SZAR Chapter 38

Chu Ci had originally imagined that on the day of parting, he would give Nuo Wei a friendly hug and then go back inside to work. After all, both he and Nuo Wei were adults with careers. Each of them shone in their respective field. Neither was a child who couldn’t live without the other.

Back when he was still human, Chu Ci’s parents often went on business trips. At that time, he was still in high school. He would heat up the meals they left behind in the microwave, mix some noodles with sauce, and manage for two months just fine. Now he even had the robot housekeeper San San. Nuo Wei was only going on a work assignment. It was no big deal.

Only when the moment of separation truly arrived did he realize that no matter how well he had imagined it, no matter how many times he had rehearsed it, the surging feelings were impossible to suppress. He and Nuo Wei held each other and kissed for a long time. Even after their lips parted, Chu Ci’s hand was still buried in Nuo Wei’s hair, pressing him close to his chest, unwilling to let go easily.

Nuo Wei leaned against his shoulder blade and moved slightly. “…Male Lord.”

“Sorry.” Chu Ci stepped back a little. “I lost my composure somewhat.”

Nuo Wei shook his head. In truth, he quite liked Chu Ci’s slightly rough movements. Although the military called him the cold-faced Major General, when he was with Chu Ci, it was actually Chu Ci who was more steady in emotion and calmer in bearing.

His Male Lord was gentle like a quiet lake, seeming able to contain all weariness and fatigue. Yet Nuo Wei always had a feeling that Chu Ci was not like this only toward a certain person. He was always like this. No matter what he faced, flowers blooming and withering, time passing and the world changing, the lake remained forever calm and deep.

Only when Chu Ci became rough could Nuo Wei truly confirm his love.

Nuo Wei pressed his forehead against Chu Ci’s. In their pupils, there was only each other. Amid the slight restlessness and irritation in the male zerg’s mood, the Major General suddenly grew bolder. He wrapped an arm around Chu Ci’s shoulder and asked, “May I make one request?”

Chu Ci nodded. “Of course.”

Nuo Wei paused, then paused again. “For these next few months, please don’t answer calls from the Male Zerg Protection Association.”

The atmosphere was so good now that Nuo Wei could ask for anything and Chu Ci would consider it. But out of nowhere, he said not to answer calls from the Male Zerg Protection Association. Chu Ci was completely baffled, but he still agreed: “Alright, I won’t answer.”

Nuo Wei pressed his lips together, about to speak more, when suddenly a loud mechanical roar came from above.

Over their heads, the iron-gray aircraft tilted slightly toward the garden.

Nuo Wei’s eyes shot upward, his expression turning cold.

Lin En was pressing his face against the glass, his cheeks squashed and deformed. He elbowed his comrade beside him: “Move! You’re pressing me down.”

His comrade grabbed Lin En by the hair, trying to pull his face away from the window. “It’s just that your face is too big, you can’t see anything.”

Voices of dissatisfaction came from behind: “Move aside, you two! How long have you been staring? I can’t see a thing over here!”

“Have a little shame, will you.”

“Exactly.”

They all piled on top of each other, blocking the window completely, just to catch a glimpse of the superior’s gossip.

Nuo Wei had once been the most pitied Major General in the military. Newly married, he had committed a crime, losing all his honors and even facing exile. Whenever the military mentioned him, people would sigh in regret. But later, fortunes turned: the Major General suddenly returned to the military. Many female soldiers had even secretly bet on how long Nuo Wei would last in the First Army.

Lin En vaguely remembered that at the time, the odds had reached 50:1. Everyone knew the nature of male zergs, and they also knew there was a high chance the Major General would end up back in the correctional facility. Many in the Second and Third Armies who had grudges against Nuo Wei were eagerly waiting, hoping to see him fall completely from grace.

Nuo Wei had become famous young, with a brilliant record, one of the most dazzling gems of the military. To witness him fall into dust, shattering completely, would surely have been a popular topic at every meal.

But the Major General did not fall. His Male Lord caught him.

Female zergs still serving in the First Army had heard of Chu Ci’s great name. They knew he liked to fly an eggplant aircraft around the military gates. They knew he had come to the military twice for Nuo Wei. They knew he had pardoned all of Nuo Wei’s crimes, and that the two of them even held hands while eating in the cafeteria.

Now Chu Ci’s name was so widely known within the First Army that it was mentioned alongside Nuo Wei’s.

So today, coming to pick up the Major General, all the female soldiers wanted to see what Chu Ci looked like, which was why they crowded to one side of the aircraft.

They watched the male and female zergs come out of the house together. The Major General carried his suitcase, while Chu Ci stood among waist-high begonia flowers, wearing a warm-toned turtleneck sweater. His posture was tall and elegant, his features handsome.

When he looked at Nuo Wei, his expression was soft as water. At the moment of parting, he opened his arms and held the female monarch close.

“Shh—”

Lin En and the other insects were filled with admiration tinged with a little jealousy, staring hungrily downward. A hiss sounded from inside the aircraft.

Then, in their envious and sour-eyed gaze, Nuo Wei suddenly stepped forward and kissed Chu Ci.

At first their lips touched lightly, then positions reversed. Chu Ci went from passively accepting to actively claiming, finally pressing Nuo Wei against the door. Even when the kiss paused for a moment, they were unwilling to separate, lips still pressed together. Chu Ci placed his hand on the back of Nuo Wei’s head, gently stroking the Major General’s long moonlight-like hair.

Lin En and his colleagues: “……”

They kissed so passionately, so completely absorbed, that it was as if the aircraft hovering above didn’t exist.

