CH 13

Draft

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Maybe something went wrong with those calming sticks.

Lin Xi couldn't help thinking.

This useful thing is actually a medical item, everyone on board has their own fixed quota, and it's obvious that Lin Xi's quota had been dried up a long time ago (Bryce is of course very angry about this ).

Those calming sticks Bryce found in his room had been won from a poker game from the crew. It took a long time for those unlucky boys to understand that although the assistant professor of botany of United Earth-Moon University may indeed look like a fat sheep, but being interested in gambling with low-level personnels means that he at least has something up on his sleeve...

Lin Xi secretly planned in his heart, he'll go go those people and ask for their stash of calming sticks, but the most urgent matter of now was to brave the difficulties in front of him.

"I'm sorry, Bryce, I really didn't expect to have such a big problem. I think it might've been because I was under too much pressure during this period, I accidentally made such a mistake... I'll never do it again, I can swear to you."

Lin Xi looked up at Bryce and said softly.

He was quite a good-looking man, no one could deny that.

Once he shows such a weak and harmless expression like now, he's alike a mischievous cat sincerely pleading at you with wide eyes. You know that this guy's just pretending to be pitiful, but few people can find it to be hard on him.

It's a pity that Bryce seems to be really mad this time, the trick that had always worked well in the past didn't work now.

"Don't play that tricks on me, don't I know what you're thinking? You've promised me so many times, when has all that gone!? This time it's only because we discovered the alarm, and rushed over to rescue you in time. What about next time? When we aren't in a safe space road or Earth? How long are you going to mess around-"

Fuck.

Lin Xi drooped his shoulders, lowered his head, whispering with pain in his heart.

Bryce's roars were of course terrifying, but it's not as terrifying as his nagging.

And now, it's clear that a demonic switch in Bryce has been flipped.

"Maybe, I'm the one who should apologize."

Just as Lin Xi was desperately preparing to meet Bryce's long and trivial babble, a voice suddenly interrupted Bryce's rant.

"Professor Ando?"

Bryce stopped talking in amazement and looked at the person who spoke.

With an apologetic smile on Shizuo Ando's face, he nodded at Bryce and said, "I've asked Dr. Lin Xi to help me complete many experiments, many of which were outside his scope of expertise... During this period, the exploration team found too many beings of interest on the area, the ship's laboratory is a bit overwhelmed." Ando sighed, "...I really want to apologize, I was completely immersed in my new discovery, that I didn't even realize that Dr. Lin Xi was being overworked."

Speaking of this, Ando looked at Lin Xi.

"I think this was probably why Dr. Lin Xi accumulated so much pressure, which eventually led to today's accident."

Although he didn't understand why Ando Shizuo suddenly wanted to help out, Lin Xi still responded to his words very gratefully.

"I'll find a better way to deal with stress in the future, I'll guarantee it!"

"T- that..."

He couldn't just question them upright, but Shizuo Ando's words really made Bryce lose his edge in continuing to nag at Lin Xi.

This occasionally overly maternal medical officer coughed a few times.

"... But abusing calming gel sticks is still a very bad habit."

Bryce's voice became quieter, he glared at Lin Xi but didn't continue to say anything.

The clinic fell silent, the atmosphere was a little stiff.

Lin Xi desperately sent subtle hints towards Ando Shizuo, but the latter seemed to still be recovering from the embarrassment of lying. His eyes were dodging, and his face a little red.

"Drip-"

At that moment, the crisp sound from another treatment cabin eased the sudden embarrassment in the clinic.

The outer cover of the treatment chamber, which was originally yellow, gradually turned transparent and then slowly lifted up. A young woman slowly sat up from the instrument.

Ah, so that's it.

The moment he saw the woman, Lin Xi came to his senses, so that's why Ando Shizuo stayed in the clinic for so long.

Because Liz was here too.

"Honey, how are you feeling? Are you better?"

As soon as Liz appeared, Ando Shizuo ignored the other two completely.

He rushed directly to the healing cabin like there wasn't anyone else around, hugging the woman who still looked very weak.

"I'm much better..." Liz and Ando exchanged a kiss, she then looked at Bryce, "Thank you for your treatment, Dr. Bryce."

