A little bit confused, Fu Yucheng reached out to pick the book up.
The book was a copy of ‘Beyond Good and Evil’. The original author was a German philosopher from the 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche. When compared to Nietzsche’s other well known works, this one wasn’t very famous.
However, why would such an old book be here? Why would it be in the safe, in Mo Ziwei’s study?
Curious, Fu Yucheng opened the cover of the yellowed book. There was a dedication written in a flowing script on the title page.1
“To my friend, Hanchuan.- Du Yueheng, April 23, 2110”
Seeing the inscription, Fu Yucheng was dumbfounded.
So that’s who the book was from?
The famous founder of the Fisher Laboratory, Du Yueheng?
Over two centuries ago, there was a very famous friendship, but it was also a very sorrowful one. It was the friendship between Rong Qian, Mo Hanchuan, and Du Yueheng.
They had been classmates at the Fisher Military Academy2 in the Dyson Cloud. Rong Qian came from a prominent and famous household, Du Yueheng came from an aristocratic family known for their scholars, and Mo Hanchuan was an ordinary civilian. Although their backgrounds were quite different, the three grew closer due to their shared ideals, and they became exceedingly good friends.
After their graduation, Rong Qian and Mo Hanchuan both turned out to be extremely rare S-level manipulators, and so, they, naturally, entered the army and made their way up the ranks.
However, Du Yueheng had no psionic power. Using his own talent and with his family’s support, he founded the Fisher Laboratory – the very same laboratory where the famous psionic-sensitive metal, ‘blue gold’ was created.
In the following years, the three maintained their close friendship. Rong Qian and Mo Hanchuan’s pure blue gold weapons were both developed by Du Yueheng.
It was a shame that this celebrated friendship had such an ugly end.
A few years later, after going through the extremely bloody Battle of Kuiper, Rong Qian, already the commander-in-chief of the Deep Space Fleet, brazenly overthrew the coalition government, determined to restore the Imperial regime.
Du Yueheng’s stance regarding Rong Qian’s actions was ambiguous and non-committal, but Mo Hanchuan fiercely opposed them.
At that time, people were convinced that Du Yueheng would rise higher than the clouds, while Mo Hanchuan was headed towards a free fall from the clouds to the ground.
But people’s wistful thinking couldn’t match the will of the heavens.
Soon after, Fisher Lab made a big mistake that almost changed the fate of mankind. As the chief scientist, Du Yueheng took full responsibility, and the Supreme Court reached a verdict – he was found guilty of serious dereliction of duty and crimes against humanity.
Capital punishment was to be dealt out immediately.
As the new Emperor, Rong Qian acquiesced to the ruling.
After being paraded around the Imperial capital for a full day, Du Yueheng never arrived at the execution grounds. The agitated public pulled him out of the prisoner transport hover car, and beat him to death.
By the time Mo Hanchuan arrived, the body no longer resembled a human being.
Perhaps it was because of Rong Qian’s insistence on proclaiming himself Emperor, or perhaps because of Du Yueheng’s tragic death, but Mo Hanchuan was greatly shaken. The famous admiral, who had always been prudent and conservative, launched an impulsive military coup, attempting to drag Rong Qian down from his high throne.
Of course, he failed.
Rong Qian, perhaps in remembrance of the friendship they shared in their youth, didn’t kill Mo Hanchuan. Instead, he took away his psionic power and exiled him to Earth.
Fu Yucheng closed the book, a little confused.
This copy of ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ had actually been gifted to Mo Hanchuan by Du Yueheng… and the date accompanying the signature was exactly one week prior to the Fisher Lab accident.
Could this be some bizarre coincidence?
He stared at the white cover for a long time and then he placed the book under his arm on impulse.
Anyway, whether he lost just the diary or another book as well, Mo Ziwei would be furious and order a thorough search across Fort Hurricane nonetheless.
Shrugging, Fu Yucheng closed the safe, moved the flooring and seat back to their original positions, and wiped off his fingerprints.
He glanced at the oil painting on the wall one last time, and, just as he was about to return, following his original path across the outer wall, he heard a rush of footsteps in the corridor right outside the door. “Quick! Don’t let him get away!”
Fu Yucheng was startled. Had he triggered an alarm?
Almost simultaneously, a low humming sound came from beyond the study’s floor-to-ceiling windows. It was an UAV’s engine.3
They were surrounding him from both sides. Fu Yucheng’s heart sank a little.
" "‘Bam!!!’ With a loud crash, the door of the study was viciously kicked open.
A tall and muscular guard captain stepped in. He scanned the empty office and waved his hand energetically. “Search!”
The moment he said that word, dozens of armed guards wearing exoskeleton armor filed in. They turned the room upside down, checking behind the curtains, under the sofa, inside the adjacent bathroom…
They found nothing.
The guard captain scoffed coldly. “He couldn’t have run that far! Chase him! Notify the other four teams and flank the passenger and freight elevators, the fire escape and the outer wall. Search every corner!”
Before he walked away with the others, he looked around the messy study one more time, and ordered a guard: “You! Stay here and clean up.”
Suddenly, the study was empty once again.
The unlucky guard grumbled as he tidied up the messy office, “Every fucking time, it’s always me. Who the hell did I piss off…?”
Before he could finish speaking, he felt a slight pain at the nape of his neck, and his whole body fell limp. Fu Yucheng, hanging down from the huge crystal chandelier, had quietly struck the back of his head with the side of his hand.
