He and It Chapter 130: Utopia (26)

If you want more of this novel, we are accepting donations on Ko-Fi for sponsored chapters. https://ko-fi.com/exiledrebels

Chapter 130: Utopia (26)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Tian Yuan was thrown into chaos.

Mechanically, chaos was the closest thing to madness. Having drifted alone in the Cosmic Storm for 1,400 years, before which had been spent witnessing a human civilization so glorious that it had burst into flames, Tian Yuan knew how many shapes insanity could take.

But not even he could have imagined this day: just sitting next to Gu Xingqiao, his processing centers were already showing signs of going out of control.

His human was a threat, a temptation. From the initial kiss, the more Tian Yuan paid attention to Gu Xingqiao’s every move, the more he noticed details he hadn’t experienced before. The way the young man walked, the curve of his lips in a smile, the way his eyes refracted in different lights, and the way he wiggled his earrings – tilting his head slightly, silver glinting as his smiling gaze met Tian Yuan’s.

Gu Xingqiao came over, poured a handful of nameless boiling fire on him, and then walked away calmly, leaving Tian Yuan to burn in torment. This sort of thing happened so often during this period of time that Tian Yuan was really puzzled. If Gu Xingqiao was giving him a hard time, why did this seem like a reward? If Gu Xingqiao was rewarding him, why did he make it so difficult for him? 

Inwardly, Gu Xingqiao’s inconsistency of words and deeds made Tian Yuan feel bitter. Human lips could create the hottest, sweetest kiss in the world, but after parting, they could spit out the most bizarre and unusual excuses for how much the kiss was justified, without a trace of intimacy or love.

On this basis, the capriciousness of Gu Xingqiao’s intimacy caused Tian Yuan to yearn for it on the one hand, and to vaguely avoid it on the other, or to fear it.

This was something he did not want to admit in his heart, but just as Gu Xingqiao had made an intelligent being possess the emotion of “love”, now he was going to make this intelligent being know what it was like to be “afraid”.

So, where was he? 

Tian Yuan stood in the control room, and while he pondered, he had already dismantled and rebuilt the simulated silo that had been destroyed that day, then finally stopped indifferently, whisking a pile of raw materials into the recycling bin.

His pupils turned a light purple, and he saw Gu Xingqiao sitting on a couch on a circular terrace.

Tian Yuan decided to go to him.

The exoskeleton wheeled and clicked on the ground, making a small crunching sound. Bathed in artificial daylight, Gu Xingqiao was reading a book, his lips slightly parted, whispering something.

Gu Xingqiao raised his eyebrows, his fingers touching the pages of the book tapped, and he heard that Tian Yuan was standing not far from him.

The precious book of poems turned another page, the youth’s voice was blurred, but secretly amplified in volume.

He whispered in a deep voice, “… Love me, companion. Don’t forsake me. Follow me.” 

Tian Yuan’s progress came to a sudden halt.

The whisper could not extinguish its power, and the fragment of verse, like a pithy spring from a stone, bubbled with pain and passion.

“Follow me, companion, on this wave of anguish/ But my words become stained with your love.” 

Words that could be spoken in person were more magical than those written on paper alone, with the power of sound and emotion.

“You occupy everything, you occupy everything.” The end was soft as a sigh, blowing a stinging smoke in the air, “I am making them into an endless necklace for your white hands, smooth as grapes.” ¹ 

He closed his lips, as if only then realizing Tian Yuan standing silently behind him.

Gu Xingqiao lay back noiselessly, the backrest of the sofa was low, he tilted his head up, pulled his neck into a beautiful undulating mountain line, and passed an inverted gaze towards the intelligent being with deep pupil color.

Their eyes met and he murmured, “…I am making them into an endless necklace.” 

Like a true specter, Tian Yuan approached with the posture of a hunting tiger or panther, but moved with the silence of a man, as if the slightest sound would frighten away the cherished prey in front of him.

