Zerg Chapter 40: Giving the Ring

At noon, they bought some light lunch from the food truck next to the aquarium and went to the park to see the flower exhibition. Actually, they were not the type of people who were interested in flowers and plants, but it was fun to walk around the park holding hands. Their affectionate gestures drew a lot of curious and envious glances from Zerg passers-by.

While chatting, Xi Ran mentioned Huan Xiu’s visits to the gym, which was a bit hard to put into words, thinking that the forum’s response to his big heart made him worry.

“What’s wrong? Can you tell I’m getting fitr?” Huan Xiu deliberately pulled Xi Ran’s hand and pressed it on his abdomen so that he could feel the results of his workout, although not as good as his counterpart, but it was rare for a male Zerg to have muscles.

“Can you take me with you next time…?” Xi Ran said, embarrassed.

“Are you worried about me getting hit on by other female Zerg?” Someone who had been diving the forums these past few days to read Xi Ran’s posts chuckled.

“Mn. I know Master won’t, but I still want to go with you.” Xi Ran said bluntly.

Huan Xiu, of course, readily accepted, “Then let’s go together.”

The afternoon was very leisurely. In the evening, they drove to the west side of the city to take a sightseeing boat. As they boarded the boat, the sun began to set, and the sky turned orange, darkening slowly.

“This… is a very important place for me.” After taking a seat on the deck, Xi Ran suddenly began to speak, his voice a little tense. He had practiced it many times in his mind, trying to convey his feelings to Huan Xiu. “Does Master remember? This is the first place we first met.”

“Of course. But I wasn’t familiar with my surroundings at the time, and I wasn’t quite awake… It must be a little further downstream, right?”

“Mn. Further down, there’s a bridge somewhere. The boat will turn around and come back once it reaches that side. The riverbank below is very cold, so there aren’t many tourists or passing Zerg.”

“No wonder the original owner went there to jump, he was really bent on seeking death…” Huan Xiu sighed quietly. Although if the original owner didn’t want to die, he wouldn’t have the chance to live another life, he still felt a bit angry when he thought about the reason.

Xi Ran looked out over the water, which was rippling with waves as the boat set out, and recalled, “I was sitting by the river, just wandering. It was a very stressful time for me. I felt like life was not going my way, like I was crashing into all the bad things. Then I saw what looked like a corpse floating by in the distance, motionless. I didn’t think anything at the time, and my body moved on its own.”

Huan Xiu looked at the side of Xi Ran’s face as he silently narrated, but he didn’t know that Xi Ran’s wounds weren’t healed yet. Based on the time between his accident at the front line and when he saved him, it was likely that Xi Ran’s wounds were inflamed again.

“But I was quite happy,” he said. “Just like saving my subordinates on the front line, I knew I could still save someone even if I retired and became a regular citizen.”

The situation was urgent, so Xi Ran couldn’t remember what Huan Xiu looked like at the time. Huan Xiu did have an idea of what his rescuer looked like, but he had a headache and couldn’t take it into account. In retrospect, their first encounter was quite short and hurried, and it was a good thing they bumped into each other again, or they might have missed this life.

“So I’m sure now that good deeds will still be rewarded. Otherwise, how would I have met you?” Xi Ran turned his head and looked straight into Huan Xiu’s eyes with a determined gaze. “Sometimes I think that maybe all the bad things I’ve been through before are because I was able to meet you afterward. It makes sense to think of it that way. Thinking that way, even if it was hard, it was worth it.”

Huan Xiu smiled very softly, “Don’t be silly, it won’t be hard anymore.” He took Xi Ran’s fingers and rubbed them together, asserting, “I promise, you will live a happy and stable life in this life, and you will never face any difficulties again.”

To put it mildly, Huan Xiu’s promise was unfounded, but Xi Ran believed in it. He always believed everything Huan Xiu said, and Huan Xiu said he was his savior, but in Xi Ran’s opinion, it was Huan Xiu who saved him.

