Ch 39 – Watching Too Many TV Dramas

“You’re out of line.” The man looked at the disguised space pirate leader before him, speaking with a hint of displeasure in his tone. “Our lord didn’t invite you.”

“Wasn’t I just worried that you guys had forgotten me?” The pirate leader chuckled. “We’ve worked together in the past, after all. But lately, with that bunch of lunatics from Dawn of Life breathing down my neck and two of my companies already taken down, you guys haven’t lifted a single finger to help.” 

“The people from Dawn of Life moved against you because of your filthy dealings in human trafficking. There is no cooperation between us in that regard. You should go find that bunch of merchants from the Star Union who chase fame and profit,” the man responded, lowering his eyes.

“I heard your colonel has recently been in talks with a minor figure from the Star Union regarding a collaboration?” The space pirate leaned in with a smile. “Raw energy ore? How high of an offer is he willing to make your colonel?”

“Give me a break, you and I both know how fast those guys from the Star Union can cut ties. They’re the ones who buy the most from me in order to save money, yet they’re also the ones who spend the most on public relations to project a favorable image to the outside world. Did you know? Every one of their companies has ‘model bases’ used for promotional purposes.”

The pirate leader: “They’re just as pretentious as all you nobles.”

“We’ve never taken part in your human trafficking business.”

“You have no knowledge of what I do? I do all the dirty work that you can’t bring yourselves to do, and now you’re just going to stand by and watch me go down in flames? I refuse.” The space pirate leader propped up his legs. “If I die, don’t expect to get off easy yourselves.”

*
*

Kersz took Yu Xi and Tau out to explore the planet’s various attractions. He felt that he could no longer leave them at home together, because who knew what Tau might say to Yu Xi next?

Yu Xi was curious about everything, and wanted to play with everything too. However, the body he had chosen to use for this outing was still that of a small child, which was too small to hold so many little toys. Due to this, he ended up running into a human’s leg.

Upon laying eyes on Yu Xi, that human let out an exclamation of sheer delight and called out the name Yu Xi was currently going by.

Kersz was somewhat taken aback, and smiled as he asked who the other party was. But before they could answer, Yu Xi spoke as Kersz picked him up: “He’s a servant from Colonel Yara’s household. On the day of the banquet, he was wearing a light blue formal suit and carrying a tray of little desserts.”

“We’ve met,” Yu Xi continued. “He even asked if you wanted something to eat.”

Kersz: …..

Yu Xi’s ability to memorize human characteristics was a bit too impressive, wasn’t it?

That person was pleasantly surprised: “Wow! You have an excellent memory!”

“You’re very gentle,” Yu Xi went on to praise him. “You have a very nice smile when you look at me.”

That person was even more delighted.

He invited the three of them to join him for lunch, and the restaurant he chose turned out to be one that actually served fresh food.

“This place isn’t cheap, is it?” Kersz ran his eyes over their surroundings.

The other party smiled, indicating that it was nothing.

Kersz and Yu Xi glanced at Tau.

The person treating them was a servant from Yara’s household, while Tau was the Supreme Governor’s Illegitimate.

It appeared that this Illegitimate was treated worse than the servants.

In any case, Kersz knew that despite being alive for over seventy years, Tau had never once tasted proper food.

Tau displayed no superfluous expressions. Upon sitting down, he simply offered a warm smile to the person sitting across from him, maintaining his persona.

Yu Xi didn’t care much for the food here, feeling that the dishes were either bland or had one particular flavor that was far too overpowering.

The bland flavors failed to bring out the true essence of the food, while those jarring tastes were unable to stimulate the appetite.

Yu Xi didn’t believe that these new humans had different taste buds from the old ones, and Kersz was of the same opinion.

After having a single piece of dessert at the banquet, Kersz hadn’t touched any of the other food.

Yu Xi wasn’t sure if the chefs in this world were simply incapable of cooking, or if it was a deliberate choice. But in any case, he felt that the food here definitely couldn’t compare to what he made himself.

Compared to the food, Yu Xi was much more interested in the human in front of him.

