ATL | Chapter 18

Lin Bai was just a step away, his whole body tense, clearly badly frightened. Crammed full of biomorphic flowers, he instinctively backed up half a step, his knees went weak, and he sat back down on the sofa.

At that moment, Hetawaisi felt a vile kind of pleasure.

But the next second, his good mood vanished.

...The low coffee table in the living room was piled with biomorphic flowers, all the same kind he had begged for last night and failed to get.

At a rough glance, there were close to ten bunches, very similar in height to the ones given to Lingsheng. In addition, besides the bouquet in Lin Bai’s arms, the hostess of the house, a very plump gene companion of magpie genes, was also holding a large bouquet.

This little argali seemed to have a special fondness for birds, taking his biomorphic flowers everywhere to give to birds.

If he remembered correctly, that project manager from Star Rainbow Stage Technology was also a peacock.

Hetawaisi looked at the exquisitely crafted, elegant biomorphic flowers in front of him, but what came to mind was the tail hat Lin Bai had given him, hastily made at the last minute. For a moment, he was both annoyed and amused. He took in the little argali’s astonishment and shrinking fear, and also remembered the warmth between him and Yase last night.

He pretended to be cold and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Lin Bai’s body trembled once, clearly still afraid of him, and said in a very small voice, "Delivering... delivering flowers."

"All of these?" Heta stood where he was. "Bring them to me and let me see."

Lin Bai did not refuse this time. He hurriedly handed over the bouquet in his arms and obediently said, "They’re all the same style, and I’m sending you a bouquet too, Officer."

This time he actually gave it voluntarily.

Ganlin watched as the other took it. Not only did he not show even a bit of a smile, his face instead went colder. He immediately regretted it. Biomorphic flowers were not easy to weave. He had worked nonstop for a whole morning under Cizhu’s guidance to make this much. If he had known Hetawaisi would be this ungrateful, he might as well have let the flowers rot in the dormitory.

After a long while, the other finally said expressionlessly, "Thank you."

"Don’t mention it." Ganlin kept up a professional fake smile. "It’s what I should do, and it’s also to repay your help."

"Oh my." The magpie hostess covered her mouth and pulled Ganlin over, exclaiming in his ear, "Good heavens, Lin Bai, you actually know someone this important! Then our partnership business has one more channel, doesn’t it?"

"But snake species don’t seem to like flowers very much, besides," Ganlin leaned close to her ear in cooperation, "Mrs. Yan, rare things are more valuable."

Mrs. Yan suddenly understood.

This little argali really had more business sense than she did! Last night, after she saw Lingsheng’s variety show livestream, she was drawn to the biomorphic flowers in the other’s arms.

Mrs. Yan herself ran an online shop, selling all kinds of knockoff toys and biomorphic trinkets to supplement the family income. Seeing that the biomorphic flowers had quite a lot of discussion in the comments, she had the idea of jumping on the trend and making a quick profit. She originally planned to put it together herself, but unexpectedly received a private message from Lin Bai himself.

Lin Bai said that although he was the maker of the flowers, he could only split the profits seventy-thirty with the Boss, and he also had to buy the materials himself and bear the shipping costs.

As soon as Mrs. Yan heard that, she immediately started cursing along with him. The two hit it off at once and decided that Lin Bai would provide the material list, and personally teach Mrs. Yan the weaving technique, counting as a technical investment, with costs split evenly and profits divided fifty-fifty.

They acted immediately, and Mrs. Yan brought the person home right away. The two talked and laughed, getting along very well.

Who would have thought that just as they had finished learning the beginning, SEC would come knocking.

"Old Yan," Mrs. Yan stuck her head out and shouted toward the bedroom, "haven’t you settled it yet?"

The security member’s companion gene was Egyptian goose. He already had a somewhat irritable temper, and after being urged like that, his voice grew even louder, tossing all the anger he did not dare vent at the Host Family and the police onto his Wife. "Keep hurry, keep hurry, the butler won’t answer the phone, what can I do!"

After shouting, he immediately bowed and scraped toward Heta and Xun: "Please take a seat and rest for a while, both of you. I’m truly sorry, I can’t make the decision on my own."

Heta followed his example and simply sat down on the sofa.