They had gotten married in a hurry and their relationship was not so warm and fuzzy at first. Love and affection grew vaguely together in an indescribable state, but the roots had grown deep.

Xi Ran moved closer to Huan Xiu, staying close to him. The two of them were sitting in a corner and there were not many people on the deck, so Huan Xiu generously reached out and grabbed Xi Ran’s waist, allowing him to lean in and snuggle close to him. He was very happy that Xi Ran was willing to be so open and honest. The repressed Xi Ran from the very beginning of their relationship has gradually disappeared and was becoming more and more vivid and cute in front of him.

The two people were silent but surrounded by a warm atmosphere and sat in the blowing wind for a while, Xi Ran began to become dizzy. Huan Xiu immediately noticed that he looked pale, “I didn’t know you still get seasick. Let’s go inside to rest.”

“Sorry… I never used to get dizzy or anything, it’s probably been too long since I have had systematic training.” Xi Ran’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, feeling that he had ruined a rare good mood. It was a shame that an ex-army Zerg, who was a frequent flyer, got seasick. “It’s not serious, it’s fine.”

“Don’t try to be strong, I’m getting a little headache from the wind. You can see the scenery even if you go in.” Huan Xiu pulled Xi Ran to get up.

As a matter of fact, after chatting for a long time, the sightseeing boat had already returned home. Huan Xiu looked through the window at the bridge where he had jumped into the river, but he didn’t feel anything. After all, he only had a vague memory, and the act had not been done by him. To him it had been a ‘previous life’.

When the boat docked, Xi Ran seemed to be well enough.

“Master, you can go to the restaurant first.”

“And you?” Huan Xiu asked knowingly.

“I’m going to get something.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“No, no. Master, go to the restaurant first.” Xi Ran had already brought out his strongest tone.

“Oh… more surprises?”

“……” Xi Ran had a look on his face that spoke for itself but he didn’t openly admit it.

Huan Xiu finally stopped teasing him, “Okay, okay, I’m going to the restaurant, come over quickly, don’t keep me waiting.” It was better to make Xi Ran feel a little nervous, so he didn’t have time to check the bag.

Xi Ran nodded nervously, “I’ll be right over.”

Totally caught in the ‘trap’ laid by Huan Xiu, Xi Ran ran all the way, thinking that he couldn’t let Master sit alone in the restaurant. He took the paper bag, which looked like it was in its original packaging, and ran back to the restaurant without even glancing at it.

Huan Xiu was escorted by the waiter and sat down in the window seat with the river view. The dishes were not ordered yet when Xi Ran arrived.

“Is that for me?” Huan Xiu glanced at the bag he had already seen yesterday, knowingly and silently awarding himself a small golden star inwardly.

“Mn. I picked it out for you, and I don’t know if it’s suitable.” Xi Ran saw Huan Xiu looking at the menu, so he put the bag next to his chair.

The view from the window was wonderful. Although Xi Ran never knew how to enjoy himself, he had taken into account the information on the internet to arrange this date and really wanted to make Huan Xiu feel good, even though it was a bit simple and rough.

As usual, Huan Xiu finished ordering and told Xi Ran what he had ordered. Xi Ran listened attentively, he had no food he couldn’t eat and he thought he did not have high taste in food, so he left the decision to Huan Xiu.

“Do you want to give me a present now?”

“Oh, mn. Sure.” Xi Ran froze and bent over to pick up the bag and put it on his lap.

“You actually went out and bought this yesterday, right?”

Xi Ran thought, ‘my excuse for reading yesterday was a bit clumsy’. Xi Ran picked up the paper bag and handed it to Huan Xiu, but he didn’t receive it with joy as he expected. Xi Ran quickly added, without any confidence, “I just suddenly felt like I should get something for the date. I am not very good at buying things so see whether it is appropriate or not. If you don’t like it, you can return it…”

Huan Xiu, who was sitting across the table was laughing and crying, even if he really didn’t like it, who would return a gift received on a date, “Please open it for me.”