As Kersz chatted with the human about the latter’s family, Yu Xi didn’t join in due to his current identity as a child.

But Kersz knew what Yu Xi wanted to ask, and spoke on his behalf.

Tau felt a nudge against his calf. He glanced down and realized that it was Yu Xi, who was kicking his legs while he sat in Kersz’s lap. The tips of his shoes had accidentally brushed against his leg.

Yu Xi immediately ceased his movements. Tau merely smiled, then quite naturally reached out and gave the top of Yu Xi’s head a light pat. 

Yu Xi: “Eh?”

Kersz didn’t give much of a reaction other than casting a glance in Tau’s direction.

He felt that the bond between Yu Xi and Tau had grown closer, only neither of them seemed to be able to see it.

Tau likely believed that he was merely under the other’s control.

Yu Xi: …..

Yu Xi had met Kersz first, and compared to the excessive interactions between them, his closeness to Tau didn’t amount to much in his eyes.

Kersz continued his conversation with the person across from him.

That person’s name was Zaire. His family had served the High Lord for generations, and the High Lord had assigned him to her daughter, Yara.

Judging by the look on Zaire’s face as he spoke of the High Lord’s family, he seemed to take pride in his position.

“Is the High Lord very good to you?” Kersz asked.

“Of course. Our family began working for the High Lord a very long time ago when my grandmother cared for the current High Lord as an infant,” Zaire said. “My older brother did quite well in his studies, and the High Lord covered his tuition fees and even arranged a job for him after he graduated.”

“I’m a mere servant, and my means are certainly not as substantial as yours.” Zaire motioned to the restaurant. “But as an ordinary person, I can still afford to eat real food.”

“That’s really impressive,” Yu Xi praised.

“I just put in a little more effort than everyone else.” Zaire winked at Yu Xi.

“Effort?” Tau looked toward Zaire. “But going by what you’ve said, it seems that everything you have today is entirely thanks to your boss.”

“We don’t refer to the master as our boss.” Zaire waved his hand. “My place of employment isn’t a company.”

“Hahaha, ‘Master’ is a bit of a risqué title,” Kersz said with a laugh.

“Hey, hey, hey, watch what you’re saying!” Zaire was given a shock. “I am aware that your Star Union was founded by over a dozen corporate giants, and that consequently, you may not be entirely familiar with the operation protocols of our Interstellar Alliance.”

“Apologies. I’ve offended you.” Kersz looked down at the tea in front of him.

Yu Xi recalled that Kersz’s parents were citizens of the Interstellar Alliance, and that they had been researchers. This should be considered a rather decent job, yet before meeting Yu Xi, Kersz had never tasted real food.

Zaire obviously believed that the Interstellar Alliance was more ‘refined,’ and was far superior to any of the other alliances.

After all, it would be impossible for a person like him to afford real food in any of the others.

Kersz asked him if he had ever visited any of the other alliances, and Zaire shook his head. He had lived in the Interstellar Alliance all his life.

Yu Xi understood. So this was all just Zaire’s own opinion.

Tau claimed that the majority of people in the Interstellar Alliance couldn’t afford real food, while Zaire believed that those people simply weren’t working hard enough.

“To be honest, the benefits and perks in the Interstellar Alliance are simply too good.” Savoring his food, Zaire said grandiosely, “Those people aren’t starving to death, so they can’t be bothered to climb any higher.”

Zaire firmly believed that hard work could change everything, because his own effort had earned him even greater wealth.

“Those people do nothing all day long, acting as if everyone owes them something. To put it bluntly, if they all managed to succeed, it would be downright unfair to us hardworking people.” Zaire took pride in his diligence.

Subsequently, Zaire brought up the topic of Kersz.

He was aware that his master had recently been troubled by that dangerous space pirate.

“These cynical space pirates do nothing but make trouble for others,” Zaire said, then proceeded to ask Kersz if he shared that view.

Kersz merely smiled and remarked that he had indeed heard of this space pirate, but that he hadn’t appeared within his own alliance.

“He wiped out almost the entire upper echelon of our alliance. I thought he was dead, but then he resurfaced almost immediately after.” Zaire’s aversion to Kersz seemed incomprehensible to Yu Xi.

