Can’t Pretend Chapter 88: Heart-to-heart

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Kiramekineko

 

The fact that Ji Shanhong said that Emperor Hea was waiting for them was all just window dressing. What kind of person is Emperor Hea, how could he be waiting to see them in the middle of the night? Even if he was not asleep, he would not be so eager to see Xie Quan, how unimpressive?

So when Xie Quan arrived at the palace, Ji Shanhong took Xie Quan directly to a guest room to stay.

“Although I want you to stay in the old place, your identity has not been officially recognized, so I can only let you stay here first.” Ji Shanhong closed the curtains for Xie Quan, and thoughtfully poured him a glass of water. “Although I know you young people will not want to part for a moment after marking, but now the situation is special, you can not live together for the time being.”

Xie Quan held the cup that was shoved into his hand, the water in the cup was just the right temperature for his mouth, and he thought to himself that Ji Shanhong was really too “considerate”. He could have not taken Ji Cheying’s aspect into consideration as well. He asked, “How long do I have to stay here?”

Ji Shanhong raised his eyebrows. “This room?”

Xie Quan replied, “The palace.”

Ji Shanhong laughed and said in a tone of voice, as if speaking to a child, “This is your home, where else do you want to go?” Even though Xie Quan could not see, he bowed slightly at Xie Quan. “Your Highness, rest early.”

The time was already late, and it was already midnight after all the trouble. The satin covers were wrapped around his body, and his eyes were as dark when he opened them as they were when he closed them, but he kept them open out of habit.

His eyes were gradually regaining their ability to see after the treatment, and he was able to have a weak sense of light, and in a while he should be able to barely see, as well as his legs and feet, which had regained some sense when he got into bed just now.

I need to recover soon. I can’t just wait around now.

He ran his hand over the soft satin quilt, outside the window was quiet—no sound, not even the sound of insects, let alone the noise of traffic. Only the rustle of the breeze blowing against the branches of the trees, flowing at night like water. Such a combination could only be found inside the palace.

In the suburbs, far from the city, the sound of the wind can be heard, but at the same time—there must be an incessant sound of insects. In the city, where the sound of insects was less, there would be the whistling sound of traffic. Only in the palace were there people to remove those annoying cicadas and insects, to isolate all the noise, as if isolated from the world.

He didn’t think there would be a day he would come back.

However, his memory and feelings for this palace were not deep, there was no sentimental nostalgia, but only felt that it was God’s will. The person who tried so hard to occupy this city left, and he—a person who has no feelings and obsessions about this city—came back.

Xie Quan thought about the face that resembled his own, about that person, about what Ji Shanhong had said to him on the hover car today, that they missed him and wanted to start the research of beta re-differentiation again.

Beta re-differentiation? Are they really unaware of this, or is this just an excuse for them to cause trouble? There was no possibility of beta re-differentiation. That man doesn’t deserve anyone’s remembrance either.

Xie Quan slowly closed his eyes and suddenly realized that he hadn’t been able to make machinery in peace for quite a while.

I’m sorry. It’s hard. When will all this crap end. He thought about his toolbox and workshop. Xie Quan snapped his eyes open. Oh yeah. He had forgotten about the mecha in the apartment!

Just then, the floor-to-ceiling window door leading to the balcony rattled, the door was gently opened, and the heavy curtains had the sound of lifting, but also as if the wind was blowing up.

Xie Quan twitched the tip of his nose, he immediately bounced up from the bed, and then shouted seriously, “Ji Cheying!”

“…” The figure that had infiltrated the room jerked and paused. Ji Cheying looked stiffly at Xie Quan who sat up in the night and breathed chokingly.

Although Ji Cheying had carried out many infiltration missions and experienced many thrilling times, this kind of heartbeat that was scared to miss a beat was still uncommon, and obviously he was not afraid of being discovered by Xie Quan. Why was he shouting like this, but somehow he felt like a thief?

