SZAR Chapter 57

The pot-bellied man kept rambling, and Chu Xiu listened, catching only one line.

— Yi Xi had hit the original owner with his vehicle, and according to Imperial law, they were now going to marry.

Chu Xiu felt like his legs were floating. From Carey’s account, he vaguely pieced together part of the truth, but he couldn’t believe it. It was like a poor man suddenly winning the lottery, the first reaction wasn’t joy, but suspicion and disbelief.

He felt as if he were floating in a dream. After all those years in the nightlife scene, the only time his heart had ever stirred was when someone in the bar had called him young one, and that someone was a tycoon far above him. But now… they were going to marry?

He and Yi Xi… were going to marry?

Chu Xiu glimpsed a cup of fine tea from Jiangnan in the midst of all the dazzling lights. So rare, so elegant, completely unlike him. Placing himself next to Yi Xi felt like cheap wine disguised as Cabernet Sauvignon meeting freshly picked Da Hong Pao¹ tea from Wuyi Mountain: one born proper, full of elegance; the other flashy on the outside, rotten and tainted within.

He only dared admire from afar. His most private thought had always been just brushing past, catching a hint of that elegance. But now… could he take the entire cup home, to see it, to smell it, even… press each leaf with his lips and tongue, marking it fully with his own imprint, his own scent?

Just imagining that scene made Chu Xiu’s heart race uncontrollably.

His throat tightened, his head swam, and yet the man beside him kept rambling. Chu Dian, displeased with the young son’s distraction, frowned: “Xiao Xiu, are you listening?”

Chu Xiu tensed his expression: “I’m listening.”

Only then did Chu Dian continue: “Our Chu family looks dazzling, but inside we’re deeply in debt. In a few years, we might fall out of the ranks of old noble families, and then all kinds of unscrupulous people could climb over and trample us. This time’s arrival was just in time… After you marry, you must hold Yi Xi tightly. If necessary, you can even eliminate him, then take control of Stellar’s wealth, so he won’t cunningly transfer it away. Do you understand?”

Chu Xiu forced a smile. “Understood.”

Chu Dian patted his youngest son on the shoulder, nodding with satisfaction. “I’ll arrange a steward for you. You won’t need to handle financial matters, leave that to the steward.”

What followed was polite small talk. Chu Xiu dutifully kept up his smiling face, maneuvering through the conversation silently, and Chu Dian seemed very pleased with his son’s obedience.

After a few more words, as they reached the door and Chu Dian was about to see them out, Chu Xiu suddenly spoke up in the midst of the warm, fatherly atmosphere. “Father, I have a question.”

His tone was flat. “Since our family is in serious debt, if the head of the Stellar Group hadn’t collided with me, what would you have done about this deficit?”

Chu Dian stiffened abruptly.

He twisted his head, suspicious. His youngest son stood with arms folded, head lowered, eyes clear and innocent, as if he were truly just asking a casual question, with no hidden meaning.

“Ha,” Chu Dian chuckled. “Then we’d have to find another way at that time.”

He gestured for Chu Xiu to go rest. Carey had intended to follow, but Chu Dian grabbed his arm.

Carey’s arm was injured. Chu Dian’s sudden pull made him grunt in pain, but he dared not make a sound, swallowing it down and forcing a smile. “Yes, My Lord?”

Chu Dian said, “Stay behind.”

Many male zergs like to designate a military female as their “female monarch,” not just for his excessive wealth, but because his sturdy body can take a beating. When their mood sours, he can serve as a punching bag, therefore, military females are often covered in injuries from such favor.

Carey shrank back. “Just yesterday…”

In his youth, Carey wouldn’t have cared about such injuries, but now, after retiring due to his wounds and getting older, each time takes a long recovery. Fortunately, there are plenty of beautiful females, so the frequency isn’t high. Carey could barely manage it, but since the male insect had already roughhoused him yesterday, another round today might very well cost him half his life.

Chu Dian frowned. “What, you came yesterday, so you can’t today?”

“No, no, no…” Carey hurriedly replied, his pale face stretched into a panicked, fake smile. “I’ll go wash up.”

The washing up was fake, the real reason is to take medicine. Female zergs had drugs that could dull pain, letting them handle whipping a little better.

Chu Dian snapped irritably, “No need. My room isn’t without a bathroom.”

He grabbed Carey’s hand, completely ignoring his pained protests, trying to drag him into the room. Just as the door was about to close, a hand pressed on the hinge.

Chu Xiu leaned against the doorframe, one hand bracing the entrance. Not with much force, but enough to stop the short-winded, weak Chu Dian from closing the door.

He forced a false, timid smile. “Father, tonight let my main female father accompany me. I just got back from the hospital. I’m so scared.”

Carey lifted his head sharply, incredulous.

This noble male young master almost never spoke nicely to the family’s female zerg. If he did speak, it was usually commands or reprimands; kind words were rare.

Chu Dian’s suspicion deepened. “Since when has your relationship with your main female father been so… good?”

