Future's First Marriage, Later Love - Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Spinai said with a fake smile, “What are you waiting for?”

Even through the screen, Spinai could feel the chill emanating from a certain someone. He immediately laughed in a fawning, bootlicking way: “Nothing… hehe, nothing… let’s talk business, business.”

Only then did the man disappear from the screen with a cold snort.

Nesbit reappeared on the screen. He looked at Spinai and asked, “Speak, what is it?”

“Xiao Mai has started to suspect me…” Spinai said.

Nesbit nodded and said, “Mm, just about. It’s been over a year; his reaction really is slow enough.”

“It’s not that his reaction is slow, it’s that my acting is good!” Spinai said crossly. “So what do we do now?”

Nesbit said, “Just proceed according to the original plan. We’re almost ready on this end as well.”

“Phew…” Spinai let out a long sigh of relief. “Finally, I don’t have to keep making excuses anymore.”

Nesbit gave him a white-eyed look and said, “In the beginning, you were the one who insisted that I give you this chance to perform well, and now…”

As soon as he heard Nesbit start to complain, Spinai immediately made a stop gesture and said, “Fine, fine, I know I was wrong…”

After turning off the machine and restoring everything to its original state, Spinai began to complain to himself: “Why is that guy at the base? Isn’t he supposed to be training the new officers? He must be bored out of his mind…”

Rare Confusion (Part II)

Mai Hai held that little cat and sat by the swimming pool at Spinai’s house, reflecting on everything that had happened over such a long period. It seemed he had grasped something, but as for what specifically it was, Mai Hai couldn’t say.

Spinai came downstairs and looked around for a while before seeing Mai Hai by the pool. He walked over and asked, “Hey, what are you thinking about? So engrossed?”

Mai Hai turned back to look at Spinai and said, “Are you hiding something from me?”

Spinai gave a dry laugh: “You’re thinking too much…”

Mai Hai gently moved the little cat, who was being scratched quite comfortably, from his lap to the ground, then stood up and said to Spinai, “Then let’s go, continue…”

Spinai nodded, but the little cat pulled at the hem of Mai Hai’s pants reluctantly, let out a “miao-wu” cry, and its eyes sparkled with a bright light… Mai Hai squatted down to stroke the little cat’s head. The cat immediately closed its eyes contentedly to enjoy Mai Hai’s caress. Spinai watched from the side, gnashing his teeth; with hands on his hips, he yelled directly at the cat: “You eat mine, use mine, sleep in mine! And yet you dare covet my person! Tomorrow I’ll stew you into a cat-meat hotpot!”

Hearing Spinai’s phrase “my person,” Mai Hai stood up and looked at him with a beaming smile, asking, “What did you just say? I didn’t hear you, would you like to repeat it again?”

Spinai said with a serious face, “Nothing… I didn’t say anything.”

Returning to the room, while Mai Hai was buried in work, continuing to study that data that offered no starting point at all, Spinai suddenly let out a cry of surprise and then said, “Connected! It’s connected!!”

Hearing this, Mai Hai immediately raised his head, leaned over, and asked, “What’s the situation?”

Spinai pointed to a small green light flickering on the console and said, “Look here. When this lights up, it means there’s a signal! We can try sending some instructions over.”

“Mm…” Mai Hai thought for a moment and said, “Won’t this be intercepted by the Giant Planet?”

Spinai shook his head and said, “Logically speaking, no, because I’ve connected the equipment that shields against the Giant Planet’s detectors.”

“Then try sending ‘I am on Giant Planet,'” Mai Hai said.

Spinai immediately sent it using the local language of Pandora. After about twenty minutes, there was actually a reply. Mai Hai was ecstatic, but when he saw those pages that looked like “heavenly script” (unreadable text), he asked Spinai, “How did you get in contact? Has this code been deciphered?”

“Oh, that,” Spinai’s reaction was very calm. “I tried sending several passwords that Planet Pandora used in the past, and then there was a response.”

Hearing Spinai say this, Mai Hai didn’t continue to be suspicious: “Oh, so what now?”

Spinai said, “I have already tried to send a brief summary of your situation, but there has been no response from that side yet. Do you have anything that can make them believe?”

Mai Hai thought for a bit, took a stone from his pocket, and said, “Would sending a photo of the gemstone work?”

Spinai nodded and said, “It’s possible, but don’t forget the thing we agreed upon.”

Mai Hai stood up, gave Spinai a tap on the head, and said, “I know, don’t worry.”

