EDMLSFM Chapter 51: Meeting Heinz’ mischievous smirk behind him, Chen Bai’s face was as dark as the bottom of a pot.

Translated by JayQue of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Kris, Gwyndolyn

 

“Thank you, thank you all!” Xiao Hao was overjoyed beyond measure as her group members were brought out peacefully. But when she remembered that Chen YiBai was still in the basement, uncertain of his life or death, her face drooped. She would say those words whenever the Alliance soldiers pulled out another member and replied to her questions.

But she wasn’t the only one wracked with anxiety. With Head Fang’s special condition, she had to stay by him to take care of him.

However, it was different for Mundi’s group. Aside from Waldo, all of them were standing guard outside the base, even Carlyle had gone as well. They stood with the soldiers Heinz had sent out, all of them surrounding the base with solemn expressions.

Although they had heard nothing else, all of them had felt a supercharged energy burst out of the base half an hour ago. Before the soldiers heading inside had been kicked out by Heinz, they had brought Professor Vanda and a few others out of there.

It could only be said that they were brought out because half of them… couldn’t be saved due to the severe injuries in their brain regions. Aside from the three who were knocked unconscious by Chen YiBai, the others were given a death notice by a military doctor on the spot.

Seeing half of them brain dead from brain region shattering, and the rest unconscious with severe injuries, all of the people waiting outside became so high-strung that even their postures couldn’t help but become tense.

Aside from Carlyle who sat and waited distractedly on the grassy ground without any energy, the others had stood for nearly two hours before Heinz and Chen YiBai finally appeared.

……

Before they came out, Chen Bai and Heinz had discussed not exposing his identity or face mask. While his brain region had inexplicably healed after their mental energy had melded together, Chen Bai was still slightly fatigued. Thus, he let Heinz cover his face as they went back to his mech. As long as they didn’t meet anyone casually during this move, then they could still cover these up temporarily.

As for the other things, Chen Bai promised to give Heinz a rational explanation after everything had settled down. But both of them were not fools, the moment Chen Bai’s mask had been torn from his face, both of them had come to their own conclusions for this situation.

They had only stopped Ray Ming for now. They didn’t have the capability to control the flesh piece, and the actual big fish of Berkeley hadn’t surfaced yet. With how the situation had progressed until now, they might even alert the enemy.

Mulling it over in his head, Chen Bai thought of a small idea. Just now, Heinz’… was torn to shreds by him, and his clothes had a lot of tears, not to mention the marks left from using too much force, which were similar to Chen Bai’s own.

They could use these injuries to fake how dangerous the situation inside was, with Chen Bai on the brink of death and Heinz hauling him out with much effort and difficulty.

With this, they could also let the eyes and ears Berkeley had planted here spread some rumors.

Ray Ming’s loss of contact was indeed bad news for Berkeley, but it might not be so bad if not a single person who had entered the cave came out. First, it said that Heinz might not have acquired news of the flesh piece, and second, it meant that the military also had no way of dealing with that thing.

At this time, Berkeley would have two choices. One was to give up; the other was to risk it. If it was any other thing, Berkeley might have made a sensible choice, but this was different.

They had already surfaced from the waters, so there was only one path to walk now. That was why Chen Bai thought that Berkeley would choose to take the risk.

It was uncertain how big of a fish they would be able to capture, but if Berkeley knew that the flesh piece had such a large destructive power that even Ray Ming couldn’t manage it, then there was a very high possibility they’d let Dr. Einbergen get it for them.

Everything would be fine as long as they acted well and followed the clues. If the flesh piece was not taken by Berkeley, then they could disrupt a large part of Berkeley’s plans.

Therefore, Chen Bai pretended that he was riddled with scars and was carried out on Heinz’ back, soaking up the sympathetic gazes of everyone as Heinz carried him back to his mech—Fire Beacon. Then, he jumped down and tidied up his hair with his back to the other.

Seeing this, Heinz curved up a corner of his lips, “There are clothes in the cupboard; left side is your size. Just take it out and wear it.”

Chen Bai was stunned, though his clothes were really in tatters. Thus, he looked over to where the other indicated and saw that there were indeed two partitioned cupboards. He had seen when the partition had been opened earlier… but he had never thought that it would contain his own clothes.

