Chapter 64

**Chapter 64**

More… *personal*?

Shi Yu hadn’t expected that answer at all, stiffening slightly.

It took him a moment to process it, but once he did, the spots where Sang Huaiyu had touched him felt like they were on fire, heat prickling across his skin.

He shoved his chair back and stood up abruptly.

“Ah—thanks for looking into it.”

Got it.”

He hesitated, seeing how Sang Huaiyu was watching him with calm, gentle eyes—no hint of anything suggestive—and added,

“I’ll… think it over.”

Nodding stiffly, he grabbed his phone and bolted back to his room.

Sang Huaiyu watched Shi Yu’s panicked retreat, raising an eyebrow, unfazed.

After all, Shi Yu had always been cautious around Him. It was only natural he’d run off like that. He thought to himself, recalling how Shi Yu had flushed and stood up so suddenly.

Adorable.

Wish I could just—

Sang Huaiyu lingered outside for a while, only leaving the living room after Shi Yu had gone inside and shut the door. Then He returned to the study.

Inside, the managers pretended to debate, though in reality, they were all eavesdropping shamelessly, puzzled.

Since when does the CEO *pause* meetings?

And today was even stranger—the moment the video started, the employees realized this wasn’t the usual setting. The familiar villa backdrop was missing, replaced instead by some random study. A few books were casually placed on the shelves behind Him, the space way too plain for a CEO.

They side-eyed each other, curiosity piqued—but before they could dwell on the change, they heard a knock midway through the call.

A voice came through the computer, too muffled to make out clearly, speaking briefly to the CEO.

Not long after, the meeting paused.

The team was dying to know what was going on. Meetings were routine, but CEO drama? Unheard of.

No one had ever appeared at the CEO’s home before—who was that just now?

When Sang Huaiyu returned, He took in the frozen progress bar and narrowed His eyes slightly.

“Let’s continue.”

“Wrap things up by nine tonight.”

There was a brief silence in the video feed before someone finally asked, “Why nine?”

Late-night meetings weren’t unusual, but the CEO had never set a time limit before—this was the first time He’d specified a deadline.

Sang Huaiyu lightly tapped His fingers, glanced aside, and let out a quiet laugh.

"Because I don't want to disturb... his rest."

Don't! Want! To disturb his rest!

A few employees who’d long suspected the boss was hiding something nearly screamed. Fortunately, they remembered they were still in a meeting and managed to hold back, though their private group chats were blowing up.

Sang Huaiyu paid no attention to the employees' gossip, coolly collecting himself.

...

Shi Yu was clueless about the drama next door.

By tomorrow morning, the news that the CEO of the Sang Group had someone he liked would likely be all over the business grapevine.

He leaned against the door, zoning out for ages before the heat in his face finally subsided. Subconsciously, he reached up to touch his cheek, too mortified to even think about how embarrassing he must have looked in the living room earlier.

God, please tell me Sang Huaiyu doesn’t think I was overreacting?

Although *he* had been overreacting just now.

But...

Shi Yu felt he had every right to freak out—who wouldn’t when a Horror suddenly said something so ambiguous?

He took a deep breath and, after calming down, carefully analyzed what the Horror had said.

From what the Horror said, the Little Monster wasn’t actually in any life-threatening danger—it was just asleep because it was running low on Thunder Authority juice.

If it could process things on its own, it might wake up.

So there was a real possibility it could wake up by itself.

Shi Yu rubbed his belly and thought seriously: Maybe I should trust the Little Monster’s abilities.

But the moment this thought surfaced, he remembered the creature’s consistently demonstrated IQ and fell silent for a second.

Damn, the little one was all fluff, no substance—like, zero brain cells.

Ugh. After the night’s emotional rollercoaster, it’s not the time to make decisions.

Shi Yu, who usually slept well, expected to fall asleep as soon as he lay down. But after finishing all his bedtime routines, he tossed and turned, weirdly wide awake.

One moment he thought about the Little Monster, the next about the Horror’s expression earlier… no matter what, sleep wasn’t happening.

Frustrated, he kicked the blankets off, frowned, and sat up in bed. Just as he was about to grab his phone to kill time, he suddenly heard a sound outside the door.

Three firm, measured knocks. After a pause, Shi Yu heard Sang Huaiyu speak:

"Are you asleep?"

Seriously, how do you even respond to that?

After a brief hesitation, Shi Yu got up and went to open the door, figuring the Horror had business to discuss.

To his surprise, upon seeing him, Sang Huaiyu simply passed him a scented candle, paused, then added:

"That furball’s still out cold. Thought you could use this—figured you’d have trouble sleeping."

