abcnovels
Chapter 141 - Scabbard
Chapter 141 - Scabbard
Chapter 141 - Scabbard
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
Crosson Show trainee dormitory.
The window was half open, and the man’s voice was low as he spoke into the communicator, “The vital signs are close to normal. Mm. Jumping and bouncing. Last time, he was given the psychotherapy drug, MHCC, but no side effects were found.”
There was a long silence on the other side of the communicator.
Researcher Song hesitated before saying, “Brother Wei, that tube of MHCC had a peak value of 0.2mg per ml in Mister Wu’s blood. In theory, it wasn’t a concentration that ordinary people could handle.”
“I still maintain my previous judgement that Mister Wu has been exposed to such psychotherapy drugs before he was 15, and that there was obvious drug abuse––he had no side effects afterwards, no obvious reaction to the concentration of the drug, and these are the biggest side effects.”
Researcher Song spoke slowly.
The mountain breeze mixed with the scent of camellia flowers floated through the night sky. Wei Shi looked out the window, his face deep and as sharp as a knife.
On the other side of the communicator, Researcher Song analyzed carefully, “... The cost for the MHCC mental pacifier is very high. If it was a few years ago, the only possible channel would be the Federal R-Code military base.”
“I checked the data from that year and found that there were very rare civil and medical cases of MHCC usage, but none of them were related to ‘drug abuse’. I wonder if Mister Wu also underwent some transformation in the R-Code base back then––”
Outside the bedroom. There was a knock on the door.
Wei Shi ended the communication.
The other side’s voice was automatically converted into text.
Brother Wei, you went to the R-Code base last week. I heard Silly Red say that you guys practically blew open the genetic replication warehouse.
The door opened a crack, and a small round face squeezed in instantly. The room was dark. Wei Shi signed for the Wu Jin rabbit that had been delivered in the middle of the night and glanced at the black cat that was nestled in the quilt.
“......” The black cat pitifully got out of bed and went outside. It felt the lack of love as one who’d failed to keep its place on the bed.
On the bed, Wu Jin sat down and began an exaggerated account about the ravaged pillow in his room next door, the bad sleeping environment, and his wonderful idea of having the big boss take him in for the night.
Wei Shi agreed.
Wu Jin threw himself onto the big boss’s bed instantly and hugged the pillow, full of excitement––it was like he was charged full of energy that had no outlet!
The Crosson dorm’s single bed for trainees wasn’t wide, and it wasn’t comparable to the Sun King’s king size bed, but Wu Jin was very familiar with it. After all, in the R-Code base––in the big boss’s subconscious, they’d been warm and toasty squeezed together in the same bed!
Wu Jin shrank into the bed and looked up to realize that the big boss was much broader and stronger than the 16 year old cub in his memories.
Wu Jin hastened to say, “I won’t take up space!”
Wei Shi watched as Wu Jin rolled himself up into the quilt, and then left half the bed for him––
The man was overbearing as he squeezed into the quilt, pressing the Wu Jin who was still flipping around into the pillow cover. The hot breath and rough kiss burned from his shoulder to his cheek, and then their lips met.
Wu Jin tried hard to pounce.
Wu Jin was powerless and revealed the skin of his belly.
The hand with its gun calluses accurately found its way into Wu Jin’s fluffy pajamas, wantonly enjoying the benefits as it wandered over the thin waist––
Wu Jin struggled, “Aahh––eh! Don’t, ah, ah, ah, don’t––aiyo––”
Wei Shi flattened out his pajamas for him, “How can you cry out as if you were singing scales.”
Wu Jin was like a salted fish with its belly exposed, the corner of his eyes damp. His lips were parted as he tried to grab a pillow for defense, “I learned-learned music. So what!”
The youth tried to retort forcibly, appearing lively and fragrant, inviting one to take and conquer. The man’s pupils deepened, and he leaned in oppressively.
They stopped a few seconds later. Wei Shi knew that Wu Jin was still recuperating and stopped at the critical point before harvest.
By the time Wei Shi came back from the bathroom, Wu Jin was already drowsy and could barely lift up his eyelids. The pillow was half covering his face.
Wei Shi lay down on his side and casually wrapped around Wu Jin, “After the variety show, come with me to Floating City.”
Wu Jin mumbled something.
Wei Shi: “Autumn festival, we’ll get the license. Then, you need to make a decision.”
Wu Jin forced back his drowsiness and didn’t hesitate. He was very enthusiastic, “Okay! We’ll get it!”
Wei Shi looked steadily at Wu Jin.
The information he’d obtained at the site of the R-Code base flashed through his mind.
“‘Scabbards’ and ‘swords’ were both genetically modified humans. The attraction they felt towards one another came from their genes, but it still wasn’t entirely from just their genes. They could even find each other in a sea of people. Their growth experiences and personality will ultimately determine how they get along with each other.”