It was as if Kersz had personally laid waste to Zaire’s happy life.

But Zaire’s parents were still alive, and his older brother was doing well. They hadn’t even been indirectly affected.

“Did you know? There are still a whole bunch of Kersz fans on the StarNet to this day,” Zaire said through gritted teeth.

“Ah?” Kersz really hadn’t known about this.

“Those people don’t view the higher-ups as human beings at all,” Zaire sneered. “They’ve never seen the true wielders of power, and figures of authority are nothing in their eyes.”

Yu Xi took a bite of lab-grown meat, then set down his utensils, having lost his appetite: “Then what is a true wielder of power like?”

Could it be that Zaire had actually met them, and had struck up a friendship with those powerful figures? Was that why he loathed Kersz so much?

“They’re actually all very even-tempered.” Whenever Zaire spoke to Yu Xi, he would unconsciously pitch his voice higher. “They always speak to others in a gentle, soft-spoken manner. Those of higher status are in fact the ones who best understand how to respect others, precisely because they are never in want of respect themselves.”

Yu Xi: “So are you friends with them?”

“Haha, how could we possibly be friends? They’ve only come as guests, and they were always very proper,” Zaire said with a smile.

Yu Xi understood: “So you just served them. You never actually interacted with them on equal footing.”

Zaire: …..

“Many people are gentle when interacting with small pets, because those small pets don’t pose a threat to them – mmph!” Kersz covered Yu Xi’s mouth with his hand.

“Sorry, this kid can be overly talkative sometimes.” Kersz offered an awkward smile.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Zaire waved a hand.

Zaire was evidently a little embarrassed as well. Once again adopting a high-pitched voice, he chatted with Yu Xi about things he thought a child would be interested in.

Yet after exchanging only a handful of words, he steered the conversation back to that space pirate, Kersz. He even asked Kersz himself, who was sitting across from him, his opinion on the matter.

“I just don’t understand these space pirates.” Kersz played along, saying, “Maybe he really is a lunatic.”

“He is a lunatic! Now, he’s even set his sights on our High Lord’s husband. This guy is really out of his mind. What exactly is he trying to do? Does he want to wipe out our entire upper echelon and leave our Interstellar Alliance completely without leadership? To make it so that we’re annexed by another alliance?” Zaire scoffed. “Just because he’s down on his luck, he wants to drag everyone else down with him? Did he even bother to ask if anyone was willing to die alongside him?”

Yu Xi was feeling a bit displeased. He came to the sudden realization that he didn’t like the human across from him, but this human still had so much he wanted to talk about.

After he finished venting, Zaire brought up his family again, expressing how much the High Lord had provided them and how they had truly proven themselves worthy of the ‘trust placed in them.’ Their entire family worked very hard, and therefore, they all enjoyed good lives.

If all of the other citizens in the Interstellar Alliance were like them, their alliance would undoubtedly be far more formidable than any others.

Yu Xi began to feel somewhat disheartened. He leaned back into Kersz’s chest, closed his eyes, and then drifted off to sleep amidst the background noise of that other human’s chatter.

He then had a very strange dream. Yu Xi dreamt that he was lying on a lotus leaf, while right beside him, a large green frog was croaking incessantly at him.

It was not a pleasant dream. 

Yu Xi groggily opened his eyes to find that Kersz had already brought him back to their living quarters.

Kersz and Tau were in the middle of a conversation.

Yu Xi listened in for a while, and realized that they were discussing their wages.

“My salary in the army wasn’t enough to buy real food, and my parents couldn’t afford it either.” Kersz stroked Yu Xi’s back as he spoke. “You’re the Supreme Governor’s Illegitimate. Did he never reward you with food?”

Kersz’s chest vibrated as he spoke. Yu Xi blinked.

“No…..I don’t have a salary, just operational funds.” Tau was playing with Xiao Konglong, but he looked a bit distracted. “Even if we were given a salary, people like us wouldn’t know how to spend it.” Their passions had been stomped out of them.

