Before finding Rong Heng and his group, the little mermaid met Ruan Shiqing first.
Ruan Shiqing jumped off the aircraft and was about to walk in when he saw the little mermaid and Ruan Jiao coming towards him.
Ruan Jiao, who was waving his tentacles angrily, immediately stood up straight when he saw his father's tentacles waving. His pupils dilated slightly, and then he pulled the little mermaid and ran towards Ruan Shiqing and hugged Ruan Shiqing.
He was not tall, and had been raised for a long time but had not grown any taller. After hugging Ruan Shiqing's legs, he could only look up at him, his big dark red eyes curved with happiness.
Ruan Shiqing bent down, picked him up and weighed him. Ruan Jiao immediately hugged his neck and rubbed it affectionately.
Holding the coquettish cub in his arms, Ruan Shiqing looked at the little mermaid.
Perhaps it should not be called a little mermaid. Ruan Yuebai, who maintained a completely human form, was already a handsome young man. He wore the clothes that Ruan Shiqing bought for him. His long blue hair, as fluffy as seaweed, was neatly braided behind his head, with delicate hair accessories dotted in between. He also wore a pair of half-frame gold-rimmed glasses on his nose. His sapphire blue eyes were hidden behind the lenses, making him look less immature and more dignified and steady.
Ruan Shiqing looked at him carefully. He had not had the time to take a closer look at the same Ruan Yuebai.
On the contrary, Ruan Yuebai felt embarrassed when he looked at him, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment, and he was at a loss. He was used to getting along with his father in the form of a cub, and he could always act coquettishly and intimately with his father without restraint, but once he became a complete human, he would always have some inexplicable burdens in his heart, just like now, after calling him dad, he was even embarrassed to throw himself into the other's arms like Ruan Jiao did.
Instead, Ruan Shiqing took a step forward and raised his hand to rub the top of his head as he did before: "I said Yuebai would be very beautiful when she grows up."
The little mermaid grew into an adult mermaid, still exquisite and beautiful, the most meticulous creation of the Creator.
Ruan Yuebai's eyes lit up, and she subconsciously rubbed her head in his palm, her blue eyes full of joy.
After the father and his two sons reunited and talked about the past, they got down to business. Ruan Shiqing didn't see Rong Heng and the others after arriving at the space station, so he naturally felt strange.
Ruan Yuebai then told Sally what happened in the main control room and her suspicions about her.
Ruan Jiao couldn't wait to complain to his father: "Sally! Bad bug!"
The words of the two cubs made Ruan Shiqing fall into deep thought. He had just arrived at the space station and had not come into contact with the two surviving crew members. He was less likely to be affected by emotional factors when looking at things.
"The entire planet was destroyed, and there were only two hostages left. It's really strange."
And according to the little mermaid, the Driftwood Planet did not give up resistance until the last moment of its destruction. Whether they were soldiers, researchers or ordinary people, they put aside their own lives and used their lives to leave a gap for the rescue troops that might arrive later.
Although not everyone can face death calmly, the behavior of Sally and the other girl is really too abnormal.
Anyone who knows the key to the control center must not be an ordinary research assistant, but at least a major person in charge. With such an identity, he should have been prepared long ago. Even if he did not choose to die together with the Zerg, he should never surrender and sit there waiting to die.
Even with the Zerg monitoring, the two researchers who had access to the system had too many ways to ask for help. But in the week after the destruction of Driftwood, the outside world did not receive any abnormal information.
This meant that the two were most likely on the side of the Zerg, but the blood feud between humans and the Zerg had lasted for thousands of years, and Ruan Shiqing really couldn't think of any benefit that would make the two willingly work for the Zerg.
Unless... they're not human at all.
This imagination was so bold that Ruan Shiqing himself was shocked.
He looked at Ruan Jiao from the side and flicked the cub's dangling tentacles: "Did Jiaojiao discover something?"
Ruan Jiao nodded, frowned and thought for a long time, but didn't know what to say, and his little face was wrinkled.
After a long while, he was really at a loss for words, so he simply moved closer to Ruan Shiqing and put his forehead against his.
There was a strange wave. The cub clearly didn't speak, but Ruan Shiqing heard his voice. It seemed that he was thinking while speaking, and his voice was a little intermittent and childish.
"Spiritual fluctuations are different."
"Sally and the Zerg, same thing."
“How strange.”
"don't know."
When the cub stood up, Ruan Shiqing looked dazed for a moment, and it took him a while to come back to his senses. He stared at the cub with complicated eyes: "Why didn't Jiaojiao use this before?"
Ruan Jiao lowered his head and pinched his fingers, whispering, "Only Dad can do it."
No one else can do that.
It might be the cub’s special ability. Ruan Shiqing did not delve into it further and his thoughts turned back to the identities of Sally and the other person.
According to Ruan Jiao, Sally and the others were closely related to the Zerg, but in all these years, they had never heard of the Zerg being able to transform into human form. Even the Empire's understanding of the Zerg was still that they were a low-level race without intelligence, so there was no way the Zerg would suddenly mutate...
He was unable to make a conclusion for the moment, so he decided not to act rashly for the time being and to discuss it with Rong Heng first.
