In the early hours of the morning, Ye Zhizhou was awakened by a kiss. Before he was awakened, he was having a nightmare. All kinds of torn human limbs had filled his mind, resulting in his mental state being muddled, leaving him in a half-asleep and half-awake state. As soon as he realized that someone was near him, he swung a punch and gave a kick.

He heard a muffled groan and struggled to open his eyes. When he did, he was met with Clay's gaze.

"Am I dreaming?" He raised his hand to pinch Clay's face and then naturally leaned over to kiss him. Afterward, he arched into Clay's embrace, pulled his arm over, and put it on his waist before closing his eyes again. "Don't want to have nightmares. Watch over me."

Clay felt a warm breath on his neck and his body became stiff, but he forced himself to relax. He lowered his head and looked at Ye Zhizhou's messy hair, asking in a low voice, "Did you have a nightmare?"

Ye Zhizhou rubbed his face on Clay's neck. His breathing slowed down and gradually became lighter, until finally, he smoothly fell asleep again. Clay's Adam's apple bobbed and he slightly tightened his arms around Ye Zhizhou, contentedly looking at him for a while before also closing his eyes.

At 8:00 a.m in the morning, Ned stood uncertainly at Ye Zhizhou's door. He wanted to knock on the door, but at the same time, he didn't dare to.

Dale had came rushing over while holding some new information and puzzledly asked, "What are you standing there for? Not going to start the meeting?"

"I can't open the door." Ned looked at Dale with a stiff face and pointed to the door behind him. "Last night, the imperial consort slept here. When His Highness came back, he said that he wanted to see the imperial consort, but he hasn't come out since then."

"... Students aren't allowed to date."

Ned frowned and looked at them incredulously. "It can't be that you want to report the imperial consort?"

He's not stupid... Dale pinched the space between their eyebrows and then waved their hand. "Let's postpone the meeting. I'll go take a look at the autopsy results now since I didn't have the time to see them yesterday."

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Ned finally didn't have to struggle between decisions anymore; his heart was even a bit happy. Seeing that Dale left as soon as they finished speaking, Ned shouted, "His Highness brought back a batch of new data and put them in the office. Remember to go and have a look."

When Dale heard this, they immediately changed directions, and walked towards the office.

Ye Zhizhou was awakened by the mint fragrance that was increasingly getting stronger around him. His body began to stir and he unconsciously stretched his hand out to grope the beautiful torso next to him. His lover's figure was really good. How many years has it been since he felt such pecs, abs and various other muscles... Huh? Pecs, abs, and all kinds of other muscles? Ye Zhizhou's mind instantly sobered up and he opened his eyes to look beside him. Then, his lips were blocked by Clay's lips.

"Why are you... oh... mmm..."

Clay rolled on top of him and pressed him down, holding onto his unruly hand while kissing him very hard.

The consequence of their early morning lip entanglement was two people lining up to take a cold shower. Clay attempted to take a shower together, but he was mercilessly rejected by Ye Zhizhou. The smell of the pheromones in the air was so strong, he couldn't trust his lover's self-control.

The meeting was delayed until 10:00 a.m, and Ye Zhizhou finally met all of the members on Clay's small team. He also unexpectedly saw the figure of Bell Rackliffe, Master Brenda's sworn rival.

"I invited Master Bell over to help." Clay approached Ye Zhizhou and explained this in a whisper. He then introduced him to the other members. After they got to know each other, the meeting officially began.

"This time, I found a badly damaged list of names in another destroyed research institute." Clay got straight to the point and seriously said, "It isn't possible that there's only one case of Zerg parasitism. From today forward, the entire military department, including you guys and me, will have a thorough physical examination and scanning for all personnel entering and leaving the department. Additionally, all personnel associated with Eddie's traffic incident shall be secretly monitored. If any problem is found, report it first. Don't make any moves; just focus on surveillance."

Ye Zhizhou flipped through the list of names and compared it to the original plot information. He slightly frowned. The people on this list were all extremely loyal to the Empire in the original plot. If all of these people were secretly parasitized by the Zerg...

