Vicious Cannon Fodder? No, He’s a Darling Wife! - Chapter 7

Yuan Su woke up at seven in the morning. To win over Qu Zhilan, he’d been maintaining a very healthy routine these past few days.

He sent timed greetings morning, noon, and night. Although the other man wasn’t exactly warm, he replied to every single one, which left Yuan Su quite satisfied.

But after his moment of triumph, Yuan Su suddenly snapped awake, a chill running down his spine. He gave an involuntary shudder. “What if he falls for me too early?”

Looking at that gorgeous face of his, System 341 couldn’t bring itself to say something like “Don’t you have a mirror?” or “Go take a leak and look at your reflection.” Instead, it offered comfort: [Don’t worry. His fated lover is your late husband. Until he and your husband are together, he’s as straight as a pole!]

The system emphasized the word “straight.” Yuan Su took a contented sip of soy milk.

“Good.”

He hopped on the base’s light rail. After a thirty-minute commute, he arrived at the Human Resources department of the “Granary.”

The moment he stepped inside, Yuan Su felt the eyes of everyone in the room snap toward him. The previously bustling, noisy office fell dead silent.

What? Did the original owner offend these people too?

Just as he was debating whether to speak up and ask, a tall young man nearby kicked off his office chair and strode forward, eagerly extending both hands. “Hello, hello! Are you Mr. Yuan?”

Yuan Su nodded. Looking at the outstretched hands, he hesitated for a moment before reaching out to shake them. “Hello, I’m Yuan Su. And you are…?”

“I’m Gao He. You can call me Xiao He or Xiao Gao, whatever works.”

As he spoke, he led Yuan Su directly toward the plantation area. “Sorry, I should have come out to meet you, but I got busy and it slipped my mind. My apologies. How about I show you around first?”

Yuan Su nodded. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

Gao He had been glued to his communicator waiting for a message. He’d asked Qu Zhilan what the person he was picking up looked like, but the signal seemed poor on the other end, and there had been no reply.

Yuan Su had quite a reputation in the base, but Gao He had never seen him in person. Just as he was starting to get a headache, he noticed the noisy office go silent.

He looked up. The moment the young man’s silhouette hit his retinas, his fingers which had been tapping irritably froze. Soon, the “buzz-buzz” of his communicator snapped him back to reality.

Gao He looked down. Qu Zhilan had finally replied with a single sentence.

[He’s very eye-catching.]

Black hair, snowy skin, red lips, and white teeth. His eyes were round but swept upward at the corners, glowing like a jar of honey—soft, bright, and possessing a beauty that felt entirely out of place in this gritty base.

Qu Zhilan was right. He was eye-catching. You couldn’t miss him.

Gao He knew the layout of the entire “Granary” like the back of his hand, but today he felt exceptionally nervous, constantly wanting to perform better. Even a visit from top leadership wouldn’t have made him this tense.

He smiled. “Qu Zhilan already briefed me. You can choose to work in either the plantation area or the livestock area.”

The two sectors were completely separate. The plantation area produced short-cycle, high-yield crops. The base’s staple was potatoes—that kind, delicious vegetable that was popular no matter what era you lived in. The livestock area had a slightly harsher environment—animals, after all, involve waste and require scheduled check-ups—so the pay was a bit higher there.

Yuan Su didn’t care about the pay. He just wanted to plant potatoes.

Gao He also suggested he stay in the plantation area. “The automated cultivation and the facilities for chickens, ducks, pigs, and cattle are very well-established. The plantation side is definitely easier.”

The greenhouses used automatic irrigation; pipes were buried in the soil, and a flick of a switch watered every spot automatically.

Easy. Yuan Su was sold.

Gao He nodded in agreement. “Alright then. I’ll go let the manager over there know. Let’s go.”

Yuan Su didn’t follow. “I’ll take a look around here first to get familiar with the environment and my future colleagues.”

Those future colleagues had been quietly observing him for a long time.

Gao He noticed as well. He pressed a handful of vegetable leaves into Yuan Su’s hand. “Area E is where we keep the rabbits. If you get lost, just ask a colleague. The rabbits are white, fat, and very cute.”

Gao He was a total visual person. Based on appearances, he judged Yuan Su to be a pure and gentle soul someone who would definitely love rabbits.

Yuan Su swallowed hard. “Okay.”

As soon as Gao He was out of earshot, several livestock workers huddled together. “Who’s that? Why is Manager Gao being so polite? He doesn’t look like a leader.”

Clean, fair, with refined features it felt like the farm was becoming a stage. He looked nothing like the pot-bellied supervisors they were used to.

“He’s probably a ‘backdoor’ hire, right?”

The group’s expressions shifted. Curiosity turned into annoyance and disdain.

Jobs at the “Granary” were hard to come by; the exams were rigorous. It was an easy, lucrative position that people fought to keep. Naturally, there was some internal xenophobia, especially toward someone like Yuan Su who had clearly used connections.

A girl with short, chin-length hair stared at the young man’s face from a distance. Suddenly, it clicked. “Isn’t that… President Qin Zhao’s ‘male wife’?”

The moment she said it, the way everyone looked at Yuan Su changed. It was a mix of prying curiosity and blatant rejection.

“President Qin hasn’t been dead that long, has he? Why does he look like… he’s doing so well?” He didn’t look like someone suffering from the grief of losing a husband.

Yuan Su was also a survivor Qin Zhao had rescued from outside the base. Qin Zhao had left the base for barely a month, and the moment he returned, he married Yuan Su. Naturally, many young men and women who had harbored secret crushes on the President were bitter about it.

Worse, rumors had circulated that Yuan Su used “unsavory means” to force the marriage. This was like kicking a hornet’s nest.

