Xin Hexue’s original suggestion was for Number One to possess him and go in, because after Xi Zhengqing had taken him down once, his biometric information had been recorded at the entrance of the Hive. But the moment this suggestion was made, Number One shook his head and refused.
His ability had limits. Most of the time, he could only possess non-living objects, or children and some minors with weak willpower.
So Xin Hexue had no choice but to look for another way.
Of course, this wasn’t a difficult matter.
“Wait…”
Xin Hexue pushed against Xi Zhengqing’s chest. Perhaps it was due to the modifications, this Alpha felt like an iron wall. When Xin Hexue pushed, all he felt was the pain in his hands. He shifted slightly and leaned on Xi Zhengqing’s shoulder and gasped for breath. His lips, originally light pink due to poor blood circulation, had turned light red from the excessive licking and kissing.
His dark eyelashes cast a faint shadow under his eyes. When Xi Zhengqing kissed those thin eyelids, the shadow trembled reflexively.
When the Alpha picked him up by the waist and carried him up the stairs, and finally put him on the bed in the master bedroom on the second floor, the young man’s expression contained a hint of very light and gentle fatigue.
Xi Zhengqing knew this was a sign he was sleepy again.
Xin Hexue had been awake less and less lately. Even though the medical team repeatedly emphasized that, apart from physical weakness, his body indicators showed nothing abnormal, Xin Hexue had become increasingly drowsy. He went to sleep earlier each night and often didn’t wake up until noon.
A large hand slid upward, pushing the soft fabric of the pajamas into layered folds, piling them up on the upper part of his chest.
It was almost autumn and there had just been a rain shower outside in the evening. The cool air brushed against the fair and flawless skin.
Xin Hexue lifted his eyelids. The Alpha was rubbing at his chest like a dog. He raised his hand, curled his knuckles, and tightly grabbed Xi Zhengqing’s hair. His tone was laced with warning, “…Don’t bite.”
His attitude was firm.
Even so, when the rough tongue swept over those two points, Xin Hexue’s neck arched into a beautiful curve, and he couldn’t help but let out a soft sound, like the tip of a feather sweeping across one’s heart.
The corners of his eyes were tinged with red, and the small mole looked like a teardrop about to fall.
His health had been poor lately, so Xi Zhengqing didn’t dare to force him or really touch him. He could only taste him over and over like a dog licking at a bone.
“Why are you getting sleepy so easily lately?” Xi Zhengqing asked in a low voice. “It’s only seven in the evening.”
Xin Hexue’s voice was so soft it was like a murmur. “Is it?”
He glanced at the clock on the wall and sure enough, it was.
Xi Zhengqing leaned in again to kiss him, his large hand pressing on the thin chest with varying pressure.
The light pink tips on Xin Hexue’s chest had already turned a tender red. They had been held in the Alpha’s mouth and bitten lightly, and would not return to their original state in a short time.
Xi Zhengqing wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, he kept feeling that Xin Hexue’s chest had truly developed a faint, soft swell under his touch. It was just a very thin layer, but when his large hand covered it, his palm could feel something.
When Xin Hexue was in a bad mood, he would directly slap his hand away and scold him for having dirty hands.
Xi Zhengqing’s mouth was dry and his tongue parched.
Xin Hexue pushed his hand away and said with annoyance. “Stop it. Putting on band-aids is annoying.”
His body was naturally sensitive. No matter how soft the fabric was, once it rubbed against his chest, it would still feel uncomfortable, even turning over in sleep felt unpleasant.
Xi Zhengqing had no choice but to calm down. He wrapped his arms around Xin Hexue and patted his back gently to coax him to sleep. “I won’t bother you anymore, go to sleep. How about I wake you up at 7:30 tomorrow?”
Xin Hexue closed his eyes and didn’t say yes or no.
Xi Zhengqing continued to persuade him, “Sleeping more than ten hours just makes you sleepier, which is not good for your body. How about I take you out for a walk tomorrow? Stretch your legs and get some exercise.”
