Chapter 38: Something Unusual Part 1

Yan Xinfeng said, “You know that sounds pretty ambiguous, right?”

“Of course I know,” Wei Tingxia snorted with laughter and admitted directly, “I did it on purpose.”

Yan Xinfeng sighed and reached to Wei Tingxia’s waist, patting lightly now and then, like soothing a kitten or puppy.

“Ruthless omega.” He murmured slowly and softly by Wei Tingxia’s ear.

Wei Tingxia associated something from his words and felt a slight tremor in his heart. “You have no idea how ruthless I can be.”

“I hope that doesn’t mean you’re about to attack the base in the next second.”

Wei Tingxia grinned. “No.”

With that, he was no longer content with his position against Yan Xinfeng’s chest. He left the bed, changed into suitable clothes, and while adjusting his cuffs, he heard footsteps behind him.

“If you don’t get dressed soon, Scarface is probably going to lose his mind.”

Behind him, Yan Xinfeng frowned. “What’s he got to be so anxious about?”

Wei Tingxia turned around and saw Yan Xinfeng rummaging in the closet, finally picking out a pair of light gray socks.

Feeling his gaze, Wei Tingxia didn’t move, so Yan Xinfeng came over himself, held his waist, lifted him to a higher seat, then squatted down, stretched the sock opening, and took one of Wei Tingxia’s feet in hand.

He did it very skillfully, and Wei Tingxia accepted it completely at ease.

The subtle sensation from his ankle rubbed by fingers with thin calluses traveled straight up the nerves. Yan Xinfeng kept his head down, so Wei Tingxia couldn’t see his expression, but he could see the distinct bite mark on the back of Yan Xinfeng’s neck along his hair.

“You seem a bit thinner.”

Below, Yan Xinfeng’s palm slid up from the ankle, pinched Wei Tingxia’s calf, his tone thoughtful.

It wasn’t “seem”—he was thinner. The fatigue from days of travel and the weight on his heart had silently worn him down.

Wei Tingxia’s calf muscles tensed instinctively, then he forced them to relax. His voice was flat and emotionless. “Maybe. No big deal.”

Yan Xinfeng said, “You’re too tired.”

As he spoke, he lifted his head, his gaze on Wei Tingxia very serious.

But Wei Tingxia couldn’t respond well to this concern. He just furrowed his brows slightly and looked away. “What’s the big fuss?”

“This might not be a big deal, but I think it’s related to that thing you’re hiding from me.”

…

After two seconds of suffocating silence, Wei Tingxia’s irritation finally exploded. “Hiding from you again? As if I have nothing better to do than plot how to deceive you every day!”

His fierce rebuttal was like punching cotton—it only made Yan Xinfeng narrow his eyes, his tone even more certain. “You are hiding from me.”

“Yeah, sure,” Wei Tingxia nodded in resignation, the corners of his mouth pulling into a sarcastic arc. “Actually, I just ascended the throne yesterday, and I came to you today to ask if you’d be willing to be the empress.”

“I’d love to, but that’s not it.” Yan Xinfeng said, “You’d rather tell me you’ve become the empire’s emperor than say… Xiao Xia, what exactly are you hiding?”

‘Hiding a doomsday weapon that could blast the entire star sector back to the Stone Age—the moment you find out would be the perfect time for it to send you to meet your ancestors.’

Wei Tingxia sneered inwardly, too lazy to argue further. He kicked Yan Xinfeng lightly with his foot. “Are you going to get dressed or not?”

“Fine, fine,” Yan Xinfeng sighed in resignation, but his hands didn’t stop. He quickly and deftly fitted the other sock. “Why are you mad again?”

He’d acknowledged an ancestor.

After helping Wei Tingxia dress, Yan Xinfeng casually picked out matching long-sleeved pants for himself, made sure all the marks were covered, then took him out of the rest room.

As soon as they stepped out, he saw Scarface leaning against the railing by the door. The moment he heard them, Scarface scanned the two of them, then winked lewdly.

“Heh heh, made up?”

Wei Tingxia flipped him the bird, and Scarface took it fully. “So, shall we talk?”

A squad of mecha from the Border Military District was still waiting outside. Their lovey-dovey time was great, but they couldn’t ignore the others.

“I’m done talking,” Wei Tingxia glanced at the time, then slowly shifted his gaze to Yan Xinfeng. “You go ahead. Meet me later?”

Yan Xinfeng met his eyes and nodded. “One hour.”

“Got it.”

Wei Tingxia strode away.

Once he was out of earshot, Scarface rushed right up to Yan Xinfeng without a word, his face flushed red.

“He’s really the Second Prince?!”

Any normal person finding out that the star pirate bunkmate they’d lived with in the same base for three years was actually the empire’s Second Prince—the enemy of enemies, forever opposed to the people—would react like that.

Yan Xinfeng hadn’t been much better at first.

“Yes,” he nodded. “The real deal.”

“Then… shouldn’t he be an alpha?” Scarface stuttered a bit. “You marked an alpha?”

Yan Xinfeng furrowed his brows. “Can you make any sense? How could I mark an alpha?”

