Slap.
A soft slap landed on Cyril’s face, carrying the scent of sage. Rather than a real slap, it felt more like a gentle, scolding tap.
Cyril froze for a moment, not because of the negligible pain, but because of Ning Qing’s reaction.
Ning Qing tilted his head, smiling as he muttered something under his breath.
Was humiliating him really making him that happy? Even when Cyril had specifically acquired and decorated this house to give to him, he hadn’t seen Ning Qing smile like this. Remembering Ning Qing’s resistance a few hours ago, Cyril felt a wave of displeasure.
He wanted to hear Ning Qing’s true feelings.
He knelt by the bedside, lowering his head in an almost humble posture, and brought his ear close to Ning Qing’s lips.
This time, he heard it clearly. Ning Qing was saying.
“Stop it, Ah Huang.”
Who was Ah Huang? There was no one by that name among the people Ning Qing could have come into contact with. Could it be a childhood friend from his home planet?
Cyril made a mental note of the name. He had already pulled up the records following the incident, but any records of Ning Qing’s life before that were lost when the planet fell.
So why did remembering this person make Ning Qing smile? Facing a question without an answer, Cyril was relentless, even risking Ning Qing waking up early, he lowered the dosage of the anesthetic.
Perhaps realizing he couldn’t push this huge body away, Ning Qing sighed and used both hands to cup Cyril’s face instead.
“Good boy… I’m not mad at you. But if you drool all over my face again with that long tongue you used to touch wild beasts with, I’m really going to beat you up and cut your dog food rations.”
So, Ah Huang was a dog.
Cyril fell silent.
However, another voice suddenly shouted loudly through the communicator. “Brother, aren’t you way too close to Ning Qing?!”
To successfully play the single identity of “Cyril,” both brothers wore button shaped audio recorders under their collars at all times. Naturally, full surveillance was also installed in the house to make it easy for them to share information.
“And you had the nerve to tell me I was falling too deep! How come all those damn rules disappear when it comes to you? I found him first. I did!”
Lyle was in some obscure corner, and the signal kept cutting in and out, making even his furious roar sound stuttered and choppy.
“Shut up.”
Cyril interrupted his brother’s slander, completely unable to bear it any longer. But then, his spine went entirely stiff.
Ning Qing pressed a light, feather soft kiss onto his forehead.
The cool lips left behind a tender kiss devoid of any erotic intent, as if merely soothing a restless pet.
Directly contrasting his usual cold detachment toward humans, Ning Qing patiently explained the situation to the “dog”… “Ah Huang, don’t run outside to fight wild beasts anymore. Traces of Zerg activity have been discovered on Planet Jinshui, ten light years away. If you run into them, you’ll be sucked dry. Do you hear me?”
Cyril knew what he was referring to.
The Zerg riots twelve years ago had led to the blockade of the Seventh Star Sector on the edge of the galaxy. Even though early reports had been submitted, the Empire chose to refuse reinforcements.
Even in his dreams, Ning Qing was still brooding over this matter.
But what did any of that have to do with Cyril?
Lyle was right. All he needed to do was modify Ning Qing, forcing his body to mature as quickly as possible so he could become the most suitable host to bear offspring. That was all.
Shadows gently stroked the sleeping beauty’s smooth skin as Ning Qing lay quietly in Cyril’s arms.
Because of Ning Qing’s violent resistance earlier, the two brothers had specially customized a new set of drugs, a mix of anesthetics, hypnotics, maturation accelerants, and hallucinogens that existing medical instruments could not detect.
The researcher had also tried to pitch an addictive variant, but both brothers had rejected it in unison. Their reasoning, they didn’t want the beauty turning into a crazed addict, that scene would be far too ugly.
Cyril pulled out the needle, confirming that Ning Qing had entered a state of deep sleep before replying to Lyle. “I told you not to fall too deep because pity inevitably leads to softheartedness.”
