Lian Jun’s speculation turned out to be correct. After dinner, Zuo Yang sent a subordinate to invite Lian Jun to visit Nine Eagles’ ship and sent an invitation card with the word “Long” inside.

Lian Jun threw the card into the trash in front of Zuo Yang’s subordinate and said, “Tell Zuo Yang I’m not as foolish as him.” Then he let Gua One throw the man out.

Shi Jin looked at the trash can, a bit uneasy.

Lian Jun thought the teenager didn’t understand why he didn’t accept the invitation, and explained, “We can’t let ourselves follow Zuo Yang’s pace. Don’t worry, something like this won’t be enough to deter him.”

Shi Jin shook his head. He took Lian Jun’s hand, pulling it closer to his eyes. Suddenly, he frowned, then circled the wheelchair to grab the handles and pushed it to the bathroom. Once there, he picked up the soap and began to frantically wash Lian Jun’s hands.

Lian Jun wasn’t stupid—he immediately realized what was going on. “Is there a problem with the card?”

“I’m not sure, but you’d better not touch anything sent by Zuo Yang in the future. Who knows if there’s anything on it?” Shi Jin answered, his eyes glued to Lian Jun’s progress bar, which had suddenly risen a few points after he touched the card. He kept washing Lian Jun’s hands until he saw the bar drop, then turned off the tap and reached for the towel.

Lian Jun let Shi Jin help him wipe his hands then called Gua Two. He asked him to seal the card in a plastic bag and send it to Annihilation’s ship so Uncle Long could have a look.

Gua Two’s face darkened. He cursed Zuo Yang for being an underhanded scumbag, found a bag and a pair of tweezers, and carefully collected the card. He also took the trash can away to get rid of it—better safe than sorry.

Gua One was equally upset. He said, angry and remorseful, “It was my negligence. I saw the man hold it with bare hands and didn’t scrutinize it.”

“It’s not your fault.” Lian Jun moved his fingers, savoring the intimacy of Shi Jin holding and washing them so carefully. “Who could’ve thought Zuo Yang would be stupid enough to try to harm me while I’m on the government ship? Looks like he has no respect for the officials. Besides, there isn’t necessarily something wrong with the card, this is all just in case.”

Though he said that, he still ordered every person who had been anywhere near the card to carefully wash their hands and faces, and Shi Jin was no exception.

In the bathroom, Shi Jin nudged Xiao Si in his mind: “Can you help me locate Long Shi? I’d like to confirm if he really is on Nine Eagles’ ship.”

Xiao Si said, somewhat sheepish, <To do that, I’d need something closely related to the person I look for to act as a medium. Without it, I can’t locate anyone except you and Darling.>

Shi Jin frowned. He thought for a moment, then said, “Okay, I’ll try to do something about the medium. Can you at least scan the inside of Nine Eagles’ ship? Like the distribution of people and so on.”

Xiao Si replied brightly, glad it was able to help. <I’ll begin the scan tonight. Their ship is relatively large; if I do my best, you can get the results tomorrow morning.>

Happy, Shi Jin praised the system generously, then began to ponder where could he get something belonging to Long Shi.

Finally, he chose to start with Gua Two.

He took the game of Monopoly and snuck off to Gua Two’s cabin, pretending he really, really wanted to play with him. Then, he brought the conversation to the topic of Long Shi—surreptitiously, he thought.

Gua Two picked up his token with disgust. At Shi Jin’s question, he looked at him and answered directly: “It’s not that we intentionally let Long Shi go that year, he was just too cunning. After betraying Jun-shao, he burned all his research and belongings and disappeared like a ghost, leaving absolutely no traces of himself behind. At the time, everyone was busy trying to save Jun-shao’s life. He managed to run away, taking advantage of the chaos. We’ve never actually given up on searching for him, but we haven’t found any clues—Long Shi is too familiar with Annihilation’s means and the way it operates, so he was able to easily evade our pursuit.”

Shi Jin didn’t give up hope, “He really didn’t leave anything behind?”

“Really—he even found the adoption certificate Unce Long kept and burned it, the heartless, ungrateful son of a bitch. In fact, I want to thank Nine Eagles for catching him—that fucking traitor should’ve been killed long ago,” Gua Two spit out. In the end, he couldn’t force himself to play such a childish game, and pushed the board towards Shi Jin, waving him away. “It’s too late to play games, I want to sleep.”

