pr: roki
It had been an hour or so since Chu Si and the others had returned to the White Wolf Ship.
As for where exactly this hour or so was spent, it was a long story.
First, Captain Shao Heng expressed that he needed some alone time to calm down. Being captured by Chu Si and furiously brainwashed reminded him of the fear he’d felt when he’d attended the military academy and been called to an office by a general and the dean in charge of the entire combat department. In addition, he needed to take a few minutes to reflect on how he’d somehow been converted into one of Sa’e Yang’s accomplices just by stepping in and out of a room and even felt it was only natural and couldn’t be fought against, that not becoming an accomplice was an intolerable insult to the heavens.
This development was too much of a shock. He needed a moment to digest all of it.
More importantly, he’d hung from his arms and his legs for so long. His tendons were all twisted and he needed to rest for a while.
But these weren’t even the main points. What really took a long time was Mr. Sa’e Yang’s face!
Shao Heng’s so-called digestion and reflection didn’t take long, only ten minutes. When he finally overcame his psychological shadow and reopened the door next door, Chu Si was pinching Sa’e Yang’s face.
Just as Captain Shao hesitantly walked over, Chu Si stood up straight, brushing away some sculptor from his fingers. He said, “Alright, it’s about done.” As he spoke, he took a step aside and lifted his chin at Shao Heng, then asked, “Can you help me take a look?”
Since he’d already joined the gang, he needed to have the necessary conscientiousness and integrity. Shao Heng coughed and looked over towards Sa’e Yang’s face.
“What’s wrong?” Chu Si saw his abruptly paralyzed face. “Is there a problem?”
Shao Heng grimaced. “A big problem, Executive. If you take him over there like this, I guarantee that Zilder Feng and the others will think you’ve kicked Mr. Yang to the curb and replaced him with a new partner.”
Chu Si frowned slightly. “…It can’t be, is the difference so big?”
As the person doing the work, he’d shaped each part one by one. His impression stayed on the details, making it difficult to see the likeness of the overall image. Executive Chu, who’d always been self-confident, felt that he had sculpted this face perfectly, exactly the same as before.
“The features look similar individually, but when put together they look a little strange.” Shao Heng thought for a moment, then gestured and said, “The cheekbones are a little more prominent.”
Upon hearing this description, Chu Si made a slight modification.
Shao Heng: “En… make the cheeks a little thinner.”
Chu Si continued.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“The bridge of the nose should be wider.”
“No no no, a little narrower.”
Finally, the impatient Executive Chu gave a tsk and stuffed the bottle into Shao Heng’s hands. “You do it.”
Shao Heng: “…” How great, a sudden misfortune! Who would dare to poke and pinch this person’s face like you do? He’s Sa’e Yang, don’t joke with me!
He looked at the expressionless Sa’e Yang for two seconds, then silently placed the bottle in his hands and turned to leave. “Actually, it’s good as it is. Why don’t we just go?” After all, weren’t Zilder Feng and the other old guys blind?
When he walked to the door, he couldn’t help but turn his head and ask Chu Si, “So why didn’t you just use a mask to begin with, Executive?”
Chu Si thought, you’re really interesting. Only once you guys chased us to your doorstep did I remember Sa’e Yang needed to be disguised, where in the world would I find a mask? But would Chu Si speak about such an unimportant matter? No. So he only glanced at Shao Heng, waved a hand at him, and said coldly, “Leave, I’ll make some more modifications.”
These modifications took nearly an hour.
In the end, Sa’e Yang laughed and leaned back on his hands, saying, “Executive, I’ve noticed that you’re actually quite enthusiastic about this matter.” He lifted his chin slightly, eyes half narrowed as he allowed Chu Si to casually smear sculpting agent on his face.
“What matter?” Chu Si patted his chin, examined his face, and compared the symmetry on both sides with the bridge of his nose as a center line.
Sa’e Yang said, “Dedication to make me ugly. You look a little smug and pursed your lips three times just now, trying not to smile. I saw it all.”
Chu Si’s fingers paused, and he lowered his eyelids with an unkind expression. “I don’t mind being deprived of this pleasure at all. How about you do this yourself?”
“No.” Sa’e Yang bluntly refused.
“Then endure it.” Chu Si shook the bottle in his hand and sprayed a little on his fingertips, calmly complaining, “I knew I should’ve molded you into a fat man and added two long scars. That way the scars would’ve overshadowed your features, and if a slight discrepancy appeared, you could just say you got thinner. It would’ve been a hundred times less troublesome.”
Sa’e Yang pouted. “I would’ve been fine with that. I don’t look into mirrors anyway. But Executive, could you bear such a thing?”
Chu Si’s fingers pressed against Sa’e Yang’s chin as he casually responded. “Why wouldn’t I be able to?”
“Because your preferences, likes, and dislikes are essentially determined by appearance,” Sa’e Yang drawled. “Food, clothes, and people are all the same. You have no appetite for ugly-looking food and shove it all in my face. You’ll only unwillingly wear unattractive clothes, and the first thing you do when you settle down on the White Wolf Ship is to change. As for people—”
He smiled when he reached that point, looking at Chu Si with a meaningful pause.
Chu Si lifted his eyelids and met his gaze. “Are you speaking in a roundabout way to bait me into complimenting you on your good looks, Mr. Sa’e Yang?”
“Are you speaking in a roundabout way to admit that you like me, Executive Chu?”
Chu Si watched him for a while, laughed once, then continued to use the sculpting agent in his hand. “If you must compare yourself with food and clothing… then yes, compared to burnt cod and shrimp, you’re more likable.”
