Interstellar Power Couple
Translator: Lala
Quality Check: Mukyuu
First Published on Chaleuria
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Chapter 68: Arrogant
“A penny for your thoughts?” Xiao Lingyu turned on the baby mobile, giving the kids something to watch, before sitting down by Lei Jue’s side.
“I’m thinking about the old house. Didn’t Yu Fenglai say that as long as I helped her heal a person, she’d give me that house my parents left behind?” Lei Jue turned towards Xiao Lingyu. “Say, do you think the evidence Uncle said my father left is there?”
“It doesn’t seem very likely. Uncle searched there before, but he didn’t find anything. Also, your father knows what kind of people Lei Jianying and Yu Fenglai are, so even if he had evidence he can’t possibly have put it there. If he had, Lei Jianying and Yu Fenglai would have gotten their hands on it long ago.”
“…Yeah, you’re right.” Lei Jue started playing with his hair unconsciously, “Who are you talking with that’s got you so happy?”
Xiao Lingyu had been sending messages on that chat for ages now.
“A customer.” Xiao Lingyu wrapped his arms around Lei Jue, pride making its way into his voice, “I’ve been helping their company upgrade their defense software these last few days. They keep hoping to talk to me face-to-face, but I didn’t agree.”
“Is that so?” Lei Jue glanced at Xiao Lingyu’s photon computer, and it only took that one glance for him to identify the interest the other party had in Xiao Lingyu, as well as the subtle but flirtatious tone they had. He smiled, “Hmm? They’re quite handsome.”
The other party had used a selfie as their profile picture. If the selfie was real, they indeed looked quite nice.
“Are you sure?” Xiao Lingyu immediately switched to a more hostile expression. “How? They’re as skinny as a twig.”
“They are pretty handsome, I’m being serious.” Lei Jue leaned his head over, looking as if he was very interested in the other person. He even reached over and tapped on the other’s profile without asking Xiao Lingyu.
Xiao Lingyu suddenly felt like he’d swallowed a frog. He hadn’t had an opinion on the guy before, treating him like he would any other customer, but now, the man suddenly looked like such an eyesore!
Lei Jue was still looking when Xiao Lingyu abruptly shut off his communicator. “The weather’s nice today, why don’t we take a stroll around the garden with the kids?”
It had been quite windy the last few days, but not only had that stopped today, the temperature had risen quite a bit too. The kids would be fine going out as long as they wore slightly warmer clothing.
And even if they did fall sick, there was someone on hand to heal them.
Lei Jue replied, laughing,“Okay”
On the other side, the young CEO of the fashion company thumped his photon computer against the desk, grumpy because he hadn’t received a reply, even though he had waited a while.
Why did Mr. Single suddenly stop replying? Did he say something wrong?
Ye Qunlan read over their chat again. No, he hadn’t said anything inappropriate; most of the things he said were very friendly.
Ye Qunlan had no clue that he was now on Mr. Single’s list of ‘people I don’t want to talk to’, because of what a certain someone had said.
Xiao Lingyu was pushing his sons in a specially made, isolation pram, while Lei Jue held their daughter in his arms. The five of them strolled leisurely through the garden.
Because the final design of the new house hadn’t been decided on yet, no work had been started on the land. Currently, the places where buildings originally stood had been cleared, and the couple could stroll straight through the area with the kids. In just a few moments, Lei Jue attracted many snow-capped jadewings to him, and they landed on Lei Jue’s shoulders, some even alighting on Xiao Lei’s back, who had been following them slowly.
Lei Jue was special no matter where he went.
Xiao Lingyu let himself fall a step behind Lei Jue, and looked at his back. Suddenly, he realized why Lei Jue had called Ye Qunlan handsome. A smug little smile appeared on Xiao Lingyu’s lips.
As if sensing it, Lei Jue turned around. “What are you smiling for?”
“Nothing. I just noticed that even the image of your back is a million times more dashing than everyone else’s, babe!”
Lei Jue unabashedly accepted his lover’s praise, and when Xiao Lingyu walked closer, Lei Jue pulled his head down and kissed him.
Luo Yuling came over, smiling. “Oi, if you two keep up the PDA, in broad daylight no less, I’ll call the police on you and keep my grandchildren to myself.”
Xiao Lingyu wrapped his arms around Lei Jue and their daughter from behind. “I’d love for nothing more than that mum, we don’t even have time to ourselves right now.”
Luo Yuling thought back to the broken, new bed that she had seen a little while ago. She tugged on her youngest son’s ear. “You’re getting more and more shameless by the day.” She looked at Lei Jue, “Little Jue, when your uncle comes, is it alright if he lives in the same building as Lingqi? Your eldest brother’s busy these days and isn’t coming back here, so I’ll get people to clean up that bedroom.”
“No problem. Thanks, mum.” Lei Jue said, “I don’t know my uncle very well either, but I don’t think he’s super picky about that stuff.”
“Whether your uncle’s picky or not is one thing, our hospitality is another matter altogether. Regardless of how he feels, we’re already being a little impolite by asking a visiting family member to live in a mobile home.” Luo Yuling took her granddaughter into her arms, kissing the girl. “But we have no other choice, since it’s not safe living outside. We’ll just have to inconvenience him, for now.”
Di Lin didn’t even live in a house before. He moved during the day and turned into a plant at night to rest wherever he was. He was like an invisible man. He rarely got involved with any Casweiran, because before getting to the bottom of things, everyone could be an enemy, so he could not trust anybody.
So it was only when he found Lei Jue that he finally felt like he’d found a family.
Now that the secrets of the past had been uncovered, though there was no way of solving the case completely for now, he could at least, finally, give himself a break.