Shi Jin protested that the hour wasn’t late at all but gathered the game and stood up.

Gua Two called him back before he opened the door, warning, “Don’t ask Uncle Long about this—he may look stern, but in fact, he’s the most soft-hearted out of us all. Long Shi’s betrayal was a knife in his heart. Every time he hears somebody mention Long Shi, he’ll be depressed for a long time. We’ll get Long Shi back, and Jun-shao’s body will get better, so calm down and stop worrying.”

Shi Jin paused and looked back at him. He took a lollipop out of his pocket, threw it in his direction, opened the door, and left.

Once in the passage, he found Lian Jun was waiting outside the door of his cabin. He blinked, stunned, then hurried over. “Why aren’t you resting yet, Jun-shao? Did you need me for something?”

Lian Jun glanced at the game of Monopoly he held, then at the door to Gua Two’s cabin. “No, it’s nothing important. You were with Gua Two?”

“Yes. I wanted to play with him, but he wanted to sleep and threw me out.”

“Why didn’t you just find me for that?”

“Uh…” Shi Jin was stumped for a moment. He thought frantically to find a reasonable excuse. “A round of Monopoly is rather long, I was afraid I’d keep you up too late.”

Lian Jun gave him a deep look then reached for the game box and set it on his lap. He turned the wheelchair around, saying, “My body isn’t this useless—I can sleep late from time to time. Come on, I’ll play with you.”

Shi Jin glanced at his empty hand and Lian Jun’s back that seemed to say he wasn’t allowed to refuse. He found that apparently, he dug a hole for himself, so he sighed resignedly and followed Lian Jun.

After they began, Shi Jin, who was intending to play casually, found that tonight’s game was strangely slow—not exciting at all and almost hypnotic. Halfway through, he yawned, and his head began to droop.

“Sleepy?” Lian Jun asked in a low voice, putting down the dice.

Shi Jin rubbed his face hard and said, “I’m fine. Let’s finish the game.”

“No.” Lian Jun swept the buildings and tokens off the board, directly disrupting the game, then moved his wheelchair to Shi Jin’s side. He stroked the teenager’s hair. “Shi Jin, is life on this ship boring?”

The hand touching his hair felt particularly comfortable, and Shi Jin lazily leaned back on the sofa chair. Seeing that the game board was completely messed up, the remaining tension drained out of him. He yawned again then shook his head to wake himself up. “No, it’s actually pretty interesting. I learned many things I didn’t know.”

Lian Jun didn’t speak, only helped him wipe the corners of his eyes, teary from yawning.

This made Shi Jin itchy, and he turned his head, avoiding his hand. Perhaps affected by the warm atmosphere of the moment, or maybe sleepy enough that the worry overcame his self-control, he suddenly grabbed the other man’s hand and said, “I want to save you, Lian Jun. I want to catch Long Shi and get the poison formula from him and make you healthy again.”

“I know.” Lian Jun didn’t free his hand but tightened his grip on Shi Jin’s hand instead. He looked at the young man’s face and repeated, “I know… I deeply treasure your feelings.”

Shi Jin became a bit flustered, though he had no idea why. “Do you have a plan for getting Long Shi back?” He asked.

Lian Jun moved closer to him. “Yes. Nine Eagles could grow to this point only because of my and government’s tacit permission and support, and I have my people inside. However, Zuo Yang must’ve been exceptionally cautious about Long Shi’s matter, since they never found a clue.”

“He’s a valuable chip, after all,” Shi Jin said. He looked at Lian Jun’s face, his gaze settling on the other man’s luminous eyes. Half-consciously, he thought they seemed to contain some kind of magic power—just looking into them was enough to make him feel at ease. He continued, “Today, you didn’t give Zuo Yang the response he wanted, who knows what he’ll do next…”

“Most probably, he’ll either leak some information or give me some kind of evidence to convince me Long Shi really is in his hands. Then, when I’m thrown out of balance, he’ll start to make demands,” Lian Jun replied. He looked at Shi Jin, who gazed at him as if spellbound, and his pupils dilated. He entwined his fingers with Shi Jin’s and asked, his voice softening to a whisper, “Shi Jin, you’re watching me like this… Do you like looking at me?”

Shi Jin didn’t answer. Abruptly, his body slumped to the side, his eyes closing—he fell asleep.

Lian Jun: “……”

Xiao Si: <……>