Chapter 28

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“No,” Shen Shanwu shook his head, “Captain, it’s good that you’re fine.”

Hearing this, Jiang Huan’s expression became more gentle. He rubbed Shen Shanwu’s hair again with relief, and he didn’t dislike that he hadn’t washed it for several days, but even so, the corners of Jiang Huan’s lips never raised.

Shen Shanwu suddenly discovered that he seemed to have never seen Jiang Huan smile since they met on the Central Alliance. At first, he thought Jiang Huan was just doing it to maintain the majesty of the captain with seriousness and calmness, but now it seems that no matter what Jiang Huan hears, sees, or meets, he will not show anyone a smile, which is too strange.

It seemed that ever since they met, Jiang Huan had always looked troubled, and he didn’t know what happened in the past four years that had changed his temperament, and this incident was like a towering mountain pressing on Jiang Huan’s heart. A child who loved to laugh so much back then had become the appearance of a young man who was now unsmiling.

The episode at night did not bring too much waves to the Shanhai team, except that Xu Honglin was put to death in the second car, and she was only allowed to come out when she went to the toilet, as if nothing had happened.

After another day, the scenery outside the car window gradually became unfamiliar and familiar to Shen Shanwu. Zhang Xiaowen teased him excitedly, “Xiao Jiang Tong~ We will be able to arrive at the coastal base before dinner today. Oh, are you happy~”

“Very— Happy—” Shen Shanwu stretched his tone perfunctorily, without raising his head. He turned over a page of the “Journey to the West” comic strip that Jiang Huan had specially found for him, causing Yao Wuque to laugh and scream because of the pain of the wound. Sister Xiaowen pursed her mouth and said dissatisfied, “Jiang Tong, you are really getting less and less cute.”

“Hmm?” After hearing this, Shen Shanwu immediately turned his head and knelt on his seat, and asked Jiang Huan, who was lying in the back row with his eyes closed, “Captain, am I cute?”

”…” Jiang Huan kept his eyes closed and turned around, turning his back to Shen Shanwu, too lazy to answer this meaningless question. Yao Wuque, who was not too busy watching the excitement, suddenly laughed even more happily, and said with joy, “Oh, the little complainer, no one will support you this time, what should I do? What should I do?”

Does your Brother Shanwu still need support to toss people? Shen Shanwu narrowed his eyes slightly and covered his mouth with one hand pretending to be surprised, “Brother Wuque, I suddenly remembered something. If we arrive at the base tonight, will you go to the training ground early tomorrow morning to run six laps? Can your body take it?”

Yao Wuque: “……”

Yao Wuque wanted to cry without tears, “I can’t bear it. Good Jiang Tong, quickly help your brother and beg the captain for mercy, wait for me to recover for two more days.”

Zhang Xiaowen also hurriedly rubbed over and begged for mercy, “Xiao Tongtong, sister is good to you these days. You can also help Sister Xiaowen beg the captain for mercy. Let’s get rid of the three laps. Your sister is in charge of logistics. She is delicate and frail…”

Zhong Yin in the passenger seat couldn’t hold her face, and the blue veins around her temples jumped for a long time, but she didn’t spit out a word in the end.

Perhaps it’s because the destination was right in front of them, the team members who were driving were also working very hard. It was originally planned to arrive at the coastal base around five o’clock, but even before four o’clock, two dignified off-road vehicles had already received the radio inside the base, waiting to be dispatched into the city.

“Welcome back, members of the Shanhai Team. Please get off the bus in the waiting area in turn for disinfection and security checks.”

The heavy steel fence outside the base opens four small doors for those who come and go, two exits and two entrances. In the middle, it was divided into vehicle entrances and pedestrian entrances in an orderly manner.

After entering the first door, a disinfectant spray was immediately used to thoroughly disinfect the periphery of the vehicle from top to bottom and from left to right. After waiting for 60 seconds, a well-dressed mercenary on duty opened the door from the outside, followed by several staff carrying large bags of tools, ready to disinfect the interior of the car.

