Chapter 14: I Am A Married Man

It wasn’t until they got far away from the building complex that Song Mei looked around sneakily. After confirming that he was invincible, he patted Ji Xingjue on the shoulder. “Professor Ji, this mouth of yours must have really been blessed, right?”

Ji Xingjue stared at him expressionlessly.

Song Mei recalled those shocked faces in the elevator just now and couldn’t hold still. “I heard that Qi Qing didn’t even give you a face in front of His Highness, how did you persuade him to give you a face now?”

Ji Xingjue also wanted to know.

Before the change, if Qi Qing heard other people spread rumors so nonsense about himself, he would directly hang those people on the roof to let them high and dry.

He actually still gave him a face, Qi Qing had really improved!

After the two of them went through a few turns in the parking lot, they found Ji Xingjue’s small broken car, sitting against the backdrop of a group of magnificent new suspension vehicles, looking quite sabby and pitiful.

Every time he boarded this suspension car, Song Mei wanted to buy more insurance for himself. He glanced at the ring on Ji Xingjue’s ring finger, and suddenly a thought was blessed to his heart, and cunningly asked, “Professor Ji, since you are married to a wealthy family, why don’t you change your car?”

Ji Xingjue chose the destination and coldly said, “Do you want to marry a wealthy family? I can recommend you to Qi Qing.”

“Mrs. Marshal can really make a joke.” Song Mei shrank his neck and stopped talking. Ji Xingjue might actually be able to do this kind of wicked deed.

The project team was originally set up at Ankara University. There was a laboratory inside the school that mainly conducted data development, and there was an experimental base funded by the military outside the school. The development and testing of bionics and practical data testing were all in the experimental base.

The suspension car slowly drove to the base. Song Mei collapsed in his seat, turned on the terminal, and watched the exchange forum. After a while, he turned his head and wanted to say something but then hesitated.

Ji Xingjue closed his eyes. “I advise you to be cautious in your words and deeds.”

“I’m just asking a question that everyone is very curious about,” Song Mei approached with a shameless face, “Why did you leave Qi’s house in the first place? Those who said that you saw that Qi’s family had fallen and left, and that you participated in the assassination of Duke Qi are all nonsense. We have known each other for many years, and I believe you will never do this kind of thing.”

Ji Xingjue looked at him with a smile that wasn’t like a smile, his eyes were full of danger hanging about. “How do you know that I am not that kind of person?”

Song Mei: “…”

“No one saw you getting in my car. As for the firewall of the school camera, guess how many seconds it will take me to hack it?”

Song Mei froze for a while, and then said, “Then don’t forget that your husband is coming to pick you up tonight and return to your in-laws for dinner.”

“……”

Ji Xingjue’s killing intent was even stronger.

The suspended car swayed in the air for nearly an hour before reaching the gate of the base.

The military sent people to stations at the base, and after the two showed their work permits, scanned their irises, they entered the base and went straight to the latest C9 chip bionic laboratory.

Across a glass wall, the bionic person inside was undergoing wound experiments.

The C9 prototype of the template face was lifted to a four-story high position.

Immediately there was a “peng” sound, and the bionic man fell heavily to the ground without showing a painful expression, only a slight cracking sound of mechanical bones, not knowing where the brain was injured by the fall, and blood dripped across his face.

Then the bionic man stood up and moved his limbs flexibly.

The observer saved the various values, and made several notes on the observation report.

Song Mei met the slightly horrible sight of the bionic man who stood up, muttering, “How many times have I said it, next time you do this kind of experiment, you should use the mechanical form.”

Ji Xingjue slowly retracted his gaze and said nothing.

The observer turned his head and smiled, “Professor Ji, Professor Song, you are here! This is the latest experimental observation report of C9. I have sent the data to your mailbox.”

In the entire Imperial Capital, there were only this group of scientific workers who were obsessed with research, and wouldn’t pay attention to Lord Marshal and Mrs. Marshal’s gossip.

Ji Xingjue nodded politely, slightly relieved.

“Compared with C8, C9 is more intelligent. In terms of physical behavior and micro-expression, it can already achieve 97.987% similarity with normal people, but the strength of the adapted mechanical bone is not enough, and it will be damaged if it is dropped from the height of a four-story building. There is no C8 prototype to withstand construction. The test just now is in the painless state, and the pain system test will be launched tomorrow.”

The observer said, after a pause, his expression was a little hesitant. “Professor Ji, I don’t quite understand, why should the bionic person have a pain system?”

Ji Xingjue’s eyes bent and the red mole at the corner of his eye reflected its burning red in them. “Since it is called a bionic, of course everything must be done to the extreme.”

The observer blushed because of his smile, and quickly nodded, turned around, and continued to test C9.

After watching this scene, Song Mei followed him to the dressing room and asked suspiciously, “Did you just use beauty to fool people?”

“What are you thinking about,” Ji Xingjue put on a white coat and said casually without lifting his head, “I am a married man.”

“…” Song Mei stared at him shockedly for a few seconds before rolling back to the dressing room next door.

To stay away from the filth and unrest of the world.

Ji Xingjue breathed a sigh of relief. He took out a pair of gloves from the drawer, and when he was just about to take off the ring, he paused.

In the dim and small room that day, an arrogant and proud Qi Qing half knelt before him and put this ring on him.

Like a marriage proposal.

The calm and considerate Lord Marshal was actually quite attractive…especially his handsome face that was different from the Imperial Capital’s various vain appearances; a handsome face that had really experienced sharpening of the blade.

