Chapter 50: Brown Eyes (24)

Shen Qiuxun walked inside and wandered around the enormous castle for a long time.

The castle was empty and devoid of any signs of life. Recalling Jiang Shiyan’s words, he headed for the target’s room. The door opened smoothly, revealing the interior decor.

It was a replica of that lower planet rental apartment.

He stepped in, closed the door, and finally found Xu Zhiyuan in a corner, like a trapped beast.

The room’s walls were thick, and the only window was a small circle set high up, making it extremely oppressive. It didn’t look like a place for a patient to live, but more like a prison.

Shen Qiuxun glanced at the man in the corner, surveyed his surroundings, and sat down on the edge of the bed. He pulled out a thick stack of papers from his pocket and placed them beside him. “Come here.”

The man in the corner finally moved. He lifted his head from his knees to look at Shen Qiuxun sitting on the bed. Full of grievance, his rut naturally amplified all his negative emotions. The fact that the other man wouldn’t even spare him a glance now was making it even worse.

In the end, he still crawled to Shen Qiuxun’s feet, too angry to speak but too afraid to complain, and rested his head on the man’s thigh. Tears streamed uncontrollably down his face.

He was acting just like a resentful husband.

When he had agreed to Jiang Shiyan’s request in the car, Shen Qiuxun had expected to face a berserk Xu Zhiyuan. Who knew he’d get the childish version instead?

He grabbed the man’s ear and shoved the A4 papers in front of his face. “Who gave you permission to go into my room?”

Xu Zhiyuan glanced at the surveillance images on the papers, hiding a deep, profound darkness in his eyes. He looked up with a mournful expression.

“I just wanted to do your housework… I was worried you couldn’t cook well enough for yourself every day. I’ve practiced my cooking day and night for years, just so you could one day eat a meal I made. I also wanted to wash your underwear. Such delicate fabrics need someone like me to carefully and thoroughly clean them. I practice washing underwear every day, I guarantee I can make your underwear shine brightly and smell fragrant… How could Little Xun do such things himself? I just wanted to do all this silently, I never meant to disturb you.”

“If you say the word ‘underwear’ one more time, I’ll kick you out!” Shen Qiuxun took a deep breath and steered the conversation back on track. “Then why did the police come to my room?”

Anger surged from Xu Zhiyuan’s heart, but the moment his ear was twisted, his defiant features drooped. He looked like a stray dog being grabbed by the scruff of its neck. “I was worried about you… He’s a fugitive. What if he hurt you?”

“You were a fugitive too back then. Why the discrimination?”

“…” Xu Zhiyuan choked up, holding his ear as he whined pitifully, “How can that be the same…?”

“What’s the difference?”

“I…” Xu Zhiyuan stole a secret glance at him, an eerie blush on his face. “I had ulterior motives towards you back then… who knows what intentions he had for hiding in your home… how terrifying it would be if he dragged you into his mess.”

If Fu Mingchuan weren’t the one who reported him, Shen Qiuxun might have actually believed him. The man was about to stick himself to Shen Qiuxun again when Shen Qiuxun pushed him away with a foot on his shoulder. “Get lost.”

“Even if you were being honest, why resort to tampering with the surveillance footage? Do you think I’m an idiot?”

“What?”

“If it wasn’t you, who else could it be? It couldn’t be something he staged himself.”

“Am I really that dishonest a person in your heart?” Xu Zhiyuan’s eyes were red-rimmed. His tearing mental domain made it unbearable; he absolutely could not tolerate Shen Qiuxun thinking this of him because of another man. He leaned close, pressing his cheek against Shen Qiuxun’s waist and abdomen. “What is your relationship with him? Why are you interrogating me because of him?”

“Didn’t we meet each other first?”

Xu Zhiyuan was filled with grief. The overwhelming, sky-high feeling of injustice drowned him like a raging tide. Every word he spoke was laden with endless sorrow and despair, as if he were pouring out his heart through blood and tears.

He opened his mouth to argue, but his throat felt like it was being strangled, dry and tight, so he could only let the grief churn and rampage in his chest.

“…Relationship? Speaking of which, what relationship do we even have?”

In that situation back then, was Shen Qiuxun supposed to just fall out with Xu Zhiyuan? Then the two of them would be entangled, one running and the other chasing, probably dragging Fu Mingchuan along with them in a three-man escape.

How would he ever complete his mission then?

So Shen Qiuxun had thought to pacify Xu Zhiyuan first, stalling for as much time as possible. Ideally, he would delay until the mission time ended. He had even imagined Xu Zhiyuan discovering the truth and coming to make trouble for him… Who knew he’d just bypass him entirely!

“Relationship… what relationship do we have?” Xu Zhiyuan stood up. His tall frame blocked the sliver of light coming from the small window. He stared at Shen Qiuxun fiercely with dark green eyes, like an enraged lion. “We… we… you promised me back then… you promised to wait for me… you promised to be with me… you… was all that kindness you showed me back then a lie?”

The gentle mask Fu Mingchuan had been putting on was now completely torn apart, revealing his ferocious nature. But the chain in his heart still firmly bound him, leaving him unable to move. His chest heaved; he was already at the point of exploding. Tears welled up and blurred his vision. “That Beta… I get it now… does that Beta have something you want?”

