Chapter 9: Wait (First Update)

Chapter 9: Wait (First Update)

Xie Chi was stunned.

His wife wasn't just worried about whether he'd eaten—she was also concerned about his safety.

The Night Owl Syndicate had been entrenched in Blizzard City for a long time, while Yan Wanqiu and his group were newcomers, at a disadvantage at every turn.

Even Yan Wanqiu himself probably didn't know the ins and outs of the Night Owl Syndicate.

And Ji Chou was just an ordinary worker in the cafeteria logistics—he hadn't even known that Xie Chi's target was Boss Ye when they parted last night.

Ji Chou wasn't like him; he couldn't just storm the Night Owl Syndicate headquarters and force answers. To obtain such information in a single night, he must have burned through countless favors and a ton of money.

Xie Chi even suspected Ji Chou had pulled an all-nighter just like he had.

That would explain why Ji Chou had breakfast sent over via Nie Huaiyi the second he got back.

The note in his hand was paper-thin, but right then, it felt like it weighed a ton.

This sudden show of concern caught him so off guard that it felt suffocating.

As a killer, Xie Chi's number-one rule was that the mission came first, and his own safety always came dead last.

Three thousand years later, under the all-knowing Star Network, everyone's worth was boiled down to data—including the killers lurking in the shadows.

Mission completion rates, attendance, customer satisfaction... it all got crunched into scores, and those scores determined a killer's life or death.

For the people at the bottom, the Star Network tracked every single thing. The money they busted their asses for was barely enough to scrape by, leaving no room to think about anything else—they didn't even realize they were just disposable cogs running on survival instinct.

A killer who failed a mission was worthless trash, one wrong step away from being erased.

And it was even worse with colleagues. Nobody would so much as buddy up to a low-rated killer; every interaction was just the Star Network's AI calculating the best way to squeeze out maximum benefit.

Before he clawed his way into the top tier, Xie Chi's whole world had been nothing but missions. It wasn't until he made it into the organization's upper ranks that he even heard the words "family" and "life" tossed around by his coworkers.

But...

Why was Ji Chou so different from everyone else?

Right now, he had no money, no standing, and hadn't even gotten the chance to show Ji Chou what he could do. Yet Ji Chou still gave a damn about him, risking his thin network of connections to send both intel and a hot breakfast his way.

Xie Chi's chest felt stuffed with something soft and heavy.

So this was what having a wife felt like?

Xie Chi had never known his parents. He'd grown up inside the organization and had never had any close relationship beyond his coworkers, so he desperately craved a family—craved that kind of love.

The organization never taught anything that wasn't about killing. Everything he knew about "family" came from listening to his coworkers.

But this situation—his coworkers had never talked about it, no textbook covered it, and the AI had never run the numbers on it for him.

Xie Chi could kill and rob with surgical precision, but faced with this sudden concern, he was as lost as the first time he'd ever seen a thermos.

This wasn't how he'd pictured it.

Wasn't taking care of a wife supposed to mean he made the money and spoiled her? Why was she doing all this for him?

How the hell was he supposed to respond to Ji Chou's concern?

Xie Chi was dying to find someone who'd been married to ask what the hell was going on, but obviously, that wasn't an option at the moment.

He pressed a hand to his traitorous heart, slowly fisting the fabric over his chest for a moment, then got up and tossed the note into the furnace.

After getting rid of the note, he sat back down and stared at the breakfast, still steaming. At that moment, his urge to see Ji Chou hit an all-time high.

But he had no excuse and no way to go see Ji Chou right now.

Xie Chi took a deep breath.

His wife had passed him intel so carefully—he absolutely couldn't blow this or drag her down with him.

.

As Xie Chi choked down his breakfast without tasting a single bite, Yan Wanqiu, who hadn't slept all night, looked slightly taken aback when he heard what Nie Huaiyi had to say.

"Those were his exact words? He wants to come see me?"

Nie Huaiyi nodded: "Yes, those were Captain Xie's exact words."

He had no idea Yan Wanqiu had sent that breakfast under the fake name "Ji Chou." He just figured Yan Wanqiu was trying to make up with Xie Chi after their earlier misunderstanding, and smiled: "Captain Xie looked pretty shocked when he took the food box, and he carried it back super carefully the whole way. Since the misunderstanding between Your Highness and Captain Xie is cleared up, why not have Captain Xie come over for a chat?"

Yan Wanqiu: "..."

The misunderstanding between him and Xie Chi wasn't resolved in the slightest.

