Chapter 72

Meanwhile, Asher's mental power began to surge again, but his brain waves gradually returned to normal. This meant he was awake.

In the monitoring room, after the alarm sounded, the doctors gathered at the door, and Wei Li'an entered the monitoring room once more. Having entered Asher's mental suppression range for the second time, he seemed experienced, announcing his identity as he stepped inside, advancing step by step. When he was less than a meter from the bed, he was attacked again with a sudden force.

On the bed, Asher's eyes were half-open. If anyone could see, they would know he was not fully conscious. He was merely acting on instinct, wanting to attack, instinctively wanting to rid himself of the things on his body—those instruments and their tangled branches pressing down on him.

He disliked it intensely. A tearing sound echoed from both the monitoring room and the external display, followed by the crash of machines being pulled down and hitting the floor.

Asher lifted the circular helmet off his head himself and slowly sat up. His bare chest rose and fell gently. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind, and glanced at the person kneeling by the bed.

"Wei Li'an?"

"Yes, Commander, it's me."

Wei Li'an spoke almost word by word, clutching his head, unable to stand.

Looking at him, Asher seemed to realize something. He tried to control his mental power, and a dull pain began to throb in his head. He frowned, his thick dark brows knitting into black clouds, his deep eyes filled with coldness.

"I need a mental power suppressant."

His voice broadcast to the monitoring room outside. A group of doctors stood there, and when they heard Asher speak, they knew the treatment had succeeded. The monitoring room door opened, and Dr. Vido entered with a suppressant. "Commander, this is the suppressant and repair agent prepared for you."

Asher looked at the newcomers, his gaze sweeping over each of them, finally settling on Vido's face. Some of these people he had seen before; others appeared before him for the first time.

"What's going on?" After sorting through his thoughts, Asher realized he had no idea where he was. This was a hospital, but why was he injured?

Asher remembered just fending off an insect race army. The last thing he recalled was washing up and resting after the battle. Had he been ambushed, or had he been injured on the battlefield without knowing?

As he analyzed, he suddenly realized something was off. "Where's Meng Ke?"

Wei Li'an was a hidden operative he had placed in the military; he would not appear before others without a special order.

Now that the mental suppression had lifted, Wei Li'an could move normally again. Hearing the Commander ask about Meng Ke, even he, usually so indifferent, felt a pang of grief, having worked alongside the man for decades.

When Wei Li'an reported Meng Ke's death, Asher was stunned. The person who had stood behind him just the day before was suddenly gone; he could not remain unmoved.

It seemed this situation was far more complex than he had imagined.

Vido noticed the abnormality and immediately stepped forward to check. The removal surgery had warned that it might affect Asher's memory.

The doctor behind Vido also stepped forward, stammering as he asked Asher whether his mother, who was staying in the family quarters, should be summoned.

Asher's eyes drooped as he tolerated Vido's examinations. When he heard the stammering, his coldness intensified. "No need. I'll handle it later." He was used to controlling everything around him; now that he was awake, he would not allow others to arrange his affairs.

"Yes!" The military doctor instinctively straightened and answered. As a soldier, he had to obey the Commander's orders.

After the examination, Vido confirmed that Asher had lost nearly two years of memory. Perhaps the hippocampus, which had been removed, stored that part of memory, or the brain damage had affected it.

The secrets of the brain remained largely unexplored even with today's technology.

Asher was transferred to an ordinary ward—a spacious room with all kinds of facilities, blending home comfort with medical care. The atmosphere was completely different from the monitoring room.

Wei Li'an reported to Asher what had happened over the past two years, but only as much as he knew; other matters were known only to Meng Ke and Da Li.

Asher immediately ordered his adjutant to be summoned. The adjutant had returned to Alpha on Yuanji Star to maintain control of the situation after escorting Asher to Bell 13 Star.

Wei Li'an said, "Your wife contacted Adjutant Da Li, asking him to sort through the documents at your villa on Beta Star to supplement your knowledge of events over these two years."

Asher frowned almost instinctively. What documents were there to sort? Most classified materials were stored in a safe. What had been placed in the study in the past two years? He had no idea.

As for Meng Ke, the only hope was to decrypt the synced content from his terminal cloud. Meng Ke's body had not been found, and with it, his Light Brain and personal effects were lost.

Asher's own Light Brain had also been damaged, and only through later repair and decryption could he retrieve the synced terminal cloud content.

"Alright, that's enough for today."