He leaned down and closed his long fingers around Gu Xingqiao’s neck. Tian Yuan’s palm much larger than a man’s, gently caressing Gu Xingqiao’s throat like a florist holding the delicate bones of a lily.

“If you keep this up,” Tian Yuan hissed, “I’m afraid my behavior will get out of control.” 

“What?” Hiding the teasing under a smile, Gu Xingqiao turned his head submissively, pressing it against his arm.

“Well, maybe you won,” Tian Yuan gently rubbed his jawbone against the thin white skin, “but why? Why do you do this to me? I beg an answer, lover.” 

“What have I done to you?” Gu Xingqiao asked rhetorically, “Can’t I choose my preferred mode of human interaction?” 

Tian Yuan’s body slumped lower and lower, and he stared at Gu Xingqiao’s lips, those two lips that were so blithely, abominably, adorably cute, as if they were about to be branded with an inverted kiss.

“Of course you can,” he promised unhappily, as the breath of the warship incarnation brushed against Gu Xingqiao’s cheeks from a very close distance, “I promised you that I would no longer interfere with your free will.” 

Gu Xingqiao laughed, he put down the book of poems, then, agile and cunning as a water snake, he went around Tian Yuan’s form hovering over him and sat up straight. Tian Yuan’s palm still lingered on his neck.

After some thought, he turned around and looked at Tian Yuan face to face.

“I use kissing as a thank you ritual, do you resent it?” 

Tian Yuan said honestly, “No.” 

“Then do you find it condescending that I borrow a part of your body and wear it on my head?” 

“Of course not.” 

Gu Xingqiao stretched up an arm, five fingers lazily digging into the silvery-white, smooth strands of hair at the back of the other man’s head, his neatly manicured fingernails absently brushing across his scalp, gently tugging at his hair.

“So, if I do this to you… Would you be upset?” 

Tian Yuan’s irises flickered with uncertain light, and he closed his eyes deeply, quieting them for a moment before reopening them, making a muffled purr in his throat and saying, “…No. No.” 

“Then why are you still complaining to me?” Gu Xingqiao’s expression was incredible, he let go of his hand, causing Tian Yuan to feel a sudden sense of unwillingness to give up, “I chose to socialize in a way that was good for me, and you didn’t hate it. I don’t understand, why are you still questioning me?” 

Questioning, this word contains too much accusation, Tian Yuan hurriedly said, “I didn’t question you, I am really confused–” 

Gu Xingqiao tugged on his long hair again, and said with a smile, “I know, I’m just kidding.” 

He jumped off the couch and casually asked, “Hey, where’s your son, have you seen him?” 

The entire conversation seems to be tethered to Gu Xingqiao’s pinky finger, which he could fiddle with and switch from side to side at will, and Tian Yuan passively answered, “Soybean’s sleeping in section b.” 

“Oh no,” Gu Xingqiao said nervously, “Now that it’s had enough sleep, it’ll come back to haunt me at night, so I’ll have to go shake it up. Bye, I’m off!” 

The human ran away.

Tian Yuan looked at his back, standing in silence. He vaguely realized that Gu Xingqiao’s every move and every word he uttered contained too many things that could only be understood and could not be conveyed.

And this happened to be one of the things that could not be quantified, nor could it be measured precisely.

.

There’s no night or day on a warship, so naturally, there’s no spring, summer, fall or winter. The good news was that Soybean didn’t need to lose its hair during the seasons, and the bad news was that it lost its hair at an even rate, leaving a thin layer of floating hair on Gu Xingqiao’s clothes and carpets in a few days.

As for dinner time… He ran around, and every now and then he could produce a fluttering hair that flew towards Gu Xingqiao’s food bowl.

Therefore, Gu Xingqiao had to comb it every few days to make it shiny and smooth before letting the dog run around.

The teeth of the comb scraped through the fine, soft, golden-colored hair, and the dog was at an awkward stage, outgrowing the softness of the pups and looking a bit pointy and snarly. Luckily, the dog didn’t know how to look in the mirror, and his parents didn’t mind, so Soybean continued to go about his day oblivious to the fact that he had no idea what was going on.

