For instance, when the tentacles needed to work with The Cutter that night, The Cutter should have followed his orders and escaped as soon as the job was done. If he had been any later, the Federation army would have arrived. With so few on their side, and The Cutter operating out in the open, even Qiu Yuan could not have guaranteed his safe escape.
Of course, even if Qiu Yuan explained all this to The Cutter, the xeno would not listen. He would not understand; he was nothing more than a killing machine that followed orders.
Only two wall lamps illuminated the narrow, dim corridor.
The android brushed past Qiu Yuan without looking at him. The end of the corridor led outside, into an even more boundless night.
Thick darkness loomed in the night sky.
Qiu Yuan turned around.
A powerful tentacle shot out like an arrow and instantly tightened around the android's neck.
It was almost as though he intended to kill him. The tentacle coiled around the android's neck like a horned dragon, and the machinery beneath it creaked and cracked.
The shadow on the carpet instantly slipped free.
The enormous black-armored xeno let out a low, threatening snarl at him.
Qiu Yuan sneered. "You finally showed yourself. If Mother knew you were still alive and had become this monstrous thing, she'd probably really regret letting you take part in her lover's experiment, wouldn't she? Right... brother?"
His voice rose at the end, full of sarcasm and interest.
The xeno had lost all memories of his time as a human. He attacked Qiu Yuan.
But it was too late. The tentacle wrapped around the android's neck had read the memory chip at the back of it, sending the information through the nervous system to the central brain.
The smile on Qiu Yuan's face widened as he tossed the android body that housed the xeno back to him.
By then, the android looked damaged.
The synthetic skin on his neck had died, and stray currents crackled and sizzled.
Qiu Yuan reminded him casually, "You'd better get yourself repaired so you can hurry back to your 'master' in time."
The xeno, his body covered in a black shell like armor, gave Qiu Yuan one last look.
Qiu Yuan knew a few small details about Xin Hexue's life.
For example, he called a mechanical cat a dog, knitted pet sweaters, and often got so sleepy at night that he fell asleep right on the sofa. Three fingers were enough to make him pass out, so it would probably be difficult for him to have actual intercourse with an alpha of normal size.
He had accidentally glimpsed that last detail in the android's memory chip.
He had not intended to pry into the young man's privacy.
But most of the important scenes involving people in the android's chip had to do with Xin Hexue; the rest of his memories were of the quiet villa.
Interestingly, in one corner of the android's memories, he caught a glimpse of Xi Zhengqing putting on an act. When pretending to be Pei Guangji, the man even went out of his way to play mute in front of Xin Hexue. The sight was particularly funny.
Xi Zhengqing probably thought his plan was flawless, switching perfectly between the two identities of the young man's boyfriend and his boyfriend's childhood friend. With Pei Guangji still lying in intensive care, Xi Zhengqing had even less to fear.
But Qiu Yuan saw in the memory chip that on one occasion, Xi Zhengqing had unwittingly mixed up the different clothes he wore for his two identities. He had worn the coat "Pei Guangji" had appeared in the previous time.
Xin Hexue had treated him as Xi Zhengqing because of the gray prosthetic eye and gold-rimmed glasses.
"You can actually tell Pei Guangji and Xi Zhengqing apart, can't you?"
Qiu Yuan asked in a quiet, drawn-out voice.
Xin Hexue's fingers twitched at his side, but his expression remained cold. "Mr. Qiu Yuan, I don't know what you're talking about. Please don't say things that make no sense. If there's nothing else, I'm going back to my room to rest."
Xin Hexue's composure had indeed faltered for an instant when he heard Qiu Yuan's words.
He did not know how Qiu Yuan had learned about this.
Strictly speaking, today was their first meeting, yet Qiu Yuan seemed to know more details about the relationship between him and Xi Zhengqing.
That meant Qiu Yuan knew something he did not.
But Xin Hexue still did not know where the slip-up had occurred.
Xi Zhengqing should not have been stupid enough to tell Qiu Yuan about it himself. Qiu Yuan must have discovered it on his own. Had he planted a spy by Xi Zhengqing's side?
Things were not entirely under his control, and the feeling that they might spiral out of control at any moment made Xin Hexue very uncomfortable.
Qiu Yuan folded his arms and watched Xin Hexue at his leisure, not missing the slightest change in the young man's expression.
[Qiu Yuan's Affection Points +1]
Xin Hexue asked K, [How many Affection Points does Qiu Yuan have right now?]
K: [Three... no, twenty-four?]
Even K's cold, inhuman, mechanical voice betrayed some unexpected surprise.
A thought stirred in Xin Hexue's mind. "Mr. Qiu Yuan, were you also at Pei Ying's coming-of-age banquet last time?"
Qiu Yuan raised his sharply angled eyebrows. His blond hair and blue eyes were the first things people noticed, but the details of his features still had an Eastern quality. He was clearly of mixed heritage.
