Chapter 290: Free Meal [Part 2]
Everyone—even Kristi. Lang—looked envious when they learned that the four candidates were gifted a snake suit by the giant viper. A thousand-year old snake skin wasn’t something they could reproduce even with today’s technology. Moreover, the black viper hadn’t stopped evolving and mutating despite living for over a thousand years. Every time it shed its skin, new properties could be detected from it. Although no one could tell what the viper’s final form was, there was one thing everyone could agree on—the thousand-year old skin of a mutated viper could only be good!
Speaking of which, Wheeze was the most unique and eye-catching creature in the meeting room right now. The cat was playing wantonly with the ball like it was alone in the meeting room, and several times it even sent the ball bouncing on the table. No one scolded its behavior, however. On the contrary, everyone hoped that the ball would land right in front of them because it meant they could hold it in their own hands and examine it in detail. True experts could discern quality through close examination, so they could tell that Wheeze’s ball was better than the snake suits. Even Kensa was missing it, he had given the ball a rub during the return trip, and there was no denying how incredibly good it felt to touch!
As the only person who understood the cat’s vile tendencies, Cillin was aware that Wheeze was toying with the people around it. Could Wheeze really not control the trajectory and direction of the ball? Of course it could! He could tell what the cat was playing at just looking at its whiskers.
The meeting ended while Wheeze was playing ball, and Cillin left the meeting room with Guan Feng. White Night would be following Gu Changan, and his records at AF1 would be wiped clean completely.
“Oh right, what will happen to Nikki and the others?” Cillin asked. He didn’t believe for a second that Guan Feng would let them go without a plan. He would either make them join Black Viper or wipe their memories clean.
Guan Feng gave him a seemingly harmless smile and said, “Their files will be wiped clean as well.”
It meant that they would be joining Black Viper. Cillin didn’t mind this outcome. He even suspected that Guan Feng had designed this to happen from the start. After all, everyone in Nikki’s team was a free agent, and they were guided step by step towards joining Black Viper.
Meanwhile, Wheeze was lured to Gu Changan’s side with a bag of fish biscuits. The gray cat was lying lazily on the man’s legs and leaving crumbs all over the place on purpose. Gu Changan didn’t mind, however. Smiling, he happily toyed with the snake ball while Wheeze wiped its mouth with his pants.
The scene caused nearby members and Qiu Xu’s faces to twitch.
“Time to leave, glutton!” Cillin called out to Wheeze from beside a spaceplane.
“Okay!” Wheeze shoved every last fish biscuit into its mouth and swiped the ball out of Gu Changan’s hands. Every time the ball was about to hit the ground, it hit it again with its tail so that the ball would fly towards its calculated spot.
By the time Wheeze came to a stop in front of Cillin, it grabbed the ball perfectly with its tail, raised its chin and walked into the spaceplane.
After bidding the people outside the spaceplane goodbye, Cillin and Guan Feng left the planet and flew towards the capital star region. Unlike the time he came to this planet, Cillin now had a new identity. It might not be a public one, but it gave him the power to solve some troubles without relying on the Gen Family. At the same time, it gave him access to deeper level information that he didn’t have before.
A long time had passed since he left the school, and it was exam period again in AF1. However Cillin wasn’t afraid because he had studied all the courses he would be tested on beforehand. Guan Feng even gave him private lessons, so he was confident he could handle any test or exam.
Cillin went away to prepare for his exams after returning to AF1. Bored, Wheeze went to play with the sentient animals of AF1. However, it unintentionally caused a commotion when it went there. The green anaconda, Bona was even knocked out by the snake ball.
It wasn’t like Wheeze threw the ball at Bona at a neck breaking speed. The ball was made out of the giant viper’s skin, and it exuded an aura of natural dominance. That was what knocked Bona out upon contact.
Wheeze wanted to play ball with its playmates, but none of the animals even dared to touch it carelessly. A human might not be able to sense it, but the panic of standing before a giant without being able to struggle at all were deeply impressed upon all the animals. This one ball had made countless animals in AF1—especially the reptiles—lose control of their endocrine system.
In the end, the culprit behind the commotion had no choice but to give up its plans and find a human to play ball with. There were plenty of child geniuses in AF1, but Wheeze only knew a handful of them. One of them was Teita.
