Jian Wenxi sat on the bed, his cheeks very pale, his lips also lacking color. His eyes stared at the ground in a daze, as if he really wasn’t feeling well.
After hearing the sound of Yun Xunlan entering, he suddenly stood up, staring nervously at Yun Xunlan for a moment before his gaze passed over Yun Xunlan to look at the taller blue-eyed alpha behind him.
The man was also looking at him, his gaze very cold, his expression condescending. Although his eyes were clearly like a frozen sea surface, Jian Wenxi felt they looked even darker than his own black pupils.
“Yu Chen.” Yun Xunlan turned around and said to the man stuck at the doorway, “I want to speak privately with Wenxi for a few words. It won’t take more than five minutes. Please wait outside.”
Yu Chen frowned, then looked up at Jian Wenxi, whose face was written all over with “unease” and “fear.” He stepped back and agreed quietly: “Okay.”
“Click—”
The door was gently closed in front of him, followed immediately by the sound of it being locked.
“Yun Xunlan…”
Jian Wenxi’s voice trembled, and his body was shaking as he quickly walked to Yun Xunlan’s side: “I don’t know if helping you like this is right or wrong…”
Knowing Jian Wenxi was under great psychological pressure, Yun Xunlan, after locking the door, placed both hands on the black-haired omega’s shoulders and pressed gently: “Whether you help me or not, it’s right.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes.”
Gradually, Jian Wenxi calmed down.
Seeing he was better, Yun Xunlan lowered his hands and only raised his right hand, unbuttoning his cuff to fully expose his light brain bracelet and handed it to Jian Wenxi.
Jian Wenxi also raised both hands and removed his gloves.
His hands looked no different from ordinary human palms at first glance, but the moment they touched Yun Xunlan’s light brain bracelet, the flesh-colored skin on the surface completely melted away, leaving only bones that gleamed with metallic luster under the light.
Jian Wenxi extended a thin, narrow needle from his fingertip and inserted it into the light brain bracelet’s interface.
“I’ve overridden the silent mode program.” After Jian Wenxi finished speaking, he paused for a few seconds. “Actually, it would be fine to override it tomorrow morning too. Because this can only be activated once, and it will be discovered after it ends. Overriding it now won’t affect you finding Yu Chen tonight…”
Jian Wenxi pointed to his own mouth with his finger, hinting to Yun Xunlan.
Yun Xunlan didn’t understand Jian Wenxi’s meaning at first, until he saw Jian Wenxi’s subsequent gesture and remembered what he had said to Jian Wenxi at the birthday banquet—he said Yu Chen’s mouth was very skilled and could help complete his daily task requirements.
But completing a task only takes a few seconds and doesn’t require activating silent mode. Making love is what requires it.
He and Yu Chen hadn’t done it for several days either.
These past few days, he had been busy teaching Yu Chen to learn and imitate his mecha piloting style and fighting techniques, really unable to spare time for making love. Yun Xunlan thought that after tomorrow’s events ended, he would compensate Yu Chen.
“It won’t.” He lowered his eyes while refastening his cufflinks and answered Jian Wenxi, “This doesn’t take much time.”
Jian Wenxi was stunned: “Ah? You guys are very fast?”
Yun Xunlan said: “Yes.”
Jian Wenxi: “…”
Jian Wenxi saw that the silent mode duration was five hours and had wondered if using mouths could also last five hours. Wouldn’t their mouths go numb and jaws get sore? But Yun Xunlan said they were fast.
“This… this isn’t very good, is it?” Jian Wenxi didn’t know which of the two was fast, but whoever it was, there was a big problem.
But Yun Xunlan smiled and said: “I think it’s very good.”
Completing the system’s daily tasks should definitely be as fast as possible.
But Jian Wenxi, who didn’t know the truth, couldn’t understand at all: “Do you really think this is good?”
Yun Xunlan nodded: “Mm.”
“…”
“I understand.”
—The five-hour silent mode was a disguise for these two alphas to maintain their dignity. As Yun Xunlan’s close friend, he would definitely keep this secret buried in his stomach.
“If you think it’s good, then it’s good.” Jian Wenxi took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in his heart. “I’ll keep it secret for you.”
But Yun Xunlan misunderstood again, thinking Jian Wenxi was talking about overriding the light brain bracelet’s monitoring system to keep the bracelet silent and prevent it from alarming.
He thanked Jian Wenxi for his help: “Thank you, Wenxi.”
Jian Wenxi waved his hand, sighing wistfully: “No need to thank me for such a great favor, just keep it in your heart. Oh, and remember, it can only last for five hours at most.”
“It won’t last that long,” Yun Xunlan said.
“There’s another situation, when you… ah!”
