“Thanks, I'm really fine. I'll be back to school in a few days.”

Mingmei, who had returned to school, was already feeling overwhelmed by the heavy workload after only two days. She finally managed to carve out some time to check on Lu Xiaoyao.

Seeing Lu Xiaoyao looking somewhat haggard on the screen, but with a decent spirit, Mingmei felt relieved.

“It's good you're okay. You have no idea how many classes we've had lately.”

Mingmei took the opportunity to complain to Lu Xiaoyao about her recent courses, but she noticed that the person on the other side didn't have her usual sunny and cheerful smile. Her whole aura was somewhat gloomy.

“Lu Xiaoyao…”

Meeting Mingmei's concerned gaze, Lu Xiaoyao took a deep breath and said, “I really want to go back to school and tell you so many things, Mei Mei.”

“You can tell me now.”

“No, I'm afraid that if I start talking…”

Lu Xiaoyao's hesitation made the gloomy aura around her dissipate somewhat. Soon, only five days later, after Lu Xiaoyao returned, Mingmei finally understood why Lu Xiaoyao had been so hesitant that day.

…

“The unluckiest thing in my life was meeting a love-obsessed mother like mine!”

“Waaah, why are my brother and I so miserable? That freaking woman actually colluded with the Zerg!”

“Waaah, if my grandfather hadn't caught her in time, she would have dared to harm Lu Gui! I spit on her!”

Mingmei watched as Lu Xiaoyao, whose eyes were swollen like walnuts from crying, grabbed the last tissue in her hand and continued to wipe away her flood of tears and snot in a cathartic rage. However, she felt a sense of relief in her heart.

This Lu Xiaoyao, who didn't hide her emotions and said whatever was on her mind, was the real Lu Xiaoyao.

It was just that her emotional reaction this time was a bit too intense.

The cleaning robot was almost on fire from picking up the paper balls on the floor. It kept spinning around Mingmei and Lu Xiaoyao, giving off a vibe of “I've already cleaned the floor, stop throwing things!” which forced Mingmei to tell Lu Xiaoyao to drink some water and calm down.

“You started crying as soon as you came in. I don't even understand what you're crying about. Calm down first.”

“Mmm… hiccup! O-okay, hic!”

Lu Xiaoyao drank the warm water while hiccuping through her tears, finally calming her emotions. Then she looked at Mingmei, sniffled, and said, “Wait, don't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you.”

“Okay.”

Although Mingmei liked gossip, she never liked sharing it with others.

Finally, after Lu Xiaoyao's explanation, Mingmei looked at Lu Xiaoyao with a complex expression.

The unfortunate events in the Lu family could be summarized in one sentence: a tragedy caused by her parents' love.

Also known as: a love-obsessed brain bankrupting the whole family.

When Mei Qiu reappeared in front of everyone, she revealed the things the Zerg had been secretly doing in the Empire and the Federation. Lu Xiaoyao's father was one of those who had been plotted against by the Zerg.

When he was on vacation, he took his children to an amusement park, only to encounter a Zerg attack. He sent his two children away, but he himself died in the attack.

After that, Lu Xiaoyao's mother couldn't accept her father's death. She was too devastated and suddenly came up with a crazy idea: to clone a child with all of her father's genes.

“That technology is illegal, right?”

Even if Mingmei didn't know all the laws of the interstellar world, this kind of thing sounded very uncomfortable and didn't seem like something that could be popularized.

“Yes, my mother did it secretly behind my grandfather's back, and that's how the Zerg hidden among humans found an opportunity.”

Lu Xiaoyao continued, “That's how my sister and I were abducted again. But the starship accidentally flew into an unfamiliar asteroid belt during the escape, resulting in a crash. My sister and I wandered on a deserted planet for several years.”

“Sister…”

Mingmei suddenly realized that the story Lu Xiaoyao was telling seemed to focus on her sister. Was she referring to “Da Yao”?

“Yeah.” A hint of embarrassment flashed across Lu Xiaoyao's face as she sighed, “Sure enough, I'm still more used to calling him 'sister' than 'brother'.”

Mingmei: ???

Realizing that her gossip was getting a little out of hand, Mingmei stopped talking and quietly waited for Lu Xiaoyao to continue her story.

It turned out that Mingmei's assumption that Lu Xiaoyao's split personality, “Da Yao,” was actually real. Da Yao was Lu Gui.

Mingmei: 0.0!!!

Was this gossip she could handle?!

When she later learned that Lu Gui was able to appear in front of everyone as a man because of his family, Mingmei continued to enjoy the gossip with peace of mind.

Oh, her uncle did it, so be it.

Sloth mode.jpg

Lu Gui and Lu Xiaoyao were twins, but compared to Lu Xiaoyao, Lu Gui's mental strength was extremely high. Before the age of five, his mental strength was approaching SS-rank, and now it was already a super SSS-rank.

Therefore, after he and Lu Xiaoyao died on the deserted planet, with Lu Xiaoyao's permission, he had been parasitizing in Lu Xiaoyao's body as a spiritual entity.

“That sounds… like the Zerg…”

Lu Xiaoyao's situation of coexisting with Lu Gui in one body sounded like the methods used by the Zerg when they were lurking among humans in the early years.

Except that the Zerg used multiple insect cores to stabilize themselves when they parasitized a human body, everything else was exactly the same.

“Ah… the mental strength of the Zerg, especially the Queen or high-level Zerg, is very high. It's relatively easy for them to parasitize humans with lower mental strength.

"But a state like Lu Gui's can only mean that, with a very high level of mental strength, he can also achieve the kind of situation that the Zerg have to some extent. So, wasn't my brother targeted because of this?”

“Ah, is that so? Is Lu Gui okay?”

Hearing that Lu Gui was also involved this time, Mingmei hadn't clearly understood the whole story when Lu Xiaoyao was crying earlier. Now she could finally ask everything at once.

“Lu Gui's current body was made separately by the research institute.”

Mingmei: ??

Lu Xiaoyao thought that Mingmei didn't understand, so she added, “It's that psychology teacher from our school, the super handsome one, he's from the research institute.”

At this point, Lu Xiaoyao's tone carried a hint of being a show-off, “Your uncle, he actually came for my brother and me.”

Mingmei: “…”

If you're going to brag, why is your face as red as a teapot?

“Then my brother's sudden appearance this time, with his gender changed, this kind of 'resurrection' thing caught the attention of the Zerg, and then my mother fell for it again.”

Lu Xiaoyao sadly recounted the second half of the story, and Mingmei couldn't help but sigh.

If her child could be “resurrected,” did that mean her husband could be too?

Using this kind of thinking, Lu Xiaoyao's mother once again contacted the deeper-hidden Zerg who hadn't been completely purged by Mei Qiu, and as a result, she leaked some information from the research institute.

Only during the winter vacation, when Lu Xiaoyao was at home, did she notice something was wrong. This time, her mother even dared to drug Lu Gui, secretly taking him out of the Central Star and handing him over to the Zerg.

“Your mother…”

Mingmei opened her mouth, but for a moment, she didn't know how to describe Lu Xiaoyao's mother.

She was willing to give up everything for her husband.

Calling her love-obsessed wasn't quite right either.

Even a love-obsessed person wouldn't be this crazy, right?

“Is your mother insane?”