[Zerg] After being reborn as a male Zergling, he refused to be a kept man.

After Fei left, Zhuang Nian continued to work at the military headquarters.

Although he didn't want to care about the life or death of that lecherous bug anymore, the public was paying a lot of attention to the war in Victoria, and no matter how he tried to block it, news about it would still keep reaching his ears.

You win today, lose tomorrow, and win again the day after...

Zhuang Nian's mood was as anxious as that of all the insects concerned about this battle, as the war dragged on. Finally, on the eighteenth day of the war, news came back that they had won the final victory in this war.

All insects will remember that day in history, when a female soldier named Fei, in just eighteen days, planted the Empire's banner on Victoria, a battlefield that the insects were ashamed of and unwilling to mention, and wiped away years of shame with an absolutely overwhelming victory, becoming the most glorious and radiant jewel of the military! And the war god that the insect race was proud of!

Amid cheers, the boss beckoned to the black-haired male insect: "Zhuang Nian, come here for a moment."

The office was crowded with insects, all of whom held high military ranks, including the regimental commander of the Fourth Army Corps.

Zhuang Nian was no stranger to storms, and seeing the situation, he guessed what was going on. He spoke first, asking, "Has something happened to General Fei?"

The officers exchanged glances and told him the truth:

"General Fei was seriously injured during the final mopping-up operation. When he was found, both of his wing bones were broken and his bodily functions were severely impaired."

"And the worm eggs inside his abdomen are about to hatch. Because they haven't received enough nourishment, they are absorbing twice the energy from General Fei's body. This is causing his healing ability to completely lag behind the rate at which his wounds are worsening. If this continues..."

Zhuang Nian understood.

It's simply a matter of saving the big one versus the small one, a question he had already considered before Fei went to the battlefield.

War is ever-changing and extremely cruel. The soon-to-be-hatched insect eggs desperately need the companionship and care of their male father. From the moment Fei decided to go to war, Zhuang Nian knew that he was destined to be separated from this first child of his.

The reason he had Fei remove the insect eggs before the expedition was to prevent such a dilemma.

Zhuang Nian would rather deliberately lose the egg at three months than kill it when the egg was about to hatch at four months.

But that female soldier was stubborn and could neither take responsibility for the eggs nor have a say in her own life when something went wrong. Now that things have come to this, she has to play the villain.

Zhuang Nian's face was gloomy, his jaw was tense, and he didn't speak.

The officers were getting impatient. Fei's superior, the commander of the Fourth Legion, was about to say something to Zhuang Nian when the silent male insect spoke up.

On the other side of the Victoria battlefield...

The female soldier, covered in blood, lay on her side on the blood-soaked sheets. Ignoring the excruciating pain of her broken back bones, she used her hand to protect her throbbing abdomen as she gritted her teeth and said to the medic:

"At all costs! Protect the eggs!"

The military doctor hung his head, unable to do anything until he received Zhuang Nian's reply.

He dared not treat Fei, not even administering simple painkillers, because that would be bad for the insect eggs.

He didn't dare abandon Fei to protect the eggs, because the black-haired male was known for favoring females; perhaps he would sacrifice the young to save the eggs? (Although that was unlikely.)

His subordinates looked somber, thinking that the black-haired male insect would most likely choose the egg over the female insect. They took off their hats and began to grieve silently.

Only Xiu'er and Jiao Ni remained, their eyes red as they stared at the communicator, anxiously clinging to that faint hope, repeatedly asking, "Has Lord Zhuang Nian replied? Who exactly are you protecting? Who are you protecting?"

Actually, they hadn't been waiting for very long; only a few minutes had passed since the news broke, but...

The severely injured Fei was on the verge of collapse.

Blood flowed from his wounds like water being poured out of a container, and the energy in his body was dissipating at an alarming rate. He was like a flower that had been drained of its moisture, withering away at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Fei's face was deathly pale, and he felt two forces desperately fighting for his life force.

One was the bony wings on his back, racing against time to heal his wounds. The other was the worm egg inside his abdomen, diligently drawing energy.

Gradually, the insect egg weakened, and the jumping rhythm slowed down...

Fei immediately called Xiuer to his side and ordered him, "Quick! Cut off my bone wings!"

Xiuer shook his head, his eyes red, and hot tears streamed down his face.

The meaning of bone wings to the female general is self-evident. Her general is still so young, and now that he has become a god in one battle, he will lose his bone wings and become a useless insect. She cannot accept it and cannot bring herself to do it.

Moreover, he understood that after his general's bone wings were cut off, he would become nothing more than a vessel for the insect eggs to absorb energy, and he probably wouldn't survive...

"General, please wait! Please wait! Lord Zhuang Nian hasn't replied yet. Given his kindness to you, perhaps! Perhaps! Perhaps he will save you..."

Excessive blood loss had left Fei too weak to speak. Just as he pointed at Joni, the military finally returned to communication.