He really grew up.

Ji Xingjue thought with relief while unconsciously rubbing the ring. He looked down at it and thought: if the ring is lost, Qi Qing who threatened “not allowed to take it off” will kill him alive.

Forget it.

He no longer struggled, put on his gloves, and went to the research room.

In the evening, there was another heavy snowfall in the Imperial Capital.

People in the Imperial Capital had long been accustomed to this kind of weather, and most of them would not stay on the streets. The planet known as the most prosperous Empire, after nightfall, had become deserted, cold and cheerless.

Song Mei, who was busy all afternoon, rubbed his face and came to find Ji Xingjue. “There is a problem with the test data so I’ll be sleeping here tonight. I’m starving to death, want to go to eat?”

After that, he remembered. “Oh right, you are going to have dinner with your husband tonight at your in-laws’ house.”

“…” Ji Xingjue’s eyes were like knifes, “Sooner or later you’ll be cut to pieces because of this mouth of yours.”

He hadn’t figured out how to face the Duchess yet, let alone dare to guess what her expression would be. He took a deep sigh, got up and said, “Let’s go eat.”

Song Mei wailed, “Are you not going to see the Duchess with Qi Qing?”

“Not going,” Ji Xingjue weakly said, “he doesn’t know I’m here anyway.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a few greetings came from the door.

The sound of army boots stepping on the floor was exceptionally clear.

In the next instant, Qi Qing, followed by a few sincere and fearful base leaders, strode in, and said a few words to the person in charge. He turned his eyes and his gaze fell straight on Ji Xingjue.

Ji Xingjue: “……”

He almost forgot that this base was funded by the military.

Song Mei was stunned. “Your mouth is really blessed! Hurry up, wish me rich as soon as possible. Doing scientific research is really fucking tired.”

Seeing Ji Xingjue, Qi Qing did not care about the people around him anymore. He walked across the crowd in a few steps to stop in front, lowered his eyes and looked at him. “I’ll wait for you?”

The other researchers all watched from a distance, with doubts in their eyes.

Yes, the last pure piece of land was gone.

Ji Xingjue stretched out his hands helplessly, took off his gloves, and shook it on the table. “Lord Marshal is really funny, how could I dare?” 

Qi Qing raised his eyebrows and caught a glimpse of the ring on his ring finger, as if a huge wave began to twist its turn, and the corners of his mouth curled up insignificantly.

After leaving the base and boarding the car, Ji Xingjue greeted Damel and quickly nestled in the last row, closing his eyes and tilting his head to pretend to sleep, for fear the incident in the elevator in the morning would be mentioned.

Over the years, he had cultivated his face so much that it had become thick-skinned, and hadn’t known what embarrassment was.

The seat beside him sank slightly, and Ji Xingjue’s eyelids twitched.

How come he was sitting next to him in such a large space.

He still closed his eyes, breathing slowly and steadily. Since he didn’t have a good rest for the past few days, causing his eyes to glow with blue and black, which was indeed a state of exhaustion.

Qi Qing made a gesture to Damel, motioned him to slow down the car, and watched Ji Xingjue silently.

The side face that was close at hand had beautiful lines and eyelashes like meticulous brushwork. Perhaps it was because the skin color was too white and when the eyes were closed, they looked particularly cold, but the red mole at the corner of his eye was a bit extravagant.

The same as in his memory.

Ji Xingjue could feel Qi Qing’s gaze that hung over his face.

His scalp was a little tight, and he was wondering whether to pretend to turn over, when something warm suddenly approached.

Then the end of his left eye was lightly wiped.

His eyelashes couldn’t help but tremble, and realized that they were Qi Qing’s fingers.

“We’ll arrive soon,” Qi Qing’s voice was flat, “Don’t pretend to be asleep.”

“…” Ji Xingjue touched the tip of his nose and opened his eyes and said sincerely, “Lord Marshal, in the adult world, you must learn not to debunk.”

After speaking, he realized that it was not good. As soon as this sentence was uttered, according to Qi Qing’s temper, he would probably sneer and then add the sentence “I didn’t expose you at the elevator entrance in the morning”, then in the next few days to several months, the corpse would be repeatedly whipped from time to time.

Unexpectedly, Qi Qing just hummed lukewarmly and let him go.

After the suspension car stopped at the gate of Qi’s house, Damel saluted and drove away.

Over the years, Ji Xingjue would occasionally come to see the Duchess, and he was not unfamiliar with everything here, but coming back with Qi Qing was another very remote and strange feeling.

The reversed image reflecting on floating ornament at the door stood still. When he left Qi’s house that year, he once saw Qi Qing chasing him in the light rain.

Now this floating ornament was the same as before, hanging on the side of the door, reflecting the figure of him returning with Qi Qing.

It seemed that those years had been a grotesque nightmare where he and Qi Qing were still two half-aged teenagers who didn’t understand anything. They went home after school every day, ready to experience the latest virtual game at night.

Like a thing from a lifetime ago.

Ji Xingjue was not the only one who noticed that piece of floating ornament, Qi Qing’s eyes also fell on it.

He stared at the two fuzzy figures reflected inside, with his light-colored eyes resembling glaciers. “Ji Xingjue, have you regretted it?”

After waiting for a while, he saw the blurred figure next to him move, and then a low and clear voice came from around him. “…never.”

The author has something to say:

Qi Qing’s capturing device: Ji Xingjue.