I was reared by the cubs in the game in reverse

Yu Hao's guess was correct, as His Majesty Yu Mo choked up blood for the first time, he weakened almost visibly with the naked eye.

The forces of all parties have been paying attention to his actions, and they have slowly let go of their hearts.

They could see that Yu Mo was holding his breath. As time went by, no matter how powerful he was, as long as the offensive continued, Yu Mo would sometimes be unable to hold on.

But even so, Yu Mo's support time was longer than everyone imagined.

Perhaps for ordinary people in the empire, they don't know what happened today. Many people are still staring at the military's star network live broadcast, looking at a distant planet or a certain space, ancient humans are fighting with animals. Stay in the orchard to harvest new mysterious fruit trees.

However, within the Imperial Palace, a bloody battle is continuing.

Most of the troops belonging to Emperor Yu Mo in the palace have been suppressed, and only a small number of people are still stubbornly resisting.

And in the direction of the bedroom, a steady stream of troops are rushing there, and the entire garden around the bedroom has become riddled with holes due to artillery fire and battles, and it no longer looks gorgeous and luxurious in the past.

In the entire universe, various forces and countless pairs of eyes are staring at the battle that is taking place here.

They have been waiting and planning for too long, just waiting for the moment of the fall of this once mighty majesty, but the arrival of this moment is far more distant than they imagined.

In the eyes of everyone, the emperor, who was already at the end of his strength, survived for almost a whole day in such a physical condition.

Everyone clenched their fists, expecting him to fall, but he just stood upright, and he could deal with as many enemies as they came. His whole body was covered in scars and blood, and the snow-white animal ears on his head drooped slightly. Even the long snow-white hair tied behind his head was wet from the battle, and was covered with dried or dripping red blood.

The tail that was originally hidden in his robe had already come out at this time, and it even played a big role in the battle.

This is what Yu Mo rarely sees for the people of the empire.

He obviously looks so weak that he looks like he will fall down at any moment, but for some reason he can stand up again every time.

The more you look at such a scene, the more frightening you are, and the more you can't help but feel the fear of that fighting figure.

They began to dispatch more troops, and even the secret army of the Federation had been dispatched. Although these forces had not had time to communicate with each other, they seemed to have the same tacit understanding in their hearts.

If the emperor didn't die here today, then they will die in the future.

Dusk gradually fell.

After standing stiffly for so long, everyone fell silent.

After an unknown amount of time, everyone finally saw the figure that seemed to never fall down, slowly slipping and falling against the wall under a severe cough.

He just sat against the corner of the wall, in front of him were countless piles of weapons and corpses.

However, even in such a situation where it seemed that he could no longer gather strength to stand up, he still raised his head and looked at the enemy in front of him with a piercing gaze.

Several soldiers who were about to approach could not help but stop when they caught his eyes at this moment.

Probably even they themselves couldn't explain why they couldn't help but stop when they saw this scene.

This is the best opportunity. Others dare not speak, but Prince Yu Hao is emboldened, snatches the communicator from the officer next to him, and shouts at the soldiers in the palace: "Shoot them all! Take action now, he has no strength to resist! Kill him!"

After receiving his order, the soldiers surrounding Yu Mo raised their guns again.

The muzzles of countless black holes were facing the corner of the wall, and sitting in the corner was Yu Mo, who was exhausted and had no ability to resist, and he could no longer escape.

The emperor once created a lot of history for the empire, and now, he himself will become history.

Looking at this scene, Yu Mo couldn't help but raise the corners of his lips, and smiled with blood and sweat on his face.

Even in such a scene, even though his body was covered with blood and scars, and even his white hair was scattered and messy during the fight, he still looked elegant and calm at this moment, as if even the threat of death could not make him He was terrified.

Facing this scene, his eyes were red and cold, as if burning with the cold flame of revenge.

Looking at him through the screen, Yu Hao felt slightly terrified, even the hand holding the communicator couldn't help but start to tremble.

After a while, he almost broke his voice and shouted: "Do it!"

The moment he yelled these words, hundreds of soldiers in the palace pulled the triggers at the same time, and countless lasers shot towards Yu Mo's direction at the same time.

No one noticed that at the moment they attacked, a strange red light suddenly lit up somewhere on Yu Mo's waist in the corner.

