Judging by his age, it wasn't Qiu Yuan either. This wasn't a photo of four childhood friends.
K: [He didn't appear in the plot.]
K couldn't find any information about this person online either. It seemed his traces had been deliberately blocked and erased.
Xin Hexue tried to slowly steady his burning breaths, closing his eyes.
He could feel the transparent K gently embrace him from behind.
Xin Hexue's dark lashes trembled. The taste of blood still lingered in his mouth, and his voice was half hoarse. "I haven't reached the point where I can't stand yet. Thank you for your concern, partner."
K fell silent.
Without another word, he quietly vanished from where he stood.
Perhaps because Xin Hexue hadn't called him brother, and because of the tactful refusal and reminder in his words, K silently returned to his original position.
He watched the android push open the door and enter.
The host seized the collar of the other's butler uniform, tugged him forward, and pushed him onto the sofa.
Before the android could react, Xin Hexue swung a leg over him and sat down, bestowing a kiss on him as if giving alms.
K wondered whether the android could taste the sweet, metallic tang of blood.
His program's calculations couldn't give him an answer.
The young man straddled the android, and when their clothes were completely off, he grasped the external component, which was the wrong size, and said coldly to the android, his face expressionless, "Change it."
Number One could hardly explain what had happened.
He had no experience with this at all. An android's advantage was actually its ability to learn and analyze quickly, and he should have been able to calculate the limits of his master's body through his programming.
But he wasn't a real android.
He was just a monster controlling an android's body.
His master's waist trembled like a supple willow branch in a spring breeze. His human body was pale and fragile, seemingly ready to break at a bend, yet it displayed astonishing flexibility.
Number One thought he must have touched something. When he prodded the soft flesh, it was as if he'd squeezed a ripe fruit, and clear juice trickled down his knuckles.
Xin Hexue bit down on the pillow, unable to stop a catlike whimper from escaping his throat.
The pillow was already soaked with tears.
He lifted his faintly reddened eyelids and said coolly, "You're going to break me."
Number One was so anxious that sweat beaded on his forehead.
Xin Hexue rolled his eyes, clearly dissatisfied with his performance.
Number One desperately wanted to prove himself, but by the time he reached his third finger, his master had already passed out.
As the drug wore off, the unnatural crimson on the young man's earlobes gradually faded as well.
At the same time, footsteps sounded in the hallway outside.
Number One's instincts told him he shouldn't be here.
And he had received a message from Qiu Yuan. He had to leave.
Number One hid in the ventilation duct and caught a glimpse of the newcomer.
He thought he had experienced many emotions only humans felt today. The last was unwillingness to accept it.
Chapter 22: Face Blindness (22)
The ventilation duct was narrow and dim, and Number One's butler uniform had picked up a great deal of dust.
He stared at the door without blinking.
There was more than one newcomer, their hurried footsteps overlapping.
Number One had locked the door behind him when he entered, so the people outside twisted the handle sharply to no avail.
A controlled, calm voice said, "The key."
A large bunch of keys clattered together on a brass ring, making a faint, tinkling sound.
The attendant finally found the key to the room.
The newcomer inserted the key, tried turning it clockwise twice, then pushed open the door.
It was Xi Zhengqing.
Number One saw his face. To avoid being spotted, he edged backward, making sure he could watch the other man without exposing himself.
Xi Zhengqing caught sight of the scene on the sofa, and his face instantly darkened like roiling storm clouds, black enough to unleash cold rain.
He abruptly locked the door behind him, shutting the waiting deputy butler out.
Number One watched the Alpha survey the entire room, seemingly trying to find the culprit responsible for the marks covering the young man's body.
The culprit left the dark ventilation duct, unwilling to accept it.
The search yielded nothing.
Without a word, Xi Zhengqing picked up the unconscious young man from the sofa. His jaw was tight, and a vein throbbed at his temple, revealing how unsettled he really was.
After a brief cleanup in the bathroom, Xi Zhengqing made sure none of another person's bodily fluids remained inside the young man. He withdrew his fingers from the wet softness and heard the unconscious young man let out a low, hoarse moan.
Xi Zhengqing cleaned him with warm water and dried him with a towel. He pulled down a hanging bathrobe and wrapped Xin Hexue tightly in it, concealing every intimate mark beneath it and leaving none exposed to the cool air.
He walked out of the room under the deputy butler's startled gaze and said coldly, "Call an ambulance from Saint Lan Hospital."
Pei Ying arrived with his men a step too late. It had taken him longer than Xi Zhengqing to think that Xin Hexue might have gone to his elder brother's room.
Seeing the situation, the young Alpha's eyes reddened with anger, as if bloodshot. He gritted his teeth. "You did this?! How dare you—?"
