CH 54.1

Zhuang Yu hurried over and took Qiao Zhiya, who was frightened by Chu Rong’s anger, to the medical room.

After a round of detailed examinations, Zhuang Yu flipped through the examination results. With a slight frown, she explained, “Looking at the situation, he should be recovering soon, but now…”

She glanced downwards in uncertainty as Qiao Zhiya climbed down from the instrument. The youth was standing obediently, trying to get a look at the examination’s result. Zhuang Yu continued her explanation, “All his physical data are normal… My current guess is that his condition is cured, but thanks to a psychological stimulation, his mind is ‘resetted’ from before the condition occurred, resulting in a short-term memory loss.”

Chu Rong’s mind was chaotic, causing his spiritual power to be untamed. After hearing Zhuang Yu’s guess, he turned his head and glanced coldly at Qiao Zhiya who was standing by the instrument. After seeing the youth looking so meek and scared, he corralled his emotions, and turned to Zhuang Yu instead. “And your reason for that conclusion is?”

Zhuang Yu walked closer to Qiao Zhiya, then patted his shoulder in order to comfort him. She replied, “It’s because of Qiao’s self-healing power. But this means that even if this condition recurs, it won’t be so serious.”

“So his memory will recover in the future?” Chu Rong turned his gaze to her hand, squinting.

Zhuang Yu put her hands on Qiao Zhiya’s shoulders without fear of death, and replied, “Yes, but if you continue to scare him like this, maybe it will reoccur again. Memory is a very mysterious thing. If he’s stimulated again, there’s a chance that he’ll forget again.”

Chu Rong’s spiritual power floated out like the cold air. He frowned, looking at Qiao Zhiya. He knew that irritable mood scared the Bald Chicken…

Qiao Zhiya looked at him anxiously and pitifully, with hesitation painted clearly on his face. He wanted to cling closer to the Marshal but dare not inch closer. But when he sensed Chu Rong’s gaze fell on him, his ears instinctively pricked up, his back straightened up, and his body stiffened like a board.

Having lost his memory for several months, everything that Chu Rong and Zhuang Yu said sounded so foreign to him. It felt like he had time-travelled into the unknown future…

In his mind, it was just winter after the festival celebration. But now, it was suddenly spring and everyone had changed, talking about topics he didn’t understand. Even Chu Rong’s attitude towards him has changed and worsened.

–Though, his mood was justified. After all, it was his careless mistake that made Chu Rong’s spiritual power go berserk…

Thinking of this, he pursed his lips, lowered his eyes, suppressed the sadness in his heart. He used his finger to wipe the tears welling up on the corner of his eyes, feeling a little grateful. Fortunately, at least judging from the situation just observed, the berserk did not cause any harm to Chu Rong. He did not cause any major disaster.

‘It doesn’t matter if the flesh of the stone is gone, the effect of that thing is unknown, it could actually be dangerous…’

“What makes your face scrunch like that?”

The bangs on his forehead were rubbed suddenly, and the familiar intimate movements made him almost feel like he was out of the world. He raised his head with a swish, staring blankly at Chu Rong, who was frowning with an ugly expression. He opened his lips, but no words came out of it.

“Don’t overthink. I won’t hurt you,” Chu Rong suppressed his irritability. He pulled the youth closest and made Zhuang Yu’s hand let go of his shoulder. He remembered how sticky this Bald Chicken was during this past few months, and how different he looked now – he was all stiff and uncomfortable, neck shrinking, as if he wanted to get away from Chu Rong.

Chu Rong clenched his fist, and after a moment of hesitation, he put his hand over the youth’s shoulder. He softened his tone and said, “Let’s go, it’s dinner time.”

Qiao Zhiya turned his head to look at Chu Rong’s handsome face, his ears moved slightly, and a secret joy bursted in his heart. He trusted Chu Rong, and let the Marshal lead him to the kitchen.

Little stars lit up in his eyes as he thought, ‘Ah, Chu Rong isn’t angry about the berserk… great. That’s great.’

Chu Rong saw all his expressions and the medley of emotions changing in his eyes. He felt his heart become heavy. He tightly held his hold on the youth’s collar, but he still didn’t turn to hug him. Instead, he stretched out his spiritual strength and trapped the two of them inside a cage made of the same spiritual power.

The atmosphere of the dinner was a bit dull. Chu Rong did not eat or chat as usual, and Qiao Zhiya, who had recovered his memory, was also obedient. He didn’t chatter, didn’t clamor for something to eat, didn’t squirm in his seat and unable to sit still, and didn’t act all childish and clingy, asking for hugs.

He became that obedient and well-behaved boy again, even more cautious and restrained than before. Obviously the table was full of his favorite dishes, but he restrained himself to only pick the few dishes in front of him.

