CH 41

Chapter 41

“Hello, I’m Xia Liansheng. I assume you already communicated with the team captain before coming here. I know Qin Jiulin, and I heard he arrived at the camp, so I came to see him.”

At this moment, Qin Jiulin also walked out from inside, while Qi Yu hid inside, quietly peeping through the gaps, wanting to catch some gossip.

Upon seeing Qin Jiulin, Xia Liansheng immediately intended to walk past Liu Zhongyuan and go up to him. However, just as he had a smile on his face and was about to approach, he was intercepted by Liu Zhongyuan.

Xia Liansheng maintained a polite smile. “What’s wrong? I know Jiulin.”

Liu Zhongyuan tilted his head and looked at him. “Sorry, but Qin Jiulin is mine now. Please don’t get too close to him casually. Otherwise, I might misunderstand.”

Xia Liansheng was taken aback, clearly not understanding. “What do you mean?”

Liu Zhongyuan gently pushed him, making him step back a few steps. “Don’t get so close to talk.”

Xia Liansheng didn’t want to communicate with him, but continued to look at Qin Jiulin. “Jiulin, are you… with him now? Can we… have a proper conversation?”

Qin Jiulin remained silent for a while before nodding. “Sure, let’s talk for a bit.”

Liu Zhongyuan was very dissatisfied. He moved behind Qin Jiulin with a pitiful expression, directly hugging his shoulders. “Ah, Jiulin, are you going to abandon me? We’ve only been together for such a short time. What… what did I do wrong? I’ll change anything you say…”

Qin Jiulin sighed. “Sigh… you wait here, don’t speak recklessly.”

Although Liu Zhongyuan was left behind in the same spot, watching the two of them walk to a more distant place to chat privately, he still had a smile on his face. Just now, Qin Jiulin didn’t refute what he said, just lightly warned him not to speak recklessly. Well, it seems his words just now were effective.

That Xia Liansheng’s expression turned sour!

At this time, Qi Yu approached and asked softly, “Brother Liu, when did you start dating Brother Qin? Why didn’t I know?”

Liu Zhongyuan glanced at him, his gaze seemed to say… little brat.

Qi Yu couldn’t understand that gaze, but he had a feeling that Liu Zhongyuan was scolding him. Well, he didn’t have any evidence since Liu Zhongyuan only glanced at him just now.

Qin Jiulin appeared calm. “Do you have something to tell me?”

Xia Liansheng said, “Jiulin, we… we haven’t seen each other for about a month now, right? Why are you so cold towards me?”

Qin Jiulin replied, “Haven’t we always been like this between us?”

Xia Liansheng: “Do we… do we have a bad relationship? Why let a third party interfere?”

Qin Jiulin: “Our relationship was indeed quite good before, but have you forgotten the most crucial point?”

Xia Liansheng: “What?”

Suddenly, a sense of foreboding arose in his heart, as if once Qin Jiulin said what he was about to say, they could never go back to how things were before.

But it seemed like it was already too late, because Qin Jiulin had already spoken.

“While our relationship seemed good on the surface, we never defined it. Even if I found another lover now, it wouldn’t have much to do with you, right? For you, it would just be a failed relationship.”

“Oh, by the way, I heard as soon as I arrived at the camp that you and Xia zhen have a very close relationship, always sticking together, being affectionate with each other. We weren’t that clingy when we were together. I think you must like him, right? Since that’s the case, I won’t interfere with your feelings. I’ll voluntarily withdraw.”

Xia Liansheng: “No, Jiulin, you misunderstand. We don’t have that kind of relationship!”

“What you heard is just gossip, people talking nonsense. Don’t you know what it means when rumors spread? Xia Zhen is just special to me, so he always makes me find ways for the army to go out and look for you. We’ve always been in contact, purely because he has come to me many times asking if there was any news about you.”

“Putting aside everything else, your younger brother really cares about you. I hope you won’t misunderstand anyone, especially not Xia Zhen. He’s a good younger brother…”

Qin Jiulin didn’t refute, but he didn’t nod either. “I understand. So… is there anything else you want to tell me?”

Xia Liansheng was very confused about how their relationship had come to this point… so distant. Could it really be because of that man who had treated him poorly before?

They weren’t pretending between them, it was real?!

Xia Liansheng: “Uncle, Aunt, Grandma, and the others are living in the family area. And Xia Zhen, they’re all fine. But besides them… Uncle and Grandfather have turned into semi-beastmen, and then other animals in the neighborhood attacked them. We can’t find them now.”

Qin Jiulin was surprised. He hadn’t expected that his grandmother and aunt had survived in this life. In the previous life, only his parents and Qin Juzhen had survived, and when they met, the three of them looked very disheveled.

