After I Died, My Nemesis Lived as a Widower for Years

Years ago, a pair of separate interviews became more popular than the interstellar war that had just ended, setting the entire galaxy ablaze.

Mr. Jiang Ji, what do you think of the Kairos starship captain being named the Milky Way’s “Number One Hunk” by this newspaper?

Answer: Only if every male carbon-based life-form in the world were dead.

Captain Tan Shen, is there anything you’d like to say to the Milky Way’s top Star Hunter?

Answer: The next time we meet, I’ll put a bullet through his throat with my own hands.

The heated gossip went on for years, and arguments over whether the Kairos captain or the top Star Hunter was stronger never died down.

But one thing was beyond dispute.

Before hatred, there had been a time when they were brothers, closest friends, and partners bound together until death. They drank beneath the stars, lived with swagger, and stood shoulder to shoulder with swords drawn against the entire universe.

Which of the two archenemies would kill the other first became the whole galaxy’s great mystery.

Then one day, a piece of news shook the cosmos.

Jiang Ji was dead.

The legendary interstellar hunter had become a handful of drifting ash in space, without even a grave where anyone could mourn him.

No one knew what had happened. They only knew that the battle had finally produced a victor, though Jiang Ji had not died at the muzzle of the gun Tan Shen was most proud of.

He died in Tan Shen’s arms.

After his archenemy’s death, the starship, now without rivals, rose to become the empire of the Sub-Ring Star Belt. Tan Shen ascended the throne. No one dared gossip about the young king’s past anymore. They only glimpsed a plain ring made of cremation ash on the king’s hand, worn on his ring finger. Whenever he fell into thought, he would unconsciously stroke it.

Many more years passed.

In a frontier city of the empire, amid a torrential downpour, a pale young man who looked just like someone from the past opened his eyes.

●Reading Guide●

An unapologetically indulgent work centered on the relationship. Not a wish-fulfillment story; the logic and setting serve the romance. Definitely a happy ending.

Theme: Love is hard to speak aloud.