A week later, as Xia Shizhao stood at Ye Qiuling's door, head down, contemplating whether to go in, the door opened as if sensing his presence.
Their eyes met for a moment. Looking at Ye Qiuling, who was dressed casually and looked sleepy, Xia Shizhao was stunned for a moment. "Y-hello."
"Hello, is there something you need?" Ye Qiuling, dressed in casual clothes, asked knowingly.
"Thank you for lending me the airship. And how is Xiao Hu doing? Is he feeling alright?" Xia Shizhao tilted his head, trying to see Xiao Hu.
Ye Qiuling's eyes flickered with panic for a moment, but she quickly regained her composure: "It's sleeping upstairs. Do you want to see it?"
"Yes, I gave it a little pendant to play with."
Xia Shizhao shook the little tiger head in his hand; it looked exactly like a tiger.
"I'll go call it down. You sit on the sofa."
Ye Qiuling quickly disappeared from Xia Shizhao's sight.
Xia Shizhao sat on the sofa, feeling itchy all over and generally uncomfortable.
Ye Qiuling lifted the little white tiger down and put it in Xia Shizhao's arms.
Xia Shizhao looked at the little white tiger and felt that it didn't have the same intelligence it had on the desert planet. He scratched its chin, but it still raised its head in enjoyment.
She's still very clingy.
Xia Shizhao thought.
Ye Qiuling handed Xia Shizhao a glass of water and asked, "Have you had lunch?"
Xia Shizhao shook his head.
Ye Qiuling stood up and looked down at Xia Shizhao, saying, "Perfect timing, I haven't eaten either. What would you like to eat? I'll make it for you."
"Come to my house, I'll cook for you. Today I mainly wanted to thank you for lending me the airship."
His tone was very gentle. After speaking, Xia Shizhao carried the little white tiger outside.
Ye Qiuling's eyes lit up slightly, and she followed Xia Shizhao eagerly.
Xia Shizhao placed Xiaohu on the sofa and affectionately patted its little head. "Sister's going to cook."
Little Tiger licked Xia Shizhao's hand, then obediently lay down on the sofa and fell asleep again.
Ye Qiuling walked over to Xia Shizhao and said, "Um, let me help too."
"Uh, no need. I invited you to dinner. Why are you doing this?"
Xia Shizhao took the vegetables out of the refrigerator, threw the greens into the sink and went to process the meat first.
This time, everything was food that Ye Qiuling could eat. She stood aside watching Xia Shizhao busy at work, and silently walked to the sink to start processing the vegetables.
He doesn't like eating green vegetables, but Xia Shizhao does.
"Would you like some home-style cooking, or barbecue, hot pot, or something like that?"
After Xia Shizhao finished cutting the beef, mutton, and pork, he turned around and asked.
Ye Qiuling thought for a moment, "Barbecue."
"Okay, after we finish preparing the vegetables, we'll take them to the rooftop. Mine is a combination of barbecue and hot pot."
After Xia Shizhao finished speaking, he took out a lot of meatballs from the refrigerator.
There was no other way; her training intensity was very high, and she had a large appetite. Plus, alphas naturally have large appetites, so what could they do if I didn't bring them some food?
Xia Shizhao quickly finished tidying up the potato slices and other vegetables, then looked at Ye Qiuling with a large plate of meat in one hand and a large bag of meatballs in the other: "This is enough for now, we can come down and get more later if needed."
She slightly raised her chin, gesturing for Ye Qiuling to bring over the vegetarian dishes.
Ye Qiuling carried the plate upstairs, and the little white tiger followed them upstairs in a daze.
Ye Qiuling obeyed everything Xia Shizhao said; she was very obedient.
The barbecue area is next to the floor-to-ceiling windows, offering a view of the lake. The water glistens beautifully in the sunlight, and there are many black and white swans swimming in the water.
Xia Shizhao opened the refrigerator upstairs, which was full of alcohol. She turned to Ye Qiuling and asked, "Would you like alcohol or juice?"
"Juice bar."
After Ye Qiuling finished speaking, Xia Shizhao skillfully took out the strawberry juice and a bottle of red wine.
She crouched down, pulled open the drawer under the table, took out two clean cups, and then prepared their favorite sauces and placed them on the table.
He then took out four pairs of chopsticks, handed two pairs to Ye Qiuling, and instructed her: "Use raw and cooked chopsticks separately to avoid cross-contamination."
"Um."
Ye Qiuling nodded, looking at Xia Shizhao who skillfully poured her wine with a slight doubt, "You can drink? Didn't you say you can't hold your liquor?"
Xia Shizhao chuckled, "I love to drink. I've definitely trained myself over the years. I'm not a lightweight anymore."
"Yeah, I'm still a lightweight when it comes to alcohol."
Ye Qiuling pursed her lips as she spoke, her eyes filled with a sense of melancholy and complexity, and looked out the window. "I never thought I'd be able to have dinner with you again."
"I didn't expect that either."
Xia Shizhao tilted her head back and finished a glass of red wine. She picked up the bottle and refilled her glass. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and her eyes were bright. She looked somewhat naive. She also looked at the lake outside. "Actually, I wanted to go out to eat with you, but unfortunately I didn't have enough money to buy the disguise potion. At that time, 800,000 was not a small amount of money for me. The cost of other potions was too high. Even if I made other potions, I didn't have the qualifications to sell them."
We were both in tough situations at the time, but mine was much better than yours.
