Even as he spoke to the Colonel, Chi Zhou’s gaze remained fixed on this ‘Fang Qi’, studying every minute detail.

The young man’s eyes were slightly upturned at the corners, his irises a striking shade of dark brown, with a tiny beauty mark beneath the outer corner of one eye. His features carried a faint air of delicacy, yet his gaze was unnervingly cold.

Those cat-like eyes held no emotion at all, as though everything around him was beneath his notice.

And yet there was the slightest smile on his face. Sitting obediently beside the Colonel with a plate piled high with fried chicken in his hands, he looked almost innocent, almost guileless.

Whenever Chi Zhou looked at him, he simply allowed himself to be observed, treating the scrutiny as though it didn’t exist.

It was as if he was trying too hard to appear natural.

The smile in Chi Zhou’s eyes deepened.

He was almost certain now.

This was Xia Ye.

Five years had passed, and Xia Ye had changed considerably.

As a teenager, he had been little more than skin and bones. His wrists had been so slender they looked as though they could snap at any moment. Only the light in his eyes had been vivid, revealing an ambition he had never bothered to hide.

There had been a desperate, almost reckless determination buried in that gaze, driving him to climb upward at any cost. It had made Chi Zhou want to reach out and pull him along.

The Xia Ye before him now was far more restrained.

It was difficult for anyone to read a single emotion from his face. It was as though he had sealed away every thought and feeling, needing no one to understand them.

Even here, seated in the administrator’s office of an underground fighting arena while being scrutinized by both him and the Colonel, Xia Ye remained completely unhurried. Every probing question was deftly sidestepped, leaving the Colonel without a single opening to exploit.

He was far too composed for someone his age.

Chi Zhou finally shifted his gaze to Lin Kezhi.

The moment Lin Kezhi sensed someone looking at him, he shrank his neck like a startled quail. Even the way he bit into his fried chicken turned stiff and awkward.

Now that was how someone his age ought to react.

Xia Ye was simply too calm—calm enough to become suspicious.

Very few people reacted to Chi Zhou that way.

Unless they had met him before.

Or had shared some kind of history with him.

—

Chi Zhou didn’t expose him.

Instead, he leisurely continued watching until Xia Ye’s movements finally became ever so slightly unnatural. Only then did he look away.

“Colonel, you weren’t very prepared today.” He pointed lazily at the dipping sauces on the coffee table, sounding almost casual. “There isn’t enough sauce.”

Xia Ye’s hand paused.

Instead of drenching his fried chicken in garlic butter as he had before, he only dipped it lightly.

The Colonel glanced over and realised the garlic butter sauce was already more than half gone. “Is this stuff really that good?” he muttered. “It used to be the one nobody touched.”

“It is,” Chi Zhou replied absentmindedly. “It’s a rather distinctive flavour.”

“Oh, quit talking in riddles with me.”

The Colonel waved over a nearby bunny girl.

“Bring us more garlic butter sauce.” He pointed toward the people on the sofa. “They all like it.”

Then he pointed at himself. “I don’t. Get me ketchup.”

“You’re old-fashioned,” Chi Zhou teased with a smile. “I’m different. I have things in common with young people.”

The Colonel snorted through his nose again, clearly unable to stand Chi Zhou’s insistence on hanging around people decades younger than himself.

As far as he was concerned, people ought to behave according to their age. Even if sentinels kept the same appearance for centuries, surely they should mature psychologically.

Chi Zhou neither agreed nor argued, completely ignoring the Colonel’s attitude.

Instead, he picked up a piece of fried chicken and suggested to Lin Kezhi and Fang Qi, “How about a toast? I saw young people doing this on StarNet.”

The Colonel stared at him as though he were an idiot.

As a diehard Ancient Earth enthusiast, the Colonel still refused to use StarNet. He stubbornly browsed archived websites from Old Earth on a desktop computer and had absolutely no idea what was trending online these days.

Xia Ye tensed.

Things were developing in a direction he had never anticipated; he had no idea Chi Zhou enjoyed making jokes like this.

Chi Zhou held up his piece of fried chicken with a perfectly serious expression.

Lin Kezhi looked around. Seeing that neither the Colonel nor Xia Ye moved, he reluctantly raised his own piece, too nervous to let the Alliance’s Light be left hanging.

He lightly tapped his fried chicken against Chi Zhou’s, imitating a popular StarNet video.

“Cheers!”

Chi Zhou merely nodded, then he continued looking at Xia Ye.

Lin Kezhi looked from one to the other, completely baffled.

Wasn’t the toast already over? Hadn’t he gone along with it? Why was Chi Zhou still staring at Xia Ye?

Xia Ye secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Between school and his part-time jobs, his life revolved around two destinations and little else. He simply didn’t have time to watch StarNet trends.

When Chi Zhou had suggested the toast, he hadn’t even understood what he meant. He had worried it was some kind of test, and that failing to respond correctly would expose him. Now it seemed Chi Zhou had only been trying to liven up the atmosphere.

