put the weight of millions of lives on you."
"Liang Guanyue, no one in this world wants you to be relaxed and happy more than I do."
Fu Yunlu certainly thought so. But there are so many things in the world that go against one's will. Sometimes, they seem like a speck of dust, but they can suppress people and make them unable to lift their heads. Just like Liang Guanyue's encounter with him, just like his mother losing her illusory freedom, just like every person, just like now, just like this moment, just like Liang Guanyue's willingness to turn back for him.
He wanted to be a treacherous and cunning person who could never be forgiven by the people of District 53. He might not even be able to forgive himself, but fortunately he was used to the latter.
"The Federation currently lacks the technology to accurately detect the Parasite Tribe."
"Given that we can't fully trust the local testing agencies and can only rely on testers dispatched from the main city, retesting the gender of the entire population of District 53 within a few days is simply unrealistic."
"The protective shield has yet to be repaired, and the garrison troops are even suffering from a large number of infected people. Apart from resorting to extreme measures, there is no escape route for the entire Fifty-Three Districts."
Fu Yunlu was in the meeting hall, scanning the faces of every confidant present. He paused and closed his eyes. Outside the hall was a continuous stream of sharp alarms. When he opened his eyes again, he announced:
"I have confirmed with the Führer that the support fleet will arrive soon. Before then, I have decided to evacuate the elite troops from the protective shield and have Hilda's troops enter the Defense Monitoring Agency to shut down the shield. This is to exacerbate the exposure of all the latent parasites."
"The support fleet will join our forces in combating this insect swarm. If victory is not ours, another support force from the main city will activate the original plan to eliminate District 53." Fu Yunlu removed the silver emblem representing Nino Bia from his chest and placed it on the table. He said solemnly, "When the time comes, I will shoulder my responsibilities and live and die with District 53."
When Fu Yunlu walked out of the conference hall, the endless silence behind him seemed to swallow him up.
Is this the right thing to do? Fu Yunlu doesn't know.
I don't know, I should...
I don't know, doing this...
I don't know, District 53...
"Fu Yunlu."
Fu Yunlu suddenly raised his head.
Liang Guanyue stood at the bottom of the stairs, a bloody scratch on his face. He smiled at Fu Yunlu, who was standing on the steps. His beautiful eyes, like spring silhouettes, looked up at Fu Yunlu intently. Liang Guanyue opened his arms and said, "I almost got disfigured on the way back. Won't you come and comfort me?"
Fu Yunlu's red eyes seemed to be stunned, staring at him motionlessly.
Liang Guanyue nodded at him: "Come and hug me."
As soon as the words fell, Fu Yunlu stumbled down the stairs in panic, and in full view of everyone, threw himself into Liang Guanyue's open arms. His fingers tightly grasped Liang Guanyue's clothes on his back, and he buried his face in his shoulder and took a deep breath. He could still talk to him properly on the phone, but when he saw him in person, Fu Yunlu couldn't help but tremble and said, "Why did you come back?"
Liang Guanyue hugged him gently and said, "The bottle of milk you opened this morning will go bad if I don't drink it today."
Fu Yunlu said: "Don't come back..."
Liang Guanyue said: "You gave me a choice."
"I thought... I thought..." Fu Yunlu gritted his teeth, "That was the last time we saw each other. I thought you remembered my kindness..." He spoke incoherently, "I hope you are well, don't come back, and stay in the main city forever—"
Liang Guanyue lowered his eyes and said to himself with a slight laugh, "I'm in such a terrible state right now." He held Fu Yunlu's face in front of his eyes with both hands, stared at him for a long moment, and said, "Don't cry."
"I don't--"
"I was afraid you were going to cry." Liang Guanyue teased, "You really don't look like a mature adult right now."
“…”
"After this matter is resolved, I can temporarily incorporate your requests into my future considerations." Liang Guanyue lowered his head, their foreheads touching. He said, "Don't doubt your decision. I know the outcome for you, even if you can't confirm it."
"I'm right here, with you."
"District 53 may lose many innocent people, including you and me, but after this, countless new lives will be born in District 53." Liang Guanyue kissed his forehead and smiled. "Where you hesitated, where you were confused, and where you couldn't reach the right conclusion, I am firm and clear."
As for his fears of death, the future, and wealth.
Liang Guanyue thought that human life will eventually come to an end, the future is just a false proposition of time, and wealth is just a by-product of existence.
The Fu Yunlu before him was a problem he couldn't solve for the time being. Even though Liang Guanyue had made him unable to live normally without her, it didn't affect the fact that Fu Yunlu was a problem he needed to solve for the rest of his life.
"So there's no need to worry. Even if it ends badly, we'll both be accomplices in pressing the button." He whispered, "Brother."
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