Mother of Insects

Chapter 35: (Completed modification)

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Lin Xi took several steps back, looked at the EVA suit he had just arranged, and then sighed. It took him about four hours to repair the suit, and then replaced the rusted ventilation door. But it was the only thing he could do. This thing almost consumed all his patience. But when Lin Xi carefully examined his handicraft, he still had to say that this thing still looked like a piece of garbage. Well, there was nothing strange about it. Lin Xi's evaluation of this suit was actually not wrong, because they were originally found from the garbage.

When Robert was actively promoting the plan that Taran casually proposed, he seemed to have forgotten that the ordinary crew members on the ship had no plans to conduct exploration activities when they set foot on the Apollo. They did not have enough extravehicular exploration suits, so in the end they could only find some damaged exploration suits that were about to be scrapped.

Lin Xi thought this idea was extremely stupid, but the environmental data collected by the exploration team gave Robert and others strange confidence - they seemed to think that in the relatively mild and friendly environment of the alien planet, it would not be fatal to choose to wear a slightly torn exploration suit. In this way, the exploration suit assigned to Lin Xi by Lui was probably as old as his grandfather. Although the superiors firmly stated that they had repaired this batch of damaged exploration suits in the most rigorous way, but...

"I'd really like to hear their explanation for that broken airlock, wouldn't you?"

Lin Xi said to himself, he shook the replaced broken parts in his hand and muttered.

It was only after a while that he suddenly realized that "Number One" was now in the process of pupating. There was no longer a terrifying-looking insect lying in the glass culture tank, responding to what he said.

Lin Xi was stunned for a moment, then he forced himself to suppress the sadness in his heart.

To be honest, Ouni had noticed this before and reminded him that he might have invested too much unnecessary emotion in "Number One".

"If we can return to Earth, that star butterfly won't belong to you alone. And if we can't return to Earth... Ha, then it has even less to do with you."

Thinking of Ouni's words of comforting him in an indifferent tone, Lin Xi frowned.

After coming back to his senses from his thoughts, he heard the visiting request. He pressed his personal terminal and was surprised to find that it was Bryce.

Lin Xi opened the metal door, and his brother walked into the greenhouse with heavy steps, his face looked very bad. However, Lin Xi didn't care too much about that. After all, Bryce had been in this state of almost going crazy since the exploration mission.

However, Bryce's visit this time still had a hint of something unusual.

Bryce had never been here since Lin Xi told him that he had placed the adult star butterfly in the greenhouse. (Lin Xi had reason to suspect that her brother might also have a fear of large insects, just like Ernie.) But now he showed up in the greenhouse on his own initiative, and even stood in front of the cocoon of "No. 1" and looked at it for a long time.

"Is this the... Star Butterfly?" Bryce asked.

"Yes, this is it, but it is now in the process of pupating. I don't know if it can come out alive. It is said that they are likely to die inexplicably at any stage of growth."

Lin Xi nodded and said seriously.

"You care too much about it. I remember you were just taking care of it temporarily..."

Bryce forced himself to keep his eyes on the cocoon. He suppressed the disgust in his tone and said to Lin Xi, "But now, I feel like you are diving into it headfirst. I have never seen you take anything so seriously."

“Maybe?” Lin Xi raised an eyebrow. He didn’t understand why everyone had to tell him that he was too devoted to the Star Butterfly. “After all, it was hatched in my palm… Okay, don’t make that face. You look like you’re about to throw up… If you really do that, I’ll force you to clean up for me.”

Lin Xi looked at Bryce's face. Of course, he did not ignore the extreme disgust that Bryce showed the moment he saw the star butterfly cocoon.

"Actually, it's just a little bit bigger, but once you get used to it, you'll find it's pretty nice..."

(If you ignore the fact that its wings can perfectly mimic its surroundings.)

"Beautiful?" The muscles on Bryce's face twisted slightly, and he showed the same disbelief as Ernie. "You actually said this thing is beautiful?" He pointed to the huge pale golden cocoon in the glass tank. "Don't you think it looks like it just emerged from the devil's nightmare?"

Bryce couldn't hold back his emotions and said it directly in front of Lin Xi.

"… I think… it looks okay?"

Lin Xi seldom saw Bryce showing such strong emotions. He looked at the cocoon of "Number One" in confusion. The light golden oval was covered with spots. To be honest, Lin Xi felt that "Number One" looked much better at this moment than when it was alive and kicking with its wings fluttering.

But Bryce seemed to find it unbearable even to see its cocoon.

