Chapter 31: Honkai: Star Rail — The Xianzhou General Wouldn't Dream of a Yandere Chapter 31: Xing Xiao Secretly Ran Away

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Protagonist:

Xuan Ge

Xuan Ge stood with arms crossed, the hem of his black robe fluttering lightly in the faint breeze drifting from the corridor entrance.

He watched that small warship gradually shrink into a point of deep blue, finally vanishing completely into the jump window; the gold in his eyes was still and waveless, only the very tips of his brows held a minuscule thread of bewilderment.

——Which idle, bored-out-of-their-mind Memosprite stretched their hand this far, to come flirt with his tiger whiskers?

"This child Yue Yao, many thanks for your rescue."

A calm female voice came from his side.

General Yue Yu's projection was as solid as a real person, watching alongside him the direction where the ship's shadow disappeared.

She did not look at Xuan Ge, yet her tone carried an elder's understanding.

"It's nothing." The corner of Xuan Ge's mouth hooked a faint arc, the smile polite but not reaching his eyes.

"I only hope she can walk out of it."

After Yue Yao woke, her memory stopped at a certain vague breakpoint.

She only remembered following a group of fox-people with indistinct faces as they wandered; everything after that — whether hatred, pain, or conspiracy — had all become blank.

Xuan Ge knew clearly that that was her true past.

All the intense hatred that had been tampered with, instilled, and fermented afterward was merely an exquisite graft.

Qiu Ye, and every member of Qiu Han's squad, he had placed under a gag order.

Qiu Han's memory had likewise been tampered with; that hollow needed to be protected, not torn open again.

"Hehe~" Yue Yu finally turned her head, her eyes holding a few parts probing amusement.

"Oh? Since when did our Divine Might General go flirt with the Memory Garden's people?"

Xuan Ge spread his hands helplessly, smiling as he replied to Yue Yu:

"Speaking honestly, first time. I just don't get it, what do they want from me?

Do they think the Xianzhou Shenwu's Vanguard routes are too quiet, and want me to lead troops over there to 'pay a visit'?"

"Cough, that's serious." Yue Yu coughed lightly, admonishing.

"The Alliance will have movements recently; now is not the time to make extra external enemies."

"Hah~" Xuan Ge dragged out the tone, looking like he'd been wronged.

"Look at you, twisting my meaning again. When have I ever not followed rules? The Marshal points east, I absolutely won't go west."

Hearing this, even with Yue Yu's superb composure, the corner of her mouth twitched imperceptibly, then she lost her composure laughing and shook her head:

"Yes, yes. General Divine Might, most conscientious in duty."

"Alright, I have to go back and process documents."

She exhaled lightly, her projection beginning to ripple with faint light.

"Unlike a certain General, who always manages to steal half a day of leisure~"

Before her voice fell, she blinked rapidly at Xuan Ge, her figure then dissipating like ripples into the port's misty flowing light.

The corner of Xuan Ge's mouth twitched.

..... Poking him, is it? Saying he dumps everything big and small on Ling Sha, is it?

He shook his head, chuckled lightly, turned and strode off, his black figure unhurriedly sinking into the shadows of the long corridor leading to the General's Mansion.

"General Divine Might~"

Just as he stepped into the main hall, a voice coquettish, soft, as if it could drip honey, greeted him, the ending note winding, hooking the soul.

Xuan Ge's steps paused imperceptibly for an instant, a faint numbness suddenly crawling up his back.

He found this voice not the least bit alluring; on the contrary, his scalp tightened.

Ling Sha speaking in this tone meant only one thing: her mood right now was very, very bad.

"Ling... Ling Sha ah," Xuan Ge's face didn't change color, strides composed as he walked to the General's Seat and sat down, raising his eyes to look at the Chief Strategist smiling beside him, "What is it?"

Today Ling Sha wore a moon-white short qipao embroidered with silver bamboo, black hair like a waterfall, setting off skin whiter than snow.

The smile on her face was flawless; lotus steps light, she placed the thick stack of documents she held, organized neatly and tidily, lightly yet with a certain undeniable weight, "down" on the wide desk before Xuan Ge.

The documents piled over half a chi high, categorized and orderly, clear in structure, yet like a mountain silently proclaiming the workload.

