No Money to Divorce
Translator: h.e.l.liot
Editor: NH
First Published on Chaleuria
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Chapter 64: Question
After they laid down and turned off the lights, Zhong Yan whispered in the dark, “This is great, I was just thinking, you have to go to headquarters tomorrow, and I have to go to the holding center by myself during the day, then I don"t have to go out anymore the day after that. Working remotely is great, I don"t have to go outside at all. Usually, I would have to get up at least an hour and a half in advance, but now I just needed to change ten minutes before I have to be present. If it was just a voice conference, I don"t even need to change my clothes.”
“Yeah…you"re right,” Adrian responded absent-mindedly. But inside, he was just thinking that his days of staying at home would soon come to an end.
When Zhong Yan recovers completely, the exercise plan he had the medical department design especially for Zhong Yan will begin. Adrian recalled the days when Zhong Yan would be half-dead after running less than a quarter of a mile. He felt a bit complicated, but he still did not tell him that.
Just let him be “happy” for a few more days.
“What"s wrong? What are you thinking about?” Zhong Yan asked. He snuggled over to his side and plastered against him through the blanket.
“Nothing, just thinking about some plans in a few days.” While saying that, Adrian peeled away the blanket and squeezed in with Zhong Yan. “You seem spirited today. Not sleepy?”
The temperature of Adrian"s body was very high. Zhong Yan couldn"t help but lean closer to him. Adrian reached his arm over and scooped him up completely, while Zhong Yan was kept pleasantly in his warm embrace. “I was thinking about things in the Capital, and I couldn"t sleep, but now I"m starting to get sleepy.”
The feeling of the soft fabric against his hand was nice. Adrian had been patting his back to lull him to sleep, but that eventually turned into stroking. Zhong Yan grumbled as he gave his chest a light smack, “What are you doing? I"ve already washed myself twice today, I don"t want to go again.”
“I"m touching your clothes, not you. Even though I bought these clothes for you, it"s still our common property. What"s wrong with it if I touch it?” Adrian argued. His chest was pushed again, and it felt like he was being pawed by a small animal. It didn"t hurt, but Adrian knew how painful it could be if Zhong Yan really clawed him. That time, the marks that were left on his back took two whole days to dissipate. He had no intentions of stopping, but instead of stroking him, he returned to patting him again.
Zhong Yan had always slept badly, and it was also difficult for him to fall asleep. But being in Adrian"s arms was just as effective as taking sleeping pills. After a few minutes, he sunk into the warm land of dreams.
But of course, thanks to the heat source underneath his blanket latching onto him tightly, he was woken up by the stuffiness in the middle of the night. But that all comes later.
……
After waking up the next day, Adrian had already left to go to work. Zhong Yan had been woken up from his sleep during the night due to the heat and had to wiggle himself out of Adrian"s arms. Even though he tried his best to be as careful as possible, Adrian"s vigilance was too high and he was woken up from the slightest movement. Zhong Yan quickly explained to him in a whisper, and hearing that he was fine, Adrian quickly fell back asleep. But when Zhong Yan turned on his terminal to adjust the temperature of the room, he also looked through the news and couldn"t help himself from contacting several people to arrange a new task. Then, he was completely awake. Only after laying for a while did he finally manage to fall asleep again.
But this caused him to wake up late. He received Adrian"s call as soon as he got up.
“Awake?” Adrian asked in the call.
Zhong Yan took his toothbrush out of his mouth and mumbled with a full mouth, “I just woke up. Brushing my teeth.”
“You should quickly eat breakfast after you wash up. I think your food should be delivered by now.” Adrian continued, “If you don"t eat now, you won"t be able to stomach your lunch later.”
Zhong Yan spat out the bubbles in his mouth. “Don"t worry, I can just delay my lunch as well.”
“You can"t.” Adrian put on a stern act. “You have to eat your meals on schedule. Once you finish, take a picture for me to check.”
Zhong Yan spat out a laugh and teased, “And what if I can"t send you a picture on time?”
“Then your little cake will be gone tonight.”
“No! You promised I"ll have cake from tonight on.”
Adrian laughed. “Then we"ll have to look at your performance. Alright, I have to go to the meeting room now.”
“Okay.” As if they were still in school, Zhong Yan responded out of habit, “Work hard.”
“You too.” Adrian"s voice was gentle. “Quickly go and eat, I"m hanging up.”
After having his breakfast on time, he pa.s.sed up his “homework” to Adrian. Zhong Yan felt his own wound and felt that it was no longer painful, so he got up from his wheelchair and strolled out to the backyard to see the rabbits.
The giant s.p.a.ce rabbit was not in its own nest and was instead laying down on the gra.s.s nearby, sunbathing. Zhong Yan saw the hose that had been brought out from the house. This was probably what Adrian used to wash the rabbit this morning, and he must not have had the time to put it away so he just tossed it there. Zhong Yan went over to touch the rabbit"s fur. It was still a little wet.
Zhong Yan turned on his terminal to see. He had finished his duties in the middle of the night, and due to the time difference, he had no work at this moment since it was the middle of the night in the Capital. Zhong Yan went back inside to bring out a hairdryer. While pa.s.sing through the rabbit"s nest, he noticed the small white rabbit next to it and brought it with him as well. When he reached the giant s.p.a.ce rabbit and was just about to start work, he suddenly realized there were no pockets in the rabbit onesie for him to hold the rabbit.
