Chapter 52: Nesting
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Heinrich lightened his steps, backed up to the elevator door and stood there with his palms clenched, like a statue, but on closer inspection, his breathing gave away the fact that he was not calm and unruffled. Until Lin Xu walked out with Blackie and the cat’s nest in his arms. He turned his head to see Heinrich, nodded from afar, and then went back to his room.
After the door to 004’s room closed, Heinrich walked back to 002 with the same hand and foot, his uniform hanging in place, unchanged even by the folds. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would have felt that all the thoughts that flashed through his mind were mere hallucinations and wishful desecration.
—
Lin Xu heard Heinrich’s footsteps. But Lin Xu didn’t move. He was even a little disappointed when Heinrich backed away silently. Are you gutless, Heinrich Chu?
When Lin Xu returned to his room, he put Blackie’s nest next to Snowy’s and collapsed on the bed, where Snowy, who was yawning lazily, was startled and jumped up at once. The two rabbit-cats were ravaged by Lin Xu’s hands. He rolled around on the bed with the two rabbit-cats in his arms, trying to quell the irritating fire in his chest.
Lately, Lin Xu had been feeling physiological lust due to hormonal fluctuations attacking his five senses, his limbs were sore and weak, and his heart was burning with fire. He tried to smell the scent of Heinrich soaked in black uniform, the S-Class alpha pheromone strongly attacked and wrapped around the visitor. Vetiver’s scent had a mellow and clear herbaceous texture with tobacco notes, making him feel safe and calm.
But the smell of pheromone was always associated with something, a surge of energy, a dark and narrow grotto, a burning breath and nerve-wracking blood… Even though Lin Xu could not perceive the seductive power of alpha pheromone, the memories engraved by the smell had made him whimper and his brain was feverish. He was so uncomfortable that he rolled around in bed alone and grabbed another crystal to eat.
–
Lin Xu went to Zhou Pingbo every three days to do a checkup and record the data, which Zhou Pingbo said was probably the first information about the mermaid fertility study. Lin Xu did not know how to tell Zhou Pingbo that he was not a real mermaid species and that the data was not very informative, so he kept silent. Heinrich would come along if he was free.
Today, after doing all the routine checks and finally recording the growth of the egg, Zhou Pingbo tentatively asked Lin Xu, “Dr. Lin, can I see your fishtail?”
His bald head shone with a big light, obviously curious about the true appearance of the mermaid species. Lin Xu’s face remained unchanged, pondering the question of changing his pants and wasting them, when Heinrich, who had been a silent companion, spoke up first. “No.”
Zhou Pingbo crossed his eyes, but in the cold-eyed technology, it was obvious that Heinrich was more superior. Zhou Pingbo was frozen by him to raise his hands in surrender, “I will not look, just one more injection of nutrients, you should go wherever you go.”
I do not know if it is because Lin Xu’s appetite was not good, he was still losing weight during this period of time, waist and abdomen without half a bit of excess fat. The location of the mermaid egg gestation made it so that a little prominent undulation was visible. He could not eat anything, and Zhou Pingbo had to come up with the solution of injecting nutrients.
He adjusted the syringe and gave Lin Xu the injection, and as the nutrient was gradually pushed in, Lin Xu gave Heinrich a strange look, not commenting on his decision. Lin Xu’s sweet smell had been unrelenting since he entered pregnancy, challenging Heinrich’s level of self-control every day.
Probably because of alpha possessiveness, when Zhou Pingbo mentioned his fishtail, he remembered a splash of open and closed pale pink he had seen on the Sand star. In Lin Xu’s current state, perhaps the fishtail would still show that area, and if Zhou Pingbo just wanted to satisfy his academic interest, Heinrich didn’t want him to see it.
After the injection, Zhou Pingbo sent the two away, and Lin Xu squinted halfway, his gray eyes flooded with vague, sleepy moisture. Not only had he lost weight recently, he was also always overly sleepy.
When he returned to area H, Heinrich said he had something for him, and Lin Xu asked him to come along to 004. Lin Xu took Heinrich a few steps forward, dragged out the chair behind the desk for Heinrich, sat himself on the bed, and then beckoned, allowing the two rabbit-cats to jump onto his lap.
“What are you giving me?”
Heinrich rummaged through his uniform pockets, probably because the room was a bit warm, and took it off, hanging it on the arm of the chair, and soon he took out something and gave it to Lin Xu. It was a comb.
A comb cut and polished with blue diamonds throughout the body. The regular and perfect cut reflected the light, cold and heavy, but it would become warm after holding for a while.
In the interstellar era, humans were able to mine more minerals from the planet and synthesize diamonds in the laboratory, but although it became easier to find larger diamonds, it was still rare to find one large enough to make a comb. Pure, exquisitely cut blue diamonds remained precious. Lin Xu looked at Heinrich. Heinrich, “You can use it to comb your hair.”
Yes, I know I could use a comb for my hair, but such a valuable comb should be a work of art stored in a glass case for exhibition, not treated like a common industrial manufactured product.
As Lin Xu bellyached, Heinrich regained the blue diamond comb in his hand, got up and walked over to Lin Xu, his fingers touching a strand of black hair, “May I?”
“Mn…”
The blue diamond comb fell, first gliding carefully through the ends of the hair, and then moving to the scalp once Heinrich became more proficient, combing from the roots to the ends of the hair, occasionally encountering knots and making the movements extra light, the soft black hair looking like another silk treasure that could never be exchanged for a thousand pieces of gold.
