SZAR Chapter 90

When Erwen stood atop the garbage heap, receiving a heavy iron lump from the male zerg, he still hadn’t processed what was happening.

He had slept well, eaten a proper meal, and ensured that both his body and mind were in peak condition, enough to handle any difficulty, but the male insect hadn’t used whips or activated the strange instruments in the basement. Instead, inexplicably, he had dragged Erwen to a garbage heap and placed an iron lump in his hands.

“All right,” Qu Xia said, wiping his sweat. “This is it. I want you to help carry it back. No problem, right?”

Erwen remained silent. For the male zerg, the lump was heavy, but for a female insect, it was trivial. He regularly bench-pressed weights far heavier than this.

Qu Xia, clearly misreading Erwen’s silence, asked worriedly, “It’s heavy, isn’t it?”

His conscience pricked him. Erwen was injured, blind, and a patient in need of care, and yet he was asking a patient to do labor.

“Why don’t you try lifting it first?” Qu Xia said. “If you can’t, just put it down. We’ll continue tomorrow. No problem.”

Erwen: “…”

“No need,” he said.

This male zerg was perhaps a little too lenient.

He silently lifted the iron lump and followed Qu Xia. When they passed over a small rise, he stumbled slightly, and the iron fell from his hands.

Qu Xia immediately turned back, anxious: “Are you okay?”

This was his highly-paid live-in housekeeper, a top-tier chef, a super laborer, he couldn’t afford any accidents.

“I’m fine.” Erwen half-kneeling, right hand groping to find the iron lump, while the fingertips of his hidden left hand carefully explored the nearby metal debris, gently twisting a knob.

It was an old-fashioned electromagnetic communicator.

Unlike the other iron scrap, this device had a long antenna. When Erwen first climbed the junk pile, his leg had brushed against the springy antenna. At that time, Qu Xia was too close for him to act, so he had just memorized the position. Now, on the way down, he found the opportunity.

The communicator was damaged and couldn’t send calls, but it could emit static on a fixed channel; any approaching military forces could be detected through this noise.

After finishing this, he bent to pick up the iron lump. “Sorry, I tripped a bit.”

Qu Xia leaned over and tapped the device in Erwen’s hand.

It was a remnant of a mental wave detector, mostly rusted, but thanks to the sealed metal casing, the internal components were well-preserved and could be repaired for reuse.

Qu Xia winced. “Be careful! This thing is delicate!”

Erwen paused, then bent his knees with practiced precision. “Sorry.”

In situations where one is at the mercy of others, apologizing first is essential to earn leniency later.

Qu Xia was startled.

He knew that the Capital Star was a sanctuary of virtuous females and that bowing or kneeling was customary there, but as a researcher with normal sensibilities, he had never witnessed anything like this.

Erwen knelt calmly, confirming the communicator’s status. The old mechanism had begun working, silently emitting undetectable electromagnetic waves radiating outward from the junk pile. He lightly pressed his finger on the damaged area, leaving a small drop of blood. This would allow any arriving rescue team to sense the admiral’s biological signature and locate the town.

Having done all this, he straightened in his kneeling position, thinking: As long as the punishment to come isn’t lethal, it’s worth it.

“N-no, no, it’s fine.”

The male hesitated a little, then reached out and grabbed Erwen’s hand. “You can’t see, it was wrong of me to let you walk like that. Here, I’ll guide you.”

He spoke as he truly began leading Erwen downward, adding a warning: “Careful, there’s a slope ahead.”

Erwen froze completely.

The skin of that hand was soft and well-cared-for, fingertips hardened by years of holding a pen, a slightly smaller bone structure than Erwen’s. The fingers brushed gently against his skin, and the pull was firm but considerate.

It felt as if the male truly didn’t care that Erwen had stumbled over a precious object, but was concerned he would trip again.

“…Sorry.” Erwen tightened his grip on the device in his hands, suddenly feeling a pang of guilt.

He had deceived this male, used him, even expected punishment from him, but there was none.

“It’s fine, my fault,” Qu Xia muttered. “Your steps are too light and quick; I keep forgetting you can’t see.”

They returned home. Qu Xia dragged the heavy piece into the lab, shut the door, and began dismantling and reassembling it with clanging and banging. Erwen donned an apron to cook, preparing two dishes and a soup. By the time it was past seven, the male still hadn’t emerged.

Caring for and protecting males was ingrained in female’s very bones in the main planet. Erwen always adhered strictly to etiquette; no matter his inner disdain, he could perform the proper outward courtesy. Besides, this male military strategist wasn’t like ordinary males. After a moment’s thought, he knocked on the lab door.