"A method of preventing and eliminating Zerg parasitism must also be researched as soon as possible too." Clay looked towards Professor Bell with a respectful attitude. "Professor Bell, we'll have to trouble you with this."

Professor Bell nodded their head attentively. Their character seemed completely different from the insolent and unreasonable personality described in the original plot.

Ye Zhizhou couldn't help poking Tongtian in his mind. "Look, it's another hole. The worlds are showing such big disrepancies. Also, during your body scan of Eddie, you weren't able to detect the Zerg or the optical computer bonded to him."

The little mirror vibrated dispiritedly.

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"Don't be dejected, I'm not blaming you." Ye Zhizhou put his hand into his pocket and rubbed the mirror, comforting it. "Everyone in this world has spiritual power. Your scanning function will definitely ne affected a bit, plus, the Zerg was very cunning... In fact, you also scanned it wrong. Eddie's gender was alpha, unlike what was written in the original plot information..." When Ye Zhizhou mentioned this, he suddenly stopped. He was finally able to unravel another point of this messy lot!

That was right! Eddie's gender was alpha at the time of the scan! But in the original plot, he was an omega pretending to be a beta... Gender determination in this world depended on pheromones and genes. That was to say, there was most likely a problem in Eddie's pheromones!

Furthermore, in the original plot information, there was a matter of Eddie going into estrus because of the pheromones in Egbert's blood. How could a guy who was a beta, but was actually a zerg, go into estrus?! As a Federation general, Audrey also should've received special training to resist omega pheromones. So why was he unable to bear it earlier than Egbert and thus went after Eddie?

There was definitely a problem here. Absolutely a problem!

He opened the plot information, flipped to the part where Eddie went into estrus, and looked at it carefully.

Why on earth did Egbert resist longer than Audrey...? What was the difference between his situation and Audrey's... Wound! Ye Zhizhou raised his hand to cover his face so that the rest of the room wouldn't see his excitement. Egbert was wounded! And the wound on his body was a little deep which resulted in him bleeding a lot! Although Audrey was also wounded in the fight with Egbert, he didn't bleed a lot.

He couldn't help tightening his grip on the small mirror in his pocket with bright eyes. So, human blood, or more specifically alpha blood, may have some resistance to Zerg parasitism... A bolder guess was that the parasitism method created by the Zergs was ineffective towards alphas! No wonder both of the protagonists were betas... The Zerg couldn't attach a parasite to powerful alphas, who occupied the high-ranking positions in the Empire and the Federation, so they found in a roundabout way. They parasitized the betas that interacted with these high-ranking alphas, and then bound them with "love", little by little!

He couldn't stop himself from letting out an angry huff as he scanned through the list of names again. This group of damned Zergs were digging a pit to trick his lover. All of the people on this list were alphas! The Zergs were trying to drive a wedge between them!

By the time he finished analyzing this, the meeting was already nearing its end.

"The reason for conducting this physical examination is to prepare for the royal celebration at the end of the year. Everyone needs to make sure not to let anything slip. The meeting is over."

They all saluted Clay to express their understanding, and then left in succession.

After everyone had left, Clay turned to look at Ye Zhizhou, whose expression had been changing for a while now. He stretched his finger out and pressed on the area between his eyebrows, poking it, "What are you thinking about?"

"Alpha!" Ye Zhizhou had always been unguarded towards his lover. He would always reply to his lover's questions. What was more was that he was focused on two things at the moment, so the things he said had no filter.

Clay's face darkened. He bent over, stuck his hands under Ye Zhizhou's arm, pulled him out of the chair as if he was picking up a child, and pulled him into his embrace. He pinched Ye Zhizhou's earlobe and asked in a dangerous tone, "Which alpha are you thinking about?"

Ye Zhizhou, who couldn't change his sensitive spots no matter what life, couldn't help but shiver. He quickly snapped out of the sea of plot information and kissed up to Clay by hugging him back. He grinned. "Of course I was thinking about you!"

"Is that so... I was thinking about you too." Clay's hand moved down and he ambiguously caressed Ye Zhizhou's back. The smell of mint appeared once again. "Hurry up and turn 20."

