After Transmigrating, I Raised Cubs in the Insectoid Clan - Chapter 26

Xiwen brushed past Levi and pushed open the lounge door. The metal door closed automatically behind him with a soft hiss, only to be reopened by Levi a moment later. Xiwen did not even bother to turn on the lights. Using only the cold laboratory light filtering through the gap in the door, he felt his way toward the wardrobe in the corner.

Levi followed closely behind, raising his hand to switch on the lounge lights and the heater.

Xiwen was hunched over, rummaging through the bottom of the wardrobe. When his fingers brushed against a certain silky fabric, he nearly crawled into the closet, looking like a badger scavenging in a field.

“Aha!”

Xiwen let out a triumphant cry. As he jerked back out of the wardrobe, his head nearly collided with the door. He shook out a shirt that was so bright it was practically eye-searing. It featured a vibrant red base adorned with blooming peonies the size of bowls, while emerald green branches and leaves crawled aggressively across the entire back.

Levi’s pupils contracted sharply. He watched with an indescribable expression as his superior stood before the mirror, seemingly satisfied, holding the garment against his body to gauge the fit. Under the harsh white laboratory lights, the shirt looked like an overturned paint palette.

Levi’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he attempted a warning. “Sir, wearing that is not permitted in the military headquarters.”

“What is he going to do? Strip it off me and leave me bare-bottomed?”

Being told not to wear it only made Xiwen feel more restless, as if his skin would itch if he did not put it on immediately. The “he” Xiwen referred to was, of course, Suter.

Before leaving, Xiwen suddenly felt like his mouth was empty. Although the nutrient solution he had just consumed had staved off hunger, he simply wanted something to chew on. Xiwen rarely denied himself comfort. He turned and pulled open the snack cabinet, causing a colorful array of packaging to spill out. His fingers moved through the variety of snacks before he finally grabbed a handful of sweet and sour dried fish and stuffed them into his pocket. After a moment of thought, he popped two slices of dried apricot into his mouth. The sweet and tart flavor exploded instantly on his tongue.

With his hands in his pockets, he sauntered out the lounge door. His gait was languid, like a boneless cat. The hem of his shirt swayed with his steps, revealing a small strip of pale skin at his waist.

Levi followed silently three paces behind. He gently closed the snack cabinet, leaned over to pick up the messy pile of discarded clothes, smoothed them out, and draped them temporarily over the back of a chair. Before heading out, his finger lingered on the light panel for a moment. He turned off only the main lights, leaving a warm yellow wall lamp glowing in the corner. The heating system continued to run with a faint hum.

He estimated that, given his superior’s temperament, Xiwen would be sent back within half an hour.

The lab building where Xiwen worked was separated from Suter’s office area by only an open-air corridor. A dome of tempered glass filtered the sunlight into diamond-shaped spots. On either side, withered vines clung to the metal railings, swaying gently in the breeze and casting web-like shadows. The sun was wrapped in thick clouds, looking like a listless, easily bullied egg yolk hanging lazily in the sky, occasionally jostled by passing clouds.

Levi walked half a step behind Xiwen, holding a large black umbrella steadily over both of them. In the shadow of the umbrella, Xiwen appeared pathologically pale, like a plant that had been imprisoned in darkness for too long, its stems and leaves drained of color. His slender wrists slid out from oversized sleeves, and blue veins were clearly visible beneath his near-transparent skin.

Along the way, Xiwen’s gaze seemed pinned to the dancing spots of light just outside the umbrella’s edge. Those fragmented golden glints skipped across the ground like some forbidden temptation, reflecting faintly in his amber pupils. He stared at them as if they were not just a simple trick of light and shadow, but an entirely new world.

His pace was very slow, almost a shuffle, as he occasionally used his toes to chase the shifting light. The tips of his shoes pressed lightly against the ground, trying to pin down a stray beam of sunlight, but they always slipped away craftily, leaving no warmth behind. Levi stood a step behind him in silence. He was not so close as to be intimate, but near enough to handle any issues should Xiwen falter.

Xiwen rarely had the chance to leave the lab. His occasional outings were merely trips back and forth between the research building and Admiral Suter’s office. He stepped on the light spots that occasionally fell under his feet a few times, but he soon grew bored. His gaze shifted back to the glaring brightness outside the umbrella.

The sunlight looked like molten gold, scorching and piercing, yet strangely attracting him. Although Suter constantly warned him not to walk in open areas without cover, Xiwen felt the sun was not that strong today and thought he could play a little.

Xiwen stopped suddenly, speaking either to Levi or to himself. “The sun looks soft today. Maybe it is not so poisonous.”

As he spoke, he extended his index finger, making a move to poke the golden light outside the umbrella. Levi was quick, grabbing Xiwen’s wrist. The rough calluses on Levi’s knuckles inevitably grazed the skin of Xiwen’s wrist, sending a small shiver of goosebumps across it.

“You said that last time as well,” Levi said, his voice flat and monotone, though his grip was unyielding. “And then your hands broke out in red spots.”

At those words, Xiwen’s memory suddenly became vivid. He looked down at his right hand. The sunburn that time had indeed been severe. His normally fair skin had turned red, swollen, and hot, as if it had been scalded by boiling water. The slightest touch resulted in a stinging pain.

