The scene was so cute that it couldn’t end. The faces of Yan Shuo and Yan Jinxing were absolutely dreadful.
But Shen Zhifan’s wasn’t—he happily petted the three kittens. At least, thanks to the little ones, Shen Zhifan momentarily forgot the question of whether the big cat was the original one or not.
Yan Jinxing’s job here was done. He couldn’t stand his own long-haired appearance. Although they couldn’t be said to be fragile in this form, it still made him extremely uneasy.
Not only that, this form was influenced by certain genes of their bloodline, making them especially headstrong and aloof on the outside but tender on the inside. This kind of unpredictability made Yan Jinxing feel that he was no longer a grown, iron-blooded man, but instead made him want to meow coquettishly.
…Extremely terrifying.
Yan Shuo had always treated the little ones like a feudal lord, reigning like a dictator where there was no margin for them to protest.
He directly hoisted up the three kittens, straight up tossing them into a ball bag—clean and efficient.
“Meow~” Uncle uncle!
“Meowmeow~” Don’t bag us away ah!
“Meow——” The bag is so dark, we’ll be scared ah!
Yan Shuo scoffed coldly. He’d rather believe that Yan Jinxing could find a wife before those three brats would be scared.
Yan Jinxing suddenly felt that his nose was a little itchy.
The three sniffling snowballs poked their fluffy heads out of the bag, watery eyes gazing at Shen Zhifan pleadingly.
Shen Zhifan glanced at Yan Shuo, feeling that the latter’s expression seemed rather frightening, “…So, where are you taking them?”
“Waste transfer station.” Yan Shuo smoothly said what was on his mind, “It suits them.”
Shen Zhifan was dumbstruck.
“Meow~” Uncle, don’t!
“Meowmeow~” Uncle is so cruel qaq!
“Meow!” Help!!
The sound of the three snowballs was mournful yet no less spoiled.
Shen Zhifan couldn’t bear to listen.
Yan Shuo cleared his throat, then smiled slightly at Shen Zhifan, “They’re actually my brother’s cats. They always like to run wild—I’ll have to return them.”
“…Such,” Shen Zhifan thought for a moment, “Such small kittens, how did they get so far?”
Yan Shuo, “…”
Exactly—God knew how they could get so far. Perhaps it was hereditary, strong genes and exceptional talent?
Shen Zhifan was just about to pet a snowball’s head, when Shen Zhirou’s call came in.
“Brother!”
The decibel level of the shout made Shen Zhifan squint helplessly. He sighed, a smile faintly quirking at his lips, imagining Shen Zhirou’s flustered appearance.
“Brother! You really ran off with that vixen ah!!”
“What are you saying?” Shen Zhifan glanced at Yan Shuo, lowering his eyes, “Now you’re throwing a tantrum? And yet you were all over the place before. Did you know how worried that Yi Jia was—did you know how worried I was?”
“I wasn’t running around!” Shen Zhirou clenched her teeth together, deciding to just tell him through the phone, “Brother, I’m telling you, it’s best…if you stay away from that General Yan now.”
Shen Zhifan fell into silence before saying, “What is it?”
“I…” Shen Zhirou’s voice trembled, “Come home quick, hurry and come back okay? I’ll tell you when you get here, it’s really important, I swear.”
Hearing the real urgency in Shen Zhirou’s voice, Shen Zhifan then said, “I’ll be quick, I’m just next door.”
He looked at Yan Shuo to say goodbye, “I…I’m going first.”
Yan Shuo, still locked in a battle of wits and bravery with the fluffballs, looked up to see Shen Zhifan’s faint smile.
Like this, he looked the same as seven years ago.
Although there were some slight differences to his features and this bashfully innocent appearance should be at odds with them, his originally cold face softened with the expression.
He still looked like a youth haloed faintly by the light, his eyes covering a layer of dim starshine.
But he was still a teenager. Olivia had said that the effects of hypnotism wouldn’t last that long.
He would inevitably change back to that Shen Zhifan.
Yan Shuo felt the loss in his heart again, although he smiled as he said goodbye.
The teenager in his memory would forever be an immemorable existence, but the cold and stubborn young man from later on could still make his heart race.
