Chapter 24: 024
After becoming Xingxun friends with Zhu Ran, Mu Qingzhou immediately sent his ID card first.
The ID card was the only identity proof recognized in the interstellar, recording the holder’s name, date of birth, planet of birth, unique ID identification number, and a recent bare-faced photo without a hat.
Zhu Ran, receiving Mu Qingzhou’s ID card first, found that the photo was exactly the same as in the Xinggou holographic world.
Black hair like a waterfall, long narrow phoenix eyes with a sense of classical beauty, and a cold temperament like frost.
“Didn’t expect someone to use their own image directly in the holographic world, and the name used is also the real name.”
Accustomed to various strange appearances in the holographic world, Zhu Ran liked Mu Qingzhou a bit more.
Following that, Zhu Ran also sent his ID card.
The Zhu Ran on the ID card still used the original host’s image; the cheeks were thin, the eyes were dull, and the temperament was gloomy and negative.
Mu Qingzhou, receiving Zhu Ran’s ID card, frowned upon seeing this.
He remembered Zhu in the holographic world was a gentle young man image always with a smile; the other party’s behavior was graceful and the temperament was soft.
But… the photo on Zhu’s ID card was like a different person compared to the appearance in the holographic world.
Not only did the age shrink, but even the person seemed changed.
“Turns out his name is Zhu Ran… no wonder the ID is named Zhu. He just became an adult. I didn’t guess this point wrong.”
Mu Qingzhou had doubts in his heart, so he continued to send a message.
Mu Qingzhou: [Is it convenient for video?]
Zhu Ran: [Yes.]
Then, the two had a video call.
Mu Qingzhou’s image soon appeared on the optical computer screen.
His image was exactly the same as in the holographic world without any difference; the appearance was exquisite and the temperament was cold and alienated.
Zhu Ran’s image also appeared in the optical computer at the same time.
Zhu Ran smiled: “Hello, can you hear me?”
Mu Qingzhou, seeing Zhu Ran’s appearance with a smile, was slightly stunned.
The other party was currently being bathed in the warm gold sunset afterglow; the orange light source draped a layer of warm halo over him, making him incomparably soft and warm. The tail of his eyes slightly curved up, like stretching grass leaves, natural and peaceful.
His skin was very white, and his cheeks were a bit thin without much meat, which made those green gem-like eyes even brighter.
Very good-looking.
With a [click], the thousand-year-old accumulated snow in the heart started to melt, and fresh green accompanied by the beautiful afterglow dyed the originally pale world with a warm color.
Mu Qingzhou’s heartbeat skipped a beat.
Zhu Ran, seeing the other party not replying, asked again: “Hello? Can you hear me?”
Mu Qingzhou only then came back to his senses.
He pursed his lips: “Mm. Can hear.”
“Hello, my name is Zhu Ran. The owner of the Zhuying Anxiang shop.”
“My name is Mu Qingzhou. Studying at Jialan Comprehensive University, fourth year.”
Mu Qingzhou’s tone carried a gentleness he hadn’t noticed himself.
Zhu Ran: “You look exactly like you did in the holographic world, very handsome.”
“You, are not quite the same.”
Zhu Ran’s appearance was not only different from the holographic world but also different from the photo on the ID card.
“Because considering opening a shop, using a more mature image would be more reliable, so when I created the character, I created it imagining my appearance several years later.”
“Mm.”
Mu Qingzhou replied; he was completely attracted by the shadow in the optical computer, and his attention was a bit hard to concentrate.
Zhu Ran asked: “Does the video confirmation need anything else? I’m buying a mutated plant for the first time, not very knowledgeable.”
The Mu Qingzhou on the screen was still a cold expression at this moment, only the eyes seemed to have a bit more warmth.
“Log in to this website to certify at the same time, I will act as a guarantor to agree for you to hold mutated plants, and you will be the certified holder.”
Mu Qingzhou sent a website to Zhu Ran.
The website belonged to the dangerous goods registration classification under the Interstellar Security General Administration; all interstellar danger levels reaching C-rank and above needed to be registered and recorded online.
If found illegally holding, lightly fined, heavily imprisoned.
Zhu Ran and Mu Qingzhou quickly completed the registration together.
Mu Qingzhou: “Give me the address. I’ll ship via special channel spatial delivery, you should be able to receive it tonight.”
“Good.”
Zhu Ran gave the address to the other party and transferred 40,000 Star Coins to him.
Mu Qingzhou noticed Zhu Ran’s address was actually on a D-rank planet not suitable for human habitation and frowned: “Aispu is not very safe.”
Zhu Ran felt the other party might be caring about him and smiled: “I live in the center of the city, quite safe, you don’t need to worry. When I earn more money, I will move to a higher-rank planet.”
Hearing this, Mu Qingzhou’s brow relaxed: “If you need help then, you can find me.”
Mu Qingzhou displayed the ice-sealed mutated vine to Zhu Ran.
