CH 14

The Sunu people were different from humans in many ways (although they're also similar to humans, in the context of aliens— so far, many people on Earth still believe that they immigrated before the extinction of the dinosaurs, Descendants of the Atlanteans), they are more sensitive than humans in auditory and olfactory, but their vision's a little more degraded...

Lin Xi knew a lot of small trivia about the Sunu people, but he didn't plan to continue discussing the topic with Shizuo Ando, after all, he wasn't a Sunu lover like Ando.

"Ah, of course, I can understand. After all, Liz is in a special period now."

He interrupted Ando.

But the next second he began to regret a little, because Ando was sitting there, his hands and feet bound, a thin layer of cold sweat could be faintly seen on his forehead. He looked very stiff, Lin Xi could tell that Shizuo Ando was the kind of person who'd never ask others for help.

And he felt a little soft-hearted towards this kind of person. Especially thinking of the scene yesterday when Ando opened his mouth to rescue him, Lin Xi's direction became clear. Obviously, the idea of ​​finding someone else to take care of the Star Butterfly had probably been circling in Ando's mind for a long time.

And Lin Xi, who's also a researcher, seemed to be the most suitable candidate.

"I don't mind."

Lin Xi scratched the back of his head and whispered.

Although he doesn't like bugs very much, but...

In Bryce's medical room, he saw Liz's situation with his own eyes, and he naturally knew that Ando only made this choice out of necessity.

"... It's just that Captain Talan might be a little troublesome." Lin Xi shrugged at Ando, ​​"You know, he's always had it out for me. I don't think he'll agree with me taking care of the Star Butterfly's... "

Ando scratched the back of his hand uneasily: "It's fine, we don't have to tell him right now, this isn't a formal handover— once Liz's condition improves, I'll get the egg case back to my laboratory as soon as possible."

Maybe even Ando himself didn't notice that even while he was trying to persuade Lin Xi to take care of the Star Butterfly's egg case in his stead, he still had an unconcealable desire to monopolize it, he still subconsciously tried to retain control of the Star Butterfly's egg case.

Lin Xi frowned.

"Since you say so..."

Lin Xi could certainly perceive the hidden risks in this kind of behavior - most of which fell on Ando. To be honest, this method has no benefit except to avoid trouble from Taran.

However, just when he was about to continue talking, he raised his head and saw Ando's face. It was a tired and haggard face- Ando wasn't as calm as he seemed in the clinic yesterday, he didn't completely ignore Liz's strangeness, he just covered up the pain and worries very well.

"Alright, I'll take care of those bug eggs, although I don't have much experience in this area."

Lin Xi changed his mind.

With Lin Xi's promise, Ando soon brought the egg case of the Star Butterfly to Lin Xi's room.

At that time, Lin Xi hadn't even woken up yet.

Lin Xi rubbed his eyes and opened the hatch to let Shizuo Ando enter his room.

The man's hands tightly held the egg case, like it was some kind of rare treasure.

"I thought... I just needed to put it in the plant laboratory."

After seeing Shizuo Ando put the fixer on his bedside table, Lin Xi woke up from the grip of sleep. The egg case was connected to the life support device and directly placed there.

He stared at Shizuo Ando and said in astonishment.

When he agreed to Ando's request, Lin Xi never expected that the so-called "care" for the Star Butterfly egg case would mean putting it directly in his room.

Judging from the installation location chosen by Shizuo Ando, ​​the matter was probably not just letting these bug eggs stay in his cabin.

"No— how can you do that—"

Ando looked back at Lin Xi in shock, as if Lin Xi had said something incredibly offensive.

"This egg case is still dormant, which means that its life force is still very weak. What we need to do is to stimulate it as much as possible, otherwise it might die directly from such a long dormancy. The Sunu Star Butterfly could go extinct! In order to avoid this, we need to change the nutrient solution every once in a while, adjust the temperature, and provide some sound and light stimulation. Not too strong, but it must be there, this time we need to help perceive the outside world. In short, it needs to be taken care of carefully, if you just leave it in your laboratory and ignore it, it'll die—" Shizuo Ando opened his eyes wide, explaining seriously to Lin Xi.

After a while, he noticed Lin Xi's face, he seemed to realize something belatedly.

