Zong Yuan stood at the railing, gazing into the distance.
0046 looked at his calm face and asked in a hushed voice, “Are you angry?”
Zong Yuan pointed to his own face, devoid of any expression, “Do I look like I’m angry?”
He searched many places today—Chi Xu’s previous room, the deck, the dining hall. He managed to secure a few unoccupied rooms from the crew but didn’t find a trace of Chi Xu anywhere.
0046 said, “I tracked his phone. This guy must have been prepared. The location I traced is the Arctic Glacier.”
Zong Yuan tossed the cigarette butt into the trash can, then pulled out another one. “Even if you’ve traced it, I don’t intend to know.”
“No need to monitor the surveillance cameras all the time,” he snorted, “coward.”
0046 thought, ‘If you didn’t look like you were ready to attack at any moment, it would be more convincing.’
Chi Xu’s hiding skills were impressive. After getting up in the morning, he took enough compressed biscuits to sustain himself off the ship. He cleaned his traces thoroughly, hiding in his room and eavesdropping on occasional conversations about Zong Yuan outside.
He knew Zong Yuan was looking for him. “Fool,” Chi Xu rolled his eyes, “Why come looking for me? Getting involved with me might end up with you dying miserably.”
He pulled down the corners of his mouth, “What’s there to laugh about? You should be angry.”
A killer shouldn’t develop feelings for his target.
The phone vibrated twice—it was a call from the employer. Chi Xu answered, hearing a deliberately calm voice on the other end, “How did you do with the mission? We’ll reach the first port tomorrow afternoon, and Zong Yuan is likely to disembark. I hope you can deal with him before he does.”
The sweet biscuits in Chi Xu’s mouth turned bitter in an instant. He weakly replied, “After completing the task, how will you send me the remaining money?”
The person on the other end said, “Naturally, it will be transferred to your account, as before.”
“Oh,” Chi Xu suddenly asked, “Have you seen me before?”
“Where would I have seen you!” The employer laughed heartily, “I’d like to meet the renowned Mr. X. Would you be willing to give me a glimpse?”
Chi Xu muttered to himself, “Never seen me, that’s good.”
Chi Xu said, “Give me your account number.”
His tone was too casual, and the person on the other end of the phone must have heard many similar sentences. Reflexively, they reported a string of numbers, then asked in surprise, “What are you going to do?”
Chi Xu hung up the phone, muttering to himself, “Mission failed, of course, I have to refund your deposit, idiot.”
After the call, he completely lost his appetite to nibble on the biscuits. The man would disembark tomorrow afternoon. They were already two worlds apart—one in the light, the other in the shadow. The man wasn’t stupid; he knew everything. So why did he come looking for him? Why provoke him?
The man would soon indulge in a life of luxury, with plenty of handsome boys eager to share his bed. Who would remember someone named Chi Xu then? He was now hiding in his room, lights off, not daring to make a sound. What kind of life had he turned into, just munching on a biscuit!
Growing angrier as he thought, Chi Xu directly dialed the room phone. After a couple of beeps, the other side said, “Hello, sir. How may we assist you?”
“Bring three plates of assorted meats from the restaurant to the doorstep of ××34,” Chi Xu gruffly said.
“Alright, please wait.”
Half an hour later, Chi Xu quietly opened the door, made sure no one was in the corridor, sprinted to the doorstep of room ××34, grabbed the tray, and slipped back into his room.
The three plates were filled with oily and tempting meat dishes, neatly arranged in white plates that could arouse anyone’s appetite by just looking at them.
Although Chi Xu had a small appetite, the thought of Zong Yuan’s colorful life after disembarking infuriated him. He snapped the chopsticks apart, “I’m living just as well as he is.”
After a few bites of the meat, a sudden wave of nausea surged from his stomach. Chi Xu’s face changed, and he rushed to the bathroom, retching.
“I f***…” He splashed cold water on his face, shocked, “Could it be…”
Could it be that I’m pregnant?
In the afternoon, Zong Yuan received a call from Eldest Young Master Hou, “It’s arranged. I’ll give you their contact information.”
Zong Yuan grunted, not in the mood to talk much. Eldest Young Master Hou sensed it; he had never seen his friend like this. “What’s wrong with you?”
“…” Zong Yuan rubbed his forehead, “What do you think of me as a person?”
Eldest Young Master Hou cautiously said, “Very good.”
“Good?” Zong Yuan pulled out the last cigarette, and tossed the empty box on the table, “Then why the hell did he run away?”
Eldest Young Master Hou asked, “Who ran away?”
Zong Yuan shook off the cigarette ash and sighed, his mouth dry and sticky from the wind, his voice scattered, “My darling ran away.”
The sea breeze carried away these words.
Eldest Young Master Hou fell silent, “When you find him, remember to bring him home to see.”
Chi Xu wrapped himself in a blanket, his expression extremely strange. From time to time, he would touch his neatly arranged abdomen, lying on the bed like a stiff zombie, not daring to move at all.
He had never felt this nauseous while eating. With a strong and healthy body since childhood, he could eat anything, and everything tasted good. Yet today, he was disgusted by the meat and actually threw up!
The words “pregnant” kept floating through his mind.
How could that be possible? He was a man.
