TTAETSC Chapter 22.1 - Yuan Ye, Yuan Ye

Translator: Deyonna

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The young man with a cold face walked directly into the empty room next door. At that moment, his half-high collar could no longer conceal his abnormality.

A scarlet flush spread from his collarbone upward, along the side of his neck, all the way to his earlobes.

"Come out!"

He deliberately lowered his voice, but it still sounded fierce.

The very confused little octopus: "?"

He didn't understand why Yuan Ye had been fine earlier, but was suddenly angry now.

Could it be that the other party had suddenly come to his senses after covering up and lying for him, and was now uncomfortable about it?

Ye Yunfan felt a bit uneasy.

But now that he was under someone else's roof, he had no choice but to bow his head. A few seconds later, the little octopus silently crawled out of the collar's gap and returned to his exclusive metal shoulder guard.

He cleverly spread flat.

[So cold, so cold]

[Comfortable~ Comfortable~]

The little tentacles moaned comfortably.

Phew—

Ye Yunfan couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief as well.

It's much cooler now.

Ye Yunfan didn't know how the calendar in this world was calculated, nor did he know what year and month it was. But based on the temperature, the surrounding vegetation, and the previous thunderstorm, it seemed that the season was at the height of summer.

Midsummer equals extremely, extremely hot.

And just now, Yuan Ye had been so nervous that his whole body was burning hot, causing the little octopus stuck to him to overheat.

As it was lying there, it couldn't help but flip over, cooling down the other side as well.

Yuan Ye pressed his lips tightly, his expression serious and grim.

"Stand here!"

He raised his left arm and gestured with a fierce gaze for the little octopus to stand on the wrist guard.

The little octopus, sticking comfortably to the cold shoulder guard: "?"

Eh?

Strange?

The little octopus scratched its head.

Although he didn't know why Yuan Ye had suddenly gotten angry, he never thought the other party was angry at him.

What's wrong with him?

Ye Yunfan stood up in a daze and moved toward the wrist guard, wondering what he had done to offend Yuan Ye.

Half a minute later, the little octopus stood on the young man's left wrist guard. He recalled Yuan Ye's serious tone just now, so he put down the six little tentacles he had raised and stood upright.

What's going on?

The little octopus tilted its head and stared at Yuan Ye, while simultaneously extending a tentacle to make a question mark.

There was nothing that could be done, since he couldn't speak, so he could only use body language.

Yuan Ye, who had just wanted to reprimand him severely: "....."

He looked at those pure, clear blue eyes, which were full of bewilderment and confusion.

Suddenly, Yuan Ye felt all the prohibitions and admonishments he had wanted to say get stuck in his throat.

[It's quite intelligent, equivalent to a child of a few years old. You should teach him more.]

Old Man Xu's words suddenly surfaced in his mind.

A child of a few years old…

But what should a child of a few years old be like?

In fact, Yuan Ye didn't really know, because he had never had any contact with children before. It was only a few years ago that he occasionally passed by the main city's paradise and caught a glimpse of those little ones protected in the beautiful building from afar.

They looked pure, innocent, naïve, and fragile.

Noisy, carefree, and without worries.

As for what Yuan Ye himself had been like when he was young... he didn't know, because Yuan Ye had no memories of his childhood.

Everiel said it was because he had suffered a serious brain injury during a certain mission, so he had lost some of his memories.

[You don't need to worry too much, Yuan Ye.]

Yuan Ye always remembered Everiel's gentle smile that day, as she said to him.

[You and the other children in the main city are all the same. You were nurtured and born in the Flower House, studied and grew up in Paradise. Afterwards, you were assigned to different positions according to your talents and assessment results, to dedicate yourselves to the revival of the human empire.]

*You'll learn more about the Flower House and the Paradise by the end of this arc and the second arc

[But you are also different from them, because you have awakened an extremely special gifted ability, and your combat ability is extraordinary. So you smoothly passed the assessment and became a glorious and powerful decontamination officer.]

With just a few sentences, the woman summarized everything that Yuan Ye had forgotten.

Yes, that's who he is.

The forgotten childhood seemed simple and boring in Everiel's description, as if forgetting it didn't really matter.

Yuan Ye's gaze went blank, as if he had fallen into the memories. However, the next moment, he suddenly felt a coolness on the left side of his lips.

