ATL | Chapter 14

Hetawaisi instinctively wanted to refuse.

This thing... how should he put it, it was uglier than the first tail shed of his life.

For snake-type gene companions, shedding happens separately at the tail, about once a year, and each time takes two or three days. If, during this process, one lacks experience and accidentally knocks against something, the tail will get rubbed mottled, and in the end turn into an ugly souvenir.

In the hearts of snake-type gene companions, the sense of achievement from obtaining an intact tail shed is irreplaceable.

Because of the integrity of the tail hat, Heta ultimately made a concession, and under Ganlin's expectant gaze, he braced himself and took it over.

He gave an awkward smile and forced himself to praise it, "So cute."

"Then try it on quickly." Lin Bai said seriously, "Size, shape, color, and warmth, if there’s anything you’re not satisfied with, you can tell me, I’ll go back and improve it."

This Little Lamb was a little too considerate.

The process of rolling up the brim looked visually like rolling up a soft section of pipe. Hetawaisi treated it as if facing death, raised his smooth, taut tail high, and slid it into the crude hat as slowly as possible.

Fortunately, it was already late, and there were not many people left in the entire shopping mall.

A few seconds later, Heta slightly raised his eyebrows.

It had to be said, this thing worked quite fast. In just this short while, the slightly rough comfort inside had already begun to wrap around the tail, and that warmth was direct and pure, just like the feeling Lin Bai gave people when interacting with him.

Even its ugliness had taken on a bit of clumsy cuteness.

"Fits pretty well." Lin Bai blinked, "However, this isn’t all of it, to wear it properly all the way, you can discover my easter egg."

As soon as he finished speaking, Hetawaisi had already seen it.

...A little fluff ball.

To be precise, it was a tuft of white fluff at the top of the hat. After Heta put the tail hat on properly, it landed right on the tip of the tail, and with the slightest movement, it would sway along with it, truly childlike.

Hetawaisi had seen old-world European fairy tales, and felt this thing should be made red, so he could drive away real reindeer and stick a snake tail into the chimney to deliver gifts to children.

"Do you like it?" Ganlin tried hard to suppress his laughter, "The little fluff ball uses biomimetic cashmere, this is my maker watermark. How is it, isn’t it very special? A one-of-a-kind gift in the world, I didn’t lie to you, did I."

The Arthur in front of him finally laughed, "Mm, very special."

He added, "And it really is more practical than flowers, I’m very satisfied, there’s no need to trouble you to adjust it again."

Ganlin was also very satisfied.

Sure enough, Arthur was just as the new guess from before, harboring ill intentions toward him, because normally speaking, gene companions of medium to large or carnivorous animals mostly held contempt toward small and herbivorous companions, and the extreme ones even refused direct contact.

He deliberately kept a little fluff ball representing sheep, but the other party was not only not angry, he actually seemed quite happy. Besides, the hat was so ugly, yet the other party not only was willing to cooperate and wear it, he also did not take it off immediately. In passing, because his attention had shifted, he was no longer fixated on getting a biomorphic flower.

Arthur, this kind of gentle poisonous snake, was rare, yet unexpectedly able to sync with Lin Bai. Ganlin thought of Hetawaisi again, and suddenly felt that compared with the aggressive Heta, Arthur was the one who should be the venomless Black King Snake.

He slightly curled up the corners of his mouth, and temporarily granted Arthur permission for his little thoughts.

"Next," Hetawaisi said, "Lin Bai, it’s time for dinner."

Little Lamb immediately nodded and went with him toward the restaurant. Facing the other’s satisfied gaze, Hetawaisi endured and endured, and in the end decided to endure until they parted, then take off the tail hat.

After all, as "Arthur", a lower-class resident of Dawn District, he rarely received this kind of kindness, and would inevitably respond to Lin Bai, even if he had to endure the restaurant server’s occasional glances.

He could only try his best to steady the whole tail, and not let that little fluff ball sway too happily.

However, even when they sat opposite each other, Lin Bai still looked at him from time to time, his gaze lingering between his face and tail. This kind of self-assumed invisible attention made a new thought suddenly rise in Hetawaisi’s mind.

Had Lin Bai already developed real affection for Arthur?

He only wanted a biomorphic flower, yet Lin Bai, enduring the embarrassment after a false estrus, made an exclusive gift for him on the spot. That level of care naturally went beyond the scope of their early acquaintance, but if Lin Bai only wanted to seek temporary shelter from him, he would not have sewn that little ball onto the top of the hat.

Because that was by no means obedience, but should be a test of "whether things could go one step further."

Because of companion animal genes, the people of the new world developed a certain slightly reverted sense of territory that old-world humans did not care much about. Leaving items or information carrying one’s own biological signal to the other party would probably only have two meanings, one was provocation, the other was closeness.

Lin Bai clearly could not be the former.

Thinking of this, Hetawaisi instantly understood the true meaning behind the other party taking the initiative to mention "false estrus" and yes, generally speaking, very few people would say this in front of him personally. The residents of Dawn District mostly got through heat periods with suppressants, and Hetawaisi himself had been the same for so many years.

Thus he had almost forgotten that, compared with Dawn District, which cared more about family face and was therefore somewhat restrained sexually, Weave District and Lower Nest were even more open, and residents could express good feelings toward the opposite sex or the same sex without restraint, without worrying about criticism.

However, Lin Bai was naturally shy, so this probably already was the result of him mustering his courage and sending a signal.

He looked as if he had already developed clear affection for Arthur. If that was truly the case, then him responding along the flow, caring about Lin Bai’s growing-up experience and childhood playmates, was entirely reasonable.

"This restaurant tonight is selling nutritional paste of different flavors." Heta kept his face unchanged, "Take a look, what do you most want to eat?"

