Owl Dragon Star System · aboard a T3 Silver Eden-class Ship
Qin Xiaolei looked at the mother before her, her eyes full of sorrow and self-reproach.
Half a year and more since they'd last met, and it seemed to her that her mother had aged a great deal all at once.
But these few days spent on the farmstead of this T3 Silver Eden-class Ship, her color was much better than when they'd first been reunited.
Footsteps came from behind.
Qin Xiaolei turned her head, and saw Zhao Chen walking slowly in.
At Zhao Chen's appearance, Qin Xiaolei felt no surprise.
Here, the only one who could come in unannounced was Zhao Chen.
"How is your mother's recovery coming?" Zhao Chen asked with concern.
Qin Xiaolei let out a sigh.
"Your physicians have examined her. There's nothing wrong with her body; it's chiefly a matter of the spirit. My mother has shut off her own mind — even now she still can't accept the fact that my elder brother is gone."
Zhao Chen looked at this woman, aged so much.
For a son to be suddenly gone — for a mother, the blow to the heart was, beyond doubt, immense.
Even in an age of technology as advanced as this, wounds of the body were easy to treat; but wounds of the heart and spirit were, in truth, very hard to heal.
"Let your mother convalesce here at this farmstead from now on; I've arranged some people to see to her daily life. If you're still worried, you may arrange some of your own people to come and care for her here. A thing like this — one can only wait for her to accept it slowly, herself." Zhao Chen was still speaking.
Suddenly the woman's gaze shifted over, and met Zhao Chen's square on.
Zhao Chen paused a moment; just as he was politely about to introduce himself—
The woman suddenly rushed forward and threw her arms straight around Zhao Chen.
The sight left both Zhao Chen and Qin Xiaolei dumbstruck.
This was the first time, since reuniting with her mother, that Qin Xiaolei had seen her so stirred with feeling.
"Chen'er, you're back at last. Where have you been all this while? You've worried Mother half to death!" The woman clung to Zhao Chen fondly, and lifted a hand to stroke his cheek, her eyes brimming with tender love.
Zhao Chen wore a look of blank confusion; he glanced toward Qin Xiaolei at his side.
In that moment the woman was still pouring out a stream of words to Zhao Chen — all the things a mother often says to a long-parted son come home.
"Ah… Her Majesty the Empress — my name is Zhao Chen… I'm not your son." Zhao Chen reminded her.
But the woman seemed not to hear at all; she only held Zhao Chen's hand and talked on and on.
"What's going on here?" Zhao Chen looked toward Qin Xiaolei at his side.
Qin Xiaolei hesitated a moment, then suddenly clapped her hands and pointed at Zhao Chen's eyes: "Your eyes are very like my elder brother's! I've had that feeling all along! It seems my mother has taken you for my elder brother."
"Then why does she call me Chen'er?" Zhao Chen pointed at himself.
"Have you forgotten what my elder brother's name was?" Qin Xiaolei returned.
The First Prince…
Qin Chen…
Well — as it happened, near enough to Zhao Chen's own name.
"You've had a hard time out there, and your father too — insisting on sending you off. Wouldn't it have been better to stay at home? You've suffered out there, haven't you — look how thin and starved you've grown. I'll have someone go prepare a meal this instant; we'll eat together." The woman pulled Zhao Chen along toward the dining table.
"I… I…" With Zhao Chen's strength, he could of course have slipped his hand free.
But this woman before him was only cherishing the son she'd lost; Zhao Chen truly hadn't the heart to shatter her 'sweet dream.'
"Look how happy my mother is now — this state of hers is so good. Won't you… won't you just pretend, only this once — just once!" Qin Xiaolei pressed her palms together, looking at Zhao Chen imploringly.
"Just this once!" Zhao Chen said helplessly.
Qin Xiaolei nodded and nodded.
After that, at Zhao Chen's word, food was very soon brought over.
The three sat round the stone table in the courtyard; the surroundings were pleasant, and — say what you would — the mood was truly rather fine.
"Xiaolei, what's the matter with you, girl? Your brother's been back a good while, and you don't even say hello!" The woman shot a glare at Qin Xiaolei, who'd just sat down.
Qin Xiaolei started; she looked at Zhao Chen, and hesitated: "Um… you're back, then…"
"What sort of talk is that — you make it sound as though he's a stranger. You're usually the fondest of your brother. Right up to nearly 10 years old, you'd cry and carry on when you weren't allowed to bathe with him." the woman teased from the side.
Qin Xiaolei's cheeks flushed red.
Zhao Chen, for his part, watched Qin Xiaolei with a settling-in-for-the-show sort of look.
"Brother…" For some reason, Qin Xiaolei felt terribly bashful getting that word 'brother' out.
"Ah — eat up, little sister," Zhao Chen answered.
Qin Xiaolei rolled her eyes.
Wonderful — here she was, gaining a brother for nothing.
This meal ran long, chiefly because the woman kept picking out choice morsels for Zhao Chen.
Since he was to play the part, Zhao Chen played it in earnest — treating the woman truly as his own mother, the two of them plucking morsels for each other, showing each other care.
Until the stir of Zhao Chen's handheld terminal came to remind him.
Zhao Chen glanced at it, and looked at the woman apologetically: "Mother-Empress, there are some matters here I have to see to; I'll be going on ahead. Rest well, and I'll come see you again another day."
"I know you're busy — a whole year round, and we scarcely meet a few times. Go, then; mind your health." The woman waved her hand, her eyes brimming with sorrow.
Zhao Chen rose and took his leave.
Walking out of the farmstead, he boarded a shuttle-craft, left this T3 Silver Eden-class Ship, and returned to his own flagship, the T4 Vermilion Bird.
Zhao Chen came back to the bridge, and saw both Charlotte and Lilith present.
The instant Zhao Chen stepped onto the bridge, their eyes both fell upon him.
"Is it that the Prince Faction's side has moved the imperial legions and launched an offensive?" Zhao Chen asked.
At a time like this, Zhao Chen's first thought was that the Prince Faction had made a move.
But Lilith shook her head, then said: "It isn't the Prince Faction — it's Warhammer's side."
"Warhammer?" Zhao Chen paused.
Charlotte said from the side: "Going by the intelligence we've just come by, the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth's side shows signs of massing a fleet — a large-scale massing. They mean to open military operations against the Starlight Empire. This all comes from certain intelligence personnel my father left behind within the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth. Within the Warhammer Interstellar Commonwealth, a secret council has already discussed sending troops against the Starlight Empire. First to seize the ownerless star systems the Starlight Empire has occupied — the ones the Mechanical Race abandoned — and then to drive straight in and attack the Chu River Star Region. They don't mean to destroy the Starlight Empire, for there's still a Holy Radiance Empire beside them; they only want to take some advantage. They mean to dig up some old grievances and make the Starlight Empire give up a star region or two."
Zhao Chen knit his brows.
As for a military plan of this sort from Warhammer, Zhao Chen had, in fact, long foreseen it.
Taking advantage of the Starlight Empire's present internal strife to make it cede territory and pay indemnities — this plot, Zhao Chen knew well.
"They want a star region? Then it depends whether Warhammer's teeth can bite through this hard bone of mine," Zhao Chen said with a cold laugh.