EDMLSFM Chapter 33: And then, the kiss that landed on Chen Bai’s forehead.

Translated by JayQue of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Gwyndolyn, Kris

 

Chen Bai swore that if he had known his actions just now would make Heinz’ emotions spike and fall in waves for the whole ride, he would have behaved himself and not played any tricks.

This fellow’s fluctuating emotions had bothered him for the entire ride, making Chen Bai overly aware of all of his movements. The end result being both of their gazes constantly meeting in midair, and Heinz looking like he desperately wanted to whisk out his light screen every time their gazes met, not even able to pilot the mech properly.

Regarding the fact that whenever Heinz made any movement and Chen Bai’s gaze would automatically look over, Chen Bai felt a sense of novelty from it. Whether it was because his mental energy was too strong, too sensitive, or some other reason, he felt that, ever since Ellie’s banquet when he let his mental tentacles creep into this man’s mind to protect him from being incapacitated by the magentites, his own mental energy seemed to automatically capture some of Heinz’ reactions swiftly now. 

It was also an instinctive and unconscious action. Chen Bai had tried to have less of a strong reaction, but it was no use. As long as Heinz was beside him, his own mental energy was attracted to the other, and he couldn’t help but pay attention to him.

For little things in everyday life, he could perhaps shield some himself, but Heinz’ emotions were fluctuating too much in this entire trip, and Chen Bai couldn’t shield himself from them even if he wanted to.

Chen Bai also discovered that not only could he easily capture some of Heinz’ stronger emotional changes, he could even easily read some of the thoughts that leaked out of the edge of his mind under some specific circumstances.

This was very difficult in reality. One must know that even though psychological manipulation was Heinz’ weak point, he was still an SSS ranked explosive manipulator. When exploring the thoughts around his brain region casually, a simple mistake could very likely cause a backlash from his powerful mental energy. If the psychological manipulator doing that was even a little less competent, it was not impossible for him to just drop dead on the spot.

Otherwise, because Chen Bai suspected Heinz hadn’t really lost his memories, he wouldn’t have given up the opportunity to investigate again and again.

But now, Chen Bai felt that some things had changed ever so slightly. He now easily acquired information from the edge of Heinz’ brain region, and the other’s mental energy didn’t seem like it was affected at all…

That feeling was like a languid dragon turning a blind eye to his actions, only breathing out a light breath, having no intention whatsoever to use its own powerful weapon.

Was this the trust Heinz gave him?

Chen Bai thought.

Whether it was or wasn’t, he still wasn’t sure. But Chen Bai didn’t know whether to laugh or cry whenever Heinz’ seemingly casual actions were actually him itching to whip out his light screen. Especially when he intentionally let out his mental energy to swirl around Heinz’ brain region and spotted a pink image and some blurry web pages, as well as the densely packed words on it, Chen Bai couldn’t help but curl his lips.

This state of Heinz’ continued on until both of them had finished dinner before it finally calmed down a little.

“Going home?” After dinner, Heinz leaned on the side of the mech as he looked at Chen Bai walking over to him. The latter was following behind, his hand holding onto the fruit smoothie the waiter had given for his extra order.

The flavor was specifically chosen and remembered by Heinz; the flavor that Chen Bai likes.

“You chose it?” Immediately recognizing the taste with one sip, Chen Bai glanced at the waiter, understanding what had happened.

“Mn, when I took you to lunch before, I saw that you seem to enjoy eating desserts,” Heinz said as he very gentlemanly opened the door of the mech for Chen Bai.

“Thanks.” Chen Bai smiled. He didn’t hate Heinz. For his likes to be remembered by someone he didn’t hate, it was quite a joyous thing for him.

Heinz smiled and turned to his side. The two of them stood beside the door. After spending a lot of time with him, Chen Bai didn’t seem to reject Heinz much anymore. When the latter suddenly changed his posture, he thought it was for them to talk more conveniently. But from an outsider’s perspective, their positions were no different from couples who were very intimate with each other. 

“If you still don’t feel like going home, I can bring you to a place.” Leaning on the door, Heinz smiled faintly, then reached out a hand to lightly tug at Chen Bai’s ears which were reddening from the night wind, while blinking at him. “A very beautiful place.”

He looked like he was actively offering, since Chen Bai never said he didn’t want to go home. But since he asked, and it was still early, Chen Bai would of course not reject it. Regarding his intimate gestures…

Chen Bai seemed as if he had gotten used to it. He flashed a smile at Heinz, then got into the mech.

After about a half hour trip, Heinz brought Chen Bai to Aldia.

To be honest, when he saw the familiar buildings appearing in front of him, Chen Bai turned blank. He could never guess that the beautiful place Heinz spoke about was this. And when the other flipped them into the school with ease, as if he had arrived at Aldia’s tallest building’s light elevator as if he had done this hundreds of thousands of times, Chen Bai seemed to understand something.

