“You saw my brother?” Si Chu put down his original flavored yogurt, his ears perking up instantly with alertness. “You’re not mistaken? What’s he doing here?”
Ye Feiran didn’t respond, cautiously halting his steps and crouching by the wall to observe.
“Uh-oh.” Si Chu chewed on the straw of his yogurt, leaving teeth marks all over it. “He wouldn’t be here to drag us back to work, would he? I’ve been working overtime for half a year already, and they agreed they’d give us honeymoon leave, didn’t they?”
Ye Feiran turned his head and raised a warning finger to his lips, gesturing for silence. “He’s with another man.”
“Huh? Who?” Si Chu leaned over in surprise to see but was pulled back by Ye Feiran. “Be careful, don’t let them spot us.”
Si Chu noticed Ye Feiran’s demeanor was a bit strange, too serious, not quite normal. As he cautiously glanced back towards the direction of the elevator, Si Chu immediately understood the reason for Ye Feiran’s posture—
Beside his brother was a man, a man whose relationship with him was undoubtedly deep, even from a distance.
Black short hair, lean but not overly slender, with long legs, clad in black Martin boots beneath cuffed sweatpants. Si Chu tried desperately to identify the man in his mind but to no avail.
Then he saw his brother smiling, raising his hand to dust off the nonexistent dust from the man’s shoulder. His right hand naturally came to rest on the man’s shoulder, while his chin leaned against his hand, whispering something ambiguous into the man’s ear, lips curved in a suggestive smile.
Si Chu and Ye Feiran exchanged a glance, neither daring to speak out, the atmosphere becoming inexplicably awkward.
Both of them instinctively tried to evade that possibility, the thought that surfaced in their minds at the first moment—after Xiao Zhenyun disappeared for half a year, Si Di sought a new love.
The bond between sentinels and guides, marked for life, was undoubtedly stable, but it didn’t mean infidelity didn’t exist. There were even cases of sentinels and guides, after marking each other permanently, growing tired of each other and seeking others outside the relationship. Sentinels only sought their guides for mental grooming during periods of spiritual distress, while otherwise living separate lives.
The elevator doors swung open, revealing a man in a white down jacket. With one hand in his coat pocket and the other carrying a bag, he subtly sidestepped the exiting pedestrians, turning slightly to face Si Chu and Ye Feiran. Si Chu held his breath, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man’s face, but to his disappointment, the man wore a mask, almost entirely concealing his features. Moreover, Si Di stood to the left, obstructing most of the man’s figure.
“Looks like blue eyes?” Ye Feiran muttered. As the words left his lips, he realized his slip and turned to Si Chu with a mix of emotions. Si Chu, too, wore a look of mixed feelings, and once again, they exchanged silent glances, waiting for Si Di and the man to enter the elevator before quickly following, noting the floor the elevator stopped at.
“You think… is it possible…?” Si Chu felt like he was talking in his sleep. “Could this man be Little Uncle?”
Ye Feiran looked at him silently.
Si Chu rubbed his face in anguish, struggling. “Look, black hair, blue eyes, and… and…”
He struggled to come up with a third point.
The most important thing was that Xiao Zhenyun was paralyzed from the waist down, while this man clearly had healthy and agile legs, walking freely. Could he have magically healed his disability by falling off a cliff?
What’s more, if the man really was Xiao Zhenyun, why didn’t Si Di tell them? Why meet the man alone, keeping it a secret from everyone, in a place like this romantic hot spring hotel?
Unable to find an excuse, Si Chu stopped struggling, sitting on the edge of the bed, looking out at the light rain with dry eyes. “Ye Feiran, my brother has changed his mind…”
“Not necessarily.” Ye Feiran handed him a bottle of mineral water. “Maybe Brother Di just… felt lonely, met a man who looked a lot like Little Uncle, and made a mistake.”
“Are you saying that man is just a stand-in for Little Uncle?”
