CH 32

Zhou Yu immediately stretched his hand out and covered Mo Ye’s eyes, then pulled him back: “Bad boy! What are you looking at when your fur isn’t even fully grown yet?”

Just as the film was approaching its climax, Wu Yun waved his hand indifferently: “Zhou Yu, you can’t do that! This is enlightening education for Mo Ye!”

“Education my ass! How can you let him watch such a thing at his age?!” Zhou Yu thumped Wu Yun on the head.

The more Zhou Yu covered his little head, the more Mo Ye attempted to stick his head out to watch.

Wu Yun threw them a glance and burst out into laughter. He turned the volume up to its maximum.

An obscene atmosphere enshrouded the entire dining hall.

“Wu Yun, do you really want me to beat you up?” As soon as Zhou Yu raised his fist, Mo Ye, who had been in his arms, scampered away. He jumped up somewhere else and continued watching the TV in deep concentration.

Wu Yun laughed loudly and said, “See? This is Mo Ye’s true nature, he’s a real man! I like it!”

Zhou Yu looked on helplessly, then shouted, “Mo Ye, come back.”

Mo Ye replied with a “Hnn,” but sadly, he couldn’t even be bothered to turn his head back.

All of a sudden, Zhou Yu felt like the situation was rather comical. What could Mo Ye learn from watching this? Human beings and night spirits would definitely have different ways of doing that…

Zhou Yu finished his dinner and went to pick up Mo Ye, who was crouching a distance away from him. They left Wu Yun—who was still watching the tacky movie—behind.

As Zhou Yu walked, Mo Ye turned around and rested on his shoulder, his head still angled in the direction of the TV.

Zhou Yu slapped him on the butt angrily: “You’re not following a good example.”

Back in his room, there wasn’t anything entertaining to do in the evenings so Zhou Yu dug out his mobile phone. It had been brought over from the other side.

Nibelungen didn’t have network signals, but the movies saved on his phone could still be played.

Zhou Yu felt that the movie Wu Yun had chosen in the dining hall was bound to have a negative impact on Mo Ye’s young and immature mind. It was necessary to re-educate Mo Ye and to set him up with a proper… Outlook on the world and on life.

“Mo Ye, listen up, what you saw in the dining hall with Wu Yun isn’t everything there is to human beings…” Zhou Yu had no idea how to explain what he wanted to express to Mo Ye.

Mo Ye looked up at him, his large amber eyes filled with confusion. His small wings flapped slowly as if to say, “What do you mean?”

Zhou Yu coughed, “I’ll show you a different movie. Its two main characters share a beautiful relationship. This is what I want, not doing such things from the get-go.”

Zhou Yu turned on his phone and picked up Mo Ye.

The movie Zhou Yu played was “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”.

The film was very long and the plot was scattered. Just like a running stream, it seemed like there was nothing left over after flowing past.

Benjamin’s life worked differently from others. He grew younger and younger as others grew older.

In the movie, Daisy was pure and straight-forward, and she eventually became a dancer. Benjamin must have been deeply moved the moment she started her dance from behind the curtains, the lights etching out her shadow.

The end of the film showed Benjamin as an infant, lying in the arms of the aging Daisy.

All of life will become a memory, and all things will come to pass.

Zhou Yu expected Mo Ye to find such movies unexciting. At least compared to Wu Yun’s “action movies,” there was not much to see.

However, Mo Ye watched it earnestly. When Daisy held Benjamin in her arms, Mo Ye threw himself into Zhou Yu’s arms, squeezing his way into his embrace. His body temperature dropped, expressing his grief.

Zhou Yu held him in his arms as the last bit of battery in his phone was used up.

Mo Ye tapped his phone with a claw and looked at Zhou Yu, as if to say: Why did it disappear? What happened next? What happened after that?

Zhou Yu smiled and pressed his face onto him.

