Chapter 6: Mangosteen

Kaspa stared at him.

The dim yellow light caught on his thick lashes, leaving an indistinct silhouette in his narrow eyes.

Kaspa: "..."

Lin Yan: "..."

In the silent stare-down, Lin Yan felt goosebumps rise all over—

After all, his hand was still resting on the other's wrist.

At that thought, Lin Yan yanked his hand back as if electrocuted and shook it, trying to wipe away the lingering warmth of skin against skin from his palm.

He, a straight man, had actually been in physical contact with another male for so long, and said so many cringey things.

Ahhhhhh!!

He wanted to die.

...Some people are dead, but they're still alive. Lin Yan walked back into his room with stiff, mismatched limbs, clicked the door locked, and smacked his right hand with his left, as if scolding it: "Dead hand, why'd you have to be so quick."

Lin Yan brushed his teeth listlessly.

For some reason his mind kept circling back to that sticky, warm sensation. Lin Yan immediately scooped up a handful of water and splashed it on his face, ordering his brain: "Dead brain, I'm warning you, don't let your thoughts run wild, or tomorrow I'll do twenty Zerg math problems and learn you so hard you can't even turn."

Threatening your own body actually worked.

His brain immediately stopped its endless fantasizing. Satisfied, Lin Yan casually pulled out two tissues, wiped his hands clean, crumpled them into a ball, and tossed it into the trash.

Simultaneous with the paper ball hitting the bottom, his light-brain vibrated—

[Xi Yi: Bro, do you still have money?]

At first glance Lin Yan was thrown off by the form of address, thinking the other was the original host's biological younger brother, concerned about his financial situation.

At the thought that he could pay back the villain's money, he immediately replied: [No money at all, could you lend me some to spend? I'm so broke I'm borrowing from my female lord.]

[Xi Yi: ?]

Then, immediately retracted.

After a few seconds, sent another message to patch it up: [Bro, are you joking with me? You know my money's all managed by my male lord, I don't have any money.]

Sure enough, borrowing money is the touchstone of family affection.

Didn't even ask how much he wanted to borrow, just used his male lord as an excuse to refuse him outright.

Man, the villain before he turned dark was way better—two million, lent just like that.

Lin Yan grumbled inwardly about this plastic brotherhood, but on the surface remained very proper: [I understand, I understand, you have your difficulties too, I won't borrow money from you anymore.]

Who would've thought.

The other side sent a thunderous line: [Bro, why are you suddenly so weird, did you go back on your word? Didn't you beg my male lord before, willing to pay to use me? Didn't you say you liked me so much?]

Hearing these wild words, Lin Yan was greatly shaken: "???"

Pay?

Use?

Wait wait wait wait, this wasn't the original host's biological younger brother—this was the original host's lover-brother!

In the original novel, Kaspa was a ruthless villain who disrupted social order. The original host only got a few brief mentions by riding on his coattails—

Mentioned as the reason for the villain's dark turn.

But there was very little description of the original host, let alone the original host's interpersonal relationships.

Lin Yan smelled melon. No one can resist the lure of gossip. He couldn't help but transform into a melon-eating badger under the moonlight, ready to feast.

[What's the relationship between us?]

[Why did I, uh, pay, uh, to use you?]

The other side sent a slightly tearful voice, the tail end trembling, crying so pitifully it could wring any bug's heart into a ball.

Amid the other's sobbing complaint, a whole melon field slowly unfurled before Lin Yan—

The other was called Xi Yi.

A lovely female bug. Compared to hard-bodied military females, he was more like a handsome, delicate sub-female.

His male lord was the original host's sworn enemy. The two bugs had been at odds since childhood, desperately wanting to one-up each other.

The original host took the initiative to seduce his sworn enemy's female attendant, Xi Yi, wanting to prove he was more charming than his rival. But female bugs who've been slept with rarely betray their own male bug—they can only accept their partner's male pheromones, and betraying a partner is no different from seeking death.

No normal married female bug would do such a thing.

Of course, villains excepted. After losing his bug egg, he really did go mad as if he'd lost his mind.

Anyway, from the current situation, it looked like the original host, through multiple encounters, had been thoroughly bewitched by Xi Yi, and had even been fleeced by Xi Yi and the sworn enemy working together.

Xi Yi cried until his eye rims were scarlet, sniffled, and said pitifully: [I'm begging you, my male lord has already ordered a new starship, waiting for your money to pay. If you go back on your word, my male lord will definitely punish me severely—I'll die.]

Lin Yan responded perfunctorily: [Then don't die.]

Immediately after, he excitedly dug into Xi Yi's just-said words, continuing to eat melon: [By the way, how exactly will he severely punish you?]

[How much money did I agree on with him?]

[What model is the new starship, is it pretty, how's the performance, would you recommend it?]

[Also, the original host—no, I mean—how much did I like you before? How did I show it? Tell me everything, don't treat me like an outsider, I'm a party to this too.]

Xi Yi: "?"

And the sworn enemy: "?"

So many questions—the lines and script they'd prepared were all useless now.

After answering all of Lin Yan's questions, plus all the bizarre derivative ones, like—

[Do you like your female parent or male parent better?]

[My sworn enemy and I have such a bad relationship—how did the grudge start?]

[What day of the week will you be punished? Can I secretly watch when you're punished? No? Then can I buy a ticket to watch?]

Xi Yi, exhausted, finished typing and, having answered every question, asked with heavy work fatigue: [Do you have any other questions?]

Lin Yan was thoroughly satisfied with his melon-eating. [Nope, thanks, you bug are really nice, I like you so much.]

After all, a normal bug wouldn't indulge his curiosity so thoroughly, point by point.

Xi Yi let out a breath of relief. Seeing Lin Yan's [I like you so much], a bit of confidence rose in his heart—finally he could ask the question he'd originally wanted to ask today—

[So will you transfer ten million star coins to my male lord, and then come use me?]

Having just eaten so much melon, eating someone's melon makes your mouth soft, taking someone's stuff makes your hand short.

Lin Yan felt too embarrassed to refuse outright.

He organized his words: [About this matter, it's not that I'm saying I won't do it, but, well, there's no thing in this world that, we're just saying, has to be done a certain way, after all, things depend on effort, we can do it a bit later, hey, when the time comes we'll do it a bit later, and then, I'll get this matter sorted for you, right.]

On the other end.

Xi Yi and the sworn enemy had their heads pressed together in front of the light-brain, staring intently at Lin Yan's evasive nonsense, question marks popping up above their heads:

"???"

The two looked at each other. The sworn enemy asked: "What does Lin Yan mean?"

Xi Yi didn't dare say the other was fobbing him off, and could only stammer: "It should mean he agreed, right."

The sworn enemy curled a corner of his mouth: "You're still in my hands—I doubt he'd dare not agree."