The General Loves to Collect Little Red Flowers

Edited by Noks

Not only did Uncle Ming get frightened, even Le Yao himself was stunned by the result of his calculation. He still remembered that Uncle Ming had once told him how Xu Yao’s parents had died in a natural disaster. An earthquake had hit his mother’s hometown while they were visiting her old school. Xu Yao’s parents; his father-in-law and mother-in-law had sacrificed themselves to save the local students inside. In the end, the rescue team had found the two underneath the ruins.

Since it was a situation that Uncle Ming had seen with his own eyes, it shouldn’t be false. So, was there something wrong with the birth dates he had given?

Uncle Ming also thought of this. He had seen the dead bodies of Xu Yao’s parents, so it was impossible for them to be alive now. But how could the birth dates be wrong? He had given Le Yao information that was documented in the hospital’s records, which should be correct.

Or... were the hospital’s records actually wrong from the very beginning?

Uncle Ming checked the hospital’s records again and found that there was no problem with the information he had said. Just to be sure, Le Yao also calculated it again, but he arrived at the same result: the owners of these two birthdays should still be alive, and in addition, they were not a husband and wife pair.

“Uncle Ming, is it possible that there was a mistake when they did the registration?” Le Yao thought it wasn’t impossible for such a mistake to occur.

“It’d be a coincidence if they wrote it wrong for one person, but if both of them are wrong...” Uncle Ming frowned, “Did someone change the date? It doesn’t make sense...”

“Uncle Ming, let’s put this matter aside first. I’ll think of another way later. The most important point is that we now know that Xu Yao wants to find them, so I’m at ease. I was mainly worried if he would mind my intentions, so it’s good to know he won’t.”

“How could he mind?” Uncle Ming exhaled in a long sigh and said, “Previously, he was young, so he insisted on waiting in the forest for the rescue team to finish their searching, and was reluctant to leave. In fact, the General still wants to see the Old General and Old Madam, but he may actually be afraid of the disappointment that comes from having too many expectations.”

“That’s right, if the previous data is wrong and if I manually calculate their specific birth date one by one, I’ll find the correct one, right? It’ll be alright if I just figure one of them out correctly,” said Le Yao.

“You should be able to calculate Old Madam’s birth date. Maybe because of a special mission or other circumstances, the Old General’s information has been changed and is thus unknown.”

That makes sense, thought Le Yao. Since he had already determined the day, he needed to precisely calculate her birth time. At worst, he might have to calculate things by every hour. But if he wasn’t even sure of which day it was, he would go bald of hair loss trying to determine that.

So, when Xu Yao came back, he saw Le Yao muttering something while writing on his light brain. He was so immersed in his thoughts that he didn’t even notice his husband’s return.

As he unbuttoned his military uniform, Xu Yao whispered into his ear, “Le Yaoyao, what are you looking at that has you so fascinated?”

Le Yao got so scared that he shivered, “My Lord, you scared me to death. When did you come back?”

Xu Yao smiled and rubbed Le Yao’s head. “It’s not been long since my arrival. What are you looking at?”

Le Yao hesitated a little before simply showing a sting of data on the light brain to Xu Yao. If Xu Yao had tried to summon his parents before, this data wouldn’t be unfamiliar to him.

Xu Yao understood it with just a glance. “You are trying to figure out my parents’ birthday?”

Le Yao stared blankly and poked Xu Yao’s ribs with his elbow as he exclaimed, “Hello, officer, why do you call them just your parents ah?! Yours is not mine?”

Xu Yao chuckled, “Alright, I’m wrong. You’re trying to figure out our parents’ specific birthdays?”

“Un. Today, I asked Uncle Ming for Mom and Dad’s birthday, and then calculated it. It turns out he gave me the wrong date.”

“It’s wrong?”

Le Yao nodded, “From the dates that Uncle Ming gave me, I calculated that both of them are still alive, so it’s obviously wrong. Now, I’ve arranged every hour in Mom’s birthday data in the row, and wanted to try each of them one by one.”

Xu Yao was moved, but he said helplessly, “I tried as well, but it didn’t work, for both of them. Since there was no response, they may have been reborn.”

Le Yao: “...”

Xu Yao said, “Alright, it’s late. Drink your milk and go to bed.”

Le Yao couldn’t sleep. He really wanted to help Xu Yao summon his parents, so that at least his father and mother could see how excellent their son was after he had grown up, and thereby make him happy. But now Xu Yao said that he had already tried all the ways he had thought of.

Then again, Xu Yao could summon the undead by himself now. Maybe there’s still a way, so why not try it?

At a loss, Le Yao said, “I’m not sleepy yet. Have you eaten? I’ll make you something to eat if you haven’t.”

Xu Yao replied, “I’ve eaten. If you are not sleepy, do you want to take a bath with me?”

