Chapter 3: The Straight Top Takes a Hit

Chapter 3: Straight Men, Tops and Bottoms, and Trauma

At six o'clock sharp, having dinner with Qin Shu.

"Why didn't you tell me you've been going on blind dates lately?" Li Wuya asked.

Qin Shu was surprised: "Why would I tell you about that? It's not exactly honorable to go on a blind date with a guy, is it?"

Li Wuya was silent for three minutes.

"How many times have you saved my life?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"Eleven times, A Shu."

"...?"

Li Wuya lowered his eyes: "Eleven life-saving favors, plus our precious friendship—you have to believe I'd be willing to take care of everything for you."

"The war is over, and the post-war reckoning is ongoing. Those people never shed a single drop of blood on the battlefield; they covet what you have in the peace and comfort you created... How can that be allowed? I'll make them pay."

"I've already deleted your data in the White Tower, A Shu. You're not alone—I'm by your side."

A cake fork reached over, and a bite of ice-cold dessert was shoved into his mouth.

The most effective way to handle Qin Shu was to play the emotional card.

The cold star dissolved into a dot of ink, and the man before him was softened with tenderness.

"So sappy," said in a gentle tone that Qin Shu only ever showed to Li Wuya, "It's just that I didn't want to bother you with such a trivial thing."

"..."

Qin Shu, why must the distance between us be so great?

When will you understand that I want to do everything for you, solve all your troubles? There's no need for you to treat me with such deference...

When will we finally be inseparable?

Qin Shu suddenly stood up and pulled him away.

Back in the car, in the spacious seats, two grown men sat together. Qin Shu cupped his face: "Losing control again? What the hell is your therapist doing? Your combat PTSD hasn't improved at all."

He turned aside for a moment, pressing a few buttons on the console. Li Wuya didn't want Qin Shu to look away, so he grabbed his hand.

"..."

He pressed his forehead against Li Wuya's, his eyelashes like feathers. His eyes were always bright, icy galaxies flowing within them.

The next moment, the galaxy was pouring down.

Though the temperature had clearly dropped sharply, his senses felt as if it had warmed. Qin Shu's mental power was as cold and sharp as the man himself, yet it could spark all kinds of contradictory illusions. His spiritual tendrils entangled him thoroughly, cutting like shattered glass and soaking like warm water, as if he were floating alone in the universe, letting the vacuum tighten around him.

Yet Li Wuya calmed down under this touch—he had long grown accustomed to this overbearing comfort.

He finally realized he had lost control again just now.

He saw Qin Shu pull back slightly. He felt something in his mouth. Qin Shu reached out and pressed his hand against Li Wuya's lips.

Li Wuya sluggishly felt Qin Shu forcefully pressing his chin, using his fingers to part his lips, pry open his teeth, and insert his long, warm fingers into his mouth, pressing down on the base of his tongue.

Qin Shu held the half-bent metal fork in his hand, speechless. "Dude, did you think you were a megalodon? Chewing on a fork like it's a piece of cake."

Li Wuya blinked in slow motion. "...Sorry, you had to calm me down again."

"It's fine," Qin Shu said, unbothered. "As long as it helps you, that's what matters."

Yes, if being able to soothe a Sentinel's spirit makes one a Guide, then...

Qin Shu, it seemed, was both a Sentinel and a Guide.

Back then, he had inexplicably ended up on a battlefield, dazedly fought an alien with a bunch of strangers, then dazedly followed them back to the rear camp. Qin Shu was mistaken for a survivor from a fallen border city.

Those people registered his identity and asked him whether he was a Guide or a Sentinel.

What the hell is a Guide? What the hell is a Sentinel?

Qin Shu looked at the male humans around him.

Male Sentinels just looked like regular soldiers.

As for male Guides...

Guys who looked like delicate little submissives from some ancient drama, guys who looked like innocent little lambs, guys in red dresses, soft, long-haired dudes.

Qin Shu: ...

Words couldn't describe the storm raging inside Qin Shu at that moment. Anyway, he declared without hesitation, "I'm a Sentinel."

Even if the Jade Emperor himself showed up, he was going to be a Sentinel!

He discovered he could soothe a Sentinel's spirit completely by accident. At that time, he and Li Wuya were far from the central battlefield. Li Wuya was severely injured, his mind in chaos, and on the verge of death... Well, it was probably a transmigrator's cheat code. In any case, he successfully calmed Li Wuya's mental sea, and Li Wuya didn't have to die.

But Qin Shu had never learned how to soothe someone else's mental sea, and he didn't want to learn. In Qin Shu's mind, being a Guide basically meant being a soft, effeminate gay guy. No way in hell did he want that! Helping Li Wuya out every now and then was more than enough!

From then on, this secret was kept between the two of them, until the war ended.

