TL: Hua

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Chapter 33

Mephisto expressed great satisfaction with his newly upgraded luxury “villa,” even eating an extra small fish for his late-night snack.

Only then did Ji Xuan realize that the food Pei Yingye had helped him buy last time was almost gone. The little thing was thin, but it certainly knew how to eat.

So, he switched back to their chat history and sent a message asking for the contact information of the bar owner in the Lower City.

Pei Yingye replied almost instantly: [You ignored me for so long, and the first time you finally get back to me, it’s to ask for this?]

Ji Xuan remained noncommittal. He just lazily hooked Mephisto up, letting the snake coil in his palm. Its slender, pointed tail drooped down, seemingly swaying lightly against his wrist, while its narrow, flat head rested against Ji Xuan’s fingertips, its scarlet forked tongue hissing. Ji Xuan held it up, snapped a photo against the moon outside the window, and sent it to Pei Yingye.

[If I don’t ask, it’s going to starve to death.]

Pei Yingye stared at the photo on his terminal. He silently swiped two fingers to zoom in. His gaze swept over Ji Xuan’s slightly curved fingertips and the section of his wrist entangled by the snake’s tail… He remembered the texture of that skin very clearly; it was a delicacy that contrasted sharply with the thin calluses on his own pads. When rubbed gently, Ji Xuan’s forearm muscles would subconsciously tense, and his fingers would curl slightly.

But he seemed to think he hid that reaction well, as his face always maintained a calm, rippleless expression.

Pei Yingye’s Adam’s apple bobbed. His fingertip hovered over the terminal for a moment before he typed: [A venomous snake acting spoiled like a human? Shameless.]

Ji Xuan could smell jealousy even through the screen.

Pei Yingye sent another: [I can accompany you to the Lower City after the training briefing tomorrow.]

Ji Xuan sent a voice note: “I’m not a child. I’ve been there twice; I know the way.”

When his voice played through the terminal in Pei Yingye’s room, it was slightly distorted by the processing. Perhaps because he had just smoked, his lazy tone held a hint of hoarseness, scratching lightly against Pei Yingye’s eardrums and leaving a lingering itch.

He immediately pictured Ji Xuan’s current appearance. He was likely leaning against the headboard with a relaxed brow, long legs crossed, and a bathrobe draped carelessly over his body. There was surely that habitual, playful smile hanging in the corners of his eyes and lips, just like when he had sat on the arm of the sofa watching him.

“You’re turning down a free driver? Isn’t that a bit too generous?” In the spirit of reciprocity, Pei Yingye also sent a voice note: “I think it’s better for people to be a little greedy.”

Ji Xuan replied nonchalantly, “Then I’ll just have to accept… at least your driving is better than your kissing.”

Pei Yingye looked at the seven-second voice message and listened to it three or four times. That smiling, upward-tilted lilt was like a feather with tiny hooks; even though the words weren’t pleasant, they still made his heart race.

However, the young Alpha didn’t truly believe his kissing skills were poor; it was simply because he had been nervous and accidentally bumped teeth. At worst, he’d let Ji Xuan bump him back next time.

Regardless, there would eventually be a time when he’d make Ji Xuan’s legs go weak.

Pei Yingye huffed a few times in dissatisfaction. He adjusted his voice to make sure he didn’t sound too embarrassed or angry before sending a new message: “You can’t bring pets to training. Have you thought about where to board him?”

Then, as if presenting a treasure, he continued: “But I bet you haven’t, because there aren’t many places on the capital planet that will board a venomous snake. Coincidentally… I know one.”

Ji Xuan replied quickly, teasing, “You two brothers certainly have a lot of chemistry.”

Two brothers?

Pei Yingye blurted out, “Shaikh approached you too?”

“Yeah, he just messaged me,” Ji Xuan said. “I’m considering it.”

Pei Yingye didn’t reply immediately after receiving that message. Ji Xuan assumed he was busy and didn’t care much.

It wasn’t until half a minute later that Pei Yingye’s voice, sounding through gritted teeth, came through the terminal—unhappy, domineering, childish, and laced with a forced sense of relaxation: “Instead of asking him for help, you should ask me.”

Ji Xuan agreed very quickly.

“Sure.”

Upon receiving the message, Pei Yingye, who had been like a bulldozer stalling halfway up a mountain, suddenly shut off his engine and flopped onto his bed in satisfaction.

Ji Xuan looked at the emoji the other sent, gave a soft “tsk,” and tapped his finger on Mephisto’s cool scales.

The moonlight outside spilled in gently, interweaving with the lamplight to cast ambiguous shadows across his profile. Ji Xuan dried his hair and lay back down. The terminal began reading the most popular novel on the StarNet, and Mephisto slithered down from the headboard to coil into a circle on his chest.

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There were no classes or training the next morning. After two and a half days of assessment plus a wild night, most students didn’t have the energy to wake up early.

The training briefing was set for 1:30 PM. Ji Xuan intentionally delayed going out for a meal, planning to go straight to the auditorium after eating.

Even though it was past peak dining hours, there were still many people in the cafeteria. Under the gaze of countless overt and covert eyes, Ji Xuan slowly finished today’s main dish—boiled vegetables with beef. Then he sipped the milk tea delivered by a robot.