“I received the data. After tomorrow’s match, I’ll head home on your behalf to handle the cleanup and silence the witnesses.”
“Just remember not to show any flaws in front of him.”
On the other end of the comms, Lyle seemed to mumble a string of curses.
Before he could finish, Cyril had already disconnected the call.
Struggling to turn off the second alarm, Ning Qing hurriedly stumbled into the bathroom, staying inside for fifteen full minutes. When he finally walked out, his lower back and tailbone felt completely weak and sore.
How odd. Why was he experiencing heat symptoms again? He clearly hadn’t had any unusual dreams.
Knowledge was the key to overcoming difficulties. This time, he had researched Omega arousal relief methods beforehand and focused his efforts on his lower body, which indeed ended things much faster.
The person in the vanity mirror looked both familiar and strange. The flushed red beneath his eyes hadn’t dissipated yet, and drops of cold water from washing his face dripped down one by one, dampening his collar until it turned semi-transparent.
Ning Qing patted his cheeks with a towel, then froze.
…Was he seeing things, or was there a faint red mark on his face?
It must be an illusion.
Coincidentally, Cyril also woke up later than usual over the past few days, sporting two massive dark circles under his eyes and a large red patch on his left cheek.
If one person looked like this, they were sick, if two people looked like this, it was likely an issue with the environment. Ning Qing guessed that the climate control temperature was set too high and the humidity was too low, causing skin irritation and flaking.
“Cyril, are you okay? Do you need some ointment?”
Ning Qing opened his palm, presenting a tube of ointment, and tried to wave Cyril over.
Unmoved, Cyril politely declined. “No need to trouble yourself, Senior.”
Ning Qing: ?
Why the sudden attitude? When he used the exact same words to comfort his old dog Ah Huang back home, the dog was always quite happy.
The atmosphere that followed was equally strange. Though Cyril answered every question politely, he physically kept a quiet distance from Ning Qing, as if Ning Qing had somehow offended him.
Ning Qing couldn’t make heads or tails of it. In response, he decided to give as good as he got, putting back on his cold, distant face and refusing to embarrass himself further.
This awkward tension persisted all the way to the competition arena.
The venue for this match was still the Imperial Military Academy’s training grounds. Several teams of contestants from the First Star Sector entered the simulation pods one after another, uploading their consciousness to the cloud.
Before them stood a ruined mega city. Its defensive shield was shattered, smoke and dust filled the air, and massive swarms of bugs surged through the ruined streets, occasionally swallowing up injured humans.
There were many branching paths, and several Zerg nests were nestled inside the city. To maximize their score, they naturally chose to split up and fight separately.
Or perhaps Ning Qing simply didn’t want to get too close to Cyril.
Ning Qing swept down the unpopular route with the highest concentration of enemy bugs on his own. Aiming and firing, his score ticked upward continuously, and the simulated civilians in the game began to gather behind him.
While blowing open a bug nest with a single artillery shot, he suddenly spotted a disabled mecha amidst the dense swarm of black beetles.
The mecha bore an ID code indicating that the pilot was contestant number four from an elementary academy’s representative team. Ning Qing recalled that he was a Beta.
The mecha was barely functional, but the pilot was still conscious.
【Are you going to take my points? Please be quick about it.】
Ning Qing remembered that defeating an opponent allowed one to inherit their points. For him, this was less cost effective than wiping out a Zerg hive, but many people still chose to hunt down weaker opponents like this Beta.
Better than anyone, he understood how hard it was for a Beta to learn how to pilot a mecha. Even if they were eliminated, it was better to leave with a respectable ranking.
【I don’t need your points. You can have these.】
Ning Qing unequipped 20% of his mecha repair fluid and two quantum cannons, placing them beside the crippled mecha. It was enough for the Beta to clear the bugs in the immediate area.
Just as he was about to leave, several long messages suddenly popped up in his communications channel.