"Maybe you need a scented candle to help out?"

A gentle voice sounded by his ear. Shi Yu turned his head and only then noticed the item in the deity's hand with platinum blonde curls, freezing momentarily.

Wait, so he came knocking just to bring this?

He felt oddly touched for no apparent reason, though the irritation that had flared up earlier strangely faded somewhat.

Shi Yu reached out and took the scented candle. "Thank you. I'll light it later."

Sang Huaiyu nodded without another word, as if that afternoon's conversation never happened, and said his usual "Good night."

Shi Yu: ...

How does this person manage to be so nonchalant?

"Good night."

After closing the door again, he found himself staring blankly at the candle in his hand for quite a while.

Eventually, he tentatively sat down by the bedside table and lit the candle.

The white transparent casing revealed a faint branch pattern—simple yet elegant—and burned slowly after Shi Yu lit it.

Before long, the whole room filled with a light pear scent.

Sweet yet subtle, it immediately cheered him up.

Perhaps it was because sweetness could dispel worries—he'd planned to get up and play some games, but before long, he actually started feeling sleepy.

Still doubtful but giving in, he lay back down and fell asleep the moment his eyes closed.

...

Shi Yu slept soundly, only realizing upon waking… that it was already ten in the morning.

From last night until now, he’d slept a full ten hours.

Massaging his temples, he sat dazed on the bed for a moment, glancing at the scented candle beside him, thinking: He thought to himself, The Horror was actually pretty nice.

But the living room was so quiet now—had he gone to work?

He instinctively picked up his phone and saw a message sent half an hour ago.

"—Gone to work. There are freshly made shumai and desserts on the dining counter. Hope you like them."

Shi Yu got out of bed and, upon entering the living room, indeed found breakfast keeping warm in the kitchen.

The freshly steamed shumai still gave off a fragrant aroma, making his mouth water at the first whiff.

And the sesame paste next to it smelled sweet and rich, looking undeniably wholesome.

Shi Yu had no idea where the Horror kept finding these perfect recipes—damn if they didn't hit all his favorite flavors.

After washing up, he took an aggressive bite, feeling like all his guarded behavior lately had been pointless. Now he even started wondering: Maybe the Horror wasn’t so evil after all.

Perhaps it's just... the author phrased it poorly?

Rubbing his temples, Shi Yu automatically looked down at his stomach.

So, what the hell am I supposed to do about Little Monster?!

How did I end up in this mess?!

From yesterday till now, his stomach had been completely quiet. Shi Yu didn’t need to think to know that hoping the Little Monster would get into a “good school” on its own was probably impossible.

He let out a sigh and, unable to make a decision, simply looked at his phone: Should he ask the big boss what he thinks?

But this was kinda awkward.

After struggling for a long time, Shi Yu ultimately ended up dropping the idea.

...

Just as he hesitated, Sang Huaiyu, far away at the office, looked down at his phone, a little surprised.

He had thought Shi Yu would ask the "boss" for advice, but after all that time, Shi Yu hadn't texted him?

Putting it off all morning, Shi Yu sighed and finally caved and texted: "Mr. Sang, what exactly were you talking about with 'more intimate contact' last night?"

He had to confirm whether he could accept it; otherwise, all this hesitation would be meaningless.

After sending the message, Shi Yu was wound tighter than a spring, leaning back on the sofa, anxiously waiting.

One minute passed.

Two minutes passed.

Three minutes passed...

Still no reply from the other end. He paused, cringing hard: God, why did I send that now—this is so awkward.

Was the demon lord busy?

But just as he opened the page, the reply he'd been agonizing over finally came.

Sang Huaiyu didn’t reply directly. Instead, he raised an eyebrow, staring at the message for a long time before typing: "I get that this might be tough for humans."

"I understand your hesitation."

"So,"

He paused: "How far are you willing to go?"

How far are you willing to go...

Shi Yu’s brain short-circuited, thinking of what "intimacy" meant in his mind.

Hand-holding, hugs, and... kissing.

As those thoughts flashed through his head, Shi Yu balled his hands into fists.

"I don’t know either."

After a moment of thought, Sang Huaiyu replied gently: "We’ll talk when I get home."

Should we wait until Mr. Sang gets back from work?

Shi Yu snapped out of his thoughts, staring at the screen as he typed a few lines on his phone, then deleted them all before replying with a simple “Okay.”

Mr. Sang finishes work at six in the evening—a decent amount of time from now. That should be enough for him to think things through.

Shi Yu gave a slight shake of his head and sighed.

...

After a day of searching, the Ability User Association still hadn’t found anything, but at least they hadn’t provoked that entity beyond SSS rank.