This trait of a rut was just too recognizable. Ye Zhizhou had no expectations for his lover's moral integrity and went straight to the point. "Clay, I have a conjecture, but I can't confirm it yet. I would need to see Inez to confirm it. Of course, just looking at a distance is good enough."

Clay was so seriously looked at by Ye Zhizhou that he couldn't help tightening the arm that was holding him. He nodded, "I'll take you."

At this moment, Inez was still at the sanatorium. He followed the doctor's rehabilitation plan every day. He didn't realize at all that everywhere around him was being monitored.

Ye Zhizhou nestled on a small bench in the garden, and turned on the system's scanning function the second that Inez stepped into the garden.

[Scan completed. Gender: Male. This world's gender: Alpha. Healthy body, no hidden illnesses. Spiritual Power state stable. Applicable pill: None.]

As expected... He turned the scanning function off, got up, and walked to the stone table behind the flower bed in the corner. He looked towards Clay, who had walked over, and nodded. "It's confirmed. The list that you brought back is fake. The Zerg are afraid that you've guessed something and wanted to drive a wedge between you and all the other high-ranking people."

"It seems that the physical examinations will have to be expanded from military personnel to also include their families." Clay narrowed his eyes and knocked on the table. He stretched his arm out and pulled at Ye Zhizhou's hand. "Didn't you say there was also another discovery? What is it?"

"I'd like you to invite two people to the military department." Ye Zhizhou held Clay's hand and sat down beside him.

"Invite who?"

"Carol Bafton and the Federation general Audrey Bastion."

Clay tightened his grip on Ye Zhizhou's hand and his face darkened. "Were they the alphas you were thinking about earlier?"

No matter which world it was, his lover's jealousy was always too much! Ye Zhizhou became angry and squeezed his hand. "I'm talking about an important topic! I suspect that the Zerg parasite in Inez's body is special. There are other things in that Zerg that might be related to the Bafton family. Moreover, since the Empire is infested with Zerg, there's no reason why the Federation isn't. From the standpoint of resisting Zergs, we're allies with the Federation. We need to cooperate!"

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Clay still had a dark face. He stretched his fingers out to let Ye Zhizhou pull on them. "Xiao Zhou, you can only be mine."

Ye Zhizhou was stunned. He quickly calmed down, hestitated for a moment, and then asked, "Clay... Why do you call me Xiao Zhou... Do you remember something?"

Clay's gaze shifted and then shook his head. "I don't remember."

Ye Zhizhou directly looked at him and expressed his skepticism with a sincere gaze.

"When I was a child, I often dreamed that a man named Ye Zhizhou was always with me. I knew that I wanted to find him, and then be with him." Clay raised his hand to help him tidy his hair, and smiled for the first time. "I know it's you. Even though you look totally different from the dream."

Ye Zhizhou's eyes drooped and felt that his nose was suddenly a bit sour. His lover was always naturally reborn in every life... How deep were his feelings and his obsession that it could make him engrave Ye Zhizhou's name into his soul. Even after he became a brand new person, he would still often dream of him.

"I'm sorry..." Ye Zhizhou lowered his head and tightened the grip on Clay's fingers. "I caused you so much trouble..." He chased after him every time. Even at the risk of tearing his soul apart, his lover would still always come to his side... After finishing the task, Ye Zhizhou would still go back to his original world. What about his lover? Would he still chase after him? And when he completely dies, with no next mission, what would happen to his lover's soul? As long as he thought that his lover would be a world without himself, determinedly searching for him, Ye Zhizhou felt very pained. What could he do? If only he could accompany this person forever. Even if he had to be the one that chased after the other; as long as they could stay together, even if it tore his soul apart, he was willing.

"Xiao Zhao." Although Clay didn't understand what Ye Zhizhou was saying, he instinctively didn't want to hear his apology. He didn't care about being reserved outside and directly stretched his arms out to pull Ye Zhizhou into his embrace, kissing his forehead comfortingly. "I'm here. Don't be afraid."

Ye Zhizhou buried his face into Clay's arms, trying to drive the helpless thoughts about the future away using the other's warm arms.

