Translator: dapotaturs
Release Date: 12/15/2024
Edited Date: 06/24/2025
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The video was only a short clip, stopping just after the male zerg flashed that smile, with the website automatically redirecting to the comment section.
The comments were an absolute frenzy.
⟦ Damn, who is this? I need to know this zerg’s name in three minutes or I’ll die! ⟧
⟦ That smile! That smile! That smile! Tell me—who can resist it? Who?! ⟧
⟦ Who was he looking at in the end? That gaze was so gentle. Was he looking at his beloved? ⟧
⟦ Ugh, I’m heartbroken now. My instant crush on this male zerg already has a love interest?⟧
Chu Ci: “…”
#Thank goodness for those heavy filters#
One of the interviewers dragged the progress bar nostalgically, “This is the hot topic on QuQi today. What do you think? Handsome, right?”
Chu Ci couldn’t help but ask, “Where did this video come from?”
The interviewer replied, “According to the uploader, it was like this: the sunset in front of the military HQ was really beautiful that day, so he opened his light-brain camera to film it. Then, out of nowhere, a male zerg showed up in the frame—unexpected, and super handsome. Thinking ‘joy shared is joy doubled[mfn]独乐乐不如众乐乐 (dú lè lè bù rú zhòng lè lè) – “Joy enjoyed alone is not as good as joy shared with others.”[/mfn]’, he posted it online.”
Chu Ci: “…”
He was speechless. He couldn’t help but caution, “Listen to me, absolutely do not consider using a real person’s face for modeling. It’s not worth it.”
The Zerg game designer might not understand, but Chu Ci knew better. Every famous individual on QuQi had thousands of fans; if they used a real person’s face, it would trigger a bloody storm in no time.
As the interview came to a close, Chu Ci was exhausted. He bid the interviewers goodbye, shut down his light brain, and went offline.
It was already late. He took a long bath, scrubbing the paint off his skin with body wash. The pigment clung stubbornly, it took quite a bit of effort. After tidying up and glancing at the time, he saw it was already past midnight
Nuo Wei was a military female and kept to a strict schedule. Chu Ci tiptoed out the door and the hallway was completely dark. Nuo Wei must have already turned off the lights and gone to sleep.
Chu Ci then picked up the shirt he had changed out of by the bathtub, sneaking down the stairs.
Wearing someone else’s clothes and having someone else do his laundry was not something Chu Ci could bring himself to do. He decided to wash Nuo Wei’s clothes and then slip them back when he wasn’t home. With a serious expression, he squatted down and fiddled with the zerg laundry machine, trying out various settings but not making much progress.
The zerg male’s clothing required meticulous care, and the home washing machine wasn’t like an ordinary washing machine. It resembled an industrial dry-cleaning setup with a variety of fabric softeners and specialized washing modes for different fabrics and cleaning temperatures.
Nuo Wei’s shirt was from the military, and he didn’t want to damage it. He chose one that he only wore for important meetings. Chu Ci flipped through the tag but couldn’t figure out how to wash it properly.
San San rolled over: 【Master, do you need my help?】
“Shh, shh, shh! Keep your voice down.” Chu Ci was feeling anxious now. It was already the middle of the night, and the living room was dead quiet, and San San’s cheerful voice echoed like a trumpet.. If he woke up Nuo Wei, it would be a huge embarrassment.
He squatted down and whispered to San San, “Do you know how to wash this shirt?”
【Why does the master need to wash clothes?】 San San tilted its head. Although it had some artificial intelligence, it wasn’t much. In this situation, it struggled to understand Chu Ci’s intentions. 【You can leave it to me; I can call the female to help you wash it.】
“Hey, no, no, no!”
A head of the household who didn’t even know how to use the washing machine? If this were Earth, Chu Ci would be laughed out of the room. He couldn’t take that hit to his pride. Holding San San in place, he muttered, “Forget it. I’ll hand wash it.”
It’s just a shirt, right? What’s the big deal? If the machine’s too complicated, hand-washing should be easy.
Saying this, Chu Ci held the shirt back to his room, filled the bathtub with water, and soaked Nuo Wei’s shirt in it.
