Face Blindness (30)

It tasted of citrus.

Xin Hexue tapped his fingertips lightly against the marble bar, one tap after another.

The taste of alcohol lingered on his tongue as he looked at the stemmed glass beside him, sitting precariously close to the edge of the bar.

K felt as though a cat were wickedly plotting to push the glass off the bar.

Qiu Yuan straightened up and made a gentlemanly bow. "Beautiful sir, may I have this dance?"

Xin Hexue rose from his barstool. "I'm not very good at ballroom dancing."

Before they came, Xi Zhengqing had given him a few ballroom dancing lessons for this occasion.

Of course, Xin Hexue was actually an excellent ballroom dancer. After all, the ballroom dances on his home planet had things in common with those here.

But that didn't stop him from stepping on Qiu Yuan's feet, seemingly by accident, on the dance floor.

Melodious music began to play, and the two joined hands. Qiu Yuan went straight to the point. "What are you after?"

One step left, one stomp.

[Qiu Yuan's Affection Points +1]

One step right, one stomp.

[Qiu Yuan's Affection Points +1]

Is he sick?

"I don't know what you're asking," Xin Hexue said mildly.

Qiu Yuan's expression remained unchanged. Before the music led them apart, he said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "You're very clever, and you've hidden it well. You've played Xi Zhengqing like a dog. I don't know what happened with Pei Guangji before, but perhaps he was the same, running circles around you."

The melody swelled, and their right hands joined again, their left hands resting on each other's shoulders. Qiu Yuan stepped forward, closing the distance. "Why? What are you hoping to get out of it?"

Under the lights and candle flames, a reddish glow suffused Xin Hexue's dark eyes as his gaze shifted.

"So you upper-class people can treat me like a plaything and deceive me however you please, but I'm not allowed to toy with him?"

"You were the ones who insisted on provoking me."

As he said this, he tilted his head slightly.

The corners of his eyes were faintly red, as if he were drunk, like red plum blossoms in the snow.

The dance music was sweet.

One step forward and to the left, one stomp.

One step back and to the right—he missed.

Like someone who had scored a miss in a rhythm game, Xin Hexue looked annoyed for a moment.

[Qiu Yuan's Affection Points +1]

Their warm palms pressed together as they moved forward. Qiu Yuan ventured, "Are you really Xin Hexue?"

Xin Hexue's lightly flushed lips curved upward, and his distinctive green sandalwood scent clung to Qiu Yuan.

"Is there another me in this world?"

"Are you standing up for your childhood friends?" Xin Hexue turned in a circle as if taking a stroll. "Because they were toyed with by an

orphan

found at a garbage station in the Twelfth District?"

When he mentioned his origins, there was no change in his emotions, no resentment or indignation.

Dark, damp tentacles emerged from the ground and crept up Xin Hexue's polished leather shoes, trying to slip into his suit trousers.

Xin Hexue: [K.]

There was a faint crackle of electricity.

The corner of Qiu Yuan's eye twitched.

This time, his neural connection to the tentacles hadn't been severed, so the pain of the electric shock shot into his brain.

Qiu Yuan could now tell who had electrocuted his two tentacles at the Pei Residence.

The garbage station in the Twelfth District...

Electricity...

His foot was stepped on again.

When the dance ended, Xin Hexue brushed past him and calmly left the dance floor.

Qiu Yuan turned around sharply. "In a way, we should be the same kind of people."

Xin Hexue lowered his lashes, then raised his eyes to meet his gaze again, looking like a wary feline.

[Qiu Yuan's Affection Points +10]

Qiu Yuan spoke with a pointed implication. "I won't hurt you. You can trust me a little more."

After looking into the Qiu Group's background, Xin Hexue had deliberately crafted a new persona for Qiu Yuan.

He had led Qiu Yuan to suspect that he, too, was a nonhuman species who, like Qiu Yuan, had grown up in human society and regarded himself entirely as human, yet wavered because of his nonhuman abilities.

They were different from the cruel, deformed nonhuman species. They had human bodies and minds, and they were also different from the arrogant, ignorant upper-class people of the Core District. They stood at the center of the situation, clear-eyed and indifferent.

So he and Qiu Yuan were on the same side, the same kind of people.

Thus, two lonely islands in the ocean drifted together.

And unlike Qiu Yuan, he had neither power nor influence. He had first ended up at a garbage station in the Twelfth District, and now that he had been brought into the Core District, he was more like a rootless drifter.

Under these circumstances, barring any surprises, Qiu Yuan would naturally take him into his camp and protect him.

As for posing as a nonhuman species, Xin Hexue wasn't worried about being found out.

His voice was a little softer than usual. [Big brother, you'll protect me, won't you?]

K returned from the role of an incompetent husband to that of a good big brother.

[...Mm,] K said. [Protecting the host is the system's duty.]

With K's electric shock skill, it was easy for Xin Hexue to pose as a nonhuman species.