Aldia was a sacred palace in the people’s eyes. Many influential characters in the Alliance had come out of this place. The teachers who worked here, the students who studied here, every single person saw it as a regal existence, giving birth to outstanding new generations for the Alliance. With this image of Aldia, probably no one would connect it with romantic words.

But there was one location well suited for a date.

“There are many planetariums in the Alliance. But the one in Aldia is the best, whether in location or decoration,” after Heinz opened the door, he spoke as he walked in.

He actually did like this place. Chen Bai could even feel that when Heinz walked in, his whole body seemed to relax.

Chen Bai was still standing outside the door, underneath the moonlight shining through the glass in the dark, looking at Heinz.

He knew this place. This planetarium very rarely opened to the public, usually only catering to astronomy students. A non-astronomy student Chen Bai had accidentally discovered this place, then… he brought a teenage Heinz here.

Two adolescents with their identities reverted back in time. They would hardly ever stand together in the outside world, but they would always come back to this place at the same time by coincidence. It wasn’t until the Silver Competition that he was forced to enter Berkeley’s embrace.

Chen Bai once believed that if his relationship with Heinz had flourished during the Silver Competition, then its sprout would have been at this planetarium.

Even though this guy can’t remember… maybe not.

“Very beautiful place,” Chen Bai said, taking a step in. He looked at the painting-like night sky outside the transparent glass, “Before I came here for work, I’ve looked through a lot of information. And yet I didn’t know there was such a wonderful place here.”

“It’s normal. Aside from astronomy students from the academy, almost no one can enter here,” Heinz said as he shrugged, “Of course, those who can study Astronomy in Aldia are mostly geniuses. Compared to this pretty environment, they are more attracted to seeing the things inside.”

Aldia’s Astronomy program students were often thought of as book worms, but that was just describing their attitude towards knowledge. Today, capturing the movements of the universe was one of the areas the Alliance needed to advance most, so the requirements for astronomers were getting more and more demanding, and similar areas were also hungry for more candidates.

“Then how did you find this place?”

Under the shine of the moonlight, Chen Bai tilted his head over, and his eyes seemed as if they were filled with stars. Even that mediocre face, right here and now, seemed to brighten up the atmosphere.

Heinz seemed like he was staring stupidly for some time. After a while, he leaned on the table behind him. “… A friend brought me here.”

“Friend?” Chen Bai lifted an eyebrow.

“Mn.” As though reminded of something sad, Heinz lowered his eyelids. “A very important friend, but I can’t remember who he is, only a little boy who was not too tall and was very cute when he smiled.”

“…” Chen Bai paused. Absent-mindedly, his pupils shrank.

“Forgetting him isn’t because of the passage of time. If it was so, I probably won’t ever forget him.

“I remember that there was such a person. My memories of my time in Aldia were all very blurry, but I know a lot of things I shouldn’t know, like this planetarium. And when I’m here, it always feels like I’m not supposed to be alone, like there should be another person by my side.”

The hand hanging by his leg tightened unconsciously. Chen Bai blinked, and tried to relax his voice and said, “Didn’t you go see a doctor?”

Hearing Chen Bai’s soft and gentle voice, Heinz shook his head, “You know, the Alliance did surveys on mental controllers’ brain regions… In other words, because the field of psychological manipulation is not strong, I know no one can explain my situation. Even if I told someone… They would only say that it’s because the Silver Competition was too intense and made my mind hallucinate.”

Chen Bai’s gaze was pinned on Heinz from the beginning to the end. When he heard those words, those scenes that he used to suppress from reminiscing floated into his mind. He nearly used up all of his effort to stop the words about to come out of his mouth.

“What if it’s true?” His voice still sounded normal, but his nails were already digging deeper into his palm. “I also know one or two things in this field… you know, the Silver Competition was always Aldia’s most demanding competition. An elimination race lasting for several months, with those unbelievable requirements; it can easily make the competitors feel a sense of helplessness, and they would imagine someone who always accompanies them…”

“No, it’s not,” Heinz suddenly cut him off, and his tone was never so heavy before. A pair of blue eyes looked towards Chen Bai, the raging emotions inside seemed as if it could swallow him up in an instant. “I can tell; it’s not.

“I swear, he must be a close friend that’s very important to me. In the first thirty years of my life, no one was more important to me than him.”

The clear edge of the glass was softened by the shine of the light. If Heinz didn’t use the words ‘close friend’, Chen Bai would have wondered if he was trying to confess intimately to someone.

And very unwisely doing it in front of his fiancé.

He could actually interrupt Heinz. With his identity, interrupting Heinz wasn’t something he couldn’t do. But when those eyes looked at him, Chen Bai kept feeling… that those words were actually for him to hear. The intense conveying of emotions, Chen Bai could hardly escape from it.