Le Yao: “...”

Le Yao looked into Xu Yao’s eyes, but he didn’t dare to go into the bathroom together. However, when Xu Yao took his bath, he stood outside, leaned on the door and chatted with him through the communication device while also picking out his change of clothes. He hadn’t seen his husband all day, but he had really thought about him all day. They were a typical couple embodying ’love after marriage’, so this time period was still in a stage of ’love’.

Hearing the sound of the hairdryer, Le Yao opened the door and handed Xu Yao his pajamas, while also telling him, “Husband, guess who I saw in the 12th Army Headquarters today?”

Xu Yao said, “Yang Hengtian.”

Le Yao was stunned, “How did you know?”

Xu Yao laughed while putting on his pajamas. He took the glass of warm milk from the intelligent chef and handed it to Le Yao. “Leslie told me.”

“That’s right, it was Yang Hengtian. But there was something strange about the interaction between Yan Jie and Yang Hengtian. I don’t know, did something happen between them? I think Yan Jie is afraid of him. No, not afraid, when he’s facing Yang Hengtian, it seems like he feels a little guilty and embarrassed? Anyway, it’s weird. Do you know what happened?”

“The details are not clear to me either. But the Yang Family had always hoped that Yan Jie could join them. The Yang’s second son and Yan Jie are classmates and they have a good relationship. The Yang Family has always asked Yang Hengxi to persuade Yan Jie into joining. Although Yan Jie is a Beta, he is a top player in the hacking industry and is very sought after. I remember, after a while, Yang Hengxi seemed to be almost successful in securing him. The Yang Family also invited Yan Jie to a wine party hosted by them. But after that, we don’t know why, Yan Jie didn’t go to the Yang Family again, and came to the Flying Wolf Division instead. He said he wanted to serve the country, but there should be another reason. However, it’s a private thing after all, so I didn’t probe into it anymore.”

Le Yao answered, “I see.”

“I remember you saying before that Yan Jie wouldn’t have a wife because he would only have a husband. Do you think Yang Hengtian and Yan Jie...?”

“Haha, no one knows me like my husband.”

Le Yao really had this feeling; when he saw Yan Jie and Yang Hengtian standing together for the first time, he felt that there was something special between these two people. However, he didn’t calculate the fate between them carefully, so he couldn’t guarantee that his feeling was right.

Tarot Empire was still very open on the matter of choosing a spouse. Whether it was the pairing of an Alpha-Alpha, Alpha-Omega, Alpha-Beta or Beta-Beta, it was all up to one’s will. Except for the compulsory marriage intervention for Omegas who had passed a certain age, the others had no restriction.

Omegas were kept under such surveillance mainly because their population was too low. At present, of the total population of both Tarot and Huaxia, Betas accounted for 70% of it, Alphas for 20%, and Omegas for only 10%. Under the law of monogamy in marriage, even if all Omegas married Alphas, half of the Alphas would have to choose someone else. So there were a lot of Alpha-Beta pairings in the army, especially in the field army. Most of them were Alpha-Beta pairs. Since the environment of a field army was harsh, there were few Omegas who could stay there, but there were plenty of excellent Betas available.

Speaking of Yan Jie and Yang Hengtian, it was very good for them to be destined to be together. Le Yao could see from his appearance itself that Yang Hengtian was a good person.

If Yan Jie came to know Le Yao’s thoughts, he would jump three chi into the air. However, during the next few days, Le Yao was still wondering how to confirm whether Xu Yao’s parents were still in the Underworld or not, so he couldn’t find the time to talk to Yan Jie about Yang Hengtian. Le Yao looked for Uncle Ming and asked him if there was anything in the house that had been left by Xu Yao’s parents, preferably an item with a deep memory attached to it. Then Uncle Ming told him that there was a small rattan bear.

When Xu Yao’s mother was alive, her favourite hobby was to make crafts by hand, and she was especially good at knitting and weaving. The small rattan bear was a three-year-old Xu Yao’s birthday present.

Le Yao didn’t know if the rattan bear still existed in the house, but soon, he found it in Xu Yao’s study with Leslie’s help. Nonetheless, it was definitely not good to burn such a memorable thing as an offering. After all, it was a gift by Xu Yao’s parents. Seeing that he kept it properly in a box, Le Yao understood that he must love this gift. Thus, Le Yao took photos of the rattan bear and printed more than 20 similar ones using the 3D printer. As soon as night fell, he began to try to summon Xu Yao’s parents according to the list of birth dates he had calculated.

Each time, he would burn a bear and conduct a summoning. If the name used in the summoning didn’t match with the eight characters used, nobody would be able to receive the rattan bear. But once it matched, Le Yao believed that the other side would understand its meaning, and surely come.

