The Emperor’s Runaway Lover

The man’s eyes were fixed on the sandworm, his feet moving extremely slowly.

“Hssssss” The sandworm let out a bizarre sound, and its huge body rushed straight at him.

The man suddenly threw himself to the ground, and rolled over several times, barely avoiding the fetid mouthparts of the sandworm. For the next minute he crawled and rolled, practically balancing on the sharp blade of death’s scythe.

From outside the dust cloud, it was almost impossible to spot his figure. The only thing visible was the giant beast, thrashing around wildly.

Yet again, the man, working on instinct alone, managed to just barely avoid the sandworm attacking and to place himself behind its back. He seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, suddenly turned around, and jumped.

Putting all his strength into this leap, he reached to latch onto the sandworm’s wide neck.

The behemoth let out an extremely loud long hiss, shaking its huge body frantically to try to throw the man off.

The body of this sand worm was 27 or 28 meters long, and the man was holding onto its neck tightly. His whole body was getting tossed about ten meters above ground. He got nauseous with the movement, and felt like all his internal organs were getting shifted around.

The boy hid behind the poplar tree, staring intently at this strange battle between human and insect. He bit his lips almost unconsciously, completely unaware of the rich smell of his own blood.

He clenched his fists tightly, his palms covered with greasy cold sweat.

That man, could he win?

Suddenly, amidst the pale yellow sand and dust in the air that covered the sun, an icy blue blade flashed against the sky.

The unbelievably cold light of the knife instantly descended across the sky like lightning before a rainstorm during a sweltering summer night.

The man raised the thirty-centimeter-long scimitar in his hand, and, mustering his remaining strength, having practically exhausted his energy, he thrust it into the nape of the sandworm’s neck.

Up to the hilt.

The hissing sandworm made a sharp and desperate noise. Its huge body suddenly twisted around. It was in severe pain, and all its muscles twitched violently both in length and width.

The boy felt so thrilled that he almost forgot to breathe. Without realizing, he stood up from behind the tree.

“Chak.” there was a soft sound.

The boy froze.

He had stepped on a dead branch.

The sandworm paused for an instant, and then suddenly turned its head around. This terrifying mutant beast, while struggling and agonizing, still rushed towards the boy that stood behind the dry poplar tree.

There was an instant when the boy could feel the stench and heat coming towards his face. Although his mind was blank, he subconsciously squeezed the sharp stone in his hand. Even if he was going to die, he’d go down fighting this disgusting monster.

At this critical moment, the man still on the sandworm’s neck held the scimitar tight, and jumped off.

The huge centrifugal force caused the blue scimitar to draw an elegant circle around the sandworm’s thick cistern of a neck.

A practically perfect circle of death.

Blood rained from the sky.

“Boom.”

With a loud noise, the head of the sandworm, as big as a millstone, fell down in front of the dead tree, making a crater and lifting sand and dust into the air.

The monster’s ferocious mouthparts were still wide open, revealing a dense circle of fangs. Said fangs still trembled with muscular spasms, and the foul smelling blood quickly soaked a large section of the sand nearby.

The boy swallowed carefully and involuntarily took two slow steps back.

The man had also fallen heavily on the sand, in a daze. He was covered with a fetid, almost nauseating warm liquid all the way to his eyebrows. It was a mix of blood and digestive juices that kept gushing out of the sandworm’s neck.

After laying on the sand for a long time, he finally recovered.

The dust in the air gradually dissipated, and the man looked up at the muted indigo sky. He breathed for a while, until his fierce heartbeat calmed down. Then he got up, walked step by step up to the head of the huge, hideous monster, and stood still.

To his side, the boy trembled slightly and looked up, at a loss.

The man stood, quietly and tiredly, in front of the head of the frightening behemoth, his face devoid of any expression.

The setting sun drew his outline in a gorgeous light gold, and the sticky warm blood dripped slowly from the tips of the dark hair and his eyebrows. At that moment, he simply was a legendary, bloodthirsty war god standing high on a pile of bones, asura.1

It’d make anyone tremble.

“Are you okay?” The boy finally found his voice after a long time.

The man was extremely exhausted at this time. He didn’t bother with the kid who was in the way, instead leaning over to pull out the scimitar from where it was stuck at the back of the sandworm’s neck.

