"No need to decrypt. You are dismissed," said Marshal Yi as his gaze shifted back to his son who still wore that solemn face with no other emotions.
As the door slid shut he closed the projected screen and said, "Your analysis?"
Yi Chen's brow quirked up wondering why his father was asking the obvious. Things like these happened often were his father actively involved him in different cases. He would ask for his analysis of the problem and plaudible solutions. But this time it was different. It was as though he was probing him for something.
Yi Chen felt like a live lobster thrown into a pot of boiling water but his face remained unchanged. Leaning back in his comfortable wingback chair with his legs crossed and arms casually resting on the armrest he said, "Mr Zi and Miss Zi are most likely hiding something and that something is on the surface city of Saarilia."
Marshal Yi, who had been observing his son with a scrutinizing gaze suddenly smiled before saying, "Then how about we pay him a visit?"
***
As the twin suns rose from the horizon rays of light seeped in through the gaps in the blinds reflecting on a young man's face as he lay on the bed. His face was dignified and tranquil though one couldn't say the same for his sleeping posture.
Granted he had the entire bed to himself but he lay diagonally with his head at the foot of the bed and his limbs sprawled to all four corners. He was what people might call a crashlander sleeper. His quilt had long fallen off somewhere.
Everything on his bed had escaped this sleeping tyrant all except his pillow that remained trapped under him no matter what weird sleeping posture he was in.
Buzz! Buzz buzz! Buzz!
The rhythmic vibrations of an alarm ringing jolted him awake but because he was sleeping right at the edge he came crashing down with a loud bang.
"Shit!" he swore looking for that damn light brain buzzing violently like a flipping vibrator.
When Zi Xingxi who was sitting on the couch calibrating her armour piercing (AP) sniper rifle heard the sound of something heavy hitting the ground she smiled with her head lowered. This happened at least three times a week.
The only reason why it didn't happen every day was because she would walk into his room in the middle of the night and wrap him up tightly like a zongzi. Despite this, he would eventually unwrap himself escaping the clutches of the demon quilt and hence fall off the bed.
Zi Han lay on the floor with only a pair of boxers on as he grimaced holding his abdomen that was still bruised a little. Turning his body to the side in an attempt to get up he found himself on his knees with his tooshie sticking up in the air as though showcasing his perky butt to the world.
As he knelt there in a child's pose the pendant around his neck with a phoenix rising from the ashes attracted his attention. His head was upside down but the phoenix still looked like it was soaring into the skies. This pendant belonged to his father and he had been wearing it for as long as he can remember.
What he didn't realise was that on his person was the late prince's well-concealed mecha passed down to him as the last gift from a father to a son. With a bright smile on his face, he reached over and rubbed the phoenix before getting up.
Since his mother wasn't usually awake at this time he opened the door and crossed the corridor in his boxers into the bathroom diagonally across. Inside the bathroom, he grabbed his toothbrush out of the glass cup and he was about to place the toothbrush under the automatic toothpaste dispenser when he saw his face in the mirror.
"The fuck... tsk," he swore when he realised that he slept with the sheet mask his mother gave him on his face. Because that shit wasn't meant to move it stuck to his face all night like glue despite his weird sleeping acrobatics.
Irritated he pulled the sheet mask off only to reveal slightly swollen skin like that of a pufferfish. Sighing he tossed the mangled sheet mask into the bin and washed up. Ten minutes later he walked out of the bathroom scratching his flat belly. In his mind, he was thinking of what his mother would like for breakfast so he can make it.
Thinking he could check the fridge for ingredients he walked down the corridor heading for the kitchen only for him to freeze when the sitting-room came to view.
"Ma!" he yelled not using his inside voice before grabbing the dishtowel off the kitchen counter to cover up.
Zi Xingxi, "???"
In a panic he took a sharp turn and BANG he hit the wall and hissed in pain. Zi Xingzi's brow arched upwards while watching her little clown put up an act. Zi Han rubbed his forehead as he slowly turned to walk back into his room and wear a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.
"Why are you acting all shy, huh?! Hehe..... You used to run around this entire apartment naked refusing to put on your clothes! Your little thing used to bounce around all over the place and I honestly thought I would have a nudist for a son!" she yelled with a light chuckle as she lowered her head and continued to fawn over her AP sniper rifle.
After two steps the shock and embarrassment that had partially clouded his vision dissipated. That's when it hit him.
His breath caught in his throat he froze like a popsicle in the middle of winter. He stiffly turned his head back to take a look but because he was deep in the corridor he could no longer see the sitting room.
"Was that..... Ha! No," he whispered while leaning back to take a look but when his skin brushed against the cold wall he recalled he was still in his boxers.
"Ha ha no..... you saw wrong. It can't be," he muttered to himself with a self-deprecating smile. His eyes must have been covered in eye boogers right now for him to have seen a sniper rifle in his mother's hands. But he had thoroughly washed his face just now.
In a hurry, he pulled open his drawer and took out a pair of grey ankle sweatpants. As he put them on he kept trying to convince himself that he was hallucinating just now.
Grabbing a white t-shirt from the top shelf he dashed out of the room. By the time he got to the end of the corridor, he was fully dressed staring at the AP sniper rifle in her hand with a foolish expression.
That wasn't the only gun she had in front of her. There were multiple others that Zi Han recognized from the war simulation game sponsored by the federation to cultivate military talent.