CNS | Chapter 23

Chapter 23, Jealousy

Shen Run was startled. There was someone standing behind him, and he had not noticed at all.

The scent of oranges instantly filled the tip of his nose. It was Shen Ze.

Shen Run relaxed. “Xiaoze? When did you get here?”

How could this child be so much like a cat, not making a sound at all?

Shen Ze buried his face in the crook of Shen Run’s neck. His cold lips pressed tightly against Shen Run’s skin, and the hot breath from his nose sent a shiver through his whole body.

He heard Shen Ze’s low voice sound beside his ear.

“Ge, is that person your boyfriend?”

“Huh?”

Shen Run had not expected Shen Ze to ask such a question, and hurriedly explained, “No, of course not. He’s my boss.”

“Is that so?”

The arms wrapped around his waist tightened, and Shen Run had trouble breathing.

“Then why did he hug you? Does he like you?”

“You, you saw all that?”

Shen Run was just about to push away the pair of arms holding him tightly when he heard Shen Ze’s words, and his heart sank with a jolt. Bad.

“Yes, I saw it all.” Shen Ze’s lips were pressed tightly against his slightly hot skin, his voice muffled. “Ge, do you like him?”

“No, of course not!”

Feeling the arms around him growing tighter and tighter, Shen Run hurriedly patted his younger brother’s arm. “Let go of me first.”@无限好文，尽在晋江文学城

“Why should I let go of you?” Shen Ze’s tone took on a little grievance. “He can hug you, but I can’t?”

Shen Run was choked for a moment. “No, that’s not what I meant.”

“Then why should I let go of you?”

Those arms tightened again, and Shen Run felt pain. He was puzzled. How had this kid’s strength become so much greater?

He bit his lip. “You’re using too much strength, hey, your big brother’s waist is going to be pinched black and blue by you.”

Shen Ze did not say anything. He turned Shen Run around to face himself.

The silver-white mechanical arm wrapped around Shen Run’s waist deftly undid the buttons of his shirt and slipped inside.

“Hey, hey, Shen Ze, what are you doing?”

His thin abs were exposed to the air. Shen Ze pinched his waist, looking at him with burning eyes.

“Did that person touch you here?”

Shen Run was both embarrassed and angry. “What is this, hurry up and let go of me!”

“Why should I let other people touch you?”

As if he could not hear him, Shen Ze spoke on his own. His hand exerted force, fiercely pinching Shen Run’s waist hollow.

Shen Run’s fragile skin immediately turned red.

“It hurts, it hurts, you bad child, did I offend you somewhere?”

Shen Run felt immense grievance in his heart. “I don’t want this either, but he’s my boss, I can’t exactly beat him up, can I?”

“Boss? Is he really just your boss?”

Shen Ze held him, his brows and eyes drooping, his mouth pouting so much it could hang a soy sauce bottle.

“Lu Yun was also your boss, weren’t you dating him too?”

“You…”

At the sudden mention of his ex-boyfriend’s name, Shen Run’s words stuck in his throat.

He had only ever dated once in his whole life, and people had talked about it for a lifetime.

Shen Ze hated Lu Yun, that was something he had always known, so he had never allowed Lu Yun to come to his house to look for him.

But unfortunately, there was not a single person in this world who took Shen Run’s words seriously.

Their first meeting had erupted into conflict. At that time, Shen Run was out on duty and not in Alicia. When he returned, Lu Yun found him, still wearing an expression of lingering fear.

“Your kid is really scary. The way he looked at me was like he wanted to kill me.”

“Didn’t I say not to go to my house? Besides, my kid is usually as docile as a rabbit. It must have been you who provoked him.”

“Heaven help me! You weren’t home, I just went to make him a meal. What’s wrong with that? I was looking after him.”

Shen Run was silent. After returning home, it was the first time he had seen that version of Shen Ze.

The face that usually wore a bright smile had turned terribly gloomy, and he stared at Shen Run with sharp eyes.

“Ge, are you not wanting me anymore?”

Shen Run was flustered under his gaze and hurriedly explained.

“How, how could that be? Ge would never not want you, never.”

“Is that so? Then what about that man a few days ago, ge? He said he was your boyfriend.”

Shen Ze held his wrist. Back then, his original hand also had considerable strength.

“Are you going to divide the love you have for me and give it to him?”

Those eyes, like blue-green gems, were wrapped in tears. Shen Run hurriedly hugged him and desperately explained that no matter who he dated, his love for him would not change.

“That child seems to have separation anxiety toward you.”

One day, Lu Yun found him and said this out of nowhere.

“Separation anxiety? Isn’t that something only babies and toddlers have?”

“I’m not too sure either. It just, it just feels like his feelings toward you are weird, like he treats everyone around you as a hypothetical enemy, as if he’s afraid you’ll be snatched away by others.”

Separation anxiety?

Shen Run suddenly thought of this phrase, and of the look in Shen Ze’s eyes when they stood together.

Perhaps it was because he had never seen his father since birth, and his mother had passed away early, that he had become overly dependent on this “fake older brother.”

A surge of grievance welled up. He stretched out both hands and gently pressed them against Shen Ze’s cold cheeks.

“What are you thinking about? I and…”

He pinched the fleshy part of Shen Ze’s cheek, soothing him softly. “You are the most important person to me. No matter when, I…”

As he spoke, Shen Run moved his palm away from Shen Ze’s face, spreading it open in front of him. “Look, I have two hands. Left or right, there will always be one that’s reserved for you.”

The silver-white mechanical hand withdrew from Shen Run’s waist and interlocked fingers with his hands.