Copying what Lin Kezhi had done, Xia Ye gently tapped his piece of fried chicken against Chi Zhou’s.

“Cheers.”

He wasn’t accustomed to expressing himself that way, but if it was something Chi Zhou enjoyed, he didn’t mind playing along.

“Cheers.” Chi Zhou smiled warmly. “It’s nice to meet you, Fang Qi.”

—

Xia Ye couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off, though he couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

When filling out the registration form for the fighting arena, he hadn’t hesitated for even a moment before writing down a fake name. There were no rules against competing under an alias. Every year, military academy students short on tuition disguised themselves and entered underground arenas to earn money. He was merely one of them.

The only difference was that his goal was clearer than most.

Yet now, sitting in the Colonel’s office beneath the warm glow of candlelight, listening to Chi Zhou casually call him ‘Fang Qi’, an inexplicable sense of discomfort crept over him.

He shouldn’t have felt this way. By now, he should have been accustomed to using aliases in underground arenas.

Quietly, Xia Ye glanced at Chi Zhou, searching for the source of that unease. But Chi Zhou had apparently spoken without any deeper meaning. Reclining lazily against the sofa, he had already turned to chat with the others.

“Xiao Lin, first time at an underground arena?” he asked cheerfully. “Pretty impressive. You won this much money on your very first try.”

Lin Kezhi nodded stiffly, unsure what to do with either his hands or his feet.

“Why are you so tense?” The Colonel chuckled as he opened the liquor cabinet and took out a bottle of whiskey. “We’re not going to eat you.”

Lin Kezhi let out an awkward laugh.

“Just luck. Pure luck.”

“Forget luck. I didn’t see today’s result coming either.” The Colonel lined up four crystal glasses before pouring amber whiskey into each one. “Ha! One-hit knockout! Our champion’s gone just like that. Xiao Fang, where did you learn to fight?”

He slid a glass toward each of them, the whiskey shimmering softly in the candlelight.

Holding his own glass, Lin Kezhi looked from one person to another. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the Colonel was asking about far more than fighting.

Xia Ye, however, had expected this question from the very beginning.

A teenage prodigy who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, fought his way to victory, and claimed Scarlet Dawn Lotus as the prize was bound to end up in the Colonel’s office sooner or later. Before coming here, he had already prepared answers to every question he could think of.

“I never learned formally,” he replied evenly. “I used to fight in District Ten.”

The Colonel smiled in understanding. “So you learned through real fights.”

He tapped the whiskey in front of Xia Ye.

“Want to try it? Good whiskey from District Eleven. You can’t buy this outside.”

Xia Ye’s gaze settled silently on the glass, irritation flickering beneath his calm expression.

Earlier, he had injected himself with a genetic suppressor, and right now, drinking alcohol was a bad idea.

Alcohol reacted with the suppressor. At best, it caused side effects like dizziness or allergic rashes. At worst, it could render the suppressor completely ineffective, sending his psychic power into another uncontrollable rampage.

This was a trick underground arenas often used to expose competitors who had taken drugs before a match.

Xia Ye had considered the possibility beforehand.

But according to his calculations, the Colonel shouldn’t have invited him to his office until at least halfway through the tournament.

He hadn’t expected it to happen this quickly.

If his psychic power spiralled out of control here, the Colonel would immediately discover that he was actually a guide.

“What’s wrong?” The Colonel’s expression darkened. “Don’t you like whiskey?”

After a brief moment of deliberation, Xia Ye reached for the glass.

The severity of the side effects depended on luck, but if he refused outright, the Colonel would certainly realise something was wrong.

“I like whiskey,” Chi Zhou suddenly cut in.

“But I want mine with ice. Half a glass. Did you forget?”

Without waiting for a response, he shoved his own glass into the Colonel’s hand and asked with practised innocence, “Where’s the freezer again? I forgot.”

The interruption immediately eased the tension. The Colonel sighed, took the glass, and got up to fetch some ice.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Xia Ye spoke quietly. “Thank you.”

“What for?” Chi Zhou smiled as though nothing had happened. “He just likes picking on kids.”

“I’m not…”

A kid.

The words nearly escaped before Xia Ye caught himself and swallowed the rest.

“I don’t drink.”

“Mhm. I know.”

The reply came so naturally that Xia Ye frowned. Looking at Chi Zhou’s easy smile, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was answering an entirely different question.

“Since you don’t drink…”

Chi Zhou reached over as naturally as breathing and claimed the untouched whiskey from in front of him.

“…then yours is mine.”

He swirled the golden liquor, letting it catch the candlelight in dazzling flashes.

“It really is fine whiskey from District Eleven,” he remarked casually. “The Colonel would never pour me another glass of something this good.”

Only then did Xia Ye finally relax; he understood the implication.

The Colonel was a man with principles. He wouldn’t force alcohol on a competitor. Since Chi Zhou had taken this glass in his place, there wouldn’t be another.

For the briefest moment, Xia Ye found himself thinking back to an afternoon many years ago.

