Chapter 34

The door opened.

Zhao Zhanlei looked at Ji Xun, who had opened the door without changing his clothes or messing up his hair, and clearly hadn't been taking a shower. As he walked into the bedroom, he said, "What are you being so secretive about, locking the door? I see you aren't asleep yet either..."

Ji Xun told a barefaced lie: "I was just about to go to sleep."

"Liar." Zhao Zhanlei pointed at the glowing computer screen on a nearby desk. "Isn't the computer still on? Let me see, 'How to successfully hatch...'"

"!!!" Ji Xun, terrified, lunged over to block the screen. As he hit the power-off button, he shouted at Zhao Zhanlei, "Zhao 'Stone', why are you so rude! Just because you're a Sentinel with good eyesight, does that mean you can spy on people's privacy?"

"Oh, look at our Xunxun, he's got privacy now." Zhao Zhanlei chuckled, then added, "You aren't watching porn or anything, what are you feeling guilty about? What are you trying to hatch? A chick?"

As he spoke, Zhao Zhanlei walked over to the little Guide's soft and fragrant bed and was about to plop down.

Ji Xun nearly had a heart attack!

With lightning speed, he lunged over and grabbed Zhao Zhanlei. "What are you doing? What do you think you're doing!"

Zhao Zhanlei was startled and a bit confused by his reaction. "I... I'm just sitting down. Is that not allowed?"

"Of course it's not allowed!!" Ji Xun hurriedly snuck a glance at the Great King Egg hidden beneath his quilt.

Phew, thank goodness.

He immediately shoved Zhao Zhanlei aside, shielding the spot with his own body, and argued righteously, "Sentinels and Guides must keep their distance! You are not allowed to sit on my bed!"

"..." Zhao Zhanlei let out a puzzled, "Hey," and said, "Ji Xiaoxun, not long ago you were asking me to come over and sleep with you. Why didn't you care about 'keeping your distance' then? The weather doesn't change as fast as your mood."

Ji Xun retorted sophistically, "That was then, this is now!"

"What's wrong with 'now'? Is it because that strange big egg isn't there?"

"Anyway, you aren't allowed to sit on my bed."

Zhao Zhanlei figured he shouldn't bicker with a kid, so he asked, "Fine, then where can I sit?"

Ji Xun gestured vaguely. "On the chair, sit wherever!"

Zhao Zhanlei sat down on the chair Ji Xun had pointed to, then watched as Ji Xun stood stiffly in front of the bed. "Xunxun, you sit down too."

Ji Xun: "I won't. I've been sitting all day, I'm going to stand and rest for a while."

Zhao Zhanlei: "..."

Zhao Zhanlei hissed, rubbing his chin as he looked at Ji Xun. "Something is wrong with you."

Ji Xun's heart skipped a beat!

He thought, Zhao Zhanlei isn't very bright, surely he couldn't have figured anything out? The next moment, he heard Zhao Zhanlei ask: "You clearly had a Mental Shielding class this afternoon, why did you tell Brother Hang it was a Physical Training class?"

So that was it.

Ji Xun's mind raced. Recalling the lie he had told Fu Shuhang that morning, he kept his expression unchanged and said, "The instructor changed the schedule last minute. Why are you asking about that?"

"No reason. Just curious. Our class was changed too, and when I heard from Brother Hang that you had Physical Training, I even went out of my way to buy you a drink."

Ji Xun reached out. "Thanks, where is it?"

Zhao Zhanlei said, "You think I'd go get it back?"

"I gave it to the Guide girl who was in the Physical Training class at that time."

Ji Xun gave a scoff, retracted his hand, and continued to block the Great King Egg behind him. He asked Zhao Zhanlei, "Did you come looking for me for something?"

"Oh, right, I did." Zhao Zhanlei stood up immediately. "Father Fu and Father Gao aren't back yet, and Brother Hang said he'd take me to see that new type of mecha. I thought I'd take you along to see it too!"