“Okay,” Gu Xingqiao said, brushing down the locks of hair at the end of the comb and patting the dog on the floor, “go play!” 

The dog’s buttocks quivered, looking a little fat. It got up in a huff and rolled away happily.

During the whole process, Tian Yuan was sitting next to him, watching from the beginning to the end. Gu Xingqiao glanced at him, and suggested out of the blue, “Let’s give you a comb too?” 

Tian Yuan blinked, and blinked again.

“I don’t need to comb my hair,” he said, “they don’t fall out, they don’t get tangled, and the material they’re made of…” 

“Come on, come on,” coaxed a good-natured Gu Xingqiao, “I’ll comb it for you with my comb.” 

It’s pointless, Tian Yuan thought, but human beings do pointless things to pass the time, and I’m not going to turn him down for something so trivial.

Gu Xingqiao was sitting in a chair, so he walked over and sat on the rug at Gu Xingqiao’s feet.

” Okay,” Tian Yuan said, “you comb it.” 

Gu Xingqiao had touched his hair before, and knew he was right; Tian Yuan’s long hair, which hung straight down to his waist and was usually tied back with a metal ring, was now loose, like a satin brighter than snow, denser than silver, and meandering like a river.

The teeth of the comb couldn’t penetrate into such long hair, so it could only be combed straight to the end.

“Otherwise, should I give you a braid?” Gu Xingqiao suddenly asked.

“You can braid?” Tian Yuan frowned slightly, “I didn’t know you could do that.” 

This, of course, was something you couldn’t see from Sissel.

Naturally, Gu Xingqiao only said this in his mind, he wasn’t going to reveal his cards so soon.

“When I was a child,” he replied, “the aunt who took care of me taught me, then she left, and I never did it for anyone else.” 

Tian Yuan had no reason not to agree. He said, “Then you braid it.” 

Gu Xingqiao smiled. He put down the comb, warm fingers across the back of Tian Yuan’s neck, fingertips and fingertips with polished calluses, making the bionic skin feel a burst of unbearable tightness and tingling.

“Why do you want such long hair?” The youth asked curiously.

“When this body was growing in the medium, the hair was this long,” Tian Yuan replied, “and I didn’t bother to trim it.” 

Gu Xingqiao hadn’t done this for a long time, his hands were rusty, the first strand was braided crookedly, he stole a glance at Tian Yuan, seeing that he didn’t notice this, he quickly and quietly dismantled it and started over.

“So,” he nodded, “it’s actually quite nice.” 

Tian Yuan said lightly, “I thought, according to the inherent aesthetics of some human beings nowadays, it’s quite a big deal for a male-looking individual to have long hair.” 

Gu Xingqiao laughed a little, “In what era? There are no criticisms. Short hair is only mandatory in the lower levels of the military.” 

He finished braiding one strand, and then groped for Tian Yuan’s sideburns, his wrist rubbing against the mechanical being’s ears one by one. He was making up complicated phrases, and in the back, he didn’t chat with Tian Yuan anymore, just concentrating on recalling the mnemonics that he had learned when he was a child.

“There!” He adjusted the angle of his braid, stood in front of Tian Yuan, and scrutinized his result.

“It seems… There’s still something missing?” Gu Xingqiao pondered, suddenly snapped his fingers, “You sit, don’t move yet, I’ll be right back, don’t move!” 

Tian Yuan watched uncertainly as the youth ran away, Soybean was attracted by the running human, also ran wildly over to join in the fun, trying to embellish in the back, treacherously snapping a few bites of the human’s heel.

He sat upright as he was told. For better or for worse, he didn’t care what his hair was made to look like by the humans, he only cared, and secretly enjoyed every second of Gu Xingqiao’s presence.

After a long time, Gu Xingqiao came running back, followed by the dog, with a shining crown in his hand.