The day before had been quiet, and Fu Nanyao, Zhao Wen, and the others returned to the office.

Wang Shan couldn’t help marveling.

"Honestly, if things could just stay like this, it’d be great. No Horrors around here—something we’d never have imagined possible."

"If only everywhere outside Orange Blossom Road were like this."

The moment the thought crossed his mind, a deafening "BOOM" shook the air so loud it made their ears ring.

"What was that?"

Wang Shan flinched, half-expecting divine punishment for his words.

Wait, he didn't even say anything bad.

They all hurried to the lobby and saw, under the 20°C midday sun, a bolt of lightning suddenly strike down. The thunder and lightning matched the freak storm from days earlier!

"No way… is this really happening again?"

Zhao Wen’s eyes widened as he immediately checked the monitoring data.

The moment the thunder sounded, all the already-cowering Horrors shuddered in fear.

Already jumpy these past few days, they now scrambled to hide even more carefully, afraid of being struck by the thunder.

Some near the city limits buckled under the pressure and fled beyond the city walls before the second thunderclap even hit.

Shi Yu was just as startled by the sudden thunder. His first reaction was shock.

His second: This seems familiar.

Wait, could it be...?

He immediately stood up and went to the window, opening it to check the sky outside.

Same scene, same thunder—but unlike last time, when the disturbance spread across the entire city and beyond, this time the lightning was concentrated in just a small area of the urban district, looking a little… weak.

But that was fine.

If this was really the Little Monster grasping the laws of thunder, even if it looked weak, Shi Yu was still proud of his little guy!

His heart swelled with hope as he stared out the window, wondering how much the Little Monster had figured out.

Yet after waiting ten minutes with the window open…

All he heard was two thunderclaps before it suddenly—cut off?

No... it wasn't stuck either.

Instead, on the third rumble, it lingered in a state like wanting to release but failing to do so.

This caused the clouds in the sky to split open briefly before snapping back together.

It looked like... feinting a big attack.

Lightning flickered uncertainly across the heavens. The battle-ready members of the Ability User Association paused in confusion.

"Isn’t this different from before?"

Zhao Wen wore a look of complete bewilderment—were the earlier thunder strikes this weak? Or was his memory off?

The Horror, which had nearly fled out of the city in fear, also stopped mid-step, looking up at the sky in confusion, unsure whether to keep running.

Shi Yu stifled a sigh and hesitantly called out to Little Monster.

But the Little Monster, still wrestling with the mechanics of thunder, remained unresponsive and couldn't answer its mother. It could only frantically try to rein in the lightning.

The clumsy spectacle above might—*just maybe*—be proof that Little Monster… tried?

But failed.

His mood roller-coastered between hope and disappointment, and his lip twitched involuntarily.

He knew it—his kid wasn’t about to turn genius overnight.

Still, at least it *tried*. That much deserves credit.

After settling back onto the sofa, Shi Yu idly rubbed his stomach when he suddenly thought—

Hold on.

It’s been so long already. Little Monster had fumbled around trying to control the lightning and failed, so why hadn’t it pulled it back yet?

The thunder wouldn’t come down, hanging in the clear sky like a fizzling firework—appearing, then vanishing. Ordinary people couldn’t see it, but ability users saw everything clearly.

Shi Yu stiffened, a wave of dread washing over him.

Sure enough, one glance at the group chats showed more than just neighborhood chatter—posts were blowing up on the feeds of even the Ability User Association members.

"What's going on now?"

"Why did it stop halfway through?"

The timelines blew up with theories. Shi Yu took a deep breath and saw black, completely fed up with Little Monster.

Could this kid *at least* be a little more reliable?!

Meanwhile, Little Monster remained clueless about the chaos it had caused for its mom.

After struggling endlessly without grasping the rules, the whole creature had been zapped into a frizzy ball. With an angry *[frustrated noise]* "Wah-la!", it wanted to cry for its Mom.

Except… Mom didn’t seem to hear?

"Wah-la?" What’s happening?

It *was* still inside Mom’s belly… right?

The Little Monster was completely baffled.

Meanwhile, Shi Yu had that ominous thunder hanging overhead and was seriously worried the Ability User Association might find out something.

He'd originally been psyching himself up, but now his thoughts were resolute—it had to happen! Now! Immediately!

That little troublemaker needed to come out right now.

Otherwise, who knew what kind of chaos it might cause while "learning" on its own.

The muted thunder in the sky flickered for half an hour. Just as the Ability User Association members finished their discussion, no one expected it to persist so stubbornly, teasing them with a frustrating, on-again-off-again display… for an entire afternoon.