With the loud and dull sound and the bright flames lighting up at the same time, all the scenes showed that His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire, the once legendary Majesty Yu Mo, must have died under the fire at this moment.

After the people opened fire, they faced that corner in silence for a long time, recalling this almost crazy battle, and they were so depressed that it was difficult to calm down.

Who would have thought that they spent so much time and troops, and killed so many people, just to deal with one opponent?

After the shooting, everyone was relieved, including Yu Hao who was far away on the battleship of the E star field. He watched the scene in the screen, and slowly fell back, leaning on the back of the chair. Finally he let out a long sigh of relief.

Then he couldn't help showing a crazy smile, stood up again, and murmured: "From now on, there will be no more Your Majesty Yu Mo in this world. Defective products with incomplete bloodlines are not eligible at all." I am the one who inherits the throne, I am the one who has the most orthodox blood in the entire royal family, I am the one who should truly inherit the throne, the throne is mine! Mine!"

He flicked the cloak behind him, walked quickly to the podium, picked up the terminal communicator again, and ordered to the people on the other side of the palace: "Check Yu Mo's condition immediately, it doesn't matter if his body is broken or ugly, I must see his body, and then you spread the news of His Majesty's accidental death as soon as possible, and I will rush to Emperor Star..."

He gave the order like this, and the others quickly followed his instructions and began to pack up the scene and confirm the condition of the emperor's body.

However, when the surrounding dust and smoke cleared, they walked in that direction and were about to check the emperor's body, but they found that the corner was empty, there was not even a bit of flesh and blood, and there was no human figure at all.

It was as if the person who was still in front of them just now suddenly disappeared out of thin air.

Soon, someone spread the news to all parties.

When he heard the news, Yu Hao couldn't believe his ears at all, and likewise, he couldn't believe the group of guys in front of him, his face changed instantly, and he took it for granted that these guys were not good for things: "Disappear? In such a big palace, you told me to disappear? How is this possible?"

Right where they started, there was nothing to hide in that corner, and there was no secret passage. After countless inspections, they could finally confirm that it was just an ordinary wall.

The walls are mottled, and have been blasted through and smashed by the previous attacks. No matter who stays here, they will become a blurred mass of flesh and blood under such shooting.

But Yu Mo didn't. The army searched all the nearby places, but couldn't find even half a finger bone of the former emperor.

He really disappeared in front of everyone.

This incident was so bizarre that everyone lost their voices in the face of this news, even Prince Yu Hao couldn't help but look terrified, unable to tell what kind of weird thing happened.

Until finally, at a loss, the ministers in charge of this operation at the other end of the palace asked Yu Hao for his next order.

Yu Hao's expression changed, and he finally gritted his teeth and said: "No matter what, if he disappears, he is dead. Even if he is still alive, with his current injuries and that kind of body, no matter what, he can't survive at all. We don’t need to worry about him, and we will announce the news according to the original plan.”

Hearing Yu Hao's order, the minister nodded immediately, then turned around and told everyone to follow suit.

Even with this stone in their hearts, none of them thought that His Majesty Yu Mo could really climb out of hell again.

In the game world, earlier.

Xia Fei had just harvested a new batch of mysterious fruit trees.

Harvesting summoning stones twice in a row and summoning new pets made Xia Feishi feel that her luck seemed a bit too good, but as expected, good luck doesn't happen all the time. This time the mysterious fruit tree borne There are few things that can be used, even if they are sold into gold coins, they can't be sold much.

Sure enough, luck is conserved.

Xia Fei thought this way, and then began to show the AI ​​audience in the live broadcast room the furniture and tools she had just harvested from the tree.

"This is a game console. This thing is quite useful. It can be kept for the little animals to play with. I don't know if they will like it." Xia Fei said this while continuing to read the barrage, with a smile on her lips. With a shallow smile: "Ask me why furniture grows on these trees? I don't know about it. It's probably because of the setting, but it's also very interesting. Every time you harvest, you will have new expectations."

He continued to look, and among the things harvested this time were special shoes for sheep, beautiful colorful scarves, and even a fiery red wig. Xia Fei looked at this wig, then turned to look at herself The four animals who were joining in the fun behind them, not knowing whether they were making trouble or helping, couldn't help thinking seriously.

Who should be equipped with this wig?

When Xia Fei saw the explanatory text on the wig, there was an obvious explanatory text of "Fashion Value +3" on it.