Just yesterday, he and Zong Yuan… Today was the first day…
Chi Xu turned to look at the meat dishes on the table. The vegetables were already cold, and the meat had congealed into an unpleasant mass. Disgusted, he had no desire to eat any of it.
A chill ran through him. It was over.
—
Zong Yuan got in touch with the people sent to pick him up, and Eldest Young Master Hou also brought along a few killers, strictly adhering to Zong Yuan’s request by selecting individuals with a reputation.
Zong Yuan asked them over the phone, “Do you know each other?”
One of the killers replied, “We only know each other’s code names.”
Zong Yuan hung up with a snap.
The killers looked at each other, “The employer’s temper this time is really strange.”
Zong Yuan couldn’t find Chi Xu’s figure even after it got dark. It was impossible to search through hundreds of rooms one by one, and many guests privately exchanged rooms or moved to different ones. The crew had no useful information at all.
0046 advised him, “He’ll show up sooner or later.”
Zong Yuan suddenly said, “I and him, in a way, played roles, 0046. I never thought I’d spend this much time with someone.”
In college, Zong Yuan was extremely arrogant. His face always carried a hint of a smile, but this smile was insincere. There was an inherent hostility, a sharp edge that made strangers hesitate to approach him. Alongside his blatant sharpness, he layered on a few more glaring reflections.
He had tried many things, and of all those things, only love made him feel extremely bored and uninterested, something he and everyone who knew him never expected.
No one would have expected that this guy, Zong Yuan, just less than twelve hours after Chi Xu left him, would already be so agitated.
0046 remarked, “Fuxin was even worse than you back then.”
Zong Yuan smiled, finishing the last glass of wine, “Let’s go, continue searching for my little runaway sweetheart.”
0046 asked, “What do you plan to do once you find him?”
Zong Yuan patted the two guns obediently lying on him, and smirked, “Naturally, strip him down and give him a good…”
Beat him up.
Chi Xu received a long thing from the cleaning staff at the door, hiding alone in the bathroom. He unpacked the thing, struggling to understand how to use the pregnancy test kit. “Damn, how do you use this pregnancy test?”
Do you insert this thing to test? Insert from the front or the back? Which end goes where?
By the way, it should be able to detect on the first day, right?
Chi Xu found a piece of paper, searching online on his phone for “how to use a pregnancy test kit” while taking notes. Alone and feeling a chill creeping into his heart, he felt a bit sad, touching his belly and saying, “Baby, you only have Father. Father can’t find a dad with the last name Zong for you.”
“Saying something harsh, maybe he doesn’t even know about your existence.”
Chi Xu thought, the two of them, father and son, were quite pitiful. That Zong, that scoundrel, might forget about him at any time, and he, with the child, was probably going back home to farm.
What’s worse, Chi Xu, a little assassin who had never experienced this kind of emotion, frowned as he touched his chest. He didn’t even know why he felt a bit happy.
Why would he feel a bit happy?
He patted his belly again, “Son, do you want to be surnamed Zong or Chi?”
Tossing the pregnancy test kit aside, he started flipping over the paper filled with notes and wrote down names. “Zong Chi sounds nice, or Chi Zong?”
As he wrote, his stomach twinged, and Chi Xu almost couldn’t hold it in. Something seemed to move gently inside his belly, bulging rhythmically. “Damn,” Chi Xu tossed the pen aside, hands slightly trembling as he touched his belly, “Has it already started moving?”
He felt there was no need for a pregnancy test kit; this was a done deal.
Unexpectedly, after all these years, it turned out he was the one having a baby.
Who would have thought?
Chi Xu planned to call for two cups of milk. He glanced outside the window, and it was already dark. After fiddling for a while, he came up with an answer for himself. Feeling a bit ticklish inside, he said, “Baby, even though you’ll only have one dad after you’re born, before you’re born, I can still take you to see your old man.”
He added in a whisper, “Secretly.”
It had been fourteen hours since he left Zong Yuan in the morning.
Chi Xu followed his instincts towards the front deck. Both his figure and attire were familiar to Zong Yuan, so he was extra cautious.
Without needing to inquire too much, among the ten people passing by, at least three were discussing Zong Yuan looking for someone. In their mouths, it was just a couple engaging in playful antics, a little romantic amusement.
From a distance, he saw a figure sitting at a small table on the deck.
0046 glanced at the surveillance camera, capturing Chi Xu gazing at Zong Yuan. Recalling Zong Yuan’s previous words, it asked again, “Zong Yuan, are you sure you don’t need me to—”
“Don’t need,” Zong Yuan interrupted it, a hint of almost uncontrollable gloominess hidden between his brows, “I can find him on my own.”
Any person would know he was speaking sarcastically. It was time to give him a way out, but unfortunately, 0046 wasn’t a person. It silently closed the surveillance camera, regretfully saying, “Okay.”
Zong Yuan’s eyelid twitched. Damn, why was it so obedient at this moment?
Author’s note:
Zong Yuan: Let you escape!
Chi Xu: I’m pregnant.
Zong Yuan: …You damn well are a man.
Chi Xu: I’m pregnant.
Zong Yuan: We just did it last night.
Chi Xu: I’m pregnant.
Zong Yuan: …
No MPreg, no MPreg! Chi Xu, this little idiot, hahaha.