Teita had just finished his exams when Wheeze went looking for him. It asked Teita to play ball with it at the ball field. Wheeze was occasionally dumb, but it wasn’t completely unconscious. For example, it knew that Black Viper was a secret it shouldn’t tell anyone. That was why Wheeze replied, “I went away to visit a friend” when Teita asked it what it had been recently. It wasn’t a lie since the giant snake was its friend now, wasn’t it?
One day, the bell rang right after Cillin finished his final exam and returned to his accommodation. He looked at the visitors on the screen and let out a sigh.
The Three Dissolute Musketeers plus Naimi immediately bombarded him with question the moment he opened the door.
“Where have you been lately, Cillin? We tried looking for you a couple of times, you know!”
“Yeah, I even asked second grandpa about you, and he only said that you’re out for business.”
“Or maybe… you were out on a date?” Naimi said with a vulgar expression, inciting an eye-roll from Cillin. Like hell he had time to go on a date when it was all he could do not to die.
“It’s nothing. Teacher Guan and I went out to do something, that’s all.”
Everyone wisely stopped asking the moment he brought up Teacher Guan. A student and a teacher only travel together when a mission was involved, and the details were always classified one way or another. That was why they changed the subject without needing a cue.
“Alright, let’s talk about something else. Do you want to head out and relax now that exams are over?” Gen Xingming slung a hand over Cillin’s shoulder and winked.
“Where to?” Cillin asked.
“We haven’t decided. We can look around first and decide later.”
“Oh right, Gaga, didn’t you say that your cousin’s marriage is near? The wedding isn’t over yet, is it?” Bel asked.
Gen Xingming and Ulaganuo immediately hit their palms with their fists, “You’re right! We should head there, enjoy a free meal and the sight of the bride! I also heard that a lot of beautiful girls will be attending that wedding.”
Ulaganuo’s older male cousin wasn’t really a true member of the Snowstorm Wendyska Family. They weren’t even related by blood since he was a cousin via the female line. The reason he became connected to the Wendyska Family was because his aunt had married into the royal family. Generally speaking, Ulaganuo’s cousin was leading a good life since he was considered a member of the upper nobles, though he couldn’t compare to the official members of the Wendyska royal family of course.
There weren’t many people in the Wendyska royal family who paid attention to this wedding. In fact, the trio only heard about it because Ulaganuo’s mother had mentioned it in passing. Originally, they were only going to send the cousin a gift, but now…
“He’s your cousin, of course we should go to his wedding!”
And that was how the boys decided their next destination to have fun. But the door opened before they could discuss the details.
The only creature that could open this door freely was Wheeze.
Its tail hanging high up in the air, Wheeze shot a glance at the discussing group, looked away and moved towards the milk machine.
“Yo, Wheeze! Long time no see. We were just planning to head out and relax, do you want to…” A constipated look suddenly overcame Gen Xingming’s expression in mid sentence. It wasn’t just him either, Bel, Ulaganuo and Naimi were also wearing the expression.
It was Teita. He had just finished playing ball with Wheeze.
“Long time no see, Cillin!” Teita greeted Cillin first before doing the same with the rest.
“Tei… Teita, why are you here?” Gen Xingming asked with a stiff smile on his face.
Teita tossed the ball into the air once before replying, “I was playing ball with Wheeze just now. I came over to drink milk.”
After that, he moved next to the milk machine, sat down on a chair and accepted the cup Wheeze pushed towards him with its tail.
Outside the hostel, Teita’s senior servant bowed and walked in with a smile only after Cillin had invited him into the house.
“Where did you say you want to go to relax just now?” Wheeze asked Gen Xingming after finishing its milk.
Gen Xingming shook his head and replied with a straight face, “Nah, we’re just going to chat a bit before going back to study!”
“That’s right! We recognized a lot of weaknesses in ourselves during this exam. We were going to head back and enrich our brains a bit!”
Naimi hurriedly voiced his agreement while nodding.
No one here wanted to lead a child astray especially someone like Teita. If Teita’s dad knew about this, he would probably visit the three kings and “discuss” with them about their children’s education, and that would certainly lead to an unforgettable punishment.
Cillin looked away and allowed them to spout their bullshit.
Teita obviously didn’t plan to stay because he left right after drinking his milk. His mother, brothers and sisters were visiting him today, so he couldn’t stay even if he wanted to.
After Teita was gone, the quartet wiped their sweats and returned back to their old selves. After talking all about their plans, Bel poked the tip of Wheeze’s tail and asked, “So, what do you think, sir cat? Are you interested in a free meal?”
Wheeze wiped its milk stained mouth against Bel’s sleeve and replied, “Of course!”