“In your estimation, how many ordinary citizens in the Interstellar Alliance can afford real food?” 

“I haven’t looked into it,” said Tau. “What do you think?”

“I figure that only those who can attach themselves to a noble can get their hands on food. Hey, tell me, where exactly are the planets that grow food?” Kersz had never concerned himself with such matters before.

“There’s so much food on Yu Xi’s planet, but how many planets have these nobles dedicated to growing crops?” Kersz held out no hope for the consciences of these high-ranking figures. “With the food being consumed so slowly, do you think the leftovers just go to waste?”

“Maybe it’s made into nutritional fluid,” said Tau.

“There’s no real food in nutritional fluid.” Kersz shook his head.

Tau: “How do you know that?”

Kersz: “They taught us that in school…..oh, right. I forgot, you’ve never been to school.”

Tau fell silent.

After a moment, he asked Kersz: “Aren’t you angry? That person kept insulting you.”

“He doesn’t even know me. What does that space pirate he was railing against have to do with me?” Pacing back and forth with Yu Xi in his arms, Kersz remarked, “He thinks those people I killed were paragons of virtue, but he doesn’t know anything about them either.”

“Not necessarily.” Tau shook his head.

Kersz: “Oh?”

“When you killed those people, you exposed the crimes they committed. It’s impossible for him not to be aware that those former leaders caused so many deaths and covered them up,” Tau said. “He just doesn’t care about the people they hurt.”

Kersz scoffed: “He thinks those victims are leeches, sucking the blood of those nobles while unwilling to work hard like him. It’s just as well that they died, right?”

Tau nodded.

Kersz blew out a breath: “How in the world does that guy manage to simultaneously accuse ordinary people of not understanding the higher-ups well enough, yet as if it’s the most natural thing in the world, he lumps them into the category of those who ‘deserve to die?’”

“Ah!” Tau looked at Yu Xi cradled in Kersz’s arms and saw that his eyes were open. “You’re awake?”

Kersz came to a halt and looked down at Yu Xi.

Yu Xi blinked: “Are you talking about that human?”

“That’s right. We’re gossiping behind his back.” Kersz smiled.

“I don’t like him,” Yu Xi said with a frown.

Tau: “Goodness, you actually dislike a human.” Yu Xi was even willing to accept an Illegitimate like him.

“Is it that you dislike that sort of jittery human?” Tau asked him. “Did he transmit his anxious mood to you?”

“It’s not that. Humans all tend to be anxious.” Yu Xi had encountered many humans like Zaire – ones who seemed to be forever seeking validation, desperate for others to look at them.

Yu Xi didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.

“But why did he have to keep badmouthing Kersz?” That was the part Yu Xi took issue with.

Yu Xi found it very strange. He was clearly able to understand the turmoil and suffering of human beings.

He knew that Zaire was seeking validation for his views, which in and of themselves were not particularly solid.

Views that required repeated validation from others were inherently unstable, because those who held them didn’t have a firm grasp of whether they were right or wrong. They required an ‘other’ to tell them ‘you’re right,’ so that they could continue on their path.

Yu Xi was quite certain that changing his mind would be remarkably easy. All it would take was his mistress, Yara, contradicting him the moment he voiced his opinion.

Yara wouldn’t even have to offer an explanation, and Zaire would immediately alter his thinking, even going so far as to steer his beliefs in the entirely opposite direction.

His beliefs were unstable.

Many humans in this world were exactly the same. Zaire was not an inexcusable anomaly, but merely an unremarkable member of the whole.

But Yu Xi was still angry. And his anger was not directed at the whole, but at Zaire himself.

Yu Xi had felt the dislike rise within him the moment that person insulted Kersz.

“I want to punch him! But I can’t punch a human for a reason like that.” Yu Xi crossed his arms over his chest, somewhat irritated. “He was clearly insulting other humans as well, and I wasn’t this upset about it.”

“But why did he have to insult Kersz?” Yu Xi was very upset.

“Even after Kersz sustained such severe injuries when he crash-landed on my planet, that human dared to badmouth him!” Yu Xi felt that Zaire’s behavior was truly reprehensible.