Holding the rabbit, he looked around him. It was gra.s.s all around him, but there was a spot that was particularly deep. When the giant s.p.a.ce rabbit laid down, it did not feel it much, but the small white rabbit kit would disappear if he put it down there. He thought about it and stuffed the rabbit into his hood instead. Only then did he begin blow drying the giant s.p.a.ce rabbit.
The rabbit was too big, and it was practically like a tiny mountain made of fur, while Zhong Yan was using a regular hair dryer meant for humans. He began drying it from the base of the mountain. He had turned on his terminal and brought the screen to his eyes so he could watch the news while he blew the rabbit dry. When he reached the rabbit"s chest, the giant s.p.a.ce rabbit finally discovered a human in front of it dressed in all white. It shoved the tip of its fluffy nose in front of Zhong Yan curiously. Most of Adrian"s clothes were black in color, so he always complained about the rabbit getting its fur all over him. Zhong Yan had also noticed now that this lop-eared giant rabbit sheds a lot, but the color of his fur today…no, the color of his pajamas were the exact same as the rabbit, so it was hard to tell.
When Adrian went to buy this rabbit, he didn"t know if there were manuals or whatnot, nor did he know how quickly a rabbit"s fur turns over. It was shedding so much, was it growing out new fur? When he put Adrian"s clothes into the washing machine the day before yesterday, Zhong Yan did see a lot of long, soft white hair poking out of his clothes.
Then, in the few seconds it took for him to think about Adrian"s clothes, Zhong Yan suddenly smelled something burning. He quickly came back to his senses, but it was too late. A cl.u.s.ter of scorched hair appeared on the dense fluffy chest of the rabbit. Fortunately, the giant s.p.a.ce rabbit was large enough and had enough fur, so even the rabbit did not notice a clump of its hair being fried. After all, its chest hair was in its blind spot.
Zhong Yan “…”
Adrian was busy the whole day without any time for rest. The Lebor System was now under the Navi Military Command"s control. “b.u.t.terfly"s” monitoring system was gradually destroyed, and the AI"s misjudgment of the star system"s Council Head caused him to switch camps, bringing the entire star system with it…The entire Federation was in an uproar.
In the Round Table, the eleven Representative Members have also been fighting about it for the whole day. If they did not admit that they misjudged him, then the Lebor system would actually accept entering Navi"s jurisdiction, and “b.u.t.terfly"s” monitoring systems would be dismantled. This was undoubtedly a public provocation. The Capital had to send out their troops, but from the final image data from Lebor"s monitoring system, they were able to a.n.a.lyze that the Navi military army was much stronger than they feared. And the more worrying part was, they did not actually know how many troops Navi had within their own system that had not been brought out of its borders. If like last time, the Capital admitted that it made a misjudgment…
In just two years, there had been two cases of misjudgments, and it was even all such sensitive events. The last time, it was only a girl who was rather popular in the virtual community, but they had still received ma.s.sive criticisms that they had never once seen during the past half-century. But this time, it was three high-ranking councilors…It is not known whether “b.u.t.terfly” and the Capital that was covered under its wings would completely lose the trust of the public because of this incident.
The eleven people who held 2 differing opinions were embroiled in an unending debate. The only one not present was Zhong Yan who was currently on the other side of the Federation, but there was more than one person out of the eleven who held his script.
Adrian didn"t have time to look at his private messages until he went to the medical department to pick up Wei Lan in the afternoon. The last message he received from Zhong Yan was the photo of his empty lunch bowl, but there was another image earlier on in his history. Adrian opened it up to see and saw a cl.u.s.ter of brown in the middle of a snow-white image. At first, he didn"t realize what it was until he saw another picture taken from afar with the rabbit"s head in the shot. Only then did he realize that white stuff was the rabbit"s chest. The words attached by Zhong Yan read: I was blow-drying the rabbit but accidentally burnt it. Do you know what the shedding period for this rabbit is?
Adrian laughed at the two images for three whole minutes before replying, “I"ll ask later. I"m going to pick up Wei Lan now. Remember to change.”
Zhong Yan was just in a call with Intron, so when he received the message, he just a.s.sumed that Adrian meant he was going to ask the Giant s.p.a.ce Rabbit Research Inst.i.tute he had purchased the rabbit from, so he asked without much care, “Okay, remember to show them the photo as well, and ask whether this is fine or not.”
Huh? Show them the photo as well? It was more than a year ago since Adrian had last posted an update to his personal homepage. Last year, the posting interface of the personal homepage was changed once, so for a moment, he actually couldn"t figure out where to add the image. The last post Adrian made was about the fact that the s.p.a.ce bandits had been dealt with to the roots, and promoted that the Navi System was now safe and stable. At first glance, you could tell it was an official post. In more than a year, Adrian"s supporters and haters had commented beneath that post until the numbers reached a terrifying height, especially with the recent major events these past two months that Adrian played the leading role in. In just a short month or so, the comments had nearly doubled.
After a few seconds, Adrian found the b.u.t.ton to add images. After more than a year, he updated his personal homepage once more.
Adrian Yate(Verified Position: Supreme Commander of Navi Military Command): A question for everyone, when do giant s.p.a.ce rabbit kits molt? I accidentally burnt some of its fur, will this cause any problems? Picture below.