Yuan Su, meanwhile, just wanted to know how fat those rabbits in Area E were and how delicious they’d be stir-fried.

He walked toward the group of workers. Just as he was about to speak, he noticed their hostile expressions. On the ground nearby lay a row of pigs with their four legs bound together.

“Unauthorized personnel, stay back!”

A tall man barked a warning, stepping forward rudely to shoo him away. “How did you sneak in? Leave now, or we’re calling security!”

He had been touring with Gao He for ages; there was no way they hadn’t noticed. They were targeting him on purpose.

Yuan Su hated being bullied. His “harmless white flower” act was starting to slip.

He took a deep breath, holding back his temper, and spoke softly. “Sorry to bother you, but I’ll be working here from now on. Could you please tell me which way to Area E?”

“No. Who knows if you’ve got sticky fingers?”

Seeing Yuan Su’s slender frame, a short, stocky man simply reached out to shove him back. “Go, go! We’re busy. Don’t be a nuisance.”

Another man, seeing the first guy was being a bit too aggressive, tried to play the “good cop.” He said to Yuan Su, “Sorry about that, but you haven’t been disinfected. What if you’re carrying pathogens and infect the livestock? You can’t afford that kind of responsibility!”

The sarcasm was thick.

Yuan Su didn’t respond. His soft, clear amber eyes drifted to the row of anesthetized pigs on the ground. He asked, “Are you neutering the pigs?”

Everyone present froze. They hadn’t expected Yuan Su to stay, let alone know what they were doing.

In reality, they were done. The master who performed the castrations had already left; they were just waiting for the anesthesia to wear off so they could drive the pigs back to their pens.

The tall man stared at him suspiciously and couldn’t resist a sneer. “You know how to neuter a pig? Why are you trying so hard to act cool?”

“Mhm.”

Yuan Su’s expression didn’t change, his tone flat: “Not just livestock. I can geld humans, too.”

The delicate-looking, fair-skinned youth rolled up his sleeves and naturally picked up a knife from a nearby table. Before anyone could react, he lunged straight for the tall man who had been mocking him!

Yuan Su looked so harmless, so frail, and so in need of protection that even when he picked up a knife, no one’s first instinct was that he’d actually hurt someone.

Thus, by the time they snapped out of it, the man who had questioned him was already pinned with a knife to his throat. His face was contorted as he let out a strangled cry.

The crowd panicked.

“Argh! Let go! What are you doing?!”

“Violence is prohibited in the base! Do you want to break the Base Code?!”

The girl with the short hair paled and shrieked, “There are cameras everywhere! Put the knife down!”

The young man was unmoved. His beautiful face lit up with a harmless smile. “Did I say I was going to kill him? I haven’t even done anything yet, so why are you all getting so worked up?”

A heavy silence followed for at least thirty seconds. Several pairs of terrified, disbelieving eyes landed on Yuan Su’s face. Slowly, the shock in their gazes shifted.

It was hard to imagine that such a full, rosy, delicious-looking mouth could spit out such aggressive words.

Yuan Su stared at the tall man with a puzzled frown. “You knew I was a ‘backdoor hire’ and you still had the guts to give me attitude? Aren’t you afraid I’ll use my connections to get you all kicked out?”

An older worker’s face went white instantly. He stammered, “N-no, please. We were wrong. My daughter was just infected… I can’t lose this job!”

Yuan Su glanced at him, his brow twitching. “Then behave yourselves!”

The slender fingers gripping the tall man’s collar let go. He flipped the knife, and the cold flat of the blade tapped the man’s stunned face. “You missed a spot when you shaved.”

With that, he tossed the small knife onto the ground with a loud clang. The group flinched and instinctively backed away.

Yuan Su looked at the vegetable leaves in his palm. “Now, would any of my kind colleagues like to lead me to Area E?”

“I want to feed the rabbits.”

341 watched as the youth sat in the rabbit hutch, happily feeding them. It spoke in a complicated tone: [How were you so brave just now? You scared the circuits out of me. What if they’d fought back?]

“I would’ve fought back too.”

Yuan Su was a little miffed. He’d acted composed, but he was still angry thinking about it, his cheeks flushed with a faint temper. “Do I look like the type to just stand there and get punched?”

He couldn’t accept that the system thought he was an idiot.

He pouted and asked, “Was I cool just now?”

[…Passable.]

…

Gao He moved quickly. He didn’t head straight for the rabbit hutch; thinking of the xenophobic habits of the workers in both areas, he planned to pull some strings for Yuan Su.

“He’s new and a bit shy. Don’t take advantage of his soft nature to bully him!”

“Everyone, help him out. No targeting colleagues behind my back. If I find out…”

“Targeting?” The short-haired girl swallowed hard, then shuddered.

The tall man nearby, who had been dazing off, suddenly turned an odd shade of red. He snarled a “Who knows!” and turned to walk away.

Gao He was puzzled for a while. When he finally reached Area E and saw the elegant youth smiling as he cuddled a snowy-white rabbit, he felt his heart melt…

“If you like the rabbits that much, I can transfer you here to work.”

Yuan Su shook his head. “No thanks. I still prefer planting potatoes.”

“Do you like rabbits? I can give you two.”

“Really?”

The young man was delighted. His already breathtaking features lit up, and his soft red lips curled into a sweet smile. “Thank you so much!”

Lightheaded from the beauty of it, Gao He immediately grabbed two adorable rabbits for him. But Yuan Su didn’t take them.

The youth’s amber eyes shimmered. He shyly licked his rosy lips and whispered, “Could you please… clean and prep them before sending them over? I’m not very good at butchering rabbits.”

Gao He: “…”

Yuan Su added, “Oh, and I don’t eat cilantro.”

Gao He: “Huh?”

Support