Chapter 13: The Gift
The competition at the end of the month was drawing near.
Every day, Hui went to work and returned home, studied, and immersed herself in a fulfilling and busy life, as if everything had returned to calm once more.
She had just finished washing up and was tossing and turning on the bed, letting her body sink softly into the comforter, enjoying the most delightful time of the day.
Suddenly, her neural interface displayed a message from Yuri.
“Hui Hui, I know you’ve been tired lately, so here’s something nice for you! Hehe, don’t forget to check it out!”
Hui: “?”
The screen showed a compressed file sent by the other party.
She glanced nervously at the communication system; it showed “Spouse” was on silent mode. Presumably, he had discarded his neural interface somewhere again.
Quietly sitting up, Hui unzipped the file. After decoding, the screen shifted to a new page, and a very clear animated image suddenly appeared. A beautiful mermaid was soaking in a pool, playing with his dark green long hair, her expression and gaze teasing the viewer on the screen.
She was startled and instinctively closed it immediately.
Yuri excitedly sent several messages in a row: “Did you see? Isn’t this the movie star you used to like? He posted some steamy photos today!”
“Girl, sometimes you just have to watch what women like!”
“I found them all for you!”
Hui wasn’t fond of men posing seductively.
What she liked was talent and acting, and the shimmering tail covered in shells in his movies.
Solemnly, Hui opened the next picture.
It was a dazzlingly painted, glamorous fish tail.
...
At this moment, Xin Chi was resting on a luxurious private airship, looking languid as he tilted his head back to gulp down a glass of wine.
Suddenly, his communication system beeped.
He glanced sideways at the device, which showed in bold red letters that his partner’s heart rate was 172 beats per minute.
Xin Chi thought he must have seen it wrong.
The location indicated she was at home, not in any danger—so it shouldn’t be.
Unaware of what was happening, Hui was deeply focused when the pirate leader expressionlessly initiated a video call.
The video was very clear—clear enough to see Hui’s messy black hair sprawled across the bed, her flushed cheeks, and wide, round eyes. His sharp vision quickly caught the reflected image of a mermaid’s swaying tail in her black pupils.
Xin Chi: “...”
His low voice quietly asked, “What are you doing?”
Hui’s face flushed red as she concentrated on studying the next image: “Nothing. Just studying.”
Her heart rate displayed as 180.
Xin Chi: “...” He sneered coldly.
Only then did Hui belatedly realize something was off. Who was speaking to her?
...
She hurriedly looked up at the communication system, locking eyes with the man’s slender, handsome gaze.
“...” Hui laughed awkwardly, closed the page immediately, and pretended nothing happened. “Good evening.”
Her heart rate rose to 192.
Still lying.
Xin Chi knew well that this woman had a habit of lying, yet still a subtle discomfort stirred in his heart.
He said nothing and ended the video call.
When Hui tried to reconnect, it seemed he was no longer near his neural interface and couldn’t be reached.
Hui was puzzled. Only after staring at the heart rate record for a long while did she realize Xin Chi might have seen what she was doing. She refused to admit it. To play tricks and lie to such a proud man must have crossed the pirate leader’s red line. Finding the problem, she felt somewhat guilty.
...
But wait, why should she feel guilty?
It was as if they were already married!
Feeling indignant, Hui decided not to bother Xin Chi anymore. She turned off her neural interface, rolled over, and buried her head in sleep. Yet she couldn’t rest well all night. The next day, she showed up at her workstation with two dark circles under her eyes, startling the new colleagues in the maintenance department.
“Alright, alright, working overtime in the company and still staying up late to study, huh?”
The young workers were inexplicably fired up and gritted their teeth to diligently study their skills.
They had heard of Hui’s reputation for being even more competitive than the most driven.
No one wanted to fall behind!
Only Hui yawned, distractedly glancing at the neural interface screen from time to time.
She had already sent more than enough greetings today, but the messages still fell silent. If Xin Chi had decided not to answer her communications, she could only accept having her daily credit points deducted.
Frantic, she calculated her credit points.
If deductions lasted more than five consecutive days, she might have to leave the Peaceful District next month.
The credit-poor sighed sadly.
As Hui had suspected, the next few days were met with silence no matter how much she pleaded. Xin Chi ignored her completely—he probably smashed his neural interface again to avoid her harassment.
She continued sending messages every day without hope.
Tonight, Huimin City announced the arrival of the winter season. Known for its distinct four seasons, the city’s government suddenly decided to activate artificial snowfall at night to celebrate, reminding citizens to travel safely.
Hui sighed and tossed and turned.
She had always been poor and busy, living in a dilapidated neighborhood where housing conditions were terrible. She had endured every winter night shivering, never paying attention to official weather forecasts.
When she couldn’t sleep and glanced outside, she was stunned.
It was the first time she had ever seen snow falling.
Snowflakes swirled like paper, drifting down gently, turning the whole city into a sea of white—beautiful like a painting.
She casually threw on a coat and ran outside, feeling the icy snowflakes touch her cheeks, quickly melting into droplets that slid down her forehead into her neck.
After playing enough, she excitedly pinched a handful of snow and had a good idea.
...
Recently, Bai San clearly sensed that the boss’s mood was not good.
Was it because of a traitor? Or the Federation army? He did not know and could only frown and apply for more missions to avoid punishment.
Just now, he had intended to check the inventory in the armory but noticed the boss was alone, casually dismantling guns, metal parts clattering. His heart ached, so he tried to change the subject: “Boss... didn’t you say you were going to switch to a new neural interface last time...?”
The man’s cold gaze landed on him.
Bai San quickly got the hint: “I’ll head out on a mission right now.”
Xin Chi’s expression remained impassive. After watching Bai San leave, his gaze returned to his own neural interface.
The so-called daily matching system kept sending warnings.
He was forcing himself to endure the frustration of repeatedly disassembling weapons to avoid discarding the neural interface.
Suddenly, it showed “Spouse” sending a video request.
He raised an eyebrow and accepted.
The video automatically played, showing a scene of snow falling everywhere. One could almost smell the biting wind. The camera shook slightly as a shivering face appeared close-up—she hid beneath a hat brim, her nose red from the cold, and long eyelashes dotted with melting snow. She looked both cute and pitiful.
“I don’t know what you’re doing now, or how the weather is where you are. It’s snowing here, and I wanted to share it with you.”
“Super—big snow, have you ever seen this much?” She struck a very exaggerated pose.
Xin Chi pressed his lips.
Over the years traveling between star systems, he had seen too many splendid sights and astonishing natural wonders and had long lost any sense of novelty. Hui’s behavior was no different than showing a wealthy person a tiny, pitiful silver coin.
The scene was somewhat absurd and laughable.
He thought absentmindedly but did not turn off the video.
“I also prepared a gift for you!”
Shivering from the cold, Hui’s voice faltered at the end. She extended her hand, showing a small snowman about the size of a palm. It seemed carefully sculpted, vaguely resembling him.
However,
Xin Chi’s dark gaze fell on the lower half of the snowman—it was a mermaid’s tail.
“...”
Unaware of the danger, Hui added more: “Don’t be self-conscious. Your tail looks much better than his.”
Daring to comment on his appearance and compare him to a trinket—did she want to die?
Xin Chi sneered coldly, mentally calculating how long it would take to personally kill this reckless woman in Huimin City.
In the end, he decided to put it aside for a while.
For the first time in his life, receiving a gift unrelated to profit, the pirate leader gave a reluctant verdict: “Ugly thing.”
He didn’t delete the video of the gift either.