Xun watched his nose and his nose watched his heart, then immediately raised his voice and nodded at the man of the house: "Understood."

After he sat down holding his tail, he noticed that his own Boss’s gaze swept around the room, seemingly absentmindedly landing on Lin Bai and Mrs. Yan, then lifting very slightly to glance at a decorative light screen painting above them.

The painting showed a chessboard, with black and white in a fierce struggle. It was obvious the built-in system was in a left-brain, right-brain tug-of-war.

Xun patted his tail and also started watching the chess with Heta.

"Like this, if you thread the flexible optical fiber through, it can serve as the support for the petals."

Lin Bai lowered his head slightly, his voice gentle, very patient, even personally reaching out to correct Mrs. Yan’s mistakes in her movements.

Hetawaisi changed posture, and Lin Bai in the corner of his vision became clearer. One half of the living room window was open, and the little silver curls swayed with the breeze, brushing past the corner of Lin Bai’s eye. That face, which had originally only been fair and clean, was immediately tinged with a somewhat inexplicable flavor.

Until Lin Bai gently raised his eyes and looked straight at him.

"Officer." Lin Bai asked politely, "Have you seen enough?"

Xun immediately pricked up his big ears and turned toward the two of them. The next second, he heard the Deputy Chief speak with complete calm.

"Not yet."

This time, not only Xun, but everyone in the living room looked toward Hetawaisi, and he, under the weight of three gazes, could not even be bothered to change posture.

"The game isn’t over yet, of course I need to watch." Heta said lightly. "Xun, which side do you think will win?"

"Huh?" Xun jolted and blurted out nonsense. "I, uh, this... maybe, white?"

"I think it’s black," Heta said. "White looks active, but in reality it’s eager for quick success. The white queen has gone too deep into black’s territory, already cut off from the other pieces, charging toward the black king as if deliberately exposing itself."

As he spoke, the black knight leaped, completely severing the connection between the white queen and white bishop. The black bishop pressed the advantage, seizing the diagonal and splitting the white pieces apart. The white queen was already a turtle in a jar.

"Mrs. Yan," Ganlin suddenly said, asking warmly, "May I use your bathroom?"

"Of course!" Mrs. Yan immediately smiled. "I’ll take you there."

The security member’s house was not big, and because the child was mischievous, there were many discarded mechanical parts in the hallway, and the bathroom also seemed cramped. After Ganlin closed the door, he could even hear the big goose voice through the wall from the bedroom, and the other actually sounded a little aggrieved: "If SEC wants to investigate, how can I stop them? Young Master is worked up right now, just hurry him a bit!"

Amid the background noise, Ganlin restrained his smile. He skillfully rolled up his sleeves, revealing his left arm, then opened the narrow storage compartment and pulled out a small capsule, twisting it open.

Inside the capsule were two little spiders curled up.

They were not real spiders, but two miniature robots, personally made by Cizhu’s mechanical stinger.

These two little things used a very concealed matte composite material. Their abdomens were not silk sacs, but a multispectral scanning array, made up of countless tiny sensor lenses, similar to compound eyes.

They could carry out close-range scans on a target and temporarily store the data, until they returned to the capsule chamber and finally stored the information.

As long as he could scan the cipher key up close and successfully bring it back for safekeeping, he could use the data to successfully duplicate it.

Ganlin poured the two little spiders out and placed them on the floor. Then a light screen floated up in front of him, the control panel for the miniature robots. After a flash of blue light from the spider eyes, the connection was successfully established.

The world before Ganlin’s eyes became a vast world. He divided his focus in two, controlling the two spiders in split screen, borrowing the cover of clutter in the corridor, and quickly crawled toward the Egyptian goose security member’s bedroom.

"...I know, I know, nobody wants to get scolded like this, but what if it brings even more trouble?"

The spider slipped through the crack under the door, hugging the bedside as it closed in on him.

"Besides! Even if a privately set-up gambling den is really discovered, it’s still easier to deal with than embezzling a huge amount of energy benefits. There are priorities!"

One spider in front and one behind, one climbed onto the security member’s shoulder, the first one hanging upside down in the line of sight. Just then, the other crouched down and opened the safe.

