Young Master Xi had arranged for him to be sent over?
Xin Hexue's attention stirred.
If he remembered correctly, he had sent "Pei Guangji" a message saying he needed a new robot butler, and this bionic human had also been ordered and sent over by "Pei Guangji."
It seemed the technician's offhand remark could plant a seed of doubt in his mind.
Xin Hexue was curious to see how Xi Zhengqing would react when his lie was exposed.
He smiled and agreed to the technician's request. "All right, I'll write you a feedback report on my experience later."
Delighted, the technician gave him an internal email address. "You can send your feedback report by email. We'll read it carefully. Thank you for supporting Nüwa Bionic Manufacturing Company. If you have any problems later, you can also contact us by email, and we'll be happy to help as soon as possible."
Xin Hexue saw the technician off. When he turned around, the bionic butler was waiting quietly for him.
The villa garden was full of cosmos, but it was still spring and they were not yet in bloom, so there was only a sea of green.
After some thought, Xin Hexue decided to show him a little consideration and asked, "Number One, have you been feeling all right lately?"
Number One was slow to respond. "Yes, Master, everything is fine with me."
Xin Hexue had originally treated him as nothing more than an object, no different from the other robots that mechanically carried out orders. But considering what the technician had said, Number One was equipped with a chip that mimicked human emotions.
What could have driven a bionic human to hang himself?
Xin Hexue couldn't think of anything.
Wait...
Could it have been because he'd forced himself on Number One at the Pei residence...?
He really hadn't expected a bionic human to be so fiercely protective of his chastity.
Xin Hexue decided to avoid provoking Number One as much from now on.
Even though he and Number One had already returned to a normal master-servant relationship after coming back from the Pei residence.
Xin Hexue returned to his room and received a message from Xi Zhengqing.
[Xi Zhengqing: Qiu Yuan said he's preparing to shoot a new movie, but casting hasn't started yet. Next Thursday is his birthday, and he's holding a party on a cruise ship in international waters. He hopes to meet you in person then.]
[Xi Zhengqing: He invited me too. There will be quite a few people at the party, so I'll be there with you. Don't worry.]
Xin Hexue, of course, wasn't worried at all.
The rise in Qiu Yuan's Affection Points seemed strange. The notifications should have added up to five points, but in reality, they had already risen to forty.
Based on those eightfold Affection Points, the scent on Qiu Yuan that resembled what he had smelled when he encountered the tentacles at the Pei residence, and the Qiu Group's background, Xin Hexue reasonably guessed that Qiu Yuan was an alien species.
The previous generation of the Qiu family had actually been willing to use their own heir as a test subject in their dangerous biological experiments, while everyone else in the Core District seemed to know nothing about it.
Everyone had been kept in the dark. Even Xi Zhengqing probably wouldn't have guessed that his childhood friend, whom he met for meals every few days, was actually an alien species with eight arms.
Xin Hexue replied to Xi Zhengqing, thanking him.
After dinner, when he came out from washing up, it had started raining outside. The rain pattered against the leaves like sleep-inducing white noise.
His body felt limp, and he curled lazily under the covers.
Only the reading lamp by the bed was left on.
Xin Hexue wrapped himself in the quilt and rolled over.
He opened his communicator, its faint white light in night mode falling across his beautiful face.
Xin Hexue tapped a user's profile picture and opened the chat.
Back when Xi Zhengqing first appeared as Pei Guangji, he had used a change of communicators as an excuse to add a new "Pei Guangji" to Xin Hexue's contacts. He had also taken the opportunity to put the real Pei Guangji's original account on the blacklist.
But after Xi Zhengqing left, Xin Hexue had taken Pei Guangji off the blacklist.
Xin Hexue kept scrolling up through the chat history.
He stopped at the day of the first snowfall in November.
That day, Xin Hexue had picked up Xin Bao's sentence and death notice, which had been mailed by the public security system, and had argued with Pei Guangji. Rather than an argument, it was more accurate to call it "Xin Hexue's" resistance. Now that his adoptive father, Xin Bao, was dead, "Xin Hexue's" entanglement with the arrogant upper-class man had lost all meaning, and he had asked Pei Guangji to terminate their contract.
But Pei Guangji had been busy with work and had no choice but to leave immediately on a business trip. He told Xin Hexue he would explain when he returned, but refused under any circumstances to let him leave the villa.
After that, Pei Guangji had his aircraft accident.
Xin Hexue scrolled the screen.
On the night of the argument.
He had sent a message to the other party: [I hate you.]
