Xin Hexue turned slightly, as if he had only just noticed the young man walking over.
There was an indescribable strangeness on Yan Ji’s face, as if his understanding of the world had been shattered and then glued back together with superglue.
Snow began to fall under the deep blue night sky, the tiny white flakes filling the dim, yellow-lit street.
Life in the Northern Desert City moved slowly. With night and winter combined, few people were out and about, especially at this hour. Most ordinary people were already deep asleep.
The street was desolate, only the inside of the tavern was noisy. Occasionally, someone staggered drunkenly from the end of the alley, arms wrapped around a scantily-clad companion.
Yan Ji suddenly stepped forward without a word, and the sound of a zipper being pulled up echoed smoothly. He draped his padded jacket over Xin Hexue’s shoulders. He still had a hoodie on himself.
He asked, “…Where is the down jacket you wore during the day?”
The drunken sentinel lying beside the knocked-over trash can was too noisy, squealing and screaming non-stop. Yan Ji couldn’t hold back and kicked another trash can that was still upright. The rusty iron can wobbled, and with a clang, the lid fell and landed right on the sentinel’s face.
Silence.
Yan Ji repeated his question. “Where is your down jacket?”
Xin Hexue stood where he was, blinking slowly. Snowflakes landed on his eyelashes and melted into a blurry mist.
His eyelashes drooped, and the dim streetlight cast a light shadow under his eyes.
Yan Ji noticed the tips of the young man’s ears were red, and his reactions were slower than during the day.
He couldn’t help but instinctively sniff at Xin Hexue’s scent like a dog.
…There was a hint of alcohol.
He was probably drunk.
It took a few beats before Xin Hexue responded sluggishly, “I forgot.”
Yan Ji: “You can forget this?”
Yan Ji: “Did you not wear it out, or did you leave it in the tavern?”
He tried to jog the memory of this beautiful drunkard.
Xin Hexue’s expression was calm as usual, but his eyes were vacant and dazed.
“Truth or dare… forgot.”
“Came out to get some air, I wanted to…”
From his jumbled, disjointed explanation, Yan Ji finally pieced together what had happened.
Most likely, during the game of truth or dare with the sentinels at the table, it had ended up in someone’s hands…or was tossed over a chair or something.
He straightened Xin Hexue with both hands and said solemnly, enunciating every word, “Wait here. Don’t move. I’ll be back soon.”
The retro-style wooden door of the tavern opened. The wind chimes jingled for a short while before the double doors creaked apart again, and the silver-gray-haired young man came out, now holding the down jacket.
Xin Hexue heard the sound and turned to look at him.
Yan Ji walked up to him. Seeing him in his jacket, he thought it looked unexpectedly pleasing. Maybe because the person was good-looking, so anything would suit him.
It was just a little loose.
Yan Ji’s thin lips moved…the words “give my jacket back” reached the tip of his tongue, then circled back down.
“It’s yours.”
He handed the down jacket to Xin Hexue and helped him put it on. “I spoke to the tavern owner. There’s surveillance on this street and he already called the patrol team. They’ll come clean up the mess.”
Yan Ji glanced at the sentinel lying on the ground and said flatly, “So don’t worry about him. Let’s go.”
……
Yan Ji had a brain short-circuit and he ended up bringing him back to his own place.
“…”
He stood in the entryway, with his head down and a serious expression.
He should have contacted the tower’s coordinator and have them come pick up and take care of Xin Hexue.
Yan Ji felt a headache coming on.
He said to Xin Hexue, who was still at the entrance, “Wait a moment.”
The dazzlingly beautiful drunk stood obediently where he was, very conscious of his role as a guest.
Yan Ji rummaged through the shoe cabinet and took out a pair of brand-new plush slippers. He had bought them during a winter promotion at the supermarket and were still in their sealed plastic.
There was a second pair.
“Do you want to shower first?” Yan Ji scratched his head, still doubtful about Xin Hexue’s current state. “Can you shower?”
Xin Hexue nodded, “Mm, I can.”
Don’t trust the words of a drunk person casually.
Yan Ji held up a hand in front of him and gestured. “How many fingers?”
Xin Hexue looked indifferent. “…It’s a puppy.”
Yan Ji: ?
‘You are really drunk, okay?’
‘Who’s a puppy?’