Wang Shan started off intrigued, but by now he was worn out from watching.

"It's not gonna keep flashing all day, right?"

Though it didn't really affect them, it was way too noticeable. It wouldn’t be long before social media blew up.

Zhao Wen shook his head, just as confused. "We can handle it, I guess."

"The data shows several Horrors without even developed intelligence have been worn ragged by the thunder."

Their instinctive fear of danger drove the low-level Horrors to flee B City toward the outskirts, but halfway there, when the thunder didn’t strike, their hunger for humans and craving for populated areas emboldened them to sneak back.

Then, the next second, the thunder reappeared...

Yet... it still didn't strike.

Back and forth several times, those Horrors were left completely frazzled. Some patrolling members even picked up a few by pure chance—total score.

Whoever saw this would say it’s crazy.

This silent thunder not only wore out the Horrors’ bodies, but their minds too?

Now that’s what I call full-service torment.

...

Never before had Shi Yu wished so desperately for the evil god to return sooner.

Perhaps hearing his silent plea, Sang Huaiyu got back from work a little after five in the afternoon.

As soon as he walked in, he saw Shi Yu standing at the door.

Shi Yu cleared his throat nervously. Though slightly embarrassed, he worked up the nerve and said, "Um, could you help stop the thunder above first?"

If the Little Monster kept this up, nobody would get any sleep tonight. Orange Blossom Road would definitely trend online—the kind of news even the Ability User Association couldn’t suppress.

Sang Huaiyu didn’t refuse. Instead, he simply glanced out the window.

In an instant, the teasing thunder finally stopped before more people noticed in the evening.

Everything happened silently, leaving Shi Yu equal parts amazed by the evil god’s Authority and relieved.

Well, even if people had already been talking earlier… at least they could contain some of the damage now.

Shi Yu looked up. "Um… thank you."

Sang Huaiyu shook his head. "Don’t mention it."

"I’m its father. It’s only right I help with the mess it caused."

"I can’t just leave you to handle this alone."

He lowered his gaze, then glanced at Shi Yu’s stomach. "How’s it doing today?"

Shi Yu couldn’t help but twitch his lips. "Like the sky showed earlier—it tried and failed."

Totally normal for the Little Monster. Thinking about it now, there was no way it could’ve succeeded.

Sang Huaiyu looked thoughtful. "The rules are hard to figure out. It probably can’t do it alone."

He left it at that, but Shi Yu remembered their earlier phone conversation about "close contact" and got awkward all over again.

Luckily, he was the type who, the more embarrassed he felt, the more he played it cool.

When Sang Huaiyu looked over, Shi Yu hesitated, then said, "If you’re okay with it... maybe we should try."

Shi Yu gritted his teeth. "How about a handshake first?"

Sang Huaiyu glanced at him, then slowly extended his hand.

"Is this okay?"

He seemed troubled. "Not sure how comfortable you are with this. Maybe... you should take the lead."

Shi Yu’s ears were already red. While physical contact between guys was normal, something felt weird—maybe because the other was a god. And, well… he had the guy’s kid in his belly, for some reason.

Even such basic contact felt strange. Just a handshake, and his palm heated up. Seeing him hesitate, Sang Huaiyu lowered his gaze and suddenly reached out, lacing their fingers together.

"Is this too much?"

He looked at Shi Yu, his eyes shadowed beneath the white silk.

Shi Yu hadn’t expected finger-lacing—an act something only couples usually did.

As he opened his mouth to speak, a faint tingle shot through where their skin met, and his stomach gave a little twitch.

—The Little Monster actually reacted?

Shi Yu froze.

Sang Huaiyu glanced down too. "Seems like it’s working."

"The Authority only transfers when there’s enough closeness."

He turned slightly toward Shi Yu, but after sensing something, he looked disappointed.

"Unfortunately, it’s still too weak."

"We only got a tiny bit just now."

Shi Yu: ...

That’s it?

He took a deep breath. Was interlocking fingers not enough? Just how much did this little monster need to concede?

Shi Yu swore that once the little monster came out, even if the evil god forced it to study, he would never sympathize with it again.

If he ever pitied the little monster again, he’d be a fool!

Before the evil god could look over, he thought of something more intimate than holding hands—something reserved for couples.

Closing his eyes, he suddenly rose on his toes and quickly planted a kiss on Sang Huaiyu’s cheek, pulling back in the same second.

The warm, fleeting touch on his cheek passed so quickly it almost felt like an illusion.

The evil god, who had just been teasing Shi Yu on impulse, froze for a moment—then his gaze darkened suddenly.