High Fever
“Beep, beep! Beep, beep!”
Xie Chi was woken by his terminal’s safety alert, warning that he had been asleep for too long.
He instinctively threw off the covers and rolled out of bed. As he silenced the alert, he pulled a quantum gun from his spatial ring.
Only when he took in the room’s shabby furnishings did Xie Chi remember that he had transmigrated.
He immediately relaxed. Sleepily, he turned toward the bed. “Wife, did I wake you? …Hm?”
Xie Chi stared at the empty bed, his sleepiness vanishing at once.
Where had his wife gone?
He hurried over and felt the sheets. The side where Ji Chou had slept was cold, and even the rich, lingering woody scent of Ji Chou’s pheromones from last night had faded to a faint trace.
Ji Chou had been gone for a while.
“Ji Chou?”
Xie Chi searched the room in disbelief. There was no sign of anyone else in the cramped house. Only the bathroom, still a mess, and the scattered things on the floor proved that last night hadn’t been a dream.
The energy stone in the furnace was almost spent, and the room was cold. Xie Chi stood quietly for a moment in his thin pajamas, his expression gradually darkening.
He’d almost forgotten. Ji Chou had been sent by Yan Wanqiu to test him.
How could a tyrant like Yan Wanqiu possibly let Ji Chou stay with him? Ji Chou must have been taken away for questioning.
Xie Chi raked a hand through his hair in frustration.
He’d really let himself get carried away last night. He’d had all that time to think of a plan, and instead he’d spent it sleeping with Ji Chou.
And now, not only could he be executed at any moment, but given Yan Wanqiu’s suspicious nature, if the tyrant found out Ji Chou had agreed to be his wife, he might use Ji Chou as leverage against him, even if he didn’t execute Ji Chou on the spot.
No. He had to go see Yan Wanqiu right now.
Xie Chi pressed his lips together and pushed open the door, nearly colliding with Nie Huaiyi, who was standing guard outside.
“Uncle Nie?” Xie Chi looked at the middle-aged man who had brought him meals.
Nie Huaiyi clearly hadn’t expected him to open the door so suddenly. After a moment’s surprise, he asked, “Captain Xie, are you awake? Would you like something to eat?”
Xie Chi glanced at the sky and realized that dusk had already fallen.
He’d slept through the entire day. No wonder his terminal had triggered its automatic alert.
His expression didn’t change. He simply said, “I want to see His Highness.”
“Well…” Nie Huaiyi hesitated.
“Captain Xie, it’s not that I won’t let you see him. His Highness was ambushed last night while wiping out the Night Owl Society, after a traitor betrayed them. He was badly wounded. At noon today, he personally ordered that he be left alone to recover over the next few days. After that, he’ll investigate the insiders. Anyone who makes a mistake right now is practically walking into the line of fire…”
Xie Chi closed his eyes. Nie Huaiyi’s words doused the impulsive fire in his chest.
The original owner had given Yan Wanqiu information about the Night Owl Society at Yan Baiyue’s command.
And with his communications with Yan Baiyue on top of that, once Yan Wanqiu recovered and came to his senses, Xie Chi was as good as dead.
Stay calm. He couldn’t drag Ji Chou into this.
Ji Chou was the only family he’d managed to find for himself.
He had to find a way to clear his name quickly and protect Ji Chou. Only by surviving could he figure out how to avoid being dragged to his death by Yan Wanqiu.
After all, Yan Wanqiu was a tyrant who had died a gruesome death in the history books. Xie Chi had no particular devotion to his ruler or country, and no intention of laying down his life for either.
All he wanted was to earn enough money to take care of his wife and have a home.
Xie Chi slowly let out a breath, his mind racing through countless possibilities.
A moment later, he opened his eyes and looked at Nie Huaiyi. “Uncle Nie, I have important intelligence to offer His Highness. It’s urgent, and it concerns whether Blizzard City can safely make it through the freeze season. Please find a way to report it to him.”
“What is it?” Nie Huaiyi asked, puzzled.
Xie Chi enunciated each word. “A map of the thermal ore deposits throughout Blizzard City.”
.
Meanwhile, in the bedroom of the detached palace, Yan Wanqiu, whom Xie Chi regarded as a tyrant who would stop at nothing, lay feverish and half-conscious in bed.
Because of what Xie Chi had said, memories of the past had surfaced, leaving him unable to sleep. After Xie Chi dozed off, he had hastily found himself some clothes and, taking advantage of the early morning quiet, limped back to his bedroom through the bitter wind at thirty degrees below zero.
