Chapter 36: Requires Skin Contact Part 2

Li You, who had just caught the brass knuckles, nearly choked on his saliva at the second half of the sentence. He was thrown into chaos and looked up at his brother.

Li Ye’s face was calm, expression flat as usual, but precisely because this wooden cold face said “smart Your Highness Youyou,” it felt even stranger.

It didn’t sound like a compliment, nor an insult. In short, very odd.

Li You smacked his lips, equipped the brass knuckles, thrust a fist forward with a faint gust of wind, but stopped right before touching Li Ye’s nose. He poked the tip with his index finger. “Scared by Your Highness Youyou yet?”

“Mmm.” Li Ye played along. “Scared.”

“You could at least pretend to look scared!” Li You withdrew his hand, flexed his fingers, looked at these weapons that now fully belonged to him, and nodded in satisfaction. “Fits perfectly.”

“Then prepare to practice.” Li Ye checked the time and symbolically asked, “Can you hold on?”

“If I said no, would you let me skip?”

“No.” Li Ye lightly tapped his forehead. “And you wouldn’t say you can’t hold on.”

“You know me so well.” Li You grinned.

Then they practiced for three hours. Li You nearly cried, sprawled on the floor with his face turned to the left, looking utterly worn out, with clear frustration and unwillingness on his features.

“Much better than last time.” Li Ye massaged his muscles to relax them as usual. “Your offense adjusted well. Held out an extra hour.”

“But I still didn’t touch you.” Li You was dispirited, closing his eyes tiredly and mumbling, “And why aren’t you tired at all? Makes me look so fragile.”

Li Ye glanced at the motionless youth sprawled there, lowered his gaze, and continued pressing the calf. “It wasn’t built in a day. Take it slow.”

“Okay, I know…” With eyes closed, Li You grew sleepy when tired, and his speech softened. He yawned and suddenly asked, “Bro, tell me about the people I knew before. What’s everyone doing now?”

Li Ye: “Don’t you want to sleep?”

“I sleep too much already. Can’t keep doing that.” Li You yawned repeatedly as he spoke, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. “I want to know how everyone’s doing.”

Li Ye fell silent, lightened the kneading force a bit, sat cross-legged nearby, and switched to the other leg to continue the massage.

“The empire hasn’t had large-scale pollution sources for ten years. Small fries pop up occasionally, easy to handle. The empire’s state is good now—all thanks to you.”

“We’re chatting, why praise me?” Li You flipped over and sat up, grabbing Li Ye’s arms with both hands. “I know how the empire is. Talk about everyone.”

“How do you know?” Li Ye asked.

“I’ve been your cat for a while. Saw and heard plenty following you.” Li You eyed him. “You’re asking despite knowing.”

“So you want to hear about everyone?” Li Ye looked at him.

“Mmm.” Li You sat cross-legged on the mat. “Let’s chat.”

“Yulian, doctor at the Central Laboratory—you’ve met him.” Li Ye was concise. “Li Ze is also at the Central Laboratory; Li Ming is at the Imperial Military, rank major general; Li Weier is dean of the Central Medical Academy.”

He looked at Li You and asked, “Anything else you want to know?”

“…” Li You blinked. “That’s… it?”

Li Ye thought for a moment and added, “Your combat teacher Moger, etiquette instructor Lisa—still in imperial service.”

“Oh.” Li You suddenly tasted something different. He stared intently at Li Ye’s eyes and suddenly asked, “What about you? How have you been these years?”

Li Ye turned his head away. “I’ve been fine.”

Li You tilted his head, pressed his clasped hands against his shoes, leaned in from below to look up at Li Ye, big pretty eyes wide open. The unretracted cat ears even twitched twice. “Really?”

“Not really—do you hope I haven’t been?” Li Ye lowered his gaze to meet his eyes, his sight drifting to Li You’s lips, reddened from exercise, tracing the plump, full lip mound.

Li You leaned in closer again. Suddenly, he reached out with both hands to frame his brother’s waist. When he caught a flash of surprise in Li Ye’s eyes, he grinned mischievously and playfully pinched the ticklish spots on Li Ye’s sides. Seeing the other man furrow his brows and purse his lips, his hands triumphantly slipped into the pocket of Li Ye’s combat uniform, found that small bottle of medicine, pinched it between his fingertips, and held it up as he questioned, “Then what is this? If you’re really fine, why did you go to Dr. Kavasha for treatment and have her prescribe this medicine with such strong side effects?”

