Chapter 151
Shen Xili looked toward the entryway. Zhong was leaning against the wall, standing there. Shen Xili took another sip of water and smiled. “What, tired of being a rat in the gutter? Have you decided to become my Door God instead?”
Zhong struggled to suppress the anger in his heart. He walked toward Shen Xili step by step. Shen Xili didn’t even frown; instead, he pushed the extra bottle of water he had brought out to the side, signaling for Zhong to drink.
Zhong ignored him and asked bluntly, “Where is my bug?”
Shen Xili let out an “Ah,” capped his mineral water bottle, pointed to his own chest, and raised an eyebrow slightly. “Inside my body. Why? Do you want to take it back today?”
Zhong rushed over and grabbed him by the collar, saying viciously, “Don’t play dumb with me. You know what I’m talking about.”
Shen Xili looked at his face and chuckled lightly. “I must say, after all these years, your temper hasn’t changed a bit.”
The hand gripping his collar tightened. Zhong gritted his teeth. “Do you want to die?”
Shen Xili shrugged slightly. “If you could kill me, you would have done it already. You say that every time we meet; my ears are getting calluses from hearing it.”
Zhong stared at Shen Xili’s calm and breezy demeanor, so angry his teeth itched. From the moment the Lord had set his sights on Shen Xili, Zhong had wanted to tear him limb from limb every single moment. It was hard enough accepting that Shen Xili had left alive, but to think he had actually taken their most important item!
Not only that, but now even the Mother Bug he had painstakingly cultivated had been stolen!
Zhong gritted his teeth. “Don’t think I really won’t dare to touch you.”
Shen Xili gave him a ‘be my guest’ look. Zhong breathed heavily. They remained in a standoff for an unknown amount of time before he finally controlled himself and released Shen Xili’s collar.
He sat on the other side of the sofa, twisted open the water bottle, and downed more than half of it to cool his anger.
Shen Xili leisurely unscrewed his cap again and took another elegant sip of water.
Zhong remained silent for a long time before saying, “Give me back the Mother Bug, and I’ll leave immediately.”
Shen Xili chuckled. “I thought you were going to ask me for the key. It seems your Lord’s mission isn’t as important as your Mother Bug.”
Zhong had come to Planet Amor only because he had accidentally discovered Shen Xili’s tracks. He wanted to retrieve the key before the main force arrived. If he claimed this credit, he would receive a handsome sum of money. With that money, he could raise many, many more of his “darlings.”
But now that the Mother Bug was in Shen Xili’s hands, he naturally had to prioritize his own bug. He couldn’t kill Shen Xili, and soon enough, more people would know of Shen Xili’s whereabouts. He would just hear the news of Shen Xili’s death a little later than others; for him, that wasn’t unacceptable.
Shen Xili glanced at him and understood exactly what Zhong was thinking.
Since the first time they met years ago, Zhong had racked his brains to test all kinds of bugs on him. Even later, when Shen Xili was forced to become what they called the “God of War,” Zhong hadn’t given up on the idea of testing bugs on him.
They were old rivals.
Shen Xili put down the mineral water bottle in his hand. “I don’t have what you want. I’m not killing you tonight, but that doesn’t mean I won’t kill you next time. While I’m in a good mood, I advise you to scram immediately.”
Hearing this, Zhong’s gaze fell on Shen Xili’s chest. He said, “I know what you want to use the Mother Bug for, but I advise you not to act rashly. Otherwise, when my darling hollows out your internal organs, you won’t even have a place to cry.”
Shen Xili remained fearless. Zhong stood up and eventually left.
After Zhong left, Shen Xili was the only one left in the room.
He leaned back completely against the sofa, the back of his head resting on the cushion, his eyes staring at the pristine ceiling. Alphas were born with heightened senses; at this moment, the living room was so quiet that there wasn’t a single sound, yet he could hear his own powerful heartbeat.
Shen Xili placed his palm over his chest. It wasn’t that he hadn’t had dreams that traced back to the past like tonight, but ever since the Survival Battle, he realized that another person had gradually started appearing in his dreams.
It was Shen Shuyu.
Shen Xili took a deep breath and closed his eyes. What on earth… is going on?
