Chapter 24 Heartthrob

Chapter 24: A Stirring Heart

Idris knelt with a cold expression at the foot of the bed, his left hand gripping the ankle resting on his knee, his right hand holding a cotton swab as he applied ointment to Samuel's calf.

The areas touched by the ointment were a glaring red, with pea-sized blisters clustered together. Some had been rubbed open by clothing, lying shriveled and half-adhered to the raw, red flesh of the burn. Against the nearby snow-white skin, the contrast was even more shocking.

"Brother," Samuel asked nervously, "are you angry?"

The sudden question interrupted Idris's task. After a brief pause, he suppressed the inexplicable irritation in his heart and replied steadily, "No."

"...Oh." Samuel nodded, somewhat crestfallen.

The room fell into silence, broken only by Samuel's shaky breaths each time the ointment touched his wounds.

Every time he sensed the breathing above him grow heavier, Idris would instinctively lighten his touch. By the time the dressing was finished, his clothes were faintly damp with sweat.

"Your Excellency, please be careful not to touch the wounds while sleeping tonight." Gently placing the male insect's leg down and tidying up the medical supplies on the carpet one by one, Idris instructed, "I've scheduled a check-up for you tomorrow. You need to fast, so please remember not to drink water tomorrow morning."

After a moment's thought, he added, "Try to sleep on your back. If you feel uncomfortable, call me immediately. For the next few days, stick to a light diet. If there's anything you want to eat, have 99 make a note of it, and I'll prepare it for you when I return."

Idris's attitude was all business, completely unlike the solicitous concern he had shown in the morning.

Sensing something was off and seeing Idris about to leave, Samuel quickly reached out and grabbed the corner of his clothes, explaining, "Brother, I didn't mean to go out today without telling you on purpose."

"I just wanted to surprise you. I didn't want to get into a conflict with Miguel. He was the one who went too far, deliberately ruining the lunch I prepared for you."

"I spent a long time choosing that lunch. You didn't even get to see it before it was all spilled. That's why I got angry. Brother, I know I was wrong. I won't lose my temper in the future. Please don't dislike me."

Samuel's words were disjointed, and his heart was in turmoil. The restaurant incident wasn't trivial, but it wasn't a major disaster either—still, it was trouble. Although Idris had sided with him at the restaurant, that might have just been for appearances.

What the female insect truly thought, no one knew. Regardless, he couldn't let him misunderstand.

The flustered voice came from behind. Idris stopped and turned to see the male insect with red-rimmed eyes.

He hadn't cried when bullied at the restaurant, nor when scalded. But when mentioning the lunch he never got to enjoy, he cried with such grievance and restraint.

The male insect cared about him. Idris could feel it.

He thought, the male insect had been under continuous stress; he shouldn't add fuel to the fire.

After a moment of silence, Idris slowly turned around. Hesitating for a long moment, he finally raised his hand and gently ruffled the male insect's soft black hair, saying warmly, "It wasn't Your Excellency's fault. You don't need to apologize."

"Really?" Samuel asked again, half-believing, half-doubting.

Idris hummed in affirmation, comforting him, "How about we make up for this meal once Your Excellency's injuries have healed? I'll be at your beck and call."

"Really!"

Idris nodded with a smile.

Having secured the promise, Samuel narrowed his bright black eyes and rubbed against Idris's hand like a cat, looking so well-behaved it made one's fingers itch.

Feeling the soft strands beneath his hand, Idris twitched his fingertips but restrained himself.

"Brother," Samuel said, pulling and shaking Idris's other hand, pleading, "Can we skip the check-up tomorrow? I hate hospitals."

Idris shook his head, believing it was better to get checked since there were signs of a headache.

His attitude was firm. Seeing no other way, Samuel decided to come clean.

"My head doesn't hurt; I was faking it at noon." Samuel said this with righteous confidence. Idris couldn't refute it but refused to accept it.

In the end, he lost.

Samuel successfully dodged the check-up. Upon learning this, Bulan nagged for most of the day. Unable to persuade the male insect, he turned his fire on Idris. When Yisang, who was comforting Samuel at the time, found out, he gave Bulan a thorough scolding.

Idris's Stellar Ring finally quieted down, but Samuel wasn't so lucky.

Having not logged into his Stellar Ring all night, when he opened it the next day, he discovered his live stream hadn't been closed. The chat in the live stream room had exploded, and the Star Network had followed suit.

A large number of net insects, armed with hashtags, were emphatically claiming that a male insect had committed suicide for a female insect. Even male insects, who usually preferred shopping and playing games and rarely went online, were startled.

