Zerg Chapter 38: Making the Ring

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

Since he didn’t have much time, Huan Xiu was so busy that he went straight from getting his stuff in the morning to starting work in the shop until the evening, without even having time to catch his breath.

“Mr. Huan, we are going out to buy dinner, may I ask if you want anything?” An assistant peeked his head through the crack of the door outside the workshop.

Huan Xiu was stunned and looked at the time, not realizing it was already past eight o’clock in the evening. “That’s troublesome, just get me the same thing as yours.”

The shop was closed today, since after receiving Huan Xiu’s request, they specially sent an employee to open the door and stay to answer his questions. Huan Xiu felt a bit bad about it. However, the inferior female didn’t seem to mind, he even said that he heard that Huan Xiu was going to make the ring himself, so he was very curious and was very excited to have a chance to see it.

In half a day’s time, Huan Xiu had already made two plain rings. Their finger size was not that different, so the two silver plain rings were identical, except for the thin ‘groove’ carved into the body of one of the rings, which made it different from the other. His own ring was almost finished, and Xi Ran’s ring still needed to have the melted mecha material filled into the crack.

It was a troublesome and error-prone task. The material used for mecha had a high melting point and solidified quickly as it cooled, and it was rare for this model to be handled manually during the production process. He may need to heat it up for a few moments, then in a split second, he’d have to pour and rotate the ring so that it flowed and solidified in a symmetrical fashion.

Huan Xiu intended to finish the job today, but he’d already had a long day and was worried not having enough concentration, so he spent the rest of the day polishing the two plain rings.

When the inferior female who bought the takeaway came back to the shop, he saw that Huan Xiu’s posture was almost unchanged since the morning, his eyes were so focused that the assistant couldn’t help but feel impressed and was also a bit embarrassed to ask Huan Xiu to come and get the food.

He was very envious of Huan Xiu’s partner and wondered what kind of female Zerg could make Huan Xiu give him such a caringly handmade ring. Even though Huan Xiu looked outstanding, he didn’t dare to fantasize about him, after all, how could a male Zerg like this be interested in any other Zerg?

Huan Xiu didn’t have the heart or the power to look at other Zerg.

It was already midnight when he got home, during the day he was strongly concentrating on making the ring, and he had to get up early the next day to continue the ring. So he took a shower hurriedly and fell asleep.

The next morning, when he went downstairs, he noticed that the coffee that Xi Ran gave him was a bit stronger than usual.

“Did Master go to work?” Xi Ran deliberately asked. He didn’t want to look like he was probing Huan Xiu’s secret, but when he saw his tired face and the smell of metal on his hands, he thought he went to the research institute to work overtime. Since that was a confidential matter, it was not convenient for Huan Xiu to disclose it.

Huan Xiu didn’t know that female Zerg’s sense of smell would be so keen that he could smell the residual metallic scent even after washing his hands. It was a good thing Xi Ran was a Zerg with a one-track mind, otherwise he might be able to figure out what Huan Xiu was doing by linking it to topics like surprises.

“Mn… It is indeed for work.” Huan Xiu elaborated in a different way.

Xi Ran was worried and asked Huan Xiu if he wanted to postpone their date on Monday.

“No, it’ll be nice to go out and relax tomorrow.” Huan Xiu laughed, “And I certainly can’t postpone my date with you.”

Xi Ran hesitated for a moment and didn’t try to persuade him, for he too treasured his rare vacation, which he rarely had during the year. Thinking that Huan Xiu had to work overtime, Xi Ran made the sandwiches for breakfast twice as thick as usual.

“Is male father going out today too?” Huan Ye asked a question from the side.

Huan Xiu nodded his head. Huan Ye had been studying very hard lately as his goal was to become a female Zerg like his father, even though he couldn’t do too much physical training yet before his second evolution. So Huan Ye could only work hard to do well in his academics so that he could spend more time on physical training in the future.

Xi Ran was glad that Xiao Ye was such a worry-free child. He couldn’t help him too much, because when they were young, there was no need for academics in the military, as long as they could fight. The army had started to recruit more and more children from the academy system. If they did the same in his time, he might not have had a chance to leave the orphanage in the past. The three of them chatted happily for a while, but Huan Xiu looked at the time and didn’t dare to stay too long, so he gave the child and his lover a kiss on the head on his way out.

