Free Web NovelThe roasted meat on the plate was still sizzling with fat on the surface. Just looking at it was enough to make anyone’s appetite rise.
Xi Heyan first cut the meat up with a knife and fork, stripped out all the bones, and divided it into bite-sized pieces. Only after it was easy to eat did he push the plate in front of Wen Yuzhi.
He looked for all the world like a servant waiting on a prince.
And Wen “Little Prince” Yuzhi, meanwhile, only began curiously tasting Xi Heyan’s handiwork after Xi Heyan had taken care of everything for him.
The moment he bit into it, Wen Yuzhi’s eyes lit up.
Crisp on the outside, tender on the inside. The surface was roasted to a fragrant finish, while the meat inside stayed soft, with savory juices caught between the layers.
“How is it?” Xi Heyan asked from the side, pretending to sound calm.
“It’s delicious!” Wen Yuzhi gave the answer without a second of hesitation.
Xi Heyan’s roasted rabbit was in no way inferior to the Gumu’s cooking, and those Gumu had worked in the Saint Clan palace for many years. When it came to cooking, they were unquestionably professionals.
Hearing Wen Yuzhi’s praise, Xi Heyan said nothing, but a faint smile surfaced in his eyes.
As long as it tasted good. Otherwise, he would really have embarrassed himself in front of Wen Yuzhi.
Xi Heyan had always considered himself the sort of person who did not care much what others thought or how they evaluated him. Praise or criticism alike—he never took either too much to heart.
And yet, hearing Wen Yuzhi say the meat he roasted was delicious gave him a strange sense of satisfaction he could not quite put into words.
Maybe it was because the way Wen Yuzhi looked right now was just too cute.
His snow-white cheeks were puffed out slightly. Wen Yuzhi was very focused while he ate, taking the pieces Xi Heyan had cut for him and putting them into his mouth one bite at a time.
Even though he was not like those food-streamers who commented in detail on the taste and texture of every dish, Wen Yuzhi’s shining eyes and the way he ate every last bit of it said more than enough about how much he liked this roasted rabbit.
Xi Heyan himself probably had not even noticed that while he watched Wen Yuzhi eat, there had been a smile in his eyes the entire time.
It was only after he had eaten his fill that Wen Yuzhi realized he had finished the whole plate, while Xi Heyan, standing to the side, had not eaten a thing from beginning to end.
Thinking of how short food was at the base, Wen Yuzhi said with some frustration, “I think I ate all of it...”
Xi Heyan quickly said, “I already drank a tube of nutrient solution just now.”
Which meant... this plate of roasted rabbit had been prepared just for him?
Wen Yuzhi paused, then tilted his head to look at the man beside him.
“Thank you.”
Maybe it was because he had already seen the cold, guarded look on Wen Yuzhi’s face earlier, but now, with Wen Yuzhi looking over at him with those bright eyes and that soft gaze...
Xi Heyan pressed his lips together, and the tips of his ears hidden under his hair began to feel hot.
“No need to thank me... We’re friends, aren’t we?”
Even though before this, they had never even met face-to-face.
But in a sense, their relationship really did count as friendship...
Wen Yuzhi also thought of the way he usually chatted with Xi Heyan over their light-brains.
So he immediately agreed, “Of course we’re friends. You’re the only friend I’ve made all these years.”
...His only friend?
Xi Heyan’s eyes widened slightly, and for a moment he looked stunned.
It felt as though the heat at the tips of his ears was about to spread farther. A suspicious flush even seemed to rise over that cold white skin.
But Xi Heyan recovered himself very quickly. Turning his head away, he said softly in a low, hoarse voice, “You’re my only friend too.”
.........
After Wen Yuzhi finished eating, Xi Heyan took away the dirty plate and also brought him a new set of toiletries.
The towels and toothbrush were all new. Xi Heyan often went out to take bounty jobs, and most of the time he had to stay in the wilderness where there was no one around, so he usually kept things like that prepared. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
And now they happened to come in handy.
Wen Yuzhi realized that he did not have to do anything at all. Xi Heyan had already taken care of everything.
The room had been cleaned spotless, and there was even another bed laid out on the floor with blankets.
At first Wen Yuzhi had wanted to help, but Xi Heyan stopped him.
