Chapter 4: You'll Pay for the Button
Ten minutes later, the hospital's emergency airship touched down.
Kaspar was taken inside for a full-body examination. Lin Yan, meanwhile, felt like he was barefoot on cobblestones heated to fifty degrees Celsius—his legs simply would not stay still.
He bustled from department to department, running circles around himself.
When he finally got the prenatal report, Lin Yan couldn't be bothered to rejoin the queue. What he held in his hands wasn't a report—it was his life. He seized the first gap he saw and grabbed the chief physician. "Hello, could you take a look at this for me?"
The sub-female doctor glanced down. "The egg is perfectly healthy. In all my years of practice, this is the first time I've seen a male insect's hormone levels actually meet the standard in an egg. Just keep an eye on nutrition from here on out."
Lin Yan's heart dropped back into his stomach. The invisible string stretched taut inside him quietly went slack. Then he pressed further: "How exactly should we handle nutrition? I'm worried about my female consort's health—I don't know how to care for him."
How fragile could a female insect possibly be?
Plenty of military females carried eggs straight onto the battlefield.
The sub-female doctor was baffled, but to get rid of him, he dug out a reading list from some dusty corner. "Just study from this. I need to call the next patient—you can go."
Lin Yan caught the hint. He quickly said "Thank you," folded the list, stuffed it into his chest, and left.
At that moment, the sub-female doctor suddenly noticed that after this well-behaved-looking family member turned around, the back of his neck was white as jade, with no insect markings. The one he'd just dismissed was... a male insect lord?
And one willing to accompany a female insect to a prenatal checkup, and so attentive to the egg?
Insect God above, could there really be such a responsible male insect in this world? Was he really not dreaming?
And he'd been so gentle, saying thank you to him—did this male insect lord have feelings for him? Sure, he already had a female consort, but he wouldn't mind being his female attendant.
He could join his big family, and even serve his female consort during postpartum confinement...
The sub-female doctor's heart fluttered. By the time he worked up the nerve to get closer to this male insect lord, Lin Yan had already boarded the airship home. He was sunk into a small corner of the fabric sofa, the light of his smart-brain screen flickering on and off.
He lowered his eyes, browsing the reading list the sub-female doctor had recommended, taking notes on the side.
He was so absorbed that Lin Yan didn't notice Kaspar's blade-like gaze had been fixed on him for a long while—
Everything today had happened too suddenly, too quickly.
Too fast for Kaspar to figure out the male insect's purpose.
The former male master had been brutal and tyrannical, beating and cursing him at the slightest provocation, but Kaspar could read him easily.
It was simply wanting him dead—because he didn't like him, so he schemed to kill him.
But.
Outside the airship, the star cluster glittered brilliantly, yet Kaspar's gaze still uncontrollably drifted downward, fixing hard on the bandage around Lin Yan's wrist.
The bandage's knot was tied crookedly, the wound treatment wasn't proper either. Lin Yan even occasionally tugged at the wound while taking notes—his expression twisting in pain, yet he still wouldn't put down the smart-brain.
This didn't match the character of male insect lords.
He simply couldn't understand why Lin Yan was doing this.
Suddenly.
Lin Yan's attention pulled away from the smart-brain. He looked up, and his eyes met Kaspar's.
"Female consort." He fidgeted, scratching his head sheepishly, and asked in a small voice, "Could you lend me some money?"
—So it was about money after all.
Kaspar's heart clicked with understanding.
He had seven resource planets under his name, plus countless properties and companies.
And as a female consort, his assets had a degree of independence. He'd already written his will—if he died, all remaining property would go to military funds.
So the male master didn't dare let him die.
Or rather, before squeezing him dry of money, he didn't dare let him die.
Kaspar lowered his eyes to Lin Yan. Beneath his long, thick lashes hid a veiled cruelty. He said: "Sure."
In his field of vision, the little male's gem-like eyes lit up.
Like a voice-activated light.
Lin Yan fidgeted: "Lend me 2,000, okay? I'll write you an IOU, pay you back later."
Kaspar: "?"
Kaspar froze.
He felt like he'd been freezing up far too often lately, but the male master's recent behavior was truly impossible to fathom—
Buying an airship cost two billion.
A shopping mall cost two hundred million.
Luxury jewelry cost two million.
Even the most ordinary T-shirt, as long as it was male-insect-exclusive clothing, started at two hundred thousand minimum.
And two thousand star coins was at most enough to buy a male insect a bottle of mineral water.
Kaspar suspected something was wrong with his brain, or that the male insect had actually meant twenty million and just omitted the "ten million" at the end.
Yeah.
That must be it.
And once he'd figured it out, Kaspar's execution was superb. A message popped up on Lin Yan's smart-brain: [Bank card deposit: 20,000,000 star coins].
Now, the one startled was Lin Yan. "You sent the wrong amount, didn't you?"
Just moments ago, while shopping for ingredients according to the pregnancy nutrition reading list, he'd discovered his bank card was completely empty.
He pulled up the transaction history.
Well, well. The original owner had lived a life of debauchery and extravagance, scattering cash like confetti every day. The Federation subsidy plus the portion of wages Kaspar regularly transferred to him hadn't been nearly enough to squander.
He could only painstakingly delete items from his shopping cart, frantically comparing cost-effectiveness, before finally compressing the pregnancy nutrition food down to two thousand.
And then, borrowing money from his female consort.
Yeah.
Borrowing money from his female consort, to buy his female consort pregnancy nutrition meals.
Damn it, if slapping himself weren't so painful, he really wanted to slap himself.
He was such scum!
Other people unconditionally doted on their wives—meanwhile, he doted on his wife under no economic conditions.
As the head of the household, not only did he not earn money, he had to spend his wife's money to please his wife.
Lin Yan, a straight man through and through, couldn't quite take it.
What he couldn't take even more was that his wife was actually, this, rich?
Not only that, his wife wore an expression like "mere pocket change, hardly worth mentioning": "The male master said two thousand, but I took the liberty of guessing your meaning—it should be twenty million. Please accept it."
Lin Yan was indeed short on money, but he had his own morals: "This is way too much. I haven't even written you an IOU yet—aren't you afraid I can't pay it back?"
The un-darkened Kaspar was far too pure-hearted. He hadn't even considered—what if Lin Yan were a deadbeat who borrowed money and never repaid it?
In human society, Lin Yan had encountered plenty of cases where someone trusted the other party's character, lent money without an IOU, and the other party turned their back and denied everything.
Like his own father, for instance.
But instead.
Kaspar said: "I don't need your IOU. You can pay me back whenever."
"I trust you."
Twenty million star coins and no IOU required—this deadly trust made a chunk of Lin Yan's heart soften abruptly. Lin Yan excitedly grabbed Kaspar's hand and solemnly promised:
"Don't worry."
"I swear on my character—no, my insect character—I am absolutely not the kind of insect who borrows money and doesn't pay it back."
Lin Yan spoke word by word, tone earnest: "I will definitely, definitely go make money right away! The moment I have money, I'll pay you back immediately!"