If anything, it was way worse now.

He'd tortured several captured Night Owl Syndicate informants for answers, hoping to find out who'd ordered him drugged, but they all swore up and down that nobody had.

But he did get one piece of troubling news.

—The Night Owl Syndicate's new weapon had been shipped in from Icebound City.

Icebound City was one of the biggest powerhouses in the Northern Domain, and it posed a massive threat to Blizzard City.

If that weapon the Night Owl Syndicate had pulled out last time really came from Icebound City, then at least until the freezing period, they couldn't just recklessly go after Boss Ye—otherwise, Icebound City could easily turn the tables once they caught wind of it.

At that point, they'd either have to throw Xie Chi under the bus or go to war with Icebound City.

Remembering that eerie blue electric current that had blown a massive hole in the casino wall, Yan Wanqiu narrowed his eyes.

If Blizzard City went to war with Icebound City now, the only outcome would be encirclement and annexation.

Yan Wanqiu was terrified that Xie Chi—this guy he couldn't get a read on—might actually take out the Night Owl Syndicate's hideout in a single night. He'd stayed up all night, running through countless contingency plans for the worst-case scenarios, and had sent intelligence to Xie Chi in Ji Chou's tone at the first opportunity.

The moment he thought about how Xie Chi probably now believed Ji Chou was hopelessly in love with him, Yan Wanqiu felt a throbbing pain at his temples.

He rubbed his aching head and waved dismissively at Nie Huaiyi: "Call him over at noon. I need to rest for a while."

Nie Huaiyi, hearing this, grew worried and dared to speak up: "Is Your Highness's condition acting up again? I've heard there's a physician in Icebound City who specializes in difficult pheromone toxin cases. He's benevolent and skilled, often treating commoners for free without charging a single coin. His name is Fu Zhu..."

"No need." Yan Wanqiu's expression turned cold as he refused.

He let out a self-deprecating sneer: "This kind of pheromone toxin has no antidote—even the person who poisoned me couldn't cure it. Besides, for such a figure to suddenly appear in the Northern Domain, how likely do you think it is that it's not a trap?"

Nie Huaiyi immediately realized he had overstepped, daring to speak so casually before the Tyrant. He dropped to his knees and apologized: "This subordinate deserves death!"

Yan Wanqiu was already accustomed to his subordinates trembling like this. He didn't even glance at him: "Withdraw."

Nie Huaiyi hadn't expected Yan Wanqiu to let him off so easily. Relieved beyond measure, he dared not say another word and hurriedly left.

The great hall was once again left with only Yan Wanqiu.

Yan Wanqiu closed his eyes.

He was not naturally bloodthirsty; before being poisoned and developing Pheromone Dysregulation Syndrome, he could even be called a ruler who cherished his people as his own children.

Perhaps because he had vented the violent urges of his pheromone disorder while destroying the casino, his condition had not flared up in recent days, so naturally he wasn't prone to mood swings, headaches, or bloodlust.

At this moment, he was purely troubled by two major headaches at once: Xie Chi and the Night Owl Syndicate.

"I shouldn't have sent that note as Ji Chou. When Xie Chi comes looking later, he'll definitely throw a fit to see Ji Chou."

Yan Wanqiu rubbed his forehead.

Every time he met with Xie Chi, his risk of exposure grew.

Going through all this trouble to hide his identity just to secretly communicate with a guard was practically handing Xie Chi and the forces behind him—likely Yan Baiyue—a weapon to use against him.

But then Yan Wanqiu thought again: apart from sending messages as Ji Chou, he seemed to have no other choice.

After all, no matter who was backing the Night Owl Syndicate, having Xie Chi assassinate the syndicate's leader—success or failure—was the best move to push this ticking time bomb forward as a scapegoat and pin it on Yan Baiyue. Yan Wanqiu simply couldn't explain why he'd suddenly interrogated the Night Owl captives, nor why he was warning Xie Chi.

This wasn't something "Yan Wanqiu" would ever do.

Even Yan Wanqiu himself didn't understand what he was doing.

By the time he realized his mistake and regretted it, the note had already gone out with breakfast.

"I'm really messed up in the head."

Yan Wanqiu swore under his breath, opened his eyes, and rose from the throne.

Forget it—keeping Xie Chi around was fine; the guy was still somewhat useful for now.

But this "Ji Chou" mess, which only got more tangled the more he tried to sort it out, was best handled by cutting it clean.

If Xie Chi dared to come after him again this afternoon demanding to see "Ji Chou"...