Xin Hexue looked at him, then raised his hand and pointed to the carpet in the corner by the wall. “There.”
Yan Ji glanced over and his expression immediately changed.
He’d forgotten to put away his mental body.
He stepped sideways to block Xin Hexue’s line of sight, turned back, and shot a look at the gray wolf in the corner. The wolf reluctantly lowered its body, buried into the carpet, and vanished.
Yan Ji didn’t let anything show on his face. He said with a straight face, “You saw wrong. That was just a carpet with a weird pattern.”
The fact that he mistook a wolf for a dog showed that Xin Hexue was not very sober.
But he could walk in a straight line on the way back, so it seemed like washing up wouldn’t be a problem.
The heater was on inside. Yan Ji placed the slippers at Xin Hexue’s feet, then took the down jacket and padded jacket Xin Hexue had taken off.
“The bathroom’s over by the balcony, all the way at the back of the apartment. There’s a laundry basket by the entrance…just throw your clothes in there when you come out.”
As for clothes to change into…
Yan Ji rummaged through the closet for a while and finally found a set of pajamas he’d bought before that turned out to be too small.
Xin Hexue could make do with these for the night. There was a dryer at home, so even if he had to leave first thing in the morning, his washed clothes would definitely be dry by then.
The sound of running water came from the bathroom.
Steam clouded the frosted gray glass door.
In the kitchen, Yan Ji found the jar of honey he’d bought earlier and made a cup of honey water to help sober up.
After thinking it over, he sliced a few pieces of fresh ginger, poured water into a small pot, turned on the stove, dropped the ginger in, then added some red dates and two pieces of rock sugar.
The hot water bubbled in the kitchen.
Yan Ji’s mind was in a bit of a mess.
He felt like his behavior was too abnormal. He actually had no interest in Guides. in fact, it was to the point where he subconsciously kept a three-meter distance whenever he saw one.
Unlike other Sentinels who had suffered severe mental pollution from deep excursions into the Folded Zones, Yan Ji had just come of age. His ID marked him as a regular citizen, so he hadn’t been conscripted into any Folded Zone operations. As a Sentinel, his biggest trouble in daily life was his hypersensitive senses making it harder for him to endure noisy environments compared to ordinary people.
Yan Ji felt that if he lived his whole life like this, as long as the Folded Zones didn’t expand enough to swallow the Empire during his lifetime, he’d never have to deal with the problem of going crazy.
He didn’t need mental guidance. Likewise, because he had little to no contamination, he didn’t share the innate affinity most Sentinels had toward Guides.
But now…
In the middle of the night, he had brought an unfamiliar Guide back to his home.
Yan Ji couldn’t think of a reason why.
According to current medical theories, a Sentinel’s mental pollution level was directly proportional to their desire for a Guide. The heavier the pollution, the stronger the desire for a guide. That’s why the Empire had enacted several laws to regulate Sentinels, to prevent them from causing irreparable harm to Guides.
But Yan Ji had almost no pollution.
His mental landscape was clean, and the gray wolf showed no signs of discomfort either.
No, wait.
If there was anything off about the gray wolf, it was that…it was being overly enthusiastic toward Xin Hexue.
So enthusiastic that its tail spun like a helicopter rotor, slicing through the air with a crackling sound.
Actually, aside from mental pollution, there was another possibility that could make a Sentinel especially close to a Guide, one that could even be mutual, with the Guide developing favorable feelings toward the Sentinel as well: compatibility rate.
This was the key factor the Empire used to determine whether a Sentinel and Guide should be bonded.
In compatibility tests, scoring 80% was already considered a match made in heaven. When two people like that bonded, the Guide’s mental guidance would, in a sense, become a kind of combat enhancement training for the Sentinel.
An 80-point match, with long-term bonding and repeated mental guidance, was enough to evolve a C-rank Sentinel into an A-rank Sentinel.
The water boiled so fiercely it nearly blew the lid off the pot.
Yan Ji suddenly came back to his senses, hurriedly turned off the heat and removed the lid.
He ladled the ginger and red date soup into a bowl.
He tested the sweetness with the spoon, and when he turned around, he saw Xin Hexue standing just outside the kitchen, drying his damp black hair with a towel while looking at him.