Rong Heng and 09 took the kids to scout the place. Ruan Shiqing waited for a while before they came back.
As soon as the two cubs got off the aircraft, they saw a figure not far away. They cheered and rushed towards Ruan Shiqing.
Unfortunately, they all forgot that they were now in human form.
The little dragon was as tall as Ruan Shiqing, and the little fox was not much shorter. The slender boy and girl fought for their father's arms, but neither of them got the hug. They bumped into each other and kowtowed.
Covering his painful head, the little fox took the initiative and said, "Why did you hit me?!"
The little dragon cub's head was also buzzing, but he refused to give in: "It was you who hit me!"
After saying that, the two kids looked at Ruan Shiqing together with aggrieved expressions as if to say "Dad, come and judge if it was him/her who hit me".
"… "
Ruan Shiqing coughed and did not answer the question. He rubbed the heads of the two immature cubs very fairly.
The two cubs finally calmed down, each occupying one side and rolling their eyes at each other.
The Crown Prince, who was last in line, rolled his eyes in his heart.
Tsk, childish.
He looked at Ruan Shiqing, his dark golden eyes slightly lit up, and the eagerness in his eyes was well hidden: "Why are you waiting here?"
Ruan Shiqing smiled at him and briefly told him about Sally and the Zerg.
Rong Heng's expression was indeed solemn after hearing this: "Before the spaceship left Driftwood Planet, I suggested that they leave with the spaceship, but they refused." He thought for a moment and said: "If they are really related to the Zerg, or are the anthropomorphic form of the Zerg, then they must have some intention to stay. Why not go with the flow and see what they want to do."
He paused, then leaned closer to Ruan Shiqing and told him about his findings today: "And we also found something else this time..."
Although they have been fighting for thousands of years, it is not clear how well they know about the internal situation of the Zerg.
If the other party is really Zerg, perhaps we can take this opportunity to obtain more information that is beneficial to our side.
Ruan Shiqing thought so too and agreed with him.
After that, the group stopped talking about the matter and returned to the space station.
Sally and another staff member, Jason, were repairing the damaged equipment on the space station. When they saw them coming back, they put down their work and came to greet them. When they saw the unfamiliar Ruan Shiqing, they showed just the right amount of doubt.
Ruan Shiqing took the initiative to shake her hand with a friendly attitude. Since they were both technical workers, they had more topics to talk about, so he quickly became familiar with them.
During the chat, he found that Sally was more talkative and had a very comprehensive understanding of the space station, while Jason was quiet and looked very dull. But Ruan Shiqing had a tentative mind, and would always inadvertently throw the topic to Jason during the chat, showing that he was very caring for his introverted companion.
But Jason didn't respond to his topic for several times and just stared at him blankly.
Although Sally helped to smooth things over, Ruan Shiqing felt that his behavior did not seem to be due to his introverted and taciturn personality, but rather to his inability to fully socialize - many of his subtle behaviors were similar to those of Ruan Jiao, who had just arrived home.
It also made Ruan Shiqing more certain of his guess.
Ruan Shiqing closed his eyes and hid his shock. Following Sally's probing, he said, "The reinforcements will arrive in an hour. We just did a rough survey of the ground. The insect eggs underground are still hatching. When the reinforcements arrive, we will launch a large-scale bombing. This will help to destroy the insect nest as quickly as possible."
Sally frowned: "But this way, Driftwood Star..." She seemed to be holding back something and didn't finish her words.
"I understand how you feel." Ruan Shiqing soothed him softly, "But Driftwood is now a dead planet. We can only consider the overall situation. Large-scale bombing may completely destroy the ecology of Driftwood in a short period of time, but it can also completely eliminate the Zerg."
"Moreover, through the last message left by Driftwood, we discovered that there are still things hidden underground..." He deliberately spoke ambiguously, observing the subtle expressions on Sally's face.
Sally's expression really changed, but it was only for a moment. If Ruan Shiqing hadn't been staring at her, he might have missed it.
Soon Sally looked puzzled: "Besides the insect nest, what else is there down there?"
Ruan Shiqing smiled but said nothing, looking unfathomable: "I'm not too sure, anyway, it's something that's bad for the Zerg."
Looking at Sally's subconsciously clenched fists and Jason's raised face, Ruan Shiqing smiled and left on the pretext of having something to do.
Rong Heng did tell him just now that he had discovered something underground. But it had nothing to do with the Zerg, but was related to the continuation of the Driftwood Planet. Rong Heng told him that their fighter planes had detected an extremely subtle distress signal deep underground, which was an encrypted distress signal that the military would only use during special periods.
Rong Heng suspected that life on Driftwood might not have been completely destroyed. Perhaps when the disaster struck, some people moved deep underground and survived.
But this was just his guess. Whether it was true or not, they had to wait for the arrival of subsequent reinforcements before making further confirmation.
He deliberately said that the ground insect nest would be bombed on a large scale after the reinforcements arrived, just to trick the other party and see if he could find out something. Unexpectedly, as he continued talking, he actually discovered a flaw.
Judging from Sally's reaction, the purpose of the two staying here is most likely related to the underground insect nest.