The more he talked, the more long-winded he became. Before he could finish persuading, the communicator that had been set aside rang.
Xin Hexue knew the situation outside was becoming more and more tense. Pei Guangji hadn’t returned here in three days, and Xi Zhengqing was frequently traveling between two places. He was staying awake for long periods and his eyes were already bloodshot.
To make communication with the outside world easier, they had even removed the villa’s signal blocker, though they still hadn’t returned the communicator to Xin Hexue.
Xi Zhengqing sat up and went to the bedside to answer the call, his expression gradually turning grim.
Xin Hexue slowly opened his eyes and asked, “You have to leave?”
Xi Zhengqing lowered his head and kissed his forehead. He didn’t explain the reason, only replied with a “yes”.
Xin Hexue yawned from the drowsiness. “Then I’ll go out by myself tomorrow. Send a robot to accompany me.”
There was a drowsy glimmer in his eyes. “There’s one patrolling outside, it even asked me if I wanted to drink water last time.”
It sounded like a robot that knew how to be considerate of humans.
Xi Zhengqing also worried that Xin Hexue might encounter safety issues if he went out alone, and that staying inside the house too long would cause his body to deteriorate due to lack of activity.
Xin Hexue also disliked dealing with that group of doctors, so in this light, the robot indeed seemed like a good choice.
So Xi Zhengqing agreed to Xin Hexue’s request.
………
Xin Hexue once again stood in front of that repair shop, with Number One following behind him.
“Thank you for bringing him here.” The middle-aged man was wearing glasses, had a thin figure, and had white hair already growing at his temples. He poured a cup of tea for Xin Hexue. Before Xin Hexue could express his curiosity about the man’s identity, it was as if he had already guessed what Xin Hexue wanted to ask, and said quietly, “Qiu Jing is my child. Thank you for bringing him back. I thought I would never see him again in this lifetime.”
He looked at Number One with a nostalgic look.
‘Qiu Jing?’
Xin Hexue turned slowly and glanced at the robot following behind him,or rather, at the large shadow cast onto the mottled wall.
[Unlocked character ???—Qiu Jing]
[Qiu Jing Love Value: Full]
[Qiu Jing Heartbreak Value: 50]
‘Qiu Jing…?’
Xin Hexue suddenly thought of the photo he had seen in Pei Guangji’s bedroom back then.
It was clearly a photo of childhood friends. Aside from Pei Guangji, Xi Zhengqing, and Zuo Yongyan, the person in the far-right corner was an unfamiliar face. At that time, K had only said that this person didn’t appear in the plot, so there was no retrievable information.
Seeing him look over, the shadow, which clearly didn’t match the robot’s body shape, stretched longer and its tail swayed from side to side.
Because of the tail, which resembled a scorpion’s, Xin Hexue turned around and covered his mouth, feeling a bit nauseous.
Number One’s wagging tail stopped again.
[Qiu Jing Heartbreak Value +5]
‘…So that’s how the fifty heartbreak value was gained.’
Xin Hexue took a deep breath, sat down beside the low table, took a sip of the tea in his cup, and listened to the middle-aged man in front of him, who claimed to be Qiu Jing’s father.
This really wasn’t anything glorious, just a messy and tangled scandal of a wealthy family with complicated power structures.
The middle-aged man in front of him was the lover of the patriarch of the Qiu family. What was worth noting was that the child born from the Qiu family patriarch and this lover was several years older than the child born from the legal spouse. At one point, the child from the lover had even been brought back to be raised as the rightful heir.
Xin Hexue wasn’t sure he could keep listening. He honestly wasn’t interested in other people’s family matters.
But the man was connected to the Qiu family’s original biological research lab.
The middle-aged man was called Xi Ze, a branch bloodline of the Xi family. Before his relationship with the patriarch of the Qiu family was exposed, he had been working in the lab, and most of the mutant modification projects were led by him.
