The sun was nearing its zenith. Inside the training room, as the last piece of slimy flesh and carapace separated, Shen Huaiyun had completely stripped the exoskeleton from this alien creature.
The scalpel formed from his pitch-black psychic energy dissipated in his hand. He raised a hand to wipe the fine beads of sweat from his temple and let out a relieved sigh.
Ning Yanfeng immediately called over the waiting staff to remove the dissected remains of the alien, brought a chair for Shen Huaiyun, and even handed him a Mugiya lollipop.
“You’ve really worked hard finishing the test and then having to handle and dissect two aliens back-to-back.” Professor Ning knew this arrangement wasn’t ideal and felt somewhat at fault. “I’ll add this to the bonus items. The bonus for this month is about to be issued anyway; I’ll notify you when it’s time to collect it.”
Shen Huaiyun twirled the lollipop in his hand and shook his head gently. “That’s not necessary. It was just a small favor.”
His refusal immediately displeased Ning Yanfeng. “That won’t do! From what I gathered earlier, those two seem interested in continuing the collaboration in the future. There might be more tasks like this assigned to you, so the proper compensation can’t be shortchanged.”
“Moreover, the new scenario you tested will soon be put into formal training use. You uncovered quite a few issues, so I should issue you an additional separate payment for that.”
The young man had expended too much psychic energy, especially with such rare and meticulous operations. The deep-seated fatigue from his nerves was hard to shake off, so he simply nodded along, eager to find Shen Tangmo as soon as possible to recharge for a while.
After bidding farewell and leaving the office, Shen Huaiyun took out Shen Tangmo’s work badge from his pocket and walked slowly toward his office.
This semester, Shen Tangmo had been assigned to supervise the graduation projects of several seventh-year students. For convenience, his office was also located within the laboratory, accessible only by facial recognition or a work badge. He had given Shen Huaiyun the badge to prevent him from being locked out by the lab’s security system.
Today, however, it wasn’t needed. Part of the two freshly dissected alien corpses had been transported to this very lab, and for convenience, the door had been left wide open.
Shen Huaiyun nodded politely to the two staff members he had just met and noticed several students inside as well. He initially had no intention of disturbing them and planned to head straight to the office, but then he heard someone deliberately raise their voice: “I mean, does this kid even attend classes? What year is he in, coming to find Professor Shen every single day and disrupting his work?”
A female student nearby quickly tried to stop him, whispering harshly, “Are you insane? He’s minding his own business and hasn’t bothered you. Why do you care so much?”
“What’s there to be afraid of?” the provocateur continued. “Professor Shen is so accomplished, yet his younger brother has achieved nothing. Four years ago, he shattered his own psychic landscape and had to rely on Professor Shen to repair it. He’s just a leech clinging to Professor Shen and sucking him dry! Professor Shen must be blind, treating such a useless thing like a treasure.”
“He’ll probably even ask Professor Shen to arrange a job for him here someday, just to collect a paycheck without doing any real work.” His tone was dripping with sarcasm as he stared directly at Shen Huaiyun.
Shen Huaiyun had originally intended to ignore him, but he had insulted Shen Tangmo.
The youth shook the work badge in his hand, turning to meet the other’s malicious gaze with an indifferent tone. “The experimental materials you need were just prepared by me. If you despise me so much, you can go find others yourself. After all, they still carry traces of my psychic energy.”
“Oh, of course, someone like you, who treats unrelated people as imaginary rivals for a job probably lacks the backbone to do so.”
“You!” The student’s face flushed with anger, but Shen Huaiyun had exposed his true intentions, leaving him momentarily speechless.
The other students nearby, upon hearing Shen Huaiyun’s words, quickly realized why this person had been stirring trouble. He simply saw Shen Huaiyun’s younger brother as a competitor for the teaching assistant position under Professor Shen and didn’t want such a good opportunity to be taken away.
If Shen Huaiyun could be seen as a rival, wouldn’t they already established in this field be even easier targets? Once they understood this, they returned to their seats, ignoring the troublemaker.
Not only did they ignore him, but they also took the opportunity to post about the incident on the campus forum.
A warm, psychic tendril suddenly coiled around Shen Huaiyun’s wrist.
“You can drop the ‘probably,'” Shen Tangmo said coldly, having emerged from the office unnoticed. “Zhu Chong, Professor Lin Ziyan is on the phone.”
“Wh-what? I don’t have Professor Lin’s number,” Zhu Chong stammered, frozen in place.
“I’m telling you to take her call.”
Zhu Chong’s face instantly turned ashen.
Shen Huaiyun raised his phone and switched it to speaker mode.
Professor Lin Ziyan’s piercing voice echoed through the speaker, reaching everyone present: “Zhu Chong, you’re quite the talent, aren’t you? Take a look at what you wrote in the paper you sent me yesterday! Do you dare to run the experiment yourself and see if you can reproduce those results?! How dare you commit academic fraud under our supervision?!”