Chu Xiu maintained his smile. “I just had a car accident, and I’m back from the hospital. I’m scared.”

He stressed the words “car accident.”

This seemed to hit a nerve with Chu Dian. His face darkened instantly; he quickly withdrew the hand holding the door, rubbed it subconsciously, then hurriedly forced a smile. “Fine. In that case, your main female father will accompany you.”

With that, he closed the door, that disgusting face disappearing behind it.

Carey looked up at Chu Xiu, hesitant to speak.

The usually carefree young master had changed, new hairstyle, new clothes, even his expression had shifted. Now he wasn’t smiling. His face held a cold, sharp calm, and those narrow, peach-blossom-shaped eyes tilted slightly downward, giving him a strange, cutting edge.

But the expression lasted only a moment. The instant Chu Xiu looked up, he smiled again, raising his hand in a gesture for Carey to go ahead: “Main female father, you go in front.”

Carey’s body hairs stood on end.

Male zergs were noble and hated anyone walking ahead of them, but Chu Xiu had given the order. Not obeying wasn’t an option, so Carey straightened his back and went ahead, ready to handle any sudden attacks from a male zerg.

The reason Chu Xiu made Carey walk in front was simple: he didn’t know the way.

The castle was truly magnificent, and truly eerie as well. One gallery led into another, countless doors lined the corridors. Carey led Chu Xiu, pushing open a thick carved wooden door, saying, “Young master, we’ve arrived.”

Chu Xiu looked around. The room was spacious, divided into inner and outer sections. In the outer section, there was a soft couch. He pointed at it: “You can sleep here.”

Then Chu Xiu went into the inner room, pulled the bedcovers and tossed them to Carey. He rummaged through a storage cabinet, found a medicine box, barely made out the words “external injury,” and handed it to him, asking, “Do you need me to apply it for you?”

Carey hugged the covers and stood stiffly to the side. “No… no need.”

His frail body, wrapped in a thick bedcover, looked even more fragile.

Chu Xiu simply took it from his hands and helped him make the bed.

After all, in his past life he often helped guests with tissues or hand towels, it was nothing.

Carey was so startled he quickly took the covers back. “I can do it, I can do it myself.”

Chu Xiu didn’t push the matter and nodded, then went into the inner room to sleep. He turned off the light; the room was dim. Carey lay very quietly, his breathing minimized to almost nothing, like a lifeless statue.

After a long while, he slowly spoke: “Thank you, Young Master Xiu.”

Chu Xiu: “No need.”

Anyone with normal morals would want to pull Carey to safety and then deal with Chu Dian.

What followed was another long silence.

Perhaps it was the unusually gentle attitude of the male insect, the soft bedding, and the dim darkness that gave Carey the courage to speak again. He hesitated for a long while, then suddenly asked, “Young Master Xiu, are you asleep?”

Chu Xiu: “Hmm?” He said, “You don’t need to call me Young Master anymore. Just call me Xiao Xiu.”

Carey was a full generation older, and also one of the household’s owners, constantly saying “Young Master” felt strange.

“Xiao Xiu,” Carey whispered softly, “be careful of Young Master Jin.”

Chu Xiu’s brow twitched.

In his past life, his gambling-addict father had made a bit of money and fathered a child outside; that child later became Chu Xiu’s younger brother, still in middle school, named Chu Jin.

Chu Xiu asked, “What do you mean?”

His tone softened, with a faint nasal hum, like he was about to fall asleep. As a bartender, he knew exactly what tone sounded harmless.

Carey finally relaxed a little: “Xiao Xiu, Young Master Jin is a B-rank male zerg. If Yi Xi and you marry, the Chu family finances improve, and then… if something were to happen to you…” He hesitated, stumbling over his words, and said vaguely, “then Young Master Jin would live very happily.”

A single night of kindness wasn’t enough for Carey to truly open up. He spoke so vaguely that a normal male zerg wouldn’t understand, but Chu Xiu was far from a foolish male zerg of this world. In the darkness, he opened his eyes and understood exactly what Carey meant.

Young Master Chu Jin was a noble B-rank, while the original body was some random nobody of unknown rank, providing no benefit to the family. Yi Xi had hit the original owner, and the estate would go to the Chu family. If the original owner didn’t die, all well and good; if he did, no harm done. Losing a nobody young master to gain the fortune of the empire’s richest man was clearly a profitable deal.

Chu Xiu’s lips curled silently in the dark. “So the original body… is already dead, isn’t he?”

The brain waves were completely gone. Even the neural link surgery couldn’t save him. The body was now fully possessed by this soul from another world, he couldn’t be more dead.

The next morning, Chu Xiu got up and went to the hospital.

His condition wasn’t fully stable; he needed regular check-ups. The old estate was too far, so he told Chu Dian he wouldn’t live there. Before leaving, he used the excuse that there was no one to look after him to take Carey along, and finally found a small two-room house near the hospital. Using the money Yi Xi had given him, he furnished it and settled Carey inside.