Qin Jiulin: “Is that so? That’s unfortunate news.”

Xia Liansheng was also familiar with the situation of the Qin family, so he knew why Qin Jiulin had such an expression or seemed so indifferent to the deaths of the other members of the Qin family.

“I think… if you have time, you should go out and see them, or you can come to me, and I’ll take you there. They really miss you, especially Xia Zhen. He’s been asking me if I found you.”

Qin Jiulin couldn’t believe that Xia Liansheng didn’t know. The purpose of Qin Jiuzhen’s constant visits to him, asking about his own whereabouts, was actually to increase the time they spent together, not really to inquire about news!

Qin Jiulin said, “I might not have the time. Next, I have to accompany my team to carry out the military mission.”

Only then did Xia Liansheng suddenly realize the most unusual thing. “Wait! Jiulin… Jiulin, are you also… also a variant beastman?”

Generally, people called by the military for assistance were either beastmen or variant beastmen. The place where regular beastmen lived wasn’t as good as this one. Those who could live here were all variant beastmen. His team had three, so Qin Jiulin’s team must also have…

Right, the one who had argued with him just now, the one who was secretly observing from behind, that made three.

Qin Jiulin nodded. “I am a variant beastman. So what?”

Xia Liansheng quickly regained his composure, appearing much more relaxed, as if a long-suspected matter had just been confirmed to develop in a positive direction.

But he didn’t relax for long. Soon he realized that Qin Jiulin’s attitude towards him was a bit cold. If this situation continued, the matter he had been thinking about might not be resolved.

Xia Liansheng said, “Since that’s the case, then I can rest assured. I’ve been worried about how you were doing alone in the villa area over there. But you also know that the Qin family’s villa is in the city area. It was especially difficult for me to protect them before, as it was dangerous outside…”

“I could only carefully protect them while searching for supplies. Otherwise, we might have starved to death even if we weren’t killed.”

Qin Jiulin said, “In any case, I still have to thank you for helping my family.”

Xia Liansheng smiled slightly. “It’s nothing. It’s what I should do. After all, they’re your family. By the way, when will you go see them? Especially Xia Zhen, he’s always…”

Qin Jiulin interrupted, “Enough. If you want to say how much they miss me, how much they want to see me, how concerned they are about me, then forget it. It’s been over twenty years, don’t I know their attitude towards me?”

Xia Liansheng said, “But now that you’ve become a variant beastman, once they find out, they will definitely look at you differently. Are you really going to give up on your family?”

Qin Jiulin replied, “Believe it or not, the first thing they’ll do when they found out I was a variant beastman was to ask me for offerings. And then they provided convenience to Qin Jiuzhen, making his life more comfortable. After all, Qin Jiuzhen is their lucky star, whereas I am just a disaster, a jinx.”

Xia Liansheng looked at Qin Jiulin, who spoke these words with such calmness, feeling a bit at a loss. After all, he also knew Qin Jiulin’s situation before, but Qin Jiulin never mentioned it himself, nor did he bring it up.

But now… he didn’t expect Qin Jiulin to be so straightforward about this issue.

Xia Liansheng asked, “But… regardless, they raised you… They are still your family, after all. What… what do you plan to do now?”

Qin Jiulin said, “Now, my priority is the missions assigned by the military. They did raise me, but it was only limited to that. So, I will repay them, and in the future, I will take care of them in their old age. Of course, that’s only for their old age. I won’t bother with anything else.”

Xia Liansheng opened his mouth, “You… you weren’t like this before.”

Qin Jiulin knew that his transformation was indeed too significant for Xia Liansheng, but for himself, it was relatively minor.

After all, if he completely let go, not only would he ignore the Qin family, but Xia Liansheng would also directly kill him. How could he have a decent conversation here then?

Qin Jiulin asked, “Do you think I’ve changed too much?”

Xia Liansheng nodded, “Yes, you’ve changed a lot. Did someone tell you something?”

Qin Jiulin asked, “Who? What did they say?”

Xia Liansheng replied, “Is that person the leader of your squad?”

Qin Jiulin nodded, “Yes.”

Xia Liansheng said, “He hasn’t been very friendly towards me, but this is our first meeting. Can you tell me why?”

Qin Jiulin shook his head, “I don’t know either.”

It should be because of what he had told him before. He didn’t expect Liu Zhongyuan to actually side with him, which was both unexpected and expected.

Xia Liansheng glanced briefly at Liu Zhongyuan and then focused on Qin Jiulin in front of him. “Jiulin, can’t we go back to how we were before?”