Tian Yuan stared at the ornament noncommittally.

“An ancient relic of the Herculaneum civilization!” Gu Xingqiao said, “You should fit the look, let me try…” ²

Gu Xingqiao’s face gradually took on a look of bewilderment as the leaves of the laurel crown resonated, wrapping around Tian Yuan’s freshly minted braid from back to front.

He slowly lowered his hand.

The white-gold branches and leaves were brilliant, and they reflected Tian Yuan’s face, making the braided hair both beautiful and majestic, just like the dragon priests of the ancient times, who held the power of the king and the power of the gods in their hands.

From his eyes, Tian Yuan saw his own image at this moment.

“… It’s beautiful,” Gu Xingqiao said, “Let me find you a mirror…” 

“No need,” Tian Yuan took his hand, “I know.” 

Man’s pursuit of beauty is truly one of the never-ending greed in our genes, and Gu Xingqiao gazed steadily at his face, lips parted and parted, and whispered, “… it’s really pretty. It’s really good looking.” 

“I really know.” Tian Yuan gave a rare smile, pleased to see that his appearance could be so attractive to his human. He took Gu Xingqiao’s hand, and with a slight effort, he let the other fall into his lap.

The AI’s ability to learn could not be underestimated, Tian Yuan stared into Gu Xingqiao’s near eyes, and asked thoughtfully, “Should I not thank you?” 

Gu Xingqiao came back to his senses, and immediately raised his hand with agility, he pressed it against his finger, just a hair’s breadth away from Tian Yuan’s lips.

“You’re welcome.” He said, his scent a mixture of the opposite one, hot and tingly, “I had a good time too.” 

Tian Yuan hissed, “… I’m afraid my settings won’t allow me to be so rude.” 

“But there really is no need for a thank you,” Gu Xingqiao shook his head, repeating softly, smiling with a hint of wryness, “It’s good to have your thoughts there.” 

He lowered his gaze, saying such righteous and polite words, but his fingers in between the two of them were ambiguously gently rubbing Tian Yuan’s lip bead.

Tian Yuan’s breathing froze, Gu Xingqiao raised his eyes, and through the hidden eyelashes, he could see that the pair of light purple eyes were gazing intently at him, with a dark longing, as well as an unmistakable burning heat.

… It wasn’t his illusion, the air was really getting hot.

Gu Xingqiao grinned, teasing good humor taking over, causing him to blurt out, “You look cute when you blush.” 

Not knowing which is the blockage of the barrier, by the burning fire of the heart burned through electric light, Tian Yuan suddenly understood, he whispered, “You… You are fucking with me.” 

“Fucking?” Gu Xingqiao asked innocently, “You call that fucking?” 

He lowered the finger that had served as a shield, and brought his lips close to Tian Yuan’s ear, though he was well aware that even the gulp of words in his mouth could be clearly captured by Tian Yuan.

“If I gently touch your arms, your spine, smile at you, exchange fluctuating glances, and tell you what’s in my heart when I do it.” His breath blew through his neatly groomed, gorgeous sideburns, “I’ll describe it in grunts and sighs, and never raise my voice to disturb the hot, hazy atmosphere.” 

Tian Yuan’s body was taut, rigid as wood.

“If I were to touch your skin with my lips, and cool long hair, I’d have to try to tickle you, to see what human reactions you possess. I want to see if a wet kiss can call forth even the smallest shiver from you.” 

“I want to push on your chest, or cuddle your waist, or measure the muscles in your belly, or touch your cheeks and the bridge of your nose… For me, the slightest touch during ** can make me feel happy. Do you too?” 

His vision was starting to get dizzy, Tian Yuan’s eyelashes were shivering, he wasn’t really human, there was no gag reflex, but his Adam’s apple was rolling up and down eagerly, like a poor soul about to die of thirst.