The fire and explosion incident at the lab back then wasn’t an accident. It had originally been an assassination attempt targeting Xi Ze. After all, the affair between a branch member of the Xi family and the patriarch of the Qiu family was a ticking time bomb of an aristocratic scandal. However, it was not the Xi family that wanted to kill Xi Ze. There were many forces involved, including the Pei family, who cooperated with the Xi family but were wary of it, as well as local forces from the Federation and some minor nobles.
The ambiguous relationship between Xi Ze and the patriarch of the Qiu family had been misunderstood as a sign of a possible alliance between the Xi and Qiu families.
At that time, the Qiu family was growing stronger. Once the balance of power was broken, it would inevitably threaten other people’s interests. Rather than reshuffling the cards, it was better to use this matter to suppress the Qiu family’s arrogance.
The fire was also deliberately orchestrated during the assassination to destroy the lab base.
“I actually regret using children for experiments,” Xi Ze said.
He looked toward Qiu Jing.
Number One had completely lost all human thought and emotion, and no longer had any memory of being human. Even with his so-called biological “father” standing right in front of him, there was no reaction at all.
Xin Hexue didn’t know if Xi Ze truly felt regret. He couldn’t judge the emotions from the man’s finely wrinkled and lined face.
The Xi family arrived late but managed to secretly save Xi Ze from the fire. The Xi family, known for its strict family rules, couldn’t accept such a member with corrupt morals and who had been too closely involved with a married person. Saving Xi Ze was already the extent of their kindness, but Xi Ze could no longer appear in the outside world. If the matter were exposed, it would severely damage the Xi family’s reputation.
At the time, the Xi family patriarch sent him into the Hive and faked his death in the process.
Xi Ze had stayed here for over a decade, like a rat never seeing the light of day.
But Qiu Yuan knew he hadn’t died.
Xi Ze lowered his gaze. “Qiu Yuan’s transformation surgery was also done by me.”
A child only seven or eight years old, subjected to inhuman experiments, then forced to live the rest of his life as a mutant…there was probably no more hatred left to feel.
“Qiu Jing and I will complete the rest of the work that follows,” Xi Ze smiled at Xin Hexue. “You take care of your body. The good days for young people are still ahead. I hope you can stay by these two children’s side as they walk the road ahead.”
………
Xin Hexue soon knew what he meant by “work”.
On the simple Hive map that the other party had drawn, all the red-marked points were areas where Xi Ze and Number One had planted large amounts of explosives and timed bombs.
Those were all weak zones where underground water might seep in. The power of the explosions would be enough to make this area collapse, and after the high-powered drainage pump was destroyed, the gushing underground water would flood the place.
Perhaps because most of the robots in the Hive had been maintained by Xi Ze, who had tampered with them, such a dangerous operation would not trigger any security protocols.
He watched Xi Ze turn on the radio loudspeaker and broadcast a message loud enough for all Hive residents to hear. In a calm tone, he announced, “All Hive residents, please evacuate immediately. Timed bombs will detonate in one hour. Please evacuate immediately. Helicopters are already waiting outside for extraction. Timed bombs will detonate in one hour.”
The security system had been hacked. The Hive’s residents were no longer blocked by the biometric identification system. They could now take the elevators, and the exits of the green safety passages were no longer sealed shut.
They crowded together and climbed upward in a panic, leaving behind this dark underground home that hadn’t seen sunlight for a long time. Like a colony of ants fleeing in all directions when an ant nest was breached, they rushed towards an unknown safe zone.
Xin Hexue looked at Xi Ze. “Aren’t you leaving?”
Xi Ze didn’t answer. In just a few days, not only his temples, but his entire head had also turned white.
Xi Ze walked him to the door. “Go quickly. Someone is still waiting for you outside.”
………
Number One and Xin Hexue got separated.
Xin Hexue stood at the edge, looking down at the dark Hive. Moonlight scattered over his body like grains of salt.