Even if he had no nonhuman features, how could an ordinary person discharge a hundred thousand volts?

That left a nonhuman species as the only explanation.

Besides, once Qiu Yuan discovered that they were the same kind of people, even if Xin Hexue gave something away, he would naturally come up with an explanation for him.

Humans who were too lonely would huddle together for warmth.

A waiter led Xin Hexue to the cruise ship's top deck.

The waiter said Xi Zhengqing was waiting for him.

Only then did Xin Hexue go up.

The lights on the deck went out in an instant.

The cruise ship had a generator and a stable power supply, so there couldn't have been a sudden outage.

The waiter had already slipped quietly away.

Xin Hexue didn't know what Xi Zhengqing was up to, so he waited patiently.

He took two tentative steps into the darkness ahead. "Zhengqing? Are you here?"

After those two steps, little star-shaped lights came on all around him, twinkling as though the stars had fallen from the sky.

Xi Zhengqing led him forward into the sea breeze. The sky and sea were one color, and moonlight streamed down.

The Alpha took out a velvet box and opened it, revealing a pair of rings. Smiling gently, he said, "They're only promise rings for now. I hope you don't mind that I secretly measured your finger while you were asleep."

"I promise I'll treat you a hundred times better than Pei Guangji. I won't make you sad or leave you lonely. Will you... accept?"

Xi Zhengqing's tone was solemn and nervous.

Xin Hexue's lashes trembled. "I..."

From the way Xin Hexue had treated him lately, Xi Zhengqing could tell that he wasn't unmoved. He was hesitating too; Xi Zhengqing only needed to take a couple more steps.

"You don't need to worry. I'll sort things out with him afterward, and I'll help you pay back that million too."

Xin Hexue's eyes sparkled.

He knew that he would probably be able to fill the last ten crucial Affection Points from Xi Zhengqing tonight.

At the thought, Xin Hexue's heart even beat a little faster with happiness.

"Clap, clap, clap—"

The sound of someone applauding rang out abruptly.

Xi Zhengqing turned his head. "Who?!"

Qiu Yuan walked out, clapping, then called to the crowd behind him, "The moon looks so lovely from the top deck. Everyone, come take a look! Keep the music and dancing going!"

He stepped aside, and the crowd behind him flowed onto the top deck, bustling and jostling to admire the moon.

Xi Zhengqing felt his breath catch in his throat.

He glared at Qiu Yuan.

The meaning in his eyes was clear—

Didn't I ask you to arrange everything? Why are you coming out to cause trouble now?!

Before coming to the banquet, Xi Zhengqing had already told Qiu Yuan that the cruise ship's top deck was his for the evening and that he had to make sure it was cleared.

Amid the layers of people,

a tall Alpha walked out in silence, his thin lips pressed into a straight line. His bearing was composed and sharp, with a naturally oppressive presence.

He stood head and shoulders above the crowd, and as he strolled forward, the chatting, laughing guests noticed him at once.

"P-Pei, Young Master Pei?"

"Young Master Pei?!"

Many people here had attended Pei Ying's coming-of-age banquet hosted by Old Mr. Pei only recently. Now they looked at one another, completely unaware of when Pei Guangji had woken up.

Xin Hexue shifted his gaze and saw Qiu Yuan raising a glass to him from a distance, wearing a carefree smile that just begged to be punched.

Qiu Yuan was the host of the banquet. There was no way he didn't know who was on the guest list.

He had done it on purpose!

Xin Hexue should have stepped on his feet more during the dance.

Xin Hexue gritted his teeth lightly.

He stood where he was, his mind racing.

In a matter of seconds, Pei Guangji had already closed in on him.

The Alpha's face was cold and impassive as the wineglass came straight toward him.

Xin Hexue frowned.

Was Pei Guangji so humiliated and angry that he wanted to throw wine on me and humiliate me in public?

The glass merely stopped in front of Xin Hexue. Pei Guangji's voice was low. "May I buy you a drink?"

Pei Guangji's next words made Xin Hexue's eyes widen—

The Alpha looked somewhat awkward, but asked anyway, "Haven't we met somewhere before?"

Chapter 30: Face Blindness (30)

"Guangji...?!"

The young man sounded startled and uncertain. Even though he was face-blind, he had clearly noticed the guests addressing the Alpha before him as Young Master Pei.

What other Pei family could there be in the Core District?

Pei Guangji had failed to notice that the atmosphere had grown particularly delicate.

The black-haired Beta filled his thoughts and his vision.

Hearing the young man call his name, Pei Guangji's jaw tightened slightly. A hint of joy appeared in his normally cold, grave eyes, and he asked with some urgency, "You know me?"

The guests looked at one another, then, as one, turned their gazes to the three people in front of them.

By now, everyone could see the pair of rings in the velvet box held by the Xi Family's heir.

What did Young Master Pei mean by this?

Did he have to come over and hit on his childhood friend's partner while his friend was proposing?!