"Of course. It's not like I meant to see Xi Zhengqing trying to kiss you in the corner of the garden." Qiu Yuan shrugged. Something came back to him, and the smile on his lips deepened. "Oh, wait. You called him... 'Guangji' then, didn't you?"
Xin Hexue's impassive reaction confirmed it for Qiu Yuan. Though the beta was face-blind, he could indeed tell Pei Guangji and Xi Zhengqing apart. Otherwise, what normal person, upon learning that his boyfriend's childhood friend had pretended to be his boyfriend to get close to him while he remained wrapped in the sweet coating of a lie, would not even blink at the moment he learned the truth?
Xin Hexue said, "Spying isn't a good habit."
Qiu Yuan replied, "Compared to Xi Zhengqing openly flirting with you in a place like the garden, I think I have my redeeming qualities."
Xin Hexue approached him one step at a time. Qiu Yuan was briefly surprised, but cooperatively backed up against the wall.
On the surface, it looked as though the blond alpha had been backed into a corner by the black-haired young man before him, even though he was a head taller than the beta.
Xin Hexue caught a very faint scent.
It was like the deep blue of the distant sea, white waves beating against the green moss on a cliff. The weather was fine, the sun hung high, and its blazing rays brought out the salty dampness of the seawater.
He had smelled it before.
Xin Hexue lifted his thin eyelids. His eyes were beautiful in just the right way, their upper curves like crescent moons.
He met Qiu Yuan's gaze and said coldly, "I mean, I hope your tentacles can be a little more polite. Peeping toms get made into little meatballs."
The tentacles seemed to know the young man was talking about them. The two culprits could not help perking up, revealing themselves without any regard for the central brain's orders.
They had previously been zapped by a hundred thousand volts, leaving them charred on the outside and tender within. After soaking in repair fluid to recover, the dead flesh had fallen from their festering wounds, and the newly grown flesh was noticeably redder than the rest.
One of them moved forward and gently touched Xin Hexue's fingers.
The touch was sticky.
Xin Hexue frowned at once. He moved away from Qiu Yuan as though avoiding something filthy and said, "Disgusting."
Qiu Yuan thought he should take the initiative to sever his connection to the peripheral nervous system and draw a clear line between them.
If he had done so sooner, the awkward situation before him would not have happened.
The tentacle Xin Hexue had called disgusting under his breath was a mating arm responsible for courtship and reproduction. Far from feeling ashamed at the insult, it shuddered with excitement in waves.
Thus affected by the secondary brain, Qiu Yuan abruptly pitched a tent.
"..."
[Qiu Yuan's Affection Points +2]
[Qiu Yuan's current Affection Points: 40]
Qiu Yuan and Xin Hexue's conversation in the corridor was interrupted when Zuo Yongyan suddenly arrived.
The tentacles vanished, and Qiu Yuan put his sunglasses back on.
When Zuo Yongyan arrived, he noticed nothing strange. The atmosphere between Xin Hexue and Qiu Yuan looked like that of friends exchanging pleasantries upon meeting for the first time. If anything was odd, it was probably that Qiu Yuan was wearing sunglasses indoors, but Zuo Yongyan had long since grown used to it.
He enthusiastically introduced himself to Xin Hexue.
Afterward, the four of them had lunch together in a private dining room.
They got along peacefully, as though this really were just an ordinary meal, with Xi Zhengqing introducing a new friend to their circle.
Qiu Yuan already knew nearly half the truth, but Zuo Yongyan remained completely in the dark. He attentively served Xin Hexue food, showing his enthusiasm for his pretty new friend.
Xin Hexue and Qiu Yuan tacitly acted as though their conversation in the corridor had never happened.
Qiu Yuan pretended not to know that Xin Hexue was playing Xi Zhengqing around in circles, while Xin Hexue pretended not to know that a xeno was eating at the same table.
Though it was a bit of a hassle, Qiu Yuan had gone to the trouble of dealing with the surveillance footage from that corridor in the estate, ensuring that no traces remained and preventing the next day's papers from carrying the front-page headline, "Xeno infiltrates Federation Core District; Qiu Group heir is actually an octopus."
Qiu Yuan had long been curious about what had caused the two tentacles to sever their connection with him at the Pei family banquet and return covered in injuries.
The standard voltage used in a home was nowhere near enough to injure the tentacles so badly.
Now he seemed to have someone to suspect.
But the other party looked like a completely unarmed, feeble human who posed no threat.
Qiu Yuan contacted The Cutter.
He asked The Cutter to report Xin Hexue's daily movements to him, and was refused, as expected.
The Cutter was busy serving as Xin Hexue's android butler.
Xi Zhengqing, meanwhile, was still feeling relieved.
He had chosen to let the reporters into the estate because he wanted to test Xin Hexue's attitude toward their relationship. He had not expected Xin Hexue's reaction of fear to be so severe, and had been worried that his plan had backfired, but when they parted, Xin Hexue told him he had enjoyed their meal together that day.
Xi Zhengqing took the opportunity to invite Xin Hexue to their next gathering.