His fingertips had barely brushed the hilt of the blade when the boy jumped up, gathering the last of his energy, and slammed the man away.

The man was caught off guard and fell backwards. He lay, dazed, on the hot sand. Before he could get angry, he felt a sudden sharp pain in his lower abdomen.

A long and sharp bristle slowly slipped out of a wound on his abdomen, falling softly on the sand.

On the neck, underneath the sandworm’s head, there were several overgrown bristles several meters long. They’re one of its weapons. The terrifying monster was still trying to strike a fatal blow on its prey before it expired.

The centipede is dead but not stiff.2

“Ah, shouldn’t have done that.”3 The man couldn’t help saying after realizing what happened.

He took a deep breath, and looked down at his lower abdomen. It had been torn open, the flesh sporting a gash about 7 or 8 centimeters long which was bleeding nonstop.

Just now, if the kid hadn’t pushed him away in time, the hideous wound in his abdomen would be at his heart.

The man gritted his teeth and sat up halfway, pressing his hands against the wound. However, the warm blood kept gushing from the gaps between his fingers. It was impossible to stop it.

“Cough, cough- This is a bit troublesome, it might have struck a blood vessel. I have an off-road vehicle, not far from here, and it has a medical kit.” The man panted, feeling slightly dizzy from the blood loss, “Boy, you’ll have to carry me over there.”

The boy lowered his eyes, saying nothing.

He had pushed his opponent away just now, it had been an involuntary reaction. In the current situation, he could leave the man here to wait patiently for death to come. For the boy, driving away alone would be the safest thing he could do.

After all, he didn’t even know exactly who this man was.

He might really want to bring him back to the laboratory.

As if guessing what the other party was thinking, the man muttered, “Brat, that van won’t start without my vocal authorization. We are thousands of miles away from the edge of the desert. If I die, you won’t make it out alive.”

Moreover,” he shook his head with a wry smile, explaining weakly, “I really don’t intend to catch you and go to some shady laboratory to get money. I was joking back then, think of it as just nonsense.”

Joking.

Nonsense.

The boy opened his eyes wide, staring at the other fiercely.

“Cough cough, I just said it randomly, who knew you’d take it so seriously?” The man knew he’d messed up. He touched his nose awkwardly.

Raising his hand seemed to affect the wound. The man couldn’t help his soft hiss, his face going paler. He looked a bit pitiful.

After a while, the boy finally said “Okay, I’ll take you there. Where is your car? In which direction should I go?”

“Go north, it’s not far from here.” The man laughed, his beautiful eyes turning upwards slightly. His long eyelashes clumped together because of the blood and sweat. “By the way, my name is Fu Yucheng.”

“Yeah.” The boy nodded perfunctorily, his face expressionless.

At this time, he didn’t yet know that the name “Fu Yucheng” would entangle him for a lifetime. Sweet as honey, yet also heartbreaking.

Although Fu Yucheng was slender, he was lean and strong, so he weighed quite a bit. The boy was only fourteen years old, reaching only to his shoulders. He barely managed to get the man up after exhausting his strength.

He gritted his teeth, and the two of them walked northward for a quarter of an hour. After walking around a large sand dune, a dirty, old-fashioned eight-wheeled RV finally appeared in sight.

This off-road RV didn’t look at all like an ordinary RV, and it was more like a heavy military truck. Huge body, tall chassis, rough camouflage painting, and exposed hydraulics all made the behemoth appear fierce and intimidating.4

It seemed to lie quietly on the sand, like a silent tamed beast.

The boy didn’t expect that the “off-road vehicle” Fu Yucheng mentioned would look like this. He glanced at the man in surprise.

“This is the classic all-terrain RV Conqueror Alpha series from a long time ago, cough cough. Three years ago, I ran into an abandoned car repair shop in the desert and found it there by chance.” Fu Yucheng leaned on the boy, panting. Taking a breath, he raised his face to look at his beloved RV, “What do you think, not bad, eh?”

Because of the pain and blood loss, his voice was hoarse, but his tone was still proud. “Back then it was falling apart. It took me a lot of effort to restore it to this condition. As I was saying, I even hooked it up to Noob. Without my authorization, Noob won’t open the door for you.”5

“What noob?” the boy asked confused.

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“Noob, open the door of the rear compartment for me.” Fu Yucheng reached out and knocked on the door, looking at the front of the car.

