ATL | Chapter 13

Who is short of these few contribution points?

If the Cizhu people were here, Arthur could stuff a whole cart if he wanted to, but unfortunately there is no Cizhu right now, and he can’t just open the communicator in front of the other party...

Ganlin suddenly shrank a little, and reached out to press his lower abdomen.

“What’s wrong,” Arthur asked, “are you feeling unwell?”

“My stomach hurts a bit, maybe gastroenteritis is acting up,” Ganlin said, “I want to go to the shopping mall restroom first.”

Such a familiar line, gastroenteritis again.

Hetaweisi sized him up, and thought of how the other party had used this same excuse yesterday morning at the security checkpoint of the elevator platform. Although sheep-type gene companions really are more easily startled, and Lin Bai is also rather thin, with pica.

But on the investigation report Xun from Xiao Xun sent him, the various bodily data from Lin Bai’s checkup after his heat period a few days ago did not show any history of digestive system illness. Such a reasonable request would not be enough to trigger the other party’s nervous emotions, and thereby induce a bodily stress reaction.

Heta reached out beside the driver’s seat and handed Lin Bai a small medicine box.

“The Southwest District hasn’t been very safe lately,” Heta said, “mercenaries often cause trouble at night. Take some painkillers first. I’ll park the car, and go with you.”

...Why are snake species all so enthusiastic about accompanying him to the restroom?

Hetaweisi was like this, Arthur was like this too, and both sides were out of caution. But when sneaking a substitution under Heta’s nose, the argali blood capsules were on his body, and at most he only had to turn his back and use his left hand to pass things to his right hand. Tonight Arthur was waiting for him outside the door, and for caution’s sake, the communicator definitely could not be used. He could only have Cizhu send him a simple tutorial so he could rush through it quickly.

As for the result, he would just say that being sick affected his performance.

Ganlin could only smile gratefully, and take out the pill and swallow it.

Very quickly, Arthur accompanied him to the public restroom, and kindly helped him close the cubicle door. Ganlin immediately sent a message to Cizhu. But right then, a little spiderweb popped up on the little light screen, huffing and puffing as it rolled up the help text he had sent over, dragging it all the way out of the chat box, and automatically replied.

[Zzz...]

Damn it, why did Cizhu go to sleep so early today!

Ganlin pressed the communicator hidden under the fur on the inner ear shell several more times, and did not get even the slightest response. Cizhu must have muted it.

At just this moment, Arthur’s voice sounded outside the door.

“Lin Bai,” he asked, “are you okay?”

Ganlin was just about to keep using gastroenteritis as a cover when he heard Arthur slightly raise his voice, “I didn’t see clearly just now, and mixed up the medicine. But it happened to work out by chance, I originally thought there was only pain relief on the car, I didn’t expect it to happen to be special gastroenteritis medicine. How do you feel right now?”

Ganlin immediately felt much worse.

However, the only thing that could comfort him was Arthur’s not-too-complicated mind. If the other party was probing him, it was done far too obviously, and far too urgently. If it were Ganlin himself, he would wait for the other party’s reply before silently remembering the flaw, that would count as effective.

But if the other party really was just worried and confused, then that concern had already gone a little beyond the line, which counted as proof of his previous suspicion that Arthur had “other intentions.”

But whichever it was, they were all clumsy, just snake species playing their own supposedly sinister little tricks.

Ganlin suddenly understood another reason Arthur had not managed to get promoted for years.

The door was knocked twice again, and Ganlin leaned against the wall, expressionless as he let out a sob.

The voice outside the partition immediately tensed up: “Lin Bai! What’s wrong, do you need help?”

While quickly browsing the weaving tutorial, Ganlin made up nonsense on the fly. “Sorry, Arthur, I, I clearly just went through a false estrus period, but I don’t know why...”

By the time he said this much, Hetaweisi had already figured out the situation from the trembling voice soaked in tears. Two months ago, Lin Bai formally entered his first false estrus period in his life, and it was somewhat different from the repeated experience once a year after that.

Research shows that the first estrus period lasts longer, and in the half month right after it ends, the body is especially weak, and occasionally falls into awkwardness, needing to steady himself. Right now, Lin Bai should be like that.

He had confused the aftereffects with gastroenteritis, after all, he was still too young, and also lacked basic physiological knowledge because he had dropped out too early.

Hetaweisi was silent for a moment, and took half a step back.

When he spoke again, he was a little halting, and said in a subtle tone mixed with embarrassment and concern, “Sorry, I’ll wait for you outside.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he turned and walked out neatly and decisively. His expression was clearly very calm, but he did not forget to stamp his feet twice, to interpret Arthur’s helplessness.

However, this little interruption from Lin Bai gave him a moment of free time. Heta leaned against the wall, opened the communicator, first slid all the way down to the very bottom, then after hesitating for a moment, went back to the very top, opened the chat box of the person pinned there, and sent a message.

[Tomorrow is the weekend, I’ll go back to North Port to visit you.]

The other side did not reply for the moment, Arthur knew the other party’s routine, so he was not anxious either. As soon as he lifted his eyes, he could see the huge LOGO, its overall shape resembling “∞”, but if one looked a little more closely, one would discover that it was actually a snake ring.

On the ring of infinity, there were two snakes joined head to tail, the silver-white and ink-black snake bodies interwove smoothly, and the snake heads were not overly exaggerated or lifelike. They had been given a beautiful minimalist artistic treatment, completely unable to frighten people.

