Chapter 17: Straight Top Falls Into the Pit, Step One

Chapter 17: The Straight Top Takes the Bait

All the way inside the Duke's mansion, the two were silent.

Qin Shu had a permanent room here, right next to Li Wuya's bedroom. Li Wuya went in to check and decided to have the servants change the bedding again.

Before that, Qin Shu could wait in Li Wuya's room.

Qin Shu had no objection. He had been silent the whole time, leaning against the wall, lost in thought.

Li Wuya finished instructing the servants and closed the bedroom door.

Suddenly, a hand yanked his tie.

It looked gentle, but the pull was impossible to resist.

Of course, Li Wuya didn't intend to resist.

He followed the pull a couple of steps, met Qin Shu's eyes for a second, then submissively lowered his gaze.

Qin Shu tugged his tie, leaning against the wall, meeting his eyes but still looking down on him: "Why didn't you say it?"

His features were cold, his expression aloof. His facial features were sharp, and when expressionless, he had a different kind of beauty.

"That's a false rumor," Li Wuya said calmly. "My mental domain is normal. It just needs your soothing every now and then. After the decisive battle, I only lost control twice, both times you witnessed."

"Skirting the issue."

"The public opinion will be resolved sooner or later. It's not worth making it a topic of conversation between us."

Li Wuya said softly, "Those are all baseless rumors... I don't want you to worry about them, A Shu."

"That's quite a list of excuses." Qin Shu gave a wry smile.

Then they stared at each other in silence.

A Shu was a good person. When they argued, he was especially careful to control his emotions. He didn't like to say hurtful things.

"I came to the capital mainly to help you out," he said, softening his tone. "If you don't tell me about these problems, how am I supposed to help you?"

"I..."

Qin Shu seemed to foresee it.

"Thinking your own problems are insignificant? I hate that about you. Li Wuya, if you put yourself down like this, how am I, who cares about you, supposed to feel? Isn't that a kind of arrogance toward me?"

"No, I—"

"I'm not in the mood to hear your explanations right now."

Qin Shu grabbed his face. His icy mental energy spread faintly, aggressive to the touch. Li Wuya was forced to shut up.

He moved closer, switching positions so that Li Wuya was pinned against the wall. Qin Shu pressed his knee between Li Wuya's thighs, his brows drawn down, his expression stern and fierce.

Interrogation!

Li Wuya bit his lip, flustered, and dropped his gaze.

"What do you mean, 'the leaked mental examination report'?"

Li Wuya: "The mental test on the day of the decisive battle, you know. I wasn't in good shape then. So I just went along with the mistake, handed it to the Tower, and turned it into a convenient weakness."

...Indeed, Li Wuya hadn't been in good shape that day.

Qin Shu remembered. During the decisive battle, he had gotten caught up in the fight, delivered the final blow, and was elated for a while. Then he suddenly realized Li Wuya hadn't moved in a long time.

He turned around.

Well, his bro was about to die, why didn't he say a word!

"So how did they come to think you needed a deep link?"

"Based on that report, without a deep link, I was close to death."

Qin Shu was puzzled: "But I feel like you're doing pretty fine now."

"..."

Li Wuya looked at him.

That look again. Every time Qin Shu performed mental soothing on Li Wuya, Li Wuya would give him that look.

It seemed a bit melancholic, a bit resentful, and a whole lot of...

Uh, Qin Shu couldn't figure it out!

Li Wuya said slowly, "Yes, I'm fine now, thanks to you."

"Because of me?" Qin Shu repeated blankly.

Li Wuya was fine, because of him?

But then again, deep link...

At that moment, in a flash of lightning, all the suspicious points connected like beads on a string. Qin Shu suddenly let go of Li Wuya!

He jumped back as if scalded, stumbling three steps back, and raised his hands in a defensive gesture in front of his chest.

Shocked, flustered, scared out of his wits, panic-stricken.

"Li Wuya, the mental soothing I did for you—was that a deep link?!"

