Hornád operated the apparatus, which was suspended on An Jin’s abdomen, and moved away. He pulled out a metal piece connected to the screen and walked over to the bed. He leaned over and was about to make his move when he thought of something and, holding back his excitement, handed the metal piece to Norman. “His Majesty, please attach the metal piece to An An’s belly.”
Norman frowned at the cold, glowing silver metal piece.
Hornád, who grew up with him and knew him well, immediately said, “It’s not cold, it’s the right temperature.”
Norman let go of An Jin’s hand, took the metal piece, touched it with his fingertips to make sure it wasn’t cold, and lifted the hem of An Jin’s trench coat.
Hornád and Billy both turned around. The two had checked An Jin every morning since he’d been pregnant, and they knew exactly how possessive Norman was of An Jin. Soon, Norman said, “All right.”
Hornád adjusted the instrument and looked at the display with Billy. The next moment, both of them said excitedly, “It’s really two fetuses!”
Billy pointed to the image on the left. “It’s a human!”
Hornád took a deep breath. “Oh my God, it’s a mermaid baby and a human baby.”
Three minutes later, An Jin and Norman saw the test results. An Jin looked at the two babies in the orb with surprise and looked nervously at Billy. “Is it dangerous to have a human baby inside the egg?”
Billy said soothingly, “Don’t worry about it. I understand that human babies don’t breathe on their own inside their mothers. He will absorb the same nutrients you take in as the mermaid baby.”
Hornád nodded and pointed to a column of data and said, “They are both healthy at the moment.” He paused and looked worried. “It’s just that mermaid eggs and human babies have different gestation times; mermaid eggs give birth in six months, while human babies have to stay in the mother’s body for nine months, so I’m afraid it’s hard to tell when you’re due.”
Billy, the doctor the elders had found for An Jin, who was an Aisa mermaid, was licensed to practice obstetrics and was not too worried when he said, “The mermaid egg has to go through the process of incubation outside the body, and when the baby is developed enough to come out of the body, the birth can be induced.”
Hornád’s expression relaxed. “You’re right.”
An Jin also sighed with relief and turned to Norman, who was still looking down at the test results. Norman looked extra serious, his eyes moving very slowly, and An Jin almost had the illusion that Norman was trying to memorize the test results.
Norman had just heard the two doctors, but he was focused on the babies, so he finished the test results and asked the doctor, “Will An An have a hard time with the twin babies?”
Billy replied, “It may be a bit late, but the empress need not worry, the king is in good health, just pay attention to the nutrition every day in the future.”
After that, An Jin stopped eating three meals a day steadily with Norman and began eating less and more. An Jin told his friends about the test results and reaped many blessings.
Within a few days, it was Siao’s New Year. Siao’s New Year was not very festive, but because of the official holiday, the streets were more crowded, and all the buildings were flashing with colored lights. It seemed to be more lively than usual.
An Jin was not familiar with Siao’s holiday customs, so he looked it up online and learned that it was customary for the royal family to send blessings to the people every year and accompany them to welcome the New Year.
He looked up the videos of blessings from previous years, and each video was very similar, with Norman giving a short blessing and then counting down to the New Year.
Each time it was just Norman alone, it seemed more lonely during the holiday season. The comments also pushed for marriage, hoping Norman would find a mate.
In the evening, Norman carried the washed up little mate to the bed. After An Jin landed on the bed, he didn’t withdraw his hand as usual, but grabbed Norman’s sleeve. “I don’t want to sleep.”
Norman said, “It’s almost ten o’clock.”
An Jin blinked his pretty blue eyes. “But I’m not sleepy at all, I want to welcome the new year with you.”
Norman’s eyes moved slightly, he was very excited about the little mate’s proposal, but smelling the faint milk scent on the little mate, he refused. “No, you have to rest more, it’s not good to stay up late.”
An Jin complained, “I slept for a long time during the day, I don’t want to sleep at all. You are married to me, how can I still send my blessing alone?!”