Of course, the LOGO’s harmlessness was only surface-level. After all, a group that was too benevolent at heart had no way of becoming Yujing’s financial giant, much less rising to the ranks of the four major groups under the name of a “financial circulation system.”

Jingran.

This shopping mall belonged to the group. In fact, Yujing’s main fiber-optic transmission, data platform construction, securities and credit trading were all under Jingran’s control, and it was involved in other areas as well, spanning the three districts, long ago permeating every aspect of Yujing citizens’ lives.

An extremely huge commercial Empire, created by snake-type gene companions.

However, Hetaweisi had no interest at all in looking at the LOGO. He opened the app belonging to Arthur, casually bought a dessert voucher, and when Lin Bai came out of the restroom, he turned back at just the right time and lifted a hand toward him.

“Lin Bai,” Heta said, “I was thinking that since you’re not feeling well tonight, eating something sweet might make you feel better.”

Ganlin had just lingered by the sink for quite a while, rubbing the corners of his eyes red with his fingers. By now he was still carrying a bit of moisture, and when he heard that, he lifted his eyes wetly and saw the honey cake voucher on the little light screen.

For a moment, he thought he was seeing things.

Rumor had it that desserts in the old world were very common, and the price was still fairly affordable. Because raw materials were easy to obtain then, and they could even be mass-produced. But ever since disaster struck and the species went extinct en masse, new humans had no choice but to survive in the form of companion genes, and there were almost no plants or animals in the world anymore that could grow naturally without undergoing harmful mutations.

Now, all living plants and animals were in the upper levels of Dawn Tower.

With raw materials lacking, food was naturally very scarce too. The vast majority of citizens could only eat nutritional paste as a staple food, and treat portable nutritional supplements as little snacks. Desserts were an absolute luxury, and such a small piece of cake would probably cost Arthur half a month’s salary.

It was simply a huge investment.

Ganlin had no choice but to suspect that the other party actually wanted to sleep with him.

Could it be that... his previous malicious guess about Arthur had gone in the wrong direction?

Thinking about it now, Arthur was single, and according to the information Cizhu provided, his emotional history was a blank slate, and he had never left any spending records at any club. But he was at least twenty-five already. In sexually open Yujing, that was really somewhat unbelievable.

Moreover, as far as Ganlin knew, although the heat period of black mamba snakes was far less intense than that of sheep-type, it was very long, usually lasting four or five months. If Arthur had no companion, he could only rely on suppressants to spend it alone.

As for why he had never dated, if one had to say... perhaps it was because Arthur belonged to the lower level of Dawn District, and had not yet completed a true inter-district jump. So a long-term partner was not easy to find, although one could buy someone for a single spring night, Arthur’s personality would also form a huge obstacle.

In short, from Arthur’s behavior of buying a small cake, the possibility that he was after sex rose sharply.

Forget it, snake nature is inherently lewd.

When Ganlin was in Nanke, he had encountered this kind of thing many times. The guests gave a little favor, harboring filthy thoughts in their hearts. But at that time, he could refuse cleanly and decisively, which instead helped shape his character, made people itch, and finally aroused Canus’s interest. But right now, the timid and conservative “Lin Bai” would not understand this kind of hint.

Lin Bai should not even know that there was such a thing as “honey cake” in the world, and naturally would not know just how great its value was.

“Is this a special nutritional paste from Dawn District?” Ganlin said in surprise, “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.” Arthur said, “Take it as me buying your biomorphic flower.”

He really was still thinking about the flower, the greedy snake.

Ganlin tied a knot around the snake tail in his heart, glad that he had prepared a contingency plan.

“No problem.” He nodded quickly, his little short tail swaying along with it.

“I’ll go get the materials from the trunk.” Ganlin blinked. “But the flower I’m sending out tonight is too ordinary. Arthur, I want to give you a one-of-a-kind gift.”

His words were sincere, and his gaze was sincere too, the clear light flowing in his amber eyes.

Hetaweisi slightly lowered his eyes, looking at the argali right in front of him.

People like Lin Bai were very rare, yet unexpectedly able to resonate with Arthur. In this moment, he actually became curious about the gift.

About twenty minutes later, Heta finally saw it with his own eyes.

A... strange ugly thing.

Calling it ugly was not quite right, it should be said that it was unheard of and unseen before. When Lin Bai shook this thing open and handed it up in front of him, Hetaweisi had originally thought it was a hat shaped like an old-world Western, old-fashioned Christmas hat or witch hat.

It was definitely not a biomorphic flower. One could only see that it used the same flexible fiber raw material as the biomorphic bouquet, and there were also some small silver fan-shaped pieces stuck on it.

“This...”

“This is the gift I’m giving you,” Lin Bai said, “a tail hat.”

“What?” Hetaweisi suspected he had heard wrong, “What hat?”

“Tail hat.” Ganlin continued, “That’s the name I came up with myself. Sorry, this is my first time making this, I just figured it out on my own... although it looks a little strange, it should still be pretty practical. Snake species can’t really keep their body temperature steady very well, right?”

Arthur hesitated, then nodded.

“It’s only March now, the weather is still pretty cold.” Ganlin said as he shot a glance at the black snake tail, “With such a long tail hanging outside, Arthur, you’d feel cold, more or less, right?”

He lifted his face, his eyelashes fluttering softly and shyly, taking the other party’s daze into his eyes, and finally slowly curved his lips into a pure smile.

“There’s only one tail hat in the world. I’m giving it to you, Arthur.”

“Put it on quickly, and see if it fits your tail?”