Shen Shuyu also sat up abruptly in bed, looking as if he had just been fished out of the water. He was drenched in sweat, his clothes soaked through.
He still looked shaken, panting heavily. It wasn’t known how much time passed before he finally calmed down completely from the virtual dreamscape.
Shen Shuyu looked out the window. Out of habit, he had only drawn half the curtains, leaving the other half open so he could see the weather outside.
It was only five in the morning; the sky outside was still dark.
Shen Shuyu looked down at himself. Just then, the System came online.
The System asked with concern: [Host, did you have a nightmare?]
Shen Shuyu threw off the covers. [Not exactly.]
He felt uncomfortable being soaked in sweat, and he was also extremely thirsty.
The System said: [It is rare to see you wake up at this hour.]
While talking to the System, Shen Shuyu had already walked to the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator door and gulped down more than half a bottle of water before he felt he had truly broken away from that dream.
He carried the remaining half-bottle back to the living room, leaned against the sofa, and sighed heavily.
The System silently typed a question mark in his mind.
Shen Shuyu said: [It’s nothing. Go into sleep mode.]
Although the System was very concerned about Shen Shuyu, hearing him say this, it could only go offline.
Once the System was dormant, Shen Shuyu let out a long breath, and his mind began to recall the dream he just had.
He dreamed of the moment the bug was planted in Shen Xili. He looked only twelve or thirteen at most, as if… he had just left the remote planet he was from not long before.
He knew Shen Xili had his secrets, and he had guessed that planting such a bloodthirsty bug in the body must have involved some torture, but he hadn’t expected it to be planted that way.
At that time, due to long-term malnutrition, Shen Xili was thin and small. He was already pitiful enough, yet he had to endure such inhumane torture.
Just thinking about Shen Xili’s painful expression in the dream made Shen Shuyu’s head throb.
However, the headache only lasted a minute. Now was not the time for headaches; it was the time to find a solution.
Shen Shuyu opened the drawer of the coffee table and reached in to touch the box placed at the very bottom. Inside the box was the Mother Bug stolen from Zhong.
He didn’t open it; he just stared at the box with his arms crossed.
After Shen Xili had passed out in the dream, the conversation between Zhong and the other two men contained a massive amount of information.
The bug inside Shen Xili’s body would automatically lay eggs after a certain period, and the eggs would hatch into new Child Bugs. This explained why, in his first dream, “he” had so skillfully cut open Shen Xili’s chest to take out the black bug—those dense knife scars were evidence of the bugs laying eggs. Now, to completely eliminate the bug in Shen Xili’s body, they needed to take the bug out and let this Mother Bug eat it.
Shen Shuyu took a deep breath. The matter of extracting the bug required someone they trusted implicitly and who was highly skilled in medicine.
Shen Shuyu thought of Yue Cheng. Yue Cheng was his brother’s childhood friend; his background and relationships were crystal clear. Moreover, he was a medical genius himself. Extracting a bug shouldn’t be a difficult task for him.
But the problem now was, how to convince Shen Xili to lie on Yue Cheng’s operating table?
He was clearly in a coma at that time in the memory, so he wouldn’t know about this method. Shen Shuyu needed to find a perfect reason to explain why he knew this solution.
Shen Shuyu scratched his hair irritably. This plot-outside-the-plot was really difficult.
He sighed again. Regardless, the bug in Shen Xili’s body had to be taken out quickly. They couldn’t guarantee when the Child Bug would lay eggs.
Tomorrow, he would just have to take it one step at a time.
Shen Shuyu put the box back into the depths of the drawer. Just as he was about to close it, his peripheral vision caught the gift box Shen Xili had given him earlier.
He twitched his fingers, took the gift box out again, and opened it. Inside lay the keychain.
He had only opened it to take a look on the day Shen Xili gave it to him, and after that, he had stuffed it in the drawer. If Shen Xili hadn’t asked him about it, he would have forgotten about this keychain.
Shen Shuyu picked up the keychain, his fingertips gently rubbing the pendant.
He almost forgot—he had heard another piece of information from those two people.
Star Thieves?
Could Shen Xili have some connection to the Star Thieves?
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