Chu Rong lost his appetite after eating a few bites. He put down his chopsticks with a frown.

Seeing this, Qiao Zhiya hurriedly put down his chopsticks. He looked at him with concern in his eyes. “Is it not to your liking? These dishes don’t seem to be your favorite. Do you want to let the robot cook a few?”

–He didn’t dare to say that he would do it himself, as he’s afraid to be rejected. And on top of that, he’s even more afraid of making Chu Rong angry. His small animal-like intuition told him that Chu Rong was in an abysmal mood now, just a hair’s breadth away from exploding.

‘He’s too sensible!’ Chu Rong clenched his fist, and it really exploded. But it wasn’t because of Qiao Zhiya, but because of himself.

If it weren’t for the confusion caused by this accident, he might not have realized that in the previous relationship, it was Qiao Zhiya who had been accommodating his temper — it was this younger man accommodating his bad temper!

For Chu Rong, who wanted to develop an intimate relationship with the youth at this moment, this was a momentous discovery. It was like carrying a basin of ice water in his head, making him feel discouraged and frustrated at himself.

Fortunately, Marshal Chu didn’t have “hesitation” in his dictionary. Since Qiao Zhiya was too sensible and accommodating, it just meant that he should return it tenfold – it’s time for him to pamper him silly.

“I made all these dishes,” He said as he picked up his chopsticks again. He served Qiao Zhiya some of the youth’s favorite dishes. Although his expression was still dark because of his bad mood, his tone slowly eased, and he continued, “It’s been almost three months since I went berserk. You are now in a state of suspension. Before the suspension, you skipped a grade to the fourth grade. I have recovered, but you haven’t. You suffered some injuries because you saved me. This memory loss is one of the symptoms of your injury.”

Qiao Zhiya listened to what he said in a daze. He digested it quickly, eyes slowly lit up. He glanced at the dishes on the table, and asked excitedly, “So I helped you in your recovery? It means you recovered? Also, you cooked all of this?”

“…”

Ancestor Chu’s mood became more irritable, and he suddenly wanted to go around and hug the youth who was happy because of a table of food.

“Thank you, thank you, I will enjoy it well,” Qiao Zhiya looked at him with a blush. He was in such a good mood that he almost flew up. Contrary to his previous restraint in eating, he picked up his chopsticks and began to eat joyfully.

All the dishes on the table were his favorites, so did Chu Rong cook this table specially for him?

‘Chu Rong is the best!’

As he ate, his ears fluttered about unrestrainedly, showing his good mood.

Seeing this, Chu Rong’s ire abated immediately. He poured a glass of juice and put it in front of Qiao Zhiya, raised his hand and pinched his ear.

‘Really stupid. Regardless of whether his memory is muddled or not, this guy is just stupid.’

“Eat slowly. There is dessert after the meal, it’s pudding, with red beans added,” Chu Rong reached out and rubbed his hair, picked up the chopsticks again, and continued eating.

Qiao Zhiya was even happier when he heard that. Not only did Chu Rong graciously cook him some food, he even gave him dessert he loved! He shook his head as he thought, ‘Is this the benefit of me being sick? What a great day!’

After the warm dinner, Qiao Zhiya took the initiative to help the housekeeping robot clean up the dishes. Then he obediently went to wash up by himself, without disturbing Chu Rong’s next office work.

Chu Rong, who was going to have a hug after dinner as usual, watched him run to the room on the second floor, and then walked out immediately. The youth was confused at how the room changed so drastically. Chu Rong immediately understood, and he pointed to the change of his room. “Here, you almost fell down the stairs before, so your room is moved to the first floor.”

Qiao Zhiya was taken aback. His face turned red, and he quickly ran downstairs and back to his room, passing by with a whisper of “Thank you.”

Chu Rong: “…”

‘Take a deep breath, don’t get angry. If you are too fierce it will scare Qiao Zhiya, who is very sensitive at this stage… Damn it! Why is he being so polite!’

After washing up, Qiao Zhiya climbed onto his bed and took out his helmet. He logged in, and immediately was hit with a wave of novelty.

During dinner, Chu Rong told him that he now took online classes every Monday to Friday in the morning and afternoon. He would  go to Master Ren to take weapons commission on Saturdays, and he would rest on Sundays.

Today was Saturday, that is to say, he still has one day to understand his current study progress and life rhythm. This was a very strange experience. It was obviously his own life, but I had to be familiar with it again under the guidance of others.

The feeling of logging in with his own strength was no different from the feeling of logging in with stone grass, only a little easier. During the process, there was no need to deliberately simulate spiritual power. It seemed that this helmet automatically recognized the part of his magic power that was disguised to have the same property as spiritual power. It also recognized his advanced level of power.