Ando coughed twice, and then added unnaturally: "Well, although these procedures seem a bit cumbersome, you'll find that once you become familiar with its habits, it's not that hard to take care of it. I designed a small monitoring system that'll tell you what to do. Of course, it might take a little more effort than a plant... but I can assure you, you'll have the fun. The Sunu Star Butterfly is a very attractive creature, even if it hasn't yet hatched."

"Is it too late for me to regret it now?"

Lin Xi asked with a wry smile, looking at Ando, ​​who was becoming more and more embarrassed.

...

Of course, the so-called "regret" was just a joke.

Lin Xi had many shortcomings, but he was by no means the kind of person who doesn't keep promises - the egg case of the Star Butterfly was left on his bedside table after all.

Like Ando said, once you get used to it (meaning don't think about it being a bunch of unhatched bug eggs at its core), it doesn't look as disgusting.

After seeing off the reluctant Shizuo Ando, ​​Lin Xi sat in front of the egg case and stared at it for a long time, although he didn't even know why he did this himself.

The life support device ran silently, the egg case inside the light blue culture fluid floated like a jellyfish born in the deep sea a long time ago, before humans even saw the world.

Wait, jellyfish?

Lin Xi's eyes froze, it was only at this time that he noticed that the egg case wasn't completely unchanged from when he first saw it.

Under it's inflated translucent body, many very slender and transparent tentacles have grown, each of which looked about as thick as a hair, but they were very long, and at this moment they gently swung back and forth. It really looked just like a jellyfish.

However, didn't Ando say that this thing's still dormant? So what were these tentacles used for?

A trace of doubt slipped through Lin Xi's heart.

But... since Ando never specifically mentioned these tentacles to him, they're probably just characteristics unique to the egg case of the Star Butterfly.

Lin Xi quickly put that bit of confusion behind him.

There were many things he needed to busy himself with, such as dealing with Bryce's nagging, playing cards and having fun with the exploration team boys, taking care of the plants in his spacecraft greenhouse—

The last thing should've been quite worry-free.

Lin Xi has an amazing talent with plants. Simply put, he has "green fingers", it was business as usual even on the special plants of the Sunu.

But now, Lin Xi's talent encountered an unexpected predicament.

Lin Xi didn't know whether it was because of the forced landing of the spaceship or something else. In his laboratory and greenhouse, the plants that had always been lush and healthy coincidentally began suffering from pests.

Considering the cleanliness of the spacecraft's greenhouse, the event had a probability of infinitely close to impossible.

But it just happened without warning.

Afterwards, Lin Xi discovered that the roots of several soil-based plants that couldn't be planted in the antibacterial culture solution actually contained very small insect eggs. After hatching, they showed vigorous activity and tolerance to various insecticides.

Lin Xi gritted his teeth many times and swore that when he returned to Earth, he'd definitely kill those idiotic graduate students in charge of inspection. But no matter how angry Lin Xi was, those little bugs tenaciously endured round after round of routine disinfection and insect massacres. Then, this group of tiny devils thrived in the closed, warm, without any competitors, greenhouse and spread.

"I really can't understand, the vitality of those bugs almost exceeds that of water bears!?"

Lin Xi complained to Bryce and Alisa more than once.

He has never encountered such a situation, many plants weakened under the gnawing of insects.

The only thing that made Lin Xi feel fortunate was that Taran had become quite weak due to a severe headache, he's exhausted from all the important tasks that he has to distribute. For a short time, he didn't have the energy to cause trouble for Lin Xi.

While trying to save the mess in the botanical laboratory and greenhouse, Lin Xi couldn't help feeling the good luck of Ando Shizuo: the appearance of the insect pest happened to coincide with the settling of the Star Butterfly's egg case next to his bedside table. If Lin Xi had found out about this one day earlier, he would've refused Professor Ando's request without hesitation.

Although Lin Xi had to admit that taking care of Star Butterfly's eggs weren't as cumbersome or troublesome as he had imagined.

It could even be said that after returning to the cabin after a busy day, looking at the egg cases floating leisurely inside the life support system actually made him feel a vague sense of relaxation.

The tentacles creeping out from the surface of the egg case had also become more and more thick, they were no longer in a delicate and transparent state, but a protein color closer to the egg case itself. Even if he didn't look at the series of data fed back to him by the system, he could clearly see that this little guy was quite vigorous just by observing the egg case with the naked eye through a transparent glass.