“Spiritual power can melt the ice used for preservation outside. B-rank mutated plants won’t actively attack people, don’t worry about safety issues.”
“Thank you for the reminder.”
“Mm. Then I’m going to ship. Goodbye.”
The two said goodbye one after another and hung up the video.
Looking at the suddenly darkened optical computer screen, Mu Qingzhou’s heart welled up with a faint sense of loss.
He liked communicating with Zhu Ran.
Although Zhu Ran’s ID card information was a bit unexpected to him, the Zhu Ran in the video was exactly as he imagined.
Soft, quiet, and with a life force belonging to plants.
Very bright and very warm.
On the table were a pot of Daisies and Freesias, radiating waves of light fragrance—grass and wood mixed with a hint of sweetness.
Mu Qingzhou knew this was not the smell of Freesia and Daisies, but the smell belonging only to Zhu Ran.
Mu Qingzhou packed the ice-sealed mutated vine.
He looked out the window; the sunset had ended at this time, only leaving bits of deep red decorating the blue night sky.
Jumping red and quiet blue intertwined together, very beautiful.
But… couldn’t compare to Zhu Ran.
Zhu Ran received the mutated plant Mu Qingzhou sent at 10:00 PM.
The gift box sent via spatial delivery was already placed in front of Zhu Ran. The gift box was light orange with dark green ribbon as decoration.
This color matching was quite good-looking.
Z: [Received.]
After telling Mu Qingzhou he received the mutated plant, Zhu Ran opened the box.
Instantly, a burst of icy chill hit his face, making the temperature of the entire room drop several degrees.
The clean and cold frost gradually dissipated, and a section of ice-sealed mutated vine was lying quietly inside.
The ice surface sealing it was crystal clear with some thickness, yet like purified water, it didn’t have a single bit of impurity.
If it weren’t for the ice layer constantly radiating chill, Zhu Ran would think this was made of crystal.
Finger lightly touched the ice layer; cold-to-the-bone chill deeply penetrated into the meridians and bones, making Zhu Ran shiver.
Zhu Ran quickly wrapped his hand with spiritual power, isolating the temperature of the ice layer.
“This is ice made with spiritual power, the temperature is so low.”
Zhu Ran, following Mu Qingzhou’s explanation, spread spiritual power over the ice layer to melt this block of ice as beautiful as crystal.
As soon as the ice surface touched Zhu Ran’s spiritual power, like water vapor evaporating, it slowly turned into mist and drifted in the air.
In just a few seconds, the approximately 10cm thick ice-sealed layer was completely melted, and the mutated plant also revealed its true appearance.
Because it was frozen for a long time, the mutated vine looked wilted at this moment. Small ice crystals were attached to the stem, clearly having been frozen severely.
The part where its stem was cut off was a bit shriveled, and the cell respiration was very weak, as if it were asleep.
It’s just that, as soon as Zhu Ran’s hand stroked this section of mutated vine, it suddenly came alive, suddenly rose from the lying state, and then boldly climbed up Zhu Ran’s wrist with distinct wrist bones.
Its relatively thin front end wrapped a loop and a half on Zhu Ran’s wrist. From a distance, it looked like a black-red bracelet, forming a clear contrast with Zhu Ran’s white skin.
The mutated plant did not wrap tightly, but because its vine originally had barbs used for defense, and the barbs were not retracted in time, this caused several small scratches on Zhu Ran’s wrist.
A bit of pain.
A unique fragrance also permeated in the air.
The vine probably found it seemed to have done something wrong.
It carefully made its sharp thorns soft and wouldn’t hurt people again, and then tentatively touched Zhu Ran’s wrist with the tip, as if pleasing Zhu Ran.
“Itchy…”
Zhu Ran curled his fingers.
“Don’t make trouble.”
Although the vine didn’t know what Zhu Ran was saying, it could feel from Zhu Ran’s spiritual power that the other party told it to be quiet.
So it obediently circled on Zhu Ran’s wrist without moving.
As a mutated plant-type Awakener, Zhu Ran had a natural affinity for plants, so he was not surprised that the interstellar mutated plant expressed affection as soon as it came up.
Even though Zhu Ran hadn’t done anything but just touched the other party at this moment, this small section of vine already obediently turned into a harmless ornament hanging on his wrist.
Zhu Ran first checked this section of vine with spiritual power; it was currently in a weak state, but vine plants have very tenacious life force and would be fine after a little cultivation.
So he placed purified water infused with spiritual power in front of the vine.
“Drink!”
As soon as the voice fell, the vine stretched its cut side into the water cup and started drinking water.
The vine that supplemented Zhu Ran’s spiritual power instantly changed from a dull state to plump and shiny in color.
The red texture on the stem became bright and transparent, breathing once light and once dark.
At the same time, accompanied by a [hiss] sound, the vine that absorbed nutrients was growing frantically and stretching rapidly.
In just a blink, it grew to nearly 2 meters long, and the stem was also as thick as a python.
