The Cannon Fodder Male Insect Refuses the Crematorium - Chapter 8

Looking at the long string of zeros in his account, Nia still felt a sense of surreal unreality.

These Star Credits were enough to support the expensive surgery his female father needed.

Lu Qing had asked for nothing in return, only requesting that Nia promote the recipes. Such a request sounded like a self-defeating joke; it was hard to imagine these words coming from the mouth of an Elite Male.

Nia could not bear to soil the small handkerchief embroidered with blue flowers, so he went to the washroom to rinse his body.

The washroom was semi-open, with no door.

Mud slid off his body with the flow of water.

Nia opened his eyes and saw a silent shadow of a bug appear beside him.

Nia immediately stood at attention and saluted: “Major General Elliot!”

The honey-skinned female bug, bare-chested, snapped out of his trance. He unobtrusively withdrew his gaze from the handkerchief resting on the chair, his dark eyes falling upon the slender, fair Sub-Female.

“No need to salute,” Elliot said, his voice deep, echoing against the eardrums in the empty washroom.

He looked deeply at the female bug, his eyes harboring complexities that were hard to decipher. Nia did not dare to move, letting the gaze linger on his body.

“This handker,” Elliot’s tongue curled around the word, but he swallowed the rest of his sentence.

He turned his head away from the Sub-Female’s body. The words he had swallowed seemed to churn in his throat, making him feel somewhat stifled.

“It is nothing,” the tall, well-built female bug muttered. He strode away quickly, looking almost as if he were fleeing the scene.

Nia stood frozen in place, confused. It was not until he heard the faint rustle of clothes disappearing and the creak of a door opening and closing that he finally relaxed.

Due to its semi-military nature, the Imperial Military Academy had relatively low requirements for theoretical classes but high standards for physical fitness.

Elliot was the instructor for their Mechanical Class’s physical education. Rumor had it he was originally supposed to teach at the Takende Mountain campus, but for some reason, he had transferred to the City Center campus.

Nia let out a soft sigh. Major General Elliot was a man of few words, cold and stern, and his training was so rigorous it made them miserable.

The gaze just now had carried an invisible pressure; memories of training sessions surged back, making Nia’s legs feel a bit weak.

Fortunately, he was gone now.

Nia changed into clean clothes and carefully tucked the handkerchief from the chair into his inner lining.

Regardless of the motive behind that Male Lord’s request, Nia would do his best to help him, repaying his kindness.

Promoting recipes was a far better life than what he had before.

Lu Qing had no idea how much his single sentence would impact Nia and the entire Mechanical Class.

Of course, that is a story for another time.

Elliot changed into a shirt, his full and beautiful honey-colored pectoral muscles disappearing behind the closing buttons. He fastened them meticulously to the very last one, revealing nothing of his waist or abdomen.

With a somber expression, he donned his deep blue military jacket. After stepping out of the Third Science Building, he could not help but look back once before abruptly snapping his head forward.

“What am I doing?” the female bug whispered to himself.

For certain reasons, he had come to the Third Science public washroom to bathe on a few rare occasions.

He had not expected to see a handkerchief that was both familiar and strange.

Was it his?

Elliot hesitated, but in the end, he had not asked the nervous-looking little Sub-Female. Now that he had left, he felt a pang of regret for not asking.

He was conflicted and lost.

Today, he had to go to the Locke family for dinner again.

It would be nothing more than orders and demands, discussing when the engagement and marriage would take place.

But now, one bug was missing.

For some reason, his heart felt like it was missing a piece too, hollow and empty.

The piercing ringtone of a communication request from his optical computer suddenly went off.

Elliot picked up the call and spoke respectfully: “Patriarch.”

On the other end of the line, a raspy, weak voice belonged to Planck, the biological father of both Lu Qing and Lucasi, and the current head of the Locke family: “Are you busy this afternoon?”

Elliot said, “No.”

The Locke Patriarch coughed heavily twice; it was clear his health was poor. “If you are not busy, go out more with Lucasi. Have a meal, chat. You have not met him in nearly half a month, have you? I heard from the butler that last time you sent a dish you made yourself, but did not show up in person.”

Elliot lowered his eyelashes. “Military affairs have been heavy.”

The Locke Patriarch’s voice darkened. “Then push them aside. Your focus should be on your future Male Lord, not other things. If you remain this lukewarm, when will you ever get married and conceive an egg?”

“Get out there today, cultivate your relationship with Lucasi, and then come over for dinner together.”

A dial tone sounded; the communication ended.

Elliot pressed his lips into a thin line, wondering what other method he could use to decline the dinner date with the Male.

That Male’s gaze was strange; it made him very uncomfortable.

He did not understand why, if they were going to marry anyway, they had to go out and “cultivate feelings.”

It was far more exhausting than training or combat.

