The smell of gunpowder and smoke permeated the air. Within the boundless darkness of the night, Ming He covered his mouth and coughed violently several times before he was finally able to speak: “Brother Erol, how is the situation?”
Clang!
A sharp Tang Dao was ruthlessly plunged into the hard tail of the still-struggling lizard-like magical creature. Viscous green blood oozed out, provoking a burst of sharp, piercing shrieks and roars.
Shen Xiangyu squatted down, pressing his black pistol against the lizard-like creature’s head. He looked up at the standing man and asked, “Kill it?”
Lu Que cast his eyes down. His emotionless gaze swept across the creature’s head, which was filled with fear and resentment, and he said faintly, “Hold on for a moment. Interrogate it.”
D-051, B-025… these magical creatures were all coming for him. Including this lizard-like creature, their goals were astonishingly consistent without exception, their priority hunting target was Lu Que.
Lu Que calmly asked the creature, “Why kill me?”
The slime-covered pupils rolled upward, fixing onto Lu Que. A “he-he” sound came from the creature’s throat, hoarse and unpleasant: “Gu… threat… eliminate…”
Shen Xiangyu said playfully, “Looking at it this way, Erol, you’ve been deemed the number one threat.”
Suddenly, an abrupt change occurred. The creature in front of them began to tremble violently. Shen Xiangyu’s expression tightened: “Watch out, it’s going to self-detonate!”
The two men leaped back instantly. The lizard-like creature’s head exploded with a loud bang, and a foul stench slowly drifted through the air.
Everything went quiet. Shen Xiangyu covered his nose and mouth as he approached to examine the corpse. Without raising his head, he asked, “Erol, regarding this matter… will your brother-in-law be involved?”
Almost escaping his lips without a thought, Lu Que said, “No.”
Shen Xiangyu immediately looked at him, raising an eyebrow in surprise: “So certain?”
“…I just feel like he isn’t,” Lu Que said, shifting his eyes away.
The other party was only busy appearing punctually whenever it was time for three meals a day. At a glance, he clearly didn’t have that kind of ambition and was only interested in eating.
Confirming that the magical creature was thoroughly dead, Shen Xiangyu stood up and stretched. Lu Que called back the other three team members: “Let’s go. Take the corpse back to the inspection department’s laboratory.”
Ming He cheered: “Awesome! Off the clock, off the clock!”
As the few of them were cleaning up the aftermath, the vibration of someone’s cell phone broke the silence. Qi Tao looked left and right, her eyes darting toward the captain, whose expression was hidden behind his mask: “Brother Erol, it seems to be your phone.”
“Excuse me.”
The man slightly pulled off the black leather glove from his hand, walked to the other side, and connected the call. The very first second it connected, there was a dissatisfied humming from the other end: “Husband, why did you answer so slowly?”
Lu Que said patiently, “I’m working overtime. What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing,” the youth sounded a bit embarrassed, “just letting you know that things are wrapped up on my end, and I’ll be back in a little while.”
Lu Que responded, “Mm, I’m also coming back shortly.”
The other side of the phone seemed noisy, and another unfamiliar young male voice squeezed into the call: “Xiao Mu, let me listen, let me listen!”
“What are you in such a hurry for?” This was Shi Yunmu murmuring.
Xiao Mu…?
The man lost his focus for a split second and asked in confusion, “Who?”
Shi Yunmu immediately replied, “Oh, this is my friend!”
Hearing that the focus of the phone call had shifted to him, Xu Yi stopped speaking instead—silver dragons were just like that; they could take the initiative to speak to others, but once someone’s full attention was on them, they would become very uncomfortable.
Not particularly caring whether Shi Yunmu’s friend would continue to join the conversation, Lu Que gave an “mm”: “I see.”
So the slime actually had friends besides his classmates.
Would this friend be a human, or a magical creature?
He could still hear the hustle and bustle of people coming and going at the hotel entrance through the receiver. Lu Que lowered his eyelids and asked casually, “How are you getting back?”
Shi Yunmu said honestly, “Uh, probably by taxi? It’s very inconvenient for Xiao Yi to give me a ride.” After all, the Xu family lived in a villa district, which was roughly a whole C-City away from Lu Que’s neighborhood.
With a slight stir in his heart, Lu Que said, “Then I’ll come pick you up.”
“Huh?” Struck by the sudden surprise, Shi Yunmu was still a bit dazed.
Following the politeness required by humans, Shi Yunmu offered a polite remark: “Ah, husband, is it on your way?”
Lu Que replied unhurriedly, “It’s on the way.”
The other team members who were still cleaning up and moving the corpse while eavesdropping: “?”
They exchanged glances: If they remembered correctly, this place seemed to be very far from the hotel in the city center, right?
Seeing that the scene was mostly cleared, Lu Que hung up the phone and calmly looked at the team members who were starting to pretend to be very busy: “I’m leaving first.”
Shen Xiangyu laughed it off: “Go ahead, go ahead. Leave this place to me, no problem!”
