Interstellar Power Couple
Translator: Lala
Quality Check: Mukyuu
First Published on Chaleuria
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Chapter 75: Caught in the Act
In the following days, Lei Jue and Xiao Lingyu no longer received any messages from Di Lin. Apparently, Di Lin was living quite the leisurely life at the Zuo residence. It was only when Xiao Lingyu asked Di Lin whether he had been affected by Zuo Feng’s system upgrade that Di Lin finally sent them a message saying ‘No’. He even praised Xiao Lingyu for having ‘sick’ skills, and made a few remarks on how beautiful the Zuos’ garden was.
Seeing that his uncle was having fun and would probably not return anytime soon, Lei Jue left him to his own devices. It was just as well, since in half a month, it would be time for Mr. Huang’s eightieth birthday celebration. There would be many important figures attending, including Party Leader Li and the Vice Party Leader.
If they wanted to take action during that time, they would have to plan as much as possible right now. And so it was that Lei Jue’s schedule filled up.
To the public, it looked like Lei Jue was busy taking care of the children. Xiao Lingyu was the only one who knew what Lei Jue was actually up to these days.
Lei Jue kept the nightleisure bugs that Di Lin had brought back in the flower pot Xiao Lingyu had custom ordered before, the one they had wanted to plant Di Na’s origin wood in. Lei Jue had used it to keep the nightleisure bugs after it was made though, because the Golden Fruit tree that had grown from Di Na’s origin wood was growing too slowly, and didn’t need such a big pot.
The small black bugs, barely visible without a microscope, lived in colonies within the soil, and very rarely appeared above it without Lei Jue summoning them. Lei Jue planted a drifter fruit tree in the pot too, and watered it whenever he had time, putting in the pot some feed that both the bugs and the plant could consume.
In order to prevent any accidents caused by the nightleisure bugs crawling out and biting people in the family, after Lei Jue settled them in, Xiao Lingyu put a loss-prevention system in place around the pot containing the bugs. Xiao Lingyu fixed a spare communicator above the pot and monitored using a 360 degree laser surveillance system. The moment something crossed the perimeter, the communicator would sound an alarm.
They put the flower pot in the basement, so the chances of someone coming into contact with it were low; Xiao Lingyu’s main reason for doing so, however, was actually just in case Pipi and Kangkang threw a tantrum again and destroyed the communicator keeping the nightleisure bugs in.
“Other families take precautionary measures against fire, against thieves, and against home-wreckers…we on the other hand take precautionary measures against fire and thieves and our own sons.” Lei Jue remarked, doing his routine checks with his daughter in his arms. After making sure all sixteen bugs were present, he walked out from the basement with Xiao Lingyu. The two little demons were still asleep, with their grandfather watching over them. Hopefully they wouldn’t wake up yet.
“It’s not our fault our genes are too good. We’re so far out of everyone else’s reach they can’t even feel jealous of us.” Xiao Lingyu took their daughter out of Lei Jue’s arms, stroking her black and shiny hair. “My little princess gets more beautiful by the day. The very thought of someone taking you away in the future irks me!”
“Heh, then just look for a son-in-law willing to marry into the family. That’s right, what were you going to say about the adsorption box before?” Lei Jue suddenly remembered how Xiao Lingyu had mentioned it to him before coming down into the basement. He’d said that, right before bringing the bugs out to put to use, they needed to get an adsorption box from Lingqin, and put the bugs inside for a day first.
“We’ve been using dirt from Amethyst Cloud Mountain to keep the bugs in. If they really did get caught, we might be found out, since the composition of dirty is different from place to place. So we need to make sure that they’re clean before bringing them out, and then let them come into contact with dirt from Long Forest Mountain. We’ll need to change their diet too.”
“I had not put that much thought into it.” Lei Jue touched his nose guiltily, before glancing behind him. He had forgotten how absurdly amazing the technology here was. A single forgotten detail on their part might result in problems for them.
“It’s fine. Leave the troublesome things up to me to figure out, you just worry about relaxing.” Lei Jue held his daughter in one hand and embraced Lei Jue with the other, his expression gentle.
But as soon as they stepped out of that basement, Xiao Lingyu’s calm gentleness was instantly swept cleanly away, because he witnessed the sight of their new mobile homes collapsing again.
Their family patriarch, Xiao Zhicheng, held his two bawling grandsons in his arms, the hair on his head standing on end, while their family’s matriarch rushed over to them, obviously looking for them.
Xiao Lingyu and Lei Jue didn’t have time to think too much and hurriedly went over to hold the kids.
Xiao Zhicheng swayed a little on the spot, before shaking his head hard. He recovered only when Lei Jue hastened to use his healing energy to help him.
He couldn’t even stand his eldest grandson’s power at its strongest, and with the addition of Kangkang…
“I think it’s best if one of you stayed and kept an eye on the kids in the future.” Xiao Zhicheng hammered a fist against his chest, telling them with an exasperated look. “I’m old, I can’t take much of this.”
Lei Jue coughed, holding in a laugh with great difficulty; it was a rare occasion seeing Xiao Zhicheng so helpless. “But Dad, you look quite spritely to me.”
“Mum, didn’t I say to tell Pipi that his siblings were watching him when he cries? He’s their eldest brother, they’d laugh at him if he cries.” Xiao Lingyu said, “Did you try that?”
“Of course I did. But you took his sister away didn’t you? Not to mention Kangkang cries when Pipi cries, and when Pipi saw that his brother was crying too hard to laugh at him, of course he doesn’t buy that threat.” Luo Yuling said helplessly. “Pipi’s too smart; you can’t hide anything from him.”