Shen Qiuxun blinked expressionlessly, his fist hidden in his sleeve clenched tightly. If the man made any sudden moves, he was prepared to stab his knife right into the gland in front of him.

The man was anxious like an ant on a hot pan, then as if he had suddenly discovered a new world, he looked up at him with shining eyes. His bloodshot eyes were full of expectation. “I’ll help you… Little Xun, how about I help you?”

He choked, cherishingly stroking Shen Qiuxun’s knee. “Tell me, okay? As far as the eye can see, all things in this world, as long as you want them, I can get them all for you… Little Xun, don’t lie to me anymore. Show me some love… just show me some love.”

[It is forbidden to reveal the existence of the System.]

“Is that so?” Shen Qiuxun seemed truly moved. He reached out and soothingly touched the man’s nape.

“Yes… yes, I’ll do a good job, Little Xun, I’ll do a good job.” Xu Zhiyuan forced a smile that was uglier than a crying face.

Shen Qiuxun sighed, patted his head, and said gently, “Then help me fish him out of the military district, okay?”

“Fish him out… fish him out to where?”

“I like him… of course, he needs to stay with me.”

Just like that, he spoke one heartbreaking sentence after another with a flat tone. A sweetness of blood surged up Xu Zhiyuan’s throat, which he barely managed to swallow down. “Like… like…”

He murmured in a low voice, half-crying, half-laughing.

“A Beta is better after all, gentle and reliable…”

Those words were like a canker in his bones, becoming a nightmare he would never overcome for the rest of his life.

Immense pain surged into his chest. He even forgot how to breathe. And the executioner who held his life in his hands was currently gently stroking his gland… the gland he wished he could just cut out.

Xu Zhiyuan closed his eyes. His dry eye sockets could no longer produce the salty tears. He finally found his breath again, like a dying fish slapped onto the shore, and it took a long time before he found his voice. “Okay… I’ll help you… get him out.”

Whether he came out horizontally…

Or vertically…

That wasn’t up to him.

‘He agreed?’

[Hmm… Why didn’t you use a gentler approach? Like saying that Number Two really does have something you need to get your hands on.]

Shen Qiuxun slowly lowered his eyes. A faint mist of light spilled down from the glass above, softly draping over his form.

His hair, scattered like seaweed, was outlined by this faint light, strand by strand, as if cloaked in a layer of fragmented cold radiance, much like the sacred halo surrounding a deity.

His nose bridge was high and straight, the lines clean and elegant. The light seemed to fear his coldness, blocked to one side, precisely dividing his starkly white face into two distinct halves: one half hidden in shadow, deep and mysterious, as if holding endless, unknowable divine thoughts; the other kissed softly by the faint light, accentuating the distant, aloof chill between his brows and eyes, like a god from a remote, faraway heaven.

‘He’s not an idiot… If he knows I need something from Fu Mingchuan, he’ll connect it to whether I needed something from him before.’ At this thought, his lips curled into a cold, thin smile. “Who knows, there might be a next time? Better safe than sorry.”

[.]

“Alright.” Shen Qiuxun comfortingly patted his head. He opened the box of suppressants nearby and skillfully prepared an injector. “Don’t get too worked up… Let me give you a shot.”

Xu Zhiyuan docilely laid on his knee, nuzzling his wrist, too aggrieved to reply.

After a dose of the injection, Shen Qiuxun keenly sensed that the ambient pressure around him seemed to dissipate significantly. He put the syringe back, then placed a cute, obedient-looking dog-bone-shaped suppressant patch on the man’s nape. He looked down, cupped the man’s face, and met those tear-filled eyes.

Shen Qiuxun let out a soft sigh and wiped his tears away with his thumb. “Didn’t you say last time you’d teach me how to pilot a mecha?”

Xu Zhiyuan blinked. A certain color was suppressed deep within his eyes. He curved his lips. “Mm… I’ll take you.”

Gentle.

So gentle.

Just that tiny sliver of gentleness dripping from Little Xun’s fingertips was a raging, towering wave to him.

The underground level of the castle was a gigantic mecha training ground. Shen Qiuxun was quite curious. The only time he had ever seen a mecha in real life was while watching fireworks. What child didn’t have a sci-fi dream growing up?

Back at the orphanage, he had single-handedly beaten up all the other kids just to earn the right to watch two episodes of an Armor Hero cartoon.

No matter how much he imagined it, when he gazed upon the behemoth before him, the visual impact was still utterly shocking. It was as if all the noise in the world had fallen silent; only his heart pounded violently in his chest, producing a deafening sound.

The mecha, like a towering, majestic steel giant, forcefully dominated his entire field of vision with an almost overbearing stance. Its metallic shell gleamed with a cold, sharp luster, reflecting dazzling light under the sunlight, like mysterious signals from a distant star system, bombarding his senses.

A citizen who grew up in the interstellar era couldn’t possibly understand the indescribably complex feeling Shen Qiuxun felt in that moment. It was like an ancient man witnessing the internet for the first time.

“Come on, let’s look at them one by one.” Xu Zhiyuan took his hand. The cold, glass doors opened before him.