The pajamas were still a bit loose, and his collarbones dipped into two small hollows. He looked delicate and slender, and his skin was as white as the finest warm porcelain.
Yan Ji felt a sudden rush of heat in his chest, and his hand trembled slightly as he handed over the bowl. “Ginger soup, to ward off the cold.”
Xin Hexue lowered his eyes and took it. Yan Ji put his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie and looked away, his thoughts drifting elsewhere.
Then, at the sound of the spoon clinking against the bowl, he suddenly snapped back to attention, turned his head with a changed expression. “Wait! I used that one…I’ll get you a new spoon!”
Xin Hexue watched as he swapped out the spoon in a fluster.
The love value notifications in his ear seem to have never stopped since they met. The +1, +1…was so noisy it gave Xin Hexue a headache, so he asked K to mute it temporarily.
Xin Hexue didn’t say anything. He quietly accepted the new spoon Yan Ji handed over.
He didn’t resist, and finished the ginger soup. As for the red dates, he forced himself to eat one.
Frowning slightly, Xin Hexue put down the bowl. “…Thank you.”
“And this too. For sobering up.”
Yan Ji handed over the honey water.
He wasn’t surprised by Xin Hexue being picky. After all, anyone who was identified as a Guide would’ve been sent to the White Tower in the Imperial City, given the finest care under the name of “cultivation” in an environment of intense protection.
Guides were a treasured species, completely different from Sentinels or ordinary citizens.
……
Xin Hexue was the quietest drunk Yan Ji had ever seen.
If it weren’t for the fact that he’d mistaken a very obvious gray wolf for a dog, and had broken a cup in a daze, Yan Ji would’ve thought the other party was perfectly sober.
After all, the young man neither made a fuss nor resisted instructions. He was told to drink ginger soup, and he drank ginger soup.
Yan Ji’s parents were both Sentinels, and were under immense pressure. When he was a child and even as a teen, he’d seen the two adults come home drunk countless times. Sometimes they quarrelled and even had full blown fights under the influence of alcohol.
Yan Ji also had to clean up the mess left after the fight between the two sentinels.
He told Xin Hexue to go to sleep in his room.
He himself planned to clean up the bedroom that hadn’t been used in a long time, which had originally belonged to his parents.
Just before leaving the room, Yan Ji dropped his hand to his side, and suddenly, Xin Hexue held it.
He looked down in surprise. A fair, slender wrist reached out from under the blanket.
Yan Ji swallowed. It was late at night and he hadn’t slept, so his voice was a bit hoarse. “What’s wrong?”
The young man buried in the soft bed moved his lips slightly, but Yan Ji didn’t hear what he said, maybe it was just a silent mouthing of words.
Yan Ji bent down and leaned in. “Mm, I’m listening, say it…”
A gentle, cool touch brushed against the corner of his lips like a feather.
Yan Ji froze on the spot like he’d been struck.
He stood there blankly.
Until the clock ticked to 1 a.m.
Yan Ji looked down. Xin Hexue had already fallen into a deep sleep under the covers, the corners of his eyes faintly flushed.
The door closed with a soft click.
[Yan Ji love value +15]
[Yan Ji’s love value is currently 40.]
Although the love value had increased rapidly, Xin Hexue also paid a price for that skin to skin intimate contact just now.
His knuckles tingled so much he left white bite marks from clenching his teeth, and his eyes were hot and misty.
Only after the heat fully faded from his body did Xin Hexue roll over. [Gege, goodnight.]
K knew the host was really going to sleep this time, so he turned the notifications again.
[Goodnight.]
……
Yan Ji felt like something was seriously wrong with him.
He hadn’t slept the entire night.
He stared at the ceiling until dawn.
When he got up, he even took the clean clothes out of the dryer and placed them on the sofa right in front of Xin Hexue’s door, so he’d see them immediately when he came out.
What did Xin Hexue mean last night?
Was he drunk? Was he trying to speak but accidentally brushed against him?
Or…
Yan Ji touched the corner of his lips.
It felt like that featherlight sensation was still lingering there.
He remembered his guess from last night.
If that assumption was right, then maybe his compatibility with Xin Hexue was very high.
So… did Xin Hexue actually like him?
Was last night a veiled confession while drunk…?
Yan Ji scooped the hot noodles out of the pot, rinsed them with cold water to make them more springy, then put them back in the pot, sprinkled garlic, scallions, and white sesame on top.