He couldn’t move his feet, even though the ticking clock was reminding him the countdown to the explosion was almost up.
Xin Hexue stared steadily into the abyss. The production of white crystal ore came from the origin of the world, and naturally contained an inexplicable power. The power system at the bottom of the Hive had already been destroyed, and everything was pitch black. So the machines working at the bottom and the white crystal ore being excavated could no longer be seen.
The forest was filled with a dense swarm of fleeing humans and robots. In their panic, they boarded the helicopters sent by the Huozhong organization, and the sound of the propellers roared through the sky.
It was unknown where the fire started first, but flames and black smoke spread through the forest.
Xin Hexue unconsciously took a step forward.
Because of the pressure from his foot, a corner of the stone at the cliff edge of the Hive crumbled, and tiny bits of gravel fell into the endless darkness.
At this moment, he could only feel the energy of the white crystal ore…the resonance from the origin of the world, and he faintly felt a sense of familiarity.
K: [Danger.]
K: [Leave.]
K: [Xin Hexue?]
He couldn’t call back the host’s consciousness, and Xin Hexue had already taken another half step out, standing on the edge like a kite with no string to hold it.
An Alpha shouted his name loudly, almost like a roar.
Xin Hexue slowly turned his head and saw Pei Ying rushing in this direction from the forest. He had once again dyed streaks of Klein blue in his hair.
Xin Hexue suddenly came back to his senses. He blinked deeply, but when he stepped back, it was already a little too late. A deafening roar erupted from the bottom of the Hive and flames mixed with ash and earth shot up to the sky, blasting upward from the underground. The shockwave of the explosion engulfed the Hive and the scene was terrifying to the extreme.
The huge explosion instantly tore through the air and also swept up the young man by the edge of the cliff.
Xin Hexue felt someone rush over to his side and pushed him away with great force. He rolled down the slope of the ground a couple of times, and when he finally pushed himself up, he only had time to see Pei Guangji clinging to the edge of the cliff, veins bulging on his arms and fingers digging deep into the soil.
The ground even had thin, thread-like cracks like a spider web.
It all happened in an instant. The ground cracked open, and a deep fissure split right between them.
When Xin Hexue subconsciously reached out his hand, he saw Pei Guangji fall straight down.
Everything around was silent.
The night was black, and the only other color was the red light from the flames.
Xin Hexue could only judge from Pei Guangji’s mouth movements that what he wanted to say was “don’t be afraid”.
[Pei Guangji’s heartbreak value is full.]
He furrowed his brows tightly. Everything had happened in such a short span of time. Behind him, Pei Ying rushed over with such force it felt like he wanted to crush him into his bones and blood, and carried him away from the danger zone.
[Pei Ying’s love value is full.]
Xin Hexue clearly remembered that he had chosen a day when neither Pei Guangji nor Xi Zhengqing would be present. By all logic, they shouldn’t have appeared today.
There were some things he couldn’t figure out and his mind kept replaying the scene he had just witnessed. He could only sluggishly lean against Pei Ying’s chest.
Suddenly, he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The bright and vivid blood splattered onto Pei Ying’s shirt.
Xin Hexue realized something was wrong.
He looked up. Pei Ying’s face was filled with anxiety, his lips were constantly moving, forming words, but Xin Hexue couldn’t read such a long stream of lip movements.
It turned out the huge explosion had caused him to become temporarily deaf.
Pei Ying must have realized this from his reactions, but even so, he kept talking.
Pei Guangji might have already guessed Xin Hexue’s abnormal behavior during this time, and yet he still silently allowed it.
Xin Hexue barely managed to keep his eyes open. After a while, his head tilted and he leaned on Pei Ying’s shoulder, passing out.
………
The world had not collapsed and the mission was over yet, which meant the mission target, Pei Guangji, had not died either. But since his values had already maxed out, the mission related to him was finished.
Xin Hexue’s hearing had not yet recovered.
He was brought to the headquarters of the Huozhong organization in District Three. Because he was a meritorious contributor, he was warmly welcomed and respected by all the mutant species.
