NHWSG chapter 71

“Oh,” Sheng Zhao said calmly, “I’m so scared.”

Xing Yingzhu: “…”

Xing Yingzhuo suddenly felt displeased.

“You’re too perfunctory,” Xing Yingzhuo let go of his hand, displeased, “Are you trying to coax a child?”

“Just look at you,” Sheng Zhao grabbed a tissue, wiped the bloodstains off his hands, then rushed over to hug Xing Yingzhu’s neck, leaned down, and kissed him on the cheek, shaking his head playfully, “Don’t I trust you? Do I have to be scared every day, thinking you’re going to harm me?”

Xing Yingzhu put his arm around Sheng Zhao’s waist, squinted his eyes, pondered over his words, and felt that maybe it was true. If Sheng Zhao really believed such nonsense, he would probably be even more angry.

Unwilling to admit it, Xing Yingzhuo reluctantly accepted this explanation in his heart, but his expression still didn’t look very pleased. He clearly found it hard to accept.

Sheng Zhao found his antics too amusing, like dealing with an immature child, so after some thought, he decided to go along with it.

“Oh!” Sheng Zhao said, “My head hurts, and my chest too! Did you secretly drug me while I wasn’t looking?”

Xing Yingzhu: “…”

Xing Yingzhuo was amused by him, thinking, you’re really laying it on thick, as if you see me as having the intellect of a six-year-old.

But then he thought again and felt that Sheng Zhao was indeed a bit of a drama queen. If he didn’t go along with this page-turner, who knows what other tricks he might come up with later.

So Xing Yingzhu sighed inwardly, convinced himself, and reluctantly went along, saying, “Yes, so you better behave in the future.”

“Got it, got it, got it,” Sheng Zhao said, smiling with narrowed eyes, “I’ll listen to you.”

Both of them bantered continuously, and the atmosphere became exceptionally harmonious, with the average mental age of the room dropping by more than twenty years.

The tension from the “long-term contract” had disappeared, but Sheng Zhao’s psychological effect hadn’t worn off yet. He still felt a cool sensation on his wrist.

Every now and then, he glanced at Xing Yingzhu’s wrist, his lips curling higher and higher, thoroughly enjoying himself.

Each time Xing Yingzhu saw his childish behavior, he found it amusing and reached out to pull him closer, guiding him onto his lap.

“What’s up?” Xing Yingzhu said, “Are you happy?”

Sheng Zhao chuckled for a moment, then feeling embarrassed, he nodded.

“Well, how will you repay me then?” Xing Yingzhu asked.

Sheng Zhao thought, how else can I repay you? I’m already yours. He couldn’t believe Xing Yingzhu was still asking for repayment. He truly was incorrigible.

“I have nothing left,” Sheng Zhao said with a sigh, giving up, “I can only offer myself.”

Xing Yingzhu’s eyes softened, he pinched Sheng Zhao’s chin, pulled him closer, kissed him on the cheek, then leaned in and whispered something in his ear.

Before he could finish his sentence, Sheng Zhao suddenly jumped off Xing Yingzhu’s lap like a startled rabbit, took five or six steps back, his ears turning red.

Xing Yingzhu found his reaction amusing and leaned back on the sofa, laughing uncontrollably.

Sheng Zhao’s cheeks flushed, and he muttered angrily, calling him a dirty old man. The previous sense of gratitude vanished instantly, leaving nothing behind.

“Hmm?” Xing Yingzhu looked at him with eyes full of amusement, smiling gently, his tone soft as he asked, “What’s wrong?”

Big monsters are big monsters, even if they are usually annoying, once they put on this kind of show, they’re simply irresistible, with their looks and demeanor doubling their charm, making them look even more attractive, as if they’re casting a spell on someone.

Sheng Zhao felt goosebumps all over his body from his gaze, afraid of being tempted, subconsciously took two steps back.

“I-I-I have to go to work now,” he stuttered, “What do you want for dinner tonight?”

Seeing that Sheng Zhao’s kettle was about to boil, Xing Yingzhu finally mercifully stopped teasing him. He shifted to a more comfortable position on the sofa, half-leaning against it, pulled the blanket over himself, and casually said, “Whatever you want.”

“How about spicy boiled beef slices, chicken feet pot, and teriyaki chicken?” Sheng Zhao consulted him, “Don’t drink milk tea tonight, I made honey lemonade yesterday, it’s ready to drink.”

“Sounds good,” Xing Yingzhu said.

In just a short while, Xing Yingzhu felt sleepy again. He lazily yawned, pulled the blanket up to his chin, closed his eyes contentedly, and drifted off to sleep.

After observing him for a while, Sheng Zhao felt that Xing Yingzhu seemed to be drifting off, so he sighed and went around to close the curtains for him.

Truly like hibernating. Sheng Zhao thought to himself, the only difference being that snakes sleep for three months, while he sleeps for a single day.

Moreover, Sheng Zhao inexplicably found that Xing Yingzhuo, who owned the entire seventh floor, had a particular fondness for the living room area, and was willing to sleep on the couch. During the daytime, nine times out of ten, he would be found lounging on the small space of the sofa, which was very inconsistent with his picky personality of wanting the best of everything.

Sheng Zhao pondered this for a moment and secretly investigated snakes’ habits. He figured that Xing Yingzhuo probably treated the sofa as his nest.