The price of premium M1 on the menu was outrageously high, and Ganlin estimated that Arthur’s wallet was already running low, so he thoughtfully only ordered the M2 special edition. The nutritional paste was brought up in an exquisite arrangement, and the two of them began eating almost at the same time, the simulated candlelight illuminating two faces.

In the harmonious atmosphere, there was a hint of faint lingering affection.

As if both were secretly nursing spring feelings.

"This is still my first time eating at this kind of upscale restaurant," Ganlin said with a slightly awkward excuse, "I made you spend money, didn’t I."

"It’s only a few days’ wages," Heta followed with casual nonsense, "after all, it’s rare to run into an old neighbor in Dawn District."

"It hardly counts as a neighbor." Ganlin smiled, "My brother and I haven’t been open long, so we didn’t manage to meet on South Ridge Street. Otherwise, I definitely would have brought him to visit."

"Then is your Younger Brother alone at the shop now?" Hetawaisi slightly frowned, showing concern.

Ganlin had no choice but to lower his eyes and give a lonely, "Mm."

"It can’t be helped, though, you have to earn contribution points before life can continue. But the neighbors all know A Ci’s situation, and I’ve already said hello, everyone will help look after things a bit."

Hetawaisi leaned slightly forward, "How long do you plan to stay in Dawn District this time?"

"If things go smoothly, half a month after the performance ends." Ganlin made a look of serious thought, "Mm... strictly speaking, the company’s work will end in four days, but I’ll stay a few more days to sell merchandise biomimetic flowers from the opera performance."

"Opera performance," Heta made a look of careful recollection, "is it at the Golden Flow Opera House? Come to think of it, today was my first time going in, it really is beautiful inside. I wonder which show you’re responsible for? If the ticket price isn’t too expensive, I’ll go support it too."

"The Prayer of Ruins Abyss, it will be starring Lingsheng." Ganlin asked, "Arthur, do you know Lingsheng?"

Hetawaisi of course knew. His mother Cersei liked classical opera, and he had been taken along to watch many performances since he was young, so he had also heard of this rising star.

"I don’t know." Heta asked, "Is that the person you gave flowers to tonight?"

"Yes." Ganlin said, "He’s my idol. Arthur, isn’t he especially beautiful?"

"His temperament is indeed outstanding." Hetawaisi was silent for a moment, then said softly, "Lin Bai, you’re not bad either."

Arthur really was seizing every gap to show favor.

Ganlin was certain that this face of Lin Bai’s could only be considered pretty. At the beginning of making the fake identity, in order to weaken the advantages of his bone structure, he had even specially added a few freckles to his face to disrupt the overall visual impression.

"That’s not true," Ganlin lowered his eyes in embarrassment, gripping the utensils in his hand tightly, "I, a Little Lamb like me, how can I compare with a popular opera actor? Lingsheng’s companion gene is white crane."

Heta’s thoughts stirred, and he finally steered the topic onto the right track: "What’s wrong with an argali? Sheep-type gene companions have smaller builds than cranes, they’re just beautiful in different dimensions. The Ganlin who’s recently wanted, isn’t he also sheep-type? Back when he was in Nanke, he was quite well-known..."

As Heta got to this point, he suddenly bit his tongue and turned his head, saying in a muffled voice, "Sorry."

Yet Ganlin seemed completely unconcerned. The moment he heard his own name, he only observed Arthur’s reaction without a sound. After seeing the other side abruptly stop the topic, Ganlin’s heart tightened, and he realized this was a good chance to probe the progress of the case and confuse the waters.

Arthur must know something, which was why he seemed tense, afraid that he might slip and let the news leak. If Arthur truly had not participated in this case at all, why would he be so tense about the name "Ganlin"?

Come to think of it, when he had previously tried to get information out of Chen Xing, it was also Arthur who interrupted the process by speaking. Combined with the personal information Cizhu had given, Arthur only officially returned to the Southwest District 2 police bureau yesterday, and during the past two months, he had been pulled away to carry out a confidential task that was hard to verify.

Ganlin idly thought, maybe the organization to which the task belonged was exactly SEC?

Wouldn’t that be coming easily, without any effort at all.

"It’s fine," Ganlin said softly, "the morning before yesterday I happened to come across the news and saw the wanted notice for Ganlin. He really is different from many sheep-type gene companions."

Very good, Lin Bai had taken the bait.

Heta followed up and asked curiously, "How is he different?"

"It’s hard to say." Ganlin was silent for a moment, then slightly frowned, "Actually, I don’t like Ganlin, this person has been out of line since he was little..."

He stopped abruptly at that point. Then, facing the other party’s gaze, he awkwardly shifted the topic, "Arthur, let’s eat."

Lin Bai was timid, mild-mannered, and never cared about gossip.

Hetawaisi silently recalled the other party’s character traits. Right now Lin Bai had slipped up, and it was obvious he had once known Ganlin, yet he immediately stopped speaking. He should be afraid of bringing trouble on himself and causing extra complications.

But just so happened that Arthur was not qualified to participate in the investigation of this case, so it was merely out of curiosity, not work necessity.

"It’s fine." Heta moved a little closer, and concernfully said, "This case is handled by SEC, Southwest District 2 doesn’t want to touch this mess. Bottling up unhappy things will only make you feel worse, you can tell me in secret."

Very good, Arthur had taken the bait.

Ganlin bit his lip, hesitated several times on the surface, and finally spoke again.

"Actually, I and Ganlin are the same, we both lived in Sanpan Lane." Ganlin said, "However, he seemed to be an outsider, appearing very abruptly."

"I encountered Ganlin by accident at the end of the rainy season."