Ji Xun refused: "Better not. I'm not really interested in those things. You go ahead and enjoy the view yourself."

"That won't do."

Zhao Zhanlei walked over to Ji Xun and reached out to drape an arm over his shoulder. "Good brothers share the blessings. If there's something good, of course I have to show you."

Ji Xun really didn't want to go and was still searching for an excuse to decline.

***

Zhao Zhanlei, however, gave a questioning "Huh," having glimpsed a high bulge under the quilt on Ji Xun's bed.

It didn't look like a wrinkle; it looked as if a ball was hidden underneath.

So, the hand Zhao Zhanlei was going to use to pull Ji Xun in drifted toward the bed, intending to feel it.

Ji Xun noticed and, terrified, hurriedly grabbed Zhao Zhanlei's hand!

"Fine, let's go see it then!!" Ji Xun said rapidly. "Since you want me to go so badly, I'll go see just how cool this mecha of yours is! Let's go, let's go!"

He then forcibly dragged the Sentinel out of the bedroom.

Zhao Zhanlei kept looking back. "No, wait, Xunxun, I just thought I saw..."

"Have you eaten dinner tonight?" Ji Xun slammed the bedroom door shut. "If Father Fu and Father Gao aren't home, Brother Hang probably hasn't eaten, right? I'll bring him something."

Zhao Zhanlei was still struggling. "Xunxun, there seemed to be something on your bed..."

Ji Xun: "Right, right! The sour-peel fruits Father Gao gave me last time aren't finished yet. Stone, help me peel them!"

Zhao Zhanlei: "There was something..."

Once they reached downstairs, Ji Xun shoved two green fruits into Zhao Zhanlei's hands, then ran to the kitchen to grab two skewers of meat left over from dinner, and then kept pulling Zhao Zhanlei toward the outside.

Being tossed around by Ji Xun like this, Zhao Zhanlei's attention shifted. As he peeled the sour-peel fruit in his hand, he said, "This stuff doesn't even taste good. How can you have liked it since you were a kid?"

"It's delicious! It's sour and sweet, very refreshing."

"I beg to differ."

"Are you calling me a dog???"

"…No, no, I am. I'm the dog."

As the white iron gate swung open and Ji Xun stepped into the Fu family courtyard, he heard a low growl.

A pair of emerald eyes glinted in the darkness.

Under the bright streetlights of the Fu family garden, a black-and-white striped giant cat, over two meters long and weighing 460 pounds, was sprinting toward him!

Ji Xun instinctively spread his feet, bracing himself to withstand the General's first pounce.

But the Bengal white tiger sprinting toward him braked just in time right in front of Ji Xun—a first in history—and then looked up, baring its teeth and growling at Zhao Zhanlei, rudely shoving aside the Sentinel who had been standing too close to the little Guide.

Zhao Zhanlei, having been shoved back two steps: "..."

This spirit beast is exactly the same as its master.

No, even more blunt than its master.

The white tiger circled Ji Xun twice, constantly nudging the little Guide with its tiger head and whining aggrievedly.

Zhao Zhanlei, holding a peeled sour-peel fruit, couldn't even offer it to Ji Xun, so he said from the side, "Brother Hang probably scolded the General again."

Ji Xun hadn't understood what the white tiger was whining about, but now that Zhao Zhanlei mentioned it, he felt that the General's whimpering did indeed sound like a complaint.

It even felt a bit like the state it was in the day it tackled him.

Ji Xun raised his hand to pat the General's head, comforting it: "Our General is so well-behaved and cute, why does he keep scolding you? He's sick!"

The white tiger: "Awoo!!" Exactly.

"Here, this meat was meant for Brother Hang, but since he scolded you, we won't give it to him. You eat it, General." Ji Xun plucked a few pieces of meat off the skewer and fed them to the General.

Zhao Zhanlei was about to say that spirit beasts don't need to eat.

Then he watched as the adult white tiger chewed up the few small pieces of cooked meat—which weren't even enough to get between its teeth—and licked its lips with its large tongue.