“There is no after. Because there is a beginning, that means that there is also an end. Mo Ye, in my eyes, you are like Daisy: simple, pure, and beautiful. But our time flows differently. When I grow old, you would still be like Benjamin, lively and youthful. You’ll definitely become a charming existence that stands out from the crowd.”

Mo Ye looked up at Zhou Yu.

His eyes were pure, the depths easily seen through to the bottom.

But they also contained many complex emotions that Zhou Yu could not fathom.

He seemed to have many expectations for Zhou Yu, but Zhou Yu knew that he would be unable to meet them.

“Therefore, your companions will eventually become a memory for you. Be yourself, and no matter what problems you face or whatever you lose, never forget who you truly are.” Zhou Yu rubbed Mo Ye’s head.

Suddenly, Mo Yu straightened up and laid his two small claws on top of Zhou Yu’s shoulder. Their lips touched before Zhou Yu could respond.

At that moment, Zhou Yu could not contain his surprise. His heart pounded rapidly, and his mind was swept clean of any thoughts.

Mo Ye’s mouth was soft, just like a human’s.

Utterly stunned, Zhou Yu leaned back to support himself. Looking into Mo Ye’s eyes, Zhou saw that they were… brimming with affection.

Upon getting no response from Zhou Yu, Mo Ye turned away, climbed onto the pillow and curled into a ball.

Zhou Yu scratched the back of his head. Did that count as a kiss?

I was kissed by a night spirit? And a male one at that?

Zhou Yu suddenly felt a little depressed. He poked at Mo Ye’s ear with his finger: “Hey, stinky brat, you were being a pervert.”

Mo Ye’s ears pricked up. “Pervert” was a new word. He seemed to be analyzing what it meant.

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Zhou Yu thought to himself that Mo Ye’s actions just now were mostly due to seeing Benjamin kiss Tracy and learning from their example.

Zhou Yu gave Mo Ye a pat and said with a smile, “What you did, placing your mouth on mine, is known as kissing. It’s something you do to the person you like, you know. When you meet a female night spirit in the future, you can only do that to her if you really like her. But it’s wrong for you to kiss me. I’m human, and male, just like you, understand?”

Mo Ye remained curled up, not responding.

Zhou Yu felt like it became even funnier.

However, the movie did indeed sadden Mo Ye; he was no longer as warm as he used to be.

Zhou Yu pulled him into his arms, and thought: Don’t be sad, little thing, you should quickly warm up again.

Ten minutes later, Mo Ye’s body temperature was slowly rising. Zhou Yu thought that hugging him was very comfortable and fell asleep just like that.

Mo Ye quietly slipped out from within his arms and stopped by the bedside.

His figure slowly morphed, and a youth with short, black hair and fair skin sat down beside Zhou Yu.

He had a face with well-contoured features, clear amber eyes, and an elegant expression that was almost otherworldly.

His fingers touched Zhou Yu’s ankle and gently grasped it, slowly moving upwards. His palm ran along the lines of Zhou Yu’s calf to Zhou Yu’s waist.

The teenager lowered himself and slowly embraced Zhou Yu within his arms, gently pressing his face against Zhou Yu’s shoulder.

Zhou Yu did not feel the slightest bit of his weight.

The youth raised his head and looked at Zhou Yu’s sleeping face, he seemed to be attracted by something. Placing his left hand on Zhou Yu’s back and his right hand on Zhou Yu’s shoulder, he leaned closer and kissed Zhou Yu’s lips.

The teenager closed his eyes. His delicate eyelashes seemed to be bearing the weight of fragile expectations.

He kissed Zhou Yu on his chin, then on the neck, before tightening his embrace, as if he was afraid that the man in his arms would suddenly disappear.

“Mmm…” Zhou Yu furrowed his brows. The moment he was about to open his eyes, the young man’s fingers lightly touched upon Zhou Yu’s brow, at which Zhou Yu peacefully fell back to sleep.