Scarface’s gaze was deadly serious. “Compared to the empire’s Second Prince actually being an omega, I’d rather believe you straight-up marked an alpha.”

Because if Wei Tingxia was an omega, it meant the filth and rot on Capital Star was even worse than they’d imagined.

Yan Xinfeng had come from there—he knew better than Scarface.

He let out a short laugh. “I know what you’re thinking, but I haven’t evolved to that level yet.”

Scarface quickly latched onto the next issue. “So what’s his stance? Is he taking you back to the military district to get executed?”

Yan Xinfeng rubbed his chin. “Probably not?”

Scarface’s eyes widened. “’Probably not’? Executing you is ‘probably not’?”

He’d never dreamed there was someone in the world with love brain that bad. Wei Tingxia had practically shoved a mortar right to his chest, and he still thought it was flirting!

“That’s the military district!” Scarface lowered his voice in warning. “Even if you can split yourself, you can’t escape! He calls and you just go?”

“What can I do?” Yan Xinfeng spread his hands. “The defense array was designed by him. If Wei Tingxia really wanted to deal with us, he wouldn’t go to this much trouble.”

Scarface really wanted to faint right then and wake up after one side was totally done for.

Seeing him like this, Yan Xinfeng finally got serious.

“He knows about the Blue Nail Ship.”

Before the words finished, Scarface’s expression changed.

“He knows… since when?”

“Not sure. A month, two months, or three years.”

Yan Xinfeng turned toward the archive room. As he passed a monitor, he glanced up slightly and saw the light inside flashing at normal frequency.

“But no matter which year he found out, the result is the same.”

The star pirate identity couldn’t be maintained anymore. The Blue Nail Ship was an unhealing abscess on the empire, and the empire was always sensitive about it. If Wei Tingxia reported it, even if Lin Wensi didn’t want to act, other military districts would definitely send people.

Scarface never expected such a roadblock to appear halfway. He scratched his head and realized that aside from sending Yan Xinfeng off for a political marriage, there didn’t seem to be another way.

“Go serve him well,” he said seriously. “Use all your alpha prowess to make him head over heels for you. Best if he can help from inside and out, and chop off that Old Emperor’s head in one stroke.”

Then he realized the plan didn’t make sense. “Wait, no—usually it’s him making you head over heels.”

Scarface regretfully revised. “Fine, then hold firm, use our great ideals to inspire him, correct him, reform him. Make him see that standing against the people leads nowhere good—that it’s doomed to perish!”

Yan Xinfeng’s expression was beyond complex.

He first checked the base’s signal connections, then methodically inspected each one, finally stopping at the archive room door and disabling three cyclic keys.

“The archive room isn’t connected to any external systems. In theory, it can’t be accessed remotely. To browse, you have to enter, and only I have the access keys.”

Three rings on the screen began rotating regularly, reflecting Yan Xinfeng’s chin.

“I’ve never mentioned the Blue Nail Ship in any setting. Those three words don’t appear in my personal comms records either. So what I really want to know is, how did he find out?”

As the words fell, the door lock opened, and the true archive storage stood before them in the archive room.

Yan Xinfeng plugged his light brain into the port, searched, and still found nothing.

He patted the alloy skull of the storage unit, told it to standby in place, then left the archive room with Scarface.

His checks showed no external signal intrusion into the base, but the facts pointed exactly the opposite.

Scarface guessed, “Maybe he was bluffing? Just to trick you?”

“No,” Yan Xinfeng put away his light brain. “We both have secrets from each other, but not to that extent. Plus, who’d bluff with an ordinary scout ship that blew up years ago?”

True enough.

Scarface smacked his lips. “Then he’s got some mastermind behind him?”

“Or maybe he is the mastermind.”

As he spoke, Yan Xinfeng couldn’t hold back a smile at the corner of his mouth. Scarface couldn’t bear to look.

“Just go already!” He waved him off. “Send me a signal before you die, so I can run in time.”

Yan Xinfeng turned to leave.

But after a few steps, Scarface suddenly called out to him.

“Right, one more thing I need to tell you.”

…

Wei Tingxia retreated into the cockpit. The soft click of metal closing isolated the outside. He connected the comms, and Lin Tao’s face appeared on the screen, laced with irrepressible anxiety.

“You can’t hide it forever.”

That was her first sentence.

Wei Tingxia wasn’t surprised she’d called at this time. He adjusted his posture, leaning back into the seat, his tone casually relaxed as always. “Why not?”

“He’ll find out I left sooner or later,” Lin Tao’s voice was taut. “I vanished suddenly, without any procedures. The leader will notice eventually, and then you won’t be able to hide it.”

“As long as I can hide it, I will,” Wei Tingxia shrugged indifferently, his gaze sweeping over the complex dashboard. “What you need to do now is leave obediently—I don’t get what you’re dissatisfied about.”

Before heading to Deep Blue Base, he’d handed Lin Tao over to Lin Wensi. The Border Military District had regular well-paid medical aid programs, and a doctor like Lin Tao was perfect for it.

Lin Tao sneered coldly. “Maybe I’m just dissatisfied that you’ve been dragging me around hiding everywhere.”