Although I don't know what the use of this attribute is, but as long as there are hints in the system text, Xia Feishi thinks it should be useful, so every time he encounters good equipment and clothes, he will immediately set them up for his animal friends. superior.

Of course, apart from adding attribute values, Xia Feishi also has selfish intentions, that is, it is very interesting to see animal companions wearing these cute little clothes.

But for small animals, things are completely different.

Among them, Xiang Zhe and He Ze are especially cute. Because the sea otters are cute, He Ze will always be dressed as a beautiful girl by Xia Fei. Every time there is a skirt or lace clothes, Xia Fei Put him on immediately.

This made Heze very melancholy, and often looked at his face in the mirror, wondering why he was regarded as a female sea otter because he had such an outstanding and handsome appearance in the sea otter clan.

And it was Xiang Zhe who suffered even more unspeakably.

Because in Xia Feishi's perception, only female kangaroos have pouches, so Xia Feishi took Xiang Zhe as a female kangaroo very naturally.

And I don't know if it's because of the natural "young woman feeling" of their race. In Xia Feishi's heart, He Zedu is just a little girl, but when it comes to Xiang Zhe, Xia Feishi directly regards him as a single mother. The character, the clothes he wears are all aprons and floral clothes, which look very visual.

Everyone has all kinds of unspeakable secrets in their clothes, so when Xia Feishi held this wig in his hand and looked back at the animals behind him, the animals who usually wished to cling to Xia Feishi's body were now all Backing away, trying to be invisible at this time could not attract Xia Feishi's attention.

In the end, Xia Fei equipped the wig on the black-faced sheep.

The reason is that he thinks the color of the black-faced sheep is too monotonous, so he hopes to make him colorful.

Ying Mo: "..."

However, the sorrows and joys of the orcs are not the same. When Ying Mo was speechless, the barrage at the moment was full of "hahaha", even Hong Yu and others who were present felt very good .

Xia Feishi took the animals to play in the orchard for a long time, and Xia Feishi had almost finished counting the things picked from the fruit trees.

It's not early today, and Xia Feishi knew that he would have to go to bed obediently after playing for two hours at most, so he didn't go to explore new places in the island today, he just wanted to buy some more mysterious seeds to sow, and then use Decorate the island with newly harvested furniture and videos to end today's activities.

After thinking about it this way, Xia Feishi quickly turned off the live broadcast.

What he didn't know was that after he turned off the live broadcast, everyone in the empire could actually see what happened to him on the island.

And when he closed the live broadcast, he just closed the channel to chat with the audience.

After turning off the live broadcast, Xia Fei then manipulated her character to walk towards the trading place.

Entering the building of the exchange, Xia Fei counted out the unnecessary things in his backpack and exchanged them for gold coins, and then he walked out again.

Xia Fei in front of the mobile phone screen was manipulating the characters. He just bought a lot of gold coins for selling materials, so he wanted to take this opportunity to slightly upgrade other buildings on the island.

He thought so, but at this moment, he saw a prompt pop up on his game interface: "The world energy has violent fluctuations! Please check the game settings! The world energy has violent fluctuations! Please check the game settings! "

This reminder box appeared in front of Xia Feishi without warning, which made him startled.

What fluctuations?Is it related to his live broadcast?

Xia Feishi couldn't quite understand the meaning of this prompt, he could only look at his interface inexplicably, click on the panel to try to figure out what it was.

However, when he closed the prompt message and was about to open the menu interface to have a look, the interface that was just closed suddenly popped up again for some reason.

Xia Feishi could only close it one more time.

However, just like before, this prompt interface seemed to have no way to control it, no matter how he operated it, there was no way to close it.

Is there a bug in the game?

Xia Fei couldn't think of any other reason besides this. With this prompt interface hanging on the screen, he couldn't do anything at all.

Seeing that the game has become like this, and the prompt message is still flashing, Xia Fei wanted to turn off the phone and restart it, but found that even turning off the phone didn't work, and there was no way for him to turn off the power of the phone.

He tossed around in a hurry, but fortunately, the program bug only lasted for a while. After a few minutes, although he couldn't find anything, he unexpectedly found that the game seemed to be back to normal.

The prompts that popped up randomly just now were finally turned off, and there were no abnormalities in the screens and various things in the game.