The way he looked shaky and the color slowly fading from his face seemed somewhat similar to Ouni's. The only difference was that Ouni almost fainted after just one glance at "Number One", while Bryce seemed to be challenging himself and kept forcing himself to look at the cocoon.

Of course, it was really hard for Lin Xi to understand their disgust towards the appearance of "No. 1", but out of consideration for her brother's blood pressure, Lin Xi finally forced Bryce to the desk in the corner of the greenhouse.

He handed Bryce a small calming gel stick. O'Neal used this thing to calm down before. After Bryce swallowed the gel stick in big gulps, his complexion really looked better.

Lin Xi observed Bryce like this calmly.

"Hey, man, what happened? You look... overly worried."

He said.

At least in his memory, Bryce was not the kind of person who would rely on calming gel to calm down.

And now Bryce's reaction made Lin Xi very worried.

"I thought Alyssa explained everything clearly, and there wouldn't be any big problems... Well, provided that there's nothing wrong with the crap they assigned to me."

After Lin Xi finished speaking, he suddenly felt a little unsure, so he quickly added.

"... Maybe I don't need to be so nervous? After all... Now I heard that they are privately calling this place 'Second Eden'. Some people were planning to enter the outside world and build a brand new village for Earthlings after the Apollo was completely paralyzed..."

"I'm fine, I'm just a little... stressed."

Bryce very reluctantly maintained the illusion of being calm and composed in front of Lin Xi.

"I just don't like bugs, especially star butterflies... well, anything shipped from Sunu I don't like it..."

Bryce said hoarsely to Lin Xi.

After a short silence, he suddenly spoke.

"Shizuo Ando wants to see you."

"Dr. Ando?"

Lin Xi suddenly raised his voice.

His eyes suddenly lit up, so he didn't notice at all that it was his excited attitude that made Bryce feel a tightening in his chest.

"I heard that he had been sleeping before—" Lin Xi quickly realized that he was a little too happy, and he quickly added with a hint of question and expectation in his tone.

Ever since he got the notebook left by Dr. Ando, Lin Xi has actually always wanted to meet this Sunu enthusiast and expert. The notebook answered many questions for him, but at the same time, more doubts remained in Lin Xi's heart.

"Yes, we put him in a coma before, but after Sam's incident, many people doubted the effectiveness of tranquilizers, so we woke him up and put him in the detention room. Not long after he woke up, he asked to talk to you."

At this point, Bryce pulled the corner of his mouth and revealed a strange expression.

Lin Xi knew that was because he thought of John Bronson.

But in fact, there are still many things Lin Xi doesn't know.

For example, Shizuo Ando still seemed crazy after waking up. His mind seemed to have entered a world that only he knew, and almost no one could communicate with him effectively.

Because of this, the investigation into Liz Chen’s death could not proceed at all.

But even in this extremely crazy situation, Ando could make an extremely clear request to others to meet with Lin Xi... Combined with the nonsense he uttered when he was crazy, Bryce felt very bad.

He hoped more than anyone else that Lin Xi would refuse this meeting, but after seeing Lin Xi's current appearance, he knew that was an impossible expectation.

"Actually, you don't have to go see him." Bryce whispered hoarsely, "Dr. Ando used to be a respected scholar, but now he's just... just a lunatic. The nonsense he said doesn't make any sense at all. If I were you, I would stay in my room and check the weapons and equipment. I heard that there are a lot of weird bugs outside the cabin..."

"Hey, Bryce." Lin Xi sighed, he stretched out his arms and hugged Bryce, "You are too nervous, I will be fine - I swear I will be careful to protect myself during the extravehicular exploration. Alyssa adjusted the team members for me. I have seen the list. They are all good people. By the way, it is dangerous to visit a professor who is under full armed guard in the detention room. You know, even Sam -"

He felt Bryce stiffen visibly at the mention of that name.

But Lin Xi continued speaking calmly.

"I've taken down guys like Sam before, so there's really nothing to worry about, man."

Bryce's face twitched, and the movement made the wrinkles around his eyes and mouth more obvious.

He looked at Lin Xi and suddenly felt an emotion similar to anger flowing through his body.

How could he not worry—

Bryce wanted to yell.

To many people, the nonsense that Shizuo Ando uttered after he woke up sounded like complete madness, but to Bryce, those vague and obscure shouts contained many particularly ominous omens.

The author has something to say: I woke up with stomach pain early this morning and spent the whole day in the hospital getting an IV drip orz

Sorry for the late replacement of this chapter.

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as well as…

This chapter is enough to prove that the alien species still follows my long-standing preferences.

He made his wife, relatives and friends all look so ugly that they had to take medicine to calm down.

But in the eyes of his wife, she is still a shining little fairy...