Ned, who was standing guard outside of the flower garden, had an expression that became increasingly stiffer. He couldn't help sighing; maybe it was a mistake for him to resume his post... His Highness and the imperial consort didn't need him at all.

Carol was baffled as their family's old man pulled them out of the office and then shoved them into the military department's gate. Carol was still holding their half-finished design drawings. "What did you drag me here for? It can't be that there was something wrong with the mechas you provided to the military department? You didn't bring me here to take the blame for you, did you?"

The elder Bafton was so angry that his beard became warped. He gave Carol a vicious glare. "There are high-ranking people in the military department that want to see you! You turned off your communicator so people couldn't contact you, thus they contacted me instead! You rascal, I'm telling you—you'd better not cause a mess in the military department, or I'll burn your stupid designs!"

"No way!" Carol jumped up, startled and furious. "If you burn my designs, I'll tear down your greenhouse!"

"You, you little brat!" Elder Bafton was so angry that he took a stick out of his space ring and raised his hands in preparation to show off his family skills right in front of the military department gate.

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Ned, who came out to pick Carol up, hurriedly stopped Elder Bafton, feeling that it really was the wrong decision to re-enlist. With a stiff face, Ned separated Elder Bafton and Carol. Then, he took Carol, who was still muttering about burning down the greenhouse, to the third underground floor.

Ye Zhizhou couldn't help poking at the mirror after seeing Carol. He exaggeratedly lamented in his mind. "Look, another hole." At present, this pretty but very slovenly dressed guy was worlds apart from the 'wise and elegant prince' described in the original plot information. It was simply too radical!

The little mirror didn't even bother to shake this time. It just totally ignored him.

"Mr. Carol." Ye Zhizhou set some tea in front of the other. He thought about it for a bit and then slightly moved away. "Please forgive us for the deceptive invitation, but considering the importance of Jennifer Bafton to you, we still decided..."

"Jennifer?!" Carol's professional smile immediately disappeared. He eagerly stood up and asked, "You guys have information about her? Where is my grandaunt? How is she? I-I will tell my father to come here right now..."

"I suggest that you not inform your father for the time being." Ye Zhizhou avoided Carol's hopeful gaze and sighed as he said, "Jennifer had passed away. She may have been in great pain before she did, and her soul may still be suffering now."

"What..." It was as if Carol had been struck by lightning. He took a step back and sunk into the sofa with blank eyes. "How could... How is it possible..."

Ye Zhizhou looked at him sympathetically. He sat down across from Carol and waited for him to calm down. In front of grieving relatives, all words of comfort were inadequate.

After a long time, Carol finally accepted the fact. His eyes no longer looked dazed. He brushed aside the bangs that blocked his eyes, looked at Ye Zhizhou, and seriously said, "Please tell me everything you know about my grandaunt, as detailed as possible. Thank you."

When Ye Zhizhou heard Carol's words, he pushed the tea and confidentiality agreement towards him. Carol picked the agreement up, looked over it, and then quickly took a pen out of his pocket to sign it. Carol looked up at Ye Zhizhou again afterwards.

Ye Zhizhou collected the agreement. He sorted out his words and then detailedly described Zerg parasitism and the reason why he suspected that Jennifer had died. Then, he finally took out a roadmap. "Your grandaunt went missing here, and there was a hidden Zerg research institute not too far away. And this... This is the mecha armor design that was found in Eddie's room. You can identify it."

Carol took the design over and lost the last bit of hope in his eyes. He restrained his emotion and said, "So my grandaunt, she... Everything she spent her whole life working on is being used by that disgusting Zerg? And that Zerg even wants to get close to me with this?"

"Yes, you should recognize this component." Ye Zhizhou handed the box with the component over, and then handed over a design. "That Zerg would probably use this first to arouse your interest, and then try to get close to you from there."

Carol completely believed everything Ye Zhizhou had said now. After staring at the component for a long time, he suddenly raised his eyes and asked with a heavy tone, "Who is the new host for the Zerg? My grandaunt... Who is she being used by right now?"