Yan Wanqiu narrowed his eyes.

He already had the thermal ore production map.

A logistics officer locked up for bribing guards to pass information, then executed once Xie Chi had done his job and lost his usefulness—that was a neat, perfect ending, wasn't it?

.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

Xie Chi had no idea "Ji Chou" was on the brink of life and death. He ate his tasteless breakfast and crashed into sleep.

His mind was weighed down with worries, and for once, he dreamed.

In the dream, he was back three thousand years in the future.

Three thousand years later was a fully technological era, where nature had been completely conquered by tech. Everywhere the star network reached was nothing but towering skyscrapers, with artificially controlled greenery staying green all year round.

"Assassin A192399, your mission No. 1928 times out in five minutes. Please upload your mission progress in time to avoid timeout penalties and having your permissions frozen."

A friendly reminder popped up on his terminal glasses.

Xie Chi flew his vehicle one-handed, weaving between the skyscrapers, his face a little pale.

He'd just finished an assassination mission on the Prime Minister, losing an arm in the process. The cabin of his flying vehicle reeked of blood.

But he was long used to this. Without any expression, he took a vial of hemostatic agent from his spatial ring, bit it open, and downed it. At the same time, he switched on autopilot and uploaded the mission recording with his one good hand.

He even threw up a peace sign, smiled at the camera for a photo, and finished his daily smile check-in.

The bleeding stopped quickly, and the mission recording finished uploading.

The terminal's bright red reminder turned green: "Mission complete. Payment has been transferred to your star network account."

On a normal day, Xie Chi would have gone straight back to the organization's headquarters for treatment, chatting with colleagues who were also there recovering from missions.

But he instinctively felt he should head home first.

Home...?

Wasn't his dorm at the organization?

Xie Chi was a bit confused, but dreams never made sense. The autopilot vehicle didn't head toward the border but instead rose straight up, finally stopping in front of a lit window in one of the bustling skyscrapers.

Even without any context, Xie Chi instinctively knew this was his home.

He stepped off the flying vehicle in his wrinkled, blood-soaked clothes, one sleeve hanging empty, dragging his slow, hesitant feet to the door.

"Click."

Before Xie Chi could even knock, the door swung open, and warm yellow light spilled out.

"You're back—dinner's ready—how'd you get hurt again?"

A familiar male voice rang out. Xie Chi looked at the half-masked face in front of him, and without thinking, he instinctively whined with familiar petulance: "It's all the star network's fault. Lately, to buy a house, I was clearing missions too fast and took too much money from the organization at once, which triggered the system's anti-farming thing. It straight-up assigned me a week-long mission to assassinate the Prime Minister of the β galaxy. To avoid failing the mission and getting half my pay docked, I didn't sleep for a week. By the time I was escaping, I was so dizzy I could barely stay upright."

"Okay, okay, you've worked hard." Ji Chou gently reached up to ruffle his hair, guiding him inside. "Go lie in the medical pod first, then take a hot shower before you eat."

As they went inside, the smell of food got even stronger. Xie Chi had completely ignored all the weirdness, lowering his head so Ji Chou could pet him, and answered dizzily: "Okay, thanks, babe."

"Don't thank me." Ji Chou let out a low chuckle. "You're a dad now—why are you still so formal with me?"

Xie Chi instinctively replied: "Right—wait, what?!?"

Xie Chi suddenly processed what Ji Chou had said, his eyes going wide.

He stared at Ji Chou in disbelief, only then noticing that the man's usually lean waist was now clearly swollen, a smooth, round pregnant belly clearly straining against his clothes.

A five-month pregnant belly sat on a hard, masculine man, softening his sharp, angular frame into a gentle, rounded silhouette.

Ji Chou seemed completely unaware anything was wrong, giving him a nudge: "Hurry to the medical pod. You bought this school-district apartment for our baby—the environmental rules here are super strict. Be careful you get detected and fined for messing up the community's environment."

The scene in front of him was way too much. Xie Chi's mind went blank as he was pushed toward the medical pod.

No, no, no.

Nothing about this world made sense.

"...Babe, can alphas get pregnant too?"

Xie Chi blurted out the question and suddenly snapped his eyes open.

He'd startled himself awake with his own sleep-talking.

Before him was the stone roof of Blizzard City, pitch black.

No warm home with Ji Chou, no meals, no soft orange glow. The room was silent except for the faint crackle of the combustion furnace burning thermal ore and the howl of wind and snow outside.

Xie Chi slowly sat up.