Xi Ran thought it was a bit strange, weren’t gifts supposed to be personally opened by the recipient? But he certainly gave his consent to the demands of his Huan Xiu, which Xi Ran attributed to ‘the customs of Earth people’.

“Oh, okay…” Xi Ran took the bag back with surprising care and carefully tore off the tape, and then froze.

“Hm?” Xi Ran’s first reaction was to take a look at the bag, then reach in and look for the piece of paper he had written, as if to make sure he had grabbed the right thing.

Huan Xiu sat across the table with his mouth slowly rising, he covered his mouth with his arms propped up on the table, making his smile less obvious.

“What’s wrong? What’s the problem?” Huan Xiu asked.

“…It has an item in the bag that I didn’t buy. I don’t think it was there when the shopkeeper wrapped it up,” Xi Ran answered honestly.

“Open it and see?”

Confused, Xi Ran pulled out that little velvet white box and opened it.

“Hm? What is it?”

“It’s a ring?”

“A ring?” Huan Xiu propped himself, walked around Xi Ran’s seat and said, “Let me see?” in all seriousness.

Xi Ran’s brain was overwhelmed, thinking that Huan Xiu was really curious and he was wondering what was going on so he handed the box to him. Huan Xiu took the box, put it on his palm smoothly, and adjusted to face Xi Ran.

“Please marry me.”

Immediately after that, Huan Xiu crouched down to keep a level look with him.

At this moment, the Zerg from the next table was already looking over to him in surprise.

Huan Xiu smiled, took out the ring he polished yesterday from the box, and reached out to hold Xi Ran’s hand. Xi Ran didn’t respond yet, but his hand was shaking a bit.

“I’ll consider it a tacit admission.” Huan Xiu forcefully and directly put the ring on Xi Ran’s finger, the size was just right and he was relieved.

“What… is going on?” Xi Ran’s voice was a little choked up.

Seeing Xi Ran’s silly look, Huan Xiu finally couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “I made the ring for you myself. It’s the surprise I told you about a while ago. How is it, shocked?”

Xi Ran nodded his head, and then lowered his head deeply, looking like he couldn’t control his emotions for a moment.

Huan Xiu knew Xi Ran would be very excited, but unexpectedly he couldn’t even say a word. He stretched out his hand to pat the back of his hand, “Shouldn’t you be happy? Smile.”

Xi Ran very twistedly gave a smile as he shed tears as he laughed a little, his appearance was horrifying. Quickly wiping the lower corner of his eye, Xi Ran tilted his head, choking up, “Master, don’t look…” He did not shed tears easily, and this was the first time in his life that he cried in public.

“That’s why I’m here in front of you, to block,” Huan Xiu joked.

Even though he knew that Huan Xiu promised to make him his monarch and he was going to be the only one, receiving the ring from Master himself made Xi Ran so excited that he couldn’t speak.

Xi Ran brought his hand up to the ring and looked at it carefully, asserting that it was the most exquisite and beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. Although the restaurant was dimly lit, a thin strip of metal in the ring emitted a wonderful glow in such a soft light, as well as an aura that he felt incredibly familiar with.

“……” Xi Ran incredulously moved his hand close enough to almost paste it on his face for a closer look and reached out to touch it with his other hand.

Huan Xiu knew he could tell, and decided to give Xi Ran some more time to digest his emotions, so he quietly walked back to his seat across the table.

“How did Master know about…?”

“I’ve been asking around,” Huan Xiu brushed the process off, dropping an even heavier bomb, “and what’s in the ring now is material taken from the mecha you used to own. Don’t worry, I only used a little bit, about the size of a finger.”

Xi Ran looked up at Huan Xiu.

“It’s handsome, and it’s worthy of you. I think if it can accompany you in this way, it will feel relieved even when it’s scrapped.”