[Let's end our contract. No matter what, I want to leave here. I don't belong here. The Sixth District would suit me better.]
[As for that million Star Coins, I'll find a way to work hard and pay you back.]
That had probably been before Pei Guangji's aircraft accident, though Xin Hexue didn't know whether he had seen the messages.
Over the next day or two, he had continued sending Pei Guangji messages.
[The villa's access permissions have been locked down.]
[What do you take me for?]
[Am I a canary you keep locked in a cage, one you can come back to see whenever you feel like it and use for your amusement?]
He had followed up with several more questions for Pei Guangji. The messages over those two days looked more like an outpouring of emotion.
[...I hate you.]
[I hate myself even more. I can't accept that I actually fell for someone like you—arrogant, cold, conceited, and you even indirectly caused my adoptive father's death...]
[Maybe it was a mistake from the very beginning. I shouldn't have signed that contract.]
During the week when Pei Guangji had completely disappeared.
Every day, Xin Hexue had sent message after message to the man who never replied.
[Why haven't you come back yet?]
[Could you unlock the villa's access permissions? I can't get out. The villa is too big and too quiet. I'm all alone...]
[Are you back? I thought I heard something in the living room just now.]
[It turned out the mechanical cat had tripped the cleaning robot.]
[I think I'm hearing things.]
[Why won't you come back? Are you trying to make me give in this way?]
Judging from the messages, Xin Hexue's mental state had grown worse and worse, and he had even begun showing symptoms similar to Stockholm syndrome.
[Today is my birthday.]
[The villa feels so empty.]
[The lilies in the vase have wilted.]
[I think I have a fever. I don't feel well.]
[My stomach feels bad too.]
[...]
[...You win.]
[Please come back soon. I can't take it anymore. I'll be good this time. You can do whatever you want to me, and I won't resist. I won't say I want to leave anymore, either.]
After that period.
[You're back.]
[But you seem a little strange. You don't even use this account anymore, and you changed communicators, so you didn't receive the messages I sent before, right?]
[You said you had a minor accident and damaged your vocal cords...]
[It's all right. Just stay with me like this. I won't go anywhere.]
A victim whose mental state seemed to be hanging by a thread.
As fragile as a bouquet that had exhausted its vitality, its blossoms drooping and fading.
Xin Hexue's lips curved slightly.
He didn't know whether Pei Guangji would see these messages after waking up, but he had already prepared a script for him.
He asked K about the current situation.
[Pei Guangji's Affection Points: 90/100]
[Xi Zhengqing's Affection Points: 90/100]
[Pei Ying's Affection Points: 85/100]
[Qiu Yuan's Affection Points: 40/???]
[???'s Affection Points: ???/???]
"?"
Xin Hexue asked, "What's going on with the last one?"
K was puzzled too.
[The last one isn't included in the script.]
[There are no character details here.]
[Host, you can disregard it. This script only requires you to raise the first four's Affection Points. You also need to raise the Heartbreak Value of Pei Guangji, Xi Zhengqing, and Qiu Yuan.]
Xin Hexue said, "Mm, I see."
Pei Guangji's Heartbreak Value was still at the eight points it had reached on the day of the first snowfall.
Meanwhile, Xi Zhengqing had, at some unknown point, contributed twenty Heartbreak Value by tormenting himself out of jealousy over Pei Guangji.
By the time Xi Zhengqing's Affection Points were maxed out and Qiu Yuan's had reached around halfway, it should be time for Pei Guangji to wake up in the plot.
Then he could raise all three men's Heartbreak Value side by side.
The Qiu Group heir's birthday party was a grand affair.
Out on the open sea, a private cruise ship costing over seven hundred million Star Coins sailed along. During its construction, the entire exterior had been polished by hand, and the ship's paint job alone had cost nearly eighteen million Star Coins.
In the Qiu Group's eyes, the enormous ship was just a toy. What made it different, though, was that only some of the deepest pockets in the Federation could afford a toy like this.
Rather than a means of transportation, it was more of a symbol of status in the Core District.
During the day, there was a pool party on the ship.
Everyone of note in the Core District had been invited aboard.
It happened to be a perfectly clear day, with brilliant sunshine.
Even so, Xin Hexue wasn't going into the water.
It was still spring, and unlike the energetic, physically robust Alphas, he didn't have the health for it. The cold pool water would surely make him sick.
Besides, Xin Hexue didn't like getting into the water.
He was even a little averse to it.
It was like a cat not wanting the long fur on its body to get wet. Being drenched would make everything worse, turning it all heavy, bedraggled, wet, and cold.