“But his criticism didn’t really hit the mark.” Tau didn’t feel that Zaire’s badmouthing of Kersz was all that excessive. “There are lots of people on the StarNet who abuse Kersz in much the same way.”

Yu Xi’s eyes widened.

Tau: “Kersz himself isn’t bothered by it.”

“I’m going to ban them all!” Yu Xi clenched his fists in fury.

“Don’t!” Kersz clutched the furiously squirming Yu Xi even tighter. “Those people just run their mouths online here and there.”

Yu Xi: “I won’t allow them to run their mouths!”

Kersz: “Actually, didn’t you say that my actions are pretty immature?” He recalled that the first time he got in a fight with Yu Xi, it was over this very thing.

“That’s my business!” Yu Xi struggled even harder, but didn’t dare harm Kersz.

Yu Xi didn’t revert to his adult form, but he struggled so wildly that Kersz could barely hold onto him, turning him into a rather disheveled figure. 

“Tau, give me a hand!” Kersz shouted.

Tau did not give him a hand. He felt that the conversation he’d just heard sounded somewhat familiar.

Yu Xi wriggled so fast that he was practically a blur.

Kersz: “Tau! ! !” 

Tau: “I’ve been consuming a lot of ancient human media lately from before they left Earth.”

Yu Xi yanked Kersz around, making him spin in place: “I’m not interested! Help me, ah!”

Tau was in absolutely no rush: “Have you ever watched the TV drama where a minor celebrity falls in love with a CEO?”

Kersz: “Ha?!”

Yu Xi continued to put up a fierce struggle.

That minor celebrity had faced a massive online smear campaign, and with a single command, the CEO hired a team to scrub the internet of every negative post.

Tau felt as if he was watching this in real time.

He stared for a moment at the flustered Kersz and the struggling Yu Xi, then let out a chuckle.

Yu Xi froze. Kersz also wore a look of surprise.

Both of them stared at Tau.

Tau had just been thinking who knew what, and seemed to have amused himself.

So it turned out that those stories could actually happen in reality, ah. Did that mean that Kersz was being kept by a sugar daddy? Hm, come to think of it, that was an accurate description.

“Hehe.” Tau chuckled again.

Kersz frowned and took a step back.

Yu Xi sat in his arms as he retreated, looking equally bewildered.

Tau was projecting the melodramatic stories he had watched onto Kersz and Yu Xi.

He just loved watching those over-the-top dramas, particularly the ones that didn’t touch upon reality in the slightest.

The more Tau thought about it, the more amused he was. He wondered if down the line, Yu Xi might issue a command for the entire world to set off fireworks just for Kersz’s enjoyment.

It seemed he was really capable of doing so.

Tau lowered his head and continued to laugh.

His genuine laughter escaped his throat as a strange cackle, which alarmed even Xiao Konglong.

Xiao Konglong clasped his two front claws together: “D-Daddy?”

Tau’s funny bone had been inexplicably tickled, and he was unable to stop laughing.

Yu Xi’s anger vanished into thin air, and he clutched the fabric of Kersz’s collar in fright.

Kersz was also scared. He had no idea what was wrong with Tau’s mind, and held Yu Xi even tighter.

Tau laughed for a moment longer, then asked Yu Xi: “Could you make the lights of the entire planet shine for Kersz?”

Yu Xi: “Of course.” It would be simple, After all, he himself was the master switch.

In fact, he almost never turned off the lights across his planet.

Tau pursed his lips when he received this answer.

Yu Xi: “What is it?”

Tau could no longer hold it in, and released that eerie, cackling laughter again.

Yu Xi: “Wuwuwu.” What on earth was this human’s deal?

He was never taking in an Illegitimate again. What in the world was going on in his head? It was absolutely terrifying.

Huh? What was Kersz doing?

The terrified Kersz had drawn his gun.

“Wait! Hold on!” Yu Xi hurriedly stopped him.

“He looks like he’s possessed,” said Kersz.

Yu Xi: …..

Yu Xi: “I warned you not to watch horror movies!”

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Chapter 38 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 40