Jiang Huan was the first to get out of the car. The mercenaries who had been fierce and vicious to the previous cars were tame hound dogs in front of Jiang Huan. After saluting, he had to stand still and watch the Shanhai team leave.

“You go back to the team first, and I will take Jiang Tong to register.” Jiang Huan took Shen Shanwu’s hand. This was supposed to be Zhang Xiaowen’s job, but Jiang Huan emphasized that he wanted to take Jiang Tong personally.

As for Xu Honglin, an unrelated person, she was asked to get out of the car from the moment she entered the coastal base. Since she had walked her plank bridge, and the Shanhai team no longer waited on her… Of course, the balance still had to be paid.

All citizens in the base are equipped with ID cards, and they can enter by swiping their cards through security checks. Those who are new to the city need to take another channel. It is similar to the situation of the Central Alliance. There are long lines in front of the four registration gates, and the progress is extremely slow. Every stranger who wants to enter the coastal base will go through extremely rigorous inspections, up to the eighteenth generation of ancestors, what did you do before the explosion of the super planet, how did you survive after the end of the world, what did you eat this morning, why did you eat that, and have you had smooth bowel movements recently.

But things are always special. Jiang Huan’s conspicuous white cloak went to the door of the registration office, and the director of the registration office, who was nibbling melon seeds in the office with his legs upturned, immediately appeared with ‘kind eyes’.

“Yo, isn’t this Captain Jiang? I have long heard that Shanhai team will return to the base in the next few days. Everyone is looking forward to it. How is it going? Is the mission going well?”

“Thank you for your concern.” Jiang Huan nodded slightly and pushed out Shen Shanwu who was following him, “I want to register this child as a new citizen.”

The director was taken aback for a moment. He probably subconsciously felt that the child Jiang Huan personally brought was his illegitimate child, but his age was very wrong. After half a second, he hurriedly smiled and said, “It’s easy to say, Captain Jiang, come with me.”

The advantage of the privileged class is here. They bypassed the external inspection window and saved at least a few hours. They went directly to the director’s comfortable office to sit down. The director politely poured them two cups of tea before taking off their masks and opening the registration information software.

“Register under my name,” Jiang Huan sat on the sofa and said, “my child.”

The director’s hand shook very obviously, but fortunately, he was well-informed and experienced, and he suppressed the crazy desire to tell the world after learning the big news. Of course, he didn’t dare to spread the gossip of the Shanhai team everywhere. After all, he cherishes his life.The director replied with an unchanging smile, “Okay, Captain Jiang, what is your son’s name?”

“…” Instead, Jiang Huan was silent. Shen Shanwu looked at him strangely, and the other party stared at him quietly. Even if he took off his mask, it was difficult for Shen Shanwu to see what Jiang Huan was thinking from Jiang Huan’s gloomy expression.

Maybe he thinks I have to do this kind of thing by myself? Shen Shanwu coughed softly immediately, and said calmly so he won’t embarrass Jiang Huan, “My name is Jiang Tong, the Tong of the sycamore tree.”

“Ok.” The director’s tone immediately turned coaxing, and his fingers crackled on the keyboard. Unexpectedly, Jiang Huan suddenly said, “Shen Jiangtong, the surname is Shen, and the name is Jiangtong.”

“…” Although the director had been through a lot of battles, he couldn’t help showing a slightly constipated expression at this time. The child who came out of nowhere seemed to be at least ten years old. He was registered under Jiang Huan’s child, but he was not surnamed Jiang but Shen. There was also Jiang in the key name, just like the parents combined their surnames and took a single-character name.

Could it be that this child is the child of the goddess surnamed Shen who Captain Jiang had been secretly in love with for many years? But then, it should be Jiang Shentong instead of Shen Jiangtong? Could it be that Captain Jiang is so affectionate that he would rather use the woman’s name as his son’s surname? Oh, my god, just one name can make people involuntarily make up a sadomasochistic drama…

The director took a deep breath vaguely, exerted his superb professionalism for many years, and raised a standard eight-tooth smile, “Okay, Shen, Jiang, Tong.”

