SGT CH220

X did not know how long he had sunk within the endless abyss.

Here, there was neither time nor space; everything was pure nothingness.

Suddenly, a voice drifted from the distant beyond, yet felt as though whispered right beside his ear.

“…X?”

With merely that single, gentle murmur, X felt as if a hand had hauled him up from the drowning depths of the ocean.

He snapped his eyes open.

Brilliant light flooded before him.

Yet all the light in the cosmos could not match a fraction of a percent of the male’s countenance before him.

Draped loosely in pure white sleepwear, long platinum-blond hair tumbled down, brushing past his cheek. Bathed in the autumn morning light, his strands and skin glowed with a dreamlike golden sheen.

Those breathtakingly exquisite heterochromatic eyes were gazing intently upon him.

For a moment, X lost the ability to breathe.

He could only stare blankly with wide eyes at the male beside him, who seemed as fragile as a fleeting dream.

More memories surfaced in his mind.

The disciplinary chamber, three months, the Prince, the insect egg, pheromones, returning to the military, the Prince’s adulthood ceremony, the ball, Si Si, the insect egg hatching…

These blissful memories tangled together with the agonizing torment of the endless void—the mental realm shattering multiple times, the insect egg dying, personally killing the Prince.

It left X temporarily unable to distinguish dream from reality.

Tilting his head to inspect his expression, the male asked in confusion:

“What is the matter with you? Did you have a nightmare?”

“…Si… Si?”

X called out tentatively, his tongue stiff.

“Mm.”

Mu Si answered, a touch of bewilderment still lingering across his features.

In all their years of marriage, X did not often call him by that name.

Females were always overly observant of hierarchy, minding status and protocol.

What X uttered most was still “Your Highness” or “His Imperial Highness the Prince.”

Occasionally during leisurely hours, when Mu Si clung to him and acted spoiled, nuzzling against him.

He would blurt out the name “Si Si” without thinking.

At any other time, if Mu Si wanted to hear that name, he had to fuck him senseless in bed, fucking him until his mind dissolved into oblivion.

Only then, stripped of all defenses, would titles like “Your Highness,” “Si Si,” or “xiongzhu” spill freely from his lips without passing through his brain.

Right now, X truly looked somewhat out of his senses.

Had he been frightened by a nightmare?

Just as Mu Si was pondering this, he was suddenly pulled into a fierce embrace.

X held him tightly, as if pouring every ounce of strength in his frame into the hold.

Yet he exercised desperate restraint, ensuring he did not squeeze him to the point of pain.

To that end, veins bulged along his taut forearms, and even his jaw clenched in a faint, suppressed tremor.

It seemed… it truly was a terrifying nightmare.

Mu Si hugged him back, gently patting his back, soothing him in a tender whisper:

“I am here. It is alright, it was merely a dream, and it has already ended. With me here, nothing that makes you worry will ever come to pass.”

Listening to that soft voice carrying the power to calm a bug’s soul, X had to grit his teeth with all his might to rein in the trembling of his body.

“Si Si, Si Si, my Si Si…”

He called his name over and over again.

And the Prince answered him in kind, tilting his head to kiss his lips, smoothing away his turbulent distress.

The moment the Prince’s lips brushed against his own, X’s body stiffened for a heartbeat.

Yet very quickly, under the practiced ministrations of the Prince’s hands trailing across his skin, he softened, taking him in.

He and the Prince had been married for ten years.

Their cub was already older than the little male had been when he left the Dark Star Region.

His body was thoroughly familiar with anything the Prince wished to do to him.

Although experiencing cognitive dissonance after such a nightmare—feeling as if he had reverted to the moment he first discovered the Prince was the little male—

His body would forever surrender a step ahead of his mind.

The second the Prince touched him, he would naturally secrete pheromones, yearning for the Prince, welcoming him inside, his reproductive tract clinging to the Prince with fawning submission.

Mu Si soothed him using the method every Female Zerg adored.

Leaving him thoroughly saturated, inside and out, with his pheromones.

Afterward, he performed a mental soothing session for him.

He had always maintained X’s mental realm with the utmost devotion.

It was never a simple matter of combing through or stitching together, but allowing his mental realm to knit its fissures, regrowing, and bursting with vibrant vitality once more.

To reach such a pinnacle, what mattered most was never how formidable one’s psychic power was.

It required boundless, overflowing love.

“Can you tell me what you dreamed about?”

Mu Si stroked his hair, asking softly.

X’s fingers resting beside the pillow curled slightly inward.

Being blanketed in the Prince’s scent gave him an immense sense of security, and the mental grooming left both body and mind extraordinarily comfortable.

Yet mentioning that dream still sent an involuntary spasm through his heart.

“I dreamed… of the disciplinary chamber back then. You stepped before me, and I killed you with my own hands…”

Merely recalling his hand tearing through the Prince’s chest, the Prince lying in a pool of blood, his breath and warmth fading away in his embrace—

X’s hands and feet turned ice-cold, his frame shuddering faintly.

Though it was labeled a dream, it had felt far too real.

That gut-wrenching despair of agonizing remorse and watching one’s mental realm crumble inch by inch was as though he had lived through it in the flesh.