Xin Hexue’s footsteps were very soft, but Yan Ji noticed right away.
He awkwardly cleared his throat. “Can you eat spicy food? Just mildly spicy.”
Xin Hexue nodded. “I can.”
Reassured, Yan Ji sprinkled chili powder and poured hot oil over it.
Sour and spicy mixed noodles made for a good breakfast to whet the appetite.
Yan Ji was about to add a little more water to the pot.
Xin Hexue, who was standing by the kitchen door, opened his lips and said, “Last night…”
Yan Ji’s hand shook, and he poured over half of the water in the kettle into the pot.
Xin Hexue: “…”
‘Are all boys who have just become adults this easy to tease?’
He sighed, stepped forward to check the pot, then offered Yan Ji a way out. “It’s the perfect amount of water, very suitable for soup noodles. Did you guess I wanted soup noodles this morning?”
Yan Ji let out a dry laugh. “Haha… yeah.”
His brows furrowed unconsciously.
What did Xin Hexue mean? Even adding too much water could earn praise? Could it be that he really had feelings for him? A flicker passed through Yan Ji’s eyes.
He inexplicably felt that when Xin Hexue asked whether he’d guessed he wanted soup noodles this morning, it gave a sense of a “couple living together”.
Yan Ji shivered and shook his head.
Xin Hexue: “I drank too much last night and don’t remember anything at all. I wasn’t too noisy, was I? Did I trouble you?”
He forgot just like that? Then what was his staying up the entire night for? Yan Ji’s lips pressed into a line, and he forced out a stiff reply from his throat, “No. I forgot too.”
Xin Hexue nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly changed the topic without warning. “Do you know where the tallest mountain in the Northern Desert City is?”
……
The wind on the mountaintop was a bit strong.
The top of the mountain was covered with snow. The coniferous forest stood tall and green, like steel guards guarding the entire city.
Yan Ji dug the final shovelful, finally forming a pit. “Alright, put it in.”
Xin Hexue unzipped his backpack and took out a set of combat gear, placing it into the pit.
It was He Botian’s combat uniform.
Yan Ji was confused so he asked, “This belongs to the teammate you mentioned from your squad? He already… died in action?”
Xin Hexue lowered his eyelashes. His voice was so soft, the wind could scatter it at any moment.
“…Mm.”
“His hometown is this city. Even if he couldn’t return home in glory, I still hope he can see the home he once protected.”
Yan Ji rarely paid attention to matters beyond his own world. News barely reached the Northern Frontier, even the signal was patchy. People here slowly muddled through life, only caring about whether the nearby supermarket had discounts on items about to expire.
He only knew that the Sentinel Tower valued Xin Hexue very much, and that he was a Guide with a military rank.
But according to what Xin Hexue said on the way, because of his deteriorating health, he had already withdrawn from the front lines.
Suddenly, Yan Ji recalled a rumor he’d heard two years ago.
So it was true that there was a Guide who, after graduating from the Joint Military Academy, voluntarily joined the frontline combat squad of Legion A? And that he is very impressive?
Xin Hexue responded vaguely, “Mm…”
Yan Ji didn’t connect Xin Hexue with that Guide. He assumed Xin Hexue had been one of the dozen or so who signed up for military Guide service inspired by the example of a senior Guide.
After all, if he had retired due to health reasons, he must not have had a good physical fitness to begin with.
A thought flashed through Yan Ji’s mind.
“The message you sent last night…you still don’t have a fixed Sentinel partner?”
Generally speaking, a bonded Guide and Sentinel were mutually beneficial. The Sentinel’s combat capabilities would be enhanced, and the Guide would also receive a mental power boost, even an improvement in physical condition.
So, Xin Hexue’s condition was likely because he didn’t have a fixed Sentinel partner.
And then… his compatibility with Xin Hexue might be very high…
No wonder he expressed affection while drunk…maybe it was the compatibility drawing them together naturally.
Yan Ji’s emotions shifted again and again.
Finally, he arrived at a conclusion.
First: Xin Hexue had feelings for him.
Second: Their compatibility might be as high as 80%.
Third: Xin Hexue didn’t have a Sentinel partner.
Putting it all together, didn’t that mean he and Xin Hexue were a match made in heaven?
