In fact, from the moment Huo Ting said “yes”, Yu Mian’s amber eyes had already widened.
A few seconds later, when the next words came out, Yu Mian was stunned for a second before he realized what had been said, and his face instantly turned bright red.
“I definitely don’t frequently flick my tail up in the water, do I?”
This was clearly slander!
He was just as shocked as before, but now he was also flustered.
He didn’t even want the conch shell anymore and instead felt like turning around and escaping back into the water to cool off and calm down.
However, just as Yu Mian took half a step back, Huo Ting, who had noticed his movement, reached out and grabbed his hand. He lowered his gaze and handed the conch shell back to Yu Mian.
Suddenly, Yu Mian felt that the golden seashell, which should have felt light and airy, had become somewhat heavy.
“Mm, no.”
In response, Huo Ting just smiled at Yu Mian and went along with him.
This made Yu Mian feel like he was the one being argumentative and bullying others.
When he played in the water, did he really like to subconsciously flick his fish tail up?
“Uh, I think this… well, it’s just not really appropriate.”
Yu Mian stammered, clutching the conch shell as if it were a lifeline to ease his nerves, and started looking out the window at the dazzling nightscape, trying to distract himself.
“Where is it not appropriate?”
However, Huo Ting’s serious follow-up question after a brief silence made Yu Mian’s brain start working rapidly.
He tried to dig for reasons seriously, thinking back to the little things since he had come to the interstellar era.
From the little note he had passed at the beginning, to Huo Ting still being willing to help him, a mysterious person, with purchasing even amidst his busy schedule; from when he went out and didn’t return as promised, and Huo Ting silently waited for him at home all night, to the moment when his human form grabbed him and pulled him inside the study…
Wait, the more he analyzed, the more he felt like he was in the wrong!
The key was that he had initially only wanted to complete the system’s tasks, but Huo Ting’s actions towards him had absolutely nothing to do with the system task.
[Host, big discovery!]
Meanwhile, the little system that had been researching in the background these past few days came online excitedly, completely unaware of the awkward atmosphere.
[ Favorability level + New feature development completed. The reason Huo Tíng’s favorability couldn’t be judged was because it’s not friendship, huh!]
[Shocked, right? It’s because he likes you! And not in the ‘just friends’ kind of way! That’s why the favorability detector couldn’t detect it!]
Sigh, for a system that is well versed in human nature, it really made him reevaluate its computational abilities in just three sentences.
Yu Mian immediately muted the system with a headache.
‘Thanks, but could you have been any more timely? ‘
The speechless system was instantly shoved into a small dark room, feeling wronged and confused.
“Anyway, I don’t know… at least I need some time to think about it.”
Unable to come up with a reason, Yu Mian resorted to playing dumb.
However, Huo Ting, who had been watching Yu Mian all along, showed a faint smile in the depths of his dark eyes. He reached out again, rescuing the poor conch shell in Yu Mian’s hand that was about to be crushed.
“No need to decide right now. You can take your time and think about it seriously.”
When it came to Yu Mian, Huo Ting felt a particular sense of patience.
Just like he had patiently waited for the moment Yu Mian would be willing to show himself and reach out to him.
“…”
If Huo Ting had reacted in any other way, Yu Mian felt he could have easily found an excuse.
But with this much patience, Yu Mian instead felt that not taking it seriously would be disrespectful to Huo Ting’s feelings!
“Brother Yu Mian!”
Fortunately, at that moment, Huo Yan’s voice echoed from below the study’s terrace.
Downstairs, Huo Yan, who was being led by Madam Inas, jumped up and waved frantically at Yu Mian and Huo Ting standing on the second-floor terrace.
“I caught a glowing jellyfish! It’s so pretty, come look!”
It turned out that the Huo Dong couple had taken Huo Yan for a walk at the beach park earlier. The glass jar in Huo Yan’s hands was filled with all the interesting things he had found there. He was eager to bring them home and show them to Yu Mian.
Madam Inas smiled helplessly. Would Yu Mian really want these worthless little trinkets?
Especially since Huo Yan’s hands were filthy from playing.
However, to Madam Inas’s surprise, after coming downstairs with Huo Ting, Yu Mian crouched halfway down and accepted the jar from Huo Yan:
“It’s really beautiful. How did you manage to find something so cool?”
A heartfelt compliment made Huo Yan so happy that his tail nearly stood up.
“Right? Super pretty, right?”
Satisfied after giving away his gift, Huo Yan finally listened when Qiao Ni urged him to wash his hands.
In fact, Yu Mian, who was still supporting himself with one knee, sighed in relief. Fortunately, Huo Yan had shown up just in time.
Right now, he was so conflicted that he didn’t even dare look back. He was afraid that making eye contact with Huo Ting would give something away to the family.
But Madam Inas glanced at Yu Mian, then at Huo Ting, who had been silently watching Yu Mian the entire time. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something had just happened between the two of them.
Huo Ting noticed his aunt’s gaze, and looked at her briefly.
Sensing the amusement in her eyes, he paused for a moment before looking away, uncharacteristically flustered.
However, as Yu Mian stood up, Huo Ting reached out and helped him up without hesitation.
“…!”
Yu Mian subconsciously allowed himself to be pulled up. But the moment their eyes met, he suddenly let go.
Weird. Why did it feel so natural?
[Fish covering his head.jpg]
He even caught himself wanting to hold on a little tighter.
After all, every time they held hands, Huo Ting’s palm was always warmer. And because his hands were always cold, he liked soaking up a bit of that warmth.
After returning from the research trip to the Central Star, even Huo Dong, who wasn’t the most perceptive person, noticed that something seemed off between these two kids.