Jian Wenxi was already uneasy and anxious, but halfway through his sentence, the door suddenly slammed open with a bang. He let out a startled sharp scream and jumped behind Yun Xunlan to hide.
“Young Master Jian, did I scare you?” Dike withdrew his foot from kicking the door and apologized without much sincerity, “I’m really sorry.”
Yun Xunlan glanced at the door panel, which had been melted by Dike’s plasma gun and was still dripping red molten metal. His voice turned cold, and he frowned: “Dike, you’re too rude.”
“Sorry, Third Prince, I just think an alpha and an omega shouldn’t be alone in a closed room, even if you’re good friends, it’s not appropriate.” Dike bowed and apologized again, “Young Master Jian, I’m sorry for damaging your door. I apologize again for my offense and will go accept my punishment now.”
“No need, I’m just a bit unwell. Yun Xunlan has seen me, and I’m much better now…” Jian Wenxi popped his head out from behind Yun Xunlan. He and Yun Xunlan had finished what they needed to do. Besides, there were more alphas standing at the door than just Dike, including Yu Chen.
Dike’s words were actually quite reasonable. Yun Xunlan and Jian Wenxi had a very high compatibility. For whatever reason, they shouldn’t be locked in a room alone.
Jian Wenxi always called Yun Xunlan by his full name to avoid misunderstandings that there was any relationship beyond friendship between them. Now, with Dike saying this in front of Yun Xunlan’s official partner, Jian Wenxi was afraid Yu Chen would misunderstand and immediately distanced himself from Yun Xunlan: “I’ll move to another room. I’m going to sleep. None of you come to see me anymore, and Yun Xunlan shouldn’t come either.”
Dike gestured “please”: “Shall I take you to the new room?”
“Okay, okay, okay.”
Jian Wenxi hurriedly followed Dike away.
Yu Chen silently glared at Jian Wenxi leaving, then turned his head to look at Yun Xunlan.
After exchanging a glance with him, Yun Xunlan came over and held his hand: “Baby, let’s go back too.”
Yu Chen remained silent on the way back.
Dike came 237 seconds after Yun Xunlan entered Jian Wenxi’s room.
He saw Yu Chen standing outside with his head down and his eyes suddenly widened: “Yu Chen, why are you standing here alone? Where’s the Third Prince?”
Yu Chen opened his mouth, but his vocal cords hadn’t vibrated to make a sound.
Dike answered for him: “The Third Prince and Young Master Jian are inside?”
“Are you crazy? How can you stand it…” Dike sounded even more like an alpha who had been cuckolded than Yu Chen. His voice suddenly rose, but he didn’t finish speaking. He drew his sidearm and aimed at the door lock, lowering his voice: “Don’t let those two be alone together.”
Then Dike fired, melting the door panel and taking Jian Wenxi away.
Yu Chen wasn’t stupid. Dike’s words and attitude were obvious: he knew about Yu Chen’s relationship with Yun Xunlan.
But Dike had no right to forbid Yun Xunlan from being alone with Jian Wenxi.
Given Dike’s loyalty to the royal family, even if Yun Xunlan cuckolded him, Dike would probably just advise him to be more open-minded. To get by, a little green on your head is inevitable… So what exactly was Dike afraid of?
After following the prince back to the young man’s room, Yu Chen also locked the door.
He brushed aside the prince’s silver hair, then grabbed the young man’s nape, pressing heavily on the slightly swollen alpha gland with his palm, coldly looking down at Yun Xunlan, and finally spoke: “Baby, what secret talk did you have with Jian Wenxi inside?”
“If Officer Dike hadn’t come to kick the door,” Yu Chen lowered his head, resting his neck against Yun Xunlan’s forehead, his voice hoarse and deep, “how much longer would you have stayed inside?”
“At most 63 seconds more, no more than five minutes.”
Yun Xunlan took half a step toward Yu Chen, leaned into his embrace, and slightly raised his face to please him, about to kiss Yu Chen.
Yu Chen straightened up a bit, only letting Yun Xunlan kiss the corner of his mouth, smirking: “You really timed it?”
“Mm.” Yun Xunlan stopped kissing when Yu Chen didn’t reciprocate and rubbed his jaw with his nose, “Baby, are you mad? Sorry.”
“You didn’t go over time, why would I be mad?”
Yu Chen asked softly, pinching Yun Xunlan’s nape to force him to keep some distance: “But you haven’t told me what secret talk you had.”
Yun Xunlan opened his mouth: “Wenxi said he wasn’t feeling well…”
“You’re changing the subject.” Yu Chen interrupted, suppressing the smile at the corner of his lips and exposing the truth without mercy, “You two did something you can’t let me—or rather, everyone else—know about.”
“What bad thing? You two have to be so secretive?”