It's as if what happened just now was just Xia Fei's illusion, and the game is still the same as before.

But even so, Xia Fei still felt a little puzzled.

What does this inexplicable prompt mean?Why is it getting better again inexplicably?

Xia Feishi had no way to find out the reason, but he still had to do what was planned. Xia Feishi refreshed and upgraded several buildings on the island, but this had already consumed a lot of gold coins in his backpack.

To upgrade other buildings, it is estimated that the mysterious fruit tree will have to be harvested several times.

Moreover, Xia Feishi was still a little curious about the areas on the island where the ban had been lifted and he hadn't had time to explore with his animal companions.

He clearly felt that in that area, there were some existences beyond his imagination.

When he plays this game, he often has a strange feeling that the world really exists in front of his eyes, regardless of whether it is the animal companions who usually accompany him or the players who usually interact with him. The scenes will always show a sense of reality that exceeds AI.

It seemed that they really cared about him and were there for him.

Xia Feishi knew that his thinking like this was unreasonable, but this was his true feeling. Sometimes even he couldn't help but wonder why he had such thoughts. All emotions are pinned in the emptiness of the game world...

He didn't want to sound so lonely, but it seemed to be true.

Xia Fei was staring at the phone in a daze, forgetting what he was going to do, until when he inadvertently moved the characters on the screen, he inadvertently saw an unexpected scene on the game screen.

Xia Feishi is already very familiar with all the scenes in his game, because everything here was built by him.

So as long as there is any change in the scenery on the island, he can easily notice it.

But now, he saw a dark red spot suddenly appearing under a certain bush in the corner of the island, and even the surrounding grass and bushes were messed up, and there were many trees scattered beside it. Leaves.

Although it is really difficult to identify clearly based on the picture quality of the game, but fortunately Xia Fei can see the text introduction of the game.

For all the things in this game, as long as Xia Fei manipulates the villain to approach it, when his finger pokes on it, the game will give the basic information of the item or creature.

Xia Fei stretched out her fingers to touch the spot where the trace was, and the text introduction immediately appeared: "A pool of blood that hasn't dried up."

He saw this, and then looked at the traces next to him: "A set of footprints of unknown origin."

The traces of the footprints are very shallow. If Xia Fei hadn't tried it out, he might not have found that there were text descriptions here. When he saw this, he manipulated the characters to walk along the position extended by the footprints on the screen. It didn't take long. I found the end of the footprints.

The bushes in this place are a little denser than other places, and the traces are more obvious. Obviously, the opponent has just arrived here not long ago, so the text introduction in the game shows "a pool of fresh blood".

Xia Feishi couldn't understand why there was such an unknown bloodstain on his island?

Is it some new event in the game?Or some hidden mission?

Xia Fei couldn't tell, but he was able to roughly tell that this task was also related to animal companions.

For he had now seen the tip of a shaggy tail protruding from the bushes.

Through the game screen, he could see clearly that it was a blood-stained white tail, the snow-white fur was unusually fluffy, it looked like a soft cloud, very beautiful.

It seems that this reckless animal companion didn't realize that its tail had given away its whereabouts at all.

However, Xia Feishi soon discovered that the other party might not have simply forgotten to retract the tail stupidly, but because he was too seriously injured, he had exhausted all his strength to be able to move here, and there was no energy left to do more. many things.

Xia Feishi manipulated the character to push aside the bushes, and hugged a little wolf cub from inside.

"Little wolf cub" is the description given in the game, and it really looked like this when Xia Fei looked at it. Although it was just a Q version of the cartoon, the appearance of this little wolf was obviously just a newborn baby. How long have you been a wolf cub.

The chubby plush body, as well as the short limbs and ears, make it look unusually cute and cute, even now it is making a low whimper from its throat, it sounds as thin as if it is acting like a baby.

And it was obviously twitching its limbs, trying to use its last strength to break free from the arms of the character Xia Fei was manipulating, but because its limbs were round and short, it looked a little funny, but more cute.

Although Xia Fei only saw this scene through the screen, Xia Fei seemed to be able to feel the resistance and struggle of the other party.

It turned out to be a seriously injured wolf cub, but where exactly was it injured?How would it appear here?

Xia Feishi didn't think much about these issues, after all, many things in the game don't need logic.

