Chapter 70 - Unidentified White Spherical Object

Compared to the liveliness throughout the Federation and the virtual community after the Capital acknowledged their misjudgment, Adrian was relatively relaxed, and he could spend most of his time at home every day.

And so, Zhong Yan’s blessed and happy life finally came to an end.

This morning, Adrian had taken Zhong Yan to the backyard for some reason. Zhong Yan asked what he was going to do, and he responded with, “You’ll know when we get there.”

Adrian was definitely a romantic. For example, Zhong Yan liked to eat cake, so he bought an oven and learned to make them by himself. Zhong Yan had been eating small, slightly burnt cakes, or cakes where the sugar was forgotten for several days in a row. But despite that, he would still give high praises to Adrian, telling him that the cakes he made tasted much better than the ones they bought from stores.

Taking him to the backyard now, he figured perhaps that Adrian might have added a new feature to the rabbit nest, or maybe he bought a giant decorative bow or whatnot for the rabbit. Zhong Yan was holding Adrian’s hand, fantasizing about the lop-eared rabbit with a bow on.

They arrived at the nest, and the snow-white rabbit was basking under the sun as usual.

The nest was still just a nest, and the rabbit was still just a rabbit.

“What are you going to show me?” Zhong Yan wondered. He crouched down to bring the small rabbit out from its nest. But before he could set it down on his palm, it was snatched away by Adrian.

“Play with the rabbit later. From today on, we’re going to start our running exercise program.” As if Adrian had just thrown a bomb, Zhong Yan was dazed for a moment. Then, he turned and tried to run away.

Adrian grabbed his arm nimbly and stepped forward to lock him into his embrace.

“What are you running for? Do you think you can escape?” Adrian very easily suppressed him in his arms practically without any struggle while he was holding the small rabbit in his other hand. He laughed. “Well, it’s not impossible. Then, we won’t have to use the route I thought of for you. You can just run from here back to the house. I will go and catch you. Then, I’ll bring you back, and you can start over. Do that maybe ten times and I’ll consider your daily exercise done. What do you say?”

Zhong Yan knew that he would not take no for an answer, so he asked reluctantly, “Then…what’s the original route?”

“It’s not too long.” Adrian said, “Look at the ground.”

Only then did Zhong Yan notice the small track shaped oval drawn on the lush green grass with white paint around the rabbit’s nest, and the nest was exactly in the middle.

“In the beginning, you’ll run five laps per day,” Adrian announced.

“Five laps?” Zhong Yan complained, shocked. “You just said it wasn’t much!”

“This track is only a hundred meters in length. Five laps all together is only 500 meters.”

“But that’s still…I just had surgery!”

“You’ve already recovered. Also, your doctor was the one who built the exercise plan.”

Zhong Yan tugged at Adrian’s sleeves and raised his head pitifully at him. “Five laps is too much, I can’t do it.”

“Acting cute with me won’t work.” Adrian put on a straight face.

Zhong Yan thought about it for a while, then he tilted his head and asked, “Then, will a kiss work?”

Adrian was shot directly in the heart. He tried his best to stop his lips from curving up and deliberately teased, “In that case, I’ll think about it after you kiss me.”

Zhong Yan grabbed his lapel. He stood on his tiptoes to give a light peck on one corner of Adrian’s lips. Unable to wait a moment longer, he asked, “Can I run two laps less?”

“Hm…” Adrian pretended to think about it for two seconds before hitting the nail firmly on the head. “Nope.”

Only then did Zhong Yan realize he had been fooled. He was so angry that he stomped on the ground. “You tricked me!”

“No I didn’t. I said I’d think about it, and now I did think about it. The answer is no.” Adrian lifted Zhong Yan’s chin with one hand and lowered his head to give him a firm kiss on the lips. “There, I’ve returned your deposit. That’s not a loss for you, right?”

Adrian was adamant, and he even began playing petty tricks on him when he tried to shake him. Zhong Yan was completely out of moves, so the only thing he could do was to begin running with Adrian accompanying him, aggrieved.

When Zhong Yan had finished following Adrian at a snail’s pace around the track for the second lap, they attracted the attention of the giant space rabbit that was sunbathing. It hopped over to observe them. Its huge body laid right on top of the track. Gasping, Zhong Yan asked, “If I walk around the rabbit, that’s going to be a distance of at least half the circle, right?”

Adrian was much quicker than Zhong Yan. When he fell too far behind, he would even run back to him. Even so, his breathing was still unfettered as he spoke, almost as if he was just walking normally. “What do you mean half a circle? It’s not even that many steps!”

Clasping his hand around the shirt at his chest, Zhong Yan had to pause after every word, but he still spoke on resolutely, “One time, won’t be many, but, I have to, go past, the rabbit, every time.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be sitting here in the next lap,” Adrian gave him a guarantee. He let Zhong Yan go first while he stroked the furry nose of the giant space rabbit. The rabbit thought he wanted to play with him, and happily, it followed him a few steps away, leaving the track.

