Chapter 16: Surveillance
“Huh?” In the central villa district, a little boy holding a doll stood at the door of the playroom, looking at the retreating figure. “Dad, is Guide Xu leaving?”
“Yes, it’s getting late. He’s going home.” Luo Mingxu patted his son’s head.
“Why didn’t you ask him to stay for dinner? You always used to. I wanted to hear him tell his old stories.”
“This time is a little different,” Luo Mingxu said in a low, smiling voice. “He has a Sentinel now.”
The little boy was confused.
“What does that mean?”
“His Sentinel will be waiting for him at home, right? Yes, that’s right. I guess—that’s it.” Luo Mingxu winked at his son, speaking mysteriously. He remembered the look on Xu Xunyue’s face when he came out of the storage room and became even more convinced that his guess was correct.
…He had actually seen warmth in Xu Xunyue’s eyes.
Unbelievable.
The time went back to twenty minutes ago.
After the results of the compatibility list came out, Xu Xunyue checked if the instrument was malfunctioning and even ran the test again. In the end, he confirmed that Zhu Hui’s compatibility list was indeed like that.
Completely different from what he remembered.
Xu Xunyue then checked his own compatibility list and found that it still only had Zhu Hui’s name on it, followed by the number 67.61%.
So, it was Zhu Hui’s entire compatibility list that had changed.
According to common sense, compatibility ratings shouldn’t rise or fall at all. Even if the fluctuation between two individuals could be explained by special circumstances, perfect timing, or physical compatibility, how could all the values changing at once be explained?
Zhu Hui hadn’t been in contact with those people. On the contrary, he had been in contact with Xu Xunyue the entire night.
Their compatibility rating had also been watched as it increased bit by bit.
Could it be that the increase in his compatibility with Xu Xunyue had caused the decrease in the other sets of values, with more than half even falling below the 60% passing line?
Xu Xunyue frowned slightly.
If his guess was correct, and Zhu Hui continued to stay with him, continued to be intimate with him, would there come a day when he, too, would only have one person on his compatibility list?
On that day, Zhu Hui would truly only be able to rely on him.
“Rely.”
The word was subtle.
This brought to mind a study currently being conducted at the White Tower, a topic related to the relationship between Guides and Sentinels. This morning, when Xu Xunyue was wandering around the academy with Dean Xia Feng, they had happened to chat about it.
Xia Feng had told Xu Xunyue some theories that had not yet been fully verified.
For example, in theory, it was possible to train a legendary Dark Sentinel.
For example, the more times a Sentinel received mental soothing, and the longer they had been receiving it, the weaker their independence became.
It was well known that the more frequent the mental activities between a Sentinel and a Guide, the deeper the mental link they established. But Xia Feng had specifically pointed out that from the perspective of this study, a Guide’s mental soothing was also like a drug addiction.
Treatment could save you, but it was hard to quit. Without treatment, there was a 99.99% chance of a tragic death, but there was still that 0.01% possibility, not yet scientifically verified, that a Sentinel could completely break free from their physical constraints and become an unprecedentedly strong being.
Xia Feng said that the Empire’s previous Chief Sentinel, Qiu Ye, was one of the key subjects of this study.
He and his bonded Guide had a very good relationship. When that Guide died in an accident, he went berserk from a thousand miles away and was held down on the spot and forcibly injected with a sedative.
Qiu Ye had temporarily survived, but he refused treatment from any Guide and refused mental soothing under any circumstances. Everyone thought he was going to die. But after two years of madness, confusion, and aphasia, he actually emerged from his uncontrollable state, and was even more independent than before, as if he really didn’t need a Guide anymore.
Of course, this was just a conclusion drawn by researchers from appearances and test data. No one could enter Qiu Ye’s spiritual landscape anymore. A Guide with a compatibility of over 60% had once tried, but ended up leaving in a sorry state with wounds caused by the Sentinel’s spiritual barrier.
Zhu Hui’s avoidance of mental soothing before was probably because he wanted to follow Qiu Ye’s path. He wanted to try and see if he could become a Dark Sentinel who could stand on his own.
At this point in his thoughts, Xu Xunyue realized that Zhu Hui probably knew Qiu Ye, otherwise it would be hard to know this kind of information.
But since Zhu Hui wanted to emulate Qiu Ye, to surpass his predecessor and use his excellent physical condition to reach a higher level, why had he now chosen a completely opposite direction?
He had given up his attack on him, actively asked him for mental soothing, and leaned in with a red face asking for kisses, being kissed until he looked pitiful…
He didn’t look like he wanted to be “independent” at all.
He also looked happy to see the compatibility rating increase.
But Zhu Hui’s compatibility list…
If in the future, he was truly the only one who could link to Zhu Hui’s spiritual world, and Zhu Hui had already developed an irresolvable dependence on him…
He would be very happy.
Because that would be a Sentinel who belonged completely and only to him.
Xu Xunyue stopped his thoughts, put the compatibility testing instrument back, and turned to the personal terminal on his wrist.
The terminal screen lit up, showing that it was now 6:00 PM, Imperial Capital time.
Xu Xunyue continued to scroll through the screen.
He hadn’t opened it to check the time.