"The police are still waiting, speed it up and tell them to get ready to withdraw."

After the iris scan, the safe opened with a click. Seeing the thing right in front of him, Ganlin held his breath, and after pressing with his index finger, the two little spiders immediately moved, lifting their abdomens and aiming at the small box holding the cipher key.

"Lin Bai."

Ganlin’s breathing suddenly stopped, and he turned his head sharply.

The bathroom door used frosted glass craftsmanship, and a mass of shadow was just a few steps away. Hetawaisi’s voice came through the door and landed on his chest.

"It’s already been fifteen minutes," Heta asked. "Do you need help?"

Ganlin looked at the shadow coldly, his fingers moving carefully. "No need. Officer, I need to deal with... the aftereffects of the first time."

He softened his tone, but his nerves were highly tense. Right now, the two little spiders had already successfully obtained the cipher key information, and had already quickly crawled to the bedroom door crack, ready to return at any time.

Ganlin had said it this far, certain that Hetawaisi would understand. After the first false estrus period in adulthood ends, there will always be a period of follow-up awkwardness, probably once a week.

After hearing that, if Hetawaisi had even a bit of boundary awareness, he should have returned to the living room, rather than continue standing at the bathroom door.

Ganlin pressed harder with his fingertip, and the spider, under his control, quietly slid into the shadow of the corridor gap.

However, in the dim light he could not see, Hetawaisi raised an eyebrow.

Aftereffects of estrus again.

Last night, Lin Bai had just used this excuse to bluff Arthur.

Then clearly, the other had lied at least once.

Hetawaisi’s heart stirred. He silently retreated half a step and said, "I see, you’ve only just become an adult?"

"Mm." Ganlin was highly focused, guiding the little spider over the obstacle, and was already close to getting back to the bathroom.

"Aftereffects of estrus are too hard to endure," Ganlin said in a muddled way. "My hormone levels are not very stable... I’m sorry, after I go out, I’ll apologize to Mrs. Yan."

"She’s still waiting for you." Heta said lightly. "I came to urge the security member, and to pass on a message on the way, I just didn’t expect you to have this kind of sudden situation. If needed, I can have a colleague help buy temporary suppressant."

The little spider walking in front had already vaulted over the last piece of clutter, gone around the back and moved along the wall. Just as it was about to dart into the bathroom, the top of the view suddenly darkened. Ganlin immediately yanked the controller, only to see that what had been a blind spot in his field of vision had abruptly been pressed down by a patch of shadow.

Creak.

Hetawaisi immediately lowered his head and moved it aside to look. At his feet was a very tiny pile of parts that had completely fallen apart.

No different from the other crooked mechanical parts in the corridor.

Ganlin stood up with a cold face.

Hetawaisi!

Fortunately, he had triggered self-destruction at the last moment, and the remaining one had also hurriedly escaped back behind the obstacle. Even so, the single-angle measurement information would inevitably have errors. He did not know whether the duplicated cipher key could still be successfully activated.

He glanced sidelong at the glass door and tugged at the corner of his mouth expressionlessly.

Outside the door, Hetawaisi also bent down without a word, picked up that little pile of scrap, and put it into a plastic sealing bag.

He turned back, and with just one look, Xun immediately understood and stood up. Mrs. Yan also sensed that something was wrong, so she hurriedly put down the biomorphic flowers and followed over.

"Really don’t need help?" Heta straightened up, once again staring at the frosted glass, and said coldly, "Although the aftereffects of estrus vary from person to person, if hormone levels are unstable, it will be especially hard to endure. Your condition sounds very bad right now..."

Before he finished speaking, the bathroom door was suddenly yanked open, and a mass of figure stumbled out. Hetawaisi instinctively caught at it, and it crashed into his arms.

Hot and soft.

Lin Bai then raised his head, his eyelashes twitching irregularly and wetly, and he still carried moisture on his body, with a sharpness tinged by bitterness, as if he had already completely lost control.

"Yes." Ganlin rubbed against Hetawaisi’s chest and said helplessly, "I’m very uncomfortable right now..."

He gave a low sob, his pupils hazy, and said with malice and tenderness.

"Officer, you keep asking, is it because you want to help me deal with it yourself?"