Thinking some dramatic, sensational gossip was happening, male insects flocked to join the excitement, wanting to see which male insect was so foolishly lovesick.

After digging through the hashtags and understanding the whole story, only to find it was about a fictional character, they gritted their teeth in frustration, speechlessly looking skyward.

Adopting a "since we're here" mentality, many male insects clicked into the live stream out of curiosity.

After reading the entire article, the male insects fell silent. Thinking of their own similar situations, some even felt a bit depressed.

Thus, that evening, many principal wives and concubines discovered their male masters looking gloomy, not playing games, not buying jewelry, but instead throwing several 6480s at a familiar live stream room, having learned how to tip during live streams.

The influx of male insects directly propelled the live stream to the top of the popularity charts. Some male insects even heavily promoted it on the Star Network. From then on, Samuel's first story completely blew up.

The Super Administrator, staring at the skyrocketing popularity, was so excited he couldn't control himself. He shot up like a kangaroo, startling half the room of colleagues.

After receiving some affectionate—and likely ironic—greetings, the Super Administrator, proudly puffing out his non-existent chest, knocked on the supervisor's door.

It must be said, his good days had arrived.

When the Super Administrator emerged from the room, he held a stack of documents. Samuel received these files while chatting with YS.

Regarding this "true love" fan, Samuel had a fairly good impression. If it weren't for the other insect always sending lavish gifts, his live stream wouldn't have gained so much traffic.

However, the other insect was too perceptive. Generally, aside from polite replies, Samuel didn't respond with too much content.

But the other party didn't seem to mind. Without a reply, they treated him as a sounding board, casually sharing their thoughts on the story, mainly saying whatever came to mind.

Occasionally, when he saw something interesting, Samuel would reply briefly. Through this back-and-forth, the two gradually became familiar.

From the other's words, Samuel also indirectly learned much about insect society that he hadn't known before.

For example: Male insects aren't always irritable.

Another example: Male insects aren't born hating female insects.

The other insect seemed to understand male insects very well.

Perhaps he was a male insect himself, Samuel thought.

On the chat interface, YS sent another message.

"YS: I don't think Anatole's suicide was purely a love suicide as the net insects say. It was more about powerlessness and guilt. Phoenix gave everything for the freedom he desired, yet Anatole chose compromise after being deceived."

"YS: When the harsh reality shattered the veneer of happiness, he couldn't face it and could only choose suicide to escape."

"Lin An: Mr. Y is impressive, you guessed right again. Actually, when he found Phoenix, Anatole wasn't completely unaware of Phoenix's strangeness, but he chose to ignore it. Mr. Y, don't you think Anatole's escapism was cowardly?"

"YS: Cowardly? No, running away is the choice of most male insects. He was brave; he chose a different path. I really like this ending."

Is escape the choice of most male insects? What are the male insects in the imperial capital escaping from?

Samuel silently noted this sentence, chatted a few more words with YS, and then exited the chat box.

What the Super Administrator sent was a document regarding the publication of the story. The entertainment company wanted to strike while the iron was hot and sell physical books. Samuel glanced at the document a few times, couldn’t understand it, and decisively closed the interface.

Another bunch of professional terms, what are they gibbering on about? Adhering to the principle of not making decisions about things he doesn’t understand, Samuel pushed back his chair and rushed downstairs.

Reviewing contracts is better left to the professionals. After all, he already owed his brother more than one insect-favor; owing a bit more actually made him feel more at ease.

Once the contract was confirmed to be correct, Samuel swiftly signed it and took the opportunity to ask the Super Administrator for a few days off.

While reviewing the contract, Idris specifically reminded him that after the first story was completed, the StarNet was in an uproar over the male insect suicide, his account channel had been hacked by cyber insects, and there were even extremist insects trying to dig up his address. Although he had already taken emergency measures, at this point, it was better to avoid trouble if possible.

Samuel studied the Stellar Ring for a long time, unable to figure out what kind of insect could hack into it to attack his livestream and investigate him, but Idris’s words were definitely not wrong.

So, while the net insects were busy fighting and cursing each other, Samuel quietly went off the grid for several days.

By the time he logged back in, the burn on Samuel’s leg had mostly scabbed over and the scab had fallen off, though the scar was still visible.

Because of this, Idris went to the hospital to get several types of scar-removal ointment, but none were very effective. He wanted to continue getting more, but Samuel stopped him.

Samuel wasn’t too bothered by a few burn scars, but that patch of skin, red like paint, along with the surrounding splash marks shaped like meteors, looked extremely unsightly in Idris’s eyes.

