Chapter 45: Alien Prequel – Departure into Space

At dinnertime, the servants went to Jiang Shulan’s room as usual to bring him his medicine.

Jiang Shulan had suffered from malnutrition during his years at the orphanage.

After Weyland adopted him, he had tried every possible way to help him recover, but his body couldn’t tolerate the rich nutrition.

In the end, he had no choice but to consult a traditional Chinese doctor, who prescribed herbal medicine that Jiang Shulan had to drink every night.

The medicine was unbearably bitter, and Jiang Shulan hated drinking it.

But on this matter, no amount of pouting or acting cute could help him escape it, because Weyland would never allow it.

It had become the greatest source of misery in his life.

The servants were already used to Jiang Shulan dragging his feet and refusing to drink his medicine promptly.

Yet today, everything went surprisingly smoothly.

Jiang Shulan flashed the bewildered servants a sweet smile.

Before they could react, he shut the door and turned around.

“So? David? How was it?”

David replied, “I believe it was probably good.”

Jiang Shulan laughed, both guilty and delighted.

His skin was so fair that the pink blush on his cheeks became especially obvious.

When he smiled, his soft cheeks puffed upward, and his eyes curved into crescents.

He looked so soft and gentle, like a kitten that hadn’t yet learned to hide its claws.

David watched him for a long moment before speaking.

“Little Master, it’s time to sleep.”

Jiang Shulan happily went to brush his teeth.

“Okay!”

From that day onward, David stayed by his side.

The chip in his mind became increasingly advanced.

His ability to imitate humans grew better and better.

If not for the Weyland Industries insignia on his thumb, no one who didn’t already know would have guessed that David was an android.

Gradually, David followed him everywhere.

From home to school.

From school to his circle of friends.

Without anyone noticing, David became his shadow.

Always present.

Always following.

Everything changed when Jiang Shulan was fifteen.

At the time, Weyland was in the middle of a meeting at the company when he received a call from Jiang Shulan’s teacher.

“That android beside Shu stuffed a bug into his deskmate Mick’s mouth!”

The teacher’s voice was full of outrage.

He was the only person at the school who knew David was an android.

“Poor Mick has already been taken into surgery. Mr. Weyland, you need to come immediately.”

Weyland rushed to the school.

But the story he heard from Jiang Shulan was completely different.

“Mick and I didn’t get along very well. He was the one who put the bug in my desk. He was even planning to put it on me to scare me. David was only trying to protect me.”

Jiang Shulan tugged at Weyland’s sleeve and looked up at him pitifully.

“Father, please don’t punish David, okay?”

“David.”

Weyland’s voice turned solemn.

“What exactly happened?”

“I was only protecting Little Master.”

David’s handsome face remained completely expressionless.

His smile was still as precise as ever.

“I believed that Little Master was frightened at the time. I had to protect him.”

Lying on the hospital bed, Mick trembled as he spoke.

“Shu, that bug wasn’t mine! This man put it there himself! Because… because when I tried to confess to you before, he stopped me. He said I was hopelessly delusional!”

Mick had no idea David was an android.

Still shaken, he continued, “I was so angry that I cursed him out. He stared at me coldly for a very long time. And that very night, I even saw him standing outside my door…”

Weyland’s expression darkened.

“David. I don’t recall giving you permission to harm humans or make decisions on your own.”

“I’m very sorry, Master.”

David looked like a piece of porcelain that had been polished to perfection.

Perfect.

Cold.

With nothing resembling life beating inside him.

Weyland had created him.

Every command had been personally programmed by him.

He had believed in David’s perfection.

He had believed in David’s capabilities.

That was why he had entrusted David with staying beside his youngest son.

But now Weyland had already sensed that David harbored feelings he should never have had toward Jiang Shulan.

Dark.

Cold.

Damp.

Terrifying.

Like something lurking silently in the shadows, waiting for the chance to steal his little treasure away from him.

Suppressing his anger with great difficulty, he gently stroked Jiang Shulan’s hair.

“Little Treasure. I’ll investigate who was actually at fault. Until then, be a good boy and go home first, alright?”

“But David…”

Jiang Shulan was confused too.

“Father, promise me that whatever decision you make, you’ll discuss it with me first, okay?”

David had been with him for so many years.

He didn’t want Mick’s words to be true.

“It’s alright, Little Master.”

