Yun Xingze stared blankly at Luo Wenchuan, as if falling into the depths of the other’s eyes.
The narrow single eyelids with clean lines, long thick lashes, and deep pupils reflected Yun Xingze’s dazed expression.
Luo Wenchuan’s breath carried warmth, and because they were so close, Yun Xingze could even feel the minty scent of his exhales brushing against his cheeks.
Yun Xingze instinctively swallowed.
Luo Wenchuan tried to restrain his breathing, but his breaths only grew quicker. At this moment, if he leaned in just a little more, their noses would touch.
The pounding of his heartbeat drowned out even his own breathing, leaving only the rhythmic thumping in his ears.
An ambiguous atmosphere spread between them.
When Yun Xingze finally snapped out of it, he carefully moved Luo Wenchuan’s large hand which was gripping his wrist away.
The moment Yun Xingze’s fingers touched the back of Luo Wenchuan’s hand, the latter jolted awake as if from a dream, his expression quickly returning to its usual composed indifference.
Luo Wenchuan withdrew his hand without a word, looking at Yun Xingze before parting his thin lips. His voice carried the hoarseness of someone just waking up: “Sorry.”
Yun Xingze could guess someone like Luo Wenchuan, who grew up on a barren planet, probably slept with a guarded wariness. So, his earlier reaction wasn’t surprising.
He shook his head lightly. “It’s fine. I stayed too long and forgot to let you go back to sleep.”
Luo Wenchuan stood up, putting away his holographic tablet as he suppressed his drowsiness and said calmly, “Finished with your modification sketches?”
“Yeah, mostly done.” Yun Xingze replied. “The environment here is great, so I worked really fast.”
The school’s modification lab was shared and often noisy definitely not as good as this place.
Luo Wenchuan said casually, “You can come anytime you want.”
Yun Xingze gathered his things and smiled at him. “Thanks, Senior. Let’s head back—it’s late.”
Luo Wenchuan nodded, then instinctively asked, “Going back to school, or staying at a hotel?”
Whenever he left campus late, he usually just found a place to stay outside.
But the moment the words left his mouth, Luo Wenchuan paused.
The lingering tension from earlier hadn’t fully dissipated, and now, inviting the other to stay at a hotel made the awkwardness even more palpable.
Fortunately, Yun Xingze didn’t overthink it. He looked at Luo Wenchuan and said, “Of course back to school. Staying at a hotel is too much hassle. Besides, I need my roommate’s help tomorrow to calculate my PK win rate.”
Luo Wenchuan exhaled in relief.
If Yun Xingze had suggested staying at a hotel, he wouldn’t have known how to react.
The two left the modification workshop. Outside, the towering buildings maintained their high-saturation neon glow in the night, though the density of flying black dots in the sky had thinned considerably.
Summer hadn’t arrived yet, and the late-night wind carried a biting chill that seeped into Yun Xingze’s collar, making him shiver.
Luo Wenchuan opened his hovercraft and pulled out a gray-green striped casual jacket from the storage compartment before walking straight to Yun Xingze.
Yun Xingze looked at him in surprise. The next second, the jacket was draped over his shoulders.
“Get in the hovercraft,” Luo Wenchuan said, watching him. “Don’t catch a cold.”
Luo Wenchuan was taller and more robust than Yun Xingze, so his jacket hung slightly loose on Yun Xingze, making his face appear even paler and more slender in the night.
After putting on the jacket, Yun Xingze murmured a quiet “Thanks.” Suddenly, he caught a lingering scent of mint on the fabric stronger than what he had noticed earlier when standing near Luo Wenchuan, and oddly familiar.
Had he worn clothes with this same minty fragrance before?
Without thinking, Yun Xingze lifted the collar slightly, tilting his head to take a subtle sniff.
Luo Wenchuan had already settled into the aircraft and turned to ask why Yun Xingze hadn’t boarded yet only to catch him discreetly smelling the jacket.
Once Yun Xingze climbed in, Luo Wenchuan’s voice came from the left, dry and teasing: “What, does it stink?”
“No,” Yun Xingze blinked, then admitted, “It smells nice. And it’s comfortable.”
After a pause, he added with a small smile, “It’s your scent.”
Luo Wenchuan glanced at him but said nothing, calmly steering the aircraft toward the academy.
From an angle Yun Xingze couldn’t see, the corner of his lips lifted just for half a second.
