Starry Rebirth: The Warden and the Outlaw’s Interstellar Revenge | Chapter 67 | The Token and the Rose | Novela.app

That evening, inside a spacious room, Admiral Ji stood before a massive glass window, quietly gazing at the starry sky outside. A prompt from the internal AI system sounded behind him. Admiral Ji turned around to see a young man entering, led by a robot. "Admiral." Once the guide robot departed, Ji Yeran came to a halt two meters away from Admiral Ji Qiu and offered his father a crisp, formal military salute. Faced with his son’s detachment, Ji Qiu didn't seem to find anything amiss. In a military camp, one should follow military regulations; that was only natural. The Admiral nodded, his voice stiff even when offering praise. "You performed reasonably well this time." "Reasonably well" was already the highest praise Ji Qiu was capable of giving. "Thank you," Ji Yeran replied. Looking at the father he hadn't seen in many years, he felt a sense of unfamiliarity. Admiral Ji hadn't summoned his son just to praise him. Without beating around the bush, he went straight to the point. "You gave the token away?" The black-gold bracelet worn on the Omega’s wrist had been co-crafted by Ji Qiu and Ji Yeran’s mother when the Ji and Ye families formed their alliance. It was a token representing the combined power of both families. Its significance was immense, far beyond a mere symbol of wealth or status. Ji Qiu and his wife had handed it to Ji Yeran after he passed his trials, yet now, Ji Yeran had given such an important heirloom to someone else. "Yes." Ji Yeran nodded. His belongings were his to give as he pleased; no one, not even his parents, could interfere. Hearing his son’s confirmation, Admiral Ji’s brow furrowed slightly. He looked at Ji Yeran in silence, offering neither disapproval nor endorsement. With the question answered, the father and son fell into a mutual silence. One was a man of few words, the other a man of strict discipline; neither seemed to find the quietude awkward. It wasn't until a while later that another voice broke the silence, accompanied by the appearance of a hologram. In the projection stood a female Alpha dressed in a navy-blue formal gown. Her face was as radiant as a peach blossom, her eyes full of charm—she shared an eighty to ninety percent resemblance with Ji Yeran. It could be said that Ji Yeran inherited the majority of his looks from his mother, while the remaining ten to twenty percent came from Admiral Ji Qiu’s coldness, which added a touch of frigid, ascetic restraint to Ji Yeran’s otherwise gentle and romantic features. "Have you thought this through?" Chairman Ye, appearing in the hologram, seemed to have just left a banquet, as she hadn't yet changed out of her elaborate attire. This Alpha, participating in the family discussion via hologram, seamlessly took over the questioning from Admiral Ji the moment she appeared. "I have." Ji Yeran didn't seem surprised by his mother’s sudden appearance as he confirmed her suspicions. Upon receiving his answer, Chairman Ye frowned slightly before her expression smoothed out. She pointed out her son’s current predicament with piercing accuracy. "You have many eyes watching you." Surrounded by hidden dangers and circling wolves, a fledgling cub who was already struggling was now adding a "soft underbelly" to his vulnerabilities? "I know," Ji Yeran replied. His gaze toward his mother was calm—a state of composure reached after thorough deliberation. The Chairman fell silent. She didn't press further, nor did she oppose her son’s decision. Instead, she made a request. "I want to meet him." It went without saying who "him" referred to. However, faced with the Chairman’s "reasonable request," Ji Yeran refused heartlessly. After his blunt and resolute refusal, Ji Yeran seemed to decide that tonight’s family meeting had reached its conclusion. Having no intention of staying longer, he gave his parents a polite nod and turned to leave. Watching their son depart, the silver-white hatch opened and hissed shut, leaving the room silent once more for the couple. After a long period of wordless silence, Chairman Ye finally spoke up to complain. "The older he gets, the harder he is to manage. I don't know whose temperament he took after." It certainly wasn't hers. Admiral Ji nodded in agreement, silently thinking: *Indeed, he definitely didn't get it from me.* Once the couple reached a consensus on condemning their son, the Chairman asked another question. "Did you see the person?" Admiral Ji nodded. After a moment of reflection, the Admiral evaluated: "Not bad." What he didn't mention was that he had specifically looked into the boy’s files beforehand; he was a good child. The Chairman waited expectantly for a while, only to receive those two words from Ji Qiu and nothing more. "..." Knowing Ji Qiu’s taciturn nature all too well, the Chairman eventually prodded, "What about the boy’s background?" At least say one more sentence. Admiral Ji looked up at the hologram and granted her three more words: "It’s very clean." A clean background, and a clean person. At this point, Admiral Ji felt his description was quite adequate. But seeing that Chairman Ye still didn't seem to understand, the Admiral reluctantly pondered for a long time. After searching through