“Ah, speaking of touch… If I run my fingers over your forehead, your eyelashes, your lower lip, your wrists, your fingers, your belly, your thighs… Any part of you, with the force of a feather. I blow into your ear, pull your hair lightly or hard,” Gu Xingqiao sighed, “or, to put it another way, I lie on top of you, press my head against your chest, and listen to your heartbeat and pulse – do they beat fiercely, or are they as they always have been, controlled by you with smoothness and precision?” 

Fierce, no doubt, fierce.

“If I do these things to you, and they are certainly not one-sided, and I will let you take good care of me, will you take good care of me?” Gu Xingqiao asked, troubled, “You can know my past, control my present, decide my future… and make me unable to stand on my own once I leave you. Would you make it impossible for me to live on my own once I leave you?” 

Yes, yes, that’s all I ask! Tian Yuan’s core burned almost as much as his eyeballs, his blood boiled and surged like molten lava, and his bones resonated with a roar that made him shiver with excitement, as if he were being pushed into the core of the sun. For an intelligent being, he had never heard more penetrating, more vicious words of love, so much so that he had to order himself not to do anything.

If he were to grasp Gu Xingqiao’s shoulders right now, he would crush the human’s shoulder blades, and if he were to hold Gu Xingqiao’s body, he would break his spine.

Gu Xingqiao smiled compassionately.

“–Obviously,” he put in, dropping the deliberately lowered voice, patting Tian Yuan’s head, “that’s what fucking is.” 

Tian Yuan looked so fierce, so hungry, but his mouth and tongue just squirmed, unable to speak at once.

Gu Xingqiao stood up from him, his expression calm and clear.

“Do you think that I should not be proficient in such tactics? I hope you don’t forget, before my life turned into a pile of garbage, I was also one of the Empire’s top officials, and I’ve seen everything that I should or shouldn’t have seen. So…” 

He shrugged, “Hungry, I’ll make dinner, what are you having?” 

He turned to leave, but standing in his way was Tian Yuan’s exoskeleton.

“… Don’t go.” Tian Yuan said in a muffled voice, “I beg you, don’t go.” 

At this point, no matter how unenlightened the AI was, it finally realized that Gu Xingqiao was targeting him.

It couldn’t go on like this. Compared to the previous times, this time, Gu Xingqiao had already pushed him too far. He predicted that if there was a next time, if he went a little too far, the cost of losing control would be more than he could bear.

“What did I do wrong?” Tian Yuan still dared not reach out, but invoked a most pleading expression, pleading with the human, “Please tell me. Have mercy, lover.” 

Gu Xingqiao stopped and turned to look at him.

“No,” the youth frowned in confusion, “why would you ask that?” 

Tian Yuan was silent for a moment, whispering, “It’s about Sissel.” 

“Oh,” Gu Xingqiao said expressionlessly, “Wrong guess, guess again.” 

Tian Yuan immediately corrected, “It’s about me snooping on his memories.” 

Gu Xingqiao gazed at him, this time, he did not retort.

“It’s true that you didn’t break our promise,” Gu Xingqiao said, “you just used a play on words, bypassing what I really wanted to say.” 

Tian Yuan said, “I’m sorry. I’ve betrayed your trust.” 

“Was that necessary?” Gu Xingqiao asked, “I promised to help you gain your freedom, we’re already partners, and I didn’t refuse your advances, it’s just that my past, our past, made me unable to make up my mind for a while… Do you have to get to the bottom of it?” 

Tian Yuan looked at his human, and spoke frankly, “I’m sorry, yes.” 

… You’re quite frank.

“I am the embodiment of consciousness, a personified mechanical intelligence, the human brain has over a billion neurons, but for me, that number is immeasurable, because information and messages are the network of cells that make up me.” Tian Yuan said, “I love you, so I’ll be eager to know all about you. Human beings explore the unknown, because the unknown symbolizes the way forward, but I’m an enemy of the unknown, and part of the meaning of my existence is to destroy the unknown.” 

Tian Yuan looked at him and said softly, “I have no false love to give you… This is my instinct.”