He took a step back and admired the masterpiece he’d spent nearly an hour creating, then found a portable medical kit in the room and put a few extra bottles of sculpting agent inside. He said, “But I’d still like to make a correction. We’ve known and been provoking each other for more than forty years. You’ve long since lost your appearance in my eyes, Mr. Sa’e Yang. Whether your face is round or flat, the one on the wanted posters, or a fat man with two scars, it doesn’t matter to me.”
He carried the medical kit to a cabinet near the door, but as soon as he grabbed the door handle, he heard Sa’e Yang’s casual voice drift over from behind. “I think it matters quite a lot. For example, you definitely wouldn’t be able to make yourself kiss a fat man with two scars, or this face that you’ve uglified with your own two hands, which I find very problematic.”
Chu Si: “…”
His movements paused for a moment. He calmly opened the door to the hospital ward, then turned around and walked back to Sa’e Yang. With a calm expression, he spoke. “Generally speaking, the phrase ‘definitely wouldn’t’ only has a provocative effect on people who are naturally rebellious, like you. For rational adults, like me, it doesn’t have much of an impact. However, seeing as I even spoke the word ‘moved’ earlier—”
“—I’ll reluctantly play along with you for once.” Chu Si said, lowering his head to touch the corner of Sa’e Yang’s mouth.
It was a one-touch kiss, even a little playful, but unusually neat and soft.
Chu Si immediately stood up and said, “Move your legs, get ready to go.”
After speaking, he turned around and walked towards the door.
Before he had taken two steps, he felt Sa’e Yang lazily follow him and say from behind, “Executive, you’re unusually docile today.”
Next door, Shao Heng, who’d used this hour or so to take a nap with the door open, just happened to wake up. Upon hearing movement on Chu Si’s side, he walked outside, but just as he dazedly stretched halfway out the door, he’d vaguely heard this sentence. He immediately straightened up. “…” How the fuck was he supposed to interpret the word ‘docile’?
Sa’e Yang asked again, “Can you stay like this?”
Chu Si picked up the medical kit and walked out of the room without looking back. “No.”
Sa’e Yang’s eyes curved as he laughed.
Shao Heng just happened to see him laughing, and his left foot almost stepped on his right. He staggered a little before he could correct his steps.
“Have you been drinking?” Chu Si glanced at him.
“No, I’m just not awake yet.” Shao Heng said with a paralyzed face.
The three were sent back downstairs by the teleportation pad and got into the aircraft they had arrived in.
Chu Si glanced at the still-flashing work signals in the distance and asked Shao Heng, “The rescue teams haven’t left yet?”
“Any other fragment would’ve been finished long ago, but this one is special. After all, the military hospital still has some military establishments here, so besides rescuing, the teams have to carefully inspect them.” Shao Heng found a place to collapse on in the aircraft cabin and leaned a pillow behind his back, saying, “Turn on autopilot. It’s not far anyway, and I can’t seem to get rid of my drowsiness—”
On the way to find Old Master Shao before, he’d slept on and off many times, but Sa’e Yang had remained awake. Was this why Sa’e Yang appeared to be even more tired than him after the leaps? Shao Heng guessed so in his heart.
There were too many urgent matters before, and seeing Elder Shao was quite exciting, so he hadn’t slept. Now that the fatigue after the leap had taken over again, his entire body felt a little lethargic.
He yawned and closed his eyes as he nestled into a seat.
Chu Si said, “By the way, didn’t you say that Old Master Shao had run into some trouble?”
As soon as this topic was brought up, Shao Heng became a little more spirited again. He corrected his expression and said, “When we found my old man, his condition wasn’t quite right. Guess what the medical capsule’s judgment was? It said that he had undergone memory cutting!”
“Memory cutting?”
“Yes, isn’t that strange? I tried asking him about it afterward. He said that because there are some things that are easy for others to exploit if kept, it’s better to get rid of them completely. But the cuts had already been made, so the old man himself couldn’t say exactly what happened.”
Shao Heng said, “But there are people looking for him, I’m sure of that. And those people do not have good intentions, the old man himself knows it well. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have hid himself so deeply. I’m sure he must know who the other side is, what purpose they have, but I asked him in an indirect way several times, yet he refused to tell me, insisting on waiting a little longer! Ah— I’m worried to death!” Shao Heng wiped his forehead and said to Chu Si, “What do you think he’s waiting for? Some opportunity? Some person? Why don’t you help me brainwash the old man, Executive?”
“…” Chu Si glanced at him, but had some thoughts in mind.
Intuition told him that what Old Master Shao knew was very crucial.
loop: sorry for the late updates recently, and no chapters for the next two weeks as I’ve got some irl school things coming up! 
Thank you for the chapter! Poor Shao Heng. I wonder what the difference was when Old Master Shao was debugging our MC. Think this’ll come back to bite them later?
Good luck with school!
Thanks for the chapter! I love how soft Chu Si and Sa’e Yang are acting.
Don’t worry about not being able to post, don’t stress yourself, school’s important!
thanks for the chapter!
take all the time you need, you’re a treasure anyway!
Having any sort of loving interaction between Chu Si and Sa’e Yang turns me into a pigeon who’s eating crumbs 🙏🙏
Thank you for the chapters! And good luck with school! We are happy enough with just these chapters with kisses between executive and Sa’e <3
Now I wonder if Chu si and Sa’e Yang ever had memory cutting as well.
:0 I am also super curious about who the person in the ship was (that disappeared with the paper and smelled like smoke). I keep thinking it might be Sa’e Yang, Chu Si or Chu Si’s papa jumping back/forward in time?