Oh heavens, they had spiritual intercourse?!

-

Actually, it wasn't the first time he had suspected this.

Back then, the first time, three years ago.

At that time, Li Wuya blocked an attack for him. The polluted mental energy caused his best friend to pass out on the spot.

Li Wuya's mental domain was in a terrible state; without a guide to calm him, he would have died. But the signal flare had been fired half an hour ago, and no one came.

At that moment, the only thought in Qin Shu's mind was that Li Wuya had to survive, and he would accept any price to make that happen!

As a last resort, he pressed his hand to Li Wuya's bloodstained forehead.

His mental tendrils pushed into that chaotic black sea, and Qin Shu surprisingly felt he could calm him down.

Was this mental soothing? Was he a guide?

A million questions popped into his head, but Qin Shu had no time to think. He recalled the typical positions guides used to calm sentinels, took a deep breath, and awkwardly pressed his forehead against Li Wuya's.

Qin Shu's awareness sank deep down.

Bright light merged with the black sea. The spiritual domains of two sentinels, which should have repelled each other, touched without causing Qin Shu any pain.

Li Wuya's spiritual power caused him no harm at all. Any storms or agitation automatically calmed down upon seeing Qin Shu. The viscous black felt quite docile to the touch, and in the flowing blackness, Li Wuya did not speak but was very compliant.

It seemed there was really nothing special. After combing through this black sea as he had envisioned, just in case, Qin Shu left a bit of his spiritual power inside.

Half an hour later, the two separated. Having pulled his friend back from the brink of death, Qin Shu crouched to the side, feeling not just relief but also a hint of desolate melancholy.

After all this, I'm a fucking guide too? I have to be lumped in with those obviously gay men!

And I actually used spiritual guidance to save Li Wuya, just like a guide would?

Another half hour passed. Li Wuya barely regained consciousness. Before he could even be surprised that he was still alive, Qin Shu's face appeared before him.

"Wuya, I'm not gay."

Li Wuya wanted to speak, but as the air reached his throat, he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Qin Shu said, "Wuya, you're not gay either."

Li Wuya kept coughing up blood.

"Remember, neither of us is gay. That was just me saving you!"

Li Wuya coughed up blood even more violently.

-

The memory ended.

Li Wuya said calmly, "Yes, that was your first deep link with me."

Qin Shu: ...

Qin Shu had never realized he could be so desolate, so melancholy, so utterly flustered.

He wanted to explain, to defend himself, but his mind recalled a long-ago tutoring session from his temporary guide, Mr. Zhang, who taught him, a complete illiterate of the interstellar age.

"Qin Shu, do you know what a deep link is?"

The young Earthling honestly shook his head.

"The essence of a deep link is that a guide and a sentinel establish a permanent resonance channel at the spiritual level," Mr. Zhang said with a smile. "Society regards it as the foundation of marriage because it is exclusive, unique, and indivisible."

"...You say deep link is spiritual communion; in a sense, that's correct. After all, letting another person enter your spiritual domain, completely seeing your emotions, memories, and all the corners you don't want to show, requires more trust than physical nudity."

And he had deep-linked with Li Wuya.

Three years ago, unintentionally, on the battlefield.

He had no awareness of it at all. Or maybe a little, but he deliberately ignored it.

Li Wuya had been completely open to him, and he, like a pervert, had been running wild in Li Wuya's spiritual domain on and off, all the way until today?!

In the bright room, Li Wuya stood still, his tie still crumpled from when Qin Shu had pulled it, looking very calm.

Qin Shu's mind was about to short-circuit. Struggling for words, he stammered out, "Wh-why did you say 'first'? Is there a second one?"

He regretted asking right away. Qin Shu, you dumbass, did you even need to ask?

Li Wuya glanced at him. "The second time was on the day of the final battle. You had to do it twice to finish the link."

Damn, Qin Shu was dumbfounded. How messed up was he? Once wasn't enough, he even went for a second round!