Li You stared into his brother’s eyes and confiscated the medicine that Li Ye had actually been carrying on him all along. He leaned down and sprawled across Li Ye’s lap, mumbling, “Brother, stop lying to me. Tell me you’re not okay, and I can think of ways to help you.”

Li Ye lowered his gaze to the back of Li You’s head and placed a hand on it. “How would you help me?”

Li You flipped over, lay on Li Ye’s lap, and met the eyes of Li Ye, who was looking down at him. He reached out with both hands to cup the other’s face and slowly pinched Li Ye’s earlobes.

“I heard Dr. Kavasha say that raising a pet might alleviate your condition. Tell me, has it gotten a little better after raising me?” Li You’s expression was very serious. “I want the truth.”

Li Ye felt Li You’s warmth, as well as the itch on his earlobes, and admitted, “Mm, a little better.”

“Although I’m Youyou and not a pet, for your sake, when I’m a cat, you can treat me as yours.” Li You said, “Li Ye, you have a cat now. If you’re feeling down, you can tell me. I’ll reluctantly turn into a cat and coax you.”

These were truly Li You’s heartfelt words. He hoped his brother would be okay, just like many years ago. Even knowing his brother wasn’t human, even though he was afraid, he hadn’t wanted his brother to be discovered by the world and face disgust and rejection. He also didn’t want Li Ye to die from that explosive pollution disaster.

No one in the world hoped for Li Ye to be okay more than he did.

Li Ye fell silent. He hadn’t told the truth—he wasn’t actually sick.

He had told Li You that when he discovered the person in the Illusion Realm was the real Li You, he had once thought he was sick, even that he had gone mad.

But clearly, Li You hadn’t connected those words to his visit to Dr. Kavasha for medicine.

So Li You still thought he was ill.

Yet Li Ye didn’t explain.

He was a cunning person, born in the Abyss, with a dark and filthy heart. He wanted to possess all of Li You and didn’t want Li You’s gaze to fall on anyone else. Even if those people were ones Li You said he didn’t want to see, hearing Li You mention them still stirred up a lot of displeasure in his heart.

Li Ye’s hand covered Li You’s face. His fingertip pressed against Li You’s lower lip as he gazed into the young man’s eyes and saw his own reflection there.

“You’re my cat.” Li Ye said.

“Mhm.” Li You smiled, his eyes curving into crescents. His lips were red and his teeth white; when he hooked his lips, he revealed some pearly whites. His beautiful appearance resembled the Flower of Life blooming on the west coast of Romantisa Continent.

Li You’s lower lip grew itchy from Li Ye’s cool fingertip rubbing it. He pursed his lips, withdrew his hands from pinching the other’s earlobes, gently pushed away Li Ye’s hand, and looked up at him. “Brother, train with me a bit longer.”

“Within your capabilities. It’s over for today.”

“But I feel like I can go again now.”

“Then increase the amount tomorrow.”

“You’re dead set on not training today?”

“Mm.” Li Ye stood up and pulled Li You to his feet. “Next, go look at the map I marked.”

Li You stood straight and stretched his legs. “Alright.”

The two headed to the laboratory. Li You looked at the map nearby while Li Ye tried sending a message.

At the same time, at the Imperial Military garrison on Anjiel, Peisengke, who had stayed up several long nights, stared deathly at the screen. When he saw the received content was a bunch of garbled code, he smashed his fist into the wall beside him. “Damn it, that little brat better not have lied to me!”

Qi Yu came in from outside and placed a cup of water beside him. “Where is he?”

A nearby officer reported, “In the interrogation room next door… eating.”

“He came here on vacation?!” Peisengke nearly laughed in anger.

From discovering that kid was a composite of crystal stone and Abyss Pollutant infection, to capturing him for Kailenoa intel, to buying him little bears and rabbit dolls, snacks supplied daily until now—they had only pried a tiny bit of useful info from the guy’s mouth.

The Imperial Military used the radio code the kid provided to send messages. After countless attempts, they had only succeeded once before, rescuing Qi Yu.

One of the return methods they got from the kid was in the west. Qi Yu had insisted they couldn’t send that info out, explaining that western Kailenoa was very dangerous, but the kid refused to give any more. After deliberation, the military could only send “return method in the west.” They chose to trust Your Highness Li Ye.

But whether it had gone through was unknown, and among the thousands of recovered data points, it was uncertain if any were replies from Your Highness Li Ye—and they were all garbled!