Chapter 70: You Get Love at First Sight, But Not Me?!

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Lu Yao lifted his head and gazed up at Zhou Yunchen, his body leaning slightly forward, as if he might topple into the broad warmth of the alpha’s embrace. Yet he did not. Lu Yao steadied himself with one hand on the sofa armrest, sitting firmly, his brows lightly furrowed, bearing an expression both serious and earnest.

It was as if he was not discussing marks, touches, or any of the intensely private topics between them, but simply asking Zhou Yunchen for the answer to a complex equation. Lu Yao had never been sentimental, nor did he suffer from embarrassment at such intimate words. He approached emotions rationally—but rationality did not mean coldness. He never treated people as mere data; he understood that humans were humans.

Every person had their own will, their own choices. Lu Yao could sense certain emotions in Zhou Yunchen’s actions, but he could not use them alone to conclude whether Zhou Yunchen loved him or not. Only Zhou Yunchen himself could speak that truth.

When Lu Yao’s voice finally came, it carried a sincerity and depth that seemed capable of piercing the very fabric of time and space. Yet the words left Zhou Yunchen unable to remain calm. A surge of fiery heat rushed to his head, like a powerful computer virus crashing his reason in an instant.

All that remained was a raging blaze in his chest, igniting every emotion within him: confusion, regret, joy, shock, and desire all entangled, wild and overwhelming, nearly choking off his voice. He had never imagined that he would have a chance, let alone that Lu Yao would ask him this…

“I…” Zhou Yunchen’s throat was dry. “I would regret it.”

Lu Yao said he was willing to accept Zhou Yunchen. For fifteen years, Zhou Yunchen had been convincing himself to stay away from Lu Yao—to spare him pain and suffering, and to avoid plunging himself into the worst-case scenario: being despised, losing even a glance of connection. Yet countless nights in dreams, Zhou Yunchen imagined if those tragic pasts had never occurred, and if he had married Lu Yao, could he have won his heart?

But what did Lu Yao’s heart truly look like? Zhou Yunchen had never seen it and could not imagine it. Now he knew. Lu Yao was never a bird in the forest, dazzling in plumage to lure a hunter. He was a mountain stream, born from the icy melt of snowcaps. No one could hunt this stream—they could only quietly wait, sensing the quiet depth beneath its flowing surface.

“Is that so?” Lu Yao murmured. “Why regret it? It’s not too late… the future is long. There’s no need to rush, unless you’re regretting your past self. But that night, we had only met once. You didn’t know me, you couldn’t have loved me yet. Why regret it?”

“It wasn’t our first meeting on our wedding night.”

Lu Yao blinked. “Right. Our first meeting was in the CROSS Laboratory on P999. I… I’ve often thought about it—your memory is so good that, after all these years, you still remembered me.”

He remembered how disheveled he had been: struck repeatedly by guards’ steel batons, bleeding from head and ears, battered and bruised, clothes torn, face smeared with blood and dust, crying out in despair. Even the AI on the medevac ship had failed to identify him.

Zhou Yunchen looked at Lu Yao, a profound sorrow drifting in his eyes that Lu Yao could not decipher. He slowly crouched, finally half-kneeling before Lu Yao. The light of the window shimmered across Lu Yao’s face and eyes. Zhou Yunchen grasped his hand like a valiant, devoted knight pledging loyalty to a deity. “That wasn’t our first meeting either, Lu Yao.”

Lu Yao froze. “When else did we meet?” Zhou Yunchen’s fingers brushed over the back of Lu Yao’s hand—smooth and cool, free of calluses, yet revealing the raised knuckles and veins beneath. Lu Yao’s own fingers twitched, linking with Zhou Yunchen’s palm, evoking a subtle tickle. “When?” Lu Yao asked again.

“At Morningstar Military Academy. You were standing on stage delivering a speech as a student representative, bathed in light. I watched you from below.” Once he began, there was no turning back. Zhou Yunchen’s voice grew smoother, as if releasing two decades of unspoken words. “Even the first time I met you, without truly knowing you… it was enough for me to fall in love with you.”

The pink reflections of sunset shimmered in Lu Yao’s eyes, like evening lotuses swaying in the wind. “You…” Lu Yao could not speak. Zhou Yunchen’s words wove a web around his heart, tightening with every syllable. What did it mean to fall in love at first sight…

“Lu Yao, I fell in love with you at first sight.” Lu Yao lifted his gaze, staring straight into Zhou Yunchen’s eyes. It was as if time and space had blurred; with a single movement, he could grasp the drifting fragments of the past and the deep, lingering love suspended in the river of years. He almost forgot to breathe.

It wasn’t until the western sun reflected off the glass into his eyes that he snapped back, gasping and asking, “Why didn’t you come to me? Why did you leave during the three years of our marriage?”