That little puppy Xie Chi had looked so innocent and inexperienced, yet he’d bitten nearly every inch of Yan Wanqiu’s body. He was covered in swollen, red bite marks, and the damage elsewhere was even worse.
If it weren’t for the fact that an alpha couldn’t be marked by another alpha, Yan Wanqiu suspected even his gland might not have been spared.
Forcing himself on a shadow guard all night was one thing. Being fucked by a shadow guard all night was another, especially when he’d been left in this miserable state.
Yan Wanqiu had no choice but to swallow his humiliation. He hadn’t even called a doctor. After handing the captured guns to the mechanic who had accompanied him, he treated his own external injuries, ordered everyone to leave him alone while he recovered over the next few days, took some anti-inflammatory medicine, and went to bed.
As it turned out, he’d made the right decision.
He’d barely fallen asleep when his fever began.
Grinding his teeth, Yan Wanqiu struggled to reach for the glass of water on his bedside table.
It was all that idiot Xie Chi’s fault. Why did he have to be so long? Even now, there was still some he couldn’t clean out by himself.
His pheromone disorder had clouded his judgment too. He should have taken advantage of Xie Chi being asleep and dealt with him.
Once the fever was gone, he would kill Xie Chi with his own hands…
Knock, knock.
The sound at the door interrupted Yan Wanqiu’s thoughts.
“Get out!” he growled hoarsely. “Didn’t I tell you to leave me alone?”
“Your Highness.” The guard outside sounded terrified. “Deputy Captain Nie sent word. He said Xie Chi…”
The instant Yan Wanqiu heard the name Xie Chi, he released a wave of murderous pheromone pressure. The guard’s voice cut off abruptly.
“Tell me. What about Xie Chi?” Yan Wanqiu ground the words out through clenched teeth.
The guard had been recruited locally in Blizzard City and had never faced the wrath of this brutal ruler from so close before. His hands and feet went weak, and he stammered, “H-he says he has a map of the thermal ore deposits and wants to see you!”
The murderous look on Yan Wanqiu’s face froze.
.
Three days later.
“Achi, I’m so glad you’re all right. I haven’t been able to sleep at night since that day. I was so worried something might have happened to you. I heard Yan Wanqiu was badly wounded. Did you give him false information about the Night Owl Society, just like I told you to?”
After three days under house arrest, Xie Chi stared expressionlessly at Yan Baiyue’s feigned concern on the smart brain screen and nodded without hesitation.
The information had come from the original owner, but in the end, Xie Chi still had to take the blame.
Yan Baiyue looked touched. “I knew you cared about me most, Achi. I’m all ready to go, and I’ll set out today. I’ll reach Blizzard City in three days. When I get there, follow the original plan and work with the Night Owl Society, you from the inside and me from the outside. We’ll stage a mining accident and pin it on Yan Wanqiu. Ideally, he’ll die in the thermal ore mine. Then I’ll definitely be able to marry you…”
“You’re in contact with the Night Owl Society?” As a married man, Xie Chi, who was committed to being faithful, interrupted him without hesitation.
Yan Baiyue froze, then answered instinctively, “Yes. It’s one of Eldest Brother’s enterprises. Like Frostice City, it’s mainly used to deal with foreign…”
He stopped halfway through, realizing he’d said something he shouldn’t have.
He awkwardly changed the subject and smiled falsely. “Achi, look at my new necklace. Isn’t it beautiful?”
As he spoke, Yan Baiyue leaned forward slightly to show Xie Chi the diamond necklace on his chest.
It was an elaborate piece, with a large, round central diamond of crystal-clear brilliance, surrounded by layer upon layer of smaller diamonds. It was magnificently ornate.
“Eldest Brother gave it to me as part of my dowry. It was a gift from the late master jeweler Edmund to his only son, who’s still missing. It’s the only one of its kind in all of Alberis.”
Yan Baiyue clearly loved the necklace. He lifted his chin proudly as he spoke.
Xie Chi listened absentmindedly, his mind occupied with how to report Yan Baiyue’s revelations to Yan Wanqiu in a way that would make the most of them.
His identity as a gay alpha had been confirmed, but Yan Wanqiu seemed even angrier. According to Nie Huaiyi, when Yan Wanqiu heard that Xie Chi had requested an audience, his pheromone pressure had nearly crushed the guard outside to death.
Xie Chi had been somewhat afraid of the infamous tyrant. After all, he’d only proven that he couldn’t have been involved with Yan Baiyue. He hadn’t cleared his name as a traitor at all. This mercurial and suspicious tyrant could still execute him at any moment.