The officers pounded their fists on the table, their faces flushed with excitement, shouting, "Save General Fei! Save him! Lord Zhuang Nian said! Save him!"

The room reeked of blood, which not only impaired the insects' sense of smell but also made them deaf.

What did they hear?

That black-haired male insect was actually going to abandon its soon-to-be-hatched egg, a precious double-yolk egg, to save its own general?

The team leader looked at everyone standing there dumbfounded on the screen, wishing he could fly over there. Just as he was about to slam his fist on the table and start yelling, Zhuang Nian pushed him away.

"Discard the insect eggs and do everything in your power to save General Fei."

A handsome, black-haired male insect appeared on the screen, his expression as cold as ice. He left behind this thunderous statement and then cut off the communication.

Xiuer was the first to react, immediately grabbing a syringe of hemostatic agent and injecting it into his general. He then grabbed the still somewhat bewildered medic and yelled, "Quick! Get the insect eggs out! Do exactly as Lord Zhuang Nian said! Hurry!"

Fei wanted to stop it, to struggle, to protect the egg in his womb, but his consciousness was quickly fading away. All he could do was desperately protect his stomach with his hands.

The poor, abandoned insect egg seemed to sense something, and after twitching twice under its parent's palm, it fell silent.

-

Fei woke up on the way back to the main star. Apart from the bone wings that had not yet healed, his body was fine.

He stroked his stomach; the scar from the dissection to remove the eggs had disappeared. If it weren't for the dull, lifeless insect eggs right beside him, he would have thought he was just having a dream.

"Slow down," Fei said to his subordinates. "Walk slowly..."

Thus, what should have been a one-day journey took a full week.

On the day they returned to the main star, the sky was cloudless. The devastating defeat of several years ago seemed to have been blown away by the wind when Fei returned in triumph, and then forgotten.

When the warship stopped above the military headquarters, the insects spread the news and lined the streets to welcome it. Countless flowers and applause paved the way for the triumphant silver-haired female soldier, and with the grandest and most splendid ceremony, they sent their proud war god to the altar.

Fei held a skeleton and an egg in his arms, looking down from the sky, and felt that the grand scene was very similar to the funeral many years ago...

As a child, he walked through the grand and solemn funeral procession, carrying his female father's empty coffin into the sea of ​​stars, vowing that one day he would conquer the war and bring victory and his female father home.

That thought kept urging him forward, forward, and forward again, and gradually it became an unresolved knot in his heart and an obsession.

Now he has done it, returning home laden with honor and glory. He has finally fulfilled the bold promise he made in his childhood, surpassing his predecessors to become a hero, but he cannot be happy.

In a sea of ​​stars...

Fei placed the cold bones, wrapped in a battle flag, into the star coffin that had been empty for many years. He removed his military cap, gently stroked the white characters on the monument, and said in a hoarse smile, "Father, welcome home."

In his arms lay a dull, lifeless insect egg, and at his feet was a small star coffin.

Xiuer and Jiaoni exchanged a glance and whispered, "General, Lord Zhuang Nian has requested leave and is not at headquarters..."

Fei nodded, and as he bent down to place the insect egg into the star coffin, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart, and his hand trembled violently.

"General!"

"General!"

Xiuer and Joni rushed forward to support the unsteady female soldier, their eyes filled with worry.

Fei clutched her chest, and after the inexplicable palpitation subsided, she picked up the insect egg that had rolled into the coffin and hugged it back to her arms. Touching the dusty shell, she said, "Do you want to see your male father? How about your female father takes you to him?"

That evening, at the military headquarters' victory celebration banquet, the chief insect, Gong Fei, did not attend.

Just as she had left, the female insect stood at the doorway, clutching the lifeless eggs, and asked the male insect inside through the door, "Master, would you like to see our eggs and say goodbye?"

The male insect did not appear until dawn.

It makes sense, considering that the joy of becoming a father for the first time and the pain of losing a child only last a few days. It's normal for the male insect not to want to see the female.

Fei stood outside the door for five days and five nights, holding the insect egg. On the morning of the sixth day, he fainted due to a relapse of his wound and was taken to the hospital by Xiuer and Jiaoni.

Zhuang Nian also took off the black cloth that he had worn on his arm for 21 days and sent a message to the Male Insect Protection Association.

His kindness towards the female soldier had long been a well-known story. Now, as a national hero and the empire's most proud war god, the Male Insect Protection Association finally took a liking to that unruly female soldier and said to Zhuang Nian:

"Now that General Fei has been honored, he has become a candidate for regimental commander and a strong contender for the title of marshal successor. In this battle, he made a great sacrifice for the empire. If you wish, you can promote him to queen right now."

The male insect protection association then produced a stack of documents, having thoughtfully completed all the procedures in advance; all the male insects needed to do was sign them.

Zhuang Nian remained indifferent, his voice unchanged, and he shook his head slightly as he said:

"You've misunderstood. I've called you here to dissolve my marriage with General Fei. If possible, I hope we can get everything done today."