“Whether to expand the business or not aside.” Chi Yao pushed away his “own” face that was so close, “Next time, don’t come hugging me while wearing my face.”

Jing Xi: “…”

Just then, three little beans escaped back.

Chi Yao handed him the small jar, started the car, and took off.

The little beans hovered in front, text endlessly appearing on the virtual screens above their heads.

Chi Yao glanced over and complained: “Can’t you install voices for them?”

Jing Xi’s expression was bland: “Can consider it.”

Chi Yao paid attention to the surrounding situation, teasing: “Didn’t let you hug enough? Unhappy?”

Jing Xi checked the reports from the three little beans, responding casually: “If I said I’m unhappy, would you let me hug you?”

Chi Yao: “No.”

Jing Xi: “Then why did you say anything?”

Chi Yao smiled: “I just wanted to confirm if you’re really unhappy. If you’re unhappy, then I’m happy.”

Jing Xi: “…”

Essential things had changed quite a bit after all.

The journey was smooth, but just as the car was about to leave the base, it was suddenly intercepted by the base’s defense system.

This kind of important functional base was generally equipped with a complete defense system. They’d already passed verification when entering—normally leaving would be easier than entering.

Chi Yao’s gaze swept over that row of heavy laser cannon muzzles. He was forced to land at the designated location to accept inspection.

The checkpoint worker was a garrison soldier assigned here, now fully armed and walking over.

The car window was knocked. Chi Yao slowly rolled down the window and looked outside.

This garrison soldier was a beta in his forties, reeking of hooligan and thug, completely different from the upstanding soldier boys like Fei Long.

“Show your terminal!” The beta knocked his knuckles on the car door, saying impatiently.

Chi Yao extended his right hand.

The scanning device swept over the terminal, displaying identity information on the virtual screen.

The beta stared at it for a moment: “Take off your mask for me!”

Chi Yao rested his hand on the car window, smiling: “I have an infectious disease. You sure you want me to take off my mask?”

Upon hearing this, the beta’s expression darkened: “I told you to take it off, so take it off!”

Chi Yao hooked his finger on the edge of the mask. His gaze caught sight of the other’s hand quietly moving to the sidearm at his waist. He slowly pulled it down: “Is this okay?”

Seeing Chi Yao’s appearance, the beta couldn’t help but step back.

His face was covered in pustules, his lower lip so thick it almost connected with his chin, and at the corner of his mouth was a ridiculously huge mole.

The lower half of his face ruined everything.

The beta quickly circled around the front of the car to the passenger side: “Where’s your terminal?!”

Chi Yao pulled up his mask, looking over nonchalantly.

His terminal was different from ordinary ones. If checked carefully, they’d probably be exposed.

Jing Xi’s eyes narrowed slightly as he extended his hand.

The beta saw this differently styled terminal and squinted.

“Yours isn’t the civilian version?!”

Jing Xi looked straight ahead, his voice cool: “It is the civilian version.”

Beta: “Then how is it this style?!”

“I thought it looked ugly, so I spent a million at a terminal beauty shop to modify it.” Jing Xi’s gaze shifted to him. “What, does Imperial law prohibit modifying terminal shells?”

A million?!

The beta’s pupils suddenly contracted.

Chi Yao: “…”

Acting so convincingly—pretty good, Xiao Xi.

During the conversation, Xiao Hei’s notification sound flashed through Chi Yao’s mind.

[Scanner program has been cracked, data successfully intercepted.]

Chi Yao hummed a tune casually, his fingers tapping on the steering wheel in a specific pattern a few times.

Hearing the hint, Jing Xi asked blandly: “Finished checking? I still need to rush to discuss business with someone.”

The beta scanned his terminal with the scanner, checking the personal information on it and looking up to compare with Jing Xi’s appearance.

An utterly unremarkable face.

Beta: “What are you doing here?”

Jing Xi: “Taking my driver to see a doctor.”

Beta: “Going to see a doctor instead of a hospital in the middle of the night, coming here?!”

Jing Xi sneered: “This is the only time I have free, and besides, aren’t hospitals places for the poor?”

Chi Yao: “…”

Such an insufferable laugh.

The beta couldn’t find anything and walked to the side, speaking low into the communicator.

In the temporary office, Fu Jiubing heard the intelligence from the base guards and said loudly: “Detain them first!”

The beta’s lowered voice came from the other end: “Looks like a big boss with strong financial power. Afraid he’s not easy to provoke.”

Fu Jiubing: “I don’t care if he’s a big boss or not! Detain them first!”

Beta: “If you have evidence now, hurry up. If not, I’ll let them go. I won’t take this responsibility for you.”

“Damn.” Fu Jiubing patted Liu Sichen’s chair, saying urgently, “How’s the investigation going?! I want photos of the invaders!”

Liu Sichen had just finished checking all locations clean.

He turned his office chair to look at him and spread his hands: “There were no invaders from start to finish.”

Fu Jiubing frowned: “No?!”