The silence was passed from Jiang Huan to Shen Shanwu. He half opened his lips in disbelief and looked at Jiang Huan stupidly. Shen Jiangtong? Don’t think that he can’t see that the Shen character in it comes from himself, so what does Jiang Huan mean or does he think that ‘Jiang Tong’ and ‘Shen Shanwu’ are connected? He didn’t see his true identity, did he? It’s impossible. This mutant ability is completely beyond the scope of ordinary people’s consciousness. Unless you see it with your own eyes, who would have thought of it existing?

Shen Shanwu’s thoughts were complicated for a while, causing him to not listen to a word of the follow-up dialogue. The director asked him his age and couldn’t say it. He could only pinch his body when he became smaller, and he couldn’t point to his age. Finally, Jiang Huan sat down for him and decided to write 11 years old.

Soon, the registration will be over, and the ID card of ‘Shen Jiangtong’ will be personally delivered to the door of the Shanhai Team by the staff of the registration office in two days. This must also be a class privilege. Everyone else has to do it in about seven days, and they have to pick it up by themselves.

The director gave Shen Shanwu a temporary identity certificate, stamped it and handed it to Jiang Huan. The three of them said goodbye, leaving the director to doubt life in the office and quietly digest the excessive amount of information.

Shen Shanwu’s temporary pass was released quickly after manual review. The key was that Jiang Huan stood next to them as a cold and hard giant white ice cube. The inspectors couldn’t wait to give the green light all the way and let Shen Shanwu go as religiously as his ancestors.

“Captain.” Shen Shanwu couldn’t figure it out anyway, so he just asked him directly on the bus, “Didn’t you name me Jiang Tong? Why am I now Shen Jiangtong? Is it because of the relationship between Shen Shanwu mentioned by Captain Bellona before? Who is he and why do you want my surname to be Shen?”

“…” Jiang Huan didn’t answer immediately. He narrowed his eyes, not knowing if he was not ready to answer or was brewing words.

The vehicle slowly slowed down, Zhang Xiaowen stood at the entrance of the administrative building with bright eyes, and shouted to the people behind her, “The captain is here!”

At the same time, Jiang Huan lowered his head and said to Jiang Tong, “I will explain this matter to you later. Externally, your name is still Jiang Tong, okay?”

“…Got it.” In front of others, Shen Shanwu has always been obedient, and all the tricks are done behind his back. What’s more, the surname Shen was most likely related to him, and Shen Shanwu himself doesn’t want others to know.

In addition to Zhang Xiaowen, the team that greeted Jiang Huan’s return also had two or three strange faces. They were obviously other members of the team who had made a special trip to pick up the wind and dust. The leader greeted Jiang Huan with a smile when he saw him appear.

“Jiang Huan! Is everything going well?”

“Hmm.” Jiang Huan nodded and was patted on the shoulders by the two brothers.

Shen Shanwu stepped out of the car. He looked up at the person’s face and immediately remembered the identity of this person–Lu Jingzhi, who was Jiang Huan’s first friend at the coastal base. Knowing his mutant identity, the two had also been in contact several times. Shen Shanwu also asked him to pass on information to Jiang Huan for himself.

Lu Jingzhi asked suspiciously and excitedly, “I heard Xu Ye say that when you were in the Central Alliance, you adopted a son on a whim? Where is your son? By the way, what are you thinking? Why suddenly…”

His chattering words stopped abruptly after Shen Shanwu got out of the car and stood still. He was flipping his lips up and down to maintain a half-open range, and the more he opened, the more his eyes became more and more convex.

Jiang Huan seemed to have known that he would react this way, beckoned to Jiang Tong, and introduced, “This is Uncle Lu Jingzhi. He is Jiang Tong, my adopted son.”

“…” Lu Jingzhi was still only able to move his eyes all over his body, mechanically moving slowly with Shen Shanwu’s progress. Jiang Huan sighed and asked Jiang Tong to follow Zhang Xiaowen in. He stood at the door and waited for Lu Jingzhi to return to his senses.

After a while, Lu Jingzhi regained his most basic language skills and said something that could express any human meaning, “Fuck!”