“I know this Berkeley organization. I also tracked it for almost ten years, for him.”

…

Chen Bai had once thought hypothetically: what would he do if Heinz remembered everything.

The event had evidently happened. No matter how strong a psychological manipulator was, they can’t wipe it all away without leaving a trace. A habit is something carved deep into the bone, and no one can just cut it off easily.

A very long time had passed after what had happened between him and Heinz, long enough that they had become two parallel lines that would almost never meet in the vast universe, until he decided to come back to Venus using this method.

When he was doing this, someone had asked him if he chose Heinz as the intersection point  because he still couldn’t let go. Chen Bai had very decisively said that was impossible.

It had been nearly twenty years; he should have crushed it beneath his feet when he was still walking on the edge of swords and knives.

“I like you.

“The eyes can deceive the brain but not instincts. Your appearance was like the most special gift the Heavens could give me; the only bright light while I was sailing through the universe.”

When Heinz spoke these two lines with a deep and low voice, Chen Bai could feel his heart beating wildly.

Meeting that pair of light blue eyes, Chen Bai could barely hold back from picking up his own identity in front of him, couldn’t help but want to tell him who he was, couldn’t help but awaken all the lonely memories that only he remembered.

To tear him apart, then let him wrap around himself. To carve down an indelible imprint on him, so he could never forget again.

Their lips tangled together, unwilling to part. Both their bodies felt like they were burnt by fire, tightly embracing the other as though wishing for nothing more than to have their bodies connected like this.

Chen Bai, who had fallen into habitual silence ever since entering the planetarium, suddenly had his passion burst out, raging strong even after both of them had stumbled home.

Heinz’ mental energy effortlessly caught onto his mind, their entwined bodies spurring on their brain regions. When Chen Bai reached out to touch every inch of Heinz’ skin, he had to resist the temptation of scratching out a mark with great difficulty.

“Babe…” Having all the hollowness in his body filled to the brim with satisfaction, Heinz couldn’t help but let out a sigh. His large hand covered Chen Bai’s neck, gently stroking his Adam’s apple, his eyes seemingly unable to resist swallowing the other whole.

Chen Bai’s rationality pulled back sharply, just when Heinz was about to enter his body.

Even if they hadn’t bonded yet, he still had sunk deeply into the other’s mental energy and the wonderful touch of his body. When he forcefully pulled back, all the cells in his body protested against him.

Until Heinz fell unconscious beside him.

No.

Chen Bai took a deep breath.

He couldn’t.

He wasn’t sure if they could topple Berkeley. The longer Berkeley stayed standing, the longer he couldn’t reveal himself. The moment Berkeley figured out his identity, they would set up traps everywhere, just for his death.

Not to mention, he wasn’t really a suitable partner for Heinz’.

If someone wasn’t chosen by the Divine Realm, it just meant that the other person had not yet reached the age to enter the Divine Realm. With his and Heinz’ age, if they were truly matched with each other, the Divine Realm would have made the judgement ten years ago.

So he couldn’t.

Chen Bai slowly turned his head, a pair of ink-black eyes landing on Heinz’ face. The gaze seemed as if it contained endless tenderness, the creeping mental energy also stained with this gentleness, yet he still ruthlessly wiped away the contents of their conversation at the planetarium from Heinz’ mind.

Casually fabricating some memories of their joining, Chen Bai felt as if he had used up all of his strength.

He took a deep breath, the veins on his hands and temples throbbing slightly. It was at this time that he noticed the wounds he had gotten from the breakfast shop seemed to have reopened. Whether it was from when they were running too hastily from the Stone Recognition Competition or from the rigorous activities just now, they seemed to reappear again.

When he registered the pain, Chen Bai finally regained his sense of reason. His constant vigilance as well as being cautious when diving into Heinz’ brain region had sapped all of his energy. Closing his eyes, Chen Bai’s body relaxed, and he fell into a deep sleep.

After an unknown amount of time, Heinz, who was lying right beside him and supposedly had fallen unconscious earlier, slowly opened his eyes. He pulled out the medical kit prepared earlier from underneath the bed and gently treated the other’s reopened wounds. Then, he leaned beside the pillows, silently watching as Chen Bai dreamed away.

Probably trusting the other instinctively, Chen Bai didn’t startle awake.

Like this, Heinz stared at him for some time. Then, as though making a firm decision, he reached out a hand to Chen Bai’s neck. The warm palm caressed for a bit, then touched a piece of skin that one without any experience would not have felt it being any different to a real patch of skin.

If he tore this away, he would be able to see the face he thought about every day.

But Heinz’ hand stopped there. After a long while, only a sigh was heard in the dark room, and then, the kiss that landed on Chen Bai’s forehead.

“Goodnight, babe.”