After Huan Xiu left, Xi Ran was in a daze for a while and went online to confirm the date notes and other things that he had actually read over yesterday, but he just couldn’t calm down until the real deal arrived.

These two days, Xi Ran still took a look at the post occasionally. After he said that he had asked for a date and got a positive answer, the Zerg watching the excitement in the post were as happy as if they were going on a date, so they began to give him some advice. One cannot avoid armchair strategists if one did not have confidence in oneself.

[Is this a one day trip? It’s too much walking, I’m afraid your male Zerg is going to die of exhaustion halfway through.]

Xi Ran pondered, he hadn’t walked with Huan Xiu for very long, but with… his physical strength in bed, he felt he still had an accurate estimate of Huan Xiu.

[xrxr: It should be okay… my Master works out regularly.]

[…A male Zerg going to the gym to work out? So rare.]

[OP is really too careless ahhh! You’re just going to throw him into a pile of female Zerg?! Hurry up and catch your male Zerg, will you!!!]

[Anonymous: I’m getting more and more convinced that this post is made up.]

Xi Ran replied back with a righteous tone, [No, it’s true.]

[Anonymous: ……]

The crowd at the bottom of the post laughed wildly, and some of them had doubts. However, it was just a fun event, and they didn’t mind if it was real or not.

Seeing that Xi Ran finally arranged to have dinner at a restaurant by the river, many Zerg enthusiastically suggested to him to prepare a gift that would go well with the candlelight dinner.

Unlike the last time when he prepared a ‘surprise night’, Xi Ran had enough time to choose, so shortly after Huan Xiu left, Xi Ran went to the mall.

He originally wanted to check out the latest models of communication devices, men’s backpacks, watches and so on, but he couldn’t help stopping at the high end suit shop on the first floor. He had already contacted them via email and started to customize the wedding suits, a task that was given by Huan Xiu and one that Xi Ran was very excited about. The suits were still in the making, but Xi Ran had already seen the designs, so when he passed by the window of the store, he caught a glimpse of matching ties on display and his first thought was, This tie would look great on Huan Xiu.

When he came to his senses, he was already inside the store.

The shop assistant greeted him warmly and asked him if there was something he was interested in.

“The one on display in the front window… can I see it?”

As a female Zerg from the military, Xi Ran didn’t know anything about ties. Huan Xiu was in the research institute and was actually a science and engineering person, not a civil servant. There was generally no requirement of wearing a tie at work. Xi Ran wondered whether a tie would be a good gift.

“This silver gray one suits you very well. It’s matte, but it has subtle streaks from different angles, and it’s the material of the fabric itself,” the salesman recommended. He saw that Xi Ran looked confused and didn’t know much about ties, so he figured that he didn’t need one for his daily work, and continued, “It might be a little high-profile to wear normally, but it’s perfect for a dance or banquet.”

“…Actually I’m giving it as a present.”

The salesman suddenly realized, “Is it for the male Zerg you like? Or are you married and want to give it to your Master?”

Xi Ran didn’t want to explain the situation so he simply said, “Getting married.”

The shopkeeper was very good at reading people, and he could immediately see that he and the future Master were very close, so there should be a wedding, “Is the wedding attire white? That would be a good match.”

Xi Ran nodded his head, but his heart was still hesitant. There was no specific date for their wedding or anything else on the agenda, so if he gave out such a gift tomorrow, would it feel like he was rushing Huan Xiu?

“And this one also comes with a bow tie made of the same fabric, so you’re free to choose the same tie or pair it with a bow tie for a great effect,” The shop assistant continued.

Xi Ran, who had hardly ever shopped in shopping malls and was not as eloquent as the professional staff, quickly put his doubts behind him and bought a tie and a bow tie after the staff’s praise and blessing.

Before leaving, the shopkeeper said, “I wish you a happy marriage in advance.” 

 

He had planned a whole day’s shopping, but it was over after only visiting the first floor of the mall…