【Thank you, Ning Qing.】
【It’s not just for the supplies. I know you’ve probably never heard my name before. I’m Moli, just an ordinary Beta. Learning about how you defended your home made me realize that Betas can pilot mechas too. It gave me the courage to walk this path.】
【I had some misunderstandings about you before, thinking you had chosen to align yourself with those Alpha nobles. But maybe you just don’t know what really happened, so I want to tell you while I still can.】
【About the Lanchester family…】
The transmission abruptly cut off.
Cyril had fired several high-altitude artillery shells from upwind.
“Radar showed the Zerg Queen of this hive was right here. I didn’t notice there was a completely defenseless mecha nearby and accidentally hit your friend, Senior. My apologies,” Cyril explained.
Afterward, they qualified in first place for their group, leaving the second place team far behind.
Yet inside Ning Qing’s heart, he couldn’t feel a shred of joy.
When the match ended, Ning Qing didn’t turn back to regroup with Cyril, and thankfully, Cyril didn’t chase after him either. Moli had been eliminated too early to be found anywhere in the crowd.
Cyril’s surname was Lanchester. As for the secrets of his family… who else could he ask?
Bansen.
That repulsive name suddenly leaped into Ning Qing’s mind. He remembered that while Bansen’s intelligence was questionable, he had a wide network of friends and had been taught a lesson by Ning Qing before, making him an ideal target for digging up information.
Half a month had passed, he should have recovered by now, right?
“…Bansen dropped out?” Ning Qing was stunned.
“You didn’t know? Everyone’s saying Bansen angered a big shot because of you and couldn’t stay at the academy any longer.”
Just like nobles to commoners, a strict food chain existed among the nobles themselves.
This kind of narrative made Ning Qing feel sick. He had just won the championship, yet people were framing it as if he had relied on Cyril to get his revenge.
“When did this happen?”
“Just two days ago, I think.”
However, during the days between the award ceremony and the match, Cyril had been by his side training with him, never leaving his sight.
When could he have possibly had the time to pressure Bansen into dropping out?
Ning Qing dismissed the assumption.
Heavy rain poured down on his way back to the dorms. Ning Qing’s usual umbrella was ruined by the violent wind, forcing him to run drenched into the eaves. Cyril was waiting at the base entrance to greet him, holding a modest green umbrella.
He seemed to have moved past his morning displeasure, looking particularly cheerful. “You’re finally back, Senior. Did you miss me?”
They had only been apart for four hours, what was there to miss?
Fitting two adult men under the small umbrella was too difficult, so Ning Qing was forced to press half of his shoulder tightly against Lyle’s chest. “I originally planned to see Bansen, but I heard he dropped out. Was that your doing?”
Amidst the patter of the rain, Lyle’s tone drifted upward, sounding light and flirtatious. “Are you unhappy, Senior? I thought you’d be grateful to me for resolving such a huge nuisance for you.”
“There are still many things I haven’t cleared up.” Ning Qing kept his head down, walking briskly forward. “And why did you insist on eliminating that Beta contestant right in front of me? I don’t believe someone with your eyesight couldn’t see another person in that Zerg nest.”
“Do you always have to act on your own authority? I am your partner, not your subordinate.”
Oh, so that happened.
His brother was the one who did it, what the hell did it have to do with him?
Lyle, who had traveled from afar hoping to steal a sweet kiss, was instead greeted with a freezing cold face right off the bat.
Compared to his brother getting a gentle kiss without doing a thing, Lyle was so jealous he almost bit through his back teeth.
Ning Qing, oh Ning Qing, can’t you care about me just a little bit more?
I treated you so much better than my brother ever did.
The rain grew heavier, and rolling thunder brewed within the dark clouds. Just like the storm, the anger inside Lyle swelled uncontrollably as he brooded.
The moment they stepped inside, the door slammed shut with a heavy thump. Half-stray raindrops fell onto the carpet. In that split second when Ning Qing let his guard down upon returning to a safe space, he was slammed against the wall by a sudden, overpowering force!
Cyril was going to force a kiss on him.