What a weird tone.

A fairly typical Sunu accent.

Considering that she's a Sunu and human hybrid, it's normal to have such an accent, so neither Bryce nor Ando Shizuo paid any attention to it.

Only Lin Xi- when he heard that Sunu accent, his body felt like it's been splashed with ice water.

A completely irrational fear instantly spread from the depths of his heart, he began trembling slightly.

Lin Xi frowned.

He gritted his teeth and forced down the strange sense of fear-he thought he had just been frightened by the current Liz.

Yes, Liz does look a bit scary right now.

Lin Xi never thought that pregnancy would be such a terrible thing for a mixed Sunu woman.

In his memory, Liz might not have been a very good-looking woman (after all, all Sunu people have impossibly pale skin, deep eye sockets and extremely slender limbs not in line with Lin Xi's aesthetics), But she was no means as shoddy as she looked now- the woman's body seemed completely parasitized by the huge and swollen abdomen, and pale almost translucent skin, wrinkled and wrapped around the Sunu's slender skeleton. Her hair had almost fallen out, thin strands hanging greasily on her scalp, and her eyes had completely sunk into the eye sockets. Her pupils were dilated, and there were no whites, it made her eyes look like the eyes of some kind of deep-sea creature, dark and lifeless.

In stark contrast to a body that had completely lost its vitality, it was her abdomen, which was so swollen and frighteningly large that Lin Xi didn't even dare look at it. He felt like even the pressure coming from his gaze might make Liz's abdomen explode.

Even though he'd already known that Liz was pregnant, her condition seems really...

"This is what I should do. Your physical condition is different from other people, so this pregnancy may be a bit difficult."

While Lin Xi's hands and feet were slightly dazed and unable to move because of inexplicable fear, Bryce was every inch a qualified medical officer.

He didn't show any strangeness, on the contrary, he appeared professional, restrained, gentle, and caring.

While comforting Liz, he was still seriously looking at the reports of the treatment device.

"...Your child is healthy, ma'am. But you yourself need more nutritional support and additional medical care," Bryce said.

Lin Xi felt like what he said was too euphemistic.

Liz's baby was sucking the woman dry- anyone could see that even without the aid of anything.

But Liz herself didn't seem to care.

Liz stroked her huge belly and joyfully showed a smile that made Lin Xi's scalp tingle.

"This is, really, the best news, as long as the child's healthy I have nothing else to ask for..." At this point, Liz suddenly cast her dark eyes on Bryce, "But, doctor, I'm still very worried. The spaceship's really too noisy, sometimes I can feel my child is almost too disturbed to rest, I'm worried whether the noise will harm it..."

Lin Xi noticed very keenly that with Liz's muttering, Bryce frowned slightly.

He faintly felt that Liz seemed to be acting a little wrong.

But he didn't think too much about it.

It wasn't until the next day that he found out that this matter was actually related to him.

At that time, he was still trapped in his room, ordered by Bryce to take a serious rest day.

Ando Shizuo knocked on the door, and after getting permission, he quietly walked in.

"Dr. Lin Xi, are you free? I think I have something to discuss with you."

Ando prefaced.

He looked a little embarrassed.

Lin Xi raised his brows.

"What?"

"It's about... the egg case of the Star Butterfly. Dr. Lin Xi, can you temporarily take care of that egg case for me?"

"The egg case of the Star Butterfly? Me, take care of it? What happened?"

Lin Xi knew about Ando's obsession with the Star Butterfly's eggs, he never expected that in such a short period of time, Ando would ask to transfer that egg case to someone else.

Ando rubbed his temples, his expression looked very ugly.

"There's been a few small problems... Liz... Since she's gotten pregnant, she's become very sensitive to everything around her."

While speaking, Ando was quite depressed.

"She always said that the surroundings were very noisy, especially the egg case. She couldn't bear the noise of the egg case's life support device..."

"That thing can make noise?"

Lin Xi asked dully.

If he guessed right, those life support devices were usually as quiet as stones, except for the occasional slight machinery sound.

In any case, any movement they make can't really be considered noisy.

"It's not because of those machines. Liz... her ears are different from us humans, she can hear more things than us." Ando readily defended.