IPC Chapter 17: Little Needle Grinder

Interstellar Power Couple

Translator: Vemmy

Quality Check: Leslie

Editor: Chesh

First Published on Chaleuria

Chapter 17: Little Needle Grinder

Until reaching home, no other anomalies occurred to Lei Jue’s body. However, he still took the brief incident that had occurred during the banquet to heart, because he was capable of self-healing to a certain extent—if there was a problem with his body, the healing mechanism would have activated already. It was impossible to have it drag on until symptoms appeared, so he was almost certain that it had something to do with Plan A3.

Lei Haige had been present at that time, and Lei Jue had just caused him to eat a loss, so it was quite normal for the other to do something to him.

When Xiao Lingyu came down after changing, he found Lei Jue sitting on the stairs to the second floor—instead of on the perfectly fine sofa or returning to his room—so he sat down beside him.

Because the two of them had to temporarily maintain the image of a newly wedded couple, they hadn’t returned to the Xiao family’s ancestral home after leaving the state banquet hall, but gone to their new house instead.

“What are you thinking about?” Xiao Lingyu had the robot housekeeper bring two glasses of juice and handed one to Lei Jue. “Still thinking about when you dropped your chopsticks??”

“No.” Lei Jue took a sip of juice.

“Tsk, babe, you’re hurting my heart like this.” Xiao Lingyu lazily leaned on the railing of the stairs. “I’m your husband in name, at the very least, and your personal mobile ATM as well. Shouldn’t you share your problems with me?”

Lei Jue turned to look at Xiao Lingyu and saw the sincerity in his eyes despite the careless smile on his lips, and said, “When I was in the regeneration capsule, I heard the chief physician talking to Su Erman. ‘Part of his memory has been wiped,’ he said, ‘the damaged neurons have already been successfully restored and Plan A3 has been successfully implanted.’ However, I don’t know what this Plan A3 actually refers to.”

“Oh.” Xiao Lingyu smiled. “So that’s why you ran over to knock on my door first thing in the morning before you have to return to the Lei family. You needed to know how to send an automated message if there are abnormalities in your vital signs?”

“I must have some sort of defense.” Lei Jue wrinkled his brows. At that time, he hadn’t thought to tell the Xiao family about Plan A3. However, he wasn’t sure whether or not this would affect the Xiao family’s safety, so it was only right that he should give them some sort of notice. “But you probably know this already, right?”

“How so?” Xiao Lingyu didn’t deny it, but he seemed curious as to how Lei Jue came to this conclusion.

“The first time Third Brother got me drunk, Aunt Xiao mentioned that Lei Haige had eliminated a portion of my memories. This was ample evidence that you guys already knew that my memories had been erased before. However, the removal of my memories was the Lei family’s secret. Even the Feng family didn’t know, so how did you guys learn of it?” The Lei Family would definitely not speak to outsiders about this kind of thing. That doctor probably wouldn’t dare to blabber, so the only possibility was that the Xiao Family had privately investigated it.

“That’s still not enough to ascertain that I know about Plan A3, right?”

“It’s not enough, but you said something to me after we  left the registration office.”

Lei Jue still clearly remembered that Xiao Lingyu had asked him whether he had actually forgotten about Feng Gu.

In that particular situation, this sentence was actually very specific, enough to indicate that Xiao Lingyu even knew details like how the memories they had erased were only related to Feng Gu. In that case, how would it be possible for him to not know about the ‘Plan A3’ that was implanted at the same time?

Of course, there was also a very small chance that he didn’t know, and this was the reason that he had gone and knocked on Xiao Lingyu’s door first thing in the morning.

Xiao Lingyu stopped speaking. Lei Jue’s analysis was correct, they really did know about Plan A3 relatively early on and had promptly gone to check on the hospital and doctor that performed the brain restoration on Lei Jue. Regretfully, the chief physician had already disappeared by the time they got there. Although he still used certain covert means to discover that there was indeed a Plan A3, there was no way to find out the specific content.

Until now, the family members had all tactfully avoided mentioning it in order to not give Lei Jue pressure, which is why he had only ascertained today that Lei Jue knew about it since the very beginning.

“You aren’t afraid?” Xiao Lingyu pointed at his own temple. “There’s an unknown object in your brain.”

“Is there a point of being afraid? Since there isn’t, why should I be afraid?” Having finished speaking, Lei Jue saw Xiao Lingyu look at him with a light smile and couldn’t help but furrow his brow. “What?”

“Isn’t this our first proper conversation?” Xiao Lingyu asked, hearing Lei Jue give a “mhm” in affirmation. He suddenly hugged the other’s neck and reverted to his original state. “Babe, be at ease. Don’t be afraid, hubby is here to protect you, okay?”

“Save it. I am someone with a personal ATM, after all; worse comes to worst, I’ll just use the ATM to smash stuff, who needs your protection?”

