Su Ruan walked to his side, pulling him to sit down.
"Brother Lu, you look quite unwell."
Su Ruan touched his forehead; it was icy, not like he had a fever.
Lu Shinian grasped her hand tightly, voice tinged with hoarseness, "I’m fine."
He reached out to pull Su Ruan into his embrace, asking, "Do you feel bored?"
Su Ruan looked up, a hint of concern in her delicate brows, "Not bored, it’s quite interesting."
"Brother Lu, you seem to be in a bad state, are you feeling uncomfortable?"
After a pause, she leaned closer, almost to Lu Shinian’s ear, lowering her voice to almost a whisper.
"Ancestral Stage?"
Just two words, and he already understood her aning.
Lu Shinian shook his head, chuckling softly.
"Not at all, thanks to that Level 3 Energy Stone, I’m quite stable now."
"Barring any accidents, I should pass safely through this half-month."
Relieved it wasn’t the Ancestral Stage, Su Ruan nodded, "That’s good."
Lu Shinian looked up at the live broadcast screen; indeed, the Third Legion had been ambushed by the Second Legion.
The two teams clashed briefly, with the Third Legion achieving a minor victory before parting.
Lu Shinian’s eyes rarely showed nostalgia, yet he voluntarily spoke:
"In the past, I joined military tournants with a friend."
Su Ruan showed interest; it was Lu Shinian’s first ti ntioning his past.
"And then?" she probed.
"Back then, we got ambushed by the Second Legion too." Lu Shinian laughed, "At that ti, the Third Legion’s power was weaker. In direct terms, far inferior to the Second Legion."
"Like now, breaking through head-on was inconceivable."
Su Ruan’s interest deepened, prompting further inquiry, "And then?"
"Then he defected right in front of us to the opposing side." Lu Shinian’s tone lacked any disdain or disgust.
Su Ruan regarded him thoughtfully.
"Isn’t defecting a serious cri?"
On a battlefield, defecting leads to military tribunal.
"But if the enemy’s power is overwhelming, sotis a choice must be made between annihilation or bearing infamy." Lu Shinian raised his hand, ruffling Su Ruan’s hair.
"Ruan Ruan, battlefields are complex; pure righteousness doesn’t always work."
"So was it fake defection?" Su Ruan questioned, "Pretending to surrender, yet secretly conveying intelligence to your side."
"Hmm." Lu Shinian acknowledged.
"He seed so honorable, one wouldn’t think him capable of such tricks."
That was one of the key factors in their later victory.
Su Ruan quickly evaluated Lu Shinian’s friends she knew, ruling them out one by one, finding no match.
Soone earning Lu Shinian’s praise couldn’t be an unknown figure.
"Where is he now?" Su Ruan’s curiosity prevailed.
Lu Shinian’s gaze darkened, "He left."
"Departed during the battle ten years ago."
He didn’t want to touch the term too cruel for both his friend and himself.
Su Ruan understood, that so-called "left," ant death.
The fierce war with the Insect Race ten years ago still remains unspoken among many surviving soldiers.
"Sorry." Su Ruan lightly bit her lip.
"Ruan Ruan, there’s no need to apologize." Lu Shinian pinched her cheek, feeling the sensation in his fingertips move his Adam’s apple, speaking deeply, "I brought it up first."
"I’ve been busy with military exercises before, but being a judge this ti brings back familiar mories."
Back then, he was young and reckless, acting without considering consequences, suffering nurous hardships.
Until that military tournant, he learned the battlefield had a "cautious developnt flow."
"We won first place in that tournant." In hindsight, it seems an inevitable result, but back then, they navigated countless wrong paths and pitfalls.
Su Ruan saw this friend mattered greatly to him, and comforted him by patting his shoulder, "His heroic na will surely endure."
"By the way, what’s his na?"
Lu Shinian’s lips slightly parted, "Cheng Qingye."
Su Ruan’s pupils suddenly contracted, breaking away from his embrace, standing abruptly, "Impossible!"
Lu Shinian looked up at Su Ruan, "Ruan Ruan?"
Su Ruan felt icy, her previously flushed cheeks now pallid.
"Cheng Qingye, the Cheng of prospects, the Qing of purity, the Ye of wilderness?" Her voice trembled slightly, the look towards Lu Shinian carried a hint of panic.
Lu Shinian stood, holding Su Ruan’s small hand tightly.
"Ruan Ruan, calm down." He murmured, "Tell , what’s wrong?"
"Those three characters?" Su Ruan insisted on asking.
Lu Shinian nodded, "Those three characters."
"Impossible." Su Ruan murmured, managing to calm under Lu Shinian’s grip, spoke seriously, "It might just be a nasake."
"Nasake with whom?" Lu Shinian pursued.
Su Ruan looked steadily at Lu Shinian, her pure black pupils devoid of light.
"Third Brother."
"My Third Brother is nad Cheng Qingye."
Lu Shinian was slightly surprised, "Your Third Brother doesn’t bear the surna Su?"
Su Ruan shook her head, "Third Brother bears our father’s surna."
"I, Eldest Brother, Second Brother, the three of us bear our mother’s surna."
Su Ruan seed to rember sothing, reversing to clasp Lu Shinian’s hand, asking, "Brother Lu, do you have his photo?"
"No." Lu Shinian’s eyes darkened, "Before his death, he asked to destroy all his records as his last wish, which I fulfilled."
"Not only is there no photo, even his na isn’t on the list of the deceased."
"He was always solitary, apart from his ties with , he had no other friends."
"So..."
Besides him, no one rembers him.
If it weren’t for his mory, he’d seem as if he never existed in this world.
"Do you have your Third Brother’s photo, Ruan Ruan?" Lu Shinian asked.
Su Ruan shook her head, "No, Third Brother disliked photos, leaving no pictures or traces."
Thinking carefully, each departure seed to erase his life’s marks.
Such behavior, seemingly hiding from discovery, could he truly just be an ordinary doctor?
Su Ruan pressed her lips, firmly stating, "Third Brother can’t be dead."
"Five years ago, he even sent ..."
Before she finished, Vice Wang rushed in urgently from outside, looking troubled, "Commander, there’s a situation!"
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