Fu Yucheng jumped off the chandelier and lightly landed on his feet. He poked the unconscious man on the ground with his foot, and smiled. “Haha, what a happy coincidence.”4
He unceremoniously stripped off the exoskeleton armor from the guard, put on the translucent gray goggles, and then hid the unlucky soul under the sofa.
Right at that time, Bai Mo was standing inside the east gate of the Mo fortress, waiting anxiously.
It was almost the time Fu Yucheng had mentioned, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly, a group of guards rushed past. Some of the ones at the back were muttering, “Hurry up, quickly! The captain said that if anyone gets away, we’ll all be in trouble!”
Bai Mo watched them hurry out of the east gate, and his heart sank.
That man… Did something happen to him?
Full of anxiety, he looked up and checked the clock tower – it was 7:55pm. The time when he was supposed to meet Fu Yucheng was about to pass. Fu Yucheng said that, if he didn’t appear one hour after the lanterns were released, Bai Mo should leave and go find Old Sun at the windmill tower…
The boy grit his teeth unconsciously.
How could he… How could he?!
Did that man think that if anything happened to him, Bai Mo would just walk away obediently?
The eight o’clock bell slowly chimed.5
The boy couldn’t wait any longer. Turning around sharply, he readied himself to head into the fortress. No matter what, he had to get to Fu Yucheng!
Suddenly, a guard wearing a full set of exoskeleton armor appeared right before him and, raising his right hand, gestured at Bai Mo to stop.
Bai Mo stared at the other man and slowly stopped walking, startled and wary. Could it be that something had already happened to Fu Yucheng, and the Mo family, aware of their relationship, sent him to arrest Bai Mo right away?
His body tensed up, and, involuntarily, a faint layer of frost began to condense between his fingers .
The guard, speaking in a low voice, said rudely, “Stop! Show me your ID card!”
Hearing this voice, Bai Mo was taken aback for a moment, and then his shoulders suddenly relaxed. “Yu-ge, how… how come that you’re…?”
Fu Yucheng pursed his lips, disappointed that he hadn’t been able to trick him. “Tsk, you have good ears, kid. Let’s go, it’s time to go back.”
There were a lot of guards wearing exoskeleton armor around the Mo family fortress. The two returned to their residence uninterrupted, without anyone sparing a glance at them.
After they entered the apartment, Fu Yucheng took off the heavy armor and let out a long, relieved sigh. Collapsing onto the sofa, he said, “Ah, I’m exhausted.”
Bai Mo glared at him, an indescribable grievance gradually filling his heart.
“You just left, without saying anything at all,” he whispered.
Fu Yucheng, exhausted, pulled at his own messy hair. “Come on, I left you a note.”
Bai Mo looked at the man’s indifferent look, and he felt depressed and cold inside.
Suppressing the feeling, he said in a low voice, “Yu-ge, what exactly do you take me for? Do you think I’m some kitten or puppy that you keep around for fun?”
Fu Yucheng shook his head helplessly—this brat was, predictably, a teenager, sensitive and distrustful. Having to deal with a sensitive teenager was a hundred times more tiresome than climbing the fortress’ wall had been.
He rubbed his eyebrows, feeling a headache forming, and then beckoned the boy over. “Little Mo, come over and sit next to me.”
Bai Mo, after hesitating, walked over to sit beside Fu Yucheng. He then moved slightly, leaning away from the other.
Fu Yucheng felt secretly amused to see the boy awkwardly refuse to get closer.
Stretching out an arm, he grabbed the boy directly and petted his thick hair in a comforting manner. “You brat, of course you’re not just a kitten or a puppy… you are important to me.”
You are important to me.
The teenager’s mind went blank for a moment.
Deep inside, he mulled these five words over and over. Still looking slightly uncertain, he questioned softly, “Really?”
Fu Yucheng smiled and said, “Absolutely.”
He had his arm around Bai Mo’s shoulders. His soft and pleasant voice sounded a bit hoarse, and Bai Mo noticed the fresh scent of lemon soap… and just a small bit of light sweat. The boy felt a little light-headed.
Fu Yucheng spoke again, “You know that my eldest brother died young, and that I have no other siblings. You… you are like a younger brother to me.”
Maybe he felt too light-headed, because, after being silent for a couple of seconds, Bai Mo suddenly muttered, “And what if I say that I don’t want to be your younger brother?”
For a moment, Fu Yucheng was taken aback. “Then who do you want to be? You want to be my older brother? That won’t work.”
Dazed, the boy raised his head and stared at the other’s pitch black eyes surrounded with dark green. At such a close distance, he could even notice the slight physiological tremor of the other’s irises. “I- I want to…”
Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a hurried, impolite knock on the door.
Fu Yucheng stood up abruptly. “Ah, Mo Ziwei probably lost something and he’s sending people to search through every room.”
He hung the exoskeleton armor behind the door— people often wore their armor on their way back from the training camp to the dormitories, so it was no big deal. Then, he took out the diary and book that he was carrying and slipped them under the thick mattress in his bedroom.
The knocking on the door became more frantic.
Fu Yucheng, after thinking for a while, took out a bottle of white wine from the refrigerator, raised it to his mouth and chugged half of it down, then poured the remaining half all over himself.
He messed up his own clothes and threw himself onto the bed. “Little Mo, go open the door. If they ask about me, tell them that I got drunk and that you’ve been taking care of me. And don’t say a word about anything else.”
Bai Mo, brozoned.
My editor had to work really quickly today, I’m sorry Wintery!! Please give her an applause!
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