When Adrian ran back over and caught up with Zhong Yan, Zhong Yan was looking at his clothes, triggered. While gasping, he said with difficulty, “Your clothes…It’s covered in, rabbit, rabbit fur…”

“Rabbit rabbit fur? Rabbit fur is just rabbit fur!” Adrian teased his speech on purpose. He admired the sight of Zhong Yan glaring at him in a huff but being unable to speak. “Alright, didn’t we just buy a lint roller? We can deal with it after we’re done running. The rabbit isn’t on the track anymore. I lured it away.”

As he said this, the two of them had just reached the other side of the rabbit’s nest, so they couldn’t see the giant space rabbit on the other side. By the time they passed the nest and came back around, all they saw was the empty grass.

Zhong Yan who was short of breath from running had his entire mind and body focused on the track. He did not pay any attention to his surroundings, but Adrian realized that something was off. “Hold on, where’s the rabbit?”

“Didn’t you…” Zhong Yan stopped and supported himself on his knees for a little while, panting, “bring it back to the nest?”

“I’m not talking about the small one. I think the big one’s missing!” Adrian was shocked. There was no other cover in the backyard except for the rabbit nest so they should be able to see something as big as that rabbit in one glance, but the grass was empty. “It was just here earlier.”

Zhong Yan was also stunned. But he finally remembered the key prop. “Where’s the rope?”

In order to prevent the rabbit from running all over the place, they tied a 300-meter extra-long traction rope specially made for giant space rabbit pets around one of its legs, and secured the other end to the door of the giant space rabbit’s nest. The two hurried over to the nest’s entrance. The rope was still there, but the rabbit that should have been hanging down was shooting straight towards the sky.

Both Adrian and Zhong Yan’s eyes followed up along the rope, only to see a big white ball of fluff floating in the air at the end of the rope, 300 meters in the sky.

…That’s right, this is a giant space rabbit. They don’t necessarily live on land!

The reason why they are called giant space rabbits is because they are amphibians who can live both in outer space and on land. Besides their huge size, the one thing that fascinates scientists the most is the creature’s ability to overcome gravity autonomously.

As for the one they had, it had always been really lazy since they began raising it. It usually liked to just lay around, and they had never seen it floating before. As a result, this family of two humans had completely forgotten this special characteristic of the giant space rabbits.

Adrian and Zhong Yan both looked up at it for a while as they stood there. Zhong Yan opened his terminal and took a few pictures.

“Looking at it from afar, doesn’t it seem a little…round?” While checking the photos he took, Zhong Yan said, “The giant space rabbits we saw on that touristic planet we visited last time were floating even higher up, but you can still tell it’s a rabbit.”

“It’s a lop-eared rabbit and a short-legged one. Other rabbits can raise their ears, so of course they look like rabbits. What’s more, what kind of misunderstandings do you have with our rabbit? It’s just fat.”

“It must be eating too much,” Zhong Yan decided. “I told you not to feed it every other day. Feeding it once a week is more like it. Sigh, we’ve been too busy recently, but we should actually bring the rabbit to space every once in a while for walks.”

Adrian smacked a fist to his palm. “We’ll do it tonight.”

“There’s still two and a half laps left. Let’s finish our run first.”

“Huh? What’s gotten you so active all of a sudden?” Adrian was slightly surprised. “You looked like you’d rather die earlier.”

“And I still do,” Zhong Yan said, “but I know how bad my constitution is…I asked the doctor the other day, and he said that my lifespan will be affected if I don’t improve it now.”

When he heard this, Adrian was furious. “What is he jabbering about? What do you mean affect your lifespan? Are these the sort of words a doctor should be telling his patient?”

Wei Lan’s medical skills were great, the only annoying part about him is his tendency to speak the truth regardless of the occasion. While complaining about him, Adrian suddenly recalled how just a few days ago, Fayn had been walking like he was on cloud nine. It’s like he couldn’t wait to tell everyone at Headquarters that Wei Lan agreed to try things out with him. He didn’t even understand what’s so great about going out with Wei Lan.

Zhong Yan quickly tugged his clothes. “Why are you blaming the doctor? I was the one who asked him what it would affect. It’s not like he could just lie. Actually, I didn’t care much about this in the past. In my opinion, I’d be better off living a glorious life for 50 years than to live 100 dull ones. It’s fine if my body is bad. As long as I could still work, there was nothing scary about having a short life. But now, it’s different. I’m married to you, and I’m afraid now. I want to live longer.”

“Of course you’ll live long,” Adrian said firmly. “We will exercise every day from now on, and you’ll eat all your meals according to your nutritional needs. I don’t believe that it won’t happen.”

Zhong Yan came over to hug him, and buried his face in his chest, giving him a muffled promise.

But before they could be lovey-dovey for long, Adrian’s ringtone sounded.

The situation in Lebor has stabilized so Adrian did not go to Headquarters today. He thought that something happened in Lebor that required his input. But when he looked at the name, it was actually the Headquarters’ Reception Desk.

This was an external department. After all, the family members of many soldiers in the Navi Military Command are still living here, and there was no council house in this star system. If they needed a response, these non-military citizens will need to call this department. Adrian had completely forgotten he still had this department’s account added. He picked up the call doubtfully and asked what they needed.

“Commander, two families have just called to report that a large unidentified white spherical object is in the sky near them. We have analyzed the position from the videos sent to us by the two residents and it seems to be over your personal residence. Are you safe right now? Do you know what the strange white object is?”