The air inside the car was still. Qin Shu had already activated the anti-psychic-energy-dispersion device.

Li Wuya, now back to normal, leaned against his shoulder and murmured, "A Shu, I'm always troubling you. You should lean on me more too."

Qin Shu said cheerfully, "We're brothers. None of that 'trouble' talk."

Li Wuya: ...

————

Five years ago, it was on Bordeaux Star.

Li Wuya was the highest-ranking officer directly under the Sixth Army stationed on Bordeaux Star, and also the sacrifice pushed forward.

His two mothers—one held military power, the other was from the old nobility. The family was in its prime, with a long lineage.

Unfortunately, there were many offspring but only one inheritance seat. The elders looked down from above, watching a bunch of young people fight to the death.

Li Wuya failed at the final step, and his younger brother took the throne. He would have been liquidated immediately, but his mother regretted that a Sentinel of such high rank could not serve the Empire.

Just then, the most brutal war was raging on the border, and he was sent to the main battlefield, Bordeaux Star.

Li Wuya had thought of making a comeback, but the war was cruel; no matter how carefully he planned, he could not overcome the inadequate logistics and the blatant frame-ups from his superiors.

That battle was a disastrous defeat. Bordeaux Star was about to fall, and Li Wuya would have died, if not for Qin Shu's dramatic arrival.

But Qin Shu came, bringing reinforcements.

They fought their way in directly from outside the star ring, forcibly tearing open the encirclement. The Star Beasts, which lacked reason but possessed basic survival instincts, scattered in all directions. Leading the charge, Qin Shu descended from the starship and walked forward step by step.

Tall and slender, with blood-drenched hands and a long blade dripping blood, his face cold and still, but anyone could see the evident excitement in his eyes.

An unparalleled visual impact, the cold, metallic scent of blood and the smell of rust—everything flooded the senses, including the bloody footprints he left with each step, the remains of the Star Beasts he passed, the smoke and flames...

Qin Shu patted his shoulder. "Man, you're really something. With just a few hundred men, you held out for forty-eight hours."

Behind him, the cold, vast Milky Way was reflected in his eyes, shining so brightly.

-

After meeting Qin Shu, power, the Empire, glory, military rank... everything gradually lost its color.

Only Qin Shu remained vivid. Strange, isn't it? Why was that?

Perhaps it was because Qin Shu had saved him eleven times, or perhaps because the war was too long, the stars too cold, and the dead too many.

In such a vast and desolate place, people quickly lose many things—dignity, morality, even humanity—but Qin Shu never changed.

Qin Shu trusted him implicitly, Qin Shu was always like a savior, Qin Shu was too vivid. How dazzling that cold star was on the battlefield—he himself might not have realized it, but by the later stages of the war, he was indeed the moral backbone of most soldiers.

The so-called "Twin Stars of the Empire" actually referred only to Qin Shu; Li Wuya was just riding on his coattails.

In the end, Li Wuya even somewhat hoped the war would never end. Once it ended, Qin Shu would no longer be able to be so wild and free.

Countless people would be after him.

They would covet his power, his value, his genes, his near-miraculous battlefield supremacy.

With flowers and honors, with military ranks and power, with Guides and love, they would possess, use, and win over, and try to drag him bit by bit back into the Empire's vast, rotting spider web.

Qin Shu had no idea about any of this.

----

7:30 PM.

After dinner, the two strolled along the riverbank.

Li Wuya said, "The Marshal is no longer safe. He handed over your information to the White Tower."

Qin Shu: "Uh."

Li Wuya said very seriously, "He has betrayed you. You should come and be my direct adjutant."

Qin Shu coughed dryly. "Well, actually, I agreed to it first."

"..."

Qin Shu: "The Marshal said, what if a girl takes a liking to me? I think he makes a good point."

"..."

Li Wuya's expression shattered for a moment, then subtly repaired itself.

He said calmly and sincerely, "A Shu, in five years, three hundred and twenty-nine people have confessed to you. Two hundred and fifty-two of them were Guides, and seventy-seven were Sentinels. Without exception, all male."

"..."

"In the two months after the war, seven Guides asked you out. Without exception, all male."

Qin Shu: "What if!"

Li Wuya gave a cold laugh. "There is no chance."

He watched Qin Shu deflate, then start muttering things like "Is this world ever going to be okay?" "Why am I so attractive to gay men?" "Where is my love?" and so on.

Li Wuya had heard these words countless times, and had gone from the initial bitterness and resentment to now being completely unmoved.

He was waiting.

Sure enough, the next second, Qin Shu hugged him and pretended to cry, "Wuya, you're my only ally in this world. Brothers for life. Don't you dare get a girl to like you before I do!"

Li Wuya patted his back and answered nonchalantly, "No girl will ever like me."

Or rather, no one would dare to have a crush on me.