“Sir, please have your meal. Skipping it could harm your stomach.”

Inside, the male paid no attention.

Another half hour passed before Qu Xia, utterly drained, finally emerged from the lab.

When small researchers were engrossed in work, they felt no fatigue, but once finished, the adrenaline vanished, and an overwhelming exhaustion swept over them.

He hurried to the table, devouring the food in a blur, then suddenly remembered something. Looking up at Erwen, he said, “Mm, tomorrow we’ll go into the lab. I want to examine your mental sea.”

Erwen nodded calmly.

He hadn’t forgotten the male’s original purpose in purchasing him. After a day of peace, the experiment was finally about to begin.

Qu Xia pushed the food toward him. “So eat well, sleep well, and build up your strength, got it?”

Erwen remained strangely silent.

Yesterday, that male had told him to sleep well and conserve his strength, but instead, they slept until the sun was high and spent the entire afternoon hauling garbage.

Afterward, Qu Xia wandered upstairs like in a daze, hastily showering. The gushing water sounded down below, where Erwen sat cross-legged on the floor, eyes closed in meditation, a faint frown creasing his brow.

He wanted to shower too.

As an Imperial Admiral, Erwen always maintained his elegant composure. He even had a mild fastidiousness: his clothes were sticky with blood, and after sweating today, they clung unpleasantly to his body, making him intensely uncomfortable.

After a while, the water stopped, and the male called down: “Hey, do you want to shower?”

Qu Xia wanted a long-term domestic housekeeper, and a clean body was non-negotiable. He didn’t want the chef he hired to cook with a stench of sweat.

Erwen naturally agreed.

He felt his way up the stairs, closed the bathroom door behind him, and Qu Xia handed him a garment, the loosest one from the wardrobe. Even so, after cleaning himself, the clothing still stretched tightly over his frame.

When he opened the door and stepped out, Qu Xia stealthily moved some books aside, peeking like a thief. His eyes roamed over Erwen’s chest muscles, then dropped to compare his own chicken-thin frame, twisting his face in envy.

Those muscles were incredible! If only they were on me—QAQ.

The robe on Qu Xia’s body hung empty and loose, strained to the limit by Erwen’s broad chest. From the neckline, a hint of pale skin could be glimpsed; the hem barely covered the thighs, revealing toned, beautiful calves. This female blended “long and athletic” with “elegant and refined” perfectly: dressed, he was graceful and noble; undressed, statuesque and muscular.

He sulkily drew his gaze back, returning his attention to the book in his hands: 《86 Essential Long Poems for the Zerg High-Level Examination.》

In less than half a month, the annual high-level zerg exam of the Pamir Star System would take place.

Even at the empire’s frontier, the underage zergs in the Pamir Star were eligible for the exam. Passing it, and perhaps gaining admission to a university on the capital star might be the only way to escape this impoverished system.

Qu Xia had never imagined staying on Pamir indefinitely. He was a male; his identity was far too sensitive. Here, he would be picked apart if discovered. Even now, as the gang’s strategist, many of the leaders were ruthless daredevils; if his true nature were exposed, he dared not imagine the consequences.

The immediate priority was passing the high-level exam.

Mathematics and physics posed little challenge. Qu Xia had always excelled academically, once he read something twice, he mastered it. The real difficulty lay in literature appreciation and poetry.

His empathy had always been weak, his language skills mediocre, and as an outsider, he knew nothing of local history or classical references, like someone utterly unaware of the Southern or Northern Song dynasties, unable to grasp lines like “Laughing while drinking the blood of the Xiongnu” or “Never forget to inform one’s ancestor at the family sacrifice”. Qu Xia was utterly lost.

So, secretly, he began observing Erwen.

The female knelt in repose, eyes closed, posture effortless and natural. Even the slight shortness of his robe did nothing to disturb his calm. Watching him, Qu Xia’s mind wandered to a single thought: “I wonder what it feels like…”

Delicate office clerks always covet what isn’t theirs, chest muscles, abs… Qu Xia gingerly poked at his own soft belly, thinking: “I wonder what muscles feel like… are they soft too?”

Erwen didn’t know what the male was pondering, but his keen perception picked up Qu Xia’s gaze. “Is there anything I can help you with, Sir?” he asked.

“—!” Flustered, Qu Xia quickly averted his eyes, randomly pointing to a line in the poem. “Um… could you help me analyze this poem?”