If Xin Hexue hadn't still been in Xi Zhengqing's arms, Pei Ying would very likely have rushed up and punched Xi Zhengqing hard on the spot, then fought him like a mad dog, determined to tear a piece of skin off him.
"Are you an idiot?"
Xi Zhengqing retorted instinctively.
But he immediately cut himself off.
Instead, he gave Pei Ying a mocking smile. "That's right, I did it. So what?"
The Pei Corporation prided itself on being a venerable family with a century of history, and no surveillance equipment had been installed in the old residence.
Xi Zhengqing was certain that whoever had violated Xin Hexue in Pei Guangji's room definitely wasn't an Alpha or an Omega. He hadn't sensed any lingering pheromones, and whether Alpha or Omega, once aroused, they would inevitably release pheromones uncontrollably.
There were no Betas among the invited guests either.
By elimination, it was either a servant of the Pei family or...
A xenomorph.
Xi Zhengqing's eyes darkened.
He thought of the suit jacket the young man had left behind in the washroom, and the signs of damage caused by a xenomorph there.
By the time the deputy butler called an ambulance from Saint Lan Hospital, the Pei family had already fallen into chaos.
After giving the opening remarks at the start of the banquet, Old Master Pei had already retired for the night because of his advanced age.
The captain of the guards found Pei Ying and anxiously reported, "Second Young Master, Mr. Gerard was killed by a xenomorph in the lounge. He was already dead when he was found."
Xenomorphs had actually been able to come and go at will in the Pei family's old residence in the Core District. An entire guard team equipped with the most advanced light weapons had been helpless against the xenomorph's almost demonstrative act.
They had vastly underestimated the xenomorph's strength.
Once the news got out, it would undoubtedly send the patrons of this Anle City into a panic.
Thinking of that damned xenomorph, Xi Zhengqing tightened his arms and held the person in his embrace securely. He strode away, leaving Pei Ying with a cold parting remark. "Second Young Master, you'd better pray for yourself and clean up this mess."
Xin Hexue was unlucky enough to end up in the hospital again.
The drug had been too hard on his body, and he had also overestimated how much his body could withstand.
Xin Hexue said to K: [Brother, can you arrange a luckier role for me in the next world?]
Although his own luck rating was probably only F, a special role buff might make things a little better. At least he wouldn't be unlucky enough to get drugged twice.
K: [...I'll do my best.]
In the Great World, the basic method for assigning scripts within entertainment companies was for the system to draw them from script pools. Host employees had different internal ratings and belonged to different script pools. The higher their rating, the better the scripts they could draw. Those with lower ratings had to rely entirely on the system's luck to pick a relatively less terrible script from the trash pool.
Xin Hexue asked: [Who found me and brought me to the hospital?]
K: [Xi Zhengqing.]
That wasn't good.
Xin Hexue knitted his brows.
That meant Xi Zhengqing had definitely seen the marks on his body too.
Although Xin Hexue had warned Number One repeatedly not to leave marks, his program might have been set to include the foreplay necessary for normal humans before sex, and he had stubbornly insisted on kissing him.
Xin Hexue: [Where's Number One?]
K didn't know how to describe it to him. After hearing footsteps in the hallway, the android had seemingly turned into a shady maintenance worker in the ventilation duct.
K thought the android's program definitely hadn't been designed by any respectable engineer.
He could only explain to Xin Hexue: [Number One hid before Xi Zhengqing entered the room.]
Xin Hexue had a vague feeling that something wasn't quite right with the android.
He merely carried out Xin Hexue's commands according to his programming. Once a command was completed, he should have remained on standby where he was, waiting for the next instruction.
Forget it.
It was just as well that Xi Zhengqing hadn't found him.
Xin Hexue's waist ached and felt weak. He struggled to prop himself up with his hands and sit up in the hospital bed.
The private deluxe ward was furnished in a cozy style, predominantly warm white, with a small potted plant and a jar of fragrance diffuser by the bed.
Xin Hexue stared thoughtfully at the diffuser. Its reeds gave off a faint fragrance that masked the smell of disinfectant in the hospital.
[How many Affection Points does Xi Zhengqing have now?]
K answered: [65.]
Xin Hexue lowered his eyes. [Got it.]
Xi Zhengqing lingered outside the ward, unable to bring himself to enter.
After examining Xin Hexue and reaching a diagnosis, the doctor had told Xi Zhengqing that no traces of the drug remained in Xin Hexue's body.
That made it impossible for Xi Zhengqing even to deceive himself.
He had been regretting it ever since last night, regretting leaving Xin Hexue's side and making him wait alone on the first floor of the banquet hall.