CH 85

Since that day, the gossiping and rumours on the Starnet have lost a lot of popularity, at least to an extent where as long as one didn’t pay attention to them, they wouldn’t affect one’s normal life.

Ge Xiu was originally a very self-centered person, and the opinions and views of the outside world were the things he cared about the least, so he quickly forgot about it.

Even Percy, who had troubled him again and again, seemed to have started to deliberately avoid all accidental meetings with him ever since Ge Xiu had a good “chat” with him. Even in the essential compulsory courses the groups and positions he chose were basically the farther away from Ge Xiu, the better.

Ge Xiu didn’t notice it.

Percy’s existence meant nothing to him, he felt neither hate nor love.

As long as they know not to provoke him, they can live in peace.

Especially because recently Ge Xiu was still obsessed with his mecha transformation project. Apart from classes, he mostly spent his time with Haines, so he was even more reluctant and lazy to devote his energy on these unimportant things.

After he was granted permission to enter and exit as he wished, Haines even specially designated an area as his workshop on the floor above the training ground.

The facilities and tools inside were extremely advanced and it was the perfect place for Ge Xiu to complete his research.

In the process of revising and improving the mecha transformation plan, in addition to the support of location and equipment, Haines’ rich practical experience also helped him a lot—in addition to many details and ideas, his opinions brought new inspiration and solutions for Ge Xiu.

It’s just that he seemed to have become very busy recently. Most of the time, he wouldn’t even know his whereabouts, he wouldn’t even appear in the training ground often.

And Ge Xiu threw himself into his work and seldom paid attention to the other party’s departure or presence.

During this time, the headmaster of the college called him twice.

One time was to inquire about his relationship with Haines—Ge Xiu, was too lazy to pay attention to such sounding out.

The second time was to complete the mental power value test that wasn’t finished at the beginning of the school year.

Clearly, school spent a lot of energy on the detecting errors and repair of the mental power testing equipment, but they could not find any faults with the equipment.

However, to be on the safe side, they still used a brand-new mental power detector to test Ge Xiu.

But the results were still as astonishing.

On the screen that has been updated, the same words as on the first test were displayed:

[Mental strength value: 0]

[Level: ? ]

This was hard to believe.

Although he heard Ge Xiu’s tutor say this, but only after seeing it with his own eyes the Dean truly believed that such a strange thing really happened.

And because the specific mental power value cannot be detected, even the mental power map cannot be recorded.

This made even the Dean along with the tutor unable to do anything, so they had to let Ge Xiu go back and wait for the notice.

Time flew so fast that he could hardly notice its passing, it was slipping through his fingers with easy.

Ge Xiu was in the workshop again today.

The huge space was full of countless parts and metal semi-finished products. All kinds of strange tools were piled up on the ground and on the workbench. The whole workroom was messy. The appearance of all of the semi-finished products was different, but the only thing they had in common was probably that rough shape that really couldn’t be called pleasing to the eye, proving complete lack of aesthetic taste of the creator.

The slender youth was almost engulfed by the piling up hills of rough and brutal metal machines around him.

He sat on the ground and studied the blueprints laid on the ground without any distractions, with an extremely focused expression, as if nothing happening outside could disturb him.

The communicator placed aside buzzed.

Ge Xiu casually pressed hang up.

Half a minute later, the communicator buzzed again.

Ge Xiu hung up again.

This time there wasn’t even a few seconds break before the communicator continued to vibrate relentlessly.

Ge Xiu raised his head, there were some oil stains on one side of his cheek, which looked a little funny.

He frowned, and finally reached out and turned the communicator on—

Before Ge Xiu could even bring the communicator to his ear, he heard a violent roar rushing from the receiver, so loud that if felt is if it could break his eardrums: “Where have you been these days!!! Everyone around you is trying contacting you!!! Is your communicator broken?!!!”

Ge Xiu silently moved away the communicator a little.

He glanced at the number displayed on it—he didn’t recognize it.

“And you are…?” Ge Xiu asked.

The microphone was eerily silent for a few seconds, and then, the roar came out again, the tone in the receiver becoming even more angry: “Who am I?? I am your father!! I used my subordinate’s communicator to finally get through to you. What are you doing?”