His fingertip tapped four times in succession.
[Management] – [Manor] – [Settings] – [Surveillance].
When his fingertip touched the word “Surveillance,” the screen of the personal terminal suddenly changed.
The screen, which had originally been a single grid, suddenly became a nine-grid display, with an icon for “more” in the bottom right corner, indicating that there were more than just these nine surveillance feeds.
And in the nine grids displayed on the screen, there was the pitch-black storage room on the third floor, the study with warm lights on the second floor, Xu Xunyue’s own bedroom, the simple and classic living room on the first floor, the clean and tidy dining table, and…
A kitchen with a tightly closed glass door, faintly reflecting a bright yellow flame?
Even Xu Xunyue was stunned for a moment by the bright color that had suddenly burst into his vision.
His somewhat complicated mood was diluted. He switched cameras, and the screen instantly displayed the scene inside the kitchen.
Sizzle—!!
The sound of hot oil hitting the pan was incredibly loud. The arm of the young Sentinel holding the spatula clearly trembled.
Xu Xunyue felt that he must have been startled, or perhaps hot oil had splashed on his hand. The Zhu Hui in the image was not wearing his black combat gloves, probably because he wanted a better grip on the kitchen utensils.
The higher the level of a Sentinel, the less likely they were to be stressed. Zhu Hui was already a very stable Sentinel, but the sudden explosive sound in a quiet place, combined with the heat of the oil, would still have a certain effect.
Just an effect, not much harm. When humans fought against cataclysmic beings, Sentinels in the army would often encounter sudden stimuli like loud noises, sharp pains, and strange smells. Those were the things worth being vigilant about, the things that would truly endanger life and affect the battle situation.
But fighting was fighting, and being at home was being at home.
Why let someone get hurt over something unnecessary?
Xu Xunyue began to feel a sense of regret. Due to the broken technology chain, the surveillance cameras in the manor were just for surveillance. They couldn’t transmit messages or make calls.
As for sending a message to say something…
It was a bit funny to say, but they had been married for a day, had even had a Level Two Bonding, yet the two of them hadn’t even added each other’s contact information.
He hadn’t sought out Zhu Hui, and Zhu Hui hadn’t sought him out. Xu Xunyue himself had only just discovered this.
Without adding each other as friends on their personal terminals, they couldn’t send messages at all.
This was actually a result of their attitudes changing too quickly. Before they had truly met, both of them had a rather negative attitude toward the marriage contract, thinking that although their legal relationship had changed, they would still live their own separate lives after marriage, so they naturally hadn’t thought much about it.
In the screen, Zhu Hui stared at the pot in front of him with a solemn expression, his thin lips pressed tightly together, his gaze cold, as if the pot before him were not a pot, but a heinous criminal.
He pinched his nose, and after a while, he simply covered his mouth and nose with his other hand.
Xu Xunyue watched for a few seconds, then temporarily turned off his personal terminal and left the storage room of the central villa district.
After a simple farewell to Luo Mingxu and his family, he got into the car and set the navigation destination to the small manor on the western outskirts of the Imperial Capital.
His… home.
On the way, Xu Xunyue continued to watch the surveillance.
But he didn’t just watch the live feed. He went through the surveillance records for the day.
He saw himself waking up in the morning, the snow wolf rubbing against his pant leg while he was washing up, then having breakfast with Zhu Hui, and a kiss that lasted for more than ten minutes at the door when he left.
After that, he left. Zhu Hui stood at the door for a while, and then, just as he had said he would, he “familiarized himself” with the place, walking through the courtyard outside the small house and every part of the three-story building except for Xu Xunyue’s bedroom.
The snow wolf had also come out of Zhu Hui’s spiritual world, walking beside him with its head held high. It seemed to be inspecting its new territory. When it encountered large pieces of furniture, it would even step on their shadows. Unfortunately, Xu Xunyue was not at home at that time, so there was no spiritual body to respond to its probing.
During Zhu Hui’s “familiarization” process, Xu Xunyue also noticed a suspicious detail.
At that time, as Zhu Hui was walking, his footsteps suddenly paused. The next moment, he turned his head and looked directly at the screen—that is, where a certain surveillance camera was located.
He stared for a full three seconds.
Xu Xunyue looked at the screen, meeting the gaze of the Zhu Hui from that time, and was completely certain that Zhu Hui had discovered this camera.
A person and his spiritual body wandering around a building, with no pressure and no time limit, it was normal to discover a camera when the angle, distance, and lighting were just right.
But a scene that surprised Xu Xunyue appeared.
The Zhu Hui of that time had stared at the screen for three seconds, then, as if realizing something, he looked away nonchalantly and walked further and further away.
His spiritual body, however, remained in place, wagged its tail, and stretched out a big yawn toward the camera, its amber eyes bright.
Then, Xu Xunyue heard a series of “awoo” and “whimper” sounds.
This sound wasn’t coming from the surveillance, but from beside him.
A glance to the side revealed that the shadows had come out at some point and were gathered around the personal terminal, watching the recording.
Xu Xunyue: [Why are you learning to howl like a wolf?]
[Because the little wolf is saying hello to us!]