Di Lin had specially asked Yu Le to help him pick out a few toys children might like, and arrived at the Xiao residence just before nightfall.
The children had yet to fall asleep at this time. They played their elemental games with their parents while they waited for their grand-uncle; despite playing the same game for a few dozen times a day, they did not appear to tire of it, poking their parents with little balls of light hugging their fingertips.
Di Lin got off the aircraft, and upon seeing what the children were doing, laughed. “A single poke of theirs has enough energy to heal an entire gash. You guys certainly are something.”
Lei Jue bragged shamelessly. “Everyone knows they’re prodigal spendthrifts already, so it’s no surprise they’re wasting elemental energy too.”
Xiao Lingyu smiled. “Thanks for making the trip, Uncle.”
Di Lin handed the toys to Xiao Lingyu. He exchanged a few words with Xiao Zhicheng and Luo Yuling, before going over to look at the children. He wanted to hold them, but he was worried that his looks would scare them and so kept a safe distance away.
But Lei Jue caught what he was doing, and directly stuffed the children into Di Lin’s arms. “If it weren’t for you Uncle, they wouldn’t be here at all. They definitely want you to hold them.”
And so Di Lin took the eldest into his arms, tentatively playing with him. Lei Jue, on the other hand, was more worried that his eldest would explode with lightning instead, so he stayed by Di Lin’s side, ready to respond to whatever situation arose.
Right then, however, something astounding occurred.
Little Mister Pipi had only ever liked using his metal elemental abilities when interacting with his parents, yet the energy around his fingers was the green color of healing as he reached out to poke Di Lin. Then, as it had with Xiao Zhicheng, the green light covered Di Lin in a large egg-shaped shell.
Through the vibrant wall of green energy, everyone could see the scar on Di Lin’s face disappear bit by bit, like a puddle of dirtied water being sucked away through a straw. Not a moment later, his face was completely healed!
As the saying went, nephews tended to look like their uncles, and in Lei Jue’s case this was very much true, although Lei Jue’s features were more exquisite. Di Lin had a larger frame than Lei Jue, and looked more hardened. All in all, he looked exceptionally handsome. He looked like someone straight out of a painting after being healed, elegant and dashing.
Xiao Zhicheng and Luo Yuling couldn’t help but smile at the sight; the uncle looked so similar to his nephew.
Pipi grinned, revealing his rather empty gums. He reached out and poked the smooth skin, just restored by his healing. “Wuh, waow?”
“Wow, you’re absolutely amazing.” Di Lin touched his face, feeling how it was no longer bumpy, and was instead even incredibly smooth. He poked little Pipi, smiling. “Little guy, your grand-uncle owes you a huge favor now.”
Pipi giggled, as if he’d understood Di Lin’s words. His tiny hands patted at Di Lin’s face.
“Good boy, you’ve done well today.” Lei Jue pinched his little butt, saying, “I’ll grant you a beating-free pass for the night.”
“Just for a night? Mummy’s so stingy, isn’t that right son?” Xiao Lingyu took Pipi back. “Uncle, look at the sprout on his head.” He took off the hat his son wore at all times except in his sleep. “Will it grow more? Or stay like this?”
Di Lin touched it lightly. “If it isn’t pulled out it will stay this way until he’s six, when it will gradually be absorbed by his body. It won’t be visible anymore then. Do you want to let him keep it?”
Lei Jue put the hat back on his son. “What’s the difference between keeping it and not?”
Di Lin hesitated before answering. “With this sprout, any elemental ability he has will be strengthened. This is why Pipi could heal Marshal Xiao, when Lei Jue couldn’t. My face, too; I have very strong self-regeneration abilities too, but I have no way of getting rid of the poison completely, whereas Pipi does. Moreover, while he has the sprout, his blood will be different; drinking it will enable the consumer to keep their body in its optimal state, and can temporarily raise the physical grade of their body to a certain extent. This is why there are rumors that getting the secret to the Golden Fruit Clan will give them the secret to eternal life.”
Xiao Lingyu picked up on the keywords. “Temporarily? Then what happens after?”
Di Lin sighed lightly. “The consumer will age rapidly afterward, and only by continuously consuming the blood of our clan’s children can they maintain that optimal state!
One could predict from those words how tempting any Golden Fruit Clan child under the age of six would be. Their blood was a renewable resource, so they would not die easily, but if the wrong people caught wind of their abilities, they would surely suffer.
Lei Jue had wanted to keep the small sprout growing on his son’s head, but he hesitated now.
Xiao Zhicheng then said, ”Your uncle Zuo will be coming over tomorrow. We’ll have Pipi heal him, and then you guys can decide whether or not to keep the sprout.”
Though he didn’t wish a single ounce of pain on his grandson, his healing abilities were simply too incredible.
“We won’t pull it out.” Xiao Lingyu said without any doubt. “If they want to touch my son they’ll have to do it over my dead body.”
Lei Jue steadily gazed at Xiao Lingyu; he loved it when Xiao Lingyu acted so confidently. So he smiled, “Okay. We’ll go with what you said.”
Di Lin patted Xiao Lingyu’s shoulder, satisfied by their answer. He then asked Xiao Zhicheng, “Is Zuo Zhihuan the marshal coming over tomorrow?”
Xiao Zhicheng nodded. He then noticed the weird expression his in-law had.
Lei Jue’s coincidentally caught the look, and was suddenly reminded of that big tree he’d saved from Zuo Feng’s burning on Mount Rikalun.
Xiao Lingyu must have thought of the same thing, his eyes meeting Lei Jue’s.
Lei Jue opened his mouth and then closed it again, suddenly feeling a bit sorry for Zuo Feng.