Admiral Drost?

Ge Xiu was stunned, his mind immersed in machinery and electronics seemed to have been finally been pulled back to reality at this moment.

He suddenly realized something and apologized sincerely: “Ah, I’m sorry, I blocked you last week.”

In fact, with the progress of the research, in order to prevent too much interruption, Ge Xiu did not block only Admiral Drost last week, but everyone’s contact information was blocked as well —in fact, Ge Xiu wanted to simply turn off the communicator.

It’s not that he didn’t do it before.

In the end, the dean who wanted to talk to Ge Xiu could not find him for three days, and he did not have permission to enter Haines’s territory, so the dean who was on the verge of collapse could only send a robot to wait downstairs in his dormitory and catch Ge Xiu when he went back to the dormitory to supplement his sleep.

So, after a not-so-pleasant conversation, Ge Xiu was banned from turning off the communicator for more than 24 hours.

The opposite side of the communicator fell silent again: “…”

Admiral Drost seemed to be too tired to get angry, and asked bluntly: “Have you really forgotten what day is today?”

Ge Xiu frowned: “What day?”

“…” General Drost slowly inhaled and exhaled, admonishing himself not to be angry, not to be angry, not to be angry—his body still had not recovered—but he felt that before his son’s body recovers he will suffer from a heart attack from anger first.

Finally, after half a minute of calming down, Admiral Drost suppressed his anger and said through gritted teeth:

“Today is your coming-of-age ceremony!”

Ge Xiu suddenly realized: “Oh!”

In this world, coming-of-age ceremony is often held at the age of 18 after the differentiation period, and its status is extremely important. It symbolizes the determining every human’s social gender. Moreover, because the differentiation period is often the first estrus period, the children of some large families often choose to announce their marriage or intention of finding a spouse at the coming-of-age ceremony. It makes the coming-of-age a very important occasion in this society that cannot be ignored.

But Iris was different.

His differentiation period came early.

So this resulted in a gap of nearly half a year between his coming-of-age ceremony and his differentiation period.

It also made Ge Xiu completely forget about it.

Admiral Drost continued anxiously: “There are still three hours left before starting your coming-of-age ceremony and you have disappeared. This matter was being prepared for a long time, many high-ranking officials and dignitaries will be present, and you and Haines Erost’s marriage announcement will also be announced at this time—so you hurry back for me! Do you understand?”

Ge Xiu sighed, glanced at the blueprints and drawings of unfinished parts that he spread out on the ground with some pity, and replied:

“I know, I know.”

.

By the time Ge Xiu arrived, it was late.

The Drost family villa was brightly lit and invited guests seen through the windows seemed to have started their usual routine of socialising and greetings.

As soon as Ge Xiu entered the door, he was immediately pushed all the way by the housekeeper and the maid to his room and then had new and suitable for this occasion clothes thrown on his head to change quickly.

When he finished changing, he was pushed out of the door again in confusion.

The housekeeper was walking fast in front, nagging that he came back too late and that even his two brothers had already arrived downstairs, and that his father and others were also waiting for him.

Ge Xiu frowned and followed behind him, tidying up the bow tie he hastily tied while walking.

Before he could walk a few steps, he felt a strong force coming from his elbow, and he was dragged into the side corridor next to him by surprise.

Ge Xiu subconsciously wanted to fight back, but a familiar voice came from above his head:

“Shh, it’s me.”

Ge Xiu stopped and looked up at the other party.

Haines looked down at him, his lips were slightly hooked casually, a pair of dark eyes glowing with a cold blue light deep inside, with dark eyebrows, and he stared intently at the boy in his arms: “How come you’re always ready to attack me when we meet?”

Ge Xiu recalled the scene where the two met for the first time in the corridor of the Marauder, and raised his eyebrows expressionlessly:

“Maybe because you always startle me.”

Haines laughed lowly, his chest pressing against Ge Xiu vibrated with laughter.

Only then did Ge Xiu realize that the two were too close together. He took a step back secretly, but was blocked by the wall behind him.

Haines let him go.