“He, he… Fuck! It’s too similar! He is Shen…Brother Shen himself, isn’t he?” Lu Jingzhi pointed to Shen Shanwu, who had already left. He was still in panic, lowered his voice, and said, “This is definitely Brother Shen’s illegitimate son, he didn’t run away, or Brother Shen’s younger brother. I don’t believe there are two people so alike in this world!”

“He said he was an orphan… Forget it, I don’t think it matters if he is a relative of Brother Shanwu.” Jiang Huan said, “I will take care of him.”

“Also, after all, they look so alike, it doesn’t matter if they are related by blood or not.” Lu Jingzhi raised his eyebrows. Jiang Huan intuited that his next words would not be good, but he didn’t have time to stop him. He only heard Lu Jingzhi say ambiguously in his ear, “Being young also has benefits, you can play and develop. When he gets older, you will be 30 at most…”

Jiang Huan put one hand on Lu Jingzhi’s mouth and pushed him away very unhurriedly, his eyes full of coldness, “I have never thought about it this way, and I will never do it. You will never mention it again in the future.”

“…” Lu Jingzhi half-opened his mouth, seeing Jiang Huan really angry in front of him, he quickly lowered his eyes in annoyance, “I’m sorry, it was my gaffe… I forgot that you have always been so devoted to Brother Shen…”

After apologizing, Lu Jingzhi was a little angry again. He raised his head and said, “But Jiang Huan, think about it clearly. Brother Shen has been dead for four years. He doesn’t even know that you like him. Why do you have to guard him like this? Even if you can’t let go of Brother Shen for the rest of your life, it’s rare to find someone who looks like him. Maybe it will be more like it when you get older. Even if it’s just a sustenance for your feelings.”

“……”

“To put it bluntly, find a stand-in. You raise him yourself, and all his habits can be based on your preferences. If you like Brother Shen’s type, you can develop him into Brother Shen’s type, just ten years younger. Isn’t this God’s will?”

“Is he Shen Shanwu?” Jiang Huan asked calmly, but the calmer he was, the more he could feel the turbulent waves below his surface.

“…No.”

“Since he is not, it doesn’t matter how similar he looks, it’s useless.” Jiang Huan lowered his eyes, “I treat him as a younger brother, a son, a younger generation. Shen Shanwu as a brother and a lover. I have always been very clear about emotional matters.”

“…” Lu Jingzhi obediently closed his mouth, indicating that he was persuaded, and swore with one hand that he would never mention it again. Jiang Huan was indeed more precocious than him. When he was fifteen years old, he was still foolishly bullying the daughter of Jiang Huan’s nanny, and rubbing sweat and mud on his new clothes. Jiang Huan had already realized his correct sexual orientation, and his friendship with his brother who was ten years older than him was love.

It would be fine if it was just early wisdom, but Jiang Huan was still very paranoid emotionally, so paranoid that he forced himself to be sick. Before Shen Shanwu died, he was shy and refused to say clearly, and he was very secretive about his love and admiration, thinking about waiting for himself to grow up completely and have a certain ability before revealing his heart to Shen Shanwu.

Unexpectedly, just a year later, the Shanhai Team had just been established and recruited seven or eight blood-boiling stunned youth. Shen Shanwu died, and Jiang Huan completely lost the opportunity to tell his love.

Because of Shen Shanwu’s sensitive mutant identity, Jiang Huan fell out with his family at that time, so he could only hold everything in his heart. With no way to tell and no way to vent, Jiang Huan directly suffocated himself out of a mental illness, and he had a morbid resistance and rejection of all those who expressed affection and admiration to him.

Because of death, because of regret, because of powerlessness.

He hates all the feelings that can be developed in him, he hates the admiration that can be resorted to, and he hates the love that can be conveyed to him.

Because when his deepest feelings were just budding, it ended in vain.

Before he knew it, it was too late.

When he was full of love, youthful joy and uneasiness, he realized that he had lost the only person to talk to forever.

The author has something to say:

Shen Shanwu: Can you lower your spoiler gossip? Do you know how much effort the author has to make in order for me, a mutant, to not hear a single thing in the next chapter?

Jiang Huan: …