In their shabby apartment, Chi Zhou had lounged against the sofa, holding the battered cup Xia Ye had brought back from the orphanage. He had sipped the cheapest barley beer one mouthful at a time, as though it were the finest vintage.

Back then, Chi Zhou had said with complete indifference,

“As long as it has alcohol in it, it’ll get you drunk. Does it really matter what kind it is?”

Does it really matter what kind it is?

Xia Ye hadn’t understood those words then.

Now he did.

To Chi Zhou, premium whiskey and cheap barley beer were no different.

He was simply helping him.

Just as he had quietly given him a dose of genetic purifier all those years ago.

—

“When did you drink xiao Fang’s whiskey?” the Colonel complained as he returned with the iced whiskey and set it in front of Chi Zhou. “You insisted on having ice, but weren’t you drinking it just fine without it?”

Chi Zhou shrugged lazily.

“I never said I wouldn’t.”

The Colonel was so stunned by his shamelessness that he couldn’t speak for several seconds.

“All right.” Chi Zhou set down his glass and gestured toward Xia Ye and Lin Kezhi. “Let the youngsters get back and get some sleep. We have serious business to discuss.”

The Colonel looked reluctant.

“They’re leaving already? I still have a few things I’d like to ask xiao Fang…”

“What could you possibly have to talk to him about?” Chi Zhou cut in bluntly. “You just want to rope Fang Qi into fighting fixed matches for your arena.”

Without waiting for a reply, he stood up, walked over to Lin Kezhi, and patted him on the shoulder.

“Stop sitting there. Get up already. It’ll be midnight if you don’t head back now.”

Lin Kezhi snapped back to reality, grabbed the whiskey on the table, and downed it in one gulp.

Everything that had happened tonight was so surreal that he was afraid he would lose his mind without a little alcohol.

“Fang Qi.”

Resting one hand properly on the back of the sofa, Chi Zhou smiled gently.

“See you again sometime.”

Watching Chi Zhou pat Lin Kezhi on the shoulder like a caring older brother before turning to bid him such a calm farewell left Xia Ye with an inexplicable sense of dissatisfaction.

Back then, he had been the one who found Chi Zhou a place to stay.

He had been the one who found him food, dressed his wounds, and secretly bought him alcohol.

Not Lin Kezhi.

Avoiding Chi Zhou’s eyes, Xia Ye replied evenly, “Goodbye.”

There probably wouldn’t be another chance to meet.

Not unless Chi Zhou personally entered the competition for Scarlet Dawn Lotus.

“Mhm. Be careful on your way back.”

Completely unfazed by Xia Ye’s cool attitude, Chi Zhou escorted the two of them all the way to the arena entrance before adding thoughtfully, “Fang Qi, whatever the Colonel tells you, don’t believe him. Good kids shouldn’t fight fixed matches.”

The moment Chi Zhou called him a good kid, Xia Ye almost stopped walking just to argue with him.

For some reason…

He especially disliked hearing Chi Zhou describe him that way.

—

After seeing Xia Ye and Lin Kezhi off, Chi Zhou returned to the office.

“So attentive today, weren’t you?” The Colonel was already half drunk, sprawled across the sofa as he sneered. “Trying that hard to steal my recruit? Give it a rest, Chi Zhou. Look at him. Does he seem like the type who would join the military with you?”

With Xia Ye gone, Chi Zhou’s warm demeanour disappeared completely.

His expression turned cold, carrying the sharpness of someone accustomed to killing.

Folding his arms, he warned, “Don’t get any ideas about him. He’ll be mine soon enough.”

The Colonel knew nothing about Xia Ye’s background and genuinely believed he was a self-taught Sentinel who had fought his way up from District Ten.

Chi Zhou, however, knew perfectly well.

Xia Ye had entered the academy as the top-ranked student.

Sooner or later, he would join the military and become one of the Alliance’s pillars.

“You’re that sure?” The Colonel eyed him sceptically. “I wouldn’t bet on it. Didn’t you see his eyes? Like a wolf cub’s. Doesn’t look like the obedient type. Someone like that’s going to work under you? The military’s full of rules—you need approval for everything…”

He continued grumbling for quite a while.

Chi Zhou couldn’t even be bothered to respond. Only after the Colonel finally ran out of complaints did Chi Zhou speak.

“Finished?”

He stepped past the row of candles, stopped beside the Colonel, and lowered his voice.

“I’m asking you this. Do you have news about Scarlet Dawn Lotus?”

The fighting arena had used Scarlet Dawn Lotus as the grand prize, drawing people from every corner.

Xia Ye was only one of them.

Chi Zhou had come for exactly the same reason.

—

Author’s Note: Instructor Chi’s schemes are practically mille-feuille at this point. (shakes head.jpg)

Support the author by buying the author’s works and/or throw some bombs~
(It’s very easy to buy for jjwxc because they support Paypal payments~)

We have a discord server for those who want to receive an update ping and various announcements~
Join here ^^

And please buy me some kofi if you like the translation~

Also leave some ratings if you like this series here~