The female student who had tried to intervene earlier typed furiously, determined to ensure everyone on the campus forum got the full story.
“And what’s more, your data analysis section is worse than something an AI could write! Did you even read it and laugh? How could you conclude there were no issues after such contradictory reasoning? You truly live up to your reputation a funding parasite!”
Professor Lin seemed far from finished, but Shen Tangmo felt the two points were enough. He turned off the speaker to prevent her from getting carried away.
Just then, a uniformed university staff member entered. “Which one of you is Zhu Chong? Please come with me.”
Zhu Chong’s face remained deathly pale. He instinctively tried to flee but was blocked by other students after taking only two steps, then escorted away by the staff member.
After briefly wrapping up the call with Professor Lin, Shen Tangmo hung up, closed the office door, and slid the status bar from “On Duty” to “Out.” Turning to Shen Huaiyun, his expression softened back to its usual gentleness. “Let’s go, it’s time for lunch.”
The youth was still stunned by the sudden turn of events. After a moment of daze, he snapped back to reality and grabbed Shen Tangmo’s wrist. “Let’s go, let’s go. Today’s events were truly dramatic.”
More psychic tendrils extended from the young man’s sleeve, slipping into Shen Huaiyun’s cuff and coiling around his forearm.
“Did you have a heavy training session today?”
“It’s actually not too bad. The main thing is that some new tasks were added later on, requiring us to try not to damage their shells when dealing with the alien species and to peel off those carapaces intact. It’s a bit troublesome.”
“Don’t use your psychic energy anymore today. Go back and rest properly.”
The restaurant Shen Tangmo had reserved was a newly opened barbecue place near the academy. Without a reservation, you’d have to queue for two hours during peak mealtime just to get a table.
The interior decor was easy on the eyes. Shortly after they sat down at their reserved spot, the waiter brought over plates of different meats, lit the fire, and placed the mesh grill on top.
“We’ll handle the grilling ourselves, thank you.”
Hearing Shen Tangmo’s words, the waiter acknowledged, told them to call if they needed more dipping sauce, pointed out the self-service side dishes area, and then went to attend to another table.
The young man picked up a piece of steak with tongs, took a pair of scissors to cut it into smaller pieces, and placed them on the mesh grill to be roasted by the flames.
Shen Huaiyun glanced at the other plates, picked up a piece of chicken thigh meat, and placed it on the grill as well, sprinkling a bit of cumin over it.
While waiting for the meat to cook, Shen Tangmo lifted his gaze to look at the boy who had grown much taller. The emotion in his eyes seemed to be pride, but it was so complex that even he couldn’t quite decipher it.
His lips moved slightly, but the words that came out were different from what he intended: “Mom and Dad contacted me earlier. They said the intensity of the alien species tide has increased recently, so they won’t be able to come home this month.”
“Hmm.” Shen Huaiyun lowered his head, looking at the frontline news reports. “I read in the news that the alien species tide had been weak for a long time before. Now it’s returning to its normal offensive pattern. I wonder if it’ll continue to intensify later.”
“Are you planning to go to the Watchtower in the future? Or, I remember you once said you wanted to open a cat café?” Shen Tangmo flipped the meat with his chopsticks.
The boy’s answer came quickly, as if it were the most natural thing: “To the Watchtower. I want to see if I can get into Borealia Tower.”
Thinking of what Zhu Chong had said, Shen Tangmo placed the grilled meat into the other’s plate while asking, “Do you want to have your achievements re-posted in the academy’s ranking announcements?”
Shen Huaiyun stopped him from adding more with his chopsticks. “No need. Honestly, not many people have the time to pay attention to a stranger’s achievements. Besides, my situation is different from the others in the academy. I have an extra helmet to use, and they don’t. Putting us under the same evaluation criteria isn’t really fair.”
He didn’t look at Shen Tangmo, instead picking up a piece of grilled meat, dipping it in seasoning powder, and putting it into his mouth. The meat was rich and flavorful, the seasoning adding a salty spiciness, but it tasted like ash to him.
Deep down, he agreed with one thing Zhu Chong had said: a leech clinging to Shen Tangmo and sucking his blood.
Four years ago, he had relied on his brother for treatment. Every mended crack in his mental landscape had been glued together with his brother’s psychic energy. And now, four years later, his life still seemed to depend on his brother. From his daily schedule to his career plans, many of Shen Tangmo’s decisions were made because of him, and he knew it.
His brother had always wanted to go to the Watchtower, to become a military doctor and treat more people.
But Shen Huaiyun was the burden holding him back, the stumbling block keeping him confined to this small city of Wenzhou. The word “burden” burned hotter than the charcoal beneath the grill, scorching his selfish heart.
In a way, he really could be called a leech.
But even if it meant becoming a burden, a leech clinging relentlessly to Shen Tangmo he didn’t want to be separated from him.