At noon the next day, Wu Yun sat in the dining hall table with his head resting in his palm while using his chopsticks to play with the meal of the day as if he had no appetite. Zhou Yu ignored him. There were only green beans and some canned food left on the plate.

Wu Yun opened his mouth, “Hey! Don’t you think today’s food is especially terrible?”

Zhou Yu shook his head and said, “It’s fine, it tastes the same as always. The chef’s cooking is just as it usually is.”

Wu Yun sighed helplessly and looked at Mo Ye, who was curled up at the side. He poked Mo Ye’s calf with his chopsticks and said, “Say, Little Mo Ye, don’t you think today’s food is especially terrible?”

Mo Ye opened its eyes and looked at Zhou Yu, then he stuck out his tongue and lowered his head to lick up the carrots and green beans on Zhou Yu’s plate. For the first time ever, his little head shrank back up to look at Zhou Yu with a pitiful expression, as if to say, “Gosh! It really is awful!”

Zhou Yu smiled and picked up a carrot with his chopsticks to deliver it into Mo Ye’s mouth. Mo Ye rushed to jump away but was held back by Zhou Yu, who forced the carrot into his mouth.

Mo Ye struggled to break free and ran off to a corner of the table, spitting out the carrots and then turning around to stare at Zhou Yu with an aggrieved expression.

Zhou Yu couldn’t help but laugh, stunning Wu Yun who was beside him.

“It’s rare to see you laugh so openly.”

“I’m not dead, why can’t I laugh openly?” Zhou Yu replied as he dragged Mo Ye back.

Mo Ye could tell that Zhou Yu was planning to stuff him with the green beans, so he hooked his two front paws onto the edge of the table, refusing to budge.

Wu Yun took pity on Mo Ye and reached out to take Mo Ye into his arms, patting him on his little head: “See, I told you they tasted disgusting, and you acted like they weren’t!” There isn’t a single piece of meat on this plate, and neither is there enough protein content in our food. Do you know what happened?”

Zhou Yu continued eating while he beckoning at Mo Ye with his finger. Obediently, Mo Ye wiggled his way back into his arms.

Wu Yu helplessly looked at Mo Ye and mouthed: You hopeless little thing!

Zhou Yu stroked Mo Ye’s back with his left hand and used his chopsticks with his right. Without looking up, he replied, “Oh, what happened?

“They had originally delivered an entire week’s worth of provisions to Base 5, but the convoy they sent out to us yesterday unexpectedly vanished without a trace in the primitive forest! They were probably all eaten by some terrifying organism!”

Zhou Yu shot Wu Yun a glance, “What are you so happy about? Doesn’t their disappearance mean that you won’t get to eat meat for the rest of the week?”

Wu Yun slapped his thigh, “It’s not just meat that’s missing! Soon, we won’t even have potatoes anymore!”

Hearing that, Zhou Yu lifted his head up. Even Mo Ye, who was sitting on Zhou Yu’s legs, raised its head to look behind Wu Yun.

“What are you guys looking at?”

Wu Yun was about to turn around, but a pair of hands pressed down on his shoulders and an ice-cold voice sounded: “If you really want to eat meat, then we’ll just have to trouble you to make a trip into the primitive forest and retrieve the supplies from the convoy!”

Wu Yun smiled: “Jeez! It was just you, Mr. Song! I didn’t think you would assign such an important task to me, what an honor! But am I the only one going? I can’t drive all those vehicles back myself!”

Song Zhi gave him a chilling smile: “Don’t worry, I’ll have your long-time partner, Zhou Yu, go with you.”

Song Zhi’s gaze swept past Mo Ye. Mo Ye stared at him. “Mo Ye’s doesn’t need to go, this is only a simple assignment to recover the supply vehicles.”

Zhou Yu frowned, “Mr. Song, didn’t the convoy vanish in the primitive forest? Were they not attacked by some dangerous and high-ranked organism?”

