Zerg Chapter 9: Back to Work

Chapter 9: Back to Work

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

Early the next morning, Huan Xiu, who was awakened by the alarm clock at 8:30, first looked at the ceiling for a few seconds, then remembered what happened last night, and immediately turned to look next to him.

There was no one there.

However, Huan Xiu quickly realized that the quilt did have traces of someone sleeping there, and Xi Ran should have gotten up already. Did he go to the military headquarters? After turning the alarm clock off, Huan Xiu remembered that Xi Ran offered to give him a ride to work this morning. He should not have forgotten a matter like this, so after waking up he probably went to see Xiao Ye after waking up, or went downstairs first.

After a quick wash, Huan Xiu went downstairs while tying his tie. When he passed Xiao Ye’s room on the second floor, he didn’t hear anything inside and he wondered if the child was still in there. So he went downstairs to have a look.

As a result, the two were downstairs and breakfast was on the table.

“……” Huan Xiu was a little surprised. This was really a ‘happy’ life winner scene.

However, the people at the scene were not very familiar with each other, which was slightly abnormal.

“Master, I took the liberty of making breakfast. I don’t know if it’s to your liking. You can try it first.” Xi Ran came out of the open kitchen and put Huan Xiu’s share on the table.

“Thanks. Oh yeah, you said yesterday that you can cook, and you did a good job.” Huan Xiu knew nothing about cooking and didn’t have any requirements for food. But if he had a ready-made meal, it was better than ordering to-go.

“It’s ordinary.” Xi Ran was very modest about this.

Xiao Ye was waiting and timidly peeked at Huan Xiu.

“And yours?” Huan Xiu sat down at the table and found that there was only his portion at the table. “Finished already?”

“I’ll eat with Xiao Ye here.” Xi Ran referred to the countertops connected to the open kitchen.

“Come here, don’t isolate me—” Huan Xiu said intentionally. 

Sure enough, Xi Ran was not used to this kind of joke. His first reaction was to be nervous. But then he looked up and saw the smile on Huan Xiu’s face. He relaxed a little, “Is that okay?”

Huan Xiu nodded and took the initiative to talk to Xiao Ye, “Did you sleep well last night?”

Shrinking at the door of the kitchen, Xiao Ye, who stood still, nodded sharply.

Huan Xiu looked up and asked Xi Ran, “Did you tell him about the name?” 

Xi Ran was bringing his and Xiao Ye’s breakfast to the table. When he heard this, he nodded and said, “I’ve already mentioned it. He’s happy.”

“Huan Ye… Isn’t it a little strange?”

“I’m happy. Thank you… male father.” Xiao Ye whispered with little breath. Seeing that Huan Xiu didn’t feel any dissatisfaction with the name ‘male father’, he called again with a normal volume.

Xi Ran arranged his things and said that he would go to change his clothes. In order to avoid soiling his clothes by cooking, Xi Ran had been wearing household clothes.

“Eat first, Master.”

Huan Xiu smiled, but did not answer directly. After Xi Ran left, he pointed to the opposite seat and motioned for Xiao Ye to sit there.

Xiao Ye looked up at him and rushed over quickly, staring at Huan Xiu without taking his eyes off him, just like a small animal. He quietly climbed up to the seat that Huan Xiu pointed to. He was still very short, and it took a lot of effort to get up, and his actions were so cute that Huan Xiu couldn’t help but want to laugh.

“I… I will grow tall soon.” Huan Ye felt that he was being laughed at and was showing off what an excellent young Zerg he was.

“Good, good. You’ll grow tall soon.” Huan Xiu changed his tone to that of coaxing a child.

After struggling for a while, Huan Ye finally got up his courage and asked, “Uh… When I go to school later, should I call you male father or teacher?”

Huan Xiu almost forgot about it and explained with embarrassment that he was actually an internship assistant at the university next door, which had little to do with Huan Ye’s school.

“……Oh.”

Huan Xiu didn’t know how long the boy had been thinking about it last night and now that he was told that this problem didn’t exist, Huan Ye’s young heart was very hurt.

Huan Xiu thought this little guy was really funny.

Xi Ran had already come down from the stairs at this moment, and Huan Xiu was amazed at the speed at which he changed clothes. Xi Ran was now temporarily transferred to the logistics department and, theoretically, it didn’t matter if he were to dress casually. But Huan Xiu looked at him, dressed meticulously from head to toe.

Huan Xiu had already moved Xi Ran’s plates and cups from the position beside Xiao Ye to the opposite side, beside him, without making a sound.

Without any hesitation, Xi Ran sat in the seat ‘arranged’ for him by Huan Xiu. In theory, the position next to his master belonged to the female monarch, or no one can sit. But as he said last night, despite the fear, Xi Ran would never refuse Huan Xiu’s favor.

“By the way, Xiao Ye, I can go to school on the weekend to help you with the formalities of resuming school.”

Xiao Ye’s first reaction was to look at his female father helplessly.

“I’ll go myself, Master.” Xi Ran turned his head and obviously didn’t want to trouble Huan Xiu.

“Why don’t we all go together?” Huan Xiu looked at Xi Ran and meaningfully said, “It’ll give me time to say hello to the school leaders.”