“That’s true, you are a filthy rich tycoon with backing now—oh, that’s not right, it’s a lascivious tycoon!”

“Scram!”

“Pft! Hahahahaha… babe, why are you so interesting?” Looking at Lei Jue, Xiao Lingyu laughed until he teared up and his stomach ached from laughter, so he lightly coughed. “Alright then, we’ll get Eldest Brother to check your body tomorrow. Although it seems like the possibility of there being a problem with ‘Plan A3’ is relatively high right now, we can’t completely rule out other causes. After all, you used your ability today to heal my dad, so it could be because you were exhausted; we don’t know.” His Eldest Brother specialized in researching how to increase the fertility of ability users and was very skilled in the field of medicine, so they couldn’t go wrong in finding him to perform the examination.

”Then do we need to give Eldest Brother a heads up? He’s so busy.” Lei Jue recalled that Xiao Lingqi needed to return to the laboratory soon.

“That’s true.” Xiao Lingyu raised his hand and saw the empty wrist. “You contact Eldest Brother, then; my communicator is in the bedroom.”

“Alright, I’ll contact the Scientist.” Soon after he finished speaking, he heard Xiao Lingqi’s voice and handed the communicator to Xiao Lingyu. Having received the communicator, Xiao Lingyu used the holographic mode and gave a rough explanation of the situation.

“If you’re worried, you can come over right now,” Xiao Lingqi said after listening to the explanation. “I’ll take you guys to the lab to examine Little Jue and see if we can discover anything.”

“Thank you, Eldest Brother, but let’s wait until tomorrow.” Lei Jue felt that it was too late tonight. There was a time difference between the two locations, to begin with, and, in order to accommodate the wedding, none of the Xiao family members had been able to rest properly; they had basically bustled around for two nights for them to get married. If they went now, it would definitely disrupt everyone’s sleep again.

“Mhm, then I’ll see you tomorrow morning. You guys rest well too.” Xiao Lingqi’s figure disappeared from the top of the stairwell.

Lei Jue took the communicator that Xiao Lingyu handed over and got up after massaging his temples, ready to go wash up and sleep. Just a few steps up, he unexpectedly heard Xiao Lingyu speaking to him again.

“Babe, you set Eldest Brother’s contact as ‘Scientist’ on your communicator?”

“Yes,” Lei Jue stopped and turned, “why?”

“Then what about me? What’s my contact?” Xiao Lingyu’s eyes were filled with curiosity.

“You?” Lei Jue smiled. ”Rogue.”

“Rogue?” Xiao Lingyu scanned Lei Jue from head to toe, his eyes seeming to say, Are you sure you aren’t talking about yourself?! He then suddenly remembered something, “All I did was pinch your butt cheeks when I carried you!”

Lei Jue threw the empty juice cup at Xiao Lingyu.

Xiao Lingyu steadily caught the cup. “Hey, it can’t be that you’re shy, right?”

Lei Jue had finally had enough and walked down, taking advantage of the higher step to stand eye-to-eye with Xiao Lingyu. “Why don’t you take off your pants right now and let me squeeze a few times as well?” 

“Pffft!” Xiao Lingyu almost spewed his juice out. Fortunately, he blocked it just in time with his wrist.

He saw Lei Jue return to his room and shut the door, then had the robot servant come and take the cup to clean and put away before returning to his own room. Just like when they were at the ancestral home, he still had a room to himself, but for some reason, his room suddenly felt a bit desolate tonight. After taking a shower, he threw himself onto the large bed, and after some time, said, “Carrera, who do you think such an interesting Little Jue will end up with, in the end?”

Carrera replied, “No idea.” After speaking, she felt that her master’s mood didn’t seem too good, so she quietly continued, “Sir, let me tell you a secret.”

“What secret?”

“The madam was lying to you before. You aren’t “Rogue” in his communicator. It was before, but he changed it. I saw it when you asked me to pay attention to his vital signs.”

“What was it changed to?” Xiao Lingyu smiled. “Was it ‘Husband’?”  

“No, its ‘Embroidery Needle’.”

“Em-Embroider what needle?” Xiao Lingyu picked at his ear, suspecting that he had heard wrong.

“Embroidery Needle. Does this have some special meaning, Sir?” Carrera didn’t understand the significance of the change.

But Xiao Lingyu didn’t want to answer her question at all! He abruptly jumped up and rushed out without even wearing his shoes.

Not long after, an earth-shattering shriek came from Lei Jue’s room, followed by the sound of Lei Jue cursing, “Xiao Lingyu damn you! You’re not allowed to tickle me, hahaha haha… ow, fuck, get off of me! Hahaha haha…” 

Xiao Lingyu restrained Lei Jue. “Speak! Are you going to change it?”