The next problem was that male zergs didn’t have soap in their bathrooms.
The Zerg’s technology was quite advanced, with specialized cleaning agents instead of soap. The problem was that aside from soap, Chu Ci didn’t know which colorful cleaning products were suitable for washing a shirt.
Luckily, Chu Ci only wore the shirt briefly and it wasn’t very dirty, just a bit sweaty. He decided to use two dollops of body wash and rubbed it into the fabric. After a vigorous scrubbing, he whipped up the lather and carefully cleaned the shirt before rinsing it off with water.
The third problem emerged: where to hang it?
The male zerg’s bedroom didn’t have a clothesline; all his clothes were neatly folded away in small compartments by Nuo Wei. If he hung it out, Nuo Wei would see it when he woke up earlier the next morning.
Feeling guilty, Chu Ci turned on the hairdryer.
He laid the shirt flat on the table, set the hairdryer to the highest setting, and proceeded to move the dryer up and down, drying the shirt without much thought.
Though the door, Nuo Wei still heard the noise from next door.
Females had excellent hearing. A blow dryer buzzing loudly in the middle of the night? Of course he could hear it. He got out of bed and stood outside Chu Ci’s door.
Male zergs were not known for their dexterity; doing something as simple as using a hairdryer was a struggle. According to the Female Monarch Manual, after a bath, the female should be the one to blow-dry the male’s hair to prevent him from tiring himself out. Nuo Wei raised his hand to knock on the door, hesitated, and then silently loosened the drawstrings on his nightwear.
He was wearing a loose silk robe, and as was typical for nightwear designed to accommodate males, he had nothing on underneath. As he untied the sash, the robe slipped off his shoulders.
He looked down at his attire, finding no glaring issues, and then raised his hand to knock on the door softly: “My Lord?”
Chu Ci was flustered, unsure why the female monarch was knocking on his door at this time. He quickly shoved Nuo Wei’s semi-dry shirt into a drawer, then opened the door: “What’s the matter…”
As the bedroom door opened, both of them froze.
Chu Ci had just bathed—his skin was still damp, and the thin fabric clung to his body. Nuo Wei’s robe hung loosely, high slits baring his legs. Neither dared look at the other. They stood there, eyes darting to the ceiling, to the floor, mumbling vaguely.
Chu Ci stared at the ceiling. “…So, um… what brings you here so late?”
Nuo Wei stared at the floor. “…I… came to dry your hair.”
If he hadn’t said it, it wouldn’t have mattered, but mentioning it made Chu Ci feel guilty. He hadn’t washed his hair; the hairdryer was for something else entirely. He blocked the doorway and mumbled, “I already did it. You still need to get up early for the military tomorrow, right? It’s so late. Go to sleep.”
Nuo Wei never knew how to defy the male Zerg. When they told him to go to sleep, even if he wanted to do something else, he had no choice but to comply. Nuo Wei suppressed the vague disappointment in his chest. “…Okay.”
The next morning, Nuo Wei went to the military while Chu Ci was still asleep.
Chu Ci’s routine had always been irregular, and Nuo Wei had long gotten used to it. He placed the breakfast in a thermal container to ensure the male zerg would have food whenever he woke up, then piloted his aircraft to the military department.
At the office entrance where he clocked in, Nuo Wei ran into Major General Lin En, who was also there to punch in. He politely greeted Lin En: “Lin En.”
Lin En had been minding his own business when he heard Nuo Wei’s voice. He lifted his chin with a sneer, looking down his nose and said in a sarcastic tone, “Well, well, our First Army’s valiant Major General. So charming. Tell me, did any stunning male zerg come flying in to pick you up from work today?”
The short video of the male zerg on QuQi had already gone viral, and since people usually looked worse on camera than in real life, one could imagine just how visually stunning the actual person was. Lin En was shook. He knew Nuo Wei was married, but there had been no wedding banquet, no grand announcement, so he had no clue what Nuo Wei’s male lord looked like. Then not long after the marriage, Nuo Wei had landed in the correctional facility, Lin En had been genuinely worried for him.
