After the Zerg General Was Accidentally Marked - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Broken Wing

That evening, Sears brought a book home. A bilingual Chinese-English edition of The Little Prince.

Everett asked curiously when he saw it: “Bought it for Bigu? Does he understand English?”

Currently, English exists as a supplementary universal language. Bigu couldn’t even recognize many characters in the common tongue, let alone English.

“No, it’s for myself.”

“This is a book from the human era, you like this too?” Everett’s interest was instantly piqued. “Have you read it? It’s a book about love.”

Sears had, of course, read it. But he didn’t buy this book for reading, and besides, “Isn’t it a fairy tale?”

“Can’t there be love in a fairy tale?” Everett picked up the hardback book, flipped through a few pages, and found the illustration of the rose. “Love in fairy tales is the most beautiful!”

“If I am the Little Prince,” Everett reached into the air and placed an invisible crown on his head, “then you are my rose.”

“…With my build, where do I look like a rose?” Sears pulled the book back from the little high-rank’s hand, having given up on understanding his logic.

“Then what are you?” The little high-rank was persistent.

“If I had to say…”

“A fox?”

“I should be the pilot.”

“Ah, you want to be the protagonist.” Everett realized.

“No, I’m just an ordinary, boring adult military female who can only see a hat. I can’t see the snake that swallowed the elephant.”

Bigu, who had his snacks confiscated tonight, immediately asked: “Can Gugu eat an elephant? What is an elephant? Is it tasty?”

“No!” “No!” The two insects vetoed the cub’s idea in unison.

Bigu smacked his lips, and having learned who-knows-what at kindergarten, began accusing them of abusing cubs. But because he was tired from playing during the day, he started feeling drowsy after a few sentences and went to bed early after washing up.

Before sending Bigu to sleep, Little Dummy praised: “What a warm and peaceful family atmosphere!”

But this warm and peaceful atmosphere didn’t last long. Half an hour later, Everett discovered the military female’s nearly broken wing.

Before Sears could make a sound, the little high-rank gasped. He carefully helped extract the half-unfolded wing but soon dared not move. He was afraid that with one touch, the right wing would fall off directly.

“It wasn’t like this before… what happened?”

“I accidentally bumped into something,” Sears replied nonchalantly.

“Accidentally bumped?”

“A mistake at work.”

Everett was nearly fuming with rage. “Is a janitor’s job this dangerous?! One mistake and a wing almost snaps off?!”

“Calm down…”

“What kind of trash workplace is this! Resign, go resign tomorrow!! I’ll support you!!”

“It’s not their fault.” Then, Sears told the little high-rank what had happened during the day.

Everett finally stopped criticizing the communications team, but he still didn’t dare touch the wing that was about to fall. His outstretched finger retracted just before touching it. “Does it hurt?”

“Actually, it doesn’t,” Sears replied. “I can’t feel the pain.” But this was not a good sign; losing sensation meant he had likely suffered irreversible nerve damage.

“If it necroses later, the wing might need to be torn off.” Seeing the little high-rank’s eyes turning red and looking like he was about to cry, Sears quickly added, “It’s fine. The wing was already broken anyway and couldn’t fly. There’s not much difference between having it and not.”

“How can there be ‘not much difference’? There’s a huge difference, okay…” Everett’s heart ached terribly. He saw through the military female’s insincerity clearly: “No! We still need to find a doctor, let a professional take a look.”

Sears did not object.

However, Everett didn’t have many insect connections, so he could only message the only doctor he knew: Can you make a house call right now?

The “Little Glasses” Perth replied quickly: Sorry, I don’t take private jobs. I am a formal doctor at a formal hospital.

House call fee is 100,000 per visit.

Little Glasses immediately: I’ll be there in thirty minutes.

Twenty-nine minutes later, Little Glasses arrived at the house with surgical equipment. After only holding the wing and taking a couple of looks, he said: “It’s beyond saving. Cut it off!”

Everett immediately got anxious. “You’re a quack! Cutting it off right away!”

Sears, on the contrary, was very calm. “Is there really no other way?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to treat it; it’s that the injury is too severe. The main nerve is completely severed. Forget me even the Insect God couldn’t do anything!” Doctor Perth expressed his helplessness. “Unless time could flow backward to before he was injured. But that’s simply impossible!”

Perth had already laid out a row of scalpels, preparing for the amputation, and specifically said to Everett, “By the way, the surgery fee is extra.”

But Everett blocked him directly. “No! No matter what, we have to save the wing!”

Faced with an unreasonable family member, Doctor Perth was also helpless. “Insect wings are extremely delicate organs, and every military female’s is different. There’s hardly any research to reference. Once the nerve is damaged, it’s impossible to recover!”

“If you insist on keeping the wing, the wing that remains won’t be able to move. It’ll be a burden. Why bother?”

“Listen to the doctor,” Sears gave up.

“No!” Everett was still persistent. “I remember there was a precedent of a military female recovering after nerve damage. It was restored using mental power, wasn’t it?”

Little Glasses was a bit surprised. “You actually know about that? There indeed was, but that’s an extremely rare case. Moreover, that military female was SS-grade, with mental power control to a perverted degree. Your guy here… probably can’t do it, right?”

The speaker intended nothing, but the listener took note. Sears suddenly said: “I can try.”

“Yes, we can try. Besides, mental power grades can be improved through training. Didn’t I do just that?”

Perth was speechless. “You are also a very rare exception, okay? I’ve never seen someone like you…”

He then thought of something. “Want to cooperate with me for a few experiments? If you agree, I can give a 10% discount on the house call fee!”