"It was a dream..." Xie Chi murmured, still dazed.

Right—alphas couldn't get pregnant.

Xie Chi rubbed his cheeks, finally fully awake—then couldn't stop his face from burning.

Only now, out of the dream, did he realize how far over the line that image had been.

He'd seen Ji Chou's body before—lean waist, flat stomach, well-defined muscles. That night when he'd taken him, Xie Chi could even see a slight bulge through Ji Chou's lower abdomen.

If that became a pregnant belly...

Xie Chi abruptly buried his face in the blanket, leaving only his red ears sticking out.

What was he thinking?! How could he disrespect Ji Chou like that!

But then again, if Ji Chou were an omega, he wouldn't really mind raising another kid.

Just one would be enough—the three of them, a complete family, just like in those real estate ads from three thousand years later.

But first, he needed to make money. Right now, he couldn't even afford formula, let alone a house in a good school district...

"Beep beep beep!"

The chime from his smart device cut off Xie Chi's increasingly wandering thoughts.

Xie Chi snapped back to reality and looked at the device.

"Nie Huaiyi: Captain Xie, His Highness can see you now."

Only then did Xie Chi realize it was already two p.m.

No time to dwell on the dream. Xie Chi sat up, threw on his coat, and replied.

"Xie Chi: I'm coming right away."

.

Back at Yan Wanqiu's palace.

Xie Chi took the familiar route and pushed open the heavy wooden door.

Yan Wanqiu sat on the throne, long white hair spilling down, still gazing down at him with an unreadable expression.

"Your Highness." Xie Chi gave a bow.

Yan Wanqiu said flatly, "You were so eager to see me—what's the matter?"

"Last night, I infiltrated the Night Owl Syndicate's headquarters—Windcliff Village."

Xie Chi's first words made Yan Wanqiu pause.

He'd expected Xie Chi to bring up Ji Chou first, but the man had actually found the Night Owl Syndicate's headquarters that fast.

Xie Chi kept his head down, missing the shift in Yan Wanqiu's expression, and went on, "At the Night Owl Syndicate headquarters, I grabbed a Blizzard City mechanic they'd taken and questioned him. According to him, the Night Owl Syndicate is backed by Frostbite City, which even supplied them with a new weapon—an electromagnetic gun."

"Electromagnetic gun? What does it look like?" Yan Wanqiu narrowed his eyes.

"It looks like an old-school rifle, with electromagnetic coils around the barrel. It shoots electric currents and is loud as hell." Xie Chi described it briefly, then ventured, "Has Your Highness seen this kind of gun before?"

Yan Wanqiu said flatly, "Yes, I heard the name during a military exercise in the capital. Yan Huishi said it was a prototype from his research institute, but I never got a close look, so I don't know what it looks like."

"I confiscated a strange weapon from the Night Owl Syndicate recently. The mechanics at camp haven't figured it out yet—it should be that electromagnetic gun you mentioned."

Xie Chi immediately realized the "military exercise" Yan Wanqiu mentioned was the incident that got him exiled to Blizzard City.

He'd been looking for a chance to tell Yan Wanqiu about Yan Baiyue's connection to the Night Owl Syndicate, so he seized the moment. "So maybe behind Frostbite City and the Night Owl Syndicate, there's also backing from the capital?"

Yan Wanqiu let out a cold laugh. "That explains it."

Everything made sense now. His two brothers couldn't possibly be so kind as to actually let him build something in Blizzard City.

Remembering how Yan Baiyue had kicked him while he was down during the exile—sneering about Yan Huishi's six years of hatred, the Emperor's wariness, and his mother-father's cold indifference—Yan Wanqiu felt a wave of nausea.

Yan Baiyue and Yan Huishi shared the same mother. Having lost his own mother-father young, Yan Wanqiu had been raised by their mother-father, growing up alongside the two of them.

Before Yan Baiyue cruelly revealed the truth, Yan Wanqiu had always seen them as family—wholehearted, never on guard.

Looking back, he'd been a fool not to suspect anything even after falling into Pheromone Dysregulation Syndrome multiple times.

"Anything else?" Yan Wanqiu rubbed his brow.

Xie Chi went on, "According to that mechanic, when Boss Ye dies, he'll immediately send word and footage from before and after his death to Frostbite City. I scouted the place last night, but since I wasn't sure if killing Boss Ye would put Blizzard City in danger, I didn't act rashly. I came back to ask for your orders."

Yan Wanqiu didn't answer right away, just studying Xie Chi with an unreadable expression.