But this time he met his new animal companion without using the Summoning Stone, which was really unexpected.

Thinking like this, Xia Fei seriously looked at the little wolf cub held in the arms of the characters in the game and tried to interact with it. However, the options in the interaction box today are different from those when facing other animals. After picking it up, there are only two simple choices left: "A wounded wolf cub, the player can choose: put it down, ignore it and turn away."

Xia Feishi: "..."

Unexpectedly, this healing pet game would give such indifferent options. It seemed as if the island did not welcome the arrival of this little wolf cub.

However, Xia Feishi quickly denied this absurd idea. Although there was no way to do more interaction, Xia Feishi still carried it to her hut.

Xia Feishi's own character also had a hut on the island. After he built houses for the other animals, because he still had a lot of materials and gold coins, he built a house for himself. I thought it wouldn't be useful at first, but I didn't expect it to come in handy today.

This little wolf cub is even weaker than when the lion Xiaohong appeared. He lay dying in Xia Feishi's arms, unable to even struggle. Xia Feishi had no way to interact with him, that is to say There is no way to bandage its wounds or feed it.

This is a rather embarrassing thing.

Xia Feishi finally carried the wolf cub back to her room, and placed it on the soft bedding.

While he was carrying the wolf cub back, Hong Yu and others next to him also noticed the situation here, so they all followed, lying on the window of the room and watching the situation inside secretly.

Just now they only saw Xia Feishi holding a snow-white thing in his arms, but they didn't see what it was.

When Xia Fei put the wolf cub on the bed, they whispered their doubts to each other, Hong Yu: "Wolf cub? Who is this?"

"I don't know." He Ze blinked innocently, "I didn't seem to be calling by that tree just now, did I? Why do I feel that this wolf cub suddenly appeared out of nowhere?"

As he said this, he looked at Ying Mo and Xiang Zhe, and the two behind him nodded, confirming that they hadn't seen humans calling.

So he really ran in by himself?

Several orcs showed alert expressions at the same time, staring at the wolf cub on the bed in the room at the moment, feeling that this guy's origin seemed a little strange.

Among them, Xiang Zhe stared at the wolf cub, and suddenly let out a "huh" for some reason.

The others turned around quickly: "What's wrong? Did you find anything?"

Xiang Zhe shook his head: "No, I just think this wolf cub looks familiar, don't you think so?"

Hong Yu and He Ze shook their heads with doubts on their faces. Only Ying Mo, who was the chief guard of the palace, followed him and nodded, saying, "After all, the wolf clan is the blood of the imperial family..."

Although there are many other wolf clans in the empire besides the royal blood, as long as they see the wolf clan, it is difficult for them not to think of the most noble royal blood in the empire.

But when it came to this, everyone began to look at each other again: "Speaking of which, has the royal family produced such a wolf cub recently? How old does this look at most?"

The one who knows the imperial family best is the duo of guards. Xiang Zhe and Ying Mo shook their heads at the same time when they heard the words: "No, no wolf cubs have been born in the imperial family in recent years."

Everyone fell into doubt again, staring at the wolf cub curled up on the bed in the room and lost in thought.

However, although the origin of the wolf cub has not been determined, everyone has automatically included this guy in the dangerous category, always paying attention to the movement of the wolf cub, worried that he will suddenly hurt humans.

In short, they decided to observe carefully first.

But at this moment, Xia Feishi who was in the room didn't think too much at all. He took care of the little wolf cub carefully. Although there was no way to interact and feed the little wolf cub, he also thought of other ways.

He took out the pet food from his backpack and placed it in front of the other party. As long as it moved a little, it could eat.

In this case, this little wolf cub should be able to eat by itself, right?

After all, in this game, whether it was the animal companions or the barrage that Xia Fei saw, they all looked extremely smart. He took it for granted that this little wolf cub could also do such a simple thing.

But it was a pity that he put the food next to the wolf cub for a long time, but the wolf cub didn't seem to want to move at all, just lying there sleepily.

Xia Feishi held her mobile phone and couldn't help frowning slightly while looking at the game screen.

Why did he feel that this wolf cub seemed less intelligent than other animals?

Things are placed so close in front of him, but he doesn't know how to touch them at all, it really makes people worry.

It's a pity that he can't do more things. He looked at the things his character can do, and after a while, he found a "singing" action, trying to comfort the other party with singing, so that it can relax a little .