Lu Yao realized that if Zhou Yunchen had truly wished, he didn’t need to leave immediately each time he returned to New Blue Star, without so much as a hint of hesitation or lingering. If Zhou Yunchen had already loved him as he claimed, then why remain silent? Why not stay? Could it be because Zhou Yunchen wasn’t from New Blue Star? That his views on love and marriage were entirely different from the New Blue Star humans who inherited Earth’s ideals?

Lu Yao tried to recall Zhou Yunchen’s home planet. He only remembered that the media often reported Zhou Yunchen was born in poverty, orphaned, and had worked his way from a marginal, backward world to the heart of Federation power. Where exactly did he come from? Lu Yao realized he had never cared enough to know.

But now, he worried: Zhou Yunchen might hail from a world with its own independent values—where people could love only one person in their lifetime, a love so deep it belonged solely to them. They would indulge in it privately, never sharing it with the beloved, leaving no room for worry about reciprocation or heartbreak.

In his interstellar cultural studies, a professor had mentioned that people from the Moga Constellation upheld such beliefs, living lives full of passionate delight, in harmonious societies. But Lu Yao, born and raised on New Blue Star, could not accept such love. Zhou Yunchen could not selfishly keep love only for himself while leaving the one he loved utterly unaware.

He gripped Zhou Yunchen’s hand, almost turning the alpha’s palm blue with the pressure. Zhou Yunchen, what are you thinking? 

Feeling the sharp pain from Lu Yao’s grasp, Zhou Yunchen saw surprise in his eyes shift to an urgent questioning. Had he angered him again?

“I didn’t know if you could accept me,” Zhou Yunchen said. “You refused every alpha who tried to get close.” As he spoke, a realization struck him. The earlier surge of joy had nearly drowned his will. Now that reason returned, it brought with it a long-unanswered question he had pondered for years. “Lu Yao, you said you would have accepted my mark three years ago—is that because of the pheromone match?”

What else distinguished him from those other alphas who wanted to be near Lu Yao? He merely had a slight physiological advantage, allowing Lu Yao to become his legal omega.

“You…” Lu Yao found himself speechless. At least Zhou Yunchen’s answer confirmed his approach to love was not like the Moga people. But the more Lu Yao thought, the tighter his chest felt. Even his usually icy expression darkened with anger. He lifted his foot and kicked Zhou Yunchen, who was half-kneeling, sending him crashing to the floor.

The world spun. Zhou Yunchen’s dazed mind hadn’t caught up when the back of his head hit the carpet. He blinked, seeing a pair of reddened eyes. Rage surged through Lu Yao’s face, making his sharp features burn even more vividly. He had wanted to stay rational—but now, emotions flared uncontrollably, leaving no room for calm.

He straddled Zhou Yunchen, leaning over, hands braced near his ears. “Zhou Yunchen, if you had come sooner, if there had never been this so-called AO match, I would have said the same thing. What would you still doubt? What do I mean to you—just a statue? A painting? Am I allowed to do nothing?”

“No…” Zhou Yunchen gazed at Lu Yao’s long, wing-like eyelashes, slightly dazed. “But why should I… Lu Yao…” He reached out, fingertips brushing Lu Yao’s lashes, like soft brushes sweeping over his heart.

“Only you are allowed to fall in love at first sight. Why can’t I?”

Zhou Yunchen’s mind went blank. His fingers slid uncontrollably, from Lu Yao’s eyelashes to his nose, then philtrum, and finally to his lips—where they were bitten. Lu Yao’s eye teeth pressed against Zhou Yunchen’s finger, grinding slightly before he bit down fully. A round drop of blood instantly formed and dripped onto Zhou Yunchen’s tongue and pale lips.

After a moment, he was released. Zhou Yunchen felt the wet, soft sensation across his sensitive fingertips. The wound stung. “Lu Yao…”

Lu Yao held his finger in his mouth, sucking the blood clean. He couldn’t speak, but his ice-blue eyes fixed unwaveringly on Zhou Yunchen. To an outsider, the stern, cold Zhou Yunchen and the aloof, indifferent Lu Yao might seem similar—but inside, they were worlds apart.

Zhou Yunchen’s love at first sight was fierce and sincere. Love was love, liking was liking; pure and immediate. But any second thought brought hesitation and worry—not for himself, but for Lu Yao. Would he be displeased? Would he despise him? Was he unworthy? He feared causing Lu Yao distress.

He was a fire suppressed beneath ice. Lu Yao was the glacier itself. First sight’s affection could carve a mark into the ice, but breaking through the frozen water required time, patience, and effort. Fortunately, they had already endured an extremely long span of time together, within each other’s memories.

Author’s note:

Husband kicks you, Zhou Yunchen—did you enjoy it?

 

 

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