“Playing games, huh?” Kānà raised the smart brain in his hand, a perfectly timed look of surprise on his face. “Why did you suddenly come back?”

Jiālèrt scanned the room, confirming that besides Kānà and Lǎolā, there was no third bug in sight. His expression softened, and he knelt on one knee. “Good day, my lord. Today is our wedding anniversary, and I rushed back to have dinner with you.”

Kānà looked at the dusty, wrinkled military uniform and the weary expression on the female bug’s face, and suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable.

He remembered their first wedding anniversary, which coincidentally fell on the day Jiālèrt was on a mission. He had thought the female bug wouldn’t make it back, but unexpectedly, that evening, Jiālèrt appeared before him, covered in dirt and wearing a blood-stained military uniform.

There were no flowers, no gifts, and no fancy restaurant, but it was the happiest anniversary Kānà had ever had.

As time went on, Jiālèrt’s rank rose, and military duties became heavier. Every wedding anniversary seemed to clash with the female bug’s missions. Besides their wedding anniversary, there were their dating anniversary, the Bug God Festival, and his hatching day—there were always various things that kept the female bug busy.

Slowly, Kānà got used to spending these holidays alone.

He never expected that just before running away from the wedding, he would see the female bug again, looking a bit disheveled yet strangely familiar and comforting.

Although there were no feelings left between them, only hatred and resentment, the female bug before him was still his first love, the one who made his heart race just by looking at her.

Like the sweet frosting on a cookie, the thick cream on yogurt, and the little tongue that crunches in a frozen persimmon—just one bite could make him happy all day long.

“My lord, why do you have the music so loud while playing games? I knocked on the door for a long time, didn’t you hear me?”

The tone of blame and complaint pulled Kānà abruptly back to reality.

Those sweet memories felt like colorful bubbles floating in the air—beautiful yet unreal. A gentle poke would burst them, leaving only a few drops of bland soapy water that quickly fell to the ground.

Looking at the familiar female bug before him, Kānà was left with only coldness and disappointment.

Lǎolā jumped in to explain first, “I’m having a party at home tomorrow, and I invited quite a few female bugs. We’ll probably need the upstairs and downstairs, so I was just testing if the speaker was loud enough to be heard on the second floor. Maybe the sound was too loud, and you didn’t hear me knock. Sorry about that.”

Jiālèrt nodded slightly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Lǎolā’s explanation. He turned around the room, and his gaze suddenly landed on a light pink writing desk with a snowflake pattern.

Kānà’s heart tightened. Not waiting for Jiālèrt to ask, he rushed over and casually said, “This pink snowflake writing desk is in style this year. Should we get one too?”

So it’s a trendy item; no wonder the writing desk in the livestream room looked just like this one.

Jiālèrt shifted his gaze away and casually replied, “If you like it, buy it. It’s getting late; let’s go.”

With his dark almond eyes darting around, Kānà softly chided, “You came back so suddenly; I didn’t have time to dress up properly. You go downstairs and wait for me; I’ll change my clothes and be right there.”

*

Watching the female bug go down the stairs, Kānà quickly shut the door and leaned against it, finally letting out a long breath.

“Damn, you scared me! Didn’t you say Jiālèrt definitely wouldn’t come back today?” Lǎolā slumped on the floor, her hand resting on her fragile chest. “Thank goodness you opened the door early; otherwise, if your female lord had caught us, we’d both be done for.”

“I don’t know.”

Kānà frowned, the image of Jiālèrt coming to pick him up from Lǎolā’s house the day before the mission suddenly flashing in his mind.

In his past life, Jiālèrt had gone directly from the military headquarters and hadn’t returned home at all.

In this new life, although the overall trajectory was similar to the last, many details had changed unexpectedly. He needed to be more careful in the future; he couldn’t afford to make any mistakes.

Kānà took out the livestream smart brain hidden in the drawer. The black screen displayed the words “Livestream Paused,” along with a countdown in white below.

Since the livestream competition lasted a full ten hours, the bug entertainment company had generously given the streamer three breaks, but each break couldn’t exceed fifteen minutes; otherwise, it would be treated as a withdrawal.

Kānà looked at the countdown, which had less than five minutes left, and shoved the smart brain into Lǎolā’s hands. “I’m going to have dinner with Jiālèrt; you help me continue the stream.”

“What time is it? Why are you still thinking about the livestream? Just end it.”

“No way! If I end it now, I won’t get the livestream rewards.”

Before Jiālèrt arrived, his points had already climbed to second place. As long as he maintained that position, he could win 50,000 star coins. Although he had already saved enough for the ticket to the Ant Clan, more star coins were always better.

“But I don’t know how to livestream! What if I accidentally reveal everything during a voice chat?”

Lǎolā clutched the smart brain as if it were a freshly baked sweet potato.

“You don’t need to do a voice chat; just stream the cats.” Kānà pointed to the room specially set up for the three little cats. “Just place the smart brain there, respond to the comments every few minutes, and anyway, the avatar and voice are processed, so it won’t be exposed.”

Although doing this might affect the popularity, Kānà couldn’t worry too much about it. After all, his points were significantly higher than the third place, so four hours of streaming shouldn’t look too bad.

Plus, his livestream had been very popular today, trending twice, and there were quite a few clips of his stream circulating on StarNet. Judging by Jiālèrt’s reaction just now, he must have accidentally come across a video, so he needed to create some alibis quickly.

“Can this… work?”

“I believe in you; it’ll definitely work.” Kānà opened the cat room and, before Lǎolā could react, pushed her inside, quickly shutting the door. The whole action was smooth and fluid, a perfect example of how to trick a friend.

Before Lǎolā could start crying, Kānà dashed into the cloakroom, not even bothering to pick out clothes. He grabbed a set of white formal wear that looked decent and quickly put it on. After changing, he didn’t have time to check himself in the mirror and hurried downstairs.

*

Jiālèrt was replying to military messages when he inadvertently looked up and saw Kānà standing on the second floor.

The young lord was wearing a white suit, with silver flowers embroidered on the cuffs and hem, and a cluster of yellow-centered white flowers adorning the collar. If an ordinary bug wore this extravagant suit, it would surely look tacky, but on Kānà, it radiated nobility and elegance.

His silky black hair flowed over his shoulders, and his almond-shaped eyes sparkled with laughter. As Kānà slowly descended the stairs, his slender waist was subtly visible beneath the silver flowers.

Jiālèrt stared, momentarily dazed, his ears turning bright red.

This was the young lord he cherished, the one who was his sole purpose on the battlefield.

The military female bug stepped forward and took Kānà’s hand, her voice unusually gentle.

“My lord, happy wedding anniversary.”