He couldn’t help but marvel at the change in the atmosphere at home.
Later that night, in the bedroom, Huo Dong sat reading a newspaper but soon couldn’t hold back his thoughts:
“If you ask me, I’ve never seen this kid Huo Ting like this before, right?”
When he was younger, although he was very handsome and was liked by the elders, he always wore a cold, distant expression that kept strangers away. After his older brother Huo Ying passed away, he had become even more withdrawn.
In the past, Huo Dong had often regretted not inheriting the same mental power as his brother. Because of that, he had been unable to help much.
All he could do was focus on theoretical research and fieldwork in energy minerals. Fortunately, that was how he met Inas. They shared the same ideals and the two of them became partners in both work and life.
Fortunately, their son Huo Yan had inherited the family’s mental power after all.
Although Huo Ting seemed quiet and indifferent, he had always looked after Huo Yan since he was a child. It was just that his strict ways made the rebellious Huo Yan resist him.
“And to think, now Huo Ting is actually looking after someone so carefully? Even Huo Yan isn’t as unruly as he used to be. Qiao Ni even said the two cousins went shopping together a while back.”
The more Huo Dong thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
Before, Huo Yan would run from Huo Ting like a mouse fleeing a cat.
But now? Huo Ting picking Huo Yan up from school and taking him shopping? What were they even buying together?
Madam Inas, on the other hand, felt that these changes were probably connected to Yu Mian’s arrival.
“Didn’t Huo Ting tell you to check out Yu Mian’s book tomorrow morning?”
Seeing Huo Dong put down his newspaper without immediately sorting through the research materials from the latest trip, Madam Inas reminded him as he eagerly activated his lightbrain to search for the pen name “A Bowl of Fish Soup Noodles”.
“Pfft, what’s the big deal? We’ve been in scientific research for so long, what haven’t we seen? I’m just curious what kind of story it could be. What if there’s something we could help with?”
After all, even with literary creations, writers drew inspiration from real life.
Considering how familiar they were with the lives of scientists, if Yu Mian ever needed research material for his writing, the two of them would be more than willing to share everything they knew.
“Alright, I can’t do anything about you.”
Inas shrugged and watched as Huo Dong opened the light brain and found Yu Mian’s latest serialization.
“A traveling light brain? Sounds interesting. Is it a story about a scientist’s travels?”
As an outlier among the descendants of the Huo family, Huo Dong had been different from his brother Huo Ying since childhood. Not only was the mental power he inherited non-aggressive, but he had also always enjoyed reading. However, he had kept this personal hobby hidden for decades.
Hearing that Yu Mian actually wrote books made Huo Dong quite interested. He had long been eager to take a look.
Inas believed Yu Mian’s writing must be particularly captivating; otherwise, how could it have influenced Huo Yan, who usually disliked reading, so much that his bedroom was now stacked with picture books and novels?
Qiao Ni mentioned that during the days she and Huo Dong were away, Huo Yan’s composition scores had steadily improved. Inas was sure this had everything to do with Yu Mian’s subtle influence.
“Let me see… ‘the constant rain leaves a sticky wet feeling’?”
Huo Dong directly opened the Huanyu Book Page, and the very first line of the novel caught him off guard.
The atmosphere in the text felt somewhat gloomy.
It seemed completely different from Yu Mian’s real-life temperament.
Coincidentally, it started raining heavily that very night. Raindrops tapped rhythmically against the window ledge, the atmosphere intensified by occasional flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder.
Before long, as Huo Dong stayed up late chasing updates, he grew increasingly restless, as though he were sitting on a bed of nails.
This story…why was it so different from what he had imagined?
Mysterious, illegal human experiments?
An isolated planet that was like a cage and graveyard for top-tier scientists?
Monitoring chips forcibly implanted into the body?
Each plot point made Huo Dong, a scientific researcher, involuntarily substitute them with scenes from his own work. But the plot remained disturbingly sinister and terrifying.
A brutal survival game involving 100 players, a mysterious and malicious light brain that toyed with the rules, the divinely handsome Experiment Subject No. 114 soaking in an incubation pod, and the wildly unhinged yet breathtakingly beautiful protagonist scientist, Si Yao…
“…”
“Huo Dong, what’s wrong? Aren’t you going to sleep yet?”
When Inas returned after checking on Huo Yan and pushed open the bedroom door, she found her husband’s expression looking extremely off.
“Xiao Yu’s book… It’s just too shocking.”
“You think so too?”
Unexpectedly, Inas also agreed with a surprised look on her face.
“You read Yu Mian’s book too?”
Huo Dong looked up instantly, as though he had finally found a kindred spirit.
“Of course! I just grabbed a few storybooks from Huo Yan’s room. This one, “The King of Tianshan”, is very moving. Even kids would reflect on the relationship between humans and nature after reading it.”
“And the two little snow leopards are so cute and healing, oh my, Yu Mian is simply too talented!”
Initially, Inas had only been impressed by Yu Mian’s looks. But after reading his works, she realized that the strange fantasy and romantic charm conveyed in his writing were what truly left the deepest impression.
A mermaid writer!
The old master had indeed been saved by an extraordinary mermaid couple back then. Even the son they had was amazing.
While Inas sighed with admiration and tried to get Huo Dong to share her excitement, she noticed the growing confusion and shock in his eyes.
“Wait… Are we sure we’re reading books by the same author!?”
Huo Dong, who was now agitated, handed the light brain displaying “I Picked Up A Traveling Light Brain” to Inas.
Perplexed, Inas started reading.