“The orders you gave to Song Tingyan, Lu You, and Lottie also confuse me—once the maintenance hatch is opened, the Corona Empire will suspect you. Having the press corps live broadcast it won’t dispel their suspicion. It’s useless.”
Yu Chen led Yun Xunlan to the bedside, his tone gentle but his hand never loosening its grip on Yun Xunlan’s nape: “Maybe you can tell me the reason. As your lover, I’ll try to support all your decisions unconditionally—as long as they’re right.”
Yun Xunlan was forced to sit on the bed, while Yu Chen remained standing.
Yun Xunlan held Yu Chen’s left hand, which hung by his side, and led it to touch his face. This was an extremely submissive gesture. Alphas with strong controlling desires are soothed by such docility.
Yun Xunlan, also an alpha, understood this well.
He sighed and said: “I know having the press corps film my assassination won’t dispel the Corona Empire’s suspicion. But over the years, the Nebula Federation has been working on cracking the 3S mecha blueprints. My father has done the same for a long time. So many people are doing this. One more or one less doesn’t matter. I don’t care if they suspect me or not. They can’t really forbid the Nebula Federation and us from using 3S mechas, nor will they completely stop selling and repairing 3S mechas to us.”
Because guarding the galaxy’s border defense line isn’t just one country’s job.
Would the Corona Empire dare to bet that the Nebula Federation and Galactic Empire, without 3S mechas on the front lines, could still hold the galaxy’s second border line? They wouldn’t dare.
So many things are tacitly understood among the top leaders of various countries—I won’t make the blueprints public. If you want, you can research and crack them yourself. If you can’t, just keep buying honestly.
“I don’t know how far the Nebula Federation has progressed in cracking the 3S mecha blueprints, but here, we’re just missing the last piece.” Yun Xunlan slowly rubbed his face against Yu Chen’s palm, “3S mechas are powerful. We rely on them to hold the second border line, but they don’t have escape devices.”
3S mechas are mechanical beasts born for war victory. They abandon the escape ejection cockpit system that other level mechas have to gain stronger attack performance—the price is the high death rate of frontline 3S-level alpha mecha pilots.
Yet, despite such brutal sacrifices, humans still haven’t repelled the Severir insectoids, and can’t even fully recover the first border line.
“I want to crack the 3S mecha blueprints to see if this design flaw can be improved. That’s why I want to open the maintenance hatch.” Yun Xunlan told Yu Chen, “I asked Wenxi to help me with a small favor. Tomorrow, he will hack the mechanical insectoids’ main control system, cooperating with Song Tingyan, Lu You, and Lottie to assassinate me.”
“After the main control system is hacked, all mechanical insectoids on this planet will attack me like real Severir insectoids, with killing humans as their highest goal.”
Mechanical insectoids are not real insectoids. They are machines created by humans, controlled by fixed programs.
Under the connection of the main control system, humans can control them to start attacks or terminate actions at any time.
So after Yun Xunlan is “assassinated” by Lu You and the others tomorrow, the control tower should immediately order them to interrupt the attack to avoid actually hurting Yun Xunlan.
But if the main control system is hacked, then the mechanical insectoids’ attacks won’t stop. This will make the assassination more realistic, but also very dangerous.
Yun Xunlan stared into Yu Chen’s blue eyes and said solemnly, word by word: “And I will let everyone see how suitable I am for piloting 3S mechas, how suitable I am for going to the front lines to kill real insectoids.”
Yu Chen’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he tightened his jawline: “You can’t pass the regular exam for ‘War Psychology.’ No matter how suitable you are, you can’t go to the front lines.”
“Baby, you yourself said that even if I passed the exam, I might not be able to go to the front lines.” Yun Xunlan helplessly tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Don’t you understand? My biggest obstacle isn’t a passing grade at all.”
“Imperial Sister has always opposed me going to the front lines. I don’t want to make things too tense with her, but if she keeps disagreeing, I can only use public opinion to force her to agree.” At this point, Yun Xunlan smiled again. “Originally, after the assassination ended, I should have revealed that I’m ‘Mad Guest.’ That would have been more effective. But baby, you fought me to a draw, so I won’t reveal this identity for now. After all, whether it’s this matter or tomorrow’s action, they’re all the last resort I’ve left for myself. Imperial Sister and I haven’t reached that point yet.”
“You’ve fought me before. You know my strength. The control tower will regain control of the mechanical insectoids’ main control system from Wenxi within half an hour. Wenxi won’t really let me die either. You don’t need to worry about me getting into trouble.”
Yun Xunlan placed his hand over Yu Chen’s, pressing his face against the man’s palm, and asked: “I only need half an hour. Can you keep this secret for me?”
**