Norman’s heart warmed slightly. An Jin saw his expression relax and immediately said, “I won’t sleep anyway.”
Norman’s eyes showed a bit of helplessness, and he wanted to laugh a bit because of little mate’s temper-like attitude. He thought about it and took a step back. “You sleep now, I’ll wake you up at twelve o’clock.”
“Then you rest with me, get up when it’s almost the turning point, and the spiritual sea will be better.” An Jin said, then paused and reminded, “Make sure you call me! Otherwise, I’m sure I’ll get angry.”
Norman thought for a moment, took him to lie down and kissed him on the lips. “Okay.”
An Jin found a comfortable position next to him. He recently had a good rest, and his body had developed a memory. Not long after, he fell asleep.
Norman’s terminal vibrated. He clicked on it, and it was a message from the news department. He looked tenderly at the little mate in his arms and returned the message: [I’ll be live at eleven fifty-five, then you guys switch to the official live room.]
When An Jin woke up again, he saw Norman wearing a straight military uniform, kneeling on one knee on the bed, leaning down and touching his face.
An Jin blinked his eyes, his thoughts were confused for a moment and he quickly got up, but Norman held him back. “Slow down.”
An Jin looked at his formal clothes, “What time is it?”
“11:50, plenty of time.” Norman found a red coat, wrapped An Jin tightly, carried An Jin to the washroom, put him on a stool, helped him brush his hair, and picked him up again to get ready to go out.
An Jin hurriedly said, “I want to wash my face and change my clothes.”
Norman looked at the clean face. “No, it will be hard to sleep later, it’s fine now.”
An Jin insisted on the way he looked now, and Norman held him and looked at him in the mirror.
An Jin looked at him carefully and saw that he looked happy and not at all unkempt, so he didn’t insist on washing his face and changing his clothes. Norman carried him to the room and sat him on the sofa, which Norman had moved to the back of the balcony. Norman took out the live ball and set it to non-panoramic mode, which would not take in the whole room.
When Norman pressed start, he reminded An Jin, “Don’t be nervous.”
An Jin nodded, he had become much more calm when facing multiple people. Norman turned on the live stream and contacted the news department, which switched his live stream to the official channel on time.
The people in front of the live broadcast to the two men were excited.
[His Majesty the Empress!]
[Sure enough, His Majesty is no longer alone after getting married.]
[God’s face, His Majesty and the Empress are also too good a match!]
[The Empress is so festive, his skin is so red from the big red color, it’s great.]
Norman greeted, and An Jin smiled and greeted back.
After the two greeted each other, Norman recited the speech prepared by the Ministry of Information, recalling the current year and looking forward to the new one. After he finished, it didn’t take long to count down, and when he counted to zero, he turned his head to An Jin.
An Jin smiled at him, and the two of them turned to the live ball and said, “Happy New Year.”
The pop-ups were instantly flooded with Happy New Year.
Five minutes later, the live broadcast switched to the official main venue, and Norman hugged An Jin and went back to his room to sleep. An Jin didn’t feel like sleeping for a while, so he and Norman talked in a low voice. Norman told a lot of stories about his childhood, and before he knew it, An Jin fell asleep. Norman leaned over and kissed him on the brow, holding him, and then closing his eyes.
Halfway through the New Year, all walks of life were busy. An Jin found Norman getting busier and busier, and when he woke up in the middle of the night in a daze, Norman was still dealing with military affairs. He had risen to level seven a few days before, and his power and knowledge was growing. Even when he didn’t go out, he noticed that the security of the palace was getting tighter and tighter.
He couldn’t help but ask Norman, “Did something happen recently? Why is it so busy?”
Norman replied, “Normally, the star beast tide will break out in February, but a few days ago, news came from the sixth district. The star beast activity is frequent, and this year the star beast tide is likely to advance.” He was silent for a moment, his deep eyes looking at An Jin. “If the star beast wave breaks out, I will immediately go to the front line.” He reached out and caressed the side of An Jin’s face, saying, “I’m sorry, I can’t stay with you all the time.”