The demon lord who was rumored in the Demon Realm to drink blood and eat raw meat actually loved milk tea.

But even when biting the straw, he was slow and deliberate. His peach blossom eyes gazed blankly through the glass window at the scene outside, though it was unclear what he was looking at.

Occasionally, strange students would come up to congratulate him on placing first in the annual assessment. Ji Xuan would merely set down his milk tea, give a polite smile, and say a faint “Thank you.”

Yet, in the next second, these people would either cover their faces and run away in excitement or look stunned for a moment before smiling shyly and leaving stiffly.

It wasn’t until a familiar figure stopped at his table, the shadow looming over his field of vision, that Ji Xuan listlessly looked up again.

Shen Que was tall and upright like a pine tree, his casual clothes ironed without a single wrinkle. He looked down at Ji Xuan with that handsome, cold, dead man’s face that was so frequently praised on the forums.

“Is anyone sitting here?” he asked. His voice was clear but lacked warmth.

Ji Xuan gave him a look that said, Are you blind? Why are you talking nonsense?

Shen Que felt as if his heart had been pricked by something. His fingertips curled imperceptibly, but he sat down opposite Ji Xuan as if nothing was wrong.

“What, the chief isn’t worried about being seen now?” Ji Xuan set down his cup, propped his head on his hand, and said mockingly, “I thought you didn’t like being seen with me in public?”

Choked by the remark, an indescribably awkward expression surfaced on Shen Que’s face.

“If you aren’t here to tell me the engagement is off, I don’t think I have anything to say to you.” Ji Xuan tapped the table with feigned impatience.

“The engagement…” Shen Que paused, avoiding Ji Xuan’s overly direct scrutiny. “I truly have no choice. The marriage was settled by both families years ago; I cannot make a private decision. But if you really want to break it, I will discuss it with my family after we return from this training. Besides, neither Uncle Ji nor the Colonel is on the capital planet; you can’t make decisions for the Ji family either, can you?”

Ji Xuan laughed and said flatly, “Sometimes I think you interstellar people are truly feudal.”

A flicker of light crossed Shen Que’s eyes. He stared at Ji Xuan, realizing it had been a long time since he had looked at his fiancé so seriously. This person seemed worlds apart from the youth who had recklessly barged into the Shen household when he first arrived at the capital planet… In fact, Shen Que had almost forgotten what he looked like back then.

He seemed to remember he was small, with messy hair covering his eyes, and he was wearing old, washed-out clothes, yet he had kept himself neat and clean overall.

He had been at a loss, cautious, his smiles carrying a hint of sycophancy. He had looked after that piece of jade so well that it didn’t have a single chip or scratch.

He said he came from a garbage planet, hearing that he could find his biological parents here…

But now, he was powerful, flamboyant, and sharp.

Shen Que’s thin lips parted, a syllable about the “past” almost escaping, but he swallowed it back in the end.

After a long silence, he asked slowly, “…Is it because of Pei Yingye?”

Ji Xuan lazily raised his eyelids.

Shen Que felt compelled to repeat himself: “Is your insistence on breaking the engagement because of him?”

“No,” Ji Xuan answered crisply. He leaned forward slightly, meeting Shen Que’s cold gaze across the small dining table. “It’s simply because I don’t like your type—you’re boring, uninteresting, and aside from a face that is passable but doesn’t fit my aesthetic, you are utterly without merit.”

In his entire life, this was the first time Shen Que had heard such an evaluation. For a moment, he didn’t know how to respond. As one of the few 3S-grade in the Alliance and a young master of a prestigious family, he was treated like a star wherever he went. He never expected that the first time someone would want to cancel an engagement with him, they would be this disgusted by him…

“I…”

But just as he opened his mouth, he was interrupted by Ji Xuan standing up.

“Since you say you have no choice in the matter, then so be it.” Ji Xuan shook the empty cup, then tossed it casually into the trash can. “The result won’t change no matter who you discuss it with. After all—”

He turned his head, his peripheral vision sweeping over Shen Que with an inorganic indifference:

“No one can tie me up and force me to get engaged to you, can they?”

Shen Que did not doubt a single word of that last sentence.

The current Ji Xuan truly had the strength to say those words.

He thought of the young man’s effortless grace in the mecha arena; he remembered the fierce, decisive strike of the knife against Shaikh; and he recalled the ruthless kick Ji Xuan had dealt him personally… As long as Ji Xuan didn’t want to, indeed, no one could stop him.

But why?

Why did this hollow sense of weightlessness bloom in his heart?

He himself had once looked forward to breaking this engagement.

Just like at the party last night, Ji Xuan only left him with a cold and distant back. Shen Que pondered for a moment before finally standing up and chasing after him for a few steps, saying, “You left too quickly yesterday. I haven’t congratulated you yet… on taking first place in the assessment.”

“That mecha match was incredible. It was the most fluid and perfect operation I’ve seen in years.”

Ji Xuan’s footsteps paused. He turned half his face; his cold, white skin seemed to glow under the cafeteria lights.

However, after only a momentary pause, without even a superfluous or indifferent response, he continued walking toward the door.

Shen Que could only watch silently as Ji Xuan moved further and further away, step by step, until he disappeared into the scattered crowd of the cafeteria.

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