When Huan Xiu said that, Xi Ran’s shoulders trembled again and he turned his head, insisting that he didn’t want Huan Xiu to see his tears, but he was out of breath.

“You’ve done too much for me…” Xi Ran said, his voice trembling, choked and weak.

“Because you’ve done a lot for me, too. In fact, you usually do more.” Although it was routine and not romantic, Xi Ran knew only too well how he gave him everything that was good, including himself. It was just that Xi Ran never knew this, always felt unworthy, not enough to deserve anything.

Huan Xiu silently waited for him to calm down, his heart was sweet and sour at the same time.

In the distance, the waiter who was supposed to serve the appetizer was very good at reading the atmosphere and delayed their table and the chef for a while. Then he saw that Xi Ran looked normal again and started talking to Huan Xiu before serving the cold dishes.

“I shouldn’t have given you such a big scare before the meal, should I? The rice might be too much to eat.”

“No… I’m fine.” Xi Ran shook his head, his voice still shaking a little, but it was much better than when he couldn’t speak. After arranging a date like this, he would make sure to make it end smoothly, including the matter of dinner.

Xi Ran took a sip of ice water. His head, which was so hot it was on the verge of exploding, seemed to have calmed down a bit, but his hands were still shaking, and the ice cubes in his glass kept clinking. He felt a bit like he was in a drunken state, his head was dizzy and his mouth was very dry.

“I’m sorry, I’m embarrassed I lost my nerve in a public place like this…” Xi Ran whispered to Huan Xiu, he knew that all the Zerg in the front and back of the table must have been looking at him, a female Zerg over 1.8 meters crying like this.

“Isn’t it because I’m a bit of a jerk?” Huan Xiu took the initiative to take responsibility. He did know about the gift bag beforehand and deliberately put it in to see Xi Ran’s reaction and enjoyed it.

“Why is the box in my bag? Did Master find out I was going to give you a gift yesterday?”

“Mn. I found it last night and wanted to tease you a bit.” Huan Xiu admitted laughingly and told Xi Ran about how he also wanted to hide his gift yesterday and ended up bumping into his hiding place with his gift.

“By the way, what did you get me? I’ve only looked at the box, I haven’t opened it yet.”

After receiving such a majestic and innovative gift as a ring, Xi Ran suddenly felt his store-bought item was not good enough, his cheeks burning, and he didn’t really want to take it out.

“Give it to me. I’m curious,” Huan Xiu insisted.

“…It’s a tie.” Xi Ran lowered his head and whispered, taking the box out of the bag and passing it to Huan Xiu across the table.

“When I saw it, I remembered the white suit and thought it would look good on you, so I bought it… It is not something valuable, and I didn’t make it myself.”

Huan Xiu opened the box right away, remembering that Xi Ran was the one who ordered the suit and he never asked about it. He also knew from the look of the tie that Xi Ran was not good at this, but he has done a lot of homework and the wedding would be great.

“Don’t say that, I like it very much. Besides, don’t you usually make a lot of things for me?”

“Hm? “Xi Ran was confused.

“Don’t you make all three meals a day? Add it all up and the double digits aren’t enough. That’s the only thing I gave you.”

“Those don’t count.”

“Those do.” Huan Xiu insisted in a rascal-like tone.

Huan Xiu relaxed his tone and joked as he ate, and Xi Ran’s turbulent emotions gradually subsided. However, after dinner, he couldn’t stop glancing at his finger even when he was walking and driving, and Huan Xiu couldn’t help reminding him to watch where he was going.

When he got home, Xi Ran sat on the edge of the bed and started to stare at the ring again.

“It’s almost time to relax, isn’t it?”

“It still feels like a dream. I don’t know what to do.” Xi Ran honestly confided his feelings to Huan Xiu, while giving a rare, smirk-like expression that made Huan Xiu laugh as well.

“It’s good to ‘exercise’ a bit at times like this and then get a good night’s sleep.” Huan Xiu kissed Xi Ran and embraced him on the soft bed.