“Otherwise, how could it be so coincidental? Black hair and blue eyes, it’s not a common combination.”
“Is finding a stand-in something to be proud of?” Si Chu retorted angrily. “Imagine how upset Little Uncle would be when he finds out!”
Ye Feiran hesitated for a moment, then couldn’t help asking, “But what if we never find Little Uncle?”
Si Chu furrowed his brow. “How could we not find him?”
“But it’s been over half a year, and still no news. I even suspect Little Uncle is deliberately avoiding us, not wanting to be found,” Ye Feiran said, eyes lowered.
Si Chu asked in puzzlement, “Your guess doesn’t make sense. Why would Little Uncle do that?”
“Hasn’t Little Uncle done strange, inexplicable things before? Including imprisoning you. We haven’t gotten a reasonable explanation from him; it’s all just our one-sided conjecture, and you not wanting to pursue it further,” Ye Feiran said calmly.
Si Chu fell silent.
Ye Feiran continued, “If Brother Di is willing to wait forever, I’ll naturally respect and admire him. But… if he wants to start a new relationship… do we have a reason to stop him?”
“But… it’s only been half a year. Is he giving up too soon?” Si Chu grabbed the edge of the blanket, and Ye Feiran sat down beside him. “Then how long do you think is appropriate? One year, two years? Five years, ten years?”
“…If it were me, I would search for him forever.” Si Chu turned and grabbed Ye Feiran’s hand. “As long as the bond remains, I will keep searching, forever and ever!”
Ye Feiran paused, then blurted out, blushing with embarrassment, “We’re talking about Brother Di’s matter, and why are you suddenly so sincere?… Oh, and there’s another situation I have to mention… Little Uncle and Brother Di’s match rate is 97%, right? They’re destined for each other, a perfect match…”
“Yeah, exactly! That’s why it’s so hard to accept my brother finding a stand-in, with a 97% compatibility!”
“Listen to me… those two should be absolutely compatible in every way… I’m just thinking, if Brother Di really changed his mind… could part of the reason for this be their compatibility?”
Si Chu’s CPU overheated. “…”
Ye Feiran licked his lips. “…There are couples who, under mutual knowledge and agreement, freely engage in intimate relationships with third parties, while remaining open and honest with each other. Their marriage is still very harmonious, it’s called… open relationship, right?”
The simple-minded dog didn’t understand this kind of sexual preference. “…”
“Ah!” Ye Feiran suddenly remembered something. “In that case… Little Uncle’s act of imprisoning you might have a new explanation.”
“No way, absolutely impossible!” Si Chu refused to entertain this so-called new explanation. “Even if it’s open, it’s impossible to be open to his own nephew, right?”
As he spoke, he remembered that Si Di was Xiao Zhenyun’s nephew. “My brother wouldn’t agree to that!”
…But Si Di was already willing to accept an open relationship. What else wouldn’t he agree to?
Si Chu’s brain froze. “…”
Ye Feiran didn’t rush to argue with him, but his eyes revealed that he had decided to hold reservations privately.
After sitting in silence for a while, it was Si Chu who first perked up. “Didn’t we say we’d go to the hot springs after dinner? Are we going?”
“I thought you weren’t in the mood to move…” Ye Feiran ruffled Si Chu’s hair. “Come on, let’s go. Don’t think too much. Brother Di is an adult, he can handle his emotional issues, and he knows how to bear the consequences of his actions.”
Though the words sounded comforting, when they walked out of the hotel lobby, headed towards the hot spring area along the path, and happened to run into Si Di and the mysterious man on this gravel path, Si Chu and Ye Feiran instinctively covered their faces with umbrellas and immediately took out the tracking methods they only used during missions.
The man with black hair seemed to be very sensitive to the cold. The drizzle of the evening had turned into hail by now, but Si Di was only wearing a thin fleece hoodie and a black jacket. His pants were even casually rolled up, exposing his ankles, and he held an umbrella with one hand.
