Chapter 19.1

But the little prince who knew nothing about it was still blindly envious. He stayed in the tomb for a long time before returning to the spacecraft.

On the spacecraft, General Mans was sitting by the window handling official business. Somehow, Huo Lin remembered Mans’ swift withdrawal of troops and felt a little strange in hindsight. This approach did not seem to fit Mans’ previous style.

He glanced at Mans again, then withdrew his gaze and swallowed his doubts.

That day, after he returned, he was indeed punished. He was being punished in the study.

***

In a distant planet far away from him, the little baby who made him suffer was crying in the bedroom looking for a bottle.

Zhan Xi’s brain buzzed from the crying, “Baby, let’s stop crying, okay? If you cry again, you’ll be dehydrated. Why don’t you drink this bottle of milk first?”

Jian Ning threw away the bottle and cried even harder.

Zhan Xi knew from this that the situation was serious when he saw that the baby was refusing to drink the milk. In the middle of the night, he disregarded the disturbance it would cause and just called the little prince.

Fortunately, the little prince was not asleep.

The two children talked to each other, and the emotional baby finally calmed down. The little prince’s voice was a bit hoarse, as if he had a cold, but even though his voice was uncomfortable, he skillfully soothed the baby to sleep, “Ningning, count all the numbers you know for me.”

Jian Ning received the order and began counting. After a few minutes, he fell asleep in Zhan Xi’s arms.

Zhan Xi breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this. He put the baby back in bed, covered him with a small blanket, and then looked at the star machine that he hadn’t hung up yet.

“Little prince, do you have a cold? Your voice doesn’t sound quite right.”

Huo Lin mumbled back, “Yeah, I caught a slight cold.”

When Zhan Xi heard this, he no longer let him stay up late: “Don’t forget to take your medicine and continue sleeping. It’s so late now, you can’t stay up anymore. Thank you for comforting Ningning just now.”

“You’re welcome.”

After the Crown Prince finished speaking, he hung up the phone, buried his face in the blanket, and didn’t know if he fell asleep.

The long night was endless, and the parted children were all in a bad mood.

This bad mood lasted for several days before gradually improving.

The Crown Prince was able to remotely take care of the child through the learning machine and video calls. He remembered the address given by Zhan Xi and then sent over all the toys for a child’s growing period. From advanced walkers to baby rockers, everything was available.

Days passed by.

Every time the Crown Prince sent something, he would send it to the location given by Zhan Xi.

The people on the barren planet were not blind. They watched as Jian Ning brought back things, from being surprised at first to eventually becoming accustomed to it.

“Zhan Xi, what did the Crown Prince send to Ningning this time?”

“I don’t know. It says milk on the package, but I’ve been weaning him off formula recently and he’s been unhappy and crying about it. I think the Crown Prince knew about it and sent it to him. Hey, do you want to drink it?”

The man who struck up a conversation laughed heartily, “No way, who would compete with Ningning for milk? I’m going to plant tomatoes in my garden. Doesn’t Ningning like to watch me garden? Let him come over later and I’ll pick some tomatoes for him to eat.”

Zhan Xi smiled and said, “Okay.”

Although the barren planet no longer had the stone barrier, the gullies marked out by Zhan Rao had become a new barrier that could prevent the Zerg from crawling over.

The new barrier was not as sturdy as before, but it was more stable for them mentally, and even if a Zerg occasionally crawled over, it would be immediately killed.

Without the harassment of the Zerg race, everyone worked together to transform the barren planet.

They found suitable soil and bought many seeds to plant a variety of crops on the planet. In addition to growing crops, they also raised some livestock that could be eaten or sold on the black market.

All of these changes were carried out in secret.

Previously, even without the invasion of the Zerg race, the people of the barren planet had never thought of improving their living conditions. They were just living their lives, but their lives were like a stagnant pool slowly drowning them.

Their belief was to live day by day.

Now, they have changed their attitude towards life, and their days have become more hopeful and joyful. Everyone was trying to make the planet a better place, at least to make it a suitable place for young children to live.

***

“Uncle, Ningning won’t eat the vegetables.”

In the vegetable garden, a toddler about the size of a radish was squatting in front of a patch of green vegetables, telling his uncle that he didn’t want to eat this kind of green vegetable.

The uncle who was tending the garden told him: “Ningning, you are already a big boy. You can’t be picky about food, do you understand?”

Jian Ning plucked at the leaves of the vegetable and passively resisted: “Ningning is still young.”

The uncle was both angry and amused: “If you don’t eat your vegetables, how will you grow? You’re already over three years old. Your older brother was much taller than you when he was your age.”

Jian Ning listened to his uncle’s nagging and covered his ears.