“The hunting team won’t be going out again today. You can get some rest on the bed first.”
Fatigue had already shown on Wen Yuzhi’s face.
He himself had not noticed it, but Xi Heyan had.
Without another word, Xi Heyan had Wen Yuzhi sit on the bed and even stuffed a pillow into his arms.
Wen Yuzhi was still a little dazed, and Xi Heyan had already arranged everything for him.
Holding the soft pillow, sitting on the soft bed, the drowsiness he had been ignoring before suddenly crashed over him in that instant.
By the time Xi Heyan came out of the bathroom after washing up, the little one who had still been talking with him just moments ago was already asleep.
Only, Wen Yuzhi was not sleeping on the bed.
He was sleeping on the floor.
Xi Heyan was used to sleeping on the ground, but Wen Yuzhi was different. He was clearly a little young master who had never suffered much, and Xi Heyan had never intended for him to sleep on the floor.
But what Wen Yuzhi had been thinking was that he was a guest. There was no reason for him to keep sleeping in someone else’s bed after the room’s owner had already returned.
So, hugging the pillow, he had moved himself from the bed down onto the floor.
Because he was just too sleepy, even though there was only a blanket under him and it was not particularly comfortable, Wen Yuzhi fell asleep almost immediately.
When Xi Heyan came out, Wen Yuzhi’s eyes were shut tight. His long, curled lashes hung down, and the shadows they cast fell across that snow-white, soft skin.
Xi Heyan’s gaze shifted slightly. Then he stepped forward and slowly lifted the sleeping boy from the floor and onto the bed.
Looking at Wen Yuzhi asleep, Xi Heyan knew exactly how beautiful those pale golden eyes were when they opened, and how, when they focused on him completely, his reflection would appear clearly in them.
Too many things had happened today.
Meeting Wen Yuzhi had been completely outside Xi Heyan’s expectations.
He had never imagined he would see Wen Yuzhi on Blackrock Star.
Even less had he imagined that one day he would bring Wen Yuzhi into his room and let him stay there.
All of it felt like some absurd dream.
It made Xi Heyan think back to when he and Wen Yuzhi had first met.
He had just finished a bounty at the time, only for his light-brain to suddenly pop up with a friend request.
And the light-brain chip he used had been one his mother Lena had developed before she died.
But after so many years, a chip from twenty years ago was already outdated and obsolete. The light-brains on the market had all long since switched to the newest chips. Hardly anyone still used something that old.
And yet the person adding him was using the exact same model.
Out of curiosity, Xi Heyan accepted the request.
And the first message the other person sent him was a very polite hello.
After a moment of silence, Xi Heyan replied with a hello of his own.
After that exchange came a long stretch of silence.
Neither of them said anything more, and the chat remained frozen on Xi Heyan’s hello.
Until a few days later, when Xi Heyan was lying in bed getting ready to sleep, the other person suddenly sent him a message.
[Are you there?]
[What is it?]
[Can I talk to you for a little while?]
...Talk?
Xi Heyan glanced at the time displayed at the top of the light-brain. It was already very late, and he still had an assessment the next morning.
So Xi Heyan chose to ask:
[Where is your family?]
The other side sent back:
[Gone.]
[Then don’t you have any friends?]
[I don’t have any friends.]
Seeing that, Xi Heyan thought, where did this pitiful kid come from?
But he had no particular interest in staying up half the night playing warm, supportive big brother to somebody.
So Xi Heyan had been about to close the chat window when the other person sent him another message.
[I heard there are paid chat services online. Could you spare an hour? I can pay you.]
After sending that, the other person seemed to feel that the line sounded too much like something an online scammer would say, so another message quickly followed.
[I’m not a scammer. I have money. I really can pay.]
Xi Heyan: “......”
Were people online these days really this easy to fool?
No need to make up elaborate scams at all—fat little lambs just delivered themselves right to the door.
Xi Heyan had already been a little sleepy, but that one line instantly drove all of it away.
Looking at the words in the chat box, everything between the lines gave off the impression of someone innocent and easily tricked.
...Probably just some kid who wasn’t very old, right?
That was what Xi Heyan thought.
No family, no friends, and if he wanted someone to talk to, all he could do was turn to a stranger online.
For no clear reason, Xi Heyan thought of himself back then.