Lu Que nodded: “Sorry to trouble you.” With that, he sheathed his wiped-clean Tang Dao and handed it to Shen Xiangyu before leaving.
Watching Lu Que’s back disappear, Qi Tao still didn’t quite dare to speak aloud, so she began to twist her facial expressions and wink: Something’s wrong! Ten thousand percent wrong!
Chen Fangshu nodded: I noticed it a long time ago.
Ming He, situated between these winking girls, although grasping the meaning in the eyes of both sides, was extremely bewildered: What is right? What is wrong?
The charity gala ended. Shi Yunmu didn’t even greet anyone from the Shi family, standing alone at the hotel entrance waiting for Lu Que to drive over and pick him up.
Far away on the other side, Shi Yubai was being surrounded by his parents and Sheng Jinghuai, who were asking after his well-being.
His wound was not deep. The professional doctor brought by the Sheng family handled it directly on-site disinfecting, cleansing, and binding it with gauze, and it was pretty much fine, with no need to go to the hospital to treat it.
Sheng Jinghuai was originally still worried that Shi Yubai had been frightened. Just as he wanted to speak, he saw that the other party was staring blankly at a certain spot without moving. He couldn’t help but look in the direction the other party was gazing, and the result turned out to be Shi Yunmu.
The youth managed to wear a short-sleeved shirt and long pants with a lazy, elegant aura. He had one hand tucked into his pants pocket while his other hand carelessly swiped through his phone, responding fitfully to Xu Yi, who was keeping him company while waiting.
“Is something wrong?” Sheng Jinghuai felt that something was amiss and asked Shi Yubai.
Looking closely, he realized that there was still a bit of cold sweat on Shi Yubai’s forehead, looking as if he hadn’t walked out of the fear at all.
Shi Yubai slowly looked toward Sheng Jinghuai, his voice a bit raspy: “If I told you that the chandelier falling was actually done by Shi Yunmu, would you believe it?”
“…” Sheng Jinghuai maintained his silence.
Although he also disliked Shi Yunmu, the other party wouldn’t go as far as having the ability to break the chandelier, and be one hundred percent certain that the person it would hit would be Shi Yubai.
Thinking this way, Sheng Jinghuai coughed lightly and patted Shi Yubai’s shoulder: “Are you still feeling a bit unwell? How about we still go to the hospital to check it out? What do Uncle and Aunt think?”
Father Shi and Mother Shi naturally didn’t have any objections in front of Sheng Jinghuai, answering repeatedly, “Yes, yes, yes, we agree, we agree.”
Sheng Jinghuai went to call the doctor again, preparing to send Shi Yubai to the hospital, and comforted Shi Yubai, saying, “It’s fine, Yubai, think about something happy for instance, our wedding.”
Because of the Shi family’s incident last time, the wedding preparations for the two families had been postponed for a period of time, allowing them to prepare well for a long time.
Shi Yubai stared at him, and after a good while, sighed: “Forget it, I can’t explain it clearly to you.”
Sheng Jinghuai: “…”
Why did he feel like he was being disdained?
At this moment, a black car drove up, stopping steadily at the hotel entrance.
The man driving opened the car door. The dark-colored clothes accentuated his broad shoulders and long legs. His raven-feather-like long hair, even though loosely tied up, attracted numerous glances.
People who didn’t know him secretly speculated which family’s young master or which family’s invited model he was; those who knew the inside story were surprised by the man’s arrival. Although they didn’t know why the man would appear here, it didn’t stop them from actively stepping forward wanting to strike up a conversation.
Before they could even say hello, someone, like a swallow returning to the woods or a small bird returning to its nest, threw himself into the man’s embrace, calling out softly, “Husband!”
The voice was so sweet it seemed capable of cloying someone to death.
Xu Yi, who was on the side: “?”
No, brother, is this appropriate for you?
Many people looked over. Sheng Jinghuai also stared, letting out a disdainful laugh: “This is Shi Yunmu’s husband? It looks like he just has a good face.”
Father Shi immediately flattered: “Yes, so when the old master insisted on the marriage alliance with the Lu family, we couldn’t bear to let Yubai go…”
Shi Yubai didn’t speak.
Compared to the arrogant Sheng Jinghuai and Father Shi, who was busy kissing up to Sheng Jinghuai, his observation skills were much more detailed and acute. Shi Yubai swept his gaze across the faces of those people one by one they all revealed a clear intention of wanting to chat a few words with Lu Que. This kind of urgency surging in the dark prompted a seemingly impossible realization to flash through Shi Yubai’s mind.
This caused him to involuntarily tighten his jaw, and his eyes simply couldn’t leave Shi Yunmu’s side. Unconsciously, the boy’s fingers also curled up, digging forcefully into his flesh.
…No, he must just be a minor civil servant, it must be like that.
Ignoring the glances probing openly and secretly, Lu Que calmly caught the guy who had suddenly thrown himself into his embrace.