Chu Xiu had originally planned to let Carey properly recover while he went to the hospital for a follow-up himself. After all, in his past life he had spent more than 20 years like this, occasionally drinking too much with clients, even ending up with stomach bleeding, and still going to the hospital alone.

But Carey was determined to fulfill the role of a female father. He wasn’t Chu Xiu’s biological female father; apparently, the original body’s real female father had long been “played to death.” Yet a female insect’s instinct to care for its young seemed innate. Even though Chu Xiu was approaching his second awakening, in Carey’s eyes he was still a young one in need of care.

Chu Xiu couldn’t resist and had to agree. The two of them went to the hospital together.

The brain-neural scanner was placed over Chu Xiu’s head. Special waves began reading the broken connections in his nerves. The doctor printed the report and handed it to Chu Xiu: “Your condition is very good. Take your medicine regularly and maintain yourself. There’s no major problem.”

The brain-neural testing room used special equipment. Carey waited in the corridor. The moment Chu Xiu came out, he waved: “Xiao Xiu.”

“Cointreau?”

Chu Xiu looked up, startled. From the other side of the corridor came a sound. Yi Xi was still in his silver-gray suit, standing at the corner of the stairs, with a secretary-like person beside him, holding a report.

Yi Xi stepped forward two paces, looking at the chestnut-haired boy standing there, and couldn’t help but smile: “What a coincidence, you’re here to get your report too?”

He repeated Carey’s words: “Xiao Xiu? That’s your name?”

Chu Xiu pressed his lips together.

He didn’t want to tell Yi Xi that he was Chu Xiu.

The Cointreau of his previous life had a famous reputation; many had bought his smiles with thousands of yuan. But this life, Chu Xiu’s reputation was notorious.

Yesterday, he searched online for information about Chu Xiu. Thousands of results came up, almost all negative: cruel, violent when drunk, overbearing and unreasonable, every single one shocking to Chu Xiu’s eyes.

Yi Xi was about to marry someone like that, what must he be thinking?

Chu Xiu lifted his head. The head of Stellar was right in front of him, gentle and dignified, carrying the unique beauty that only comes with the weight of years. He smiled, his gaze calm and forgiving. But what if he knew who Chu Xiu really was?

If he knew, would those beautiful dark-brown-colored eyes still be so gentle?

Would they instead be filled with disgust, hatred, or fear?

According to posts on StarNet, Yi Xi didn’t want to marry. If it had truly been his fault, if he had hit a male zerg , that would be one thing, but this was clearly the Chu family’s fault. Yi Xi was the victim. On the surface, Chu Xiu appeared to be colluding with the Chu family to trap Yi Xi. He was a despicable thief.

Just thinking about it made him feel suffocated.

He didn’t want to reveal Cointreau’s true identity, at least, not right now.

So Chu Xiu skillfully raised a smile and pulled Carey close: “What a coincidence, Yi Xi. This is my female father.”

He smiled warmly: “Yes, Xiu is my name.”

It wasn’t an unusual character; in the Empire, there were easily eight or ten thousand people named Xiu.

Yi Xi paused, seemingly lost in thought, then nodded, his expression unchanged, and complimented politely: “A graceful, virtuous name.”

He was always like this, even when faced with painful matters, he maintained proper etiquette. There was no fault to find.

Chu Xiu felt bitterness under his lips.

After greeting Chu Xiu, Yi Xi turned his gaze to Carey: “Greetings, Sir.”

Carey froze.

Of course, he recognized Yi Xi. But he was astonished at Chu Xiu’s familiarity with him, and even more shocked by Chu Xiu’s perfectly obedient demeanor, so different from the little devil he remembered.

Seeing Carey silent, Chu Xiu quickly grabbed his arm. The male zerg hadn’t awakened yet and stood only 1.7 meters tall, looking youthful and inexperienced next to anyone: “Female father?”

Carey stiffened and forced out a few words: “Greetings, Sir.”

Chu Xiu obediently said: “Female father, you can go back first. I know this gentleman and want to walk with him for a bit.”

Carey: “……”

He didn’t know what expression to make and walked away with a blank face.

Chu Xiu’s gaze fell on Yi Xi’s medical report.

He remembered Carey mentioning a health issue and felt a twinge of worry. “Sir, what brings you to the hospital?”

Yi Xi didn’t try to hide it: “I came to check my pheromone levels.”

He smiled faintly. “My pheromones are problematic. I’ve relied on medication for years to suppress my mental state. But there’s an important gathering tomorrow, I can’t make a mistake. I came to check if I can temporarily increase the dosage.”

Chu Xiu’s brows twitched.

He had seen on the light-brain that pheromone disorder required strong medicinal suppression. The side effects were severe, it caused weakness and could even shorten one’s lifespan.

Chu Xiu lowered his head and cautiously asked, “Have you considered finding a male zerg to provide pheromones?”

Yi Xi paused, then shook his head. “There won’t be a male zerg.”

He smiled, speaking sadly but in an even tone: “My male lord wouldn’t share pheromones with me.”

“If it means groveling and begging, I don’t want it either.”