Admiral Erwen grew upset seeing his confused nephew, Nuo Wei. Despite being a decorated Major General and a star of the Empire, he appeared so lost in front of Chu Ci. Erwen didn’t want to see his foolish nephew any longer and quickly hung up the call.
Meanwhile, Chu Ci’s call was still ongoing.
He had moved all his daytime tasks to the evening, leading to a disconnection from his colleagues’ progress. Finally catching Chu Ci, they had no intention of letting go. Several of them quickly held a group meeting, gathered around to discuss game details, chattering away for a while. By the time Chu Ci finally ended the call, the bowl of noodles on the table was cold.
Nuo Wei had eaten only half and then just sat there, staring at Chu Ci.
Chu Ci felt guilty seeing him. He hadn’t told Nuo Wei about his work-related matters yet, so he awkwardly rubbed his nose. “What’s wrong, darling?”
Nuo Wei poked at his noodles with his chopsticks. “Is it a female?”
Chu Ci blinked. “Huh?”
Nuo Wei asked again, “Is it a female?”
Chu Ci hesitated. “… Yes.”
He gulped hard. Of course, all his colleagues were female Zergs, but admitting it would mean he couldn’t keep his work-related matters a secret from Nuo Wei.
Nuo Wei looked at Chu Ci’s anxious expression, his lips suddenly quirking as if he was about to cry.
He cried very quietly, silently reddening his eyes, tears constantly flashing in his eyes as he stared at Chu Ci with a timid, deer-like gaze.
Chu Ci was terrified, quickly taking a step forward to pull the female monarch into his arms. “Wait, wait, it’s not what you think it is!”
He didn’t care about ‘human male dignity’ right now, and honestly explained the work situation, even showing his contact list on his lightbrain to him. “Look, they’re all just colleagues, right?”
Chu Ci’s contact list was brutally simple, divided into four main sections. One was the ‘friends from before awakening’ section, where his useless friends from before were placed, another was the ‘miscellaneous people’ section, which included Admiral Erwen. The last one was the ‘work-related’ section, with his colleagues listed there.
He showed Nuo Wei his colleagues’ call records, but Nuo Wei’s gaze wasn’t on them. Instead, he was staring at the top section of the list, asking, “Darling?”
Who could make a male zerg call someone ‘darling’?
This term had only been used with him yesterday.
Flustered, Chu Ci quickly opened it. “It’s you, darling, it’s you.”
Nuo Wei reached out a finger and poked the only avatar in the section, which then enlarged to reveal the image of a female Zerg with silver hair, her expression indifferent as she looked into the camera. Her cyan eyes were calm and detached, embodying the regal aura of a Major General from the Empire.
Chu Ci looked down at his female monarch, feeling a stark contrast between the photo and the small crybaby in front of him.
Nuo Wei’s eyes were still red, but suddenly he looked up at Chu Ci and revealed a big, bright smile.
After his first comfort, the female Zerg’s emotions were quite outward, crying when sad and smiling when happy. Chu Ci had seen him grimace, fake a smile, and smile softly before, but this was the first time he saw such a sunny expression—a bit like Nuo Wei was a naïve little cub, showing off his smile to his family without restraint.
Chu Ci couldn’t help but reach out and rub Nuo Wei’s flushed cheeks. “So happy, huh?”
Nuo Wei nodded enthusiastically. “So happy!”
Chu Ci chuckled softly.
He glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s late. After a long day, Nuo Wei, go upstairs and get some sleep.”
There was a modesty in Chu Ci’s nature that remained intrinsic to him, much like his middle-class upbringing. He could call Nuo Wei ‘darling’ and occasionally whisper it in the heat of the moment, but normally he still preferred to call him by his name, much like his loving parents who had spent a lifetime together without ever saying ‘I love you.’
Nuo Wei grabbed onto his shirt corner.
He looked like a true little Zerg cub, showing no restraint with his feelings. “Can you just call me that once?”
Chu Ci hesitated, saying, “Go to sleep.”
He gently guided Nuo Wei to the bedroom, where San San had already made the bed with soft, plush blankets. Chu Ci pulled Nuo Wei into the bed and then climbed in beside him.
Now, they slept together in the same bed, with a boundary that had originally separated them. Nuo Wei snuggled closer, first gripping Chu Ci’s shirt hem, then brushing against his skin, and finally, when he tried to place his hand on Chu Ci’s chest, it was caught in a firm grip.
Chu Ci held Nuo Wei’s mischievous hand, sighing as he pulled him fully into his embrace. “Stop messing around, just go to sleep.”
The scent of the male Zerg filled the entire bed, gently wrapping around Nuo Wei, making him feel safe again. He pressed against Chu Ci’s chest, burying his face into his embrace, and fell into a deep sleep.
After finally soothing his overly emotional female monarch into sleep, Chu Ci quietly got up in the middle of the night to revise the plans.
Several scattered plans had been sent to him, and with the pre-launch rush for the first beta test, the busy period for industry professionals, Chu Ci had a lot of work on his plate. He tiptoed into the adjacent room, bringing his light brain with him to discuss the game’s details with them.