He walked over and pulled out two pieces of clothing, smiling, “Ample preparation.”

“Hm?” Heinz turned his head from playing with his light screen. He only reacted and remembered what the other had said after seeing the cupboard. He shook his head and said simply, “That was prepared a long time ago… three years ago?”

Quickly putting on a coat and discovering that it fit, Chen Bai heard this and turned blank. He turned his head, “That early?”

After he said that, he had a complicated gaze, “You had already expected I would come back that early? Or…”

“Mn, I had a faint feeling that you would come back, so I prepared everything.” Heinz pursed his lips. His words ended there, he suddenly turned to smile at Chen Bai. “Do you believe it?”

His facial features were not born with a righteous air, so when Heinz smiled with a wicked idea in mind, he looked like he deserved a hit. Thus, Chen Bai furrowed his brow. “No.”

His idea to come back like this had been weighed many times before the decision was made. Any tiny branching off in the middle might have changed his decision, so he didn’t really believe Heinz’ faint feeling, even if the other was confident about it.

Their gazes met in midair. Heinz stared at him for a while before suddenly giving him a bright smile.

“Indeed, it’s not all true. This could probably only count as a habit that was formed unconsciously,” Heinz said as he put away his light screen and walked toward Chen Bai. “When I found out about you… a long time had already passed. For a normal person, their feelings should theoretically not be as strong as before. But I still had an inexplicable interest in you.

“That interest kept making me suffer; not knowing about your condition was just like torture to me. Soon after that, I started collecting news about you with all my effort, then… I let someone change my surrounding environment. I found that as long as there was something around that reminded me of you, I would feel much happier. I didn’t have any excessive expectations that you would really stand by me one day.”

“So, I must be really fortunate right now,” Heinz said as he put a hand on Chen Bai’s shoulder.

The latter paused, not saying anything.

Even though their constant interaction and Heinz’ thick face already made him less resistant to the intimate contact between them that had been unacceptable in the past, he thought that it had already reached the limit. But Chen Bai discovered that whether it was the uncontrollable emotions in the basement moments ago, or Heinz’ touch at this moment, he felt immensely… satisfied?

It was a satisfaction that he had not felt before, coming from deep within his soul and making contact with something he couldn’t help getting close to. Chen Bai narrowed his eyes, his mental energy finding something emitting heat in the depths of his brain region, and that feeling of when Heinz’ mental energy had melded with his in the basement surged again. He narrowed his eyes, was that the reason?

He let the other hug him from behind, satisfying the clamouring in his brain region for a bit before Chen Bai pushed Heinz away, “Any plans now?”

Honestly not wanting to let go, Heinz’ expression was a bit stiff. Though they had a breakthrough in the basement just now, he was still not satisfied, and now he was really regretting not shoving his mental energy along with himself inside Chen Bai’s body.

That feeling must be amazing…

Just as Heinz started thinking about it, Chen Bai’s body suddenly stiffened, and he turned his head over, his gaze bitter.

“Hm?” Suddenly meeting his gaze, Heinz tilted his head sideways.

“Don’t think about it.” Chen Bai’s body was frozen still, as though he didn’t know what to say. It was a long while before he pinched his temples, “Don’t think about those things that much… I can feel it.”

The consciousness of mutual desire, the instinct of intertwining with the other, the brain regions that were pressed close together… a shadow of Dr. Ramon wavered in his mind, as well as Xiao Hao and Head Fang. Chen Bai couldn’t help but purse his lips. Perhaps Dr. Ramon’s predictions were true, that this sort of relationship existed, and he and Heinz now were also…

From behind, Heinz went from being confused, to astonishment and then surprised. The next second, Chen Bai felt many more detailed and explicit scenes not suitable for children floating across his mind.

Meeting Heinz’ mischievous smirk behind him, Chen Bai’s face was as dark as the bottom of a pot.

After receiving immeasurable gazes from Chen Bai, Heinz finally felt relieved and blinked, acting innocent and replying to his questions on the next plans, “I’ve sent people to stop Dr. Einbergen’s escort team. If I’m not wrong, they should have reached him by now.”

“Speaking of which, I suddenly have a helpful little hacker with me, with many good resources in his hand,” Heinz blinked, not saying it. But Chen Bai knew who it was.