He remembered that the specialized ointment he had formulated was kept in a nearby drawer, but every time he remembered to apply it, he was either interrupted by an emergency meeting or had pulled an all-nighter in the lab and fell asleep the moment he returned to the lounge.

It was Levi who had appeared every day during the lunch break without fail to take the small silver jar from the drawer. When applying the medicine, Levi would purse his lips with a slight frown, but his movements were as gentle as if he were handling something fragile. The cool ointment would melt from body heat, and the pads of Levi’s fingers, roughened by gun calluses, would carefully avoid the peeling skin, spreading the cream from the wrist to the fingertips.

Xiwen unconsciously curled his fingers, as if he could still feel the cooling sensation of the ointment. Because of Levi’s persistence, those frightening red spots had faded quickly. He had healed before he even really felt the pain. If he had not been reminded just now, he would have forgotten the incident entirely.

“Fine,” Xiwen said.

He then saw a message from Teran pop up on his optical computer.

The Admiral is in a meeting and will not be back for a while. If it is urgent, I can relay a message to the Admiral first.

Suter was not there? Xiwen’s interest was instantly piqued. He quietly crept to Suter’s office door, pressed the handle, and whispered to the adjutant, “Wait for me at the door. I am going in to give him a surprise! If he is coming, give me a signal.”

“What surprise?”

The fox-like grin on Xiwen’s lips froze instantly. He stiffly turned his head toward the source of the voice. On the marble-patterned stairs, Suter stood at the center of a group of officers, looking at him with a neutral expression. The sharp lines of his military uniform outlined his tall stature, and his silver epaulets glinted under the overhead lights. Suter’s gaze first flickered toward a suspicious yellowish-brown liquid at the corner of Xiwen’s mouth, then moved down to the flamboyant, multicolored clothes he was wearing.

Suter did not even frown. He merely raised an eyebrow slightly. That tiny movement, however, made the hair on the back of Xiwen’s neck stand up. The air in the hall seemed to solidify. Xiwen could hear his own pulse thumping in his temples. He pulled Levi in front of him, trying to hide behind him to escape that intense gaze.

In reality, Suter’s eyes were not sharp. They were actually quite calm. But it was that very calmness that made a chill seep into the marrow of one’s bones. Xiwen wanted to run immediately. He was far too familiar with Suter’s current look. Without a doubt, his backside was about to be sore.

Xiwen was a military doctor. While his physical condition was poor, it was still better than most sub-females. However, against a literal Admiral like Suter, he stood no chance. Suter hoisted Xiwen up by the back of his collar. Xiwen kicked his legs in futility. The leg strength of someone who spent all year in a lab was like that of a kitten being pinched by the scruff when held in Suter’s iron-grip hand.

Suter tossed him onto the sofa, pulled a white shirt from his own wardrobe, and threw it at Xiwen, telling him to change out of his flashy clothes. As soon as Xiwen’s rear touched the sofa, he bounced back up. While clumsily changing his shirt, he wandered around the office like a lion inspecting its territory.

Heavy curtains blocked out every bit of sunlight, making the entire office feel like a sealed specimen box. The pale overhead lights cast Xiwen’s shadow against the wall. The shadow lengthened and shortened with his movements, like a plant struggling to grow under artificial light.

Suter sat behind his massive desk, his pen making a scratching sound against the paper. He occasionally looked up, his gaze passing through the mountain of documents to land on the wandering figure. The oversized white shirt hung loosely on Xiwen, revealing a bit of his bony collarbone. The sleeves draped down to cover half of his hands, leaving only a few long, pale fingers visible.

He looked like a plant transplanted into a foreign environment, with roots exposed to the air, touching and feeling everything out of curiosity. When Suter was present, Xiwen’s usual small habits would restlessly surface. His fingertips would toy with the petals of the white roses on the desk. He would bury his nose in the collar of the new shirt to take a deep breath. He would circle the room aimlessly, his foam clogs making muffled thuds on the carpet.

But the moment he was alone, all vitality would instantly drain away. He would curl up in a corner of the room, chin resting on his knees, with eyes fixed on a single point in the void. His breathing would become so light it was almost non-existent. He would become like an empty cicada shell, just a thin husk appearing nearly transparent under the stark lights.

After Burns left, Suter had taken on the task of caring for Xiwen alone. It was exhausting. He was not like Burns, who excelled at taking care of everything. Suter constantly practiced a clumsy imitation, trying to give Xiwen the same things, but it seemed difficult to see any results.

Suter lowered his eyes and leaned over to open a small cabinet. This cabinet used the highest level of military security with several different layers of passwords. However, it contained nothing valuable. It only held Xiwen’s favorite grape-flavored nutrient solutions, several high-concentration glucose reagents, and various miscellaneous small snacks. The contents were things only Xiwen liked. It was his personal snack cabinet.

Occasionally, Suter would tuck a few standard nutrient solutions in there to sustain himself during back-to-back missions. Suter took out a grape-flavored nutrient solution. Since Xiwen liked the flavor, Suter had bought a large supply to keep on hand.

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