The bearded teacher was not online. He opened a laboratory and tried to process the materials. He found that the speed and feeling became similar to processing materials with magic power in reality. He was very pleasantly surprised.

After familiarizing himself with these, he went offline. He felt the changes in his magic pool, and then tried to condense some power to his fingertips. Its “properties” were separated, fluttering like ribbons in the air.

A soothing power slightly different from magic power spread in the air, and he felt a little stunned and helpless — he understood the reason why he had been unable to successfully simulate magic power into spiritual power before.

Magic power and spiritual power have something in common. In theory, as long as you find a way to find out the commonality between the two, they could be interchangeable. All he needed was to cut off the differences, and the world recognized it differently.

It’s a pity that his previous strength was only at the intermediate level, and both his magic power concentration and control was not enough. He couldn’t separate the differences.

But now that he had upgraded his magic power, helped by the flesh of the stone, it was easy for him to simulate spiritual power. He even could do it subconsciously during his previous state of confusion.

After figuring this out, he condensed some wood-type magic power out.

A faint green light spot emerged from his fingers. This light indicated that he had become a high-level magician — unfortunately, he was a magician with no magic power and no attack power.

Dwarves still prefer to fight with weapons, and spells are not within their learning scope. Although elves are all natural masters of spells, he has a special situation, so he has never experienced the feeling of fighting with spells.

After thinking wildly for a while, he tried to search out other magic powers in a wide range. He found that there were no colored light spots in the air this time, so he was finally relieved. It seemed that as long as he did not release the magic power consciously, the magic power would remain in an undetectable state as before.

Afterwards, he tried some other things with his magic power, and finally confirmed that the flesh of the stone not only helped him rise to a high level, but also greatly broadened his magic power pool.

His current magic pool should be three to five times that of ordinary high-level magicians, and he no longer needed to replenish magic power frequently. But at the same time, he would need more magic stones every time he replenished it.

“Click,” the door opened, and Chu Rong pushed the door and walked in.

Qiao Zhiya came back from his thoughts. He quickly sat up from the bed, looked at the older man with wide eyes, feeling suddenly nervous for some reason.

Seeing him sitting on the bed in his pajamas, Chu Rong frowned and said, “Bundle yourself with the quilt.” After finishing speaking, he took the pajamas and went straight to the bathroom.

Qiao Zhiya watched him go in, lifted the quilt and lay down obediently. After thinking about it, he moved to the side where Chu Rong used to sleep, and helped him warm the quilt.

Fifteen minutes later, there was the sound of the doorknob being turned in the bathroom. Qiao Zhiya moved his ears, rolled back decisively, and then closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep — he didn’t know why he pretended to be asleep, but this instinct was carved deep already.

Chu Rong came out from the bathroom wiping his hair. He quickly discovered Qiao Zhiya’s very amateurish behavior of pretending to sleep. He squinted his eyes, dried his hair faster, walked to the bedside and lifted the quilt to lie down.

It’s warm.

‘…this small thing only uses his scheming brain for this kind of matter.’

Suddenly feeling better, Chu Rong laid down. He stretched out his hand and pulled Qiao Zhiya, who was facing away from him, into his arms. He kissed his ear very clearly on purpose, and said, “Good night.”

After speaking, he relaxed his body, looking like he’s ready to fall asleep.

Qiao Zhiya opened his eyes wide in a flash. His ears and face turned red, and he wanted to touch his itchy ears so desperately, but he was brave enough to blow up his cover. He could only tremble anxiously, wanting to confirm the touch just now.

“What’s the fuss, why didn’t you sleep?” Chu Rong pretended to be disturbed. He raised his hands to prompt up his head, side-laying on the bed. He squirmed even closer, warm breaths all over the youth’s nape. “Qiao Zhiya, did you just pretend to be asleep?”

Qiao Zhiya turned his head to look at him. His eyes widened, and his breath was taken away.

‘Chu Rong with loose hair like this is so handsome…’

Chu Rong looked at him.  He inched closer, and closer, and closer… and fell back to the pillow as his lips were only a couple inches away from touching the youth’s. He rubbed the fluffy blond strands of hair, and patted him on the back. “Go to sleep, I will take you to see the little rabbit tomorrow.”

‘Little rabbit?’

Qiao Zhiya suddenly let go of his held breath, barely recovering from an inexplicable sense of loss, and wanted to look up at him.

“Stop looking at me. Sleep.”

His back was slapped again, and the feeling seemed to be a little different from the past, but it was obviously just a very ordinary back slap. Qiao Zhiya obediently closed his eyes, curled up in the taller man’s arms shyly and happily. He fell asleep amidst doubts and inexplicable excitement.