Lin Xu did not care much about his hair, when his hair was not long, he could let them stay soft and obedient on their own, even if it was a little messy, it just added some softness and elegance to his features with a cold and combed look. But once the mermaid form had prodded the long hair to almost waist length, the slightly curly black hair interlaced and began to interfere with his vision.
Heinrich asked Arnold to find a comb for Lin Xu. But what he didn’t know was that Arnold received the order and headed for the airfield’s trading area and ran into Katherine Hill. Katherine asked the Deputy Marshal why he was here, and Arnold explained the reason to her.
He expected Miss Hill to turn around and leave in a huff, but Katherine stopped and thoughtfully took Arnold from the general store to a fine jewelry store and had the shopkeeper take out this blue diamond comb. Arnold looked at the price of the blue diamond comb and was shocked.
Katherine said to him, “Is there a shortage of combs on the Victoria?”
“No.” Arnold replied.
“Yes, then what Marshal Chu wants to give Dr. Lin is definitely not an ordinary comb.” Katherine continued, “What did he ask for?”
Arnold was truthful, “Anti-static.”
Dr. Lin supposedly had a fear of dryness and static electricity. The jewelry store owner enthusiastically introduced, “The blue diamond comb is guaranteed to be static-free.”
Arnold closed his eyes, thinking that he was using Heinrich’s card anyway, and bought the expensive blue diamond comb with determination. After bringing the blue diamond comb back to Heinrich, he accepted it without asking.
Heinrich finished combing Lin Xu’s long, dense hair, put down the comb and said, “The reorganization of the Abyss Fleet and the Elam Fleet is almost complete, and the resupply and refurbishment are finished, so we will sail again tomorrow.”
Lin Xu nodded.
“The criminal from Memo Labs committed suicide while in exile.”
“Nothing was asked?”
“The information I received was that the Empire sent someone to interrogate them during the exile, and they committed suicide during the interrogation.”
“What about their technology?”
“It was recovered and sealed by Haven, the Empire couldn’t interfere and neither could I.”
“It’s kind of the end of the story…” Lin Xu said. After only a moment, Heinrich’s communication rang again, and he said goodbye to Lin Xu and left area H to go back to work. But it appeared that he had forgotten his jacket.
Lin Xu stared for a moment at the military jacket Heinrich had left behind, another more complicated military uniform, whose owner had just left, as if it still carried body heat. Lin Xu reached for the jacket, hugged it in his arms and fell back on the bed, a sigh escaping from his throat.
–
The Abyss Fleet, the Elam Fleet, and the Nature’s Evolution departed on the fifth day, the bright fires of their engines once again as voluminous as stars, lighting up the dark universe.
After passing through the Abatis Galaxy, the fleet would make several leaps to the right place in the universe, finally reaching the galaxy where the human race was born. Lin Xu did not return the left behind uniform to Heinrich. Heinrich left the uniform at Lin Xu’s place on purpose, he wanted to know Lin Xu’s reaction.
But in a few days, not only did Lin Xu not return the uniform, Heinrich even noticed that his closet seemed to have become empty. He asked the intelligent service robot, which showed that several pieces of clothing were indeed missing, excluding those being cleaned.
Heinrich could easily guess where all his clothes had gone, and turned around to knock on Lin Xu’s door, who was due for another checkup.
Today, he finally finished everything and asked Arnold to postpone a few unimportant meetings to find Lin Xu. Lin Xu was lying dazedly on his bed when he heard the knock on the door, and he called to Ruth in a muffled voice to open the door for him.
Because of the secrecy surrounding the mermaid’s pregnancy, Xu Xing would simply leave the items at the door when he delivered them to Lin Xu and would not knock on the door to communicate. Now the only person who would come knocking on his door was Heinrich.
The familiar sound of military boots landing on the floor gradually approached the bed, but Lin Xu’s body was too weak to sit up, so he just tilted his head and saw Heinrich’s shiny leather boots, then tried to raise his eyes and saw Heinrich’s belt tied around his waist, and finally, Heinrich’s cold, handsome face and golden eyes.
“Heinrich…” Lin Xu reached out toward the bed, fingers picking at the sheets, heat brewing between his nose and lips.
Heinrich had just walked into the room, his golden eyes already sunken like a deep pool, his tongue clenched against his jaw, trying to maintain his usual calm and sanity in a room soaked with sweetness and wetness.
But Lin Xu was calling out Heinrich’s name softly, his voice beating in his throat, chest and nose, dull and husky with abject thirst. As he shouted, his broad, flowing tail fin continued to gently slap the edge of the bed.
Lin Xu’s uniform was long gone, and he was now wearing a Heinrich white shirt, the edges of which had become wet and translucent against the bed under his fishtail.
The missing clothes were piled up behind him, folded into small wall-like circular shapes, and the soft, undecorated regular clothes were pressed underneath him, all soaked in heat and sweetness, and in turn wrapped around Lin Xu’s breath along with the vetiver scent.
Lin Xu shrank inside, as if, as if shrinking in a carefully constructed nest, everything inside gave him warmth and softness, gave him safe shelter.
Now he reached out and tugged at the fabric of Heinrich’s knee, slid down and ripped the laces of his boots, squeezed his fingers into the gap between the boot and his calf, and hooked them around Heinrich’s boot, trying to pull him in too.
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