Lu Qing and An Feiyu had agreed that he would teach An Feiyu how to cook the following weekend.

The sun was bright and a gentle breeze was blowing; it was very pleasant.

Lu Qing took out two freshly picked Tiger-Head Cabbages and a piece of fresh beef brisket he had just bought, placing them on the table for preparation.

After reading his exam prep books for a while, a succession of screams erupted from outside the door.

The “Ahhh!” of the tragic wailing sounded like a pig being led to the slaughterhouse. The shrill voice pierced the sky, accompanied by the heavy clattering of falling objects.

Lu Qing: ” ”

Lu Qing’s hand paused as he turned a page, and he quickly stood up.

The Book rubbed its half-closed, beady eyes and said groggily, “What is going on?”

“Holy crap, holy crap, Brother!!” An Feiyu’s eyes lit up when he saw Lu Qing walking over quickly, but he glanced at his shoulder and began to howl in panic again.

“AAAAAAAAHHH!!!”

An Feiyu’s scream was piercing, but it could not have been the root cause of the mess on the ground.

Lu Qing looked silently at the several flower pots smashed to pieces on the floor. One of them was a small tea seedling that the old Male next door had asked him to look after because the old man did not know how to grow it.

Suddenly, his fists felt itchy.

Lu Qing quickly repotted the still-living seedlings for emergency first aid. An Feiyu struggled to turn his head, waving and shouting at Lu Qing: “Brother! Brother!! Look, there is a weird, ugly thing on me! AAAHHH!!!”

The Book followed the sound, looked toward An Feiyu’s shoulder, let out an “Eh?”, and then chuckled mischievously: “Lulu-zi, look at that thing on his shoulder.”

Lu Qing set down the last innocent seedling and turned his face to look at the massive, long, pitch-black object on An Feiyu’s shoulder.

The pitch-black thing tilted its head. Two large eyes, which took up half of its face, blinked “bling-bling” at Lu Qing, seemingly curious about what kind of bug Lu Qing was and why he was so handsome.

“It is over.”

The Book shook its head and sighed deeply. “Even an Insect-Snake cannot escape a pretty face.”

The Book observed a three-minute moment of silence for this “big loach” that was actually somewhat “ugly-cute.”

Sure enough, a strange light flickered in Lu Qing’s pupils. His hand rose and fell; a shadow flashed, and the slippery big fellow was caught in his palm.

Watching the flickering eyes draw closer, the big fellow finally realized danger was imminent, and its body began to writhe violently.

Perhaps it never expected that, as ugly as it was, a bug would actually want to turn it into a dish.

An Feiyu felt the wet, sticky sensation on his neck vanish. He let out a long breath and looked up happily, wanting to thank Lu Qing.

Instead, he looked up to see Lu Qing holding the strange, ugly thing, walking into the kitchen looking quite pleased.

An Feiyu: ” ???”

An Feiyu followed him into the kitchen and saw Lu Qing put the big fellow into a large glass cooking bowl. The ugly-cute creature struggled even harder, spitting mucus at Lu Qing as if accusing him of having no martial honor, catching it without even a word of negotiation. What a bad bug.

But soon, a large bag of salt was poured into the bowl.

The Insect-Snake twisted and turned, spitting out mouthfuls of mucus and yellowish granules.

Slowly, the Insect-Snake stopped moving, lying quietly in the salt next to a pile of granules and white foam.

Lu Qing picked up the motionless Insect-Snake and rinsed it and the bowl under water.

He knew the method for making “Braised Insect-Snake” by heart, having simulated it several times already.

He had originally intended to use the Tiger-Head Cabbage to make spicy braised beef, but now he could use it for the braised Insect-Snake to test the recipe.

Lu Qing raised his knife, pierced the belly of the snake, and sliced a long wound with a “shrrk” sound, then pulled out the long bone.

The structure of an Insect-Snake was not much different from a fish. Once the long bone was removed and the body opened, it became a flat meat patty.

If one did not see it with their own eyes, who would have thought that under the thick black skin, the meat of the Insect-Snake was a crystalline white?

Seeing Lu Qing about to put the snake into the pot to boil off the blood foam, An Feiyu suddenly reacted and said in shock, “You, you are going to make a dish out of it??”

Lu Qing: “Mm-hmm.”

His hand stopped mid-scoop as he seemed to think of something.

An Feiyu noticed Lu Qing’s pensive gaze, and an indescribable chill washed over him.

“Brother, Brother, why? Why are you looking at me like that?”

An Feiyu’s lips moved haltingly.

Lu Qing looked up and gave him a smile that could be described as radiant: “Vice President, could I trouble you to repeat the actions you took just before you caught it?”

The Male, who had not seen an Insect-Snake despite waiting for days, expressed great curiosity. He wanted to recreate the snake-catching process to catch more of these big fellows for experiments.

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