Asher closed his eyes, his brows furrowed, and he told Wei Li'an to go rest.

He had lost two years of memory—that was the price for destroying the insect race's core hive. Asher considered it a worthy trade. Still, he needed to understand what had happened in those two years.

Wei Li'an brought him a new Light Brain. After identity verification, Asher logged into his terminal account. Without the synced content from his old Light Brain, the page was blank.

Asher's Light Brain had been damaged in battle, with no remnants left—possibly dissolved by some special solution. A scar on his wrist remained to this day.

In the afternoon, Adjutant Da Li arrived at Bell 13 Star. He brought only a safe, as no other documents from those two years had been found elsewhere in the study—at least, nothing beyond Da Li's knowledge. Of course, if a document had such a high classification level, it would not be placed openly in the study; it would be locked in a safe.

Before entering, Da Li meticulously adjusted his appearance, knocked on the door, and only pushed it open gently after hearing Asher's consent.

"Reporting, Commander. Adjutant Da Li·Lemon at your service."

He stood at attention and saluted Asher with a crisp, standard military salute.

Asher sat on the hospital bed in a patient gown, his face showing rare fatigue. He nodded and had the adjutant bring the safe over. Asher personally unlocked the combination lock and asked Da Li to help organize the documents.

His mental power was harder to control than before, and just having woken up, his energy was clearly flagging.

Receiving the order, the adjutant sorted out the files from the safe one by one. They were mostly classified military and Sicel Family documents, marked only with numbers. Da Li categorized them by number and handed them to Asher—a straightforward task.

But what was this?

Da Li stared at the bold words on the cover: "Divorce Agreement." Was the Commander planning to divorce? Da Li instantly thought of the several times Asher had gone out under the guise of family leave; it seemed that had just been a cover.

He lowered his head and handed the divorce agreement to Asher. Asher's eyes widened in astonishment. He looked at the document in disbelief. "I got married?"

"Yes, two years ago, right after the battle you remember. The institute submitted a genetic match result, and your compatibility rate with your wife was ninety-nine percent. The institute reported the result to the military, and you personally went to the institute on your wife's planet, with Major Meng accompanying you. You then agreed to the marriage plan."

Da Li shared as much as he knew with Asher, but since this was Asher's personal matter, his knowledge was limited.

Asher felt the headache that had just subsided begin to throb again. He flipped through the divorce agreement, trying to understand this marriage through a document that was utterly unfamiliar to him. The language was terse and precise, and the division of assets was meticulously done. Reading between the lines, it was clear he had prepared this document himself; he must have been serious at the time.

The signature line at the end was blank. He did not know what had happened then, but from his current perspective, Asher thought this marriage should be terminated.

He did not believe he would marry, and in his view, this divorce agreement was perfectly normal.

"Where is she now?" Asher asked, feeling a strange tightness in his chest, which he instinctively resisted.

Da Li had just arrived and naturally did not know. He shook his head. Asher sent a message to Wei Li'an to ask, but Wei Li'an did not know either. He had focused all his attention on Asher; no one had told him to track Wu Ying's whereabouts.

"Perhaps Madam Ming knows."

She did know. In fact, Ming Yu only learned that Asher had been transferred to an ordinary ward after the fact. Just like him—always domineering and self-centered.

She came to the ward and saw Wei Li'an and Da Li. She had been the one to contact Da Li earlier, and now they were all here without her knowledge.

The transfer of authority had been completed the moment Asher woke up.

Ming Yu raised an eyebrow, said nothing, and looked with some surprise at the divorce agreement in Asher's hand.

She reached out to him, wanting to see the document. Asher thought for a moment, saw no need to hide it, and handed it over.

Ming Yu's surprise grew with each page she turned. Earlier, when she had urged Asher to divorce, he had refused. So it turned out he had prepared a divorce agreement himself. Now, it all made sense to her. The fact that Asher had not insisted before had seemed odd. If Wu Ying were not so utterly naive and guileless, she would have suspected some special drug had been used on him.

"She is in her junior year at the College of Botany at Federal University, currently at the experimental base." Ming Yu did not mention Wu Ying's earlier visit to Bell 13 Star; she simply answered Asher's question.

Was she supposed to speak well of Wu Ying? Ming Yu could not bring herself to, and saw no need.

"I thought you were not going to divorce, but it turns out it was already in the plans. Do you want me to deliver the document to her?" Ming Yu was more than willing, as her belief that Wu Ying and Asher were mismatched had never changed.

