Insectoids: The Job of the Males

Chapter 76.1

Cheer Up

Translated by boilpoil
Edited by boilpoil

“Jin Yue is dead?” Cheng Zhaoci is quite surprised. It feels almost unreal.

He knows the pirates are already at their wits’ end, but Jin Yue, he just died in the end?

“Yes, Jin Yue has died. The war is over,” Meng Yuele says on the nearby sofa, “we’re finally back now. I thought at time we might never have. I’d have lost against that insane bastard if we were in a one-on-one.”

“So where’s Wei Zhuo?” If Meng Yuele is already here, where is Wei Zhuo?

Cheng Zhaoci already had a call last night with Wei Zhuo, who said he’ll be back the next night to also take Cheng Zhaoci back to where they were living. They didn’t need to stay at his granddad’s for protection anymore.

“Busy receiving his medals, I guess. He was too important in the fight. Two months ago he was already made a Commodore, now he might actually rise up to the marshal-level ranks,” Meng Yuele says with aspiration in his eyes.

He’s not jealous, because the amount of work and merit Wei Zhuo had was insane.

He ran ahead to Cheng Zhaoci to tell him they’re safe and the mission is over. And also, of course, for the free food, “Wei-ge brought Jin Yue’s mecha husk back though.”

“Eh?” Cheng Zhaoci remembers how Wei Zhuo looks like he would tear Jin Yue limb-to-limb whenever he was talking about him during the war.

Meng Yuele explains, seeing the confusion, “he dug a hole nowhere and buried it, and said nothing on the way. I guarantee there’s nothing between the two of them.”

“… Of course I know that,” Cheng Zhaoci is just curious at the sudden thoughtful gesture. Perhaps it’s as Wei Zhuo said, he knew Jin Yue from very long ago, far enough in the past that he wasn’t yet the insectoid he became.

He was probably melancholic for that simpler time.

Wei Zhuo has always been pretty emotionally rich inside. He just has problems writing them on the face.

Meng Yuele then sighs and laments, “it’s finally over, but at the cost of how many insectoids?”

Cheng Zhaoci says nothing. He knows. Even Mr Liang’s xiongzhu has perished in this pointless war, in a futile revenge that did not directly relate to him.

To be honest, sometimes Cheng Zhaoci thinks he has become even more unfeeling than Wei Zhuo. Maybe it’s because of the awakening, or maybe because he did not know the past Jin Yue.

The news of his death was surprising, because he always felt in control and slippery. But then, in the end, he still died in battle.

It seems unreasonable to expect the victims’ families to learn about the perpetrator’s tragic past, and then sympathise and rationally view the entire thing or whatnot. His life was ruined, and he ruined so many lives too.

To those outside, death is just a number. Yet, to those families directly affected, they did lose someone important and irreplaceable in their daily lives.

There is never a reasonable justification for taking another’s life no matter the circumstances.

“Dead, huh,” Sun Wushe almost appears apathetic. Or, perhaps he knew it all along, “that’s nice. He’s finally free.”

Then he falls silent for a while, before asking, “can I ask his exact time of death?”

“The twenty-sixth, at 16:36:54 in the afternoon. Barely a few seconds after my xiongzhu sent the status update,” Wei Zhuo has an idea what Sun Wushe wanted to ask about.

“I see. He probably read it,” Sun Wushe knows Jin Yue has also followed Cheng Zhaoci online.

He’s mellowed out much more now, that he can even talk to Wei Zhuo calmly across a dividing glass. Well, ‘calmly,’ because he’s completely given up after Wei Zhuo kept ignoring him.

Wei Zhuo, meanwhile, takes a deep breath. He can’t help but feel pissed every time his xiongzhu is involved with all these shemales, “he was also infatuated with my xiongzhu?”

He knows his xiongzhu is an amazing male, but why does he seem to end up attracting so many weirdos?

Sun Wushe’s eyes widen for a moment, before he chuckles at the question, “impossible. Anyone could be in love with Mr Cheng Zhaoci, but not him.”

“He’s probably really intrigued, but he doesn’t like him,” in fact, Jin Yue was even using the fact that Cheng Zhaoci and Wei Zhuo have got married to probe Sun Wushe himself, to see if he has any interesting reaction. If Jin Yue really liked Cheng Zhaoci, what he would have done is make a big mess of things the moment he learned regardless of consequences.

He follows Cheng Zhaoci, not because he likes him, but because he’s seen something different in him. Possibly, Jin Yue was harbouring a hope that he didn’t even know he was still capable of having; a hope in what Cheng Zhaoci would do, what he might be able to achieve, to change, and not just in Cheng Zhaoci himself.

He may be insane to the very core, unpredictable and chaotic, but he still had the capacity to hope for a difference.

“I’m going to die tomorrow,” murmurs Sun Wushe; tomorrow is the day of his execution by firing squad.

“And you deserve it,” Wei Zhuo coldly adds, “you should have known this day was coming the day you joined a space buccaneer outfit.”

“I always knew,” Sun Wushe is smiling, “even when I was still very young. So even if you let me turn back time, I would still have walked this exact same path.”