his vocabulary, he finally unearthed a term she might grasp. "Like a rose." Beautiful and full of vitality. A rose? Hearing this, Chairman Ye seemed momentarily confused. What kind of child was like a rose? Her curiosity piqued, she wondered what kind of person could earn the approval of both this father and son. The couple, currently communicating in harmony, had no idea that in another timeline, upon hearing about their son’s affairs, they had looked at each other with faces full of bewilderment and confusion. In that other timeline, looking at the golden-haired, blue-eyed, innocent, and sweet Omega in the hologram, Chairman Ye—who usually possessed excellent emotional control—showed a rare trace of daze. She looked toward Ji Qiu as if seeking comfort, her voice sounding somewhat drained. "The brat likes *this* type?!" A weak, delicate "little white flower"? "..." The Admiral across from her remained silent, his eyes cold. He stared back at the Chairman expressionlessly. *Don't ask me. Go ask your son yourself. His poor taste definitely didn't come from me!* Chairman Ye: "..." *This taste definitely didn't come from me either!* Of course, this mutual blame-shifting was something that happened in the previous timeline. *** Meanwhile, the departing Ji Yeran ran into someone—Ji Wei. Ji Wei had just come out of the infirmary. His face was still somewhat pale. He clearly hadn't expected to run into Ji Yeran; the unexpected encounter caused him to lose control of his expression for a split second, revealing a flash of ferocity. That ferocity vanished in an instant, so fast it seemed like an illusion. From a distance, Ji Wei put on a fake, hearty smile and greeted his cousin. However, Ji Yeran merely gave a flat nod and walked past. Left standing there, Ji Wei’s face instantly turned extremely ugly. *This little animal who relies on his face... what right does he have to give me attitude!* Ji Wei thought furiously. Did Ji Yeran think he didn't know? Admiral Ji Qiu was the commanding officer of this exercise; Ji Yeran was only here to pad his resume! After seeing Ji Qiu’s silhouette from afar this afternoon, Ji Wei became certain that Ji Yeran had an ulterior motive for participating in this exercise, and it was his father who had opened the back door for him! The more he convinced himself of his theory, the more Ji Wei suspected that his injury was also part of Ji Yeran’s conspiracy. Otherwise, why was it such a coincidence that the Omega named Amir happened to be carrying an instant-activation protective energy shield! Fuelled by jealousy, Ji Wei’s eyes were filled with nothing but resentment and rage. Just as Ji Wei was losing control of his expression, a message arrived on his personal terminal. The specially set notification tone made Ji Wei shudder. Ignoring everything else, he hurried away. Once Ji Wei returned to his quarters and confirmed there was no surveillance, he opened his terminal. A hologram of a man appeared before him. The man in the hologram did not look very healthy; his face was sickly, and his hair was graying at the temples. The man knit his brows and questioned Ji Wei sharply, "What happened? I built the bridge for you and you still blew it!" "You lost the Inter-Academy Competition, and now you’ve messed up the Joint Military Exercise. You truly are a waste!" the man in the hologram cursed. His original plan was for Ji Wei to distinguish himself in the Inter-Academy Competition, take the top spot in the Joint Military Exercise, and win over the powerful First Legion. That way, with a little more maneuvering, it would have been easy for Ji Wei to graduate with the rank of Major. As the top student of the Federal First Military Academy, combined with the rank of Major and excellent results from two major events, Ji Wei would have been more than qualified to be parachuted into the Eighth Legion as a Fleet Commander upon graduation. He hadn't expected this waste to ruin all the arrangements! Hearing the man’s relentless cursing, Ji Wei clenched his fists. He couldn't help but retort, "It’s because Ji Qiu was intentionally biased toward Ji Yeran this time." Hearing Ji Wei’s rebuttal, the other party seemed even angrier. "Useless! You can't even beat that little animal. What use do I have for you?" After that insult, the man seemed to have nothing left to say to Ji Wei. He gave Ji Wei a threatening look and warned, "I have many sons. You aren't the only one." The cursing man—Ji Wei’s Alpha father, Ji Yu—seemed to be in a hurry. After dropping the threat, he hastily disconnected the call. However, before the connection cut, Ji Wei caught one last mumbled complaint. "Waste... can't even compare to an... Ad... jus... tee..." Then, the hologram and sound vanished simultaneously, leaving Ji Wei alone in the room. His entire face darkened. *You old beast! I’ll let you be arrogant for a few more days!* Fuming with rage, Ji Wei cursed the old man in his heart. At the same time, he noted a detail—that last word the old beast had accidentally let slip. "Ad... jus... tee"? What was he talking about? Adjustee? What kind of adjustee? Wait—a Gene-Adjusted Person! As he pondered, a flash of inspiration struck Ji Wei. He finally guessed the meaning behind the old beast’s words. So that was it—Ji Yeran was a Gene-Adjusted Person! ***