Shi Yunmu raised his head, his eyes bright and sparkling: “Husband, let’s go home!”
Lu Que looked straight ahead, as if trying to defend against this overly burning gaze: “Mm.”
The other people who were blocked from striking up a conversation but discovered that these two actually had a husband-and-husband relationship: “…?”
Are you a ninja? Facing such a cute partner, you can actually manage to be completely expressionless??
Having no intention of interacting with these wealthy tycoons and powerful elites, Lu Que glanced at the dignitaries and authorities, nodded calmly, grasped Shi Yunmu’s wrist, and left.
Returning to the car, Shi Yunmu first waved his hand to Xu Yi, signaling him to go back with his human brother, before rolling up the car window and changing his demeanor.
While reaching out to obediently click his seatbelt shut, he grumbled and complained, “I didn’t eat my fill!”
Lu Que fell silent for a second, pointing out Shi Yunmu’s issue: “Didn’t you come only because you knew there was a Michelin chef?”
The slime whose problem was pointed out remained unfazed: “How could I know that Michelin portions would be so small?” He complained, “If I had eaten it before, I wouldn’t have come.”
He quickly darted his eyes toward Lu Que, his hinting meaning very obvious.
Husband, why don’t you treat me?
Lu Que sighed: “Next time I’ll find a better restaurant to take you to.”
Shi Yunmu was very satisfied with his responsiveness: “Okay, okay!”
Wriggling his bottom, Shi Yunmu looked at the scenery flashing past outside the window, turned his face to look at Lu Que again, and kept silent.
Although his mouth didn’t blabber a single word, everything was revealed clearly and plainly within his blinking, translucent green eyes.
Lu Que’s hand driving the car was very steady. His dark eyes watched the road conditions ahead, and he spoke: “Still hungry?”
Shi Yunmu nodded vigorously.
“Want to eat a midnight snack?” Lu Que asked casually.
Shi Yunmu nodded vigorously again.
The youth focused his gaze intently on Lu Que’s profile. The light from the streetlamps swept past, making the man’s face appear bright and dark under the illumination.
As if imperceptibly, the other party seemed to quickly twitch the corners of his lips up before restraining it again.
Shi Yunmu asked suspiciously, “What are you laughing at?”
Lu Que glanced at him: “I didn’t laugh.”
Shi Yunmu: “?” How dare he try to deceive him, a slime? One should know that his eyesight is top-tier.
How could he know that Lu Que only felt that sitting next to him was not a gorgeous youth, but a green jelly with fox ears growing on it the kind whose fox ears drooped, busy whining and acting spoiled.
Suppressing the amusement in his heart, Lu Que said, “Got it, there will be a midnight snack.”
Shi Yunmu set his mind at ease, asking curiously, “Then what are we eating?” He secretly guessed, getting himself excited with his own guesses, “Could it be that you are going to treat me to a big feast?”
“You’ll know when we get there,” Lu Que said.
Shi Yunmu became even more expectant: Could it really be treating myself to a big feast?
“Why is it going home?”
Looking at the familiar house door in front of him, Shi Yunmu’s eyes widened round, looking at Lu Que in disbelief.
The man had already opened the door, changed his shoes, and gone inside; the entire process was seamless. Resting his hand against the doorframe, he looked toward Shi Yunmu, who was still rooted to the spot, his eyebrows cool and distant: “Are you coming in?”
He completely avoided answering Shi Yunmu’s question.
Shi Yunmu raised his eyebrows: “I’ll come in if I want to.”
His tone became a bit huffy: Fine, so the big feast and everything was a lie!
Muttering to himself as he entered the bedroom, Shi Yunmu very unhappily let Xiao Wei out, still tossing it onto the bed carelessly, once again causing Xiao Wei to see stars from the impact.
Xiao Wei shook its fluffy body, reading the room, and actively offered a suggestion: “Master, why don’t we still consider killing the human? Look at how he even lied to you.”
Shi Yunmu cast a glance at it, light and airy, without speaking.
Unable to fathom the royal mind, Xiao Wei said trepidatiously, “Or does Master have other ideas?”
“I won’t kill him,” the youth frowned and said.
Xiao Wei: “Oh, oh, oh, I see. Master certainly has his own considerations, very good, very good.”
The speed of its face-changing was frighteningly fast.
Shi Yunmu calculated, but he also needed to vent his anger. He might as well demand the human to make five tiramisu mini cakes for him tomorrow…
Calculating this way, the youth walked out of the bedroom and turned into the bathroom, preparing to wash up a bit and go to bed to play video games all night long.
Holding his toothbrush and rinsing cup, just as he was about to turn on the water faucet, the man wearing an apron came out holding dried noodles, asking, “Do your noodles need extra spicy…”
Their eyes met.
Shi Yunmu silently clutched his rinsing cup and toothbrush, rolled his eyes around, and slowly looked toward the dried noodles in the man’s hand.
Heavens, he really thought Lu Que wasn’t going to make it for him!
He was totally doomed.