Chapter 9 – How can there be such a cute person in the world

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The next day, Xie Chenyu arrived at the dining hall and saw that his little uncle was already up.

The spaceship had passed through the jump point last night and arrived in the Yalan Star System. It would still take another day of flight before they could land.

Inside the ship, the time had switched to daytime mode according to their biological clocks. The famous painter, dressed in light-colored casual clothes, sat on a chair with a melancholic air, holding a cup of coffee, looking like a painting himself.

The moment Xie Chenyu saw his uncle, he remembered the frustration from last night. His uncle’s teaching method was to make him discover problems and research them himself, rather than directly giving answers. If he had hinted earlier, he wouldn’t have been put in his place.

Di Xun looked up at him: “Morning.”

Xie Chenyu responded with a “Morning,” walked over and sat down. “I looked into Song Yan’s background.”

He gave a brief summary as he spoke. “Anything to add this time?”

Di Xun smiled: “No.”

Fast enough, he thought.

It seems my nephew’s subordinates aren’t useless. No wonder they dared to form a team to kill people on Mo Zhe Star.

He took a sip of coffee and asked with interest: “Do you still remember him? When you were little, you were particularly fond of him, holding him and not wanting to let go. Who would’ve thought your compatibility would turn out to be 99%.”

.

.

.

As soon as Xie Chenyu heard that, he knew his uncle was trying to play matchmaker. Without even thinking, he said, “Don’t remember.”

Di Xun wasn’t suspicious; after all, Xie Chenyu was very young at the time.

He sighed, “It’s a pity you only met that one time. If you had met more often, innocent childhood sweethearts, you’d be together by now. Think about it, back then when he was bullied by the Song family, you’d definitely be protective and stay by his side. How could he not like you?”

Xie Chenyu changed the subject: “Back then, the Song family was so shameless. Didn’t the Whale Rovers do anything about it? Why did they end up in the countryside?”

Di Xun shook his head. “No idea.”

He paused, then added, “This time, I’m not intentionally making you investigate, I genuinely don’t know. It was his grandfather’s decision, and the explanation given at the time was a desire for a simple life. We couldn’t really interfere.”

Xie Chenyu asked, “Has the Whale Rovers kept in contact with them all these years?”

“Not sure,” Di Xun said. “But I’d guess they have. At the very least, they probably send greetings during holidays.”

His attention then shifted back: “What, have you changed your mind? Suddenly realized he’s your childhood sweetheart and want to turn back to find him?”

Xie Chenyu reminded him: “I think I mentioned he has a boyfriend?”

Di Xun reasoned: “Having a boyfriend doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll last. You’re the one he’s married to, and you have a 99% compatibility. Besides, is his boyfriend as handsome as you, as rich as you, or as caring as you?”

Xie Chenyu said, “Are you trying to incite me to be a homewrecker?”

Di Xun choked, imagining his excellent nephew being labeled a homewrecker. It felt a bit tragic, so he shut up.

A few seconds later, he snapped back to reality: “No, I was thinking, what if they break up in the future? Wouldn’t you have a chance then? And why did you agree to the marriage before? Wasn’t there even a tiny reason that he’s good-looking?”

Xie Chenyu smiled slightly, just about to pour cold water on the idea, when he received a message from Song Yan.

This love-brained person had also woken up and clearly heard about what happened last night, coming over for a second round of output.

Song Yan:【I seem to recall someone once said something about ‘not disturbing each other’?】

Song Yan:【Brother Gangzi is already jealous. He’s hard to calm down when he’s jealous. Are you trying to ruin our relationship on purpose? You know interrupting someone’s romance invites divine retribution!】

Song Yan:【Alright, he’s not letting me send more. No need to reply. See you after the honeymoon!】

Xie Chenyu: “……”

If he accidentally let his hand slip again in the middle of the night, he’d literally chop it off!