His memory went back. In the preliminary Crosson Show audition match, Wei Shi pointed his gun at Wu Jin who was crouched on the tree stump. The muzzle of the gun was aimed at the soft curls, like pinching a rabbit’s ears, “So weak. What did you come here for?”
“When the scabbard and the sword are a perfect match, the scabbard will channel the sword’s emotions, and the ‘lock’ imposed on the sword will no longer exist...”
––There were over a dozen cases undergoing treatment in Floating City, but only Wei Shi had shown significant improvement with the ‘therapy companion treatment plan’.
“The scabbard is the key to the emotional lock. The perfect scabbard can match with more than one sword.”
“Like a master key.”
On the bed, Wu Jin continued to rub against the pillow and drift off into sleep.
Wei Shi suddenly opened his mouth and asked slowly, “What did you see when you entered the lock.”
Wu Jin yawned, “I saw what happened to you as a child... and there were also other children lining up to enter the transformation room.. it should be mixed in with your memories...”
Wei Shi suddenly reached out and pressed Wu Jin into his arms.
Wu Jin looked up, wanting to glance at the big boss again before going to sleep, but he was pressed down by the big boss and wasn’t allowed to look.
The last piece of evidence was finally placed there before him.
Wei Shi’s first transformation had been at the age of 16. In that segment with the transformation room, it hadn’t been Wei Shi’s memories, which meant that it could only be Wu Jin’s.
Wu Jin couldn’t breathe against the pillow and exhaled a breath damp with moisture. He patted his own lover’s waist, “It’s all in the past.”
Then, he lifted his head thoughtfully and tried to draw the big boss’s attention away from the ‘difficult past’ in the R-Code base. “Brother Wei, goodnight kiss?”
One minute later, Wu Jin was once again kissed into whimpering, and several attempts at counter-attacking ended in failure. He deeply reprimanded himself for being weak and addicted.
“You’re sleepy.” Wei Shi pronounced. “Your scales are out of tune.”
Wu Jin: “!!!”
The night was as deep as water.
Wu Jin finally fell asleep happily.
Beside the pillow, Wei Shi set the terminal to the lowest brightness level.
Researcher Song: Brother Wei, have you discovered the whereabouts of the ‘key’?
Researcher Song: Brother Wei, you... should already know who the key is. I can do the genetic matching tests here at any time. Also, you need to make a decision...
Wei Shi: No need for genetic testing. Also, the decision is up to him.
The man turned off the terminal.
At the head of the bed, the pillow had long been unwittingly taken away by Wu Jin. The man pillowed his head on his arm, and his other hand rubbed the side of Wu Jin’s neck where he’d once left a bite.
Genetics only determined that they were destined to meet. Everything after that had nothing to do with it.
The day after the fifth elimination match was over.
Two long months of vacation made the group of trainees completely let loose. There was beer, barbecue, and fried chicken piled up on plates and moved into the dorms.
Zoe headed to Caesar’s bedroom early in the morning and wasn’t surprised to catch sight of such a scene.
The fried chicken was soon seized from Caesar’s bedroom and quickly transferred to Zoe’s room. Wu Jin followed the fragrance and came out of the room, meeting Wen Lin’s lamenting gaze, “Fortunately, your captain isn’t here.”
Wu Jin finally reacted and moved swiftly to close the door of the big boss’s room behind him, acting as calm and composed as a rabbit.
At nine o’clock in the morning, the Pterosaur was still sleeping.
The pillow that no longer had a cover had been kicked to the bottom of Wu Jin’s bed with a claw. The robot that came to clean up the room could only pitifully look for the pillow on the ground.
The black cat looked weary as it bared its teeth and waved its paw at the newly installed camera.
After the program team kindly reminded Contestant Wei that his cat toyed with the cameras, the big boss had obviously taken some educational measures.
“This cat is so pitiful. In the morning, Contestant Wei confiscated all of its toys.” Wen Lin felt sorry for it.
After eating the fried chicken that the captain had confiscated, Wu Jin immediately went to find the program group’s logistics team.
“A 400,000 credit reward, right?” The Crosson financial officer checked it, then patted Wu Jin on the shoulder, “There’s no mistake. There should’ve been some rich person who helped you go up in the vote rankings. Here, this is your filthy rich supporter.”
Wu Jin looked at the homepage of this filthy rich supporter with the ID ‘Yu’, then sent a message to the company. Secretary Qu replied quickly, saying that she understood. Wu Jin only needed to focus on competing.
By the time Wu Jin returned to the Crosson South Tower, laughter that sounded like pigs being slaughtered burst out from the dorm next door.
“Oh, ho!” Ming Yao stuck his head directly from the window, “I caught Little Witch! Come and watch the variety show!”
On the screen was a replay of a past episode of <Go! Popular Youth>.