So, he had nothing to say.

The two of them were blocked in the front yard by the white tiger.

Before long, Fu Shuhang walked out.

***

Fu Shuhang had just showered; his short hair was still slightly damp. He wore light-colored, pure cotton long-sleeved clothes and trousers, making all the aloofness and the innate hormones of a Sentinel that he exuded at the Sanctuary during the day vanish completely. He just looked like a very gentle big brother from next door.

His face was truly deceptive.

Fu Shuhang said, "Come in."

Ji Xun walked over, holding up a hand. "I need to wash my hands, Brother Hang."

Fu Shuhang looked at his greasy hand. "How did you get it like this?"

"I fed the General some barbecue skewers."

Fu Shuhang: "."

The General, following behind Ji Xun, had its tail held higher than the sky!

Its majestic tiger face was full of triumph. As it passed its master, its long, thick tail deliberately swiped against Fu Shuhang before it continued to look up and whine at the little Guide.

Ji Xun heard it and originally wanted to take the opportunity to ask Fu Shuhang, "What happened to the General again? Don't always scold it," but then he remembered that Fu Shuhang had previously told him not to meddle in other people's business and not to teach him how to discipline his spirit beast, so he pursed his lips and swallowed the words.

He patted the white tiger's head with his non-greasy hand, deciding to comfort the big cat a few more times himself.

Fu Shuhang watched the General's behavior, and for some reason, it was an eyesore.

He frowned and let out a 'tsk'.

He felt like locking the General back into his spirit domain.

The person and the tiger entered the kitchen.

Fu Shuhang looked at Zhao Zhanlei.

Zhao Zhanlei said, "Xiaoxun said his class was changed this afternoon. It was supposed to be Physical Training, but the instructor had something to do, so it was changed to Mental Shielding."

Fu Shuhang didn't speak, his gaze falling on the sour-peel fruit already peeled in Zhao Zhanlei's hand.

Zhao Zhanlei immediately added, "Oh, this, Xiaoxun said he wanted to eat it."

Fu Shuhang said in a flat, expressionless voice, "If he wants to eat it, doesn't he have hands to peel it himself?"

"This one is a bit hard to peel..."

Fu Shuhang said coldly, "If you can't peel it, don't eat it."

Zhao Zhanlei looked at Fu Shuhang's expression and thought, Brother Hang is quite hot-tempered tonight.

He reached into his pocket, pulled out another unpeeled sour-peel fruit, and handed it to Fu Shuhang: "There's one more, Brother Hang, you peel it for him."

Fu Shuhang didn't even glance at it, walking straight past Zhao Zhanlei and heading upstairs.

Seeing this, Zhao Zhanlei hurriedly stuffed the fruit back into his pocket, turned around, and shouted toward the kitchen: "Xunxun, we're going upstairs first, come find us on the top floor!!"

—"Okay!"

After the expansion a few years ago, the top floor of the Fu family home became a helipad of two or three hundred square meters.

Two of Marshal Fu's fighter jets were parked there.

One was an old, retired fighter jet that had followed Fu Shen for over a decade and was no longer in service; the other was the new type of mecha Zhao Zhanlei had mentioned, which could transform into a fighter jet or a submarine depending on the combat situation.

Only Fu Shuhang could unlock the door to the top floor with his iris scan.

Zhao Zhanlei was shouting and waving from behind a transparent nano-shield. He pressed against it, looking from afar, hating his own lack of vocabulary to describe his feelings. "This is a million times cooler than our simulations, holy crap! I can't even imagine what it would feel like to sit in that cockpit myself!!"

Fu Shuhang leaned against a pillar with his hands in his pockets.

Despite Zhao Zhanlei's excitement and surprise, his expression remained indifferent.

Fu Shuhang said, "Stone, the test results have been uploaded. It seems that some military academies are going to select Sentinels from various Sanctuaries for early training and admission."

Zhao Zhanlei hadn't heard the news. He turned back in surprise and asked Fu Shuhang, "For real?"