After the Xi family fell, he had lost every last relative he had. Completely. He had been left with nothing.
It had been a very painful time.
So Xi Heyan actually could understand that desperate need to find someone and talk.
Maybe it was because of that faint trace of empathy for his own past self, but in the end, Xi Heyan agreed to the request.
And he did not take any money.
...Consider it charity, he had thought. Better that than let the kid get scammed by someone else.
That was what Xi Heyan told himself.
It was only later that he learned that day had been Wen Yuzhi’s eighteenth birthday.
But at the time, not a single person in the entire Wen family had remembered that it was his birthday. Wen Yuzhi himself did not care much either. He bought a small cake, and while he was choosing it, the cake shop was also promoting a new kind of liquor-filled chocolate.
Buy one cake, and you got a box of the chocolates for free.
Wen Yuzhi had never eaten liquor-filled chocolate before. He originally only wanted the cake, but the clerk said, “Take it home and try it. It’s Valentine’s Day today. Maybe chocolate will bring you good luck.”
Wen Yuzhi knew that was just the kind of sales pitch used to move product.
But when it came time to pay, he still took the box of chocolates with him.
Good luck.
If those chocolates really could bring him good luck, that would be nice.
And that night, Wen Yuzhi sat alone in his room, finished the cake by himself, and spent his eighteenth birthday alone.
He made a wish.
But just like every other time, the wish did not come true.
In reality, he was still all alone in the dark room, with only a pile of stuffed toys to keep him company.
Wen Yuzhi could not say whether it was disappointment or something else.
After all, he had already been disappointed so many times. He just felt a little sad.
So he simply sat on the floor hugging a stuffed toy and opened the beautifully packaged chocolates.
Almost in the blink of an eye, he ate the whole box.
Because he felt sad, Wen Yuzhi wanted something sweet to distract himself.
What he forgot, though, was that the clerk had warned him the chocolates had a fairly high alcohol content, and that he should eat no more than two at a time.
Wen Yuzhi had finished the entire box.
He had never touched alcohol before, and he had not realized the alcohol inside chocolates could make a person drunk.
He did not even know he was already drunk. He only felt that his head was a little light and hazy.
In that slightly dazed state, Wen Yuzhi opened his light-brain and saw the new friend he had just added.
He was a stranger from the internet.
But Wen Yuzhi remembered how people online often shared that they would open up to online friends. With the network between them, neither person knew the other in real life, so even after pouring your heart out, there was no need to worry about it affecting your actual life.
Thinking that, Wen Yuzhi cautiously opened the chat window. Urged on by the alcohol, he found a bit of courage he normally did not have.
That bit of courage led him to send the message asking if Xi Heyan was there.
Wen Yuzhi had already thought it through.
There were supposedly paid chat services online where you could pay someone to talk with you.
He was not short on money. If the other person did not want to do it, he could simply pay for the other person’s time.
And that was how Xi Heyan ended up running into one foolish little fat lamb in the middle of the night.
From that day on, the two of them gradually became like other online friends, chatting from time to time and sharing things that happened around them.
And later...
their relationship grew closer and closer. Nominally, they were still online friends who had never met, but in the way they spoke day to day, they had become much more like close friends who could tell each other anything.
The old Xi Heyan never would have imagined that one day he would talk so eagerly online with a complete stranger.
He had even started entertaining the thought of wanting to meet the other person.
Only before Xi Heyan had even sorted out why that thought had appeared, he and Wen Yuzhi had already met unexpectedly on Blackrock Star.
Every plan had been thrown into disorder.
Ordinarily, Xi Heyan disliked that feeling of losing control, but...
listening to the breathing at his side, feeling that the ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) room that had once belonged to him alone now held the presence of another person, Xi Heyan discovered that he did not dislike any of it at all.
Deep in his heart, there was even a subtle sense of relief.
Relief that Wen Yuzhi had fallen onto Blackrock Star. Even more relief that they had been able to meet here, and that he had also gotten to see how adorable Wen Yuzhi looked after becoming smaller.
Perhaps because his mind was too full, Xi Heyan—who in the past could fall asleep quickly even in the worst conditions as long as he needed to recover his strength—found himself lying on the floor tonight, unable to sleep for the first time in a long while.