“Not short on money, thanks.” Everett refused to be a guinea pig.

On the other side, Sears heard: “Not short?”

“Not short. The company paid the bonus for the third day of work,” Everett lied casually.

“So, keep the wing or not?”

Ultimately, at the strong request of the patient and family, Doctor Perth could only go against his conscience and perform a treatment to retain the wing. He also did some repairs on the wing membrane, trimming the ragged parts and patching them with metal film. Thus, the originally translucent wing membrane gained over a dozen silver patches. Fortunately, it wouldn’t “leak wind” anymore.

Then, he charged an additional 100,000 for the treatment.

Since he had charged quite a bit, Perth said a few more words before leaving: “Try not to touch the wound for the next few days. Sleep on your stomach at night. Usually, you can apply pheromones to the wound to promote healing.”

“So pheromones actually work?”

Perth nodded. “Of course. And since it’s nerve damage, high-rank pheromones should be even more effective.”

“But… uh… if pheromones enter the bloodstream at the wound site, won’t there be side effects?”

“Side effects?”

“You know… promoting certain functions… related to reproduction?”

“Oh,” Little Glasses realized instantly. “Aphrodisiac effects!”

“Isn’t that normal! Haven’t you two marked each other long ago?”

“You can do it a few more times normally. Military females all love being nourished by pheromones.” Perth looked serious.

Seeing the atmosphere getting increasingly awkward, before the military female could speak, Everett gritted his teeth and said loudly: “But I’m ‘not capable’!”

The air seemed to freeze for a second.

Perth pushed his glasses, looking numb. “Actually… we only provide professional advice; we don’t really want to hear the private details of patients and their families.”

But thinking of this “spendthrift benefactor,” he added, “If you really can’t hold back, you can go to an anonymous forum to discuss it. Or find my brother; he’s a journalist, he can help you post it on the Transit Star Headlines.”

Mentioning this only made Everett angry. “Is that brother of yours a proper journalist? He said it was an interview, but turned around and wrote a clickbait soft ad!”

“Alright, alright, then don’t find him…” Then he muttered softly, “Earning money isn’t shameful.”

The wing was temporarily saved. When Everett saw the doctor out, he asked: “You have quite a bit of research on mental power?”

“It’s alright. Earning extra cash, I know a thing or two.”

Everett also really wanted to find someone to research his mental power condition and the side effects of Kalatin with, so he proactively offered: “Would you consider working for the Magic Lamp Company? I have connections.”

“I’m a doctor, what would I do at a pharmaceutical company?”

“More money.”

…Indeed, a very difficult reason to refuse.

But why does this ‘well-connected’ little high-rank live in such a cramped, broken apartment? Definitely something fishy.

In the end, Perth still took the paper business card Everett handed over and said he would consider it.

To stabilize the wing, several steel pins had been inserted internally. Thus, Sears could only sleep on his stomach for these few days. This position was uncomfortable; he couldn’t fall asleep for a long time after the lights went out.

On the other bed nearby, although the little high-rank didn’t move, his breathing remained shallow and irregular; clearly, he wasn’t sleeping either.

After a while, Everett suddenly asked: “Is it because of me?”

“What?”

“The reason your wings are injured is all because of me. You said you come from the future—in another timeline, the previous one, you didn’t meet me. Would you…”

“…Would you have had a better life?”

Sears thought back to his previous life struggling for survival in the junkyard and denied it immediately. “No.”

“Meeting you might be the luckiest thing that has happened since my rebirth.”

“Rebirth?” Everett caught the keyword. “Solas, what was the reason you came back to the past—meaning now?”

Sears felt there was no reason to hide it. “Because I died.”

“What was the cause of death?”

“Mental sea exhaustion,” Sears continued. “But I won’t die because of that this time, because you marked me and have been helping me repair my mental sea.” Although the progress currently remained stuck at 4%.

“In the previous life, my wings weren’t saved; they were cut off directly. Being able to keep them this time is also thanks to you.”

“So your appearance, at least for me, is a very lucky thing.”

“Solas?”

“Mhm?” Sears had his face turned the other way, but he turned back instinctively upon hearing the voice, only to find the little high-rank had gotten off his bed and was half-squatting by his bedside. The light was dim, and the little high-rank’s golden eyes reflected a faint glow.

He was close—to be precise, too close.

The little high-rank’s night vision was likely poor; he fumbled for a long time before catching Sears’ hand, cupping it, and saying seriously and formally like an oath: “In this life, I will definitely protect you and won’t let you die.”

These words sounded a bit comical. Especially coming from a little high-rank to a military female. It was like a fluffy kitten standing in front of a giant dragon, showing those tiny, slightly sharp claws and saying to the dragon, “I will protect you.” It was a great contrast, and… quite funny.

But Sears didn’t laugh. “Alright, then I’ll leave it to His Majesty the Emperor.”

“I told you I don’t want to be… sigh, the pressure will be very high like this, you know…”

“Go to sleep early, you have to work tomorrow.” Sears pulled his hand back and urged the little high-rank to sleep. “Good night.”

“Do you know ‘Good night’ (wanan) has another meaning?”

“Good night, wanan its Pinyin is ‘wo ai ni, ai ni’ (I love you, love you).”

Sears had already discovered the little high-rank’s personality: if there’s an opportunity for flirtation, he’ll take it; if there isn’t, he’ll create one and take it anyway.

Then Everett obediently returned to his bed and said with a sense of satisfaction:

“Good night, Solas. I love you, too.”

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