Song Zhi smirked and glanced at Wu Yun: “As always, you’re pretty slick at telling tales! The convoy wasn’t attacked; there was a leakage in their fuel tank and they had no way of moving forward. The entire convoy is still alive and they last made contact with us just ten minutes ago. All you have to do is take another vehicle out to deliver the fuel and repair their fuel tank, then we’ll be able to get the provisions—including the supply of protein that you really want… meat.”

After saying that, Song Zhi turned and left.

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Wu Yu scratched at his head, “As long as the food is still there. I can’t live through a day without meat, right, Mo Ye?”

Mo Ye merely cast him a glance before turning his head to the side with an unhappy expression.

Zhou Yu smiled and raised his hand to stroke Mo Ye’s small head: “It’s okay, everything’s fine. I’m just going to go retrieve our food supply. What do you like to eat? I hear there are fresh fruits on the vehicle, do you like watermelon? I used to raise a hedgehog when I was younger, and its favorite thing to eat was the red center of a watermelon.”

Although he had been sulking, Mo Ye’s eyes suddenly lit up. He tilted his head up, as if to ask: What’s a watermelon?!

Zhou Yu took hold of Mo Ye’s front limbs and held him up to shake him around, as if he was carrying a large and silly dog: “Watermelon is a sweet fruit that is high in water content, it tastes different from the fruits in Nibelungen.”

Wu Yun smiled: “Look at that! You’re getting special treatment. Mo Ye, it’s hard for us to even taste watermelon and yet Zhou Yu is willing to leave you some. I’m so jealous of you!”

“Okay, let’s hurry up and go recover the food supply.”

Zhou Yu and Wu Yun went to the firearms storehouse and took out some ammunition with them. While they were preparing to leave the base, Mo Ye followed behind them the entire way, until they came to stand in front of a Hummer.

The moment Zhou Yu went in, Mo Ye jumped up and sat on his knees, determined to follow them.

Zhou Yu smiled and gently shook him, “Okay, you sticky little bug, you can’t come with us. Weren’t you listening to Mr. Song? Do you want to make him mad? He’ll send you into the glass room again!”

Mo Ye turned his head around with an expression that said “I’m very unhappy.” Also, Mo Ye had already grown big enough that a glass room like the one at the base wouldn’t be able to contain him anymore.

Zhou Yu reached out with a finger and tapped him on his mouth: “Alright, alright, I’ll let you eat your fill before I leave, is that okay?”

Mo Ye was still upset. He stuck out his little tongue to lick the tip of Zhou Yu’s finger, then tilted his head to the side.

Amused, Zhou Yu made a “come” gesture with his finger: “I’m going to throw you out and leave if you don’t eat now.”

At that, Mo Ye finally opened his mouth to take in Zhou Yu’s fingertip. When Mo Ye’s teeth broke his skin, he was pricked by a slight sensation of pain, followed by emotions of fondness and attachment. It spread from his fingertips to all four of his limbs. This was how Mo Ye expressed his feelings for Zhou Yu.

In that second, Zhou Yu found himself fighting a strong urge to hug Mo Ye and take him into his arms, taking him everywhere he went.

More than a dozen seconds later, someone knocked on the glass window, breaking Zhou Yu out of his trance. He looked over to see Zhou Qing.

“Uhh… bro, Song Zhi asked us to take Mo Ye away.”

Zhou Yu nodded and used his other hand to pet Mo Ye’s head, softly caressing his ears and little wings. He said, “Okay, it’s time for you to get off now. Mo Ye, you have to look after Zhou Qing well and protect him, you can’t let anyone harm him while I’m away.”

Mo Ye reluctantly let go of Zhou Yu’s finger, not forgetting to use his tongue to lick at Zhou Yu’s wound. It quickly healed again.

Zhou Yu opened the car door and Mo Ye hopped out, his gaze never leaving Zhou Yu as he departed.

Wu Yun drove while smoking: “Hey, have you ever thought about a problem?”