Di Xun saw him smiling coldly and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Xie Chenyu calmly closed his communicator: “Nothing. Just thinking the old saying is true: ‘Time is a butcher’s knife’.^[1]岁月真是一把杀猪刀 (pinyin: suìyuè zhēnshi yī bǎ shā zhū dāo) — used to describe the ruthlessness of time“

Di Xun: “?”

After finishing breakfast, Xie Chenyu got up and went to the study to connect to a meeting, deciding to forget his moment of weakness and focus on his career.

Meanwhile, after waking up, Song Yan kept thinking that, according to his persona, it would only be reasonable to say a few words, which is why he contacted Xie Chenyu again. He looked at the quiet communicator, guessing he probably wouldn’t receive any more messages from Xie Chenyu for a while, and then peacefully began to eat breakfast.

The members of the Whale Rovers didn’t share his biological clock. Aside from a few energetic ones still active in the common areas, the rest were still asleep.

Song Yan didn’t disturb them. After a short break after breakfast, he entered the holographic cabin to continue tackling that map.

Having killed teammates before, he knew that the people he randomly matched with today might not be easy to deal with, so he mentally prepared himself. However, as soon as he entered the map, he heard his teammates exclaiming one after another.

“Wow, a god!”

“It’s Brother Biao!”

Song Yan looked over and saw that they were referring to a player wearing a legendary skin.

The guy looked friendly and greeted them with a smile. “I’ll be the captain, any objections?”

The teammates were quick to respond, “None at all!”

Song Yan hadn’t teamed up with many people before, nor had he specifically researched those on the leaderboard, but seeing their reactions, he knew Brother Biao must be very skilled. If he also received bad reviews, it was probably due to having many anti-fans.

The minority abides by the majority, so of course, he had no objection.

The few discussed their respective roles, then sat down and departed.

The spaceship gradually accelerated, about to encounter the first asteroid belt.

Song Yan glanced at the main seat, wanting to see if there was anything worth learning from the god’s operation. At this time, Brother Biao spoke: “New darling, please follow me so that you won’t get lost when watching Brother Biao’s live broadcast in the future.”

Song Yan: “?”

Brother Biao continued: “I’m ready. Next, watch us drift through the asteroid belt.”

His teammates cheered in unison: “Charge!”

Song Yan said, “No, wait…”

Before he could even finish, the spaceship launched forward at full speed.

A car drifting on a road can only maneuver on a single plane, but a spaceship is different–it can drift up, down, left, and right, and even do an aerial spin.

Song Yan couldn’t even remember how many spins they made, only knowing that when he finally struggled to get up and shoot the scoundrel, the spaceship directly spun into a wormhole.

In an instant, they were all wiped out.

Song Yan stood at the starting position, uncharacteristically bewildered.

He had always been focused on improving himself, with too much to learn and practice, leaving no time for anything else. This was the first time he’d learned that someone was actually live-streaming in the simulated training section!

He swallowed a curse, then started another round. Looking at his newly matched teammates, he asked, “Is anyone live-streaming?”

The four teammates shook their heads in unison and asked, “Are you live-streaming?”

Song Yan said, “Me neither.”

Just in case, he proactively said, “I’ll be the captain, and you’ll listen to my commands. Any problems?”

“Yes,” one of the teammates said, “my husband will definitely be commanding!”

The other two echoed, “Let him do it, he’s great.”

Song Yan quickly figured out their relationship.

This is a group of relatives and friends, including two couples. The two husbands are the captain and the deputy captain, and the arrangements were very clear.

Seeing his hesitation, his teammates reassured him, “They’re really good. Let’s start.”

Song Yan started the game, half-believing, half-doubting. He found that they indeed weren’t pulling any crazy stunts, but some of their concepts were fundamentally wrong, so he couldn’t help but correct them.

The captain replied, “I’ve always done it this way. No issues.”

Song Yan said, “No problem now, but it’s prone to issues when wear and tear become severe.”