David spoke before Weyland could.

His gray-blue eyes calmly rested on Jiang Shulan, and the corners of his lips even lifted slightly.

“I’ll come back.”

Weyland almost failed to suppress the rage surging inside him.

After finally coaxing Jiang Shulan home, he turned to Mick and said, “I will make this man disappear immediately.”

“My secretary will discuss the compensation with your family. You’ll receive a satisfactory resolution.”

He took David to the factory.

It was where defective androids were systematically destroyed.

“Are you going to kill me, Master?”

“Kill you?”

Weyland laughed in fury.

“You don’t even truly exist. How could this be killing you?”

“Little Master will be sad.”

David lowered his eyelashes.

“When he cries, my heart hurts.”

“No. That’s because the chip inside your body malfunctioned.”

Weyland mercilessly threw David into the crushing machine and looked down at him from above.

“And I will create an even more perfect android to stay by his side.”

David’s limbs were crushed by the hydraulic press.

Before the mechanism that produced his voice was completely destroyed, Weyland heard him laugh.

“That would be wonderful.”

When Jiang Shulan saw David again, a week had already passed.

The new David was more advanced than the previous one.

He could do everything.

He ate desserts with him, complained with him about the ridiculous rules at school, and picked him up after classes.

The only thing he would not do was sing to him.

“I’m very sorry, Little Master,” this David said.

“Creation is a trait unique to humans. It is the one thing we androids cannot do.”

Sensing Jiang Shulan’s disappointment, David gently ruffled his hair.

His smile was still perfectly unchanged.

“Little Master, I will do even better than the previous David.”

Jiang Shulan nodded.

“Okay.”

When he turned eighteen, Weyland’s health suddenly deteriorated at an alarming rate.

His condition had become incurable.

After meeting with a married couple, Weyland decided to travel into space in search of humanity’s creators, the Engineers.

“Engineers?”

Jiang Shulan ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

“Aren’t those people who work in construction?”

Vickers replied with open sarcasm.

“After discovering an ancient ruin, that pair of doctors insisted that it was evidence of humanity’s creators. They spent ten years repeatedly asking Father to approve a space exploration project. But Father’s condition…”

Jiang Shulan couldn’t continue.

“We can go in his place.”

This journey was also his mission.

He had simply never imagined that Weyland’s terminal illness would become the catalyst.

“Don’t worry.”

Vickers remained calm as she comforted him.

“We’ll protect him. It’s better than letting him secretly go alone and die in some unknown corner of the universe.”

Their company’s space technology had already matured.

That was the only reason they dared allow Weyland to take such a risk.

“But…”

Jiang Shulan’s mission was to die at the hands of the Deacon.

That meant this expedition was destined to end badly.

“Father!”

Ignoring Vickers’ objections and risking Weyland’s anger, Jiang Shulan rushed forward.

“You can’t go into space! Sister and I can search in your place!”

He knelt in front of Weyland.

“Do you not trust us?”

“Of course I trust you, Little Treasure.”

Weyland smiled gently.

“I love both of you. I created Weyland Industries. Through space-based solar energy, I ended global warming. I helped conquer most forms of cancer through gene therapy. I won the Nobel Prize twice. I created androids… Little Treasure.”

Weyland smiled.

For a moment, Jiang Shulan seemed to see the younger Weyland again.

Confident.

Powerful.

Unstoppable.

“I can die during a journey of exploration. But I refuse to let my life end in this unbearably dull hospital.”

“Father…”

Jiang Shulan’s nose stung, and his eyes immediately reddened.

He buried himself in Weyland’s embrace and said through tears, “I’ll protect you and Sister!”

Weyland officially launched the Prometheus project under the banner of “searching for humanity’s origins.”

They were about to travel to a distant planet far beyond Earth, exploring an unknown world thirty-four light-years away.

“Don’t worry, Little Treasure.”

As Jiang Shulan lay down inside the cryosleep pod, Weyland patiently comforted him.

“When you wake up again, Father will show you and Vickers a brand-new world.”

To ensure that everyone on the expedition could enter cryosleep safely, Weyland Industries deployed the newest generation of androids.

David.

After everyone had fallen asleep, David opened his gray-blue eyes.

With a clear destination in mind, he walked directly toward Jiang Shulan’s cryosleep pod.

“I’m back, Little Master.”

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