-

To Li Wuya, it felt wonderful.

The first time, he completely lost consciousness and didn't experience it. That was his regret. Luckily, there was a second time.

On the day of the final battle, the army advanced to a dark wormhole, where the Beast Mother was.

The ship couldn't enter, and the star-destroying cannon's blast was devoured. They had to enter individually, feeling their way. Qin Shu leaped straight to the starship's exit.

Li Wuya followed.

The first actual entry was by the empire's two most elite fighters. Countless people opposed and warned against it, but who could stop Qin Shu?

The start of the final battle was so hasty, but the middle was absolutely spectacular.

Only Li Wuya could see Qin Shu's brilliance.

Li Wuya saw only two roles for himself on the battlefield: Qin Shu's logistics and Qin Shu's support.

So after he eliminated the last Star Beast that hindered Qin Shu's attack on the Beast Mother, he collapsed contentedly.

His body ached, his mental domain was in chaos, but his mood was good.

He had completed his mission, and not far away, Qin Shu was also radiating brilliance.

When Qin Shu roamed the battlefield, he was always intoxicating. Clearly a mess, yet unrestrained and wild. The cold, sharp rays that manifested surrounded him. Li Wuya was sure the flickering points were stars.

He had always felt that Qin Shu's mental domain was something like a vacuum or universe. Unfortunately, he had never seen Qin Shu's mental domain fully manifest in reality.

The long blade tore through the starry sky. Signal flares were launched. They fought and won... then what?

It seemed he had unknowingly bled so much. What could he do? Nothing.

Anyway, at some point Qin Shu rushed over, anxiously saying something, but he couldn't hear clearly. He looked stunning.

A warm forehead touched his, and the cold starry light in his eyes fell on him.

The deep link from Qin Shu was like a hallucinogen and anesthetic to Li Wuya, as if turning a drowning person into a fish. Frozen in this almost deathly, terrifying cold, it suddenly became the very thing he needed to survive... A strange metaphor, but true.

Qin Shu's "soothing" was never soothing, but a kind of intimidation and threat. Extremely domineering and unreasonable, yet it made you survive because of it.

Then you become infatuated with this intimidation, and open yourself up completely for it—actually, no matter what, Li Wuya would open everything of himself, because the invader was Qin Shu.

The cold soaked you, froze your brain, shattered it, and then eerily became warm... warm ice? Like words only a dying person could say.

Pain produces pleasure, illusions produce desire.

Qin Shu gave him something, and in order to give these things to him, Qin Shu would rather completely entrust himself to him?

To be honest, Li Wuya had some physical reactions, but Qin Shu didn't notice.

Qin Shu was just anxious: "No, you've lost too much blood. You must enter the medical pod first!"

-

What a pity. Why not finish the deep link first? "So, because I only completed half of the deep link at that time, your mental test report turned out to be... like that?"

Li Wuya gave a quiet 'mm-hmm' and added, "Later that night, you finished it for me."

Qin Shu sat on the edge of the bed, covering his face with both hands. "Could you not say it like that?"

"That's what happened."

Silence.

Qin Shu muttered gloomily, "Wuya, why didn't you remind me?"

Li Wuya silently observed Qin Shu's expression, unable to read it, and chose the most conservative and safest response.

"Sorry, I thought you wouldn't be able to handle it."

After a moment's thought, he added a bit of truth: "Besides, being deep-linked by you is the best thing for me."

Better than anything I could dream of.

Suddenly, someone grabbed his collar. The black-haired man stood before him, his hair a mess in the back, his eyes still bright, looking almost frantic. "So it's all because of me? Wuya, the mess you're in is because of me! Don't let me off the hook so easily!"

...He had never seen someone walk so willingly into a trap.

Most of the prepared lines went out the window, skipping straight to the last step.

Li Wuya lowered his eyes docilely. "I didn't mean to hide it, A Shu. I didn't want you to feel like you owe me... Can you forgive me?"