……

It was 12am and after a long day, a lot of events, and a lot of dizziness, Xi Ran finally went to bed.

He didn’t get any notifications from his silent mode communicator, but there were a lot of messages on the forum asking for updates and whether the date went well. A group of people with little fun in life remembered the day of the date, and wanted to know what had happened. They themselves felt rather sad with no responses.

[@xrxrr I’m not sure if the date went well, but I hope it did.]

[No news to be seen. Was it a failure?]

[It probably went well, but then he went home, made out well and forgot about us single Zerg…]

[+1]

[So that date itinerary was pretty solid, huh? Need to remember that.]

……

After half an hour or so, the post seemed to realize that the poster wasn’t going to come out today, and it slowly cooled down.

[Cong Mu: ? Here’s a picture. Sorry, a lot has happened today, your poster is tired and has fallen asleep.]

The picture was of a dimly lit bedside lamp that only captured Huan Xiu in his pajamas from his chin down, his face not visible, pointing to a sleeping Xi Ran’s hand, where there was a shiny new ring.

The post quickly exploded.

[What’s going on?]

[???]

[Has the rightful Master appeared?]

[A ring? You mean today? Wait a minute, doesn’t he have a Master already?]

[Wait a minute, the id of this rightful master looks a bit familiar…] A user with a good memory pointed out, [Isn’t this the same one that was scheming as a self-proclaimed male Zerg before…]

[What! Is! This! Fucking! Love! Play!]

[Poster’s love play with his male Zerg?]

[Why do I get the feeling this poster doesn’t know about this…]

Huan Xiu couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from rising and replied, [Mn, he doesn’t know, I found out by accident.]

[Is it really not self-directed?]

[It’s all in the pictures.]

[I don’t know how I feel right now, but on the one hand I feel so sweet, and on the other hand I feel so angry.]

[The OP’s male Zerg is too sinister (positively). The scheme is a bit scary.]

[I’m sure the OP will want to die when he wakes up tomorrow morning.]

[Let’s sit and wait.]

……

Actually Huan Xiu was also curious about Xi Ran’s reaction. Although this forum was a way to get to know Xi Ran, it was not a good idea to keep it a secret, so he chose to reveal himself in a high profile manner.

The next morning, he woke up earlier than Xi Ran, so he went downstairs to make coffee and toast. Huan Xiu was a little worried, because Xi Ran had been seasick since yesterday, then was a little dizzy again when he got home, and this morning he was still too tired to get out of bed.

Then he waited, and waited, and even Xiao Ye came down to eat, but Xi Ran still didn’t come down. Huan Xiu looked at the time, the alarm should’ve gone off at this point.

“Male father, what’s wrong with father?”

“Probably tired from yesterday’s trip out, I’ll go take a look.” Huan Xiu patted Xiao Ye’s head.

Back on the second floor, Huan Xiu knocked on the door, “Xi Ran?”

Huan Xiu couldn’t hear any movement, so he had no choice but to open the door and walk in. When he saw Xi Ran’s communicator was tossed to the side and his whole body was covered by the blanket, he knew that Xi Ran was already awake.

He walked over to the bed and said in amusement, “Get up if you’re awake.”

“……”

Huan Xiu rushed to pull down the blanket, only to see Xi Ran’s face embarrassed and his ears burning red. When they looked at each other, Xi Ran’s face was even more embarrassed. “I didn’t even know…”

“I also found out by accident,” said Huan Xiu, who couldn’t help smiling. “What’s wrong, I think it’s very interesting and cute.”

Xi Ran didn’t know many times Huan Xiu had used the word ‘cute’ to describe him, since he didn’t think he was cute at all. He felt that he had lost face in front of his Master.

But Huan Xiu was really amused and even kissed Xi Ran several times and couldn’t help laughing after the kiss.

“Come downstairs for breakfast.”

“……” Xi Ran took a deep breath, at least he felt a little comforted to see the Master so happy.