Xi Ran was stunned for a moment and nodded his head.

Huan Ye, who was still on vacation for the time being, was left to take care of the house alone. Huan Xiu and Xi Ran went out. On the way, Huan Xiu chatted with Xi Ran about the commuting time. He learned that the military department should have arrived much earlier, but the logistics department was relatively idle, so it was postponed to this point. When asked again, Huan Xiu found that Xi Ran finished work later than him.

By comparison, Huan Xiu couldn’t help but applaud how friendly and humane the working hours of their graduate school were. Of course, he couldn’t be sure because most of the research department employees were male Zerg, so the government had given them preferential treatment.

“I will go straight home after I get off work.”

“Okay.”

Xi Ran looked a little annoyed when he learned that he can’t come pick up Huan Xiu at night.

“Master mentioned going to school earlier,” Xi Ran said suddenly, “You are very kind.”

“The bullying incident had spread to the university earlier, so it must not have happened only once or twice. I’ll go and say hello. It’s good for Xiao Ye.”

Huan Xiu had to sigh that some of the children of this size could have such malice towards their peers, and they were also female Zerg cubs. In this society where female Zerg’s lives were not easy, it was ironic to sneer at the experience of the same kind.

“I’ll leave it to you then…”

“He took my last name, so isn’t this polite?”

Xi Ran smiled a little, but he still didn’t seem to respond to Huan Xiu’s kindness. Being overly respectful seemed to annoy Huan Xiu, but silence showed that he did not respect the other. Xi Ran was still looking for a suitable way to communicate. Although he thought he was not good at speaking, he will try hard.

The colleagues at the Institute were somewhat surprised to learn that Huan Xiu accepted Xi Ran as a concubine.

“You don’t like that inferior female?” When a group of people gathered for lunch at noon, a Zerg boldly asked directly. After getting along with each other for more than a month, Huan Xiu had already known them very well, and he didn’t mind his words too much.

“Who told you that I like that inferior female?” The corner of Huan Xiu’s eye twitched. Except for Kaczki, he didn’t mention it to anyone else.

Kaczki was stunned for a second, then quickly turned to defend himself and said, “It wasn’t me. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t tell anyone else about it.”

“Ah, it’s not from him, it’s from my relatives,” the man came over and whispered, “I heard… your cousin spread it all over the place himself. He said that he married your favorite inferior female, and you were so shocked that you gave up and casually found a female Zerg to make do with, then ran out of the house in disgrace…”

Huan Xiu was deeply suffocated by his cousin’s childishness. There were such cheap people in the world who would try to make trouble even if you ran away.

“I did like him. But now it’s all over,” Huan Xiu explained patiently. “I may have been a little depressed. Don’t you think I’m in good shape now? My cousin thinks too much.”

“Yes, you look much better than before.” 

All the Zerg nodded their heads.

Kaczki remembered something, “Right, you see how he’s obviously happy and smiling. I ran into him at the door this morning, and the concubine who sent him here. You seem to like him, don’t you?”

“Yes.” Huan Xiu laughed.

“It’s good to know there’s someone at home, right? Or do you want to take advantage of it and marry two more?”

Huan Xiu sighed, “You can spare me. I’ll be satisfied with one.”

This was quite rare among male Zerg. However, many Zerg think that Huan Xiu was a strange Zerg who only wanted to marry an inferior female as his female monarch. Now he had transferred his attention, which was normal.

So the conversation gradually went awry.

“Ah, I heard that your concubine was a military officer. How is it?”

“It?”

“That aspect, I heard that soldiers have great endurance.”

“Ha… So far so good…”

So a group of people gathered together in broad daylight during their lunch break to discuss such topics as ‘toys’ and ‘endurance exercises’ in a low voice, which made Huan Xiu marvel at this world.

Huan Xiu quietly withdrew from the discussion and became an attentive silent observer.

After the happy discussions about the perverted topics at noon, Huan Xiu returned to the research lab, and the group of Zerg quickly returned to a calm state, concentrating on the research work of the mecha parts in hand, which made Huan Xiu feel that these male Zerg were also very strange.

On his way home alone in the evening, Huan Xiu deliberately bought two snacks as he passed by the dessert shop. He was not particularly fond of sweets, but the child probably liked them, so he just bought some. According to his view of the human world, Xiao Ye was still very young. He should feel very bored to spend a day at home, not to mention the fact that he did so every day in the previous month.

“I’m back.”

After stepping through the entrance, Huan Xiu took off his shoes and was stunned for a moment. How many years had it been since he had said that? Last time, it was on Earth, probably in high school? Later, he left home to go to university. In the twinkling of an eye, it was many years from his undergraduate to his doctoral. Finally, before he could go home to reunite with his parents, the doomsday happened. After that, there was no news from his family.

“Male… Male father…”

“Mn…?” Huan Xiu returned to his senses and saw Huan Ye walking out of the living room, looking at him somewhat cautiously. It was rare for him to be distracted, so he joked in his heart about his suddenly sad self, and shook the bag in his hand, “I bought you some food. There’s still some time before we eat dinner. Let’s pad your stomach first.”

After digesting this sentence for several seconds, Huan Ye realized that this was bought by Huan Xiu. He quickly and excitedly said, “Thank you, thank you father!”