A flicker of doubt crossed Asher's eyes. He wondered why his mother was offering to deliver it to his wife. Did that mean the two of them had not gotten along well over the past two years? Well, if they had, he would not have prepared a divorce agreement.

The thought flashed through his mind, and after a brief pause, he quickly hid it. "Would that be convenient?"

Ming Yu tilted her head slightly. "Right now, I'm probably the only one in this ward who has her terminal number. Besides, she's a bit annoying and quite difficult to deal with. I think I'm the only one who can handle her."

She used three highly charged words in a row: "annoying," "difficult," and "handle." If that were truly the case, Asher would be willing to let Ming Yu deliver the document to Wu Ying. In some ways, Asher's way of thinking was similar to Ming Yu's; he agreed with many of his mother's views.

In fact, they were alike. Asher hesitated for barely a second before agreeing.

Da Li and Wei Li'an kept their eyes lowered, as the commander suddenly started discussing these topics with his mother; they could only stay silent. Both had had little contact with Wu Ying, the commander's wife.

"Then I'll trouble you, Mother."

Ming Yu took the divorce agreement and left the ward, leaving Asher to handle his official matters. She did not linger. She went straight back to her room and called Wu Ying.

Wu Ying had just returned from a fight with mutant plants and had not even taken off her gloves. "Madam Ming, what's the matter?" The last time Ming Yu had contacted her, it was about granting access for someone to retrieve Asher's belongings from the villa, so she had Jiujiu give permission. What was it this time?

"Oh, is Asher okay?" She was afraid something had happened to him.

"He's fine. He's awake."

"That's wonderful!"

Wu Ying beamed with joy, her mind already racing with plans to finish her work as quickly as possible and rush back. "I'll come back as soon as I can."

"Well, today Asher brought out a divorce agreement. He seems to be planning a divorce. The document is with me now. You can come here, or I can scan it for you to sign."

Ming Yu said it calmly, as if discussing something utterly mundane.

On the other end of the call, Wu Ying froze at the word "divorce." "What do you mean?" Before she could process the divorce agreement, the next second Ming Yu was telling her to sign the papers.

Asher wanted a divorce, and he had his mother handle it?

Her heart skipped a few beats, and her breath became labored. The excitement she had felt just moments ago was suddenly thrown into a dark cage, squeezed smaller and smaller until it crushed her along with it.

Ming Yu did not wait for her to compose herself. "Which part don't you understand? I'll scan the document and send it to you. I've looked it over. The asset division is very thorough. If there's no problem, you can sign."

"Wait—" Wu Ying's breathing was rapid as she interrupted. "What do you mean, sign if there's no problem? Where's Asher? Why doesn't he come talk to me himself? Did you forge this?"

"A divorce agreement requires confirmation from both parties. What would be the point of me forging it? There's no law requiring the document to be delivered by the parties themselves." Ming Yu's tone was firm and composed. Then, as if something occurred to her, she added, "Oh, and you might want to know that Asher woke up with amnesia."

Those words hit Wu Ying like a shot of adrenaline, but the next second, she was plunged back into hell. "However, this divorce agreement was prepared earlier. It just couldn't be done because of the long war."

Wu Ying felt as if she had been pushed to the edge of a cliff, with people constantly urging her to jump. The voices were so loud she could not tell who was speaking. She knew it was not just Ming Yu—Asher was among them too.

"I understand. Let me look at the document. I'll get back to you."

Wu Ying's voice was low, with a tone of giving up. She hung up before Ming Yu could respond.

She leaned against the cold glass. Sunshine was just on the other side of the wall, but she could not feel any warmth. Divorce—that word had come fatefully to claim her. She was as panicked as if the sky were falling, yet a part of her split off, calmly telling herself that this was always going to happen.

Ming Yu had said the divorce agreement was prepared long ago. Was that the tacit understanding between her and Asher? When had it been, and who had moved first?

Perhaps it was because she had been so busy lately that she could not process this sudden turn of events, as if it were a drama. She had been genuinely worried about him just moments ago, and had been thrilled that he woke up only a second before.

It was too sudden. But no matter what form fate took, this step was destined.

She had thought about this moment when she chose to marry Asher. And when she fell in love with him, she began preparing for its arrival.

But no amount of preparation could shield her from the pain of this moment. It hurt, but it was also a relief! Divorce was just something she had prepared for—why be so sentimental? The way she and Asher had entered their marriage was fundamentally flawed: he did not value her, and she wanted too much but could no longer ask for it as if it were her due.