“Look at this.” Liu Sichen pulled up the data. “All the problems started with abnormal data from these three patrol AIs. Look at their movement trajectories—”

Fu Jiubing said irritably: “Don’t tell me the process, I only want results!”

Liu Sichen said with a wooden face: “It’s just that the main control system aged and malfunctioned, causing abnormalities in the internal subsystems of three AIs, directly leading to tonight’s accident.”

Fu Jiubing was thoughtful, looking at the other programmers.

“What about you?”

The programmer team leader said hurriedly: “Our investigation results are consistent with Professor Liu’s.”

Fu Jiubing was silent for a moment, then strode outside.

“Return to base!”

As soon as he left, the low pressure in the entire office immediately dissipated.

The programmers breathed sighs of relief, thanking Liu Sichen one after another.

“If not for you, we might have lost our lives today.”

“I was almost scared to death!”

“Fortunately there were no invaders, otherwise we’d all suffer.”

Liu Sichen crossed his legs and waved at them: “Take advantage of now to go rest. Who knows what other troubles are coming next.”

Hearing this, the group of programmers immediately ran off.

The office soon had only Qiu Tianlin and Liu Sichen left.

Qiu Tianlin put down his teacup and stood up deliberately to straighten his clothes.

“You should also go back to the dormitory to rest.”

“Professor!”

Just after walking out two steps, he was called back by Liu Sichen.

Qiu Tianlin had his hands in his suit pants pockets, saying impassively: “Something else?”

Liu Sichen sat in his chair looking at his back.

“How many years have you been here serving as consultant for this project?”

Qiu Tianlin: “Two years.”

Liu Sichen pressed on: “Then you must really hope this project can proceed smoothly, right?”

Qiu Tianlin turned his head to look at him: “What do you mean?”

Liu Sichen smiled: “Because if it goes smoothly, you can be transferred back to Capital Star early and not stay in this godforsaken place.”

Qiu Tianlin turned his head and walked outside.

“For me, staying anywhere is the same.”

After the door closed, the smile on Liu Sichen’s face instantly disappeared.

He tapped lightly on the virtual keyboard, pulling up an image he’d intercepted.

This was captured from E098’s surveillance—the image was very blurry, with AIs running everywhere and broken specimen jars all over the ground.

In the upper left corner of the image was a figure the size of a pinky nail, only vaguely showing a baseball cap and black long hair.

Liu Sichen stared at the image for a moment and pressed the delete key.

Base exit.

Chi Yao waited a moment, tapped the steering wheel, and urged: “Soldier brother, can we go now?”

The beta saw no reply from Fu Jiubing’s side and felt uncertain himself: “Wait a bit longer.”

Chi Yao drawled slowly: “I can wait, but the boss’s client can’t. If this several hundred million deal falls through and causes me to lose my job, I’ll have to file a complaint against you~”

The beta glanced with peripheral vision at Jing Xi sitting there saying nothing.

Although the other clearly looked utterly unremarkable, his entire bearing was very strong.

Though he couldn’t smell pheromones, just one look coming over made him feel afraid.

This person was definitely not easy to provoke.

The beta waited left and right but didn’t receive Fu Jiubing’s reply. Afraid of causing himself trouble, he waved them through with a gesture.

Successfully drove out.

Chi Yao pulled off his mask and tore off a layer of biological membrane from his face, casually tossing it in the small trash can.

“Quick, look—do I have any rashes on my face?”

Jing Xi: “…”

He glanced over: “You usually pay this much attention to maintenance?”

“Your face is quite expensive.” Chi Yao put the mask back on. “Waiting for you to repay the debt.”

This again.

Jing Xi said leisurely: “A normal alpha wouldn’t save large quantities of another alpha’s photos in their photo album.”

The implication was obvious.

From the past, he’d felt Chi Yao’s attitude was ambiguous.

Every time they clashed, he never saw him go for the kill—like teasing a cat, playing and then leaving.

Chasing him for photos too.

Would a normal person save photos of their arch-enemy?

Too many similar things made his impression of Chi Yao very poor.

But thinking back now.

If the other wasn’t using philandering tactics to toy with him, could it be he unconsciously had a good impression of him?

Just thinking about this and that, he heard “his own” soft laugh in his ear.

Chi Yao: “Look at me from head to toe—where do I look like a normal alpha?”

Jing Xi: “…”

Fine, you win.

Thinking of the reagent bottle they’d retrieved, Chi Yao floored the gas pedal.

The hover car traced a beautiful arc through the night sky, heading straight toward the hotel.

“Hey, you said before you had a reliable medical team. No follow-up?” Chi Yao asked.

Currently the only one he could use was Chun Qin, but Chun Qin still had many things on hand and couldn’t always follow him around.

After asking for a long time, he didn’t hear Jing Xi make a sound.

Fell asleep?

Chi Yao was just about to reach out to tease him.

Then he saw the other propping his chin while looking out the window, tossing out randomly: “Rotten wood cannot be carved.”