But after waiting for three days, his anxiety had given way to calm, and even a little impatience.
He’d spent the past few days poring over historical records and had already figured out how to clear his name. If he couldn’t see Yan Wanqiu soon, he was afraid Ji Chou might be caught in the crossfire and meet with disaster too.
“Achi, are you listening to me?”
Xie Chi was so obviously distracted that even Yan Baiyue noticed something was off.
Xie Chi gave him a perfunctory answer without changing his expression. “I am. Your dowry is beautiful. It must have cost a lot, right?”
Yan Baiyue thought Xie Chi had been stunned by the necklace. He covered his mouth and laughed. “Money can’t measure its worth. After all, Imperial Brother had it prepared to the standard of a political marriage. But don’t worry, Achi. You’ve done so much for me. I won’t demand a bride price from you.”
The historical record showed that Yan Baiyue had never planned to marry down. If he hadn’t died in Blizzard City, he would have married into the mechanical civilization. Xie Chi didn’t believe a word he said.
It did, however, bring another problem to mind.
He still hadn’t bought Ji Chou a single thing.
That wouldn’t do. His former coworkers had told him it took a lot of money to take care of a wife. It wasn’t just about improving their living conditions. He also had to give his wife gifts and pleasant surprises regularly.
Xie Chi’s mind wandered again, thinking that if he could survive this crisis, he needed to figure out how to earn money, improve their living conditions, and find a gift to give Ji Chou when they met again. His attitude toward Yan Baiyue was visibly perfunctory.
Yan Baiyue looked at the shadow guard, who had gone back to being dull and unresponsive, and pouted.
He’d thought Xie Chi’s looks made him worth treating a little differently. Looking at him now, he was still the same old taciturn lump.
Yan Baiyue lost interest. “All right, I have things to do. We’ll see each other in Blizzard City next time. Make sure you find a chance to go to the Night Owl Society headquarters ahead of time and work out a plan with Boss Ye. Yan Wanqiu killed two of the Night Owl Society’s leaders in one go recently, so Boss Ye can’t handle everything alone now. I’ll send you the meeting place and password later.”
Xie Chi nodded perfunctorily and ended the call.
Yan Baiyue soon sent him the meeting place and password. Clearly, that had been the whole point of the call.
“The Night Owl Society…”
Xie Chi narrowed his eyes at the message on his smart brain and put on his terminal glasses.
The terminal had been in power-saving mode the whole time. Xie Chi usually shut it down when he wasn’t using it, and it still had 50% battery remaining.
Just as he was about to check the details of his meeting with the Night Owl Society, he heard footsteps outside.
He took off his glasses and got up to go to the door. He opened it almost as soon as the knock sounded. “Uncle Nie, is something wrong?”
Since Yan Wanqiu had been recovering, Nie Huaiyi didn’t know Xie Chi was one of the traitors. He only thought Xie Chi was an unlucky man who had incurred the tyrant’s displeasure.
Now his expression was relaxed, and he smiled. “Captain Xie, good news. His Highness just sent word that he’ll receive you.”
Xie Chi wasn’t surprised. He smiled at the man. “Thank you, Uncle Nie.”
He’d looked up Nie Huaiyi’s records on the first day.
The man’s name was Nie Huaiyi. He was an alpha whom Yan Wanqiu had recruited locally after arriving in Blizzard City, and he served as a shadow guard. After “Xie Chi” was tortured to death by dismemberment, Nie Huaiyi took over his position. Later, as Yan Wanqiu expanded his territory through a series of military campaigns, he appointed Nie Huaiyi to defend Blizzard City and serve as acting city lord.
He was also the last acting city lord, the man who had held Blizzard City until the very end against the mechanical aliens. Yan Wanqiu himself had pressed the city’s self-destruct button, and Nie Huaiyi had perished along with the entire city.
History offered several accounts of Blizzard City’s destruction. One unofficial account claimed that Nie Huaiyi had led the people of the entire city in a blood-written petition to die together. But the more widely accepted version was that Yan Wanqiu, tormented by his pheromone disorder and nearly driven mad, had seen that defeat was inevitable and chosen to go down fighting, dragging everyone else to their deaths with him.
Xie Chi didn’t care what the truth was. In any case, Nie Huaiyi had never betrayed Yan Wanqiu, until his death. He’d also already earned some of Yan Wanqiu’s trust, so there was no risk of passing a message through him and having it reach Yan Baiyue.
That was enough.