He squatted in the vegetable garden for a while, secretly plucking at the vegetables. When he was caught, his uncle picked him up and placed him on a pile of dirt, saying: “Don’t cause trouble. If you keep plucking the vegetables, I’ll tell your dad.”

Sitting on a mound of soil, Jian Ning swung his little feet and finally settled down for a while. The evening glow slowly appeared.

The warm-colored light sprinkled on the face of the little child on top of the mound of soil. Compared with two years ago, when he couldn’t even walk, the baby had grown up quite a bit now.

He was well-raised by his father. His soft little face was becoming more and more attractive, with soft flesh drooping slightly at the cheeks. When he saw people, he would always bend his eyes and greet them obediently.

“Ningning, do you want to eat tomatoes or cucumbers?”

“I want to eat sweet melon!”

“...”

After wandering around in the vegetable garden for a long time and eating a belly full of fruits and vegetables, Jian Ning went to play with Uncle Ling Qi.

Uncle Ling Qi loved teasing him the most. Jian Ning was often teased until he was angry, but he still went to find Uncle Ling Qi the next time.

“Uncle, come here!”

Jian Ning happily ran over, but he was annoyed and left after half an hour. Ling Qi leaned against the door frame and watched the little child’s angry back, a smile crossing his eyes.

It’s still good to be here.

He could tease the child whenever he wanted, and life was carefree without a bunch of rules to follow.

A few more days passed.

Zhan Xi began to look at kindergartens and elementary schools on various planets. He was stressed out from choosing schools.

“The environments of these schools are too poor, and they even test the students’ mental powers upon admission. I saw on some parent forums that they even assign seats according to the strength of the students’ mental powers.”

If he really sent his child to one of these schools, he would definitely be discriminated against!

The curly-haired child who had just come back from picking vegetables in the vegetable garden drooped his head sadly upon hearing these words.

He was holding a carrot in his arms, and his chubby face was smeared with mud. At this moment, he looked even more wilted than the leaves of the carrot in his arms.

“Daddy, Ningning has no mental power.”

Zhan Xi’s heart sank.

His Ningning was clearly able to heal others’ mental power, but he couldn’t seem to measure his own mental power.

Watching his own child’s emotions continue to decline, Zhan Xi hurriedly used the little prince to distract his attention: “Ningning, shouldn’t your brother give you a call? Didn’t you want to show him the vegetables you planted? Go find him.”

Mentioning Huo Lin, Jian Ning, who was holding the carrot, had an even heavier expression on his beautiful little face. “My brother hasn’t talked to me for two days.”

Zhan Xi: “...”

Zhan Xi’s attempts at comfort only made things worse, so he had to try to make up for it: “Daddy is going to the collection point to pick up something. Do you want to come with Daddy?”

Jian Ning nodded, threw away the carrot, and asked Daddy to take him on the spaceship.

Father and son went to the spaceship together, while at the same time, the little prince, who was piloting the spaceship alone, had just stopped the nearly scrapped spaceship near the collection point.

The spaceship stopped, and the little prince put on his backpack and coolly jumped down.

Then he sprained his foot.

The little prince’s face turned green, but soon he realized that there was no one around. This meant that no one had seen him sprain his foot.

This realization made him feel a little better.

In just over two years, not only had Jian Ning grown up, but the little prince had also grown up a lot. The Imperial Royal Family had always been superior in terms of height and appearance, and the little prince’s height had always been outstanding among his peers.

With his backpack on his back, he limped to the collection point.

The collection point was an empty military base located in a remote area, and it was dilapidated inside and out. Normally, no one came here.

After he walked in, he found a place to sit down casually. Just as he sat down, his communication device rang. It was his bodyguard, Auben, who was calling.

Auben had called him numerous times over the past few days, asking about his whereabouts.

Huo Lin looked at the communication records, remained silent for a few seconds, and replied, “I want to stay outside for a few days.”

Auben said, “Your Highness, it’s not safe for you to be alone outside. Please give me an address and let me come find you.”

Huo Lin said, “No need.”

After sending the message, Huo Lin turned off the communication device directly.

His conflicts and frictions with his father had been increasing over the past two years, and they had another conflict this time. The reason for the conflict was something that happened at school.

Huo Lin was now attending the Imperial Military Academy, and he had no friends at school and got along poorly with other children.

He didn’t want to go to school and wanted to continue studying in the palace. The courses in the palace were no easier than those in elementary school, but his father disagreed.

Not only did his father disagree, but he also rejected his proposal to build a royal kindergarten.

The reason his father gave was, “It’s impossible for a kindergarten to enroll only one student.”

And that one student is Ningning.

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