“No.”
Without any consideration, Yu Chen pushed away the young man’s wrist the moment Yun Xunlan finished asking and coldly refused.
Their gazes met—one looking down, one looking up. Yu Chen bent his knees and half-knelt, making his line of sight lower than the young man’s, but his cold and hard attitude didn’t diminish at all: “Yun Xunlan, 3S mechas don’t have escape devices. I’m your guard. I won’t watch you risk your life.”
Mechanical insectoids only exist in combat zones. According to the guard team’s original security plan, to prevent the escort mecha group from being accidentally injured during the test pilot’s battle with mechanical insectoids, and to avoid affecting the test pilot’s freedom in controlling the mecha, the guards wouldn’t follow Yun Xunlan into the combat zone and would always maintain a certain safe distance from him.
After Lu You and the others’ assassination begins, the guards would split up—some would go to stop the assassination, while the rest would quickly approach Yun Xunlan to form a defensive formation and cover his retreat from the combat zone. Under normal main control system operation, the combat zone is very safe, so this security plan has no problems.
But if the mechanical insectoids are no longer controlled by the main control system, then the blank time before the guard patrol mecha group approaches Yun Xunlan becomes dangerous. Whether this time is short or long, a few seconds or a few minutes—who can be certain?
Yu Chen felt Yun Xunlan really knew how to create problems for him.
Yun Xunlan could have completely concealed his plan and not revealed any details to him, but he chose to tell him everything and then asked him to keep the secret.
But could Yu Chen keep such a serious matter secret?
If he kept the secret, he’d be watching Yun Xunlan treat his life as a game. If nothing happened, fine, but if something did happen, it would be a complete disaster. If he didn’t keep the secret, Yu Chen would betray Yun Xunlan’s trust, which would become a thorn in their relationship—who knows when it might hurt them both?
The balance between these two choices was too difficult to control.
Yun Xunlan didn’t give Yu Chen any explicit hints either.
After being refused, he remained silent, lowering his lashes to quietly look into Yu Chen’s eyes. Those golden irises looked more like a silent sea than Yu Chen’s blue pupils at this moment—completely unfathomable. Yu Chen could only see Yun Xunlan’s determination—his opposition was useless; Yun Xunlan would definitely do this.
He could only choose to agree.
If he agreed, at least he knew Yun Xunlan’s overall plan and wouldn’t let things get completely out of control. If he didn’t agree, what if Yun Xunlan had other backup plans?
Yu Chen couldn’t help but think of the standoff between Yun Xunguang and Yun Xunlan before leaving the Imperial Star.
Yun Xunguang might not be completely unaware of what Yun Xunlan was plotting, but like himself, she had no choice.
After a moment of silence, Yu Chen asked Yun Xunlan: “Is Officer Dike the Crown Princess’s person?”
“Yes.” Yun Xunlan raised his hand to touch Yu Chen’s face. “Only he won’t listen to me.”
The other guards, including Yu Chen and the other alphas, would find it very difficult not to listen to Yun Xunlan.
Just like his current gesture of caressing Yu Chen’s face—no matter how gentle and tender it was, it couldn’t hide the controlling meaning it contained.
“I won’t go to him to inform, but I also won’t give you half an hour.” Yu Chen gripped Yun Xunlan’s knuckles and said to the young man: “You’re right. I’ve fought you before. I know your strength. So tomorrow, all guards except Lu You, Song Tingyan, and Lottie will pilot SS Snow Owl mechas with me to escort you in the air above. We won’t maintain a safe distance from you.”
With Yun Xunlan’s mecha control skills, he definitely couldn’t accidentally injure the escort flight group. The SS Snow Owl light aerial mecha has optical stealth capabilities—unless it actively attacks and exposes itself, neither human eyes nor camera lenses can capture its traces.
Yu Chen met Yun Xunlan’s eyes and emphasized in a deep voice: “We will provide support for you anytime, anywhere, depending on the situation.”
“If you’re strong enough, we’ll never have a chance to support you—even if time exceeds half an hour and the control tower hasn’t regained control of the main control system, we still won’t support you.”
“Okay.”
As Yun Xunlan agreed, he interlocked his fingers with Yu Chen’s, as if sealing a promise.
At six o’clock Friday morning, during the guards’ early assembly and preparation, they were all surprised to hear Yu Chen say they would follow Yun Xunlan into the combat zone for escort flight: “We’re all piloting SS Snow Owls for escort flight? And not maintaining a safe distance? Won’t this affect the Third Prince’s test drive?”
This would increase the difficulty of the test drive.
“If it affects him, that’s your problem.” Yu Chen stared at Gui Yan, who had spoken, and questioned him: “Is it hard to avoid the Third Prince’s attack trajectory? If you’re bad at it, consciously fly farther away.”
“I’m not very good at piloting aerial mechas…” Gui Yan scratched his head. He was better at piloting ground-type mechas.
“Escort flight support is the fastest and can indeed better protect the Third Prince.” Fu Yanxi pondered. “But is this the Prince’s idea or Officer Dike’s? Did the Prince agree to let us escort?”
Yu Chen said: “I was worried about the Prince and proposed the escort security plan to Officer Dike and the Prince. The Prince approved my request.”
Just as they were discussing this, their light brain bracelets received a notification from Dike about a temporary change to the security plan—except for Lu You and the other two who had other “tasks,” all remaining alphas would pilot the aerial light mecha SS Snow Owl to enter the combat zone for escort flight.
“The Prince has additional requirements.” Yu Chen continued. “Because the test drive process will be live-streamed by the press corps, we can’t rashly expose ourselves or provide support.”
Ji Bai quickly answered: “Ah, I understand, I understand.”