Inside the aircraft, an eerie silence fell.

After an uncertain amount of time, a voice broke the quiet from a corner: “…Holy crap.”

Time to take off arrived. Nuo Wei waved goodbye to Chu Ci and boarded the aircraft.

He sat by the window and wiped the fog from the glass. Chu Ci hadn’t gone back inside; he was still standing in the garden. Military aircraft windows were fitted with privacy film, so the inside couldn’t be seen from outside. Nuo Wei sat there, tracing Chu Ci’s handsome features through the glass.

Lin En and his comrades fumbled as they operated the aircraft. No one dared to go near Nuo Wei. The sight of him tracing the window like that made them feel strangely uncomfortable. They kept their eyes lowered, looking at their noses, their noses at their hearts, and all sat stiffly in their seats, pretending to be quails.

Lin En secretly glanced at the corner of Nuo Wei’s lips.

Nuo Wei looked back at him coldly.

Lin En immediately withdrew his gaze and lowered his head to play with his optical brain.

On the screen was a chat windo, with Secretary Lin, the very same one who had been frightened by Chu Ci.

Lin En had once been Secretary Lin’s direct superior. The two of them were also very distantly related, so distant that, as the saying goes, “once removed, three thousand miles apart”. They usually didn’t exchange a single word for years. It wasn’t until the day Secretary Lin accidentally ruined Chu Ci’s lawn with one careless shovel that he finally trembled as he sent his cousin a message.

Secretary Lin: 【Cousin, cousin, do you know the name of Major General Nuo Wei’s Male Lord?】

Major General Lin En: 【His name is Chu Ci. 】

The last bit of hope Secretary Lin had been holding onto shattered.

For a moment, he didn’t know whether it was more shocking that “My colleague is a high-ranking male zerg,” or more despairing that “I offended a high-ranking male zerg.” He tossed his optical brain aside and stared speechlessly at the sky.

And now, Major General Lin En, embracing the spirit of “Joy shared is better than joy kept to oneself”, cropped a photo he had secretly taken just now and sent it to Secretary Lin.

【Take a look. Nuo Wei’s Male Lord.】

In the photo, the male zerg was kissing the female, showing a slight profile. His fan-like eyelashes drooped, and his amber-colored eyes were partly hidden in their shadow, deep and mysterious like gems from Mount Erebus.

Secretary Lin had no interest in admiring Chu Ci’s looks. Seeing him only reminded him of how foolish he had been back then. Embarrassed, he scratched at the floor with his toes, wishing he could just bang his head against a wall.

After teasing his retired cousin a bit, Lin En was in a great mood. He pulled the throttle and ignited the aircraft. The massive steel machine shot up into the sky, piercing through the clouds at incredible speed.

The little house with the garden grew smaller and smaller in Nuo Wei’s view, eventually becoming just an indistinguishable dot among the vast buildings of the main star.

With the female monarch gone, the house felt quiet and empty.

Chu Ci had piled up a lot of work over the past few days, running non-stop. Even so, nonstop work had its advantages, he was exhausted and couldn’t worry about anything else, including whether the house felt lonely or cold.

Yi Xi’s investment had arrived, officially making Chu Ci a shareholder in the company. Secretary Lin even assigned him a personal assistant named Cha Lade. Capable, but plain-looking, with slightly crooked eyes and a slanted mouth, but Chu Ci didn’t care.

After Chu Ci’s identity was exposed last time, he had called Secretary Lin on the phone, warning him to stay quiet. If Secretary Lin spread the word, Chu Ci could easily land him in prison just for bothering a male zerg.

That night, Secretary Lin had nightmares all night, dreaming of Chu Ci pinning him down and sending him to the disciplinary center for “reformation.” But since all he had to do was keep quiet to avoid prison, he happily agreed, not saying a word, not even to his big boss, Yi Xi. Even now, Chu Ci still wore a turtleneck to look like a female zerg, and no one had noticed.

In the blink of an eye, it was already time for the second test.

With the data from the first test as a foundation, Chu Ci was very confident about the second. As expected, nothing went against his predictions. His virtual character modeling was excellent, somewhere between a youth and a teenager, combining the handsome, sophisticated charm of a young adult with the cute, obedient softness of a boy.

Male zergs spent money without counting. Some treated the little virtual males as their own sons; some simply treated them as virtual versions of themselves, buying props, clothes, and accessories without restraint. Chu Ci’s modeling team was top-tier, and with Stellar Group’s designers supervising and the art team making a qualitative leap, the second test was far more popular than the first. The upgraded recharge system was overwhelmed once again.

The company’s stock price soared as well.

Unlike last time, when he was just a wage-earning worker, Chu Ci now had shares, which meant dividends. With the stock price rising, he benefited greatly. Even though he didn’t lack money, he would occasionally open his stock app to check real-time gains.

One day, while slacking off in the company restroom, he opened the stock app again. His finger hovered over one group’s stock, and he froze.

The market had been doing well recently, not only was Chu Ci’s company rising, but many others were too. Among all the stocks in the green, one stood out for its stark red, terribly, glaringly red.

Stellar Group.

Yi Xi was a business genius. Under his management, Stellar had long been in the top tier, rarely experiencing a sharp drop.

Chu Ci had a guess and clicked on QuQi’s trending news. Sure enough, in the most prominent position was a bright red headline:

⟦ Exclusive! Yi Xi Confirms Marriage with Male Lord as Attendant; Partner Allegedly Abusive. What’s Next for Stellar? ⟧