The “noob” he mentioned was, of course, a quantum computer.6

Right at that moment, said brain was quietly floating by the car’s rear-view mirror. It was spherical, no bigger than a volleyball, and the surface had a very textured matte silver-white finish.

As soon as Fu Yucheng was done speaking, a green light in the middle of Noob flashed three times quickly, the door of the rear compartment slid open quietly, and the rusty five step ladder dropped out.

“Beep beep beep the rear compartment door has been opened. Please come in.”

Noob spoke in standard Mandarin with a soft intonation. The voice was crisp and sweet but devoid of emotion, sounding like an indifferent girl.

The boy raised his head to look at the weird white ball with curiosity.

Noob said coldly, “Sir, do you need any help?”

The boy was taken aback for a moment, then turned to look at Fu Yucheng, “This thing… it’s talking to me?”

“What, this thing, that thing, you brat, don’t be rude. Let me introduce you: this enthusiastic and lovely girlie is my AI butler, Noob.” Fu Yucheng said weakly, leaning against the open door.

Girlie. The boy glanced at ‘Noob’ a bit confused. “It’s a woman?”

“Don’t speak nonsense, go in first and we can talk then.” Fu Yucheng couldn’t help rolling his eyes. “If I keep losing blood like this, I’m going to dry out like a fucking mummy and not talk anymore. Don’t ask me what a mummy is, I’m not gonna tell you.”

The boy smartly closed his mouth and helped him into the vehicle.

The area in the back was only about a dozen square meters, but as the saying goes,  “the sparrow is small, but it has all five internal organs.”7

At the very front was a narrow door which connected to the front cab. A small ladder to the right of that door led to the loft bed above, and next to the ladder was a simple bathroom. On the left side of the door was a mini kitchen countertop, with the sink full of pots and pans.

Near the rear of the vehicle was an old leather sofa. On the sofa there was a mess of clothes and blankets, and a pair of crumpled jeans lay on the floor.

In the middle of the carriage hung a dirty punching bag.

“Your place is really…” The boy glanced at the messy environment, and quickly came to the conclusion that the owner of this RV was a real slob.

“Ahem, kid, don’t do anything, just help me to the sofa quickly.” Fu Yucheng mumbled.

Although he moved very slowly, hissing as he did so, when he laid down messing with his wound was inevitable, and he couldn’t avoid gasping.

His condition now seemed to be worse than a while ago. His forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, his lips were turning a grayish white color due to the excessive blood loss, and the bottom of his t-shirt was almost completely soaked with blood.

Fu Yucheng coughed twice, reluctantly forcing himself to move, and pressed against the wound carefully. “This is a bit troublesome.”

The boy pursed his lips, looking calmly at the other with his dark eyes. “What should I do now?”

There were a couple dirt stains on his immature face that made him look like a tabby cat. It made a very interesting contrast with his extremely calm expression, like a little adult.

Fu Yucheng stared at him for a long while, and couldn’t avoid laughing. This laugh apparently made his abdomen tense up again, the wound on his lower abdomen making him let out a bitter cry. His handsome face wrinkled up, looking almost a bit comical.

“What are you laughing at?” The boy frowned seriously.

He really didn’t understand how this man could be laughing at this time.

Once again special shoutout to my editor Wintery~

I think twice a week would be a good schedule for this novel, although who knows what future chapters might be like? Let’s just go with that for now!

Footnotes

阿修罗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asura_(Buddhism) not to be mixed with Ashura.This is a saying/metaphor but in this case the meaning seems pretty literal. The worm is still just a worm though. Source.The original line is another metaphor: 阴沟里翻船, from 三侠五义, literal meaning “the ship capsized in the gutter”, in reference to something going wrong or someone making a mistake that shouldn’t have happened. Source.The author has in fact specified on the notes that the specific vehicle taken as reference is the domestic off-road RV Conqueror, have some pics here and here. It’s bigger than this humble translator’s apartment, ah.小白 Xiao Bai, literally meaning little white, figuratively meaning newbie/grasshopper/dummy, was originally kept as pinyin but due to character names being potentially confusing later on it’s been translated and turned into Noob.Literally “spherical smart computer” in the raws, seems like a common concept in other sci-fi novels as well.A saying for “a full range of contents in a small package”. Source.