The aircraft weaved between towering skyscrapers, their interiors glowing, virtual projections casting neon hues, and bridge lights stretching endlessly through the night.
The scattered lights were like glittering diamonds spilling from a tear in the dark fabric of the imperial capital.
Yun Xingze was captivated by the beautiful nightscape. In his past life, he had rarely left the lab, let alone enjoyed such a leisurely journey under the stars.
Luo Wenchuan was now fully awake.
Late-night missions weren’t unfamiliar to him.
But this was probably the longest it had ever taken him to shake off drowsiness after being woken up.
His mind circled back to that moment of inexplicable fluttering when he looked at Yun Xingze. How he had nearly given in to the urge to close the distance between them.
There were no pheromones at play, yet he had felt almost bewitched.
Had sleep addled his brain?
In all his years, Luo Wenchuan had never come so close to losing control of his emotions.
And “losing control” was intolerable for a military cadet.
Annoyed with himself, he shut his eyes briefly and took a slow, deep breath.
Hearing this, Yun Xingze turned to study him. Luo Wenchuan’s expression seemed weary, his gaze lowered, carrying something Yun Xingze couldn’t decipher.
He must be exhausted, Yun Xingze thought, guilt creeping in.
After all, Luo Wenchuan had helped him gather materials, assisted with modifications, ordered him takeout, and even acted as his free chauffeur.
Who’s the boss here again?
Scratching his head, Yun Xingze softened his voice. “Senior, I’ve really troubled you today. If my modifications succeed, I’ll upgrade your mech with Illusion Silver too.”
Luo Wenchuan shot him a sidelong glance before looking away, the heaviness in his expression easing as his lips quirked. “Promise?”
Yun Xingze nodded firmly. “Absolutely!”
At that moment, Luo Wenchuan’s mood lifted.
He wasn’t sure if it was because the boy had offered to modify his mech.
Or simply because hearing Yun Xingze speak to him was enough to make him feel better.
Maybe both.
After dropping Yun Xingze off at his dormitory, Luo Wenchuan left.
It wasn’t until Yun Xingze was walking upstairs that he realized he’d forgotten to return Luo Wenchuan’s jacket.
But it wasn’t a big deal, he could just return it to him tomorrow when he had time.
Yun Xingze woke up late the next day. By the time he found something to eat in the fridge, it was already past ten o’clock.
Not wanting to delay his modification progress, he immediately got to work. However, before starting the actual modifications, Yun Xingze suddenly remembered Lu Ranxu’s software.
Yun Xingze had already roughly calculated the attributes and data of the modified mecha and wanted to test its win rate against He Haoming.
But Lu Ranxu had gone out early in the morning, and Yun Xingze had no idea where he was, so he decided to call him.
When the call connected, Lu Ranxu appeared on the screen, standing in what looked like a hospital-like setting.
“Are you sick?” Yun Xingze asked with concern.
“No,” Lu Ranxu replied, visibly in a bad mood. “My mom said since I’ve been an adult for so long and still haven’t gone to the gene database to match with a partner, she told me to hurry up and do it. Since I had time today, I came to get matched.”
“Look at how unwilling you are,” Yun Xingze teased. “Even if you do get matched, would you actually date them?”
“Absolutely not,” Lu Ranxu rolled his eyes. “Hanging out with those Alphas would be so boring. They’re all ridiculously arrogant. I’d rather spend time with you. Imagine if I got matched with someone like Chi Yu—I’d—”
At this point, Lu Ranxu suddenly realized his words might be inappropriate. He glanced cautiously at Yun Xingze and asked softly, “By the way, Xingze, you and Chi Yu definitely aren’t getting back together, right?”
Yun Xingze nodded. “Of course not.”
“That’s good,” Lu Ranxu continued. “Then your pheromones must have been unbound by now, right?”
To promote bonding between Alphas and Omegas, the Empire’s marriage laws stipulated that once an Alpha and Omega were engaged, their pheromones would be bound to prevent others from matching with them during the engagement period.
Of course, once they became single again, the gene database would ask if they wanted to unbind. After unbinding, they could be matched with others again.
“Chi Yu and my pheromones?” Yun Xingze paused for a moment before answering. “They were unbound ages ago.”
Lu Ranxu sighed in relief. “That’s great. I was worried your pheromones were still bound, which might affect your chances of finding someone else.”