He lowered his eyes, his slender fingers with distinct knuckles landed on Ge Xiu’s neck, and flexibly lifted the crooked bow tie to tie it again.

Ge Xiu was stunned, his eyes narrowed slightly as he stared at the man in front of him thoughtfully, his eyes darkened, not knowing what he was thinking.

In just a few seconds, a perfectly shaped bow appeared around his neck.

Haines put down his hand, looked down at him and smiled:

“It’s good now.”

Ge Xiu turned his neck, feeling that the previous faint feeling of being compressed and suffocated finally disappeared, he really missed the feeling of being able to finally breathe freely.

He peered into the corridor from where he was pulled just now and saw that the butler’s figure had gone far away. He didn’t seem to realize that he had disappeared. He was still chattering to himself, but he couldn’t hear it clearly from here.

Ge Xiu looked up at the man in front of him and asked:

“So… why are you here? To tie a bow tie for me?”

Haines raised his eyebrows: “Of course not.”

He turned and walked deeper into the corridor: “Today is your coming-of-age ceremony. As your fiancé, of course I have the responsibility to give you a coming-of-age gift.”

Ge Xiu stood still: “I believe other people have come prepared as well, can’t you be like them and give it to me downstairs?”

Haines turned his head to look at him, and said mysteriously: “You will know when you come with me.”

Ge Xiu gave him a suspicious look.

In the end, he still could not resist curiosity, and walked faster to keep up with Haines’ speed.

Haines seeing he succeed curved his lips, led him through the corridors and walked down the side stairs on the side of the villa, closely avoiding the crowd.    

Ge Xiu followed behind him and said quietly:

“If Admiral Drost knew that you were so familiar with his house, he would probably be pissed off again.”

Haines didn’t look back: “Again?”

Ge Xiu immediately obediently stopped talking—because the last time seemed to have been because he had blocked the other.

The two walked out of the villa through the side door and walked towards the depths of the garden along the path. At the end of the path was a huge open field— Ge Xiu remembered that this was the place where the two older brothers of the original owner practiced virtual fights.

The setting sun above has gradually set, and only last traces of magnificent bright red remained on the distant horizon. The darkness belonging to the night gradually climbed out in the distance, occupying most of the sky like splashed ink, and a few sparse stars embellished the darkness, glimmering with a faint light.

Dim light enveloped the two figures.

Ge Xiu looked around, frowning in confusion, but before he could ask a question, Hines walked to his side, raised his hand and pressed lightly on the screen of his personal terminal.

In an instant, a thin layer of virtual protective film gathered from the empty field, rippling in the air like water waves, revealing the huge mechanical body hidden behind it.

The huge silver-white mecha stood in the center of the field, with sharp metal edges and corners all over the metal body with extremely high toughness. From head to toe it was the smoothest fastest mecha design. Just looking at it one could imagine how terrifying the speed of such a machine would be—the smooth silver armour covered the arms and chest of the mech, hiding the deadly weapons and equipment behind it.    

It looked breathtakingly beautiful.

Ge Xiu raised his eyes and stared at the mech in front of him in amazement, and asked slowly: “Is that what you were busy with this during this time?”

Haines looked at him and raised his lips: “More or less.”

The mecha in front of him perfectly integrates strength and beauty. The power and lethality of the mecha and the smooth shapes and fine details were extremely harmonious on it’s body.

Ge Xiu felt that his whole body seemed to be attracted by it. He slowly took a few steps towards the mecha, pressed his palm lightly on its smooth and cold metal exterior and stroked the surface of the mecha, sighing with admiration in a low voice:

“She is so beautiful.”

Haines didn’t look up.

He lowered his eyes and stared deeply at the young man in front of him. He captured the reflection of the sunset and the shooting stars of the starry night in the other’s bright pupils. It was like a dark abyss under the sea, which could easily bewitch human soul and made one irresistibly addicted to it.

Haines’ eyes were dark, and the emotions in his eyes converged into a deep, quiet, dark stream.

He softly echoed:

“—Yes.”

————————————————————————————

Bamboo has something to say:

Haines we all see you’re not looking at all at dat mecha -_-