No male insect didn’t love beauty; a flawed piece of jade was truly a pity. Idris didn’t listen to the male insect’s comfort and insisted. Samuel compromised, but couldn’t help feeling bubbles of joy rising in his heart.

The bubbles rose, popped, and carried the sweetness of maple syrup.

His brother was concerned about him.

Samuel’s gaze swept over the ointment on the corner of the desk. Suddenly remembering the furrowed brows of Idris that day, he pressed the confirm button in a rather good mood.

The moment he logged in, the livestream lagged for a few seconds, followed by a flood of “Ah” filling the screen, interspersed with some attacking comments.

“What kind of insect crap is this? If you can’t write, just crawl back into your egg. How dare you slander His Excellency the male insect?”

“Wow! Nowadays, there are still insects who dare to spread rumors about male insects. Admirable, admirable.”

“Inducing male insects to commit suicide, and the Streamer dares to open a livestream instead of turning himself in? Shameless!”

Similar comments came one after another, with some phrases repeated across different accounts.

The regular viewers in the livestream saw this and quickly spammed the chat to push the negative comments down, but the other side had more people, and soon the comment section became a mess again.

Samuel stared at the screen, his expression gradually turning serious. He had never encountered trolls before and didn’t know that some insects on the StarNet specifically took on jobs like cursing others for money, but from the bits and pieces of the comments, he sensed something was off.

Right at this moment, the Stellar Ring received a private message.

“N·YD: Streamer, give me moderator rights. I’ll help you ban the troublemakers in the comments.”

“Lin An: How do I set up a moderator?”

N·YD received the message and quickly sent the setup steps. Samuel got the moderator set up and sent a thank you, but the other party was already gone.

He glanced at the comment section; the troublemakers from earlier had already been cleared out.

“N·YD: It’s handled. However, I still suggest you set up a few familiar insects as moderators. That way, if there’s an emergency in the comments while you’re updating, it’ll be easier to handle promptly.”

“Lin An: The insects I know aren’t online right now. Would you mind temporarily acting as a moderator?”

“Lin An: If it’s too troublesome, it’s okay. I can set it up when familiar insects come online later.”

Samuel asked cautiously, very afraid of offending this reader insect who had gifted him many presents during the later part of his first story.

Speaking of which, this insect was really strange. All the insects who had gifted him big presents would more or less send him private messages.

For example, YS would always send some thoughts after reading or plot predictions after gifting. But this one never posted comments or sent private messages; they only kept showering him with gifts, making Samuel feel very guilty.

Samuel had once sent a message hinting that the other party shouldn’t spend too much, but the other party’s “I like it” left him speechless.

Right now, YS wasn’t online, and the only familiar and helpful insect was N·YD.

“N·YD: It’s no trouble. No need for temporary; I have time.”

Samuel stared at the screen. “Quite helpful.”

“Lin An: Thank you! I appreciate the help!”

N·YD coolly replied with an “Mhm” and said nothing more. Samuel switched back to the livestream. After clearing out the trolls, the comment section was much cleaner.

“Streamer, you finally know to come back? I thought the MPA had sent you to the disciplinary center, then transferred you to insect prison for life!”

“Are you writing a new story today? The last story was great, Streamer, keep it up!”

“Looking forward to the new story!”

“Streamer, I heard His Excellency Anatole has a real-life prototype. Did he really commit suicide?”

“Lin An: Streamer, I heard… committed suicide? Reply: No, the novel is fictional.”

After replying to the message, Samuel closed the comment section and bullet chat, flexed his fingers, and with a bit of nervousness, tapped out the title of the new story.

[Shocking! What to Do When a Male Insect Falls in Love with Another Male Insect!]

“？？？？”

“Insect crap!!!”

“Streamer! What are you saying?!”

“Streamer! Male insect suicide isn’t enough for you anymore, is it?!!”

“Hahaha! A male insect falling in love with another male insect! That’s explosive! I can already imagine the Male Insect Protection Association President needing oxygen online, hahaha!”

“…Please don’t, Streamer… I don’t have a Male Master yet. I don’t want my Male Master and someone else’s Male Master to pair up internally, wuwuwu…”

“Streamer! You’ve gone too far! Making female insects compete with male insects for male insects!!! His Excellencies are so delicate! Beautiful! Which big, burly female insect could possibly compete?!”

“…His Excellencies are so irritable; wouldn’t they just fight if they were together?”

“Hey, how come you’re even considering the feasibility? Traitor!”

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Author’s Note: Star Calendar 4056, August x, Sunny, Weekday x

So soft.