“I’ve really troubled you <sup>1</sup> formal ‘you’ today,” Shen Zhifan still couldn’t help but use formal language, but, embarrassed after saying it, switched back, “You <sup>2</sup> informal ‘you’ …I can never change it.”
“It’s fine.” Yan Shuo didn’t want to bother with the three unruly little things for now, only wanting to look at him for a moment longer.
“Zhirou is calling me back,” Shen Zhifan hinted, then waved a hand at him, “Let’s have dinner together later.”
Yan Shuo’s heart melted, “En, what do you want to eat?”
Shen Zhifan thought about it, “Actually, I don’t know how to cook.”
Yan Shuo thought about it as well, realising that he himself could only properly make coffee. Although he had an automatic cooking machine, he also felt that there wasn’t any sincerity in the meals this cold machine could make.
“Then,” Yan Shuo looked down at the three fluffballs, showing a meaningful smile, “How about braised kitten heads? Three of them sound just right.”
The three cats: “…Meowmeowmeow!” Uncle’s lost it!!!
Of course, Shen Zhifan knew that Yan Shuo wasn’t actually that deranged <sup>3</sup> are you sure about that son , but he was also startled by the menace in the esteemed General’s eyes.
He bowed his head, thinking, then suddenly, “How about hotpot? You’ve had it before?”
Yan Shuo paused, “Hotpot?”
Shen Zhifan was already walking out. Hearing his confusion, he looked back and laughed softly, “En, it’s a delicious food…See you later.”
Yan Shuo’s heart was both itchy and warm.
To sit down and have a meal with the man that he liked, no matter how he thought of it, it was very romantic.
Yan Jinxing, “…Meow.” I’m about to go blind.
…Why exactly did he come here to suffer ah?!
Shen Zhifan slowly turned his head. The sunlight beside him seemed to have just been covered by black clouds, and his smile suddenly faded, as if shrouded in a layer of dark shade.
His innocent features became slightly collected, and his originally gentle eyes also became indifferent, permeated with three layers of frost.
He sighed, unhurriedly opening the door of his home.
Shen Zhirou sat on the couch, hugging a pillow. Her eyes abruptly reddened, but she didn’t look overly-miserable, simply a little somber.
A girl like her who both looked and acted like a little monkey, with barely two pounds of flesh for her brain, actually had times where she looked melancholy. <sup>4</sup> narrator y u so mean??
Seeing Shen Zhifan arrive, her reddened eyes became even more so, and two teardrops fell.
“Brother,” She called out plaintively, but also forced herself to get it together, “Aren’t I giving the raindrops-on-a-pear-blossom look? So pitiful, like the girls in the drama series.”
Shen Zhifan was silent, and decided to be honest. “…When they cry, they’re like pear blossoms. When you cry, you look like a man-eating flower.”
Shen Zhirou, “…”
“Alright,” Shen Zhifan smiled, rubbing Shen Zhirou’s head and gathering her into his arms, “Don’t cry anymore. You’re my precious little sister ah.”
Shen Zhirou began crying even harder.
She thought of what Ferdinand had said, and what Yi Jia had said.
What underground mech arena…Her mind began flashing with images of her brother wrapped in bandages, fallen into a pool of blood. Although it was all in the distant past, she still had lingering fears.
She debated with herself, gritted her teeth, and took the pen recorder from her pocket.
“Brother, I wasn’t running wild,” Shen Zhirou bowed her head, “I was kidnapped by this person called Ferdinand, do you know him?…You might not remember, but…”
“Did he say something to you?”
“But he said that with you, he used to——” Shen Zhirou’s explanation suddenly paused, and she lifted her head to stare at Shen Zhifan in shock, “Brother, what did you say?”
Shen Zhifan looked down at her, his gaze cold as ice but extremely elegant.
“You shouldn’t know about these things.”
Shen Zhirou covered her mouth, eyes wide.
“Brother…when did you get your memory back?…”
“Not long ago,” Shen Zhifan took the pen from her hand, “Actually, I’d been remembering things continuously, a little. Right now I haven’t recovered everything, it’s just I remember more things from the past.”
“When did it start?” Shen Zhirou grabbed his sleeve, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Shen Zhifan looked down, “The first time was at the mech training base. I was provoked, and didn’t remember anything then, but afterwards I got drunk and gathered some things from my dreams—though it was still unclear.”