Fortunately, Xing Yingzhuo didn’t have the hobby of reading minds, or else Sheng Zhao’s imaginative abilities would surely have driven him crazy sooner or later.

After wandering around the room, closing the curtains tightly, and turning off the small lamp in the shadowy corner of the room, when Sheng Zhao was about to leave, Xing Yingzhuo had already fallen asleep.

Sheng Zhao didn’t dare to disturb him. He quietly took the room key from the door and put it in his pocket, carefully closed the door, and then turned to leave.

In his daily work routine, he needed to make rounds on each floor, checking basic fire safety equipment and such. This was one of the few tasks he had, so even though he knew there was no one else in the building except him, he continued with this duty.

Because Diao Leyu was currently unemployed, the heavy burden of the lives of the three siblings from Greater Xing’an Mountains fell solely on Xiong Xiangsong, so he had been working harder than usual lately, even opening the store more frequently.

Lu Xing and Diao Leyu would help Xiong Xiangsong during the day and were generally not in the building. Hu Huanyang continued to supplement his live stream duration and rarely appeared.

Sheng Zhao originally planned to make a cursory round on each floor and then go out to buy groceries after writing the patrol report. Unexpectedly, as soon as he reached the fourth floor, he ran into Hu Huanyang coming out of his room.

Hu Huanyang, a fox spirit who had cultivated to become an immortal, was currently floating, with a pale face and a dark complexion under his eyes. He was walking forward blankly, and Sheng Zhao was almost scared by his appearance.

If one didn’t know better, they might think he had also been turned into a human spirit.

“Whoa—” Sheng Zhao quickly stopped him, worriedly waved his hand in front of his eyes, “What’s wrong with you?”

Hu Huanyang’s eyeballs moved slowly, shifting to Sheng Zhao’s face, and then he seemed to recognize him. His mouth twitched slightly, and he hugged Sheng Zhao with an expression of extreme despair, taking a deep breath as if on the verge of tears, about to say something.

Sheng Zhao was startled, before he could tell him about the boundaries between men, Hu Huanyang suddenly let go of him, took a few steps back, and looked at him warily.

Sheng Zhao: “???”

With a head full of question marks, Sheng Zhao asked, “Hu Huanyang, were you half asleep just now?”

“No.” Hu Huanyang wiped his face, returning to a more normal state from his previous zombie-like appearance, leaned against his door frame, and looked at Sheng Zhao tremblingly, “Xiao Zhao, what were you doing upstairs?”

“I wasn’t doing anything?” Sheng Zhao looked down at himself and casually said, “Oh, right… This morning, Xing Yingzhuo insisted on exercising my metaphysical talents, does that count?”

“No,” Hu Huanyang said with a bitter face, “Why do you smell like him? You scared me just now.”

Sheng Zhao truly didn’t understand.

He raised his hand and sniffed it but didn’t catch any “Xing Yingzhuo smell.” After sniffing for a long time, he only felt like he had picked up a little bit of his shampoo smell.

Just a hug earlier, Sheng Zhao thought guiltily, this little fox’s nose can’t be that sensitive.

“What’s wrong with your nose?” Sheng Zhao said, “I don’t smell anything.”

“It’s not the smell…” Hu Huanyang hesitated and said, “Among monsters, there are ways to recognize each other’s identities. Cultivation level, age, race, etc., can all be discerned with just a sniff. The boss has a high cultivation level, and I usually can’t detect his information, but as soon as you came down, I just…”

Sheng Zhao understood instantly.

This was probably a side effect of that “long-term contract.” That thing mixed their blood, probably forming some kind of unknown covenant between him and Xing Yingzhuo.

So Hu Huanyang could smell Xing Yingzhuo’s “scent” on him. Although this little fox couldn’t discern Xing Yingzhuo’s details, he could sense that they were on the same side.

“So…” Sheng Zhao thought of a possibility and asked with a subtle expression, “Now, any monster who comes across me can tell that I have a relationship with Xing Yingzhuo?”

Hu Huanyang nodded slowly.

Sheng Zhao suddenly felt embarrassed, thinking this was just like marking territory, wasn’t it? Xing, the boss, looks calm and composed, but in reality, he was quite childish.

“Cough…” Sheng Zhao coughed dryly, feeling a bit embarrassed to delve deeper into this issue with Hu Huanyang, so he forcibly changed the subject, “What happened to you just now, wandering around like a lost soul? You scared me.”

“Me?”

Hu Huanyang only remembered why he had come to find Sheng Zhao after Sheng Zhao mentioned it.

“Our live streaming platform recently launched a new event to thank the top contributors,” Hu Huanyang said with a more bitter expression, “They said they want to invite them to attend the annual meeting of the live streaming platform, and each streamer can invite one person from their leaderboard to attend, regardless of gender. And unfortunately, the venue for this event is right here in the city. I can’t refuse.”

“And!” Hu Huanyang said indignantly, “Do you know, if it were just an internal announcement, I would have rejected it outright. But it’s a public welfare announcement, displayed on the homepage of the live streaming platform—resulting in the person from my stream last night coming to ask me about it.”

“Isn’t this a good thing? Just go and have fun,” Sheng Zhao didn’t understand why he had such a mournful expression, and asked curiously, “What’s wrong, is your top contributor a girl? Are you trying to avoid suspicion?”

“What girl!” Hu Huanyang stomped his foot angrily, “It’s Zhang Jian!”

Sheng Zhao: “…”