Mani?

Before he left, he did indeed tell Mani to help Heinz at any time, but even so, it was impossible for Mani to know Berkeley’s movements. Thinking about Black who had appeared in the basement, Chen Bai’s eyes glimmered slightly. Black did say that he would work on persuading Alan, so this was… successful?

“I have an idea.” Chen Bai suddenly said.

.

In an office somewhere in the military, a bunch of people were sitting at their desks waiting anxiously for the result, all of them like cats on a hot tin roof. After a long while, a lieutenant general finally looked at the general who was sipping his tea neither hurriedly nor slowly, and said with unbearable worry, “This, this, sir… has already been going for so long, why isn’t there a response? Could, could the Marshal have…”

He didn’t finish his words, but everyone in the room knew what the unfinished sentence meant.

For secrecy, Berkeley would only coordinate with them in the shadows, never letting them into its core territory, much less actually joining them. Though its immense strength and ideals had garnered a favorable response from the majority of the extremist party, it was very unstable internally. Usually, they would gain some benefit from Berkeley and give back a little benefit as well. It was a small thing and also their normal state.

But now, Berkeley directly flaunted their opposition to the Alliance, even forcing them to passively choose that side. Now, everyone was dumbfounded.

It was easy to get some fame and benefit, but who would dare take the stance of opposing the Alliance that casually?

Seeing as Heinz had just messed up their plans, ignored President Ruble’s safety and went straight to X-5 while they did nothing, how could they not be anxious?

As all of them waited for a response nervously, becoming more and more uncertain, a soldier suddenly walked in. He said a few words into the ear of the person sitting at the table. At the same time, a gleam of light flashed in the eyes of the general holding a teacup.

After a while, as though deciding on something, he nodded to the soldier.

.

“How confident are you?” Chen Bai had contacted Mani, trying to think of ways to spread the information they wanted Berkeley to know.

“Probably fifty percent,” Heinz said.

“You’re not afraid that President Ruble would blame you afterwards?” Chen Bai had already learned about what had happened at the roundtable meeting from before. He turned his head to give Heinz an intrigued look.

“It’s fine; I’m what they call a Casanova. So when the time comes, it’s just going back to where I came from,” Heinz said and winked at him.

Ever since they had become closer, this guy kept too lighthearted.

Chen Bai glared at him for a while before Heinz said honestly, “I’d already talked it out with President Ruble before. Dr. Einbergen had already mentioned to me about Ramon’s X-5 base earlier; both of them had been colleagues. I got the jurisdiction over this place early on, knowing that they’d come back, so I’ve made a lot of preparations.”

Chen Bai blinked.

“To serve here actively and prepare to get the authority for jurisdiction.”

Which meant… Heinz already knew everything from early on.

Though he didn’t know thoroughly everything about Berkeley, this was… enough.

Chen Bai considered this.

He couldn’t help feeling a warmth in his heart. In the past, he always thought that Berkeley had hidden itself perfectly, that if it was not for him, almost no one would ever find it. That was why he had always felt a heavy burden, that even after he had escaped from Berkeley’s evil clutches, he still couldn’t relax.

Such a big Berkeley, Chen Bai thought only he alone could stand in front of it and had even prepared to destroy everything indiscriminately.

But he never thought… There was Heinz.

This person’s involvement was just like lifting away half of his burden. And his way of operation and methods to hide made Chen Bai feel extremely safe.

Like a person who had wandered in the dark for too long then suddenly turned back to discover that there had always been a person around him, watching him, doing the same things as him, and was willing to take on the same responsibility.

And it was not just him.

The reason Chen Bai had come back but was still reluctant to tell Heinz everything was because he was afraid the other would jump into danger for him. If that happened, Chen Bai felt that he could never repay him.

But it was different now. Heinz might be in danger, but it was not for him. Even if it was related, it was not a new responsibility pressing down on his shoulders. This feeling made Chen Bai feel really happy.

Thus, he gave Heinz a sincere smile. The latter was stunned, looking slightly dumbfounded.

“Then let’s do the preparations. If everything goes as expected, it’ll be here soon.” Chen Bai said, tidying up the things in his hands. He took back his smile, said this short sentence and turned to leave.

Even as he left, the corners of his lips were carrying a smile.