Listening to his words, Mu Si’s hand stroking his head paused for a fraction of a second. Then he wrapped his arms around him, patting his back as he said:

“It’s over now. Do not be afraid, it was only a dream, none of it was real. I am safe and sound, Miracle is safe and sound, and our whole family is doing wonderfully.”

Listening to the Prince’s gentle tone, feeling the vivid, undeniable warmth of his body, X gradually relaxed.

Yet a doubt couldn’t help rising in his mind.

He clearly hadn’t mentioned Miracle or the insect egg; why would the Prince specifically bring that up?

Right as he was about to ponder it, the deep satisfaction and drowsiness brought on by the mental grooming swept over him.

Mu Si remained by his side, safeguarding his mental realm to ensure he slept peacefully.

Only when looking down at him did a flicker of complex emotion drift through his eyes.

Back then, when the livestream system had bound to him, it declared that if his reformation failed, he would die at the hands of his cijun one month later.

Initially, he hadn’t believed it.

Later, an examination confirmed that X carried an insect egg, and that the egg had already fallen dormant due to a severe lack of pheromonal nourishment.

He had believed seventy percent of it right then.

Had it been delayed for another month, the egg would have lost all vitality from starvation.

The X of that moment truly would have broken through the inhibitor’s constraints, striking him down, dragging him to die together.

The final outcome would inevitably have been: a family of three, not a single survivor.

It was the arrival of the livestream that had brought about a turning point, granting him the opportunity to rewrite the ending.

Bowing his head, Mu Si planted a soft kiss on X’s forehead.

In this cosmos, countless space-times existed; every divergence in choice yielded different trajectories, branching into new worldlines.

He could not be certain whether such a worldline truly existed out there.

Yet at the very least, in this world, they guarded each other.

Those wounds and deaths were merely a nightmare.

When the dream broke, they could still embrace their blissful life together.

…

When X awoke, it was already afternoon.

He had slept so deeply that he lost all track of time.

Subconsciously searching for the Prince’s figure, he found that the Prince was not beside him.

His heart hollowed out in an instant.

He sat up, intending to dress and get out of bed.

Right at that moment, a knock sounded at the door.

A crisp, youthful voice drifted in from outside—it was Miracle.

“Cifu, are you awake? Xiongfu sent me to call you; we’re having a barbecue in the garden tonight!”

Although he didn’t understand why his xiongfu had suddenly pulled him back from school.

Males always held the prerogative to be whimsical, and females would always indulge them.

Even if it was merely a spur-of-the-moment family barbecue.

Miracle looked forward to it immensely.

Such family gatherings were frequent in their household; Miracle was no stranger to them.

Yet he knew full well how envious this made his classmates at school.

Tidying himself up briefly, X swiftly dressed and stepped out.

Pulling open the door and beholding the little female cub still clad in his school uniform, he fell dazed for a heartbeat.

Pale golden hair and heterochromatic eyes identical to the Prince’s, paired with facial features resembling his own—though tenderer given his youth, carrying a refined sweetness inherited from the Prince.

This was the cub of him and the Prince.

The very insect egg that had lost its vitality in his womb within the nightmare.

“Miracle…”

Calling his name softly, X suddenly dropped into a crouch, pulling him into an embrace.

Miracle paused, the tips of his ears flushing a faint pink.

Female cubs attained independence much earlier, and interactions among females were habitually restrained and reserved.

He knew that his cifu and xiongfu loved him deeply.

Yet his cifu rarely initiated such hugging and affectionate physical contact with him.

Especially after he completed his nursing period and achieved his initial awakening.

Even during his nursing days, his cifu had merely held him with one arm to feed him milkfruit.

Then wiped his face and hands clean, patting his head.

He seldom made extra affectionate displays.

It was his xiongfu who occasionally scooped him up to hold him high in the air.

Rarely embraced like this by his cifu, Miracle’s cheeks warmed, feeling slightly awkward.

Yet driven by his instinctive attachment to his cifu, he reached out to hug him back, burying his face against his chest, murmuring shyly:

“I missed you very much too, cifu.”

Mu Si had set up the grill in the garden, preparing the cuts of meat.

He had even managed to char the first batch black before the father and son finally arrived.

Holding up that blackened skewer, Mu Si cast a resentful pout toward X.

X stepped forward hastily to take it over, saying:

“Allow me, Your Highness.”

Mu Si sat to the side, resting his chin on his hands, watching him grill.

Miracle took the initiative to help out, though there was virtually nothing for him to do.

Back in the Dark Star Region, resources had been scarce; the finest food X could provide him was wild game hunted in the forest.

He would forage wild fruit to marinate the meat until sweet and tender, then take him out beneath the moonlight to grill skewers.

Just like this very moment.

“It is ready,” X handed him the first freshly grilled portion, cautioning: “Careful, it is hot.”

“I’m not a tiny cub anymore, I won’t burn myself.”

Mu Si took it, took a bite, and paused abruptly.

Turning his face away, he blew out a hurried breath of cool air.

Faint, low chuckles sounded nearby.

Mu Si whipped his head back to glare at him, only to have X pop a chilled fruit into his mouth.

Mu Si was pacified in an instant.

Curling his lips, he chewed the fruit.

Mmm, so sweet.