Even so, Xin Hexue rarely stepped out of his room. Many of the non-human features of the mutants made him instinctively nauseous, even though they were all friendly to him.
He had heard that his room was prepared by Number One.
The room was a one-to-one replica of the one in the mountainside villa in Nancheng. Outside the window was a garden, and the cosmos flowers had not yet wilted.
Actually, it wasn’t exactly “he had heard”. It was just that there was a mutant who looked more similar to a human and didn’t have many non-human traits, and would communicate with him through typing.
He said Number One had been gradually adding furniture to the room here.
Like someone who wanted to raise a cat but didn’t have the ability to yet, only buying a piece of furniture each time the impulse hit.
Xin Hexue nodded.
The other party typed to him, “Qiu Yuan is back.”
The input cursor was still flashing.
One Qiu Yuan, two Qiu Yuan, three Qiu Yuan…
Several Qiu Yuans appeared at the bedroom door.
Xin Hexue: “…”
He suspected he was hallucinating.
Was seeing double also a side effect of the explosion shockwave?
Or every tentacle could split into a clone…
After counting them, Xin Hexue finally reached this conclusion.
The mutant who had been chatting with him left.
The Qiu Yuans were travel-worn; some had tattered clothes, some had bloodstains smeared across their faces, some had sunglasses with half the lens shattered, and all had sharply defined brows and deep contours.
The octopus must have adopted the strategy of eight people surrounding the military prison, which was why he was able to escape from prison.
“…”
Eight Qiu Yuans were speaking to him at the same time.
This would normally be a very noisy situation.
Fortunately, Xin Hexue was temporarily deaf and couldn’t hear a thing.
But even just watching the silent performance felt noisy to him.
The clothes the Qiu Yuans were wearing might have been looted from some clothing store during their escape.
Xin Hexue couldn’t tell which one was the original, so he randomly grabbed the one in the cleanest and tidiest outfit. He yanked Qiu Yuan in by the collar and slammed the bedroom door shut.
Xin Hexue’s expression was dark and he looked like he was in a bad mood.
Qiu Yuan guessed it was because he hadn’t told Xin Hexue about his plan back then, which in the end dragged Xin Hexue into the situation anyway.
“How about you hit me?” Qiu Yuan raised both hands to ear level like he was surrendering. After thinking for a moment, he pointed outside the door reluctantly. “You can choose any one of them out there and beat him to death if it’ll make you feel better. Two is fine too…”
A six-tentacled octopus could still live normally.
He could even apply for disability aid from the Huozhong organization.
Qiu Yuan had this kind of hellish thought.
He hadn’t noticed Xin Hexue’s abnormal state yet. During this time, he hadn’t been able to get in touch with this side and after returning, mutants greeted him all along the way. All he knew was that the plan had been successfully completed and Xin Hexue was placed here.
So he came rushing over.
Xin Hexue’s face was cold and he remained silent.
Qiu Yuan still held up his surrendering hands. “I didn’t tell you back then because I thought about it… the Hive was just too dangerous…”
“Uh, no…”
Worried that his words might make Xin Hexue think he was underestimating his abilities, he changed his words, “It’s mainly because if I asked you to participate, it’d be a total waste of your talents. After all, Pei Guangji and Xi Zhengqing are completely no match for you…”
Qiu Yuan really trusted Xin Hexue’s strength. That part was true.
He babbled on for a long time before realizing that Xin Hexue had not responded. He paused, then asked cautiously, “Are you still mad?”
Xin Hexue gave him a sideways glance, then shoved Qiu Yuan onto the bed. Without a word, he straddled Qiu Yuan’s firm and toned waist and abdomen.
He shifted back a bit and could clearly feel the weight of the little octopus.
[Qiu Yuan love value +5]
[Qiu Yuan current love value: 760]
Xin Hexue rubbed his ear and said concisely, “I can’t hear. Let’s do it.”