He lifted the book to hide his head, reading through the poem once.

Erwen nodded, then began to explain in a calm, measured voice.

Poetry and classical literature were essential for noble female zergs, cultivating their refined demeanor. Erwen excelled in every subject, and this was no exception. Without any reference materials and relying solely on memory, he recounted the poet’s biography, the context of the lines, and their causes and effects with impeccable clarity and logical structure. After listening, Qu Xia could grasp most of the poem’s imagery and meaning.

He stared at Erwen, dumbfounded, thinking: “I really hit the jackpot.”

Originally, he just wanted a chef and a housekeeper, now he’s got a bonus laborer and a private tutor?

Qu Xia saw a glimmer of hope.

All the other subjects were fine; this one was the only hurdle left. If he aced language arts, he could not only get into the best university on the main planet but also secure an additional scholarship, and maybe even snag a chance to work in a lab right after enrollment.

Talented researchers always carried a certain kind of obsessive zeal, and Qu Xia was no exception. Unlike many who endured the drudgery of research, he genuinely enjoyed time in the lab.

In his previous life, Qu Xia had been skilled in neuroscience, though limited by equipment and resources, he had never fully unraveled its secrets. Now, transported to the zerg world with technology advanced so suddenly, not joining a cutting-edge lab to explore it would have been a waste of all the hair he had lost from late-night experiments.

This was also one reason he avoided revealing his male identity, opting for the high-level exam route back to the main planet. Admitting he was male would have made every lab hesitant to accept him.

Faced with such temptation, chest and abs suddenly felt irrelevant. He leaned over Erwen and pointed to another poem: “How about this one?”

Erwen paused, then continued his explanation.

They worked question and answer for nearly two hours. Qu Xia meticulously took notes and closed the book, satisfied.

Nice.

Erwen went on mechanically, moving from comprehension to confusion, and finally to mild bewilderment.

A male zerg, tinkering with scraps on this barren planet, yet so refined… and interested in poetry and literature?

By midnight, Qu Xia’s energy finally ebbed. Exhausted and drowsy, he nearly collapsed onto Erwen, who immediately caught him. “Sir, shall I carry you upstairs?”

“No need.” Qu Xia stood, half-asleep, patting Erwen on the shoulder. “Good night. Rest well tonight and have good dreams.”

He sleepwalked upstairs.

Erwen’s expression was complicated.

This was the second time the male had said to rest well.

He didn’t know what tomorrow’s experiment would entail, and even his usually composed mind stirred slightly. After all, the mental sea was so intricate that even the slightest stimulation could have severe consequences. Erwen couldn’t predict the pain that awaited him, so he closed his eyes and seized every second to slip into sleep.

Qu Xia, meanwhile, thought: I need to treat his mental sea.

From the moment Erwen had scolded him to open the window, Qu Xia realized something was wrong with the insect’s mental sea. The way he became agitated, almost collapsing, after sensing male pheromones was a classic symptom of a female with a compromised mental sea. The only catch was that the pheromone trace was extremely faint; under normal circumstances, it would have been imperceptible unless Erwen’s rank was extraordinarily high.

But according to the gang’s records, he was just a C-rank female.

Ruling out impossibilities, the only absurd yet plausible conclusion was that this female was a high-rank military zerg, possibly even S-rank.

Qu Xia had no intention of telling the gang. He was just passing through, detached from the other members, and in half a month, he’d be gone anyway. Besides, he genuinely felt a twinge of guilt toward Erwen.

Making a wounded, blind zerg carry heavy things and risk injury, was that something a person could do in good conscience?

So before leaving, he planned to treat this female’s mental sea as part of his wages for being a housekeeper, chef, and tutor.

— A single mental sea treatment outside would cost a fortune; Erwen was definitely getting a bargain.

But when the exams came around, what would happen to this zerg then, would he end up back in the hands of those perverse gang members?

Qu Xia rummaged through the storage room and pulled out a communicator, recording a timed audio message to be sent in half a month.

“Greetings to the military authorities of the Capital Star. I am on A-754 Junk Planet in the Pamir Star System. Coordinates are provided by this communicator. An S-rank military female has unfortunately fallen here, is currently blind, but in good physical condition. If he is one of your colleagues, I hope you will provide assistance.”

As expected, on the day of the entrance exams, the military would descend upon this junk planet, securing the gang with overwhelming firepower and rescuing the ailing female zerg.

Qu Xia set down the communicator and muttered to himself: “Housekeeper, chef, tutor, I wish you good luck”