DS Extra 16

They Swam Through the Dawn and Dusk Boundary (1)

It wasn’t until many days later,  when reliving that night at the mecha field for the umpteenth time, that Ryann vaguely realized he seemed to have been fooled.

He had wanted Jiang Jianming to rely on him more, to not work so hard all alone. In the end, Jiang Jianming had said a few sentimental words and sent him away, leaving him feeling quite depressed.

In the council chamber of the White Jade Palace, the young Crown Prince sat expressionless on high, listening to the various high officials and dignitaries’ rather meaningless speeches, his mind wandering again.

The brilliant chandeliers hung from the ceiling, dissolving into a cluster of light neither far nor near in his vision, just like… that elusive disabled human military academy student.

Who knew how long this push and pull between them would continue.

Ryann suddenly blinked, then thought: Strange, what state am I expecting anyway?

Even stranger, he had only just imagined it when he felt his face grow slightly warm, his heartbeat accelerating.

As if he were doing something bad, touching some incredible taboo… tsk.

“Your Majesty, if I may speak frankly, these past two years of military expenditures…”

“Your Excellencies must all remember that the last Crystal Nest exploration yielded no results. With this kind of consumption, how should we…”

Some high official was still droning on. Ryann’s eyes darkened slightly as he bit his tongue lightly… he was still in a meeting, what was he thinking about.

Well, though there wasn’t much worth listening to in the meeting anyway.

Ryann’s heart itched again with the thought: I wonder what Jiang is doing right now?

The Military Academy had a short holiday, most students had gone home, right? That person had no home to return to—would he be lonely?

“Beep beep beep…“

Suddenly, in the solemn council chamber, an untimely wrist device notification sounded.

The entire venue fell silent.

“…”

Ryann glanced at his wrist device and frowned.

Xie Yuduo immediately laughed. “Oh my, His Highness the Crown Prince forgot to put his wrist device on silent today?”

The general was projecting in from the Far Star, now crossing his legs and looking up with interest. “Who’s looking for our Little Highness?”

Ryann didn’t respond. He had been accustomed to attending government meetings for nearly two years—of course he wouldn’t make such a childish mistake as forgetting to silence his device.

However, he had two numbers. One was for official business, one was personal.

When he was busy, he would disconnect the signal for the former. As for the personal number, only a handful of people were added to it in the first place, and hardly anyone would presumptuously call him—when the Crown Prince was within the Empire’s borders, he could be in a meeting at any time; when in the Far Star, he could be fighting at any time. No one dared to bother him.

There was only one number that had been added in these past few months.

A corner of the wrist device flickered, displaying a simple caller note: Jiang.

Old Marshal Chen cleared his throat and said, “Your Highness.”

Ryann lowered his eyes, gave an indifferent “Mm,” his finger already about to press the reject button.

He was the Crown Prince, and a meeting was currently in progress. Even if it wasn’t a particularly important meeting, it was still part of government affairs.

Personal matters could not delay official business—without anyone reminding him, he still had that much sense of propriety.

The wrist device’s call notification sounded for the third time.

Ryann: “…”

Old Marshal Chen: “Cough, Your Highness?”

The old man stroked his graying beard and exchanged a bewildered look with the yawning female emperor beside him.

Because under the gaze of everyone present, Ryann withdrew his finger from the reject button and instead removed the wrist device’s earpiece, hanging one on his right ear.

The Crown Prince nonchalantly pressed accept and vaguely said to the other side, “…Mm.”

—Although, but, Jiang had actually taken the initiative to call him!

Jiang had taken the initiative to call him! This was the first time!

Of course, he still had his sense of propriety.

The moment he answered, Ryann had already rapidly drafted a script in his mind: he would first politely apologize to Jiang, then indicate that he was currently in a meeting and would call him back immediately after it ended…

—But the next second, labored breathing came from the other side, instantly cutting off his train of thought.

“…Your Highness Ryann…”

The voice on that side was intermittent and weak, panting frighteningly, “I’m sorry, are you… are you busy right now…”

Ryann’s mind went blank with a buzzing sound.

All the scenes and sounds in the council chamber rapidly retreated. He froze in place, a numbing pain like an electric shock climbing up, viciously lashing at his spine.

He suddenly gripped the wrist device. “What’s wrong with you!?”

Beside him, Emperor Lin Ge pointed in astonishment. “What’s wrong with him?”

Old Marshal Chen returned a “You’re asking me?” look.

Ryann lifted his legs and headed out of the council chamber, breaking into a run after two steps. No one dared to stop him. He swung his arm and shoved open the heavy doors of the hall with a loud crash.

The wrist device on the other end didn’t answer him, only increasingly labored breathing sounds. Just listening to them, one could feel the suffocating pain.

“Jiang!” Ryann shouted sternly, “Where are you? I’ll come immediately!”