Xie Chi's intel largely matched what Yan Wanqiu had gotten from interrogation—and added plenty more detail.

Yan Wanqiu could basically confirm Xie Chi was telling the truth. But he'd been misled by the man's intel before, leading to the Night Owl Syndicate's ambush, and Xie Chi's allegiance was still unclear—so he didn't dare lower his guard.

"What do you think?" Yan Wanqiu asked.

Xie Chi said seriously, "I'll follow your orders. If you tell me to act, I'll find a way to kill Boss Ye without a trace."

Yan Wanqiu found it absurd, almost laughable. "Follow my orders?"

Xie Chi nodded. "Your Highness won't misjudge."

Sure, Yan Wanqiu had fallen in history, but that was because the Mechanical Civilization had crushed him with dimensional suppression. Early on, he'd even been a threat to Yan Huishi. Xie Chi trusted his judgment.

Yan Wanqiu didn't know what Xie Chi was thinking. The words grated on him, and he sneered bitterly, "If I didn't misjudge things, I wouldn't be in Blizzard City."

Only then did Xie Chi realize he'd misspoken, and he quickly added, "Right or wrong isn't something you can judge in the moment. If you hadn't come to Blizzard City, how would you have found the thermal ore or seen the real situation in the capital? Maybe from the future's perspective, this moment is a turning point—an opportunity."

Yan Wanqiu fell silent for a moment.

Xie Chi broke into a nervous sweat.

The first time they met, Yan Wanqiu couldn't even control his pheromones and could snap at any moment—that had left too deep an impression on Xie Chi. Even though Yan Wanqiu seemed calmer today, Xie Chi didn't dare let his guard down.

Just as Xie Chi was cursing himself for speaking without thinking, he heard a light scoff from above.

"Smooth talker."

Xie Chi bowed his head even lower.

Yan Wanqiu looked at the slender neck exposed by the young man, his mind wandering at an inappropriate moment.

Perhaps it was because the raid on the Night Owl Syndicate's casino that night had vented most of his volatile pheromones, Yan Wanqiu's Pheromone Dysregulation Syndrome hadn't flared up in the past few days.

As the ever-present headache faded, Yan Wanqiu had grown much more level-headed. Even he had to admit Xie Chi was pretty easy on the eyes now.

Yan Wanqiu snapped back to the present and made his decision: "Since Cold Ice City is connected to the main star, we'll make our move tomorrow night and kill Boss Ye. Yan Baiyue will arrive in Blizzard City the day after tomorrow. As long as he hasn't made it back to the main star safely, they won't dare make any big moves."

Earlier, he'd worried Cold Ice City was a local outfit and that killing Boss Ye would bring their retaliation down on him. Now that he knew the power behind Cold Ice City was also the main star, he naturally had a lot fewer worries.

Even if Boss Ye died before Yan Baiyue's arrival, given how spoiled and greedy that guy was, he wouldn't back off—he'd come storming over in a rage to cause trouble.

Yan Wanqiu remembered the message from the main star ordering him to personally receive Yan Baiyue, and let out a cold laugh.

Eyeing the thermal ore and wanting to claim it for himself? He ought to check whether he'd even make it out of Blizzard City alive.

And Yan Huishi and his dear old dad were still scheming to use Yan Baiyue's marriage to shore up their rule—with Yan Baiyue's fate up in the air, they'd hardly risk striking at a remote border town like Blizzard City, whose potential was still a question mark.

That was, of course—assuming everything Xie Chi said was true.

Things had developed to this point. Though there was no solid evidence, Yan Wanqiu could basically conclude that one of the factions backing Xie Chi was one of his royal brothers.

If Xie Chi was still lying, and this was all just a setup cooked up by Xie Chi and Yan Baiyue...

Yan Wanqiu stared darkly at the young man, who kept his head down.

He had already given the other a chance.

If Xie Chi was deceiving him this time, then he would have to bear the blame and die along with Yan Baiyue.

Xie Chi, completely unaware, lowered his head and agreed: "Yes."

Yan Wanqiu waved his hand. "If there's nothing else, you may withdraw."

Xie Chi hesitated for a moment.

"Actually, there's one more personal question..."

Yan Wanqiu felt a knot of dread at that hesitant opener, his brow twitching hard.

If Xie Chi so much as dared to ask about Ji Chou...

Xie Chi carefully phrased his question: "I'd like to repair some weapons—can that be reimbursed?"

Yan Wanqiu: ?