In fact, there was no evidence to prove that the spirits of Xu Yao’s parents still existed, but Le Yao thought that he should do everything that he could. Even if there was only a one in ten thousand chance, what if he was correct? Wasn’t it a pity that a kind and warm-hearted couple had to leave their only son behind? Perhaps they didn’t even enter the reincarnation circle yet, right?

“How many bears are left?” Le Yao asked Yan Jie. He had conducted a summoning ritual several times in a row by now, but had not seen any new undead appear. Xu Yao still hadn’t returned from the Hall of The Great Moon for the day. Le Yao wanted to finish this trial while he wasn’t at home. In case he succeeded, he could then surprise Xu Yao.

“There are six left. Do you want me to print some more?”

“No, there are only six sets of eight characters left.” Le Yao picked up a paper bear again, stuck a talisman on the bear with a set of eight characters written on it and burned them both. When he saw the paper bear turn to grey, he devoutly knelt down and drew a rune on the ground. “Here, on this land, I call the most Spiritual of the Gods, through the Heavens and the Earth, out of the Secluded and into the Underworld, with the spirit and worship of my heart—”

He didn’t get to finish the chant before the rune on the ground disappeared without a sound.

There were only five paper bears left. Le Yao grabbed one again, stuck on the talisman and burned it. He didn’t mind the trouble and kept sticking the talisman on a bear over and over again, burning it over and over, and then trying to summon the spirits.

Now, there was only one left, and there had been no reaction at all.

Le Yao was really frustrated by this time. He first tried to summon Xu Yao’s father, using his eight characters, but there was no result. The one left now were the eight characters of Xu Yao’s mother. If this last one still gave no result, then it was really...

“Mr Xiao Le, would you like to rest first?” asked Uncle Ming. Le Yao had repeatedly burned things up close, had repeated the exercise of squatting and standing up over and over again, to the extent that beads of sweat could be seen on his forehead.

“I’ll try this last one.” Le Yao then took the last paper bear, stuck the talisman on it, burned it and squatted down...

“Here, on this land, I call the most Spiritual of the Gods, through the Heavens and the Earth, out of the Secluded and into the Underworld, with the spirit and worship of my heart, to please hear me out. Mrs Xiang Xing, in either Fu Ta Yuan or Xianai Town, if you are listening to this prayer, come and gather quickly!”

“Hoo ~” There was a small whirlwind that formed on the rune this time.

But it was only the wind!!

What’s wrong? Ah, ah, ah!

Le Yao was so angry that he started to walk around like a headless fly. “Pa pa!” After slapping the table two times, he whined in pain as he realized that his hand hurt so much. He hurried to blow on it with his mouth when his hand was grabbed.

Xu Yao had come back only to see this scene and was shocked, “What’s the matter?”

Le Yao took a hard breath, “It’s alright!”

Then he went upstairs and printed two more paper bears.

Xu Yao found the bear very familiar, but he knew that it wasn’t the one his mother had left for him. He asked Uncle Ming with his eyes: What’s wrong with Team Leader Xiao Le today?

Uncle Ming spread his hands in a helpless manner.

At this time, Le Yao pulled Xu Yao, who was standing in front of him to one side, before shouting, “Move aside!”

“What’s up?”

Le Yao didn’t answer. He walked to the center of the living room, stuck two sets of eight characters talismans, which had had the strongest reaction, to the bear, then bit his fingers and drew two runes on the ground with his blood as he chanted, “Here, on this land, I call the most Spiritual of the Gods, through the Heavens and the Earth, out of the Secluded and into the Underworld, with the spirit and worship of my heart, to please hear me out. Mr Xu Wei and Mrs Xiang Xing from Qingze Middle School in Xianai Town, if you are listening to this prayer, come and gather quickly!”

“Hoo ~ ~” A strong wind entered the room and blew the curtains out loudly. Le Yao’s spirit came back to the land in a flash and looked around.

Nothing at all! Did I make any mistake?

Xu Yao understood what Le Yao was trying to do. He patted Le Yao’s head and sighed, “Forget it.”

Le Yao didn’t know where the urge came from, it might be that he was feeling some strange emotions because of his pregnancy. Without a second thought, he loudly yelled at Xu Yao, as if he had been possessed by a snake spirit disease.

“What do you mean by forget it?! The old couple must still be there! I can obviously feel their spiritual fluctuations, and yet they won’t come! Don’t they miss their son? They don’t want a son or grandchildren?! I’m so angry!”

Xu Yao: “...”

“Why are you looking at me like this?!” shouted Le Yao furiously.

Xu Yao replied, “I’m not looking at you.”

Le Yao frowned, “If you aren’t looking at me then who are you looking at?” He turned around to match Xu Yao’s line of sight and suddenly widened his eyes. “Ahhh!!!”

Behind him was a couple in matching clothes staring at him.

...

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