CH 15

The rare and precious Star Butterfly showed powerful vitality under the hands of a half-hearted botany assistant.

As the one taking care of it, it was hard for Lin Xi not to be relieved by this.

But, of course, there were those in the ship who were concerned about the presence of the egg case.

"Do you think it's come out of dormancy?"

More than ten days later, in the clinic that Lin Xi was becoming quite familiar with, his brother Bryce stared at Lin Xi for a long time with his hands folded before slowly speaking.

Before this, Lin Xi had just finished complaining to him about the impossibly endless insect plague. In passing, he also mentioned the egg case of the Star Butterfly.

But upon hearing Bryce's worried question, Lin Xi couldn't help grimacing in his heart.

He must've been so tired he got wozzy, otherwise he wouldn't have slipped his tongue and told the other about the egg case. Based on past experience, Lin Xi could guess what Bryce was worried about even with his eyes closed.

Bryce had always been a little overprotective of him, ever since that accident all those years ago.

Heavy maternal love- this word always made Lin Xi think of Bryce for some reason.

But no matter what kind of slander brewed in his heart, Lin Xi still looked calm on the surface.

He shrugged his shoulders towards Bryce: "Of course, that bug egg's about to turn into a tentacle monster now."

Most of the space, followed by a small traditional operating room (just by this, you can tell how old Helios was), a disinfection room, and another disinfection room. But this space had been transformed into a leisure space where Lin Xi and Bryce were talking now.

Behind Lin Xi was a row of gleaming silver metal storage cabinets, holding on to various goodies that made Lin Xi salivate, but Bryce kept a close watch on the password of the storage cabinet, so Lin Xi had never been able to open it.

At that moment, Lin Xi was occupying Bryce's expensive but weightless task chair. It's not something the Bryce brothers could afford— Alisa bought it a few years ago and gifted it to Bryce for his birthday.

Lin Xi lay stretched there, thinking of the relationship between Alisa and Bryce, a faint envy rose in his heart.

Because of the relaxation of his body, he became somewhat absent-minded.

"Besides, as an egg case, it has to absorb nearly one liter of nutrient solution every day. That doesn't seem like what a dormant egg should do."

Lin Xi told Bryce.

"That does sound abnormal."

Bryce agreed gravely.

Lin Xi yawned: "Maybe? I'll ask Ando to look into that thing later..."

"You can ask him to take the egg case back. This kind of thing should stay in a laboratory instead of your bedroom."

Bryce repeated his request.

Lin Xi couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

"Fine, I will, I'll go to Ando later—"

He paused, raising his hands towards Bryce in a gesture of surrender: "How long are we going to continue this topic? For God's sake, when will I get my calming stick?"

"I'm still waiting for your blood report before I can judge if you can handle more gels— oh, don't look at me like that, you're acting like you don't know you're basically gel dependent now. Seriously, you should get rid of those eggs as soon as possible, I can't believe Professor Ando would do something like this: put an alien egg on your bedside table for you to take care of? Is this a joke—"

"Dear Bryce, can you please just keep your attention on your poor, weak, and nervous brother instead of a head full of bug eggs?" Seeing Bryce's expression getting worse and worse, Lin Xi could only forcefully interrupt him, "Besides, I've had enough of talking about bugs, really. During this time I've been fighting those damn bugs in the greenhouse during the day, and even at night in my dreams they appear. Let's not talk about bugs and get me some calming gel sticks. I promise I won't abuse it again, I just need a little help to get a good night's sleep, avoid any nightmares- if I continue like this, I'll drop dead!"

Lin Xi shouted at Bryce, with a trace of exhaustion and fragility that couldn't be concealed.

Very rarely, almost everything he said to coax a calming stick from Bryce was true.

Ah yes, that's why he's here.

Lin Xi was now facing the biggest bug crisis in his life yet: the inexhaustible bug wave in the laboratories and greenhouses during the day, and those hazy but extremely terrifying winter solstices at night.

Every day, whenever he lay sleepily on his bed and tried to have a good rest, the nightmare followed him like a shadow and surged.

Lin Xi couldn't even remember the last time he fell into a dark and sweet sleep. Now whenever he mentions sleep, his mind was filled with overwhelming dreams. Even after waking up— the impressions of those nightmares became extremely blurred and thin, but the deep-rooted fear still left a faint imprint on Lin Xi's heart.

If it weren't for the sudden cardiac arrest caused by the calming gel stick last time, Lin Xi might not have come to the clinic just to wait for "official approval" —those unlucky bastards at the exploration team had a lot more gel sticks than him. For the scientific research staff, they were much more generous.

"Well, you do look more haggard than before."

Bryce looked at Lin Xi, pondering for a moment and then nodding.

But then, he lowered his head and studied Lin Xi's fresh physical examination report.

"Although your report shows... that all your physical functions are in normal." Bryce opened the terminal, and data about Lin Xi appeared on the air.

Lin Xi looked at the report with a suspicious look on his face.

"That impossible— did you accidentally pull the model data up? I feel like I'm closer to dying every day..."

He subconsciously rebutted, but didn't wait for Bryce's response.

He turned his head, and was taken aback by the serious look in Bryce's eyes.

"Bryce?" he asked, "Are there any problems?"

Bryce stared at the data in a daze, and then he came back to his senses.

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PastTimer: Will you be my valentine? *deadpan*