Caesar and Red were laughing endlessly, while Ming Yao, a second generation rich kid, boasted to Thin Fire, “I’ve seen this star before”, and “That one was hidden in the snow for a few years, then married someone my brother knows and immediately became popular.”
“Oh, this X. The host for this program isn’t native to the Federation, she’s from Azure Cosmos. The program group and the guests don’t dare to offend her, and it’s said that she does things both in the open and behind the scenes...”
At this time, the program was replaying the second round, where a group of stars had to go door to door in order to borrow ingredients and spices to host a barbecue.
The group of trainees beside the screen immediately fell into discussion.
“We can’t use our faces to borrow ingredients. Can we hunt?”, “We’re not out in the wilderness, and all the birds on the ground belong to farmers! How about we snatch up other guests’ ingredients... what? Not allowed to snatch?! In a variety show that doesn’t let us fight and won’t give us guns, we survival show contestants are completely useless!”
Wu Jin only discovered now that <Popular Youth> was an outdoor variety show.
This kind of variety show would have different tasks in each section, but the form wouldn’t change much. However, compared with indoor tasks, outdoor tasks were undoubtedly Wu Jin’s weakness.
He knew too little about current times.
Back then, he’d showed up at the White Moonlight Entertainment Building in a moment of inattention. After that, he had spent most of his time in the ivory tower that was the Crosson base. The number of times he’d gone out was very limited, and the only place where he could find his way around was in Azure Cosmos’ Floating City––
The alarm bells in Wu Jin’s heart rang out. Not mentioning anything else; he might not even know any of the traffic rules!!
Over the next week, he had to go out to walk around, so as not to be written up as <Surprise! A certain survival show contestant’s daily survival ability is worrying, and he might become a tramp after retirement>.
However, by the time Wu Jin went back to the dorms, another thing soon occupied his attention.
The little Pterosaur was still lying on the sofa sleeping soundly.
Starting from last night, this totaled up to about 12 hours of sleep. When he’d gotten the pet ownership card for the little Pterosaur, Wu Jin had carefully consulted the notes and learned that the oxygen of the blue planet was lower than that of its original time period. It was possible that it would sleep 8-10 hours a day due to insufficient oxygen, but 12 hours was beyond the scope of ‘healthy’.
Wu Jin shook the little Pterosaur. It fluttered its wings, then went back to sleeping on the collar of Wu Jin’s training jacket.
Wu Jin finally pulled up the terminal contact number that the staff of ‘Evolutionary Scale’ had left behind back then.
“Sleeping too much? Attacking pillows?” On the other side of the terminal, the staff member pondered the problem, “I know, are there any other Pterosaurs nearby?”
Wu Jin shook his head repeatedly.
“It could be lonely.” The lab researcher explained, “Take it out and let it meet some new friends.”
After the communication ended, Wu Jin fell into a daze before quickly offering the little Pterosaur a deep apology. He then opened up the terminal and started up a search.
––“Southern Cross Azhdarchid sister blind date~ [photo][photo], good character, gentle, and willing to play. Message if interested.”
That wouldn’t work, its wingspan was too big... it probably wouldn’t be interested in his own little Pterosaur!
––“13 spiced Peteinosaurus, shocking price. 30 credits for one, 100 credits for three.”
This one was already cooked. It couldn’t be a friend!
––“Exclusive reseller, Pterosaurs from 50 credits up...”
While Wu Jin was hesitating over whether or not to buy a companion for the little Pterosaur to play with, the bedroom door opened from the outside.
Wei Shi: “What is it.”
Wu Jin quickly stated the facts and reviewed his own failures as an owner.
The big boss understood and pressed on his terminal.
A luxury suspension car arrived quickly, coming to a stop outside the dorm window.
The windows buzzed, opening and rotating 90 degrees before flattening and connecting to the suspension car.
Wu Jin: “......” Windows in the 31st century could move! And the car looked very expensive––
Wei Shi gestured for Wu Jin to hand him the little Pterosaur, “Get in.”
Wu Jin followed behind him, dragging his feet slightly and filled with curiosity, “We... are we taking the little Pterosaur out for a walk? Helping him find a little buddy?”
Wei Shi nodded.
The interior of the car was dazzling and luxurious. Wu Jin couldn’t even blink when he saw it, “We’re just going out for a trip. Isn’t it too flashy to take this car? After all, it’s just taking the little Pterosaur out for a walk...”
The man turned the car key, took out two pairs of sunglasses, and handed one pair to Wu Jin. In the driver’s seat, Wei Shi’s facial features beneath the sunglasses were handsome and deep. His pure white shirt was partially unbuttoned, and his arm muscles powerful beneath the rolled up cuffs. There was nothing ‘low-key’ about his appearance.
Wei Shi: “Mm. Walking the Pterosaur. And walking you at the same time.”
Juurensha: Ohhhh sword and scabbard, so cool. But also, I hope nothing is wrong with the little Pterosaur!
xiin: haha, walking his boyfriend... cute