Seeing Xie Chi smile, Nie Huaiyi looked a little surprised, then smiled back. He lowered his voice and cautioned, “His Highness just recovered, and he’s in a terrible mood. He’s already screened everyone in the camp from top to bottom again, and several shadow guards have been thrown in the dungeon. Be careful. Don’t provoke him.”
Yan Wanqiu was suspicious by nature, and it was common for him to hunt down traitors in the camp on a whim. After Xie Chi had presented the thermal ore map a few days ago, Nie Huaiyi had clearly taken him for another unlucky man under suspicion.
After all, what traitor would offer up such crucial strategic information to prove his innocence?
The traitor himself, Xie Chi: “…”
“Thank you,” Xie Chi said again.
After quickly getting dressed and leaving a spare terminal in a drawer, Xie Chi took the rough map he’d drawn by hand over the past few days and followed Nie Huaiyi out of the room.
A bitter wind blew outside.
Since he’d been put under house arrest as soon as he arrived, this was Xie Chi’s first time seeing the camp.
Although it was the brief summer, Blizzard City’s temperature still dropped to thirty degrees below zero.
Thick snow covered the ground. Only the main road had been cleared, with half-meter-high snowbanks piled along either side. The camp’s buildings were low and cramped to conserve heat and cut costs, with tiny windows and mostly raised wooden frames.
The small house where Xie Chi lived, built of wood and stone, was already one of the best in the entire camp.
As he looked at the patrolling soldiers dressed in all kinds of animal furs to keep warm, Xie Chi, wearing a thermostatic suit under his coat, was once again struck by how backward and impoverished this place was.
Right, he still had several unopened thermostatic combat suits. He could give them to Ji Chou.
He did feel a little bad about it, though.
Thermostatic combat suits could keep the wearer warm while protecting their organs from fatal injuries. They were rare and practical in this era, but in the future they were completely commonplace. If his finances allowed, Xie Chi would rather give Ji Chou some luxury goods that were valuable in this age.
The problem was that his finances didn’t allow it.
As a devoted simp, the original owner had spent every last cent of his wages pursuing Yan Baiyue. He’d been completely broke between paychecks.
And Xie Chi needed more than just a little money.
Even renovating his home would cost a fortune, and he’d also need to hire a mechanic at great expense to modify his terminal and unlock his weapons.
The only mechanic Xie Chi could think of who might be able to modify weapons from 3,000 years in the future was Shi Peijue, the Father of Interstellar Mechanics who appeared alongside Yan Wanqiu in the history books.
But Shi Peijue had only appeared beside Yan Wanqiu after Blizzard City entered the freeze season. The terminal’s records didn’t say where he’d come from. Xie Chi could barely keep himself alive right now, let alone search all over Blizzard City for a mechanic whose only known attribute was his name.
Besides, the mechanic was said to have a strange temperament. Even if Xie Chi found him, he might not be able to afford his services…
Xie Chi let his thoughts wander as he walked, until Nie Huaiyi stopped in front of him.
“We’re here,” Nie Huaiyi said.
Xie Chi came back to himself and looked at the building in front of him.
It was a small detached palace at the very center of the camp.
A low wall of bluestone enclosed the courtyard. Two guards opened the solid wooden gate, revealing an empty stretch of ground.
They had only cleared the snow and packed down the earth. There were no paving stones, much less flowers or trees for decoration.
The main building of the palace was also made of stone. It had two stories and was the tallest building in the entire camp. One row of side rooms flanked the main building on either side, used for storage.
To suit the local climate, the palace had a steep, broad-pitched wooden roof instead of the ornate dome prescribed for the royal family. The lack of any decoration gave it the bleak air of a place of exile, but it remained imposing and austere.
Xie Chi began to feel nervous.
Yan Wanqiu wasn’t still angry… was he?
Nie Huaiyi stopped at the entrance. With the guards leading the way, Xie Chi carried the drawings through the detached palace to the audience hall.
“Creak…”
The heavy wooden doors swung open. The guards quietly withdrew, and from a distance, Xie Chi saw the man seated on the throne.
White hair, red eyes, a stern face. The man propped his chin on one hand and stared down at him, irritation and impatience swirling around him.
Xie Chi jolted. Afraid the tyrant would pressure him with his pheromones again, as he had the first time, he quickly lowered his head and stepped forward to bow. “Your Highness.”
“Xie Chi.”
Yan Wanqiu looked down at the audacious shadow guard who had spent the night with him. Just remembering how he’d had to clean himself up while burning with a high fever brought a flare of inexplicable anger to his chest.
“You’d better actually have something to offer me. Otherwise, I’ll castrate you right now.”
Xie Chi: “?” Why was he still threatening to castrate him?