Poke~

The young man snapped out of his reverie and turned his head to the side. He found that the "little jellyfish" had somehow climbed back onto his shoulder.

And at that moment, it had extended one of its tentacles to poke the other corner of his lips, tentatively and slowly moving upward, as if trying to help him form the arc of a smile.

—Just like the scene that night.

Ye Yunfan wanted to express that he didn't want Yuan Ye to be angry, and that he should be a little happier. But he couldn't do it with sign language, and it was also difficult to express with just his tentacles. Plus, his octopus face only had two round blue eyes and no mouth, so he couldn't even smile to show the other person.

So in the end, after weighing his options, he chose this way of expressing himself.

With such a simple and clear expression, Yuan Ye should understand this time, right?

The little octopus was actually a bit nervous, but at the same time, he had opened his round blue eyes wide, staring at Yuan Ye without blinking.

At that moment, the young man's expression went blank in an instant.

Those beautiful heterochromatic eyes reflected a small round pink shape, then suddenly contracted a few times. Afterward, it was as if he had suddenly realized something. He subconsciously took two steps back and abruptly turned his head away—

"You…you!"

Yuan Ye didn't know what to say. He couldn't even tell whether he was angry now, or feeling some other emotion.

But fortunately, he didn't lose control of his ability through emotional turmoil, as he had in the past, which had ended up hurting many people.

Ye Yunfan was very surprised. He hadn't expected Yuan Ye to react so strongly, because that night he had done the same thing, taking advantage while the other was asleep.

It was obviously the same thing, but at the time, Yuan Ye had seemed extremely calm, as if he didn't mind at all. And yet now…

"You, return down!"

The young man's tone turned harsh again.

Eh.

The little octopus turned its head, inexplicably raised its six tentacles, and scurried back to its second exclusive spot—the wrist guard.

Yuan Ye's emotions quickly settled. He felt this matter had to be discussed seriously, otherwise if the little creature didn't understand and climbed all over him or poked him with its tentacles…

"......"

Just the thought of that image made Yuan Ye's entire body unconsciously tense up.

He tried to keep a stern expression, wanting to establish his authority.

"From now on, you are not allowed to randomly crawl into my clothes outside."

"?"

The little octopus blinked.

...Outside?

In front of others outside?

Ye Yunfan pondered for a moment, and then immediately had a flash of realization—

Oh, oh, oh!

Maybe he had been seen by several people in the room when he was moving around in Yuan Ye's clothes just now.

So Yuan Ye felt embarrassed and lost face?

Understood!

The little octopus raised its head again, and its gaze toward Yuan Ye seemed to have already seen through everything.

Yes, he's just a young boy. He has to save face in front of others.

Moreover, Yuan Ye is the kind of awkward person who insists on portraying himself as cold and aloof. And just now he was in front of his former subordinates. Even though he had been dismissed, he still had to maintain a certain dignity as a leader.

But Ye Yunfan had never thought before that Yuan Ye's burden as an idol would be so heavy?

The little octopus finally realized the reason for the other person's anger(?) and patted the young man's hand with his tentacles.

He nodded understandingly to Yuan Ye, only missing the gesture of stroking his beard and nodding.

—Understood, understood.

In the future, he absolutely must leave some face for his cool younger brother when out in public.

Yuan Ye witnessed the entire process of the "little jellyfish's" actions. Although he couldn't pinpoint exactly what was strange about the other party, since the little guy had already nodded seriously, he just considered this educational attempt a success.

Immediately after, Old Man Xu's young apprentice knocked on the door outside.

"Mr. Yuan Ye, Mr. Yuan Ye?"

Yuan Ye smoothed the wrinkles out of his collar and then went to open the door.

"What?"

"That, there are a few military investigators outside…"

The young apprentice was not very old, looking to be around fourteen or fifteen. His voice was timid, and he seemed somewhat afraid.

Military investigators?

Yuan Ye glanced to the side, his gaze passing over the young apprentice in front of him and out toward the door. Sure enough, he saw a few people in military investigators' combat uniforms talking to Chen Xinyue.

The leading man had a very gentle appearance, but his combat uniform was still damp, with very visible wounds on his exposed skin, as if he had just finished an underwater battle.

As soon as he arrived, he saluted Hu Changchuan, who was standing nearby.

"Greetings, Officer Hu. I am He Li, a B-level investigation officer. I belong to the fourth team of the sixth division of the military investigator corps in the third army."

☰