Meanwhile, the man was bundled up in a thick down jacket, wearing a high-neck sweater and a cashmere scarf outside. Both hands were tucked into his coat pockets, the cold wind turning his ears red. He instinctively leaned towards Si Di when the wind blew stronger, wanting the person beside him, who was as warm as a stove, to shield him from the wind.
“What a schemer…” Si Chu muttered indignantly. “Always exploiting the sentinel’s protective instinct. My Little Uncle wouldn’t do this. Even though he’s frail and has leg problems, my Little Uncle is very independent, proud, and self-reliant. Isn’t that right, Ye Feiran?”
Ye Feiran nodded. “…Right.”
It seemed Si Di said something to the man, as the man reached out his left hand from his pocket and held Si Di’s right hand that was holding the umbrella, touching it several times in an unbelievable manner. Si Di then smiled widely, switching to holding the umbrella with his left hand, while his right hand, along with the man’s left hand, slipped into the man’s coat pocket.
“Sneaky, this is a male sneak! A textbook example.” Si Chu grabbed Ye Feiran’s clothes, his tail wagging frantically behind him. “I’ve seen this tactic online! Like pretending to accidentally squeeze too much hand cream, then touching the man’s hand, and once you touch him, he’s yours!”
Ye Feiran quickly covered Si Chu’s mouth with his hand. “Quiet, don’t let them hear you!”
Si Chu drooped his ears in dismay, whispering, “What do we do, Ye Feiran? I feel like even if my Little Uncle comes back tomorrow, he won’t be able to compete with this high-level sneak…”
The natural hot spring area was located on the slope of the mountain behind the hotel, with mixed-gender bathing. There were small pools arranged one after another, interspersed with trees and bamboo curtains for privacy. Each small hot spring pool could accommodate 3 to 4 people at the same time.
No matter how skilled Si Chu and Ye Feiran were in tracking, they couldn’t follow Si Di to the pool he was in. They had to settle for a nearby pool. Si Chu was torn whether to break the hotel’s rules and remove his sensory inhibitor to eavesdrop on Si Di and the man’s conversation to identify the man’s identity.
But the special sensory inhibitor had a unique identification code. Once removed, the hotel would immediately detect it, and he would have to come up with a reason to explain why he specifically removed the sensory inhibitor in the hot spring area…
“It’s strange. The other day, every time you got hot from soaking in the hot spring, you would go to the front desk to buy an ice-cold cola,” Ye Feiran asked with a smile. “Why didn’t you buy one today?”
“Just not in the mood.” Si Chu fretted over problems that weren’t his own until he had gray hairs.
Just as he was torn between conflicting thoughts, faint cries suddenly came from the adjacent pool, muffled and almost like a call for help. It wasn’t from the hot spring pool where Si Di and the man were, but from a pool situated between them.
The cries were faint, but in the serene surroundings, even Ye Feiran heard the unusual call for help immediately.
Without a moment’s hesitation, the two of them jumped out of the hot spring pool, not even bothering to dry themselves. Si Chu ran naked towards the source of the cries, while Ye Feiran hastily put on his coat and grabbed Si Chu’s clothes before following suit.
The person calling for help was a brown-haired man, showing typical symptoms of cerebral ischemia and hypoxia caused by the high temperature of the hot spring, intensified by fasting before soaking and low blood sugar. With multiple debuffs stacked against him, it’s a miracle he didn’t faint sooner.
Luckily, he managed to call for help, or else his body might not have been discovered until the next morning if he drowned.
Si Chu dived down, lifting the unconscious man’s body and dog-paddling towards the shore. At that moment, a hand grasped his arm. Thinking it was Ye Feiran, Si Chu was surprised to find that the hand had an unusual strength, effortlessly pulling him onto the bank.
“…,” Si Chu looked up, meeting Si Di’s blue eyes.
Instinctively, he glanced around, only to see the figure of a black-haired man walking away.