Ye Qiuling rested her chin on her hand and looked at her: "Are you and her the same person?"
"Shouldn't you know that?"
Xia Shizhao asked in return.
"Did you hurt me like that willingly?"
Ye Qiuling stared intently at her, as if she only wanted Xia Shizhao to give her an answer.
"Of course not. I wanted to help you, but I would have suffered, so I simply didn't help you openly."
Xia Shizhao picked up a piece of meat and put it in the sauce, "It's just that the system disappeared after you disappeared."
Ye Qiuling looked puzzled. "What disappeared? The system?"
"In my previous life, I unfortunately died, and this system said that I can live if I follow the storyline, and I will die if I don't. So my storyline is to bully you and push you to grow, understand?"
After Xia Shizhao finished speaking, Ye Qiuling fell into deep thought. "Let me tell you about the dream I wanted to tell you back then."
I was taken back by Xia Shi's parents, where I encountered the two-faced Xia Shizhao, and was then falsely accused and locked in solitary confinement. The dream ended there.
The second dream explains why I targeted them when my foundation was unstable. Xia Shizhao and He Er were to be married off, and He Er was an unreliable playboy. At the time, I was just a useless beta. Xia Shizhao believed that as a child of the Xia family, I should also fight for the family's interests. He persuaded my parents to "send" me to the young master who was close to He Er. That young master was notoriously perverted and bloodthirsty. My personality and appearance were not what he liked, and he was not interested in me. He then threw me into the arena.
In the arena, I nearly killed the wolf that was about to eat me for the first time. After being kept for a while, my wounds healed and I started fighting again.
Day after day, for a whole year, I won the final match, but my wounds were severe, and the Colosseum abandoned me.
I was taken away by a human experimentation lab and tortured for three years. Later, the lab was discovered, and I was rescued. My appearance was no different from an ordinary person, and I survived on my own. I found the Third Organization; they valued my abilities, and I climbed the ranks step by step to become their leader. By then, the Xia family was already a renowned and powerful clan. In my dream, I saw my enemies unable to avenge themselves, and they seemed to have forgotten me.
Xia Shizhao's brain completely shut down as she listened to the script that didn't fit her own ideas.
How come he has experience in a laboratory? Shouldn't the Xia family have disappeared when he turned 18? How did he manage to get into that family?
Wasn't it Xia Shizhao who hired someone to kill her, but by chance she met a benefactor and was taken there for training, which led to the awakening of her alpha mental power?!
The timeline is all messed up.
Xia Shizhao was stunned. He blinked and asked, "Then why did you differentiate?"
“Fu Ziran said that I was originally an alpha, but because my body was never satisfied and I was not well-nourished, my differentiation was delayed. Later, when my nutrition improved, I needed to receive mental stimulation to undergo secondary differentiation.”
As she spoke, Ye Qiuling rested her chin on her hand, her thoughts returning to that time: "I had this dream when I was locked in solitary confinement. I was afraid that I would be sold, so I immediately packed my things and ran to the Third Organization. I started from the bottom and then climbed to the top by relying on my incomplete dream."
These dreams were all separate, and I pieced them together into a complete storyline.
The last dream was about an insect swarm. All planets were invaded, many unprepared planets fell, and even those with strong military forces suffered heavy losses. All operating factories were destroyed, precious cultural fragments were lost, and laws and order vanished. Human civilization rapidly declined and degenerated.
My dreams are all very real, so I went to Xingda University with a clean identity, hoping to do something.
"You're quite concerned about the country and its people, and you have a global perspective."
Xia Shizhao truly admired people with such awareness and understanding. In the past, she was surrounded by people who prioritized self-interest, and there were very few selfless individuals like her. Even in the interstellar world, it's the same; few people in the arena of fame and fortune maintain their original intentions. From Liu Ruxuan, she learned that Ye Qiuling was working hard to change the unfairness of this world, rather than fighting for her own interests.
Ye Qiuling lowered her eyes, her lips moving slightly, "Didn't you say you wanted to fully experience this world..."
Xia Shizhao chuckled softly, "Even if I didn't say anything, you wouldn't just stand by and watch the world be destroyed, would you?"
Ye Qiuling thought for a moment, then silently shook her head and said softly, "I don't know."
Both of them slightly raised their heads, then tacitly avoided eye contact.
Xia Shizhao took an awkward sip of red wine.
Why do I always feel that Ye Qiuling is a bit like Xiaohu? She always looks at me sincerely with those big, bright eyes.
I want to pet her.
Like friends, the two ate and chatted.
After the meal, Ye Qiuling sat down and looked at Xia Shizhao: "Now, can we be friends?"
Xia Shizhao thought for a while. Xiao Hu had saved him, and Ye Qiuling had also helped him a lot. After hesitating for a moment, Xia Shizhao nodded, "Of course."
Ye Qiuling smiled slightly and said softly, "Then I'll treat you to dinner tomorrow."
Xia Shizhao hesitated for a moment, and Ye Qiuling pressed her advantage, saying sincerely, "We're friends, there's nothing wrong with having a meal together, right?"
"Okay, sure."
After seeing Ye Qiuling off, Xia Shizhao frowned, wondering why things weren't going as planned.
We need to find a suitable energy source for Youyou as soon as possible; maybe then we can find out the reason.
Walking into Youyou's room, Xia Shizhao looked at the robot dog and wondered whether he should take it apart.
After thinking about it for a while, I decided against it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com