Historically, no one has ever had guards escorting them during mecha test drives. If their escort flight was broadcast live by the press corps, it would be bad for Yun Xunlan’s reputation. People would gossip and spread rumors, saying he was cowardly, afraid of death, and putting on airs. Would he need people to escort him even on a real battlefield?
Song Tingxiao made a sound of surprise: “Then when can we provide support?”
“If there are no accidents, we don’t need to expose ourselves, let alone provide support.” Yu Chen explained to the guards.
The security personnel weren’t just these few guards—there were other guard troops who would also pilot aerial mechas to patrol at a safe distance. After Yun Xunlan encountered the “assassination,” they would cover the young man’s defensive retreat according to the original security plan. Since they all knew this “assassination” was fake and Yun Xunlan couldn’t really be in danger, they had no need to appear for reinforcement.
Zhu Shuiqin asked: “What if there’s an accident?”
Yu Chen swallowed the extended-release painkiller that must be taken when piloting SS-level mechas for long periods, then put on the mecha oxygen mask: “Follow His Highness’s orders, or mine.”
Fu Yanxi frowned and pressed further: “What about Officer Dike? We don’t follow his orders?”
Yu Chen glanced at him indifferently, his blue eyes deep and profound. His voice came from under the mask, particularly muffled but very clear: “No.”
“Major Yu, what impressive authority you have.” Gui Yan paused in taking his medicine, as if understanding something, closed his eyes and took a deep breath: “We’ll all be punished.”
“But we swore an oath.”
—On the day of the guard interviews, the person they swore loyalty to was Yun Xunlan.
At exactly eight o’clock, Yun Xunlan also put on his mecha suit and injected himself with an M20 painkiller after entering the SSS mecha.
【Jian Wenxi: Yun Xunlan, can you believe it? Dike is right beside me! Monitoring me! Am I really that untrustworthy?!】
【Jian Wenxi: Well, I am.】
【Jian Wenxi: But I still have the skill to message you right under his nose. I’m amazing.】
【Jian Wenxi: Though I think he’ll pull a gun on my precious head soon.】
The cold medication was pushed into his body as his light brain bracelet vibrated continuously with Jian Wenxi’s incoming messages.
Yun Xunlan curved his lips in a smile and replied to the omega: 【I’ll apologize to you on his behalf first, but he won’t hurt you. Don’t be afraid.】
【Jian Wenxi: Of course I’m not afraid. He’s using a gun, not his hands. If he used his hands, I’d be scared—I don’t like touching people.】
【Jian Wenxi: Sigh, I’ve really sacrificed so much for you.】
【Jian Wenxi: So I hope you stay alive.】
【Yun Xunlan: I will, Wenxi. Thank you.】
While typing his thanks to Jian Wenxi, Yun Xunlan reached up to touch the sapphire communicator on his ear. Thinking there was still time before the official test drive at nine o’clock, he planned to first coax Yu Chen on the private channel, then thank all the guards on the public channel.
So he called to Yu Chen: “Baby, thank you for being willing to help me.”
Yu Chen didn’t respond.
Yun Xunlan continued calling baby: “Baby, are you still angry? You haven’t talked to me all night.”
Yu Chen remained silent.
“Alright, baby, if you don’t want to talk to me now, that’s fine. After we return to the starship, can you talk to me then?”
Yu Chen was like a mute, not even making breathing sounds.
—His lover was still so hard to coax.
Yun Xunlan sighed helplessly and said softly: “Ba…”
“I’m not angry.”
“And I don’t not want to talk to you.”
Yu Chen interrupted Yun Xunlan’s fourth attempt to call him “baby,” his voice even more helpless than the young man’s: “You’re using the public frequency, so don’t…”
—Don’t call me baby anymore.
Yun Xunlan: “…”
Yun Xunlan carefully felt around the communicator and discovered he had indeed switched to the wrong channel. When thanking Jian Wenxi, he hadn’t paid attention and mistook the public chat channel for his private channel with Yu Chen.
While he stopped calling Yu Chen baby, the guards started calling him that. They were very careful, using the private channel so Yun Xunlan couldn’t hear, bombarding only Yu Chen—
Lottie, shocked: “…Baby?”
Song Tingxiao screamed: “Baby?!”
Ji Bai hissed: “…Baby…”
Zhu Shuiqin stammered: “Ba-baby?”
Gui Yan sobbed: “…Ba…by?”
Fu Yanxi seemed about to expire, opening his mouth to make a vowel sound before losing his voice, unable to speak.
Only Song Tingyan and Lu You sounded relatively normal: “Baby?”
Yu Chen, who never imagined his relationship with Yun Xunlan would be exposed in this way at such a critical moment: “…”
Yu Chen: “Stop calling me that. I don’t want to hear you say it.”
“You fucking just want to hear the Third Prince say it, right?!” Fu Yanxi exploded in rage, half sobbing, half gritting his teeth: “Yu Chen, I hate you to death!”
Yu Chen was helpless and let him curse: “Go ahead and hate me. As long as the Third Prince loves me, that’s enough.”
“You—!”
Fu Yanxi was furious and wanted to curse Yu Chen some more, but as soon as Yun Xunlan spoke on the public frequency, Fu Yanxi immediately shut up.
His Highness the Prince’s voice was still as gentle as always.
He didn’t mention anything about his relationship with Yu Chen, only earnestly thanked the guards: “I once thought it was unnecessary for Imperial Sister to establish a guard army for me, but I later discovered that wasn’t the case.”
“I’ve never been able to say ‘thank you’ to everyone.”
“I’m very grateful to everyone for choosing me before I chose you.”
**