The captain said, “That might not be about the operation itself. Besides, I won’t let it get severe. Don’t interfere.”

Song Yan wanted to argue further, but his teammates wouldn’t have it: “Hey, don’t bother my husband! My husband has over eight thousand points, so shut up!”

Song Yan: “……”

My score is low because I deducted a huge chunk by killing people, okay?!

He touched his gun, hesitating whether to kill them, but quickly realized he didn’t need to think about it anymore. Because the captain was distracted taking care of his wife, amidst a series of “Husband, I’m scared!” screams, he quickly ended this round.

—Karma.

He thought expressionlessly.

He had just told Xie Chenyu that disturbing other people’s love affairs would bring down divine retribution, and immediately afterwards, he was eliminated by two couples.

For the third round, he decided to eliminate people right at the start.

Coincidentally, he was matched with one of yesterday’s love triangle members. The opponent also had friends and family with them and went berserk upon seeing him.

So, he swiftly eliminated everyone, finally able to practice in peace.

Unfortunately, his luck ran out again. During a shootout, his equipment got caught in the crossfire. He barely made it to the uncharted zone before the system cut him off.

Minors aren’t allowed to play for too long. He quickly hit start again—but just as the new session was about to begin, a message popped up.

[Account suspended for one day.]

He stared at the notice for two seconds in silence, then contacted customer support.

Customer service patiently explained.

Negative reviews also have tiers, and eliminating teammates is the most severe. After all, everyone is a member and has the right to play.

Considering that he usually played solo and that yesterday’s game took a long time to start might have been excusable, the system hadn’t randomly assigned him genuinely terrible teammates today. He had already played two rounds, and a normal completion of this round would have brought his rating back up. Who knew he would eliminate four more players?

“So, upon receiving the complaint, we regretfully had to suspend your account for one day,” the customer service voice was sweet. “This map is high difficulty, and currently only has a five-person mode. However, solo and two-person modes are under development, and we hope you understand.”

Song Yan understood. This meant that, in the short term, he just had to grin and bear it.

At that moment, he suddenly missed that teammate from yesterday. Having a competent teammate would’ve spared him a lot of this drama.

So he went back to check the previous match’s records.

Of the five people on the team, the three who were eliminated had zero points. He immediately added the one who had points.

Xie Chenyu’s simulated training account was linked to his communicator, allowing him to send and receive messages instantly.

He had just finished a meeting. Seeing the friend request, he smiled, clicked to accept, and sought him out.

Song Yan decided to get along with him and was incredibly well-behaved: “Brother, you’re here.”

Xie Chenyu paused: “Your mouth is so sweet today?”

Song Yan explained: “I was in a hurry yesterday, so I was a little anxious.”

“Are you looking to team up with me?” Xie Chenyu asked with a smile. “I’m currently using a holographic mirror. You’ll have to wait until I switch to a holographic cabin.”

“It’s okay, I’m not playing,” Song Yan replied.

Xie Chenyu raised an eyebrow, doubting the kid would be so sweet if he wasn’t playing. He checked Song Yan’s account and saw it was suspended.

He almost immediately guessed why and couldn’t help but chuckle. Just as he was about to tease him, his communicator rang again with a message from Old Master Xie.

Yesterday’s wedding was exhausting, so neither family disturbed them until today.

Regarding family contact during their honeymoon, the plastic couple had prepared a plan, with receiving messages being the simplest form.

Xie Chenyu replied:【We’re doing well, and we’ll be mindful.】

After sending that, he glanced at the kid in front of him and drew inspiration.

【He’s so adorable. He was supposed to call me ‘husband’ after the wedding, but he’s shy and actually called me ‘brother’ instead!】

【Grandpa, how can there be such cute person in the world!】

Old Master Xie: “……”

What’s so cute about that?

Never mind, as long as they’re doing well. He turned off his communicator, deciding not to contact them again for the entire honeymoon.