“When the engagement was called off, Chi Yu immediately informed the gene database,” Yun Xingze explained. “That same night, the database messaged me asking if I wanted to unbind. Honestly, if Chi Yu hadn’t brought it up first, I probably would’ve forgotten.”
Lu Ranxu thought to himself that Chi Yu must be regretting it bitterly now.
“Anyway, the reason I called you today was to ask you to help calculate the win rate of my modified mecha against He Haoming,” Yun Xingze said as he sent a data package to Lu Ranxu. “The main data is all in there. It might not be exactly the same as the final modification results, but it’s close enough.”
Lu Ranxu nodded and was about to start the software when a staff member’s voice came from beside him: “Number 139, Lu Ranxu, please proceed to the matching service desk.”
“Hold on,” Lu Ranxu said to Yun Xingze. “Let me deal with this stupid matching thing first.”
The staff member visibly frowned upon hearing his words.
Lu Ranxu didn’t disconnect the call as he walked to the matching service counter. A robot handed him a manual detailing the rules of pheromone compatibility matching.
Though reluctant, Lu Ranxu had no choice but to read it thoroughly after the staff insisted it was mandatory before proceeding with the matching.
After a few minutes of reading, Lu Ranxu frowned slightly and complained to Yun Xingze through the call: “This system is so unreliable. Look at this rule – matches showing either 0% or 100% compatibility will be automatically excluded. Why exclude them?”
The staff member nearby explained politely, though with a hint of exasperation in their eyes: “Theoretically, any Alpha and Omega pair should have compatibility between 0% and 100%. If the system shows exactly 0% or 100%, it’s definitely a bug.”
“That’s exactly why it’s unreliable,” Lu Ranxu countered. “What if there really is a perfect match with 100% compatibility?”
“Impossible,” the staff maintained their professional smile. “We’ve had many 100% matches before, but further testing always revealed calculation errors. That’s why we updated the algorithm.”
As explained, the gene database automatically filters out any 100% matches during the matching process.
The staff continued: “Biologically speaking, 100% compatibility would require two people’s genetic data to be identical, which has never occurred in history. The probability is like two specks of dust colliding in the vast universe.”
Lu Ranxu scoffed but didn’t argue further. After finishing the manual, he signed the matching service agreement.
“Results usually take about a week after signing.” The staff’s explanation was cut short as Lu Ranxu had already walked away.
Outside the Gene Matching Center, Lu Ranxu inputted the data Yun Xingze sent him into an analysis program while chatting: “Do you think there might be couples who are actually 100% compatible but get separated by this stupid system?”
“Unlikely,” Yun Xingze pondered. “Surely no couple would be that unlucky?”
“Hard to say,” Lu Ranxu shook his head as he waited for the program’s calculation. “There might be star-crossed lovers getting screwed by this dumb system right now.”
He then added: “But with those odds, it definitely won’t be us. Besides, even with 100% compatibility, they’d still need to actually like each other.”
Yun Xingze agreed: “True.”
High pheromone compatibility might guarantee blissful physical intimacy, but personalities weren’t determined by pheromones.
As they discussed, Lu Ranxu’s program finished its analysis.
Though he knew Yun Xingze was skilled, Lu Ranxu hadn’t held high hopes for the modification plan against an S+ ranked opponent like He Haoming. How much advantage could a B-rank possibly have?
But when the results appeared, Lu Ranxu’s eyes widened in shock.
His mouth opened and closed wordlessly, utterly speechless.
Yun Xingze looked at him expectantly: “What’s the win rate now?”
“The current win rate…” Lu Ranxu swallowed hard, his voice even trembling slightly, “has reached 24.15%!”
From one percent to twenty-four percent, the win rate had increased more than twentyfold.
And this modification plan was something Yun Xingze had designed in less than a day.
Lu Ranxu rubbed his eyes and stared intently at the number. After a long moment, when he confirmed he hadn’t misread it, he said to Yun Xingze in disbelief, “Holy shit, it’s really 24.15%! Could my software be malfunctioning?! How did you improve it so drastically? What modification materials did you even use?!”
But just as Lu Ranxu was utterly shocked by Yun Xingze’s modification skills, he heard Yun Xingze say, “24.15%… still a bit too low.”
Lu Ranxu froze on the spot. He wanted to yell at Yun Xingze, “You’re up against an S+ ranked opponent, this win rate is already a miracle!” But at this moment, he suddenly felt.
Perhaps Yun Xingze really could create an even greater miracle.