Then Xia Feishi saw that the character he controlled on the screen sang nursery rhymes to the wolf cubs.

After hearing the singing, the wolf cub who was dying just now finally reacted.

But its reaction was very strange, it just raised its head unusually coldly, and glanced at Xia Fei.

Xia Feishi: "..."

For some reason, the wolf cub in the game is obviously just a Q-version of the cartoon, but Xia Feishi inexplicably felt that she read a bit of disgust and awkwardness from the wolf cub's eyes.

Xia Fei felt that she must have made a mistake.However, the wolf cub in front of him was indeed the biggest test he encountered in this game. No matter how hard he tried, the wolf cub curled up like a fluffy bird. Xuetuanzi was not willing to communicate with anyone at all.

Xia Fei was in a bit of trouble, what should I do?

To be precise, this little wolf cub is not actually a wolf cub.

Probably no one in the entire empire would have thought that after their emperor was attacked in the palace, he would be teleported to this small island where humans were at a critical moment of life and death.

Yu Mo didn't expect it, and what he didn't expect was that it was unknown whether it was because of his physical condition or the medicine he had injected before, so after he came here, he unexpectedly degenerated into a juvenile appearance in the form of a beast for no reason.

In fact, at the beginning, he didn't realize where he was.

Just at the last moment, he was still in the palace of the imperial city, facing the end of being wiped out under the gunfire, but at the next moment, a crimson light suddenly flashed in his vision, and then he appeared after a feeling of weightlessness. on this land.

The weird cartoon style of this place stunned him, and when he found out that he was forced to change back into a beast-like cub, and also turned into a cartoon-like appearance, his doubts deepened.

But no matter what, he survived the catastrophe.

Yu Mo, who was silent, did not relax because of the rest of his life after the catastrophe. Although his body had already suffered serious injuries, he still tried his best to move to the dense bushes next to him, trying to temporarily cover his body. Figure, first find a way to figure out where this is.

But before he could hide himself completely, he heard footsteps coming from behind.

The footsteps were getting closer and closer, and it was obvious that he had been spotted. Yu Mo had lost all his fighting power in his current state, so hearing the approaching footsteps, he curled up and prepared for the worst .

However, things were a little different from what he thought.

Because when a pair of warm and soft hands gently lifted his body and hugged him, he suddenly realized that the person in front of him was none other than the ancient human being he had only seen in the live broadcast not long ago.

The human teenager stared at him intently, his eyes were dark and focused, and he was the only one in his eyes.

Yu Mo and the human looked at each other for only a moment, and then he began to struggle, because the human was hugging him like a baby.

As a member of the royal family and later the emperor of the empire, Yu Mo has never been hugged in such an intimate position since he was born.The imperial orcs are not used to having physical contact with people, especially in the form of beasts, and Yu Mo, as the emperor, is now being hugged gently by a human boy with such no distance, and the human boy's hands are still hugging At the position of his tail...

presumptuous!

Yu Mo's eyes widened slightly, he was able to remain calm at any time, but only at such times, he just wanted to find someone to drag this impolite human down to teach him the rules.

However, it is a pity that humans simply cannot understand what he is doing.

Yu Mo is now in the form of a beast, and he can't speak in a human way, so he can only struggle to express his intentions.

But now he is injured, and he is still in the form of a cub, and struggling has no effect at all. Just as his heart was full of confusion, humans had already led him into a certain room not far away.

By now, Yu Mo certainly knew where he was, and while being carried into the room by humans, he also saw Hong Yu and the others who were following him nervously, lying outside the window and secretly watching him.

The four orcs seemed to be completely accustomed to their beast form now, and were whispering to each other in the shape of animals.

Although Yu Mo didn't hear what they were discussing, he could probably guess it.

Yu Mo's expression is cold now, and he doesn't want to pay attention to these guys at all.

He sent people to rescue people at the beginning, but who knew they would fall into it one by one.

And now, even Yu Mo himself came.

Yu Mo has no desire to talk to them, and of course he has no desire to talk to humans. Since he became an adult, Yu Mo has never let anyone see his beast form, and now he will not let others know his identity .

not to mention--

He hasn't forgotten that the whole empire can see their every move on this island through the live broadcast.

Yu Mo thought he couldn't afford to lose this face.