Ji Cheying coughed lightly, trying to ease his embarrassment. “Why are you still awake?” After a pause, he asked curiously, “How did you know it was me?”

And so quick to respond.

Xie Quan pointed to his nose. “Pheromone.” He was very sensitive to the smell of Ji Cheying’s pheromone at the moment, even if he had on a glandular body patch, regular people may have been less able to smell that pheromone, but in his case it was extraordinarily obvious.

Even if his nose had not yet smelled it, his body had a restless reaction. But that’s not the point. Xie Quan said, “You’re just in time.”

Ji Cheying was puzzled.

Xie Quan asked, “The mecha I put in the apartment, have you seen it?”

Ji Cheying was silent.

Xie Quan didn’t hear Ji Cheying’s answer and explained, “It’s the one in human form, it’s still an unfinished product, no shell, just a skeleton.”

Ji Cheying hesitated for half a second and asked, “Why are you suddenly asking about this?”

Xie Quan said seriously, “It is very important.”

Ji Cheying was silent again, and he closed his eyes with some headache. He had asked Yan Siyu to find someone to complete the remaining unfinished parts of the mecha in order to save Xie Quan, and then he drove it to save Xie Quan.

Now the mecha is still lying in the basement of the house. He wanted to find a good time to confess to Xie Quan that he had stolen his weapon again, and to tell him that the mecha had been tainted and was no longer pure…

The result was this: the wave had not subsided, the wave had risen again, and he did not think up what to say at all. This was good, people ask directly.

Thinking of Xie Quan’s angry face earlier when he took his cannon, Ji Cheying turned around, closed the window that was opened first, and pulled the curtains, leaving only a slit to let the moonlight leak in. He walked to Xie Quan’s bed and sat down, then he answered discreetly, “I saw it, it’s still in the apartment, what’s wrong?”

It was better to wait until he had restored the mecha to its original skeletal form.

Xie Quan heard and breathed a sigh of relief. “I was afraid you would throw it away.”

Ji Cheying replied seriously, “How could I be such a person?” At best, he had used it! He had no choice! The situation was urgent!

Xie Quan nodded. “That’s fine.” Then he asked in confusion, “How did you get in through the window? They wouldn’t let you come to see me?”

Ji Cheying was relieved to see Xie Quan change the subject and said, “That’s not true, but coming in through the front door would have been uncomfortable to be watched. How are you?”

Xie Quan tilted his head slightly. “What can I do?”

He narrowed his eyes, trying to catch the outline of the person in front of him, but in vain. He sighed silently inwardly. Still can’t see him. Giving up trying, Xie Quan asked, “What did you come to see me for?”

After Xie Quan asked this, Ji Cheying remembered why he had come. He looked at Xie Quan by the moonlight, his hair was a bit messy from lying on the bed earlier, so that his forehead hair slightly covered his eyes.

Ji Cheying asked, “I came to see how you are doing; secondly, I wanted to ask you why you stopped me today?”

Xie Quan froze, “What stopped you?”

Ji Cheying frowned, but his voice was calm. “Didn’t you take the initiative to reveal your identity in order to divert the attention of the third prince, and the question Ji Shanhong asked me, you didn’t want me to answer it, did you?”

When Ji Shanhong asked him if he would not regret it, Xie Quan digressed, and not only that, his body looked tense. He was resisting his answer. Xie Quan pursed his lips, just silent.

As time dripped by, Ji Cheying looked at the silent Xie Quan, his brow deepened, and he asked in staccato, “You want to write me off?”

Yes, this is the reason why he wanted to come here even if he was up late at night. If Xie Quan was sleeping, he would look and leave. If Xie Quan was still awake, he wanted to ask him.

What is his attitude?

Xie Quan sighed inaudibly. He slightly averted his eyes, obviously also invisible, but he felt unable to look directly at that person, he slowly said, “There is nothing to skim or not to skim, these things had nothing to do with you.”