The pet simulation games that humans had already exhausted were still a fresh concept for the Zerg. These games involved placing resources, gathering them, and raising cubs—concepts that were all the rage among humans but were new to the Zerg.
Chu Ci flipped through the Zerg hatchlings his colleague had created. They were chubby and undeniably cute, but their eyes were slightly angled upwards, looking haughty and disdainful towards the camera.
Chu Ci tapped the art designer, “Should we change the expression? Make it a bit more obedient? The ‘three-cornered-eyes comes off as fierce.”
The art designer replied, “But that’s how the male Zerg are.”
Chu Ci’s knee took a hit. He tried to reason with the designer, “We don’t need it to be real; we’re making a game. Most female Zerg still prefer cute, obedient hatchlings, don’t they?”
Reluctantly, the art designer made the changes.
Chu Ci then worked on several other plans, replying to his colleague’s emails one by one. When he checked the time, he realized he had been out of bed for over two hours already.
He tiptoed back into the bedroom, not daring to turn on the light. In the dark, he climbed into bed and tried to reach for his female monarch. However, he missed, and his hand landed in something wet.
Chu Ci was startled. “Crying?”
He wasn’t sure if it was because Nuo Wei turned into a little crybaby after the first mark or if all female Zerg became like this after marking. He turned on the bedside lamp. “What’s wrong, darling?”
Nuo Wei buried his face in the blanket, his back to him. “You were gone.”
He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “I woke up in the middle of the night, and you weren’t here.”
Chu Ci said, “I went to work.”
He pulled Nuo Wei, who was huddled in a corner, back towards him. “I told you, I went to work.”
Nuo Wei was like a leaf insect now, capable only of single-threaded thought. A bit more information, and his CPU would short-circuit. When Chu Ci mentioned work before, Nuo Wei’s focus was entirely on that ‘darling’ section. Now, as Chu Ci brought it up again, he seemed to grasp another point in a daze.
“Why do you have to work?” he muttered. “Isn’t my salary enough for you?”
“My account has over 300 million star coins. I own two resource planets, 72 properties in different regions, and over a hundred spacecraft…” He muttered more, “Isn’t this enough for you?”
Chu Ci gasped, surprised. He hadn’t paid much attention to how much he had—after all, it was money he would never finish spending across several lifetimes. Nuo Wei has such an absurd amount of money?
Nuo Wei continued reciting, he is talking a lot more than usual, “If it’s not enough, why do you need to work? You told me, I’d work harder on the ninth expedition…”
Chu Ci covered his mouth.
He leaned down, his face close to Nuo Wei’s now, slightly annoyed. “Don’t say such things, do you hear me?”
He poked Nuo Wei’s forehead, making him tilt to the side. “No working yourself to death, got it? Take care of yourself, understand?”
Nuo Wei nodded, not quite understanding.
“Forget it, you probably won’t remember anything right now,” Chu Ci sighed, rubbing his forehead. “How long will you feel like this after I soothe you? I’ll explain once you’re awake.”
Nuo Wei shook his head. “I don’t know, the date is uncertain.”
Some females get better the next day, others need a full week. The average is about three days, so the military also gives a three-day leave.
For these three days, Chu Ci’s entire routine was thrown off. Nuo Wei was clingy like a sticky rice cake; he didn’t need to be attached to Chu Ci, but he would often look at him with a yearning expression. When Chu Ci looked back, Nuo Wei would bite his lip, meekly lowering his head without saying a word.
A beautiful silver-haired beauty sat there, soft and tender, with every look in his eyes saying, “I really want a hug. Can I have a hug?” Who could resist that?
Chu Ci couldn’t resist anyway.
So he was constantly adjusting plans halfway, and while changing it, he would end up close to Nuo Wei, and then get tickled by Nuo Wei’s movements, who would lean over and peck his cheek playfully.
“Phew!”
In the meantime, Chu Ci also searched online for more about the aftermath of the first marking process. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much information—unwanted females managed to bear through it, but even those favored didn’t necessarily receive much kindness. The various descriptions he read made his heart ache.
Now, Nuo Wei was just a silly, sticky rice ball in Chu Ci’s hands, and he was afraid he might drop him. But there were so many indescribable experiences online. Unable to help himself, he asked Nuo Wei, “Is it really like this as written in the forums?”
Nuo Wei looked down at the description, which talked about females being punished the day after their first marking due to emotional breakdowns, and getting punished even more harshly after crying.
He looked indifferent, “It’s like this, yes. After the first marking, hormonal fluctuations are too great, and females might easily cry. But a strong female should be able to control themselves.”
Chu Ci: “Like who?”
Nuo Wei thought for a moment. “Like Admiral Erwen. After his first marking, he was punished the next day, his entire back a bloody mess, but he still went to the battlefield on the third day.”
Chu Ci gave him a thumbs up. “Tough guy… uh, tough female!”
He looked at Nuo Wei silently. “But even so, aren’t you a strong female?”
As the top of the military academy and a Major General, he should be a strong female, right?
Nuo Wei hesitated, his indifferent expression suddenly faltering.
He muttered, “I can’t control it.”
Chu Ci: “What?”
Nuo Wei raised his voice, giving up. “I said! In front of you, I can’t control it!”
He said this, his eyes turning red again.