“De, Ded…” Pipi pulled on Xiao Lingyu’s clothes, his eyes brimming with tears. “Ded!”
“Yes yes, Daddy’s here. Daddy won’t leave you while you’re sleeping ever again, happy?” Xiao Lingyu put an arm behind his son’s head, his heart aching for the boy, “You look so scary and mighty when you’re in a mood, so why do you turn into Mr. Pitiful the moment you cry? If I didn’t know better I’d think…”
Xiao Lingyu paused abruptly.
“What’d you call me just then?”
“Ded, De!” Pipi’s long lashes were still strung with teardrops, but his hand was grasping onto his dad’s clothes with great force. “Ded!”
“Yes! That’s my son!” Xiao Lingyu excitedly bumped foreheads with his eldest, his lips twitching upwards uncontrollably. “But it’s ‘Dad’, not ‘Ded’, got it?”
“De!”
“Yes yes yes, if you like De then so be it. Your word is law.” Xiao Lingyu lifted his son high up in the air, his head filled to the brim with fulfilment amidst the sounds of overjoyed gurgling.
Lei Jue lightly shook his son’s hand. “If he’s Dad, then what am I?”
Pipi replied without hesitation, “Pepe!”
“Pepe?” Lei Jue was confused, “What’s Pepe?”
Lei Jue referred to himself as ‘Dad’ normally, so he had no clue what was up with ‘Pepe’; where on earth did this one come from?
Xiao Zhicheng and Luo Yuling didn’t get it either, but Xiao Lingyu understood very quickly.
“I think he wants to say Precious, but he can’t produce the sound. I’ve been referring to you as ‘Precious’ or ‘Mum’ in front of them, and they’ve been hearing that this entire time, so maybe they think you’re ‘Precious’?”
“But I call you ‘Lingyu’ all day, why don’t they call you ‘Lingling’? Keep your haphazard guesses to yourself.” Lei Jue wasn’t convinced, but thinking it over again, it did seem a little likely. Because every time Xiao Lingyu wasn’t there, or if he was in the middle of something, Lei Juewould tell the kids ‘your dad’s gone to do something’ or say ‘your dad’s doing something’, while Xiao Lingyu would say ‘our treasure’s gone to do something’ or ‘our treasure is doing something’.
Lei Jue thought about it and decided it was a title he could reluctantly accept. Pepe was it? He’ll take it as an indication of his importance in the family.
But right when the thought finished, Kangkang piped up from his arms, “Mum!”
Lei Jue wanted to kill Xiao Lingyu.
With Pipi in his arms, Xiao Lingyu secretly shot his second son a thumbs up.
Lei Jue caught it, and smiled at Xiao Lingyu. That smile, however, was like a winter breeze, chilling Xiao Lingyu so hard the sight of it made his face sting.
Later on, Xiao Zhicheng and Luo Yuling summoned the servants to clean up the mess of the house, ordering them to bring out the things that could still be used and set up a new home. While this went on, Lei Jue and Xiao Lingyu waited at the side with the kids
Lei Jue jabbed Xiao Lingyu with his elbow. “What the h*ll’s up with ‘Mum’?”
Xiao Lingyu replied with all the trepidation of a criminal caught in the act, “I only mentioned it to them a few times, I didn’t expect Kangkang to remember it.”
Lei Jue nodded and did not reply.
That night, Pipi got up and discovered his dad sleeping on the ground, while his other dad took up a bed big enough for two by himself and slept like a log.
In contrast, two other people who should have been sleeping separately were now on the same bed.
Di Lin didn’t understand. Did Zuo Feng have some sort of weird kink? Over the past few days of his stay with the Zuo family, he had seen and heard bits and pieces of information, and now knew that that balai tree he had killed had been a gift from Zuo Feng’s first crush. The crush had told Zuo Feng it was a shilah tree, and had lied to Zuo Feng saying that he was a shilah tree plant-type ability user. This was why everyone now thought that Zuo Feng’s first love was a shilah ability user, and was unaware that the tree Zuo Feng kept was poisonous.
But the reality was that that tree was a balai tree! Zuo Feng, the idiot, took care of that poisonous plant like it was his life, watering it daily, taking it out into the sun routinely, and he never trimmed it, allowing the balai tree to grow as it wished.
Oh, right; now it had become ‘allowing Uncle to grow as he wished’. Not being trimmed was pretty nice.
But there was a problem.
Zuo Feng was clearly insane; ever since bringing Di Lin back, whether it was because he’d been given a fright from the death of the sprout or the withering of the leaves, he now placed the pot by the head of his bed when he slept at night!
On top of that, he would wake up from time to time in the middle of the night, and then touch Di Lin. His touches held within them longing and sentimental affection, and a little bit of lust too. Di Lin had almost bloomed a few times from those touches.
Originally the only feeling he had held for the brat was anger from the time the kid burnt him on Rikalun, hurting him. Di Lin had wanted to follow him here and torment him a little. However, after getting to know him, Di Lin discovered that Zuo Feng wasn’t actually a bad guy, he was just influenced by the balai tree. It made Di Lin feel bad, and he didn’t want to make things hard on the youngster anymore.
But…
It’s not like he could just let himself be taken advantage of! Zuo Feng touched him so much his bark was about to fall off.
Just what was this brat waiting for?
And on a certain tranquil night, Di Lin finally gave in to the urge.
He used one of his long branches to lightly stroke Zuo Feng’s cheek.
His touch was very light; he did not intend to disrespect Zuo Feng in any way.
But, right at this moment, the man who had seemed soundly asleep a moment before suddenly snapped open his eyes!
Di Lin didn’t even have the time to take back his little branch before Zuo Feng’s hand shot out and grabbed it!