With a few [clank clank] sounds, the frantically growing vine knocked the few utensils in the home to the ground, leaving debris and fragments all over the floor.
The huge noise also made the vine itself startled.
It realized it did something wrong and quickly controlled its body to stop swaying.
All this happened too suddenly, and Zhu Ran didn’t expect that just letting the vine absorb water infused with spiritual power would make it develop so fast.
“You are too big, can’t stay by my side.”
As soon as Zhu Ran’s voice fell, the vine shed a small tip. The tip grew to about 13cm and stopped growing.
Then the tip twisted and wrapped around Zhu Ran’s wrist, turning into a black bracelet with red patterns.
“Okay… so you can separate cuttings by yourself, very powerful.”
The vine twisted its body happily.
“You can go to the balcony to play, but you are not allowed to bully other plants; they are very fragile and need your protection.”
The vine probably understood Zhu Ran’s meaning.
This person with a very comfortable aura told it to go over there to protect the fragile other plants.
So it twisted and came to the balcony, climbing along the glass on one side, and eventually turned a whole side of glass into a black-red vine wall.
It had a treacherous beauty.
“Good boy.”
Zhu Ran smiled. He reached out and touched the small vine on his wrist.
Its touch was not smooth; instead, because of the small bumps on the stem, it felt very rough.
Zhu Ran knew this small section of vine had the power to strangle a person.
If bandits broke into his home again, Zhu Ran could use the vine to tie the other party up.
If the other party was still disobedient after being tied up, he could also use the sharp thorns on the stem to prick them.
With the vine guarding the home, Zhu Ran felt even more at ease. He was about to wash and rest.
However, accompanied by a burst of familiar spatial fluctuations, the Xinggou exclusive spatial channel opened in front of Zhu Ran.
“It’s so late, could it be that the glass vessels I bought arrived?”
Just as Zhu Ran was wondering, accompanied by a muffled groan, a figure fell from the spatial channel, directly falling onto Zhu Ran.
The other party appeared too suddenly, and the body was also a size larger than Zhu Ran’s. Zhu Ran didn’t have time to react and was pressed to the ground by the other party.
Zhu Ran’s back was thus pressed onto the broken glass and crushed, with a burst of burning pain.
Such a strong bloody smell…
Zhu Ran wanted to push the other party up, but as soon as he raised his hand, his neck was tightly squeezed by a pair of hands wearing black leather gloves.
The other party’s strength was very large, seemingly wanting to choke Zhu Ran to death, pinning Zhu Ran to the ground and making him unable to move.
Seeing this, Zhu Ran’s spiritual power spread in an instant and surged into the vine on his wrist.
The vine instantly stretched and lengthened. It tied the person pressing on Zhu Ran loop after loop in a split second.
The black-red vine with adult arm thickness, powerful and strong, tied the intruder into a red-brown zongzi in just a few moves.
And the hand originally squeezing Zhu Ran’s neck was also bound at the same time.
Zhu Ran was thus freed.
“Cough… cough.”
Zhu Ran coughed twice to relieve the discomfort in his throat.
He used his elbow to support his body and looked up, sizing up this violent male who fell out of the Xinggou spatial channel.
The other party had a head of brilliant golden hair, and the messy golden hair fell on those unique blue-gold heterochromatic eyes.
However, the other party’s pupils were not focused; the grey-green blue veins on the temple and side of the neck climbed on the skin like 3D tattoos, with a sense of dangerous beauty.
Clearly, the other party was falling into extreme pain and was unconscious.
The uniform on the body was full of blood stains, and one could vaguely see on the skin covered by the clothes that lines of wounds were constantly opening and seeping fresh red blood.
Blood soaked his deep-colored uniform.
He was seriously injured.
But even so, he was still imposing, raging like a storm, violent and encroaching, making one unable to breathe.
He was just like a disaster passing through, making everyone facing him bruised and battered.
Heavy, dark, and violent.
In the messy room, Zhu Ran supported his body and lay on his back.
His green eyes deepened, and his brow furrowed.
Although Zhu Ran had not seen the person in front of him, the other party’s momentum… he was very familiar with.
Zhu Ran asked: “Z?”
Translator’s Note
Wow, what a cliffhanger! (hehe~) It turns out Delivery Person Z is actually the Emperor Zefaer, and he’s in a really bad state. Zhu Ran’s little vine really saved the day there. I’m so excited to see how Zhu Ran handles this “fallen” Emperor in his living room. Also, Mu Qingzhou is definitely getting more attached to Zhu Ran, isn’t he?
Key Terms from these chapters:
- Heterochromatic Eyes (異色瞳): Eyes of two different colors, often a trait of powerful or special characters in novels.
- B-rank Mutated Plant (B級變異植物): Mutated plants are ranked by danger. B-rank is quite dangerous for ordinary people.
- Xingxun (星訊): The interstellar version of a social/messaging app.
- Zongzi (粽子): A traditional Chinese sticky rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves; here used metaphorically to describe someone tied up very tightly.
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