“School… Building Six, third… third floor…”

The voice on that side grew increasingly indistinct, “Sorry… could you… help…”

In the time it took to walk a few steps, Ryann broke out in a cold sweat. Fortunately, his aircraft was parked downstairs. He vaulted onto it and yanked the control stick forcefully.

“Jiang! Jiang, I’m coming right away. Where don’t you feel well? Third floor… which classroom on the third floor?”

….

The tinnitus had already made it somewhat difficult for Jiang Jianming to hear the voice on the other end clearly.

“Maybe… low blood sugar…”

He murmured weakly as a thread, “Three… three-oh-five… or three-oh-six… ugh…”

The study room was vast and empty, with only him curled up on the floor, cold air rushing upward from the bottom of his abdomen.

Jiang Jianming closed his eyes, his teeth biting his tongue tip neither lightly nor heavily. His whole body kept sweating and trembling, his heartbeat growing faster and faster—when he had collapsed with darkened vision five minutes ago, he had thought it was just a sudden case of low blood sugar, but the symptoms were bizarrely severe.

This was troublesome. The Military Academy was on holiday now, and the infirmary wasn’t on duty either. He didn’t know the number for nearby hospitals, and right now he had even less strength to search and inquire.

To put it dramatically, if he just died suddenly like this, who knew when his corpse would be discovered—by then it might already be rotting.

No matter how calm one’s temperament, the above scenario was still excessively difficult to accept for a sixteen-year-old youth.

Jiang Jianming first called the Third District’s general emergency number, but after two attempts, couldn’t get through. Well, his luck had always been poor.

The symptoms grew increasingly severe. Jiang Jianming felt he was about to pass out. With no other options, he steeled himself and pressed the first entry in his contacts.

—To be fair, at this moment, Jiang Jianming’s choice to call the Crown Prince had not half a credit’s worth of relationship to emotions like “subconscious dependence.”

He hadn’t expected much either. Making this call, he actually just wanted to say before losing consciousness: Could you help me call a hospital?

Any reliable, moral friend would be able to help with this small favor, right?

But the reaction on the other end was intense, completely beyond Jiang Jianming’s expectations.

Soon, he heard from afar a rather loud shattering sound, then the sound of the classroom door being knocked open, then hurried footsteps.

In his darkening vision, a blurred shadow quickly approached and knelt on one knee before him.

Ryann was panting, lifting his upper body from the cold floor and holding him tightly.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here.”

“Hang on a bit longer, you’re fine, I’ll take you to the hospital.”

Jiang Jianming’s head and neck drooped limply. He seemed to move his lips, but made no sound.

—Good Your Highness, he actually wanted to say, I just wanted an ambulance, but didn’t mean for you to personally come drive.

“Jiang!” Ryann grasped his soft, limp palm, only to find it both damp and cold. Lifting that person’s head, there wasn’t half a trace of color on his face either.

He immediately scooped Jiang Jianming up horizontally by the legs and quickly headed out.

Jiang Jianming’s consciousness was hazy. When he was picked up like this with a sudden change in position, he didn’t even manage a grunt before his head lolled to the side and he passed out, his limbs drooping limply, his whole body soft as water.

After who knows how many seconds, his five senses recovered somewhat, and he realized a piece of candy had been stuffed into his mouth.

A safety belt had been fastened around him, and the aircraft was taking off with vibrations. It was sweeping over the glass shards scattered across the corridor floor, rushing out through the huge gap in a certain glass door.

Wind howled. Jiang Jianming squinted sluggishly at Ryann’s back as he piloted the aircraft ahead, thinking: Is something not quite right here?

—Low blood sugar was truly harmful. It wasn’t until this aircraft landed at the hospital entrance that Jiang Jianming groggily figured out what exactly wasn’t right.

Ryann pulled open the aircraft door, unfastened his safety belt, and carried him out.

“It’s not just low blood sugar,” Ryann said in a low voice. “You have a fever. It should be the fever causing the low blood sugar. How did you let it get this bad?”

“…Your Highness,” Jiang Jianming asked in a trembling voice, his expression seemingly filled with doubt about the entire world, “Just now… the teaching building… how did you get in…?”

Ryann: “I couldn’t very well leisurely park the aircraft downstairs first, then run up the stairs to the third floor to find you, or wait for an elevator.”

Jiang Jianming couldn’t catch his breath. “You… you crashed through the window to get in…!?”

Ryann pressed his lips together and stopped talking. It seemed the Little Highness at least knew some shame. He carried Jiang Jianming through the hospital’s main entrance as medical staff surrounded them.

Just as he was placing Jiang Jianming on the mobile stretcher, Ryann leaned down and said very quietly, “…But I will pay for the window glass repairs.”

Jiang Jianming resignedly closed his eyes: “…”

…Is that the point?