This time it was Ji Cheying’s turn to be silent. He looked at Xie Quan in silence, his eyes focused and deep, as if he wanted to see something in Xie Quan, but when he found nothing, his eyes could only gradually dim, like dark clouds covering the moonlight outside. In the silence of the room, he asked, as if with a sigh, “Nothing to do with me? Do you really think so?”

In that voice, there was even a bit of fatigue and weakness.

Xie Quan’s teeth bit into the soft inner flesh of his lips, slightly painfully.

Ji Cheying laughed, his voice tinged with a bit of sarcastic laughter, and he gently asked, “You still don’t believe me now, do you?”

Ji Cheying was sitting on the edge of Xie Quan’s bed, and the distance between them was so close that Xie Quan seemed to feel the warmth of his helpless sighs, like a rainy day, making people gloomy.

Xie Quan’s hands silently gripped the bedding.

Ji Cheying looked at Xie Quan’s silent appearance and sighed lightly again.

In fact, he already knew the answer, didn’t he? It can’t be helped. Who made him fall in love with such a cold-hearted person? I really hope that at this time, he can give him more trust. Even a little bit?

Ji Cheying also couldn’t bear to force Xie Quan again, he stood up, the mattress slightly bounced back. “It’s okay, you go to bed early, tomorrow should not be easy either, I’ll leave first.”

Looking deeply at Xie Quan, Ji Cheying turned around, pulled back the curtains and was about to leave when a soft voice came from behind him. “Actually, I thought carefully, if I go back to before, would I still choose to push open the door and help you through the susceptible period?”

Ji Cheying stopped his movements and even held his breath there, silently waiting for Xie Quan’s answer.

Xie Quan paused before he replied, “I still would.”

He couldn’t see, so he wasn’t sure what Ji Cheying’s expression was now, or even where Ji Cheying was. Ji Cheying was so quiet that he seemed to have disappeared from the room, but Xie Quan knew he was still there, that burning pheromone was still here, still wrapped around him, making his heart beat unconsciously faster.

But he still didn’t speak with any urgency, he just said slowly, “I don’t really understand why you did so much for me and came to my rescue despite the danger, but I thought about it. If you were the one in distress, I might have done the same.” Xie Quan’s eyelashes trembled gently. “So, if you were in the middle of this—everything—would you want to involve me in it?”

He could feel the familiar pheromone coming closer and closer to him, but he didn’t reject it, and even longed for his proximity. His drooping eyelash feathers were like resting butterflies, resting on that jade-like skin, “If your answer is no, then your feelings and my feelings at this moment, are the same. It’s not that I don’t trust you…”

“Since our moods are the same, can you understand what I want to do at this moment?” Ji Cheying’s voice suddenly sounded, right in front of Xie Quan, just a stone’s throw away from him, and even after saying this, the distance between them was still drawing closer, so close that his body heat was burning into Xie Quan’s heart, and his breath was making Xie Quan’s scalp tingle.

No one knew how excited Ji Cheying was at this moment and how excited he was.

No one knew how Ji Cheying’s eyes lit up when he heard Xie Quan’s confession.

He knew exactly what he wanted, and he loved him deeply.

But he could never understand Xie Quan’s heart, and he even felt that Xie Quan did not care about him. Xie Quan said to him at this moment that his feelings and his own were the same.  Although Xie Quan did not mention his heart in a single sentence, this is already more than clear. This time, he would definitely not be mistaken.

Xie Quan also liked him.

Ji Cheying’s hands covered Xie Quan’s hands on his sides, watching Xie Quan become silent under his question, but the tips of his ears betrayed a blush. He smiled, happy and content, like a child. “You really do understand.”

How could Xie Quan not understand?

Ji Cheying was now like a walking aphrodisiac. As expected, the next second, the overwhelming kiss came, as if to pull him completely into a drowning ocean.

He really wished he could see.