With all these pieces put together, Lin En had imagined Chu Ci to be a plump, oily, sadistic, and hard-to-please male. Who would’ve guessed the male would descend from the sky in a sleek aircraft, his face beneath the window refined and striking?
Nuo Wei admitted guiltily, “I didn’t know the male lord would come.”
He explained with a hint of apology: “I’m sorry, but I honestly can’t say if I can pass through the probation period.”
“Still can’t?” Lin En’s eyes widened. “What’s going on?”
Nuo Wei said, “I haven’t had the chance to ask the male master about Kaier.”
It wasn’t that he hadn’t had the chance; it was that he hadn’t dared to.
Nuo Wei had checked Kaier’s profile; the military had basic information on all citizens. Nuo Wei was a major general, so getting a military doctor’s profile wasn’t difficult.
Kaier’s resume was impressive—young and already the chief physician of the Central Hospital with limitless prospects. Moreover, his gentle and likable personality, along with his handsome appearance, were exactly what male zergs preferred. Although his overall qualities didn’t match Nuo Wei by just a fraction, male zergs were illogical when it came to honor, wealth, and military ranks—they didn’t matter as much as personal preference. Kaier indeed had the qualifications to be a female monarch.
Chu Ci’s calm attitude yesterday had significantly eased the tense mood of the military female, and Nuo Wei wasn’t as certain now.
He looked bewildered: “I don’t know what the male zerg’s thoughts are, or whether he even wants to change his female monarch.”
Lin En said, “I think you should just ask him.”
“The onlooker sees clearly what the one involved cannot.” Yesterday, Chu Ci hadn’t been pretending. When he reached out to touch Nuo Wei’s hair, Lin En had seen it all—those shimmering, smiling eyes, that gentle hand, as if stroking a baby bird’s feathers or scratching a cat’s chin.
To be treated like that, Nuo Wei was undoubtedly the male zerg’s beloved.
Nuo Wei bit his lip: “I can’t.”
He really couldn’t. It was like a sheet of paper on the verge of being torn, and the date of revelation was already set, but Nuo Wei stubbornly didn’t dare to look into it. He was like a timid oyster, his hard shell a defense, carefully protecting the vulnerable, easily injured soft flesh inside, afraid to see something that might break the fragile warmth of these last few days.
Lin En patted his shoulder: “Think about it carefully. I think you can ask.”
Can he ask?
Nuo Wei lowered his gaze, almost as if the word ‘ask’ didn’t exist in his dictionary. He had been raised by Admiral Erwen, a strict authoritarian who never tolerated questions—only obedience. Nuo Wei’s entire childhood had been about receiving orders and carrying them out. The reasons behind them were never his concern.
He suddenly spread his hands, staring blankly at his palms.
The male zerg had said yesterday that he could ask.
The wound from his nails had already healed. Nuo Wei didn’t know what he was thinking, but he slowly curled his fingers again, pressing his nails into his palm until a red mark bloomed once more.
He lifted his light brain and took a photo of his palm, only to find the blood mark wasn’t deep enough in the photo. So he squeezed his palm again.
Next, he pulled up Chu Ci’s communication interface and hesitated there for a long time.
Chu Ci and Nuo Wei rarely sent messages to each other. The last time they did, it was when they had just gotten married—Chu Ci mentioned he found the wedding unnecessary and preferred simplicity. Nuo Wei canceled the ceremony and they simply registered their marriage online. Chu Ci signed his name, and Nuo Wei transferred his assets, making them legally married.
Nuo Wei stared silently at Chu Ci’s avatar and their blank chat interface for a while, then sent the photo of his palm. He then asked cautiously, ⟦ My Lord, may I ask you something?⟧
He didn’t dare to be too straightforward, asking in a roundabout way: ⟦Do you want Kaier Ennuo to be your female attendant?⟧
If Kaier Ennuo were just a female attendant, the position of the female monarch should remain unchanged.
After sending it, he turned the light-brain face-down and didn’t dare look at the screen again. He covered his face with his hand and let out a long, shaky breath.
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Author’s Note:
Chu Ci received the message.
Chu Ci was puzzled.
Chu Ci put down his coffee cup
Chu Ci opened the Star Network and searched: “Who is Kaier Ennuo?