Lei Jue was pinned to the bed and incessantly tickled. He couldn’t successfully counterattack and was suffering very much so he could only say, “I’ll change it! I’ll fucking change it, alright!”

He pulled out his communicator but was swatted away by Xiao Lingyu. “We’re not changing yours, we’re changing mine! I had you saved under ‘Little Kitten’, but we’re a couple and the style of our contacts for each other shouldn’t be too different, so I thought of a new one for you, babe.”

“What?” Lei Jue had a bad premonition.

“Since I’m Embroidery Needle, then what about you? Naturally, you should be Little Needle Grinder[1]! Quickly change it!”

“Get lost, I won’t change it!”

“Won’t change it?” Xiao Lingyu pinned Lei Jue down and began another round of tickling. In the end, Lei Jue really couldn’t stand it anymore and, crying tears of blood, changed Xiao Lingyu’s contact for him to ‘Little Needle Grinder’.

That night, Xiao Lingyu was psychologically invigorated after he went back to his room, but his physiological needs acted up all night, while Lei Jue, after being tickled, set a new goal.

Hence, while Xiao Lingyu was still sleeping the next day, Lei Jue had gotten up very early.

He intended to improve his own physique.

It isn’t easy to improve the rank of one’s physique. However, just like how normal people can improve their constitution through regular exercise, they could also raise their speed, strength, and reaction time to a certain extent. In the future, he wanted to handle even stronger animals, so he must have a body that could withstand being tossed about, and exercise was indispensable.

The scenery on the floating mountain wasn’t bad, and the view was quite beautiful. The entirety of Bulacca City could be seen from here, giving people the feeling that they had everything within the palm of their hand. It was very exhilarating. Lei Jue looked at the scenery and had the robot servant bring some food for him. After eating, he rested for a bit before heading out for a run.

It was only after Lei Jue had run about three laps that Xiao Lingyu finally woke up.

Xiao Lingyu lazily stretched and went to knock on Lei Jue’s door. “Little Jue, are you up?”

The room was silent. Carrera then helpfully piped up, “Madam is exercising outside.”

Xiao Lingyu took a look outside. Lei Jue was running around the entirety of the floating mountain with a towel around his neck, his slightly long chestnut hair shining with faint luster under the dawn light while a thin layer of sweat covered his face, ruddy from running.

He looked really similar to the strawberry cream pastries Xiao Lingyu had eaten when he was little.

Lei Jue saw Xiao Lingyu and ran to the doorway, swinging his limbs as he stood in place and giving Xiao Lingyu an unfriendly look. “Morning, Embroidery Needle.”

Xiao Lingyu nodded. “Morning to you too, Little Needle Grinder.”

Lei Jue glared at him for a bit before dispiritedly heading back to change. Although healing skills were very awesome, in comparison, he actually liked being a DPS[2] more. Such a shame that his body was unsuitable for it.

Xiao Lingyu lit a cigarette and leaned against the doorway, watching Lei Jue’s silhouette as he smoked, although the forlorn look in the bottom of his eyes remained.

Lei Jue changed out of his tracksuit and, as he was changing his pants, felt the Abyssal Comet Fire in his pocket. After deliberating, he took it with him and handed it to Xiao Lingyu as he got on the aircraft. “You should keep it yourself.”

Although it was a priceless treasure, in the end, it wasn’t suitable for him to keep it.

However, Xiao Lingyu didn’t move and replied, unconcerned, “Keep it, I’m only getting married once anyway.”

“Don’t be so sure of yourself.” The corner of Lei Jue’s lips pulled a little. He didn’t believe him at all.

“I’m serious.” Xiao Lingyu turned his head, swinging his crossed legs. “There are countless wild flowers and grasses outside, why bring a pot home and waste time and effort on it every day? Helping you was to repay my debt of gratitude to Teacher; now that the kindness has been repaid, you are free. Once the opportunity arises, we can divorce and just be friends. As for this stone, you should keep it as a memento, at least…” There was an ambiguous smile on Xiao Lingyu’s lips. “At the very least, we were once married.”

“Are you sure you don’t want it back?”

“Mhm.” Xiao Lingyu closed his eyes. “In any case… I have no one to give it to, regardless.” 

“What?” Lei Jue didn’t hear the last sentence clearly.

But Xiao Lingyu didn’t make another sound. Once the aircraft had stopped at the Xiao residence, the two of them walked out.

 

 

[1]磨杵小能手 (mó chǔ xiǎo néng shǒu) – 磨杵 is from the idiom 磨杵成针, which is “to grind an iron rod into a needle”, meaning to persevere in a difficult task. In this case, Xiao Lingyu is implying that Lei Jue ground his ‘rod’ into an ‘embroidery needle’.

[2]DPS – Damage Per Second, refers to a character class or specialization which focuses on doing lots of damage quickly, or in bursts.