"This concubine merely... suddenly missed the General very much."

Ling Sha leaned forward slightly, brown eyes clear to the bottom, tone purely innocent:

"Couldn't help but mutter a couple extra sentences. General you... needn't take it to heart~"

Xuan Ge's gaze lingered on that stack of documents for a breath, his Adam's apple moved slightly, then he raised his eyes, revealing an incomparably sincere smile, even carrying a few parts consideration:

"Ling Sha, hard work. Affairs have been mixed and busy lately; you rest a few days. These..." he raised his hand and lightly patted the document mountain.

"This General will handle personally."

The arc of Ling Sha's mouth only then became genuine by a few degrees, that hint of "core goodness" light hidden in her eyes quietly retracted.

She gracefully gave a slight bow: "General's consideration, then this concubine will obey respectfully rather than decline."

Only after that black-and-white figure vanished outside the hall doors did Xuan Ge exhale a barely audible breath, resignedly stretch out his hand, and pick up the topmost report.

Fine then, at least... she had already categorized and organized everything properly.

Night dark as ink, soaked through the Shen Wu Xian Zhou.

The General's Mansion's study, however, still blazed with light, casting Xuan Ge's bent-over-the-desk figure onto the carved window lattices.

Time quietly flowed away amid the soft sounds of reviewing and stamping seals.

Suddenly——

"Xing Xiao, your damn grandpa!"

A suppressed curse broke the silence.

Xuan Ge slapped a report onto the table with a sharp "pa", the force not heavy, yet making all the documents on the table jump lightly.

He rubbed his brow, raised his eyes, and swept his gaze across the other side of the desk——there, two stacks of untouched files still stood steady like mountains.

Taking a deep breath, he picked up the report that had angered him, and read it carefully once more.

It was the Fifth Army patrol squad's routine monitoring summary, wording rigorous and restrained:

【Sui Xing Dai border region, Destruction Energy density shows a stable, slow-release downward trend, suspected target individual activity weakening or transferred. Our army continues monitoring, no abnormal hostile gathering for now.】

No need for monitoring anymore.

Xuan Ge tossed aside the report, leaned back into the chair, and closed his eyes.

Fingertips tapped twice unconsciously on the armrest.

Density dropping, activity weakening?

Heh.

That woman..... ran away.

He opened his eyes, a complex emotion flashing through his golden pupils, as if he had expected it, yet also as if he was amused into laughter by this clean, decisive "departure without a word".

Rising, flicking his sleeve. The Shu Fang's door slid open soundlessly, Xuan Ge's figure turned into a streak of dim light, shooting out of the General's Mansion, straight for the sky.

In just a moment, he once again found himself in that familiar, shattered and silent starry graveyard——Sui Xing Dai.

And, without the slightest hesitation, flew toward the deeper reaches where Xing Xiao's Qin Gong had originally been.

Before his eyes, nothing at all.

That once invisible force-field-constructed, coldly beautiful large glass dome had already vanished completely clean, not a trace of energy residue left behind.

Only eternal, unchanging shattered Stardust, silently floating under the distant stars' afterglow.

Xuan Ge hovered in the Void, watching quietly for a few seconds. As expected.

But just as he prepared to turn and leave, his gaze swept past several meteorites that seemed randomly distributed around him, and suddenly froze.

The positions of those meteorites..... seemed a bit too "orderly".

His figure moved, instantly appearing hundreds of meters away, adjusting his angle, aligning the outlines of several larger meteorites with the positions in his memory.

Then, he saw it.

Those several meteorites just happened to form an extremely subtle arrowhead pointing direction, and at the "arrowhead" tip, an inconspicuous dark meteorite's surface bore power-scorched marks, the handwriting sharp, even carrying a few venting-like deep grooves:

Trash scum!

Xuan Ge first raised his brow in surprise, staring at those four characters for a full three seconds.

Then, he curled his lips, laughing lowly, soundlessly.

Laughter scattered in the empty Sui Xing Dai, carrying a few parts absurdity, a few parts anger, and a trace of indescribable amusement.

"I fucking....." He shook his head, laughing and cursing aloud, "You run off and run off, but before leaving you still didn't forget to curse me once?"

The starry sky was silent, only that line of cold abuse, as if still silently mocking him.