Only then did Spinai turn back to continue working. He tinkered for about an afternoon before finally confirming with the Pandora side that a video connection would be made the day after tomorrow. Spinai told Mai Hai that he must be there that day no matter what. He (Spinai) couldn’t appear, otherwise if he were seen, it would cast suspicion on his identity. If he were caught and taken back, he’d truly become a spy, and the loss would outweigh the gain.

Mai Hai thought for a while before saying he would do his best to find a way to come back, as he had no idea what might happen. Coming here this time was already a very risky move. If Pollack discovered it, all sorts of troublesome things would follow.

After bidding farewell to Spinai, when Mai Hai returned home, Pollack hadn’t finished work yet, so he conscientiously went to cook dinner. After finishing the meal, he took out “Spinach” (the robot) and started studying it. Since that day, he hadn’t yet had a good look at Spinach. According to Pollack, Spinach had many functions; back then, Pollack had even given him a long manual, which Mai Hai had long ago thrown into a drawer. He naturally lacked the habit of reading manuals.

Mai Hai was pleasantly surprised to find that Spinach really could converse freely with people. This must be the benefit of intelligence, right? It could think independently—it was just too fun! Mai Hai thought.

Once he returned to Planet Pandora, he would probably be surrounded every day by all sorts of official business, diplomacy, and studies again. Actually, thinking about it, he felt life on the Giant Planet was quite comfortable. Perhaps because he was about to leave, there was a bit of reluctance, and he began to think about all the good points of being on the Giant Planet.

To be fair, Pollack wasn’t bad to him, and he didn’t mind living with Pollack—provided, of course, that they could always maintain this pure relationship. He wouldn’t mind staying here to live at all…

Just as his thoughts were flying all over the place, Pollack returned. Seeing that Mai Hai had reached home before him, he seemed to be in an excellent mood. He walked over to Mai Hai, who was teasing the small robot, and said, “What are you doing?”

Mai Hai tucked the small robot into his pocket, stood up from the carpet with a smile, and said, “You’re back. Dinner is ready, I’ll bring it out.”

Pollack unbuckled his belt, took off his coat and tossed it aside, lay down on the soft sofa, reached out to tug at his collar, and closed his eyes to rest for a while before getting up to check on his little jellyfish. Then he went into the kitchen to have dinner with Mai Hai.

Seeing that Pollack was in a good mood, Mai Hai asked casually, “Tired today?”

“It’s alright,” Pollack said while taking two quick mouthfuls of rice, speaking unclearly.

The two chatted idly. After the meal, the things were left to the robot to clean up. Pollack watched TV, while Mai Hai went upstairs under the pretext of playing games to call Spinai.

Compared to the cautious Mai Hai, Spinai seemed very excited. Before he could get through three sentences, he would change the subject: “Hey, don’t you think this feels like we’re having an affair?”

Because they were separated by a communicator, even if Mai Hai wanted to hit him, he was powerless, so he could only pull the topic back: “Did you keep in contact later? Can you guarantee the communication will be normal the day after tomorrow?”

“Don’t worry!” Spinai rolled his eyes. He didn’t know why Mai Hai had suddenly become so talkative.

Suddenly, Mai Hai heard movement on the stairs. He immediately hung up the communicator, then returned to his seat and turned off the computer. Just as he finished these actions, Pollack happened to push open the door and come in, looking at him and saying, “It’s getting late, let’s sleep.”

Mai Hai replied with an unruffled smile, “Mm, just turning off the computer.”

Normally, Mai Hai—who usually falls asleep the moment his head hits the pillow—didn’t fall asleep today. He didn’t even dare to move randomly, because if he tossed and turned, he would surely wake up Pollack, who was holding him and acting as a free pillow. Although Mai Hai used to strongly dislike sleeping with others because he had a habit of sleeping naked, since he had muddied his way into marriage with Pollack, he had become more and more accustomed to sleeping against this man’s chest. Last time, he had actually suffered from insomnia because of this kind of thing…

Mai Hai was wondering: if he really went back to Pandora, would it mean that in the future he would never again be able to fall asleep listening to someone’s heartbeat every night? Thinking that, he suddenly felt a bit of loneliness…

Startled by his own thoughts, Mai Hai forced himself to go to sleep quickly and not let his imagination run wild. He had a premonition that if this continued, something big would definitely happen!

He made it through one day peacefully, and finally, the appointed day arrived. Coincidentally, Pollack didn’t take him to the company because he had things to do.

Arriving at Spinai’s house, Mai Hai didn’t see that little cat that liked to act spoiled toward him. He asked Spinai, “Where is the kitten in your house?”

Spinai said smugly, “That little female cat in heat has been locked up by me! Don’t you think…”