“It was clearer from the day before yesterday,” Shen Zhifan blinked a few times, “I…I remembered some things from seven years ago. And then today, just before you came, there was some more.”
He unconsciously paused in order to hide some things—for example, the fact that his memory would repeatedly awaken because of one person.
The actual time where he had recalled the most was that night, when the esteemed General had held out a few messy, weedy stalks—where the General himself had been a mess, and had come up and kissed him without a word.
When he was drunk, he’d spilled a lot about the past…Yan Shuo was just like a key.
Shen Zhifan sighed.
He was like a key, or perhaps his kiss was like a key. The more intimate they were, the clearer the memories in his mind became.
At that time, Shen Zhifan thought of his days in the underground mech arena, because it was the first time he’d met Yan Shuo after he’d grown up.
But that was only a ball of fuzzy memories. On his own, he could figure out his own ice-cold self, but he didn’t know why he was so cold.
Towards those memories, he was full of a simmering fear, but even so, he couldn’t help but get closer to the other person. Even though his heart was already wavering, he helplessly put on an act of ignorance.
He didn’t know whether he was deceiving others, or deceiving himself.
The disjointed memories were messily put together in his mind, until that kiss before Shen Zhirou came back.
He said, “Seven years ago, we…”
That kiss was like an explosive fuse, burning up the memories from seven years before.
Shen Zhifan covered his forehead.
In the moment that those memories appeared, it wasn’t understanding he felt, but terror.
That which he hadn’t wanted to recall…He himself had wanted those memories gone, using a cowardly method of escapism.
But in the end, they’d come back.
“Brother, do you want to listen to that recording?”
“No, don’t take things from Ferdinand,” Shen Zhifan deftly threw the pen into the trash, and asked, “Do you know why I got amnesia?”
Shen Zhirou dumbly shook her head, “I don’t know ah.”
“Someone hypnotised me, but I actually…I’d learnt some hypnosis techniques before, someone taught me,” Shen Zhifan sighed, “Rather than saying she hypnotised me, it was more like I took the chance to hypnotise myself. I was too tired, I wanted to rest for a while.”
“But as long as I still remember, I can never stop.”
“I gave myself half a month to play an amnesiac through rose-tinted glasses, and it was really quite romantic…but it has to end here.”
“Through the glasses, everything was still fake.”
He suddenly smiled again, his thin lips making it even colder.
“I set the ‘key’ to my hypnosis as his kiss.”
“…What ‘key’?”
“My licence to wake up,” Shen Zhifan rubbed at her head, “Every kiss opens up a lock. From the kiss, I’ll awaken from the dream and return to reality—it’s pitiful, but still romantic. There’s no other way…Dreams always lead to waking.”
Shen Zhirou didn’t really understand.
“You don’t need to understand,” Shen Zhifan stood up and searched through a cabinet, handing Shen Zhirou a ticket, “Leave tonight. Leave the emperor planet and go to galaxy B—planet B-33, Number 23 Abis Street. It’s not safe here, I can’t look after you properly.”
“What about you?” Shen Zhirou blankly stared at the ticket in her hand. It was a ticket with no timestamp, only a location. This kind of open ticket was very expensive, but it was indeed bought with her identity card—Shen Zhifan had planned for this long ago.
“I’ll stay behind,” Shen Zhifan looked down, “I’m still missing one kiss to get all of my memories back.”
From tonight.
His long eyelashes faintly trembled atop his jade-like face.
Shen Zhirou suddenly realised that she was scared to see her brother at his most vulnerable.
“Brother, the ‘him’ you’re talking about, is it that…Yan Shuo?”
He didn’t answer.
“You really like him ah.” Shen Zhirou suddenly realised, “Brother, you were tired…tired to the point of hypnotising yourself into an amnesiac for a while, was that also because of him?”
Shen Zhifan sighed, pressed the back of a hand onto his forehead, “Don’t ask anymore, baby.”
But after a moment, he answered the question.
“Yeah, it was because of him.” Shen Zhifan forced a laugh, as if he’d recalled something, “Otherwise, why would I have set it as his kiss?”