“No, these two hands are both mine.” He frowned, tears brimming in his eyes. “There can only be me beside ge. You can only look at me, you’re not allowed to look at other people.”

“Okay, okay, only look at you, only look at you alone.”

Seeing that Shen Ze’s tears were about to fall again, he hurriedly soothed the little one. “Don’t cry, Xiaoze. Older Brother only wants you, okay?”

Shen Ze pouted and obediently nodded. “Okay, ge, you’re the best.”

Seeing him smile, Shen Run finally let out a breath of relief. After rubbing the little curls on top of his head, he could not help but mutter, silly child.

A breeze blew past. He felt a coolness at his abdomen, lowered his head, and discovered that his shirt was still open, and the waist that Shen Ze had pinched hard was already beginning to bruise.

He was near tears, but did not dare say anything bad about Shen Ze. He could only button his shirt while walking upstairs.

At the stairway, he saw Luxiusi again, still always two meters behind him. Thinking that everything that had just happened had been seen by him, Shen Run felt even harder to describe the feeling. He could only pretend nothing had happened and keep his head down as he went upstairs.

Luxiusi did not think there was anything wrong. If it had not been for the Young Master’s order to keep watch over Shen Run, he would also not have wanted to pry into other people’s privacy.

Separated by a short distance, and both standing in the shadows, he actually had not heard clearly or seen clearly what had happened.

Were the two of them hugging?

Their relationship was really good…

Luxiusi sighed a little in his heart.

Just as he was preparing to follow Shen Run upstairs, the boss’s younger brother, tall and beautiful to the point of not seeming human, walked past him.

He turned and glanced at him. Those ice-blue eyes revealed fierce killing intent, carrying full malice, like a blade coated in poison, as if the next second it would pierce through his chest.

Luxiusi felt a little short of breath, and a chill rose from the soles of his feet.

When he looked at Shen Ze again, Shen Ze had already turned back around, strode up the stairs, grabbed his boss’s hand, and went upstairs together.

Scene 20

Luxiusi found Chi Yu at the back door of Eden. “Why aren’t you going in?”

Chi Yu sat on the steps, both hands wrapped around his knees, looking pitiful.

He pointed at the bar counter. That was where Jiede had originally been. Now it had been replaced by a slender back. The metal hair tie in that person’s hair reflected the light from the ceiling and from outside the window, dazzling Chi Yu’s eyes painfully.

“That person is there, I don’t dare go in.”

As if sensing something, Shen Ze turned his head and gave the two of them a bright smile.

Chi Yu shuddered. Goosebumps rose all over him, and he could not help rubbing his arms.

“Do you also think he’s a little off?” Luxiusi looked at Shen Ze’s back and said this.

Chi Yu glanced at him. “What? I’m just a little scared of him, I can’t really say why…”

“But why are you saying that?”

Chi Yu’s intuition had always been sharp. He quickly caught another layer of meaning in Luxiusi’s words.

Luxiusi thought Shen Ze was off.

“That day at the arcade opposite Nirvana, when he fell out the window.” Luxiusi said, “It seemed a little strange.”

Chi Yu tilted his head. He had not been there that time, and only heard Luxiusi mention it afterward. The Pioneers had kidnapped Shen Ze, their purpose was to use him to threaten his shifu, forcing him to reveal the whereabouts of the chip called “Prometheus,” and at the same time delaying the kidnapping of Hainasen Lori on the Overture.

“Where was strange?”

“Brother Shen suspected that the City Ranger had automatic camouflage on him. Before entering the arcade that day, he gave me an anti-optical camouflage emitter.”

Luxiusi recalled every detail of that day. “When we entered the arcade, I only saw those three Pioneers. I can be certain that before the anti-optical camouflage was activated, I did not see Shen Ze in the room.”

Chi Yu’s eyes widened. “You mean Shen Ze had automatic camouflage cybernetic implants installed on him?”

He quickly denied his own previous sentence and lowered his voice. “No, you mean Shen Ze is the City Ranger?”

Luxiusi nodded.

“How is that possible?” Chi Yu let out a cry.

Luxiusi gave him a look, seeming afraid of being heard by the people inside. “Don’t shout so loudly. I’m only guessing.”

Like a spark of electricity brushing past a neural processor, Chi Yu also suddenly thought of some details.

“Now that you mention it, I suddenly remembered. That day when I was being chased by the City Ranger, he blacked out my cyber eye, and his voice may have also been processed, but there was one thing he couldn’t change.”

“What?” Luxiusi was puzzled.

“The smell.” Chi Yu said, “He had a scent on him.”@无限好文，尽在晋江文学城

“The scent on that City Ranger was very similar to Shen Ze’s, both were the smell of citrus.”

Luxiusi looked at him. After a moment, in a questioning tone, “Then why didn’t you tell Brother Shen?”@无限好文，尽在晋江文学城

“Why didn’t you go?” Chi Yu rolled his eyes irritably. “You yourself said it was only a guess, there was no conclusive evidence. Then you go straight up and say we suspect Shen Ze is the City Ranger?”

“Wouldn’t that be driving a wedge between those two brothers? Do you think his shifu would believe it?”

“Yeah…” Luxiusi murmured.

Chi Yu sighed. “His shifu is usually such a smart person, how could he not see it…”

He propped his chin on his hand and looked at Luxiusi, who was leaning against the stair railing smoking, and thought of something. “Right, I think you should be a little more careful lately too.”

“Why?”

“Have you not noticed? That City Ranger only strikes at the people around his shifu, right? You follow his shifu every day. You might be the next one.”

After hearing his words, the motion of Luxiusi lifting his hand paused for a moment, and no one knew what he was thinking.