An Jin had already looked up the information about the star beast wave, and as soon as he mentioned it, the scene of countless huge and horrible star beasts roaring at the crowd and tearing humans apart appeared in his mind. He held Norman’s hand, and his tone was firm. “No need to apologize, and you don’t have to worry about me, just take care of yourself, I’ll be fine.”
Norman was touched by his bright blue eyes and kissed him. “An An is great.”
Norman walked An Jin to the planting site and left soon after. An Jin found that the security of the Plant Research Institute had become tight, and the look of the director of the institute was tense.
An Jin went to the next shed to be decontaminated, and when he was about to do it, he suddenly thought of something and asked Director Kele, “How long does the star beast wave usually last?”
Collet responded, “Usually from February to the end of March, that is the breeding period of the star beasts, they reproduce when they are full.”
An Jin mused; it was the same information he had. The Ministry of Military Affairs had suddenly strengthened the security of the planting base. I’m afraid the situation is not optimistic, perhaps the star beast tide will advance.” An Jin was amazed at him and thought to himself, Dean Collet is really perceptive. He quickly calculated in his heart and then put his hand on the armrest of his wheelchair. “I’ll start today, and I’ll suspend the purification of the soil.”
“Empress!” Collet’s eyes opened wide in surprise.
An Jin’s expression was serious. “Now the planted vegetables won’t mature during the star beast tide, and there will be no support for the military department to resist the star beast tide, I am ready to use spiritual force to directly make A agent.”
From a long-term perspective, purifying the soil was superior to purifying nutrients, but in the short term, especially the upcoming period of the star beast wave, it was clearly more beneficial to make A agent directly.
Collet quickly understood and agreed. “You are right to consider it, and it is safer for you to stay in the palace.”
An Jin smiled at him. “After the star beast wave, I will continue to purify the soil.”
Collet bowed. “Thank you, Empress.”
He knew all too well how much the empress had contributed to Siao.
An Jin smiled at him and led the royal escort and personal guard back to the palace. He went to the mermaid room, where the nutrients purchased on the way back had been neatly arranged in the corner by the butler, ten thousand of them in total.
After An Jin purified fifteen hundred sticks, he rested a little and waited for the spiritual force to recover naturally. He lay on his back on the surface of the water, suddenly thought of something and turned from horizontal to vertical floating, leaned against the big crab, and checked the information.
In the afternoon, he received a message from Norman that he would return late. In the evening, An Jin was sitting on the sofa browsing the news when Norman came back. When Norman entered the door, he subconsciously smiled up at the door.
Norman walked up to him, not a trace of fatigue in his expression, but the neat folds of his clothes from the morning were gone. His gaze gentle, he asked, “Waiting for me?”
An Jin nodded, tilted his head up toward him, and looked serious. Getting directly to business, he asked, “To deal with the star beast wave, high spiritual force officers compared to A agent, which is more useful?”
Norman answered smoothly, “S-class officers, at least ten thousand nutrients.”
The combat power of an S-rank was comparable to that of a legion of low-ranking soldiers, especially in the face of high-ranking star beasts, which was too useful.
A high-grade star beast was incredibly lethal to an ordinary soldier.
After Norman answered, he instantly understood An Jin’s idea. “You will help the fallen masters upgrade their spiritual power first?”
An Jin nodded. “Yes.”
A bright light flashed in Norman’s eyes, if it could be done, it would undoubtedly boost Siao’s combat power, but… He looked worried. “Can your body support it?”
Each upgrade will have spiritual pressure, the higher the level the stronger the pressure. An Jin nodded. “Yes.”
Norman regained SSS level, and he felt uncomfortable, but also endured. His spiritual power and physical quality have risen a lot, and there was absolutely no problem. He looked at Norman. “But I’m not sure how long it will take to rise to the original highest level. I need to experiment. You ask the military department if there is a credible person willing to try.”