“What problem?” asked Zhou Yu.

“If we’re all still alive one day. I mean, if we manage to make it out of Nibelungen alive, what would you do if Mo Ye refuses to let you leave??

Zhou Yu tilted his head back and closed his eyes, as if he was contemplating the question: “I would probably want him to adapt to the environment here as quickly as possible. He’s like a child, but even a child would eventually leave their parents to live their own life when they grow up.”

Wu Yun wisely chose not to continue the topic.

Other than Mo Ye and Wu Yun, Song Zhi had also sent another team in after them. There were five people in the truck that followed Wu Yun and Zhou Yu into the primitive forest. Zhou Yu activated the locator and locked in on the coordinates of the supply vehicle.

“Approximately how much longer will we take to get there?” asked Wu Yun.

“It will probably take most of the day!”

As they were driving, Wu Yun suddenly frowned: “Hey, Zhou Yu, don’t you feel like something’s off?”

Zhou Yu nodded and answered, “It’s indeed very strange. If the supply vehicle came from Base 5, then it wouldn’t make sense for them to be at those coordinates. We’ve divided the primitive forest into 12 zones, and they happened to be in Zone 12. It’s the farthest zone from our base, so there was little exploration done in that area and we don’t know much about its finer details. The distribution of organisms in that zone was determined through aerial photography by helicopter and thermal scanning. I don’t understand why the supply vehicle would drive into unfamiliar territory.”

Song Zhi’s answer was that they were attacked by swordbone butterflies along the way. The driver then panicked and deviated from their original direction. In the process of escaping, the fuel tank was jostled from hitting a tree root, which led to the leak. Eventually, the car came to a stop at its current location.

It sounded all fair and reasonable, however, why were they so inexplicably attacked by swordbone butterflies?

The situation was pretty suspicious no matter how you looked at it.

“That supply truck has been stranded in place for more than a day. Do you think the transport crew would eat up all of our food?”

“You can say that they’re pretty lucky they didn’t become food for other organisms.”

The closer they got to Zone 12, the lusher and denser the vegetation around them became. Their Hummer had been hindered by many obstructions along the way. The vines and branches of various plants fell onto the windshield of Wu Yun’s Hummer and they almost hit a tree several times.

The tires of the vehicle accidentally rolled over a snake scorpion beauty, causing the silver snake inside of it to slither out and fiercely ram into the glass window with its jaws wide open. Although it knew that it couldn’t break the glass, the visual effect it created was terrifying.

Wu Yun kept driving along the bumpy road, and the path underneath their wheels became more and more rugged.

What worried the field personnel was that they unexpectedly came across traces of two-headed wolf spiders in the woods. But fortunately, it wasn’t yet breeding season, and thus they could not sense their fear. Otherwise, it would have been their turn to become the prey again.

After successfully avoiding the two-headed spiders, everything seemed to quiet down again. However, Zhou Yu could faintly sense that something was following them. It was hiding in the woods, observing their movements and ready to leap out at any moment.

“Zhou Yu, what’s wrong with you?” Wu Yun asked.

“Be careful.” Zhou Yu answered.

Wu Yun slightly frowned. He notified the vehicle following behind them with his walkie-talkie: “Be on guard at all times.”

Just then, a loud bang sounded from the vehicle behind them as a white figure rushed out from the woods and pounced on the Hummer behind them.

Without wasting his breath, Wu Yun adjusted the machine gun equipped on the car and rotated its muzzle. Zhou Yu was also ready to shoot.

“What the hell is that?”

Through the scope of his gun, Zhou Yu saw a white, wolf-like creature. In addition to its pure white body, it had two tusks, strong limbs, and a vicious expression. However, such an organism possessed a wild elegance in its demeanor. Were they not currently in such dangerous circumstances, Zhou Yu would have appreciated its strength and beauty.

“That’s a white terror, a B rank organism from Zone 12! It’s really strong!” Zhou Yu frowned.