Chi Yao: “…Who are you insulting?”

Jing Xi turned his head to look at him, his voice chilly: “As a playboy, you’re extremely unqualified.”

Chi Yao: “…”

Just this sentence infinitely looped in Chi Yao’s mind during the latter half of the journey.

Stopping the car, he grabbed Jing Xi who was about to get out: “Then you tell me, what qualities should a qualified playboy have?”

Jing Xi casually picked up the baseball cap and put it on him, opening the door to get out.

“First, must have a brain that understands human speech.”

Chi Yao: “…”

This kid pretended to be a big boss all night and now he’s gotten cocky?

On the way back after getting out of the car, Chi Yao recalled all their conversations from the evening.

Pondering which sentence he hadn’t understood.

But after this round of self-criticism, he found there wasn’t one.

It was just that little punk Jing Xi deliberately picking a fight.

The sky outside was still very dark. With three little beans, they easily avoided everyone’s sight and returned to the hotel room.

Jing Xi nimbly climbed through the window. The first thing he did was go to the kitchen to get water and release the small fish.

After messing around all night, the small fish started floating belly-up again, looking like it was almost done for.

Jing Xi carefully poked its body, afraid of rubbing off its scales.

The small fish bounced once, indicating it was still alive, then lay limp and motionless again.

“Should we find an oxygen pump?” Jing Xi looked toward Chi Yao who’d followed in.

Chi Yao grabbed the fish from the bowl and lifted it up to shake it.

“This small—wonder if fish soup would taste good?”

Jing Xi was alarmed and grabbed his wrist.

“Put it down quickly!”

Knowing Chi Yao was joking, he was still nervous—what if he accidentally squeezed it to death?

“Why so nervous?” Chi Yao’s smile was insufferable. “It’s just a fish.”

Jing Xi frowned: “You know it’s not just a fish.”

Chi Yao: “Then what if I’m hungry?”

Jing Xi: “…”

Five minutes later, Chi Yao teased the fish in the bowl, watching Jing Xi wearing an apron standing before the stove at a loss, laughing very happily.

“Hurry up.”

Jing Xi took a deep breath, cut through the large shrimp with one slash, dealt with the vegetables in two or three moves, heated the pan and poured in oil.

Boom!

The oil pan caught fire.

Jing Xi had seen big scenes. This small flame was nothing to him.

He calmly prepared to pour the vegetables in, but his hand was grabbed and someone pressed against him from behind.

“Hey, I want to eat noodles, not eat myself.” Chi Yao’s other hand passed through his waist side to grab the pot lid to cover it, lowering the heat. “Are you taking revenge on me?”

For an instant Jing Xi’s heart jumped, having the illusion of being hugged by him from behind.

Before he could recover from this feeling, he was turned around by Chi Yao.

The moment he saw his own face, his accelerated heartbeat suddenly calmed down.

Chi Yao looked at his bangs and eyebrows: “Just because my body has strong recovery ability, you mess around? My hair growth speed is the same as ordinary people’s.”

Jing Xi said with a wooden face: “…There’s hair growth serum.”

Chi Yao laughed in exasperation: “So burning off a bit doesn’t matter? Believe it or not, I’ll beat you up?”

Jing Xi: “…”

After checking, Chi Yao’s gaze swept over the messy countertop and picked up a shrimp head: “Young master, were the shrimp you ate before all cut in half like this?”

Jing Xi: “…”

Chi Yao: “This vegetable stem is ten centimeters long. You want me to gnaw it myself?”

Jing Xi: “…”

Chi Yao: “This fist-sized pork—you were just planning to put it directly in the pot?”

Jing Xi: “…”

Chi Yao reached out to grab the fish: “Better make fish soup instead.”

Jing Xi immediately stopped him: “Teach me.”

Chi Yao’s gaze was skeptical: “You can learn?”

Jing Xi nodded confidently: “I’m very good at learning.”

Ten minutes later—

Jing Xi gripped the kitchen knife. Chi Yao stood behind him, holding his hands, teaching him hand-in-hand how to cut vegetables.

Chi Yao: “Cut into sections this small. Got it?”

Jing Xi looked at his hands, the corners of his lips unconsciously curving up slightly.

“No.”

Chi Yao stopped and turned his head to look at him: “Are you provoking me?”

Jing Xi looked back directly: “Then you do it yourself?”

Chi Yao: “…”

After struggling to cook two bowls, Chi Yao had already been angered full by this stupid disciple.

“Whoever marries you in the future, heh.”

Jing Xi picked up the vinegar bottle and poured it into the bowl.

Although it passed through his hands, essentially it was still Chi Yao who made it.

“I can compensate them in other ways.”

Chi Yao raised an eyebrow: “Other